Netflix (DVD Delivery Discussion Only)

[domino harvey]

Netflix claims viewers have spent 500,000,000 hours watching Adam Sandler movies in the past fifteen months-- if true, their blank check deal with Sandler certainly makes sense

[knives]

Its probably true with some interesting accounting. I remember the first one at least had the interesting habit of playing immediately after other films.

[Isambard]

Could anyone offer recommendations for non-English language series on Netflix? I've only added Hotel Beau Sejour to my list because the premise sounded interesting but, beyond that, there's so little coverage that I don't know what would or wouldn't be worthwhile.

[captveg]

I think Netflix has some strong positives along with its negatives, but certainly one of its strong negatives so far is theatrical and home video distribution for its more prestigious films. Perhaps The Irishman will change that for them.

One thing I know is that I've never been so glad to have supported fund-raising campaigns than for the new MST3K and The Other Side of the Wind. I'm promised blu-ray releases of both, while those who didn't support the funding may never get a home video release of either.

[Ribs]

As has weirdly been very ignored in all coverage of The Irishman, it's important to remember it's due to release in 2019. Netflix needs to get their act together well before then.

[captveg]

They should really think about following Amazon's strategy when it comes to feature films.

[Drucker]

They should really think about following Amazon's strategy when it comes to feature films.

I hear about acclaimed films and have no idea going into it they are Amazon productions (Manchester by the Sea, Handmaiden) and that's definitely a success as far as I'm concerned.

[ando]

Goody! An Orson Welles performance I've never seen - Jonathan Wilk, a defense lawyer in the infamous Leob-Leopold murder case. Wonder if the case has any relation to Hitchcock's Rope (Suppose a real cinephile would know , but a film from which I get far more thrills than Vertigo and Rear Window put together). Course, I'm always suspect of Welles' acting in other director's films as he often claimed to have loathed it (said Pasolini once asked him to play a pig.)

[domino harvey]

Goody! An Orson Welles performance I've never seen - Jonathan Wilk, a defense lawyer in the infamous Leob-Leopold murder case. Wonder if the case has any relation to Hitchcock's Rope (Suppose a real cinephile would know , but a film from which I get far more thrills than Vertigo and Rear Window put together). Course, I'm always suspect of Welles' acting in other director's films as he often claimed to have loathed it (said Pasolini once asked him to play a pig.)

I hated this one, I'd temper your expectations as far as you can!

[domino harvey]

Posts about streaming and cinephiles moved here-- you won't believe what happens next!

[ando]

Enjoying the story of Joseph Stalin from a decidedly British point of view. Pity there isn't much time spent on the Soviet involvement in World War II in American primary schools. A major part of that conflict remains misunderstood or given short shrift by Westerners, in general. Perhaps this is changing now.

[ando]

Goody! An Orson Welles performance I've never seen - Jonathan Wilk, a defense lawyer in the infamous Leob-Leopold murder case. Wonder if the case has any relation to Hitchcock's Rope (Suppose a real cinephile would know , but a film from which I get far more thrills than Vertigo and Rear Window put together). Course, I'm always suspect of Welles' acting in other director's films as he often claimed to have loathed it (said Pasolini once asked him to play a pig.)

I hated this one, I'd temper your expectations as far as you can!

Pretty awful. Welles was... not good. Seemed exhausted.


Ok, it'd be hard to go wrong here: Mifune.

[Aunt Peg]

Does anyone know if Netflix have any plans to release their product on home media (DVD and/or Blu Ray) sometime in the future?

[MichaelB]

Does anyone know if Netflix have any plans to release their product on home media (DVD and/or Blu Ray) sometime in the future?

From what I gather, no.

[knives]

Have they given a reason why? It's very annoying to have some of these films come with such a high barrier.

[movielocke]

Because one makes a ton more money on all customers buy a subscription model, than on a some customers buy some things sometimes model

[MichaelB]

And streaming to 10,000 customers is infinitely cheaper than pressing, packaging and releasing 10,000 discs.

[Perkins Cobb]

It depends on what "product" you're talking about though ... Beasts of No Nation is still conspicuously absent on any physical media more than a year and a half after Netflix "released" it, but at least their original TV shows seem to get DVD and Blu releases sometime before the next season arrives.

[calculus entrophy]

Its not quite a tin foil hat strategy to acquire physical media....rather, its because a work on physical media need only be purchased once....whereas streaming is the ultimate corporate expression because they get income over and over again from customers for the same exact content. It becomes a de facto tithe.

And here I sound like I'm from another century.....wait, here comes the 50th anniversary ultimate director's cut steelbook engraved limited edition from a new 4k scan. LOL

[knives]

That's gross. Also doesn't that break antitrust laws like the vertical integration theaters of the studio era?

[captveg]

That's gross. Also doesn't that break antitrust laws like the vertical integration theaters of the studio era?

Nobody has cared about that once media conglomerates bought TV networks in the mid-90s.

[knives]

People caring and it being legal are two very different things.

[Michael Kerpan]

People caring and it being legal are two very different things.

For all practical purposes, not really. If neither Democratic nor Republican Presidents (and/or Attorneys-General) care, the law becomes essentially meaningless.

[Gregory]

But media consolidation on an unprecedented scale has been legal for two decades thanks to Bill Clinton's Telecommunications Act, an almost complete rollback of New Deal regulations, leading to the vast majority of the American media being owned by just five or six corporations, allowing Clear Channel to dominate radio, etc. Many have been tracking and responding to these long trends since years before the Clinton era and well into the FCC deregulation of the Bush years, so saying that nobody has cared about it since some time in the ’90s is really not accurate, but the media giants and their lobbyists were obviously far more influential. Virtually no one in the Senate or the House opposed the ’96 Telecommunications Act (Bernie Sanders was one of the few who did).

[ando]

Bittoo Boss & Kama Sutra, two Hindi films I caught on the streaming service today were quite different experiences. I can't recommend Bittoo at all. Indian tv star, Pulkit Samrat, who plays a talented wedding video shooter, made his admirable feature film debut. But the film has a wayward script that goes south about halfway and not nearly enough dance numbers for this less-than-typical Bollywood flick. It's a shame, too, because Samrat moves well. Director, Mira Nair's Kama Sutra is in a different class altogether. A classic tale set in 16th century India, Nair captures a refreshingly authentic sensual Punjabi love story. It's one of my faves that is also available as a Netflix download (one of the few times I've bothered with this feature). The soundtracks to both films are superb.
Good Nair Interview