The Criterion Collection

[Edward J Grug III]

Originally Posted by Norbie

Who would of thought that in this day and age people would complain about getting extra stuff?

Free space-stealing unwanted discs that leave you with less room for things you actually want.

[jayembee]

Originally Posted by Norbie

Who would of thought that in this day and age people would complain about getting extra stuff?

Blu-ray consumers got "extra stuff" for free when they bought the dual-format releases, because Criterion charged the same price for dual-format releases as they would have for BD-only releases.

DVD consumers, on the other hand, had to pay $10 more for "extra stuff" that they didn't want or need.

[Mr. Thomsen]

Originally Posted by iScottie

You weren't kidding.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-r...ng_blu-ray.htm

Yay!

There's quite a difference in color timing, but in my mind there's no doubt the new one looks better. The DVD always looked like it was transferred from an old print.

I love the depth in the shot where you see the professor in the front and a girl running towards him at the gas station. Much better than the DVD.

November better hurry up and come, so I can throw some money at B&N!

By the way, am I the only one who prefers the French title for this? L'homme qui voulait savoir - The Man Who Wanted to Know. Such a wonderful title, elegantly referring to both main characters.

[The Great Owl]

Not exactly Criterion-related, but I'm going to a theatrical screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo next week. Woo hoo!

Actually, I guess that it does sort of relate to Chris Marker's La Jetée.

[jshaide]

Originally Posted by jw007

I wonder if its just worth waiting until the Barnes & Noble sale happening in a few weeks? I think in 3 weeks? I might just wait and skip the flash sale since you can save more money with the Barnes sale with those added coupons. The question is, maybe the Criterion.com flash sale is advantageous to those people living in foreign countries? (or perhaps they don't ship overseas?)

I asked my buddy at the BN I used to work at if there's been any word of the sale yet, and he said no. In past years, the November sale would sometimes be "announced" very close to when it actually starts, but the deep feeling in my stomach still hasn't gone away, haha.

In any case, there's a sale they have going on in that department between Oct 21st and Nov 3rd, so the 4th might possibly be the day.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Not exactly Criterion-related, but I'm going to a theatrical screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo next week. Woo hoo!

Actually, I guess that it does sort of relate to Chris Marker's La Jetée.

Enjoy it.

Last time I saw it on the big screen a small concert followed the screening. A few musicians played Herrmann's Hitchcock music. Very cool to hear selections from Psycho live.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by ShellOilJunior

Enjoy it.

Last time I saw it on the big screen a small concert followed the screening. A few musicians played Herrmann's Hitchcock music. Very cool to hear selections from Psycho live.

Rear Window and Psycho are both playing at this theatèr over the next two weeks, and I'd like to go to those as well. This theater only sells tickets a week in advance, though, and my schedule is going to be somewhat hectic, since I'm transferring to a new job district in November.

[ShellOilJunior]

Originally Posted by The Great Owl

Rear Window and Psycho are both playing at this theatèr over the next two weeks, and I'd like to go to those as well. This theater only sells tickets a week in advance, though, and my schedule is going to be somewhat hectic, since I'm transferring to a new job district in November.

True story. After a screening of Rear Window I overheard someone say this:

"Hey, that wasn't too bad for an old movie!"

[JJJ225]

Originally Posted by Norbie

Who would of thought that in this day and age people would complain about getting extra stuff?

I didn't complain about getting free stuff, I complained about the releases taking up twice as much space!

Originally Posted by jw007

I wonder if its just worth waiting until the Barnes & Noble sale happening in a few weeks? I think in 3 weeks? I might just wait and skip the flash sale since you can save more money with the Barnes sale with those added coupons. The question is, maybe the Criterion.com flash sale is advantageous to those people living in foreign countries? (or perhaps they don't ship overseas?)

Unless your B&N is insanely strict about percentage coupons (which most aren't) or you don't have any in your area, it's ALWAYS better to wait for the B&N sales, which is why I never really understood why people got so excited for the flash sales. With a 15% coupon from hariseldon, it brings the price to $16.99 for most titles. If you're a member, it comes down even more. I'm usually able to use a $5 off $50, which means if I buy 4 titles in store the per movie cost $14.04 each. I have been able to do this the last several years.

Obviously if you're not a member, you won't get the price down that much, but most will still take the 15% off coupon. So yeah, I'm sitting this one out. November is right around the corner.

[The Great Owl]

Originally Posted by JJJ225

Obviously if you're not a member, you won't get the price down that much, but most will still take the 15% off coupon. So yeah, I'm sitting this one out. November is right around the corner.

The only item that I plan to buy from the Flash Sale, if it happens this week, is Eraserhead, because I want to make dead certain that I'm buying a corrected disc.

I will wait until the Barnes & Noble sale, however, before I buy The Big Chill, La Dolce Vita, and a couple of others.

[shadedpain4]

Reasons I enjoy the flash sale:

- Criterion always packs my stuff immaculately
- After I fill in the holes in my blu collection I like to snag a few Eclipses (I've found B&N's stocking of Eclipses to be very hit and miss)
- I enjoy supporting Criterion directly

After the loyalty bonuses it comes out to $18 a piece for the average release which is what I pay at B&N prior to coupons. Not having to hassle with coupons is... refreshing.

[edwinaac]

Originally Posted by jw007

I wonder if its just worth waiting until the Barnes & Noble sale happening in a few weeks? I think in 3 weeks? I might just wait and skip the flash sale since you can save more money with the Barnes sale with those added coupons. The question is, maybe the Criterion.com flash sale is advantageous to those people living in foreign countries? (or perhaps they don't ship overseas?)

I live outside the US, Europe or any place where you can get decent releases from movies, let alone Criterion ones. I buy about 90% of my titles online from the US, the other 10% online from Europe. For me in order to get a title I have it sent to a US Miami address and then forwarded to my country by a third party who charges additional shipping and custom fees. For that I have to pay approximately 25% over the US price. This means that I can only buy online. If I buy from Barnes & Noble, not only do I not get any discounts or coupons, I get a 7% tax charge, whereas if I buy from Criterion I don’t get the tax charge and I effectively get 10% discount in the form of loyalty points. So, for me, flash sales are the best price I can possible get.

[shadedpain4]

Curious questions about organizing collections.

I know some on the board organize or partially organize their collections by directors. My questions are as follows:

How do you determine which directions get their own section? Is it just your favorite directors or something like 'any director that I have x or more films of'? What directors do you have separate sections for? Are the rest of your releases alphabetical by title?

Right now I have all my Criterions together, but I'm starting to want to have all my Ozu in one place, all my Wong Kar-wai in one place, etc.

I know we cover this topic from time to time, so advance apologies for any rehashed information.

[belcherman]

Originally Posted by Norbie

Who would of thought that in this day and age people would complain about getting extra stuff?

I think the people who complained were complaining about paying blu ray prices when all they wanted was the DVD.

[Kbg1292]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Reasons I enjoy the flash sale:

- Criterion always packs my stuff immaculately
- After I fill in the holes in my blu collection I like to snag a few Eclipses (I've found B&N's stocking of Eclipses to be very hit and miss)
- I enjoy supporting Criterion directly

After the loyalty bonuses it comes out to $18 a piece for the average release which is what I pay at B&N prior to coupons. Not having to hassle with coupons is... refreshing.

. Absolutely +1

[italy12]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Curious questions about organizing collections.

I know some on the board organize or partially organize their collections by directors. My questions are as follows:

How do you determine which directions get their own section? Is it just your favorite directors or something like 'any director that I have x or more films of'? What directors do you have separate sections for? Are the rest of your releases alphabetical by title?

Right now I have all my Criterions together, but I'm starting to want to have all my Ozu in one place, all my Wong Kar-wai in one place, etc.

I know we cover this topic from time to time, so advance apologies for any rehashed information.

My collection is a mess...and has been since we moved to a new house (even though the house is bigger/more rooms, etc.)

I used to, and would like to continue to, keep all Criterions in spine # order, and then I usually have my movies sorted by studio. It may be weird to some, but if someone said, "hey, let's watch Donnie Brasco!" I know to look in the Sony/Columbia/Tri-Star section, or if we're watching Napoleon Dynamite, I go to 20th Century Fox, etc...

The exceptions are digibooks, box sets, and smaller labels with a few releases in my collection, like Twilight time, Scream/Shout Factory, Cohen, or Palm Pictures (for my Basketball Diaries blu).

The majority of my BDs are in our guest room since all of our bedrooms are occupied! We weren't planning on having twins when we picked our floor plan for our home, and my wife was ok with me having a dedicated room again in this house...lo and behold, when we found out we were having twins, the last bedroom was unofficially claimed by one of them!

I plan on moving all of my stuff into whichever room is vacated first for college! With a 4.5 yr. old and 9 mo. old twins, it will be a LONG time before that ever happens!

[Polaroid]

Originally Posted by belcherman

I think the people who complained were complaining about paying blu ray prices when all they wanted was the DVD.

but if they upgrade eventually it saves them a fortune :P

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Curious questions about organizing collections.

I know some on the board organize or partially organize their collections by directors. My questions are as follows:

How do you determine which directions get their own section? Is it just your favorite directors or something like 'any director that I have x or more films of'? What directors do you have separate sections for? Are the rest of your releases alphabetical by title?

Right now I have all my Criterions together, but I'm starting to want to have all my Ozu in one place, all my Wong Kar-wai in one place, etc.

I know we cover this topic from time to time, so advance apologies for any rehashed information.

If I intend to buy every blu ray film made by a specific director, then he/she will have a special section on the shelf. Although, I guess that is not a hard and fast rule because I plan on buying every Godard that is released through about Weekend, but not so much the stuff afterward. Nevertheless, he's got a spot on my shelf, too.

Of course everyone is glad to discuss, I'm sure. If you want to see more answers, though, check out the posts from about 3 weeks back as many where chiming in on how they order their collection. Everyone does it differently it seems with some unique methods of ordering out there.

[bwdowiak]

Originally Posted by AaronJ

Damn, the DVD I got from the library of Last Year at Marienbad is amazing. The extras are terrific. And I can only imagine what it looks like on BD. *sigh* May have to just drop the C-Note and be done with it.

If only they would re-release it.

or you can buy the region free release from the UK with a quarter of that C-note. someone made the mistake of ending their auction for a brand new copy of the disc on eBay at 3 in the morning and I was loony enough to set my alarm to wake me up to bid on it.

I got it for under $7

[JJJ225]

Originally Posted by shadedpain4

Reasons I enjoy the flash sale:

- Criterion always packs my stuff immaculately
- After I fill in the holes in my blu collection I like to snag a few Eclipses (I've found B&N's stocking of Eclipses to be very hit and miss)
- I enjoy supporting Criterion directly

If you really care about giving more money to Criterion, why bother waiting for the flash sale at all?