criterionforum.org

Feego wrote:

Matt wrote:One of the terms of the agreement apparently was that Warner Bros. would provide "increased access to content for its online streaming service." I'll be optimistic that they're going to provide access to all those Warner Archive films and a bunch of other rare, unavailable-on-DVD films.

I noticed that the 1993 movie Airborne has just become available on Netflix for instant streaming. I'm sure that movie holds no interest for anyone here, but it is a Warner Archives title, so apparently Warner Bros. is giving Netflix access to these films.

I think this film is part of the Starz Play deal, actually.

That used to be my favorite movie.

Feego wrote:Not long after Criterion released In the Realm of the Senses, it too became unavailable on Netflix, but now it seems to be back.

That's because they were using the Fox Lorber edition for rental. There's usually a certain lag time from a title being officially out of print and it being no longer available at Netflix. Depending on the popularity of the film, sometimes that lag time is years.

This may have been mentioned earlier, but I just noticed three of the four Hiroshi Shimizu Eclipse titles are no longer available (designated as "save") on Netflix. This set came out, what, a year ago? I don't get netflix anymore, I mean I just don't understand what's going on.

MyNameCriterionForum wrote:This may have been mentioned earlier, but I just noticed three of the four Hiroshi Shimizu Eclipse titles are no longer available (designated as "save") on Netflix. This set came out, what, a year ago? I don't get netflix anymore, I mean I just don't understand what's going on.

I've seen a good deal more of this sort of thing going on lately as well, like the note about Jeanne Dielman just upthread. Le Bonheur from the Varda box was available, and then it wasn't. The rest of the box is. The whole Imamura box from a few months ago was available to rent, now none of it is. The SD of Monterey Pop disappeared right when the BD came out. I had a couple recentish release non-Criterion cult items - Don't Deliver Us From Evil and Deadly Sweet - experience the same thing: released, available for a few months, then gone. Yes these things happen, but it seems to be on the increase.

Added to the increasingly long wait for new releases (recent films and newly issued catalog titles) and the virtual lack of entire companies lines (Mondo Vison, *cough cough*) it's not looking good. Sell your stock now!

Maybe those missing Eclipse/Criterions will be available again only as instant streaming in the future.

At this point it may be better to think of the company more in terms of streaming than DVDs. This chart from Feedfliks:



Going by that chart, it looks like a whole lot of people will want to switch to instant streaming only subscriptions whenever that option does become available.

On a side note, Netflix has pissed a bunch of people off with their recent web page redesign. The "friends" lists and the "top ten" lists are harder to get to. The interactivity and random user lists were among the best features of the site. Certainly much better than the clueless suggestions generated by Netflix's software suggestions. There have been 500 complaints on that blog page so far, including 150 "accidentally" deleted supposedly by a technical glitch. If anyone else feels the same way as these commenters, then I suggest you call Netflix.

Along with Mondo Vision, they're also not stocking Code Red or Scorpion Releasing's recent titles (Messiah of Evil, Choke Canyon, The Internecine Project). Netflix has always been a little weird with Criterion box sets (they didn't have the Dreyers for years after that came out), but the Shimizu & Imamura thing seems excessive. Plus, I went to verify that about Le Bonheur being unavailable, and Au Bonheur des Dames comes up with a "Save" button too! Yikes.

This is starting to scare me, 'cause they don't have any decent brick & mortar stores in New York any more, and I ain't doing that streaming video bullshit.

I wouldn't worry too much. Sure, they are trying to make the change to streaming content as predominant- which has its major flaws (resolution or missing elements- like Les Vampires only has 2/10 chapters available) but I wouldn't worry about a lot of the titles going away. I remember that for a long while- Seven Samurai was unavailable/Save and then it came back with streaming and DVD.

I think the oddest case I've had is have a few titles be on "long wait" and then be removed and put on the saved list. I can only expect that means that someone's had it buried under their couch for a year or two and forgotten to return it.

I really wish they would return the "suggest a title" option.

Minkin wrote:I think the oddest case I've had is have a few titles be on "long wait" and then be removed and put on the saved list.

Well, that would make sense if the disc in question has just recently slipped out of print. Of course if it's still widely available elsewhere, then it makes no more sense than any of the other omissions discussed above.

Perkins Cobb wrote:

Minkin wrote:I think the oddest case I've had is have a few titles be on "long wait" and then be removed and put on the saved list.

Well, that would make sense if the disc in question has just recently slipped out of print. Of course if it's still widely available elsewhere, then it makes no more sense than any of the other omissions discussed above.

It was still in print- although it came back on a week later with no wait (I suppose I should have remembered to finish the story).

So as to not waste any more space with my lapse in details. Netflix is toying with the idea of streaming for the iphone and apparently now the Nintendo DS. Knowing how awful the internet connection/browser is on those- I can only prepare for the hilarity.

Yeah, I read all that shit on the Hacking Netflix blog. Beyond depressing. There's about 75 commenters on there going, "Yes, please, give us Netflix on our iPhones!" And you know those idiots are all going to be watching Avatar on their three-inch screens.

The next five or ten years are going to get really, really ugly for people who care about how movies are shown.

Netflix can't even stock the new Universal release of the '33 Alice in Wonderland? At all of $20 list? How much more basic can you get? And they never have added the 4th Jazz Icons Series.

Minkin wrote:

Perkins Cobb wrote:

Minkin wrote:Knowing how awful the internet connection/browser is on those- I can only prepare for the hilarity.

I can't imagine AT&T letting Netflix stream to an iPhone over 3G, so I'm assuming it will only be an option via wifi. Of course, the only time I'd even toy with the idea of watching a movie on that format would be on an airplane, when I won't be able to connect.

Too bad Netflix's problem report for streaming movies does not include options for "wrong aspect ratio." I could have used that a couple of times recently. Twentieth Century, one of my favorite '30s comedies, is available in HD, but is cropped to something like 1.66:1.

Yeah, The Marriage of Maria Braun is cropped so badly that the burned-in subtitles are mostly chopped off, making it completely unviewable.

They do have an option to report missing or partial subtitles, though. I used that for Gabrielle, in which the huge subtitles got cut off at the bottom of the screen.

Nice tip - thanks!

So much for worrying about Jeanne Dielman. It will be released on watch instantly on April 3rd. I do wonder why they felt the need to take it away from DVD rental simply to put it on digital- although I believe I've seen it done before.

Don't know if it's mentioned, but the new restoration transfer of The Red Shoes is used in netflix streaming.

Matt wrote:Too bad Netflix's problem report for streaming movies does not include options for "wrong aspect ratio." I could have used that a couple of times recently. Twentieth Century, one of my favorite '30s comedies, is available in HD, but is cropped to something like 1.66:1.

i went to show The Passion of Joan of Arc in my euro civ class a few weeks ago via netflix streaming (I don't own it - yet/still - and just figured it was easiest to stream it anyway. problem was it plays w/ zero audio. it's a truly silent film! it must be that the first audio option is indeed silence, but it seems odd that they wouldn't use the score that was so ballyhooed. I couldn't figure out what option to pick to complain via their system, so let it go....but figured it was worth a mention here for future reference.


all in all, however, I was rather impressed with how well the class stayed tuned in for the entire feature - I think if you had to pick one film to try and get 18/19 year olds to watch in complete silence, you couldn't do much better. the lovely face and heart rending eyes of ms. falconetti had them rapt for 80 odd minutes!

Numero Trois wrote:
On a side note, Netflix has pissed a bunch of people off with their recent web page redesign. The "friends" lists and the "top ten" lists are harder to get to. The interactivity and random user lists were among the best features of the site. Certainly much better than the clueless suggestions generated by Netflix's software suggestions.

I'm extremely pissed about this. Mostly because it doesn't seem like something that would be that hard to keep. I searched their site for a "Contact Us" email link and no avail. I wanted to send them a nice and short email airing my concern/complaint. I really don't have the time to call them to complain about something that is kind of petty.

The whole point of adding friends is so you can see what they rated a movie you're rating, the redesign is straight-up retarded

Meh. I don't have any friends. They just need to stock all the DVDs they're skipping over!

aox wrote:Mostly because it doesn't seem like something that would be that hard to keep.

Netflix must be the only company in the world that believes less connectivity is better for business.

aox wrote:I searched their site for a "Contact Us" email link and no avail. I wanted to send them a nice and short email airing my concern/complaint. I really don't have the time to call them to complain about something that is kind of petty.

Here's what the Netflix "movie fans" forum has, for what it's worth:
Neil Hunt ([email protected]) - Chief Product Officer
Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Kilgore- [email protected]