One cool restoration effort by Criterion is It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, where they used all available footage to make it as close to the original roadshow release as possible, such as including scenes never before seen and the police calls during the intermission.
I love criterion. They're the only DVDs I buy. I own 45 of them and have another 58 of them on my wish list. However, the last couple releases seem to be politically motivated to pander to the whole woke and pc movement. They need to stick to getting the rights and restoration of real films by directors who contributed something worthy to cinema. And not just release sub par films because a minority or woman directed and starred in it.
making collection of cinema into different categories is again an art and skill, you have to watch entire world's cinema to be able to categorize them, even if you become catatonic.. but then here is where love for medium comes in because you don't mind but love it...
you have to build your audience doesn't matter slow and steady, but your outlet should have that eternal stamp of always giving out something so worthwhile entertaining absorbing your audience never want to leave you.
when you do not give employment to genuine talent for that work but employ I don't know how, picked from which assembly line of so called either recommended or strings pulled work force those work pools ultimately tanks, creative thinking, and programming of all audio visual has certain skills without which, precisely that is going to happen like all bubbles created in for revenues happen, put together by idiots...neither with understanding of given positions or even have any love for the medium
I am still amazed that Criterion has never put out a film with Greta Garbo? Greta Garbo will be remembered probably longer than any Actor in the History of film.
I liked it better when the Contract and the old Studio System existed. The movie industry has only gone downhill since its' demise. Sometimes a Monopoly just works better.
I have a rare end of evangelion dvd .. it has a bad letterbox format - it looks ok on a old tv - but then on a new tv things get cut off .. it need new distribution.
Criterion’s digital restoration of globally produced motion film is to be applauded. However, by only producing DVD and Blu-rays that can be played in the USA’s Region 1, North America sends a much less endearing message to cinephiles and film-makers the world over.
Good detail. I’m surprised that the Mak and Lau film “Infernal Affairs” hasn’t been acquired. It would be a great addition to include the entire trilogy in blu-ray, region A.
I’m a recent Criterion lover and I love their stuff because of the love and care they give to these films and introducing me to films I’ve never seen before like Godzilla, Rebecca and The Princess Bride.
As you said, in a very short while of discovering Criterion I became a fan, exactly for the reasons you mentioned: quality work of people who actually love films and not bent on simply making money! The first time I saw the name Janus Films and Criterion, was with Kurosawa films and i am eternally grateful for bringing in clarity my favourite actor-director duo to life! Not having to suffer all the problems that indevitably come with old classics, I was delighted. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. A film lover.
Sorry to be a fuss pot but it was the discovery of a first-generation print, not a negative that allowed for the restoration of "The Passion of Joan of Arc." BTW I never knew that the Hollywood studio system manufactured 'pitchers.'
Laserdisc came out after vhs and betamax but those tape formats didn't involve prerecorded movies until after laserdisc debuted. By the time Criterion started in 1984, buying a movie on vhs or betamax was available but not necessarily cheaper than the laserdisc equivalent.
