The Criterion Collection - The Official Blu-ray List & General discussion

digitalbabe

Premium Supporter
Apr 12, 2009
42,350
USA
Per Criterion:

"ABOUT CRITERION

OUR MISSION

Since 1984, the Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films, has been dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world and publishing them in editions that offer the highest technical quality and award-winning, original supplements. Over the years, as we moved from laserdisc to DVD, Blu-ray disc, and online streaming, we’ve seen a lot of things change, but one thing has remained constant: our commitment to publishing the defining moments of cinema for a wider and wider audience. The foundation of the collection is the work of such masters of cinema as Renoir, Godard, Kurosawa, Cocteau, Fellini, Bergman, Tarkovsky, Hitchcock, Fuller, Lean, Kubrick, Lang, Sturges, Dreyer, Eisenstein, Ozu, Sirk, Buñuel, Powell and Pressburger. Each film is presented uncut, in its original aspect ratio, as its maker intended it to be seen. Every time we start work on a film, we track down the best available film elements in the world, use state-of-the-art telecine equipment and a select few colorists capable of meeting our rigorous standards, then take time during the film-to-video digital transfer to create the most pristine possible image and sound. Whenever possible, we work with directors and cinematographers to ensure that the look of our releases does justice to their intentions. Our supplements enable viewers to appreciate Criterion films in context, through audio commentaries by filmmakers and scholars, restored director’s cuts, deleted scenes, documentaries, shooting scripts, early shorts, and storyboards. To date, more than 150 filmmakers have made our library of Director Approved DVDs, Blu-ray discs, and laserdiscs the most significant archive of contemporary filmmaking available to the home viewer."
 

Attachments

  • crit2.jpg
    crit2.jpg
    18.1 KB · Views: 501
Last edited:
I'm a Peter Weir fan, and PAHR is a beauty! I really hope they do the Year of Living Dangerously. That is my favorite Peter Weir film. (Tied with Gallipoli!)
Now that they've announced that they'll be releasing Criterion collection in Europe – I'm not sure at what kind of a clip they will be releasing them, or in what order. Will they release the recent ones first and then move backwards?

from Variety :

SPHE will bring selected titles from Criterion’s extensive catalog and future new release slate to the U.K. for the first time. The first wave of films, featuring all the supplements from the U.S. editions along with their exclusive artwork and packaging, are “Grey Gardens,” “It Happened One Night,” Roman Polanski’s “Macbeth,” “Only Angels Have Wings,” “Speedy” and “Tootsie.”

Criterion Collection chief executive officer Jonathan Turell said: “We are excited to launch the Criterion Collection in the U.K. Starting with these six great titles, we are happy to be able to bring selections from Criterion to our very devoted audience in the U.K. We are thrilled to build upon our strong relationship with Sony and look forward to expanding the Criterion audience.”

so it seems they are picking titles quite ramdomly ...
 
  • Like
Reactions: C.C. 95
from Variety :

SPHE will bring selected titles from Criterion’s extensive catalog and future new release slate to the U.K. for the first time. The first wave of films, featuring all the supplements from the U.S. editions along with their exclusive artwork and packaging, are “Grey Gardens,” “It Happened One Night,” Roman Polanski’s “Macbeth,” “Only Angels Have Wings,” “Speedy” and “Tootsie.”

Criterion Collection chief executive officer Jonathan Turell said: “We are excited to launch the Criterion Collection in the U.K. Starting with these six great titles, we are happy to be able to bring selections from Criterion to our very devoted audience in the U.K. We are thrilled to build upon our strong relationship with Sony and look forward to expanding the Criterion audience.”

so it seems they are picking titles quite ramdomly ...
See If you can figure out any theme or method they are using. There has to be one, right?
 
  • Like
Reactions: nefilim
I have a lot of their laserdiscs which are still cool. I have none of their DVD's and a few of their blu-rays. They rarely produce any interesting titles these days as far as I'm concerned and the few interesting titles they do usually come out in Europe with the same restored print.
 
See If you can figure out any theme or method they are using. There has to be one, right?
It'll only be titles they can get all region rights. To be honest I think they are homing in on an already crowded niche market in the UK but I could be proved wrong. We have 3 labels here. Arrow, MOC and Network doing a lot of classic films. And could they do damage to the niche labels already here?
 
I have a lot of their laserdiscs which are still cool. I have none of their DVD's and a few of their blu-rays. They rarely produce any interesting titles these days as far as I'm concerned and the few interesting titles they do usually come out in Europe with the same restored print.

wow. totally disagree. just check this list here titles like the player, easy rider, manchurian candidate.
 
  • Like
Reactions: C.C. 95
It'll only be titles they can get all region rights. To be honest I think they are homing in on an already crowded niche market in the UK but I could be proved wrong. We have 3 labels here. Arrow, MOC and Network doing a lot of classic films. And could they do damage to the niche labels already here?
I think they will avoid the same titles. Something has always told me that there has a dialog between Criterion, Arrow, and MOC. I know that on some movies they HAD to be sharing the same negative. I Could be wrong.
 
It'll only be titles they can get all region rights. To be honest I think they are homing in on an already crowded niche market in the UK but I could be proved wrong. We have 3 labels here. Arrow, MOC and Network doing a lot of classic films. And could they do damage to the niche labels already here?

I like arrow and MOC, but still - criterion is criterion.
 
  • Like
Reactions: C.C. 95
I have a lot of their laserdiscs which are still cool. I have none of their DVD's and a few of their blu-rays. They rarely produce any interesting titles these days as far as I'm concerned and the few interesting titles they do usually come out in Europe with the same restored print.
What is the definition of an "interesting title"?
 
  • Like
Reactions: nefilim
I like arrow and MOC, but still - criterion is criterion.
And there are plenty of companies playing in this niche market. The Cohen Collection is putting out some interesting titles, as is Twilight Time and Olive. But there is only ONE Janus/Criterion. They do much more than just release films. Their home video restorations and supplementals are without peer. The main reason being - they invented it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: dan8885
And there are plenty of companies playing in this niche market. The Cohen Collection is putting out some interesting titles, as is Twilight Time and Olive. But there is only ONE Janus/Criterion. They do much more than just release films. Their home video restorations and supplementals are without peer. The main reason being - they invented it.

latest
 
  • Like
Reactions: C.C. 95
I just started with Criterion Blu-rays in November last year and I'm so passionate about this collection. The first I got was "The Thin Red Line" and it blowed my mind. With the last order I've made I own exactly 60 now. Will post a picture when these arrive, hopefully tomorrow.

With Criterion coming to UK it can only be positive for us Europeans. Even if they not release all previous titles I hope they still be with the on going Number from the US. So I could add from time to time titles without ruining the series. It is so expensive and stressful to collect Criterion from over here with custom tax or with Criterion don't ship outside of the US/CA. The Barnes & Noble 50 % off sale is next to eBay the only payable Option for me. But B&N packaging is horrifying :pain: And eBay offers also only a few for payable price :squint:
 
Interesting note that some collector's may not know. When Criterion released The Rock and Armageddon, Buena Vista made them sign a specific licensing deal. Criterion gets to make CC editions of their movies, but once their exclusive license ran out, Buena Vista inherited all the work that was done by Criterion.
What that means is: when Criterion's license on those titles ran out (let's say it was 5 years) Buena Vista got everything they did. Which means that now, when you buy a Disney Buena Vista Blu ray of any movie of theirs that was once part of the Criterion Collection, it IS the CC version.
If you look at the version of The Rock and Armageddon on Blu ray from Disney, everything is identical to CC's version, because it IS the same version.
image.gif
 
  • Helpful Post
Reactions: dan8885
I just started with Criterion Blu-rays in November last year and I'm so passionate about this collection. The first I got was "The Thin Red Line" and it blowed my mind. With the last order I've made I own exactly 60 now. Will post a picture when these arrive, hopefully tomorrow.

With Criterion coming to UK it can only be positive for us Europeans. Even if they not release all previous titles I hope they still be with the on going Number from the US. So I could add from time to time titles without ruining the series. It is so expensive and stressful to collect Criterion from over here with custom tax or with Criterion don't ship outside of the US/CA. The Barnes & Noble 50 % off sale is next to eBay the only payable Option for me. But B&N packaging is horrifying :pain: And eBay offers also only a few for payable price :squint:
I played go-between for @Bruckle on last year's sale for some CC, and B&N's packaging seemed fine.
?
Do you have postmen that play football with your packages?:LOL:;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bruckle and dan8885
What is the definition of an "interesting title"?

For me most of their titles there days are usually obscure films that nobody has heard off. They rarely do excellent commercial films. In their laserdisc days they did stuff like James Bond, The Great Escape, 2001 etc but in recent years I have found most of their titles boring or of no interest. Yes they do the odd one but usually these titles have been done by other companies with the same prints for a lot less money in other countries. Why bother with the Manchurian Candidate when we already have 3 versions out by different companies or Gilda which is identical to the European print. Sorry but stuff like "Amarcord" or "Salo" is not going to make me hit the buy button on amazon. What's really pissing me of these days is that there are plenty of brilliant commercial classic films that are in dire need of restoration but Criterion in particular would rather spend money on obscure films. Also if Criterion are going to be in the UK market, they had better get real with their prices. I'm not paying £30 no mater how much they put into it. I would expect way cheaper prices that the USA counterparts. I can understand the odd film being dearer because of extra costs or restoration but every bloody title........
 
With Criterion coming to UK it can only be positive for us Europeans. Even if they not release all previous titles I hope they still be with the on going Number from the US. So I could add from time to time titles without ruining the series. It is so expensive and stressful to collect Criterion from over here with custom tax or with Criterion don't ship outside of the US/CA. The Barnes & Noble 50 % off sale is next to eBay the only payable Option for me. But B&N packaging is horrifying :pain: And eBay offers also only a few for payable price
Criterion lost a lost of their rights in the mid 90's by some seriously bad commentaries on two of the Bond films which caused legal problems for 2 years and nearly killed dead their original pressing for Robocop. Again it's going to be an expensive buy because I don't see Criterion (judging by Zavvi or Amazon) giving the UK market lower pricing.
 
I played go-between for @Bruckle on last year's sale for some CC, and B&N's packaging seemed fine.
?
Do you have postmen that play football with your packages?:LOL:;)

The packaging was horrifying bud. I did three orders. One was just the Zatoichi 25 Disc Boxset, this was okay.
But the other two was 6-8 Keep Cases and Boxsets each and the package was way to big. So everything was flying around with in it and with no protection :pain: And to make matteres worse I need to choose the cheapest shipping to avoid custom tax. So it took 3-4 weeks to my doorstep........