Criterion Blu-ray titles! (1 Viewer)

[titch]

A few days ago I re-watched the Criterion Blu Ray of DAYS OF HEAVEN, largely due to Linda Manz's recent death. It looked OK but I think they need to do an upgrade on it. I wonder what the chances are of that or if it would be possible for a UHD of it. Any thoughts?

Chances are slim, unfortunately. Never say never, of course, but there are quite a few titles in the the collection with ageing or poor masters - especially first 200 releases, before 2013. These were done before 4k remastered scans started to become the benchmark. Some of Criterion's older titles now have had better equivalents released in other regions or companies. The only time Criterion seems to upgrade their masters these days, is if they issue a large box set, containing previously issued titles (The Seventh Seal, the upcoming Fellinis and the rumoured upcoming Wong Kar Wai box set).

I have a list of titles I wish they would revise: Children Of Paradise, Earrings Of Madam de..., Ride With The Devil, The Third Man, Don't Look Now, Walkabout, Throne Of Blood, Ikuru, M, Harold and Maude, Charade, The Last Emperor, Insomnia, Red Desert, Man Who Fell To Earth, Last Year At Marianbad, Three Colors Blue, to name a few.

But it seems a bit churlish to complain - there aren't many titles from the more than 1000 films that look truly terrible, even when projected onto a large screen. Criterion raised the bar, really. They started making it acceptable to have visible film grain in a picture. There were vast quantities of more terrible transfers released by other companies from 2007 - 2013. I estimate that I have replaced more than 500 films from my 5000 strong blu ray collection with upgraded transfers since 2007!

 

[titch]

I have purchased every single Criterion title since their DVD days (spine #1, etc.). When they switched to BDs, so did I and continued buying their releases. When they upgraded their DVDs to BDs, so did I. I'm waiting for the next Criterion flash sale or B&N 50% off sale to update my collection.
But yes, I even have the recalled issues, such as spine #1 recalled by Toho and reissued with the same UPC number but without the offending content. That's The Seven Samurai DVD. I have both copies. I also have the recalled copies of Eraserhead and Dressed to Kill. I do try to be thorough.
It's called an Obsession with Criterion.

Wow! I'm glad I'm not the only one out there. And I'm very curious as to how you arrange them on your shelves!

 

[darkrock17]

Chances are slim, unfortunately. Never say never, of course, but there are quite a few titles in the the collection with ageing or poor masters - especially first 200 releases, before 2013. These were done before 4k remastered scans started to become the benchmark. Some of Criterion's older titles now have had better equivalents released in other regions or companies. The only time Criterion seems to upgrade their masters these days, is if they issue a large box set, containing previously issued titles (The Seventh Seal, the upcoming Fellinis and the rumoured upcoming Wong Kar Wai box set).

I have a list of titles I wish they would revise: Children Of Paradise, Earrings Of Madam de..., Ride With The Devil, The Third Man, Don't Look Now, Walkabout, Throne Of Blood, Ikuru, M, Harold and Maude, Charade, The Last Emperor, Insomnia, Red Desert, Man Who Fell To Earth, Last Year At Marianbad, Three Colors Blue, to name a few.

But it seems a bit churlish to complain - there aren't many titles from the more than 1000 films that look truly terrible, even when projected onto a large screen. Criterion raised the bar, really. They started making it acceptable to have visible film grain in a picture. There were vast quantities of more terrible transfers released by other companies from 2007 - 2013. I estimate that I have replaced more than 500 films from my 5000 strong blu ray collection with upgraded transfers since 2007!

I'd love for Criterion to revisit Charade, it's one of my favorite Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant films.

If they were to revisit it I would like for them to add some new features, as I'm sure that they're people out there that could be interviewed and talk about this film. Also I'm sue there's some archive stuff in Universals vaults that Criterion could have a browse around and see what they can find.

 

[Jim*Tod]

I agree the Criterion collection has always been the go to company for the highest quality. And I have really enjoyed the Criterion Channel with its wide range of selections.

 

[TravisR]

Wow! I'm glad I'm not the only one out there. And I'm very curious as to how you arrange them on your shelves!

It'd probably drive me crazy when I was trying to find a movie but if I had all the Criterion discs, I'd arrange them all in spine number order just to see them all laid out in order.

 

[skylark68]

Amazing collection. I think I'd really have to just do alphabetical with the full collection otherwise I'd go crazy trying to find a particular movie. haha

 

[ScottHM]

I have decided to group all films, excepting the Criterion Collection, by genre (comedy, cartoon, documentary, drama, horror, black & white, non-english speaking etc),

This seems to me like one of the most difficult ways to organize a collection, since so many films fall into multiple categories.

This works remarkably well for me - I can usually find a particular film within a minute.

But regardless of what I think, this is what counts.

---------------

 

[bujaki]

Wow! I'm glad I'm not the only one out there. And I'm very curious as to how you arrange them on your shelves!

I used to have a Criterion wall arranged by spine number. Alas, that was years ago and now my disc collection has grown to upwards of 19,000 and I can't keep it organized in any way. Discs are stashed wherever there is an available corner in my house. Sometimes my mental file will help me find some disc; other times I'll search in vain. My wife sometimes moves things about and there goes my mental file!

 

[Mike Frezon]

Mike - you touched a raw nerve! I've been thinking of starting a thread for a while about how best to curate the Criterion Collection. I have about 5000 blu-rays and 4K discs and I have decided to group all films, excepting the Criterion Collection, by genre (comedy, cartoon, documentary, drama, horror, black & white, non-english speaking etc), with separate shelves for some favourite directors (Scorsese, Coen brothers, Spielberg, Hitchcock, Welles, etc). This works remarkably well for me - I can usually find a particular film within a minute.

But the Criterion Collection stands on its own. Sorting by spine number is useless, of course. I have grouped the French, Italian, Scandinavian and Japanese films in the collection together and I also try to put films by the same director together. But it is getting out of hand. I recently accidentally purchased The Story Of Temple Drake twice, because I confused it with Dance, Girl Dance! I used to have all my laserdiscs sorted alphabetically, but I only had around 1500 of those. Also, I usually find a film to watch, based on my mood, or whoever is coming round.

There are some pretty organised and methodical folks here - I'd be very interested to hear how you organise the Criterion Collection!

I kinda thought that's what it looked like...but it was hard to be certain.

I also just have my Criterions organized alphabetically in with the rest of my discs.

I LOVE hearing about how others have their disc collections organized--which is why I took such a close look at that picture you posted!! .

 

[Ed Lachmann]

I guess that Kino/Lorber are my "new" Criterions and these are the ones I've so many of I should probably arrange them in some special way as well. It wasn't always this way.

 

[Jeffrey D]

I have my Criterion BluRays on a separate shelf, in Alphabetical order. My big collector sets- same thing. All my other discs are just in Alphabetical order, no matter the studio.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I guess that Kino/Lorber are my "new" Criterions and these are the ones I've so many of I should probably arrange them in some special way as well. It wasn't always this way.

Not when it comes to Product Quality as Kino is nowhere near Criterion in that department. Sure, they have tremendous monthly output that might fit your taste in movies, but their video and audio presentations are mostly good or mediocre at best. No offense to Kino, but their business model is quite different than Criterion's.

 

[titch]

I have my Criterion BluRays on a separate shelf, in Alphabetical order. My big collector sets- same thing. All my other discs are just in Alphabetical order, no matter the studio.

If one has them sorted alphabetically, I would think that one then has to have a pretty good idea in advance what to select. I have my 5000+ music collection sorted more or less alphabetically (with the SACD, blu-ray audio and DVD-A separated), instead of by genre. Every time I go to pick an album, it's almost always completely random. However, I find that films seem to crave a particular mood or genre - notice that all the streaming companies sort their collections by genre.

Would have to ask the person with probably the largest collection on this forum - Robert Crawford: how do you sort your enormous collection? I know even you get lost sometimes!

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

If one has them sorted alphabetically, I would think that one then has to have a pretty good idea in advance what to select. I have my 5000+ music collection sorted more or less alphabetically (with the SACD, blu-ray audio and DVD-A separated), instead of by genre. Every time I go to pick an album, it's almost always completely random. However, I find that films seem to crave a particular mood or genre - notice that all the streaming companies sort their collections by genre.

Would have to ask the person with probably the largest collection on this forum - Robert Crawford: how do you sort your enormous collection? I know even you get lost sometimes!

Regardless of how our more "modest" (2K-plus BD/4K discs) collection is (not very well) stored and sorted, hehheh, I've been having my wife pick movies from our DVD Profiler DB instead these days... and then, I go hunting for whichever she picks -- she's mostly been sorting her view of the DB (on her phone) to prioritize more recent purchases so we could go thru our backlog.

And since we started buying some on digital a few months ago, I've also added those to our DB... though the family usually just go straight to the Vudu streaming app first in that case (and they rarely bother w/ the growing list I've added exclusively on iTunes side) -- actually, our kids (teen and beyond) tend to go that route first before considering discs, and I sometimes do as well (adding the Criterion Channel, etc to the mix)... Haven't really reduced my disc purchases much, if at all, so far despite adding digital to my collection, but then, I'm not in the same league as some/many of y'all, hehheh...

For those wanting to sort their Criterion titles by spine/catalog number, maybe consider using something like DVD Profiler to manage that. You could try using the Criterion number as the catalog number in DVD Profiler to make it easier to index and then look up (much like how real, publicly accessible libraries do it) -- if you use iOS devices, you can use their app for quick look up, but even just mobile browser could do. Would probably want to make sure the numbers aren't duplicated or mixed w/ non-Criterion ones, but that can be done w/ a little care -- I don't do that specifically for Criterion titles, but I do separate my (alphabetically ordered) numbering based on format, ie. 1-1000 for 4K, 1001-10000 for BD, 10001-100000 for DVD, 100001+ for digital (though I only bother to add to the DB digitals that exceed the quality of discs I may also already/still own).

_Man_

 

[Derrick King]

News from reddit, about 13 minutes into the Spinal Tap episode of the Cox & Kjølseth podcast, Alex Cox mentions he is doing something for Criterion's upcoming Parallax View release

 

[Angelo Colombus]

News from reddit, about 13 minutes into the Spinal Tap episode of the Cox & Kjølseth podcast, Alex Cox mentions he is doing something for Criterion's upcoming Parallax View release

For some reason i still have the receipt for the dvd purchase i made in 1999 for $30. I am certain i will pay less when Criterion releases it.

 

[battlebeast]

Most of mine are arranged by year they were nominated for best picture, and then alphabetically. Best actor, actress, sup actor, then Sup actress. For all others, they are alphabetical, except Disney Animated classics, they go by year (Snow White to Ralph 2)

 

[usrunnr]

I have Criterion's "Seven Samuraii" and it is spine number 2. What is spine number 1???

 

[Derrick King]

Grand Illusion was spine 1.

 

[Worth]

Grand Illusion was spine 1.

But Criterion never released it on blu-ray.