complete Criterion collection

I've always considered having a full collection, but the amount of time and $$ for the OOP titles and the films I've never heard of always put me off. I do actively collect the LDs when I come across them. Currently, I have about 15-20 DVDs and 5 LDs including the CAV 2001, It's a Wonderful Life and CLV North by Northwest with the original mono.

My favorite Criterion is still the DVD edition of Notorious. I wish they had not lost this to MGM, as it still is superior overall to their transfer, despite that one getting a pretty HD release.

My most wished-for Criterion BDs are The IPCRESS File, The Killer, Hard Boiled and Technicolor versions of the initial Bonds.

This is what happened to me on The Third Man. I always meant to get the initial DVD, then got the 2 disc DVD when it was released only to discover this issue. Then the BD came and quickly went OOP so I'm still stuck with this.

 

I think Night of the Hunter is essential! Such a great film, the Criterion disc having restored it to it's proper aspect ratio and with all the insightful bonus material makes it an incredible set.

 

I think the only ones I physically own are Chasing Amy and Spinal Tap.

I just can't justify spending the type of money they want for their titles, especially since most movies I only watch once or twice every couple of years, if they're lucky.

I only buy titles I'll watch over and over again, and those are extremely rare.

 

I pick and choose...I do not follow the numbers.

 

Well, that was posted about a year and a half ago, and despite thinking about it several times, I've still not gone back and sold all the Criterions I have that are not on the above "must keep" list. Maybe I'll do it sometime. Many I doubt I'll watch again -- too many movies I haven't seen. The trouble is I just don't know which I'll never watch again.

 

I have 246 Criterions and 18 Eclipse sets. I just buy the ones I'm interested in and have no desire to collect all of the titles. They've really helped me to expand my tastes in film and if you catch them during sales the prices aren't all that bad.

I've found myself repurchasing a lot of titles I owned on DVD when they come out on BD as the quality is really that much better. This also allows me to pass along the DVDs to a friend of mine who is just about the only person I know who is willing to watch foreign or older films.

 

I have roughly 100 (give or take a dozen). They have actually been boxed up and in the basement for the past 3 years since I moved houses. I just brought them up out of storgage in order to track down Tokyo Olympiad to sell on eBay for some extra Christmas money. Ended up getting $100 for it! Sadly it is the only OOP one I have.

I've often contemplated selling them all, but whenever I do I remember that certain warm feeling I used to get when I would peruse them on the shelf. Say what you will, but that little number on the spine ignites a passion to collect in me that few other things do. That being said, I rarely watch dvds anymore and haven't purchased one for about 2 years.

If I were to sell them I would definitely keep my treasured Bergmans. Oh and the Antoine Doinel box. Of course I could never part with Brazil or 8 1/2. Jeez can't believe I forgot the Kieślowski, Wes Andersons and Cassavetes. Argh and never never could I sell Children of Paradise or....

 

I have a few that I never watch. Which ones are rare?

 

I forgot, I also have:

"The Royal Tenenbaums"
"Silence of The Lambs"

 

These are the DVDs that are OOP:
http://www.filmaf.com/search.html?pub=criterion&rel=o&rgn=us&med=d,v&init_form=str0_pub_criterion*str1_rel_o*rgn_us*med_d,v

(Keep in mind that some of the OOP titles have been re-issued in new editions over the years, so some of the titles are actually still available).

 

I have The Monterey Pop Festival 1967 set and Robinson Crusoe on Mars !

Criterion is a bit more costly than other DVD companies it seems. My Robinson was around $23 and the Monterey 3 disc set was around $40, onsale.

Would certainly like more as the online sellers have their Criterion sale.

 

Thanks!

 

I will never own them all, too expensive, but I am enjoying getting as many as I can.

 

Don't like a lot of the films so I will never have a complete collection but the ones I do have I love.

 

I really wanna see Salo on BluRay...

 

You don't like them or you haven't seen them?

 

Don't like them. Some I like but not enough to own. Only a handful I actually haven't seen but I do plan on checking those ones out.

 

462 now, and yes I'm buying blu now

 

Somewhere around 600 of the spine-numbered titles, and about 30 of the Eclipse sets.

 

I have all the blu's which currently is over 340 or so. And about 30 DVDs.

I have not watched many of them but I see the collection as a live and growing piece of digital media art similar to other paintings in my house.

I also wait for the 50% off sales at Barnes and noble and criterion.com twice a year. No reason to have a title right away if within a couple months it shows up on sale.

I treasure my collection but don't know if I will ever attempt to fill in the spine numbers with DVDs that probably won't get released on blu. Probably should pick up No 1 though one day.

 

I recommend that you hurry up and watch them.

I've got dozens of Criterion's standard DVDs in my collection, from back when I was trying to collect all the Criterion DVDs, that I still haven't watched after a decade of having them stored away. And now that I can watch many of the Criterion movies on Hulu Plus for $7.99 a month (in my opinion, the image quality is only slightly below DVD-quality), I have even less incentive to dig out those hundreds of old DVDs. I only have a couple of Criterion Blu-Ray discs; I couldn't bear to re-buy that entire collection again!

"You" (I'm referring to the universal "you" more than you specifically!) may think that Blu-Ray is future-proof, but imagine a future 5-15 years from now when you can subscribe to the complete Criterion catalog, streaming in "lossless" 4K video compression and high-res sound quality, over your Gigabit fiber optic Internet service, for say $20/month. You might look at your pile of 500+ Blu-Rays, still mostly unwatched, as a waste of thousands of dollars when you can immediately call up any Criterion title in super-high-resolution - as many as you can watch in a month, for less than the MSRP of a single Blu-Ray (which may or may not still be an industry-supported format by 2030, for example).

The only exceptions to the scenario I describe are titles that become unavailable when Criterion loses the license for them. In those cases you may be happy you own the Blu-Ray or DVD, if the movie is otherwise unavailable to stream online in high-resolution. But doesn't Criterion perpetually own the rights to most of the movies in their catalog (e.g., most everything introduced with the title "Janus Films")? Seems like only perhaps 10% of their titles have gone out of print over the years.

Craig.

 

To be fair, if Hulu goes away, and takes the ability to stream the Criterion collection with it, I might be eating my words!

 

Streaming in the future is not my concern as much as deterioration of the physical blurays. Has there been much study on the aging of a Blu-ray Disc?

 

31 titles, mixture of DVDs and Blu rays. Watching Disc 2 of It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World right now, in fact.

 

I have sold a few unfortunately but still have Paris Texas, Bigger Than Life, The Red Shoes, Charade, Badlands, 12 Angry Men, House, Rosemary's Baby, and The Blob.