criterionforum.org

Cinephrenic wrote:Does anyone have a list of shorts available on Criterion dvds?

I've been maintaining this list.

Criterion sort of does.

Gregory wrote:The limiting factors as to what gets upgraded are licensing, availability of high-quality masters, and in some cases such as Summertime, the addition of bonus materials.

movielocke wrote:Has summertime not been upgraded because of a search for supplements?

I don't really know why such a long-overdue upgrade* hasn't been announced yet, but I've just speculated that when they announce a new release of it, they will almost surely not want it to be as barebones as the DVD, so coming up with more material is just more work that they'll have to get done before it can happen, as opposed to upgrades of DVDs that they can just carry over the existing extras or add one or two things.

*The DVD came out more than 15 years ago, earliest in-print release that hasn't been rereleased yet, out on Blu-ray in Japan for a couple of years now—so it seems like something unusual has been holding it up.

FrauBlucher wrote:So, if they avg 24 upgrades a year (2 every month), it would take CC approximately 13 years to blu their whole catalogue. Depressing.

Yeah, but you can deduct half a month from that for "Fishing with John."

jedgeco wrote:

FrauBlucher wrote:So, if they avg 24 upgrades a year (2 every month), it would take CC approximately 13 years to blu their whole catalogue. Depressing.

Yeah, but you can deduct half a month from that for "Fishing with John."

And The Golden Age of Television. Those are two DVD releases I just can't ever see being upgraded to Blu-ray.

And HOOP DREAMS. Though the Spalding Gray doc got Blu'd.

johnnysnatchclub7 wrote:And HOOP DREAMS. Though the Spalding Gray doc got Blu'd.

I used to think that, but with the new reconstruction/rescan/cleanup I've changed my perspective on that. It will never be true HD, but a new Blu-ray of the film is plausible now, especially with dual format releases making it more viable to include a Blu-ray if re-issued with the new source.

Judging by the hoop dreams thread, it will look amazing in hd.

Oh, that sounds great then.

Professor Wagstaff wrote:We have this handy guide here on the forum to check on OOP titles.

Are all of those out of print? From Criterion's website these four are still in print:

3 Films by Louis Malle
Adventures of Antoine Doinel
The Last Wave
Le Samurai

And the following is listed on Criterion's website as backordered (but not out of print):
The Killers

Chasing Amy, criterion has a special "buy at amazon (details)" pop up box that says they can't sell it on their site, but it is not out of print.

I assume for the Malle that since the titles are available separately, it's only the box spine that is out of print if it is indeed out of print?

Where's the information come from that The Last Wave, Adventures of Antoine Doinel, and Le Samurai are out of print?

According to Criterion's 'My Criterion' these 10 films are in the most collections:

The Royal Tenenbaums 6,582
Seven Samurai 6,326
Brazil 5,295
Rushmore 5,293
8 1/2 5,097
The Seventh Seal 4,581
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 4,566
The Thin Red Line 4,477
Days of Heaven 4,186
Videodrome 4,109

These are the most collected spines which don't have a CC Blu-ray release

Chasing Amy 2686
The Silence of the Lambs 2067
Grand Illusion 1772
Bicycle Thieves 1748
Robocop 1698
Ikiru 1623
Vampyr 1617
Monty Python's Life of Brian 1583
Do the Right Thing 1517
Spartacus 1489

movielocke wrote:

Professor Wagstaff wrote:We have this handy guide here on the forum to check on OOP titles.

Are all of those out of print? From Criterion's website these four are still in print:

3 Films by Louis Malle
Adventures of Antoine Doinel
The Last Wave
Le Samurai

And the following is listed on Criterion's website as backordered (but not out of print):
The Killers

Chasing Amy, criterion has a special "buy at amazon (details)" pop up box that says they can't sell it on their site, but it is not out of print.

I assume for the Malle that since the titles are available separately, it's only the box spine that is out of print if it is indeed out of print?

Where's the information come from that The Last Wave, Adventures of Antoine Doinel, and Le Samurai are out of print?

They were all included in lists of titles being discontinued. Only the Malle set was discontinued to my understanding: the individual titles are still available. The Doinel set was listed as discontinued at one point (many assumed it was getting a Blu-ray upgrade,) though looking it up again it may be back in print. Killers was also released in a list of out-of-print titles (again, it was assumed a dual-format edition is coming.) You can see all of these things in the various out-of-print threads here as well.

Chasing Amy did go out of print when the Miramax catalogue went over to Lionsgate (Disney distributed the disc previously) though it appears Lionsgate is distributing it again.

I thought it might be worth updating these numbers:

Total spine numbers: 733
Total Bluray spine numbers: 362
Total DVD only spine numbers: 371

Total Out of print spine numbers: 75
Total Out of print bluray spine numbers: 9
Total Out of print DVD only spines: 66

Total in Print spine numbers: 658
Total in print bluray spine numbers: 353
Total in print DVD only spine numbers: 305

Total number of spines that have been upgraded to bluray: 131
Total number of in print spines that have been upgraded to bluray: 126


I'm using spines rather than titles to avoid the confusion of the empty spine numbers of box sets screwing with the numbers. The exception is A constant Forge, which is counted as an upgrade, even though its spine number disappeared in the upgrade, the spine of the empty cassavetes box did carry over and counts as well.

Criterion's website explicitly says that the sternberg silents set is not out of print, just that they cannot sell it, and they include a link to amazon, it's the same disclaimer they have posted for Chasing Amy.

Some Eclipse stats

Total number of collections: 41
Total number of films: 163

Eclipse by Decade:
1920s - 01
1930s - 28
1940s - 28
1950s - 20
1960s - 49
1970s - 17
1980s - 12
1990s - 05
2000s - 02

Eclipse by Country:
58 - Japan
23 - USA
18 - France
17 - United Kingdom
07 - Italy
06 - Czechoslovakia
06 - Finland
05 - Canada
05 - Germany
05 - Sweden
03 - India
03 - Spain
03 - Yugoslavia
02 - Soviet Union
01 - Belgium

With the addition of the Kinoshita Eclipse, over 1/3 of the collection is from Japan.

2014 New Releases

33 - United States
13 - France
05 - United Kingdom
03 - Italy
02 - Denmark
01 - Sweden
01 - Spain
01 - Mexico
01 - Canada

02 - coproductions: Like Someone in Love (France/Japan), La Vie de Boheme (France/Finland)

The United States numbers this year are inflated by the 14 Les Blank films, this may be the only year ever for Criterion without a new release from Japan, I guess Zatoichi really burned them out last year.

When do you guys allow your OCD to get the best of you, because when I received my Pickpocket dual format edition in the mail, the artwork was somewhat humidity warped, but getting that replaced would have been more tedium than it's worth for me. If a jewel case is damaged or if the artwork is substantially torn or punctured, that's usually where I draw the line, or if a digipak has a damaged tray. Even slightly dinged digipaks I can handle, as long as it's nothing too substantial, because sometimes replacements just aren't worth the tedium, although I've gotten a few MOC dual format releases that had damaged clasps inside, and those I replaced.

I think there's only one person here who genuinely has OCD. For everyone else, we just like neatness
or we are a bit fussy, nothing more.

Updating numbers through the april 2015 releases:


Total spine numbers: 755
Total Bluray spine numbers: 394
Total DVD only spine numbers: 361


Total Out of print spine numbers: 78
Total Out of print bluray spine numbers: 9
Total Out of print DVD only spines: 69

Total in Print spine numbers: 676
Total in print bluray spine numbers: 385
Total in print DVD only spine numbers: 291

Total number of spines that have been upgraded to bluray: 142
Total number of in print spines that have been upgraded to bluray: 136

I was at Amoeba Records in Hollywood yesterday and picked up a factory sealed Criterion VHS of "The Third Man" for $15. It's the initial, over-sized gray box, not the reissued clam shell case in black. I love collection Criterion releases and this is the first of their VHS tapes I own (they released two others: The Lady Vanishes and The 39 Steps, at least according to Jon Mulvaney), but I'm tempted to open it!

Should I, or keep it as a sealed collector's item?

I had no idea Criterion made VHS. Do you have pictures?

kidc85 wrote:I had no idea Criterion made VHS. Do you have pictures?

I found some pictures here. You'll have to scroll to the bottom; it's a shame the first few posts' pictures have disappeared.

Well I never. There's also this blogpost, which features images of the grey box version of THIRD MAN. Looks like it originally retailed for $39.99. The blogger reckons that the spine says #5 (no images to back this up though), so I wonder if more were released or if Criterion's cavalier use of numbers started early. Google isn't yielding anything else.

I took these pictures this morning. As you can see it's spine #5. Would've liked to post the pics on the board but I don't know how.

http://jp4151.tumblr.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

kidc85 wrote:I had no idea Criterion made VHS. Do you have pictures?

If you search on Amazon for used Criterion stuff, the VHS tapes pop up. Used to be easier to find before they messed with their search results formatting, but they were all there.

Early 90s, I recall seeing a copy "The Lady Vanishes" on Criterion VHS at my local Blockbuster.

Aside: Criterion is selling restored, high-definition copies of their releases in 2015 for the same price that it used to charge for VHS releases. This truly is a wonderful time to be alive.

Not to mention that paying $39.99 for The Third Man on VHS when it came out in 1985 is the equivalent of paying almost $90 in 2015 money. In some ways it's so nice not to be in those old days anymore.

Criterion Collection released a few titles on VHS under that name, but they were never really satisfied with that format or Beta, and they soon focused that brand on LDs, while VHS tapes continued to come out with the Janus branding and the name "The Classic Collection"/Home Vision Cinema/Home Vision Entertainment.