The Criterion Collection
Encyclopedia
The Criterion Collection (est. 1984) is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox
format for home video, bonus features, and special editions. Criterion is also known for taking great lengths to restore and clean all films released on their label.
CD-ROM
s (1989–2000), during which time, The Criterion Collection became a subordinate division of the Voyager Company. In March 1994, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH
bought 20 percent of Voyager for US$ 6.7 million; the founders each retained a 20 percent owner’s share. In 1997, the Voyager Company was dissolved (Aleen Stein founded the Organa LLC CD-ROM publishing company), and Holtzbrinck Publishers sold the “Voyager” brand name, 42 CD-ROM titles, the Voyager web site, and associated assets, to Learn Technologies Interactive, LLC (LTI). Robert Stein sold 42 Voyager titles to LTI for his Voyager–Criterion company share. The remaining partners, Aleen Stein, William Becker (President) and Jonathan Turell (CEO) owned The Criterion Collection company, which has a business partnership with Janus Films
, and had one with Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) until 2005, when Image Entertainment bought HVE.
founded Home Vision Entertainment (HVE), the home-video division of Public Media Inc. (PMI), which he founded in 1968. The HVE company sold, advertised, marketed, and distributed Criterion Collection DVDs, and sold its own HVE-brand of DVDs (co-produced with Criterion), including The Merchant Ivory Collection
, and the Classic Collection, a joint venture between Home Vision Entertainment and Janus Films. The latter enterprise published HVE imprint films, for which Janus Films owned the video rights, unavailable from the Criterion Collection; however, Criterion published Classic Collection fims. In 2005, Image Entertainment
bought HVE, thus it became the exclusive distributor of Criterion Collection products.
ing presentation of movies, commentary soundtracks, multi-disc sets, special editions, and definitive versions.
format, which added black bars to the top and bottom of the 4:3 standard television set in order to preserve the original aspect ratio
of the film. Thereafter, Criterion made letterboxing the standard presentation for all releases of films shot in widescreen aspect ratios.
(1933), was the debut of the scene-specific audio commentary
contained in a discrete analogue channel of the laserdisc. It featured US film historian Ronald Haver
reporting about the production, cast, screenplay, production design and special effects. He also is the commentator for the Casablanca
(1942), Here Comes Mr. Jordan
(1941), Singin' in the Rain
(1952), and The Wizard of Oz
(1939) laserdiscs. Typically, the chapter-indexed commentaries are exclusive to the Criterion releases, and the initial DVD reissues; they became collector’s items when the original-owner studios re-issued titles (with commentary tracks or not) licensed to Criterion.
(1941) and King Kong
(1933) on laserdisc. The company later became notable for pioneering the “special edition” DVD concept, containing bonus materials (trailers
, commentaries, documentaries
, alternate endings, deleted scenes, et cetera), "a film school in a box", as it were, the success of which established the special edition version in the DVD business. In 2006, taking advantage of better film-transfer and film-restoration technologies, Criterion published improved-image versions, with bonus materials, of early catalogue titles such as Amarcord
(1973), Brazil
(1985), and Seven Samurai (1954).
(1987), Hard-Boiled (1992), The Killer (1989), and Ran
(1985), become unavailable when their publishing licenses expire or when Criterion publishes improved versions, such as Beauty and the Beast
(1946), M
(1931), Seven Samurai (1954), and The Wages of Fear (1954). As of August 2009, 87 of the 373 titles (23 percent) constituting the list of Criterion Collection laserdisc releases, have been released.
The film Charade (1963), was a public-domain
property for lacking the legally required copyright
notice—usually a license to sell low-quality DVD products —yet the Criterion company produced a digitally cleaned edition under license from Universal Pictures
for the initial edition and for the anamorphic widescreen
re-release edition of the film.
Periodically, Criterion does release material on DVD/Blu-ray licensed from the studios they previously dealt with, such as Sony, Fox, MGM/UA, and Universal, generally on a case-by-case basis. Recently, Criterion struck new deals with Westchester Films (which is home to some films that had previously been with Castle Hill Productions
) and the estate of Charlie Chaplin
(as Janus Films had struck a new deal with the Chaplin company and worldwide distribution agent MK2
for the re-issue rights to the Chaplin library).
(1978), Ghostbusters
(1984), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Armageddon (1998), and The Rock
(1996)—yet currently the Criterion Collection mostly sells World cinema
, mainstream cinema classics, and critically successful obscure movies. Using the best available source materials, the company produces technologically improved versions, thus, The Passion of Joan of Arc
(1928), M
(1931), and the Children of Paradise
(1945) discs contain film-cleaning and film-restoration demonstrations, comparing the restored and un-restored images; not every film-distribution company approved of the comparison exercise—the Toho
Company took exception to the restoration demonstration in Criterion's first DVD release of Seven Samurai (1954); the re-issued version does not contain it.
. In 1998, Criterion began publishing DVD
s as well. On March 16, 1999, Criterion issued its final laserdisc release, Michael Bay
's Armageddon. As with its laserdiscs, Criterion's early DVD editions of widescreen films were presented in the letterbox format, but Criterion did not enhance its discs for 16x9 monitors until mid-1999 with its release of Insomnia
(1997), catalogue number 47.
service from the Criterion and The Auteurs web sites. In early 2011, many Criterion titles also became available through the Hulu Plus premium service.
Criterion began publishing on Blu-ray Disc
in December 2008. Unlike its DVD releases, a mixture of NTSC-standard
Region 0 (region-free) and Region 1 DVDs, Criterion Collection Blu-ray Discs are Region A.
(2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
(2004), and Chasing Amy
(1997). Criterion also sold the French Holocaust short documentary Night and Fog
(1955) for US$14.95, below the company’s usual price range. In 2004, the company released The Criterion Collection Gift Set 2004, a special 282-disc set for US$5,000, sold exclusively through online retailer Amazon.com, although it was not the (then) entire Criterion Collection cinémathèque. Recently, Criterion DVDs (including two disc editions) have been roughly ten dollars cheaper than their Blu-ray counterparts.
Janus Films' "Essential Art House" collection consists of Janus-owned Criterion movies without special features, and are also cheaper alternatives.
Given their rarity, the great aficionado demand for out-of-print Criterion Collection DVDs spawned the business of counterfeit
(bootleg) copies, often advertised as a Criterion Collection Asian edition to disguise their bootleg
nature. The company’s Web site instructs buyers to shop carefully, advises about identifying bootleg merchandise, and notes that the Criterion Collection never published Asian editions of its movie catalogue.
Letterbox
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...
format for home video, bonus features, and special editions. Criterion is also known for taking great lengths to restore and clean all films released on their label.
History
The Criterion Collection company was founded in 1984 by Robert Stein, Aleen Stein, and Joe Medjuck, who later were joined by Roger Smith. In 1985, the Steins, William Becker, and Jonathan B. Turell founded the Voyager Company, to publish educational multimediaMultimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
s (1989–2000), during which time, The Criterion Collection became a subordinate division of the Voyager Company. In March 1994, Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck GmbH
Georg von Holtzbrinck Publishing Group
Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck is a Stuttgart-based publishing holding company which owns publishing companies worldwide. Holtzbrinck has published everything from Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses to classics by Agatha Christie, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway and John Updike...
bought 20 percent of Voyager for US$ 6.7 million; the founders each retained a 20 percent owner’s share. In 1997, the Voyager Company was dissolved (Aleen Stein founded the Organa LLC CD-ROM publishing company), and Holtzbrinck Publishers sold the “Voyager” brand name, 42 CD-ROM titles, the Voyager web site, and associated assets, to Learn Technologies Interactive, LLC (LTI). Robert Stein sold 42 Voyager titles to LTI for his Voyager–Criterion company share. The remaining partners, Aleen Stein, William Becker (President) and Jonathan Turell (CEO) owned The Criterion Collection company, which has a business partnership with Janus Films
Janus Films
Janus Films is a film distribution company. It was one of the first distributors to bring what are now regarded as masterpieces of world cinema to the United States...
, and had one with Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) until 2005, when Image Entertainment bought HVE.
Home Vision Entertainment
In 1986, Charles BentonCharles Benton
Charles Benton is CEO and Chairman of the Board of the Benton Foundation and former CEO of Public Media Incorporated, a film and video publisher and distributor...
founded Home Vision Entertainment (HVE), the home-video division of Public Media Inc. (PMI), which he founded in 1968. The HVE company sold, advertised, marketed, and distributed Criterion Collection DVDs, and sold its own HVE-brand of DVDs (co-produced with Criterion), including The Merchant Ivory Collection
Merchant Ivory Productions
Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Their films were for the most part produced by the former, directed by the latter, and scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, with the noted exception of a few films. The films were often...
, and the Classic Collection, a joint venture between Home Vision Entertainment and Janus Films. The latter enterprise published HVE imprint films, for which Janus Films owned the video rights, unavailable from the Criterion Collection; however, Criterion published Classic Collection fims. In 2005, Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment
Image Entertainment, Inc. is an independent licensee, producer and distributor of home entertainment programming and film & television productions in North America, with approximately 3,000 exclusive DVD titles and approximately 250 exclusive CD titles in domestic release, and approximately 450...
bought HVE, thus it became the exclusive distributor of Criterion Collection products.
Online ventures
Criterion began to provide video-on-demand in partnership with MUBI (formerly The Auteurs) in 2008. In February 2011, Criterion began switching its VOD offerings exclusively to Hulu Plus.Contributions and influence
Commercially, The Criterion Collection video company pioneered the correct aspect ratio letterboxLetterbox
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...
ing presentation of movies, commentary soundtracks, multi-disc sets, special editions, and definitive versions.
Letterboxing
With its eighth laserdisc release of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Criterion introduced the letterboxLetterbox
Letterboxing is the practice of transferring film shot in a widescreen aspect ratio to standard-width video formats while preserving the film's original aspect ratio. The resulting videographic image has mattes above and below it; these mattes are part of the image...
format, which added black bars to the top and bottom of the 4:3 standard television set in order to preserve the original aspect ratio
Aspect ratio (image)
The aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon. That is, for an x:y aspect ratio, no matter how big or small the image is, if the width is divided into x units of equal length and the height is measured using this...
of the film. Thereafter, Criterion made letterboxing the standard presentation for all releases of films shot in widescreen aspect ratios.
Commentary soundtracks
The Criterion Collection's second catalogue title, King KongKing Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
(1933), was the debut of the scene-specific audio commentary
Audio commentary
On disc-based video formats, an audio commentary is an additional audio track consisting of a lecture or comments by one or more speakers, that plays in real time with video...
contained in a discrete analogue channel of the laserdisc. It featured US film historian Ronald Haver
Ronald Haver
Ronald Haver was a film historian, preservationist and author. For over twenty years, he was director of Film Programs at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art....
reporting about the production, cast, screenplay, production design and special effects. He also is the commentator for the Casablanca
Casablanca (film)
Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid, and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Veidt, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre and Dooley Wilson. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in...
(1942), Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Here Comes Mr. Jordan
Here Comes Mr. Jordan is a comedy film in which a boxer, mistakenly taken to Heaven before his time, is given a second chance back on Earth. It stars Robert Montgomery, Claude Rains and Evelyn Keyes. The movie was adapted by Sidney Buchman and Seton I. Miller from the play Heaven Can Wait by Harry...
(1941), Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain
Singin' in the Rain is a 1952 American comedy musical film starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds and directed by Gene Kelly and Stanley Donen, with Kelly also providing the choreography...
(1952), and The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)
The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
(1939) laserdiscs. Typically, the chapter-indexed commentaries are exclusive to the Criterion releases, and the initial DVD reissues; they became collector’s items when the original-owner studios re-issued titles (with commentary tracks or not) licensed to Criterion.
Special editions
The Criterion Collection began in 1984 with the releases of Citizen KaneCitizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
(1941) and King Kong
King Kong (1933 film)
King Kong is a Pre-Code 1933 fantasy monster adventure film co-directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, and written by Ruth Rose and James Ashmore Creelman after a story by Cooper and Edgar Wallace. The film tells of a gigantic island-dwelling apeman creature called Kong who dies in...
(1933) on laserdisc. The company later became notable for pioneering the “special edition” DVD concept, containing bonus materials (trailers
Trailer (film)
A trailer or preview is an advertisement or a commercial for a feature film that will be exhibited in the future at a cinema. The term "trailer" comes from their having originally been shown at the end of a feature film screening. That practice did not last long, because patrons tended to leave the...
, commentaries, documentaries
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, alternate endings, deleted scenes, et cetera), "a film school in a box", as it were, the success of which established the special edition version in the DVD business. In 2006, taking advantage of better film-transfer and film-restoration technologies, Criterion published improved-image versions, with bonus materials, of early catalogue titles such as Amarcord
Amarcord
Amarcord is a 1973 Italian comedy-drama film directed by Federico Fellini, a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age tale about Titta, an adolescent boy growing up among an eccentric cast of characters in the fictional town of Borgo in 1930s Fascist Italy...
(1973), Brazil
Brazil (film)
Brazil is a 1985 British science fiction fantasy/black comedy film directed by Terry Gilliam. It was written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard and stars Jonathan Pryce. The film also features Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond, Bob Hoskins, and Ian Holm...
(1985), and Seven Samurai (1954).
Licenses
Some licensed Criterion Collection titles, such as Rebecca (1940), are commercially unavailable but are for sale at auction on-line. Titles such as The Silence of the Lambs (1991), RoboCopRoboCop
RoboCop is a 1987 American science fiction-action film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Set in a crime-ridden Detroit, Michigan in the near future, RoboCop centers on a police officer who is brutally murdered and subsequently re-created as a super-human cyborg known as "RoboCop"...
(1987), Hard-Boiled (1992), The Killer (1989), and Ran
Ran (film)
is a 1985 Japanese-French jidaigeki film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa. The film starred Tatsuya Nakadai as Hidetora Ichimonji, an aging Sengoku-era warlord who decides to abdicate as ruler in favor of his three sons. It also stars Mieko Harada as the wife of Ichimonji's eldest son...
(1985), become unavailable when their publishing licenses expire or when Criterion publishes improved versions, such as Beauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of the traditional fairy tale of the same name, written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont and published in 1757 as part of a fairy tale anthology . Directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette...
(1946), M
M (1931 film)
M is a 1931 German drama-thriller directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It was Lang's first sound film, although he had directed more than a dozen films previously....
(1931), Seven Samurai (1954), and The Wages of Fear (1954). As of August 2009, 87 of the 373 titles (23 percent) constituting the list of Criterion Collection laserdisc releases, have been released.
The film Charade (1963), was a public-domain
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
property for lacking the legally required copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
notice—usually a license to sell low-quality DVD products —yet the Criterion company produced a digitally cleaned edition under license from Universal Pictures
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
for the initial edition and for the anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
re-release edition of the film.
Periodically, Criterion does release material on DVD/Blu-ray licensed from the studios they previously dealt with, such as Sony, Fox, MGM/UA, and Universal, generally on a case-by-case basis. Recently, Criterion struck new deals with Westchester Films (which is home to some films that had previously been with Castle Hill Productions
Castle Hill Productions
Castle Hill Productions is an independent television and film distribution company handling classic and independent films whose library spans eight decades.-Background:...
) and the estate of Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
(as Janus Films had struck a new deal with the Chaplin company and worldwide distribution agent MK2
MK2
MK2 can refer to:* Mark II, a second version of a product, frequently military hardware. "Mark", meaning "model" or "variant"* Mk 2 grenade, a hand grenade used by the United States military starting in World War II...
for the re-issue rights to the Chaplin library).
Film restoration
Originally, the Criterion company released art, genre, and mainstream movies on laserdisc—HalloweenHalloween (1978 film)
Halloween is a 1978 American independent horror film directed, produced, and scored by John Carpenter, co-written with Debra Hill, and starring Donald Pleasence and Jamie Lee Curtis in her film debut and the first installment in the Halloween franchise. The film is set in the fictional midwestern...
(1978), Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...
(1984), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), Armageddon (1998), and The Rock
The Rock (film)
The Rock is a 1996 action film that primarily takes place on Alcatraz Island and in the San Francisco Bay area. It was directed by Michael Bay and stars Sean Connery, Nicolas Cage and Ed Harris. It was produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer and released through Hollywood Pictures. The film...
(1996)—yet currently the Criterion Collection mostly sells World cinema
World cinema
World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term foreign film...
, mainstream cinema classics, and critically successful obscure movies. Using the best available source materials, the company produces technologically improved versions, thus, The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc
The Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent film produced in France in 1928. It is based on the record of the trial of Joan of Arc. The film was directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer and stars Renée Jeanne Falconetti...
(1928), M
M (1931 film)
M is a 1931 German drama-thriller directed by Fritz Lang and written by Lang and his wife Thea von Harbou. It was Lang's first sound film, although he had directed more than a dozen films previously....
(1931), and the Children of Paradise
Children of Paradise
Les Enfants du Paradis, released as Children of Paradise in North America, is a 1945 French film by French director Marcel Carné, made during the German occupation of France during World War II...
(1945) discs contain film-cleaning and film-restoration demonstrations, comparing the restored and un-restored images; not every film-distribution company approved of the comparison exercise—the Toho
Toho
is a Japanese film, theater production, and distribution company. It is headquartered in Yūrakuchō, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group...
Company took exception to the restoration demonstration in Criterion's first DVD release of Seven Samurai (1954); the re-issued version does not contain it.
Laserdisc and DVD
The Criterion Collection began publishing laserdiscs on December 1, 1984 with its release of Citizen KaneCitizen Kane
Citizen Kane is a 1941 American drama film, directed by and starring Orson Welles. Many critics consider it the greatest American film of all time, especially for its innovative cinematography, music and narrative structure. Citizen Kane was Welles' first feature film...
. In 1998, Criterion began publishing DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
s as well. On March 16, 1999, Criterion issued its final laserdisc release, Michael Bay
Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
's Armageddon. As with its laserdiscs, Criterion's early DVD editions of widescreen films were presented in the letterbox format, but Criterion did not enhance its discs for 16x9 monitors until mid-1999 with its release of Insomnia
Insomnia (1997 film)
Insomnia is a 1997 Norwegian thriller film about a police detective investigating a murder in a town located above the Arctic Circle. The investigation goes horribly wrong when he mistakenly shoots his partner and subsequently attempts to cover up his bungle...
(1997), catalogue number 47.
Video-on-demand services
On 25 November 2008, on its web site, Criterion began offering video-on-demand (VOD) downloading services, for US$5.00 per select movie, marking the beginning of a cross-promotional VODVideo on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
service from the Criterion and The Auteurs web sites. In early 2011, many Criterion titles also became available through the Hulu Plus premium service.
High definition format
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
in December 2008. Unlike its DVD releases, a mixture of NTSC-standard
NTSC
NTSC, named for the National Television System Committee, is the analog television system that is used in most of North America, most of South America , Burma, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, the Philippines, and some Pacific island nations and territories .Most countries using the NTSC standard, as...
Region 0 (region-free) and Region 1 DVDs, Criterion Collection Blu-ray Discs are Region A.
Product pricing
In 2006, the prices for Criterion Collection movies on DVD ranged from 30 to 40 US dollars for one-disc and two-discs sets, respectively. Movies below that price range tend to be Walt Disney-produced or -distributed products, such as The Royal TenenbaumsThe Royal Tenenbaums
The Royal Tenenbaums is a 2001 American comedy-drama film directed by Wes Anderson and co-written with Owen Wilson. The film stars Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston, with Danny Glover, Bill Murray, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, and Owen Wilson....
(2001), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is an American comedy-drama film directed, written, and co-produced by Wes Anderson. It is Anderson's fourth feature length film, released in the U.S. on December 25, 2004...
(2004), and Chasing Amy
Chasing Amy
Chasing Amy is a 1997 romantic comedy film written and directed by Kevin Smith. The central tension revolves around sexuality, sexual history, and evolving friendships. It is the third film in Smith's View Askewniverse series....
(1997). Criterion also sold the French Holocaust short documentary Night and Fog
Night and Fog (film)
Night and Fog is a 1955 French documentary short film. Directed by Alain Resnais, it was made ten years after the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The documentary features the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek while describing the lives of prisoners in the camps. Night and Fog was...
(1955) for US$14.95, below the company’s usual price range. In 2004, the company released The Criterion Collection Gift Set 2004, a special 282-disc set for US$5,000, sold exclusively through online retailer Amazon.com, although it was not the (then) entire Criterion Collection cinémathèque. Recently, Criterion DVDs (including two disc editions) have been roughly ten dollars cheaper than their Blu-ray counterparts.
Janus Films' "Essential Art House" collection consists of Janus-owned Criterion movies without special features, and are also cheaper alternatives.
Given their rarity, the great aficionado demand for out-of-print Criterion Collection DVDs spawned the business of counterfeit
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
(bootleg) copies, often advertised as a Criterion Collection Asian edition to disguise their bootleg
Counterfeit
To counterfeit means to illegally imitate something. Counterfeit products are often produced with the intent to take advantage of the superior value of the imitated product...
nature. The company’s Web site instructs buyers to shop carefully, advises about identifying bootleg merchandise, and notes that the Criterion Collection never published Asian editions of its movie catalogue.
Lists of Criterion releases
- List of Criterion Collection Laserdisc releases
- List of Criterion Collection DVD and Blu-ray releases
- List of Eclipse releases
See also
- Janus FilmsJanus FilmsJanus Films is a film distribution company. It was one of the first distributors to bring what are now regarded as masterpieces of world cinema to the United States...
- Eclipse (DVD)Eclipse (DVD)Eclipse from the Criterion Collection is a brand for a line of DVD film series released by the Criterion Collection. It debuted on March 27, 2007....
- Masters of CinemaMasters of CinemaThe Masters of Cinema organization began as a website dedicated to the most well-regarded film directors in the world. Founded by a diverse international group of like-minded film enthusiasts: Jan Bielawski, a mathematician; Doug Cummings, a graphic artist and freelance critic; Trond Trondsen, a Ph.D...
- First Run FeaturesFirst Run FeaturesFirst Run Features is an independent film distribution company based in New York City. First Run was founded in 1979 by a group of filmmakers in order to advance the distribution of independent film...
- Kino International
- SuperbitSuperbitSuperbit was a brand of premium DVD-Video versions of motion pictures from Columbia TriStar Home Video, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Superbit DVDs aimed to improve picture quality over a standard DVD edition of a feature by increasing the bit rate of the encoded video...
External links
- The Criterion Collection official website
- The Current official Criterion Collection Blog
- The Criterion Collection on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- The Criterion Collection on TwitterTwitterTwitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
- The Criterion Collection Dungeon – a resource website
- Criterion Titles Available on Netflix "Watch Instantly": from TheAuteurs
- Listen to Makers of Criterion DVDs at NPR
- DVD Audio commentary Research Paper by Jon Waterman