Criterion give away (some of) their movies (for a month)!

The supergeniuses over at The Criterion Collection (with a little help from film forum The Auteurs) recently gave their website a complete overhaul, and in addition to an offering users the opportunity to watch some of their films online for five bucks (which will go towards the cost of the DVD if you decide you want to own it), they've had IFC Films sponsor a monthly online film festival, in which six Criterion films are available to watch online for ZERO DOLLARS!

This month, they've selected one film from each of the first six Eclipse series box sets, including an early work by Ingmar Bergman, a documentary by Louis Malle, a color feature by Yasujiro Ozu, and classics by Raymond Bernard and Samuel Fuller. Witness the awesomeness.

My Criterion Collection

I recently counted up all of the Criterion Collection movies I had the pleasure of viewing and found that I have seen over ninety of their titles. How well do you rank? (Titles are listed by Spine No.)

#1: Grand Illusion (dir. Jean Renoir)
#2: The Seven Samurai (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#11: The Seventh Seal (dir. Ingmar Bergman)
#12: This is Spinal Tap (dir. Rob Reiner)
#13: The Silence of the Lambs (dir. Jonathan Demme)
#24: High and Low (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#25: Alphaville (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
#26: The Long Good Friday (dir. John Mackenzie)
#29: Picnic at Hanging Rock (dir. Peter Weir)
#30: M (dir. Fritz Lang)
#33: Nanook of the North (dir. Robert Flaherty)
#39: Tokyo Drifter (dir. Seijun Suzuki)
#40: Armageddon (dir. Michael Bay)
#46: The Most Dangerous Game (dir. Ernest B. Schoedsack & Irving Pichel)
#48: Black Orpheus (dir. Marcel Camus)
#51: Brazil (dir. Terry Gilliam)
#52: Yojimbo (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#53: Sanjuro (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#56: The 39 Steps (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
#57: Charade (dir. Stanley Donen)
#61: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (dir. Terry Jones)
#64: The Third Man (dir. Carol Reed)
#65: Rushmore (dir. Wes Anderson)
#70: The Last Temptation of Christ (dir. Martin Scorsese)
#78: The Bank Dick (dir. Edward Cline)
#91: The Blob (dir. Irvin S. Yeaworth)
#97: Do the Right Thing (dir. Spike Lee)
#98: L’avventura (dir. Michelangelo Antonioni)
#100: Beastie Boys Video Anthology (dir. Various)
#102: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (dir. Luis Buñuel)
#103: The Lady Eve (dir. Preston Sturges)
#104: Double Suicide (dir. Masahiro Shinoda)
#105: Spartacus (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
#107: Mona Lisa (dir. Neil Jordan)
#110: M. Hulot’s Holiday (dir. Jacques Tati)
#111: Mon Oncle (dir. Jacques Tati)
#112: Playtime (dir. Jacques Tati)
#116: The Hidden Fortress (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#131: Closely Watched Trains (dir. Jirí Menzel)
#135: Rebecca (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
#137: Notorious (dir. Alfred Hitchcock)
#138: Rashomon (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#140: 8 ½ (dir. Federico Fellini)
#144: Loves of a Blonde (dir. Milos Forman)
#157: The Royal Tenenbaums (dir. Wes Anderson)
#164: Solaris (dir. Andrei Tarkovsky)
#166: Down By Law (dir. Jim Jarmusch)
#168: Monterey Pop (dir. D. A. Pennebaker)
#170: Trouble in Paradise (dir. Ernst Lubitsch)
#175: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (dir. Terry Gilliam)
#178: My Life as a Dog (dir. Lasse Hallström)
#190: Throne of Blood (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#217: Tokyo Story (dir. Yasujiro Ozu)
#219: La Strada (dir. Federico Fellini)
#220: Naked Lunch (dir. David Cronenberg)
#221: Ikiru (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#226: Onibaba (dir. Kaneto Shindo)
#230: 3 Women (dir. Robert Altman)
#233: Stray Dog (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#247: Slacker (dir. Richard Linklater)
#251: Shadows (dir. John Cassavetes)
#260: Eyes Without a Face (dir. Georges Franju)
#265: Short Cuts (dir. Robert Altman)
#268: Youth of the Beast (dir. Seijun Suzuki)
#280: The Sword of Doom (dir. Kihachi Okamoto)
#287: Burden of Dreams (dir. Les Frank)
#288: F for Fake (dir. Orson Welles)
#300: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (dir. Wes Anderson)
#302: Harakiri (dir. Masaki Kobayashi)
#307: Naked (dir. Mike Leigh)
#309: Ugetsu (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
#319: The Bad Sleep Well (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#322: The Complete Mr. Arkadin (dir. Orson Welles)
#336: Dazed and Confused (dir. Richard Linklater)
#349: Kicking and Screaming (dir. Noah Baumbach)
#352: Jigoku (dir. Nobuo Nakagawa)
#353: Sólo con tu Pareja (dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
#374: Bicycle Thieves (dir. Vittorio de Sica)
#377: When a Woman Ascends the Stairs (dir. Mikio Naruse)
#381: La Haine (dir. Mathieu Kassovitz)
#385: Army of Shadows (dir. Jean-Pierre Melville)
#386: Sansho the Bailiff (dir. Kenji Mizoguchi)
#387: La Jetée (dir. Chris Marker)
#391: If…. (dir. Lindsay Anderson)
#393: Pitfall (dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara)
#395: The Face of Another (dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara)
#396: Ace in the Hole (dir. Billy Wilder)
#399: House of Games (dir. David Mamet)
#400: Stranger Than Paradise (dir. Jim Jarmusch)
#408: Breathless (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
#413: Drunken Angel (dir. Akira Kurosawa)
#421: Pierrot le Fou (dir. Jean-Luc Godard)
#431: The Thief of Bagdad (dir. Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell & Tim Whelan)

Criterion Goes Blu-ray!

Diehard cinephiles, get ready to buy your favorite movies all over again: The Criterion Collection will start releasing Blu-ray versions of existing titles this October. According to a recent e-mail sent to newsletter subscribers, "These new editions will feature glorious high-definition picture and sound, all the supplemental content of the DVD releases, and they will be priced to match our standard-def editions." Here's a look at the list of films slated for high-def release:

The Third Man
Bottle Rocket
Chungking Express
The Man Who Fell to Earth
The Last Emperor
El Norte
The 400 Blows
Gimme Shelter
The Complete Monterey Pop
Contempt
Walkabout
For All Mankind
The Wages of Fear

If one or two of those titles seem new to you, it's because they probably are. Kar Wai Wong's Chungking Express, Gregory Nava's El Norte, and Wes Anderson's directorial debut, Bottle Rocket, will be receiving the Criterion treatment for the first time.

Tati's Trafic Set for July Release on Criterion

Jacques Tati is one of my favorite filmmakers of all time, with M. Hulot's Holiday, Mon Oncle, and Playtime being my three favorite films of his. So I am excited to announce that The Criterion Collection will be releasing Tati's last film, 1971's Trafic, on a beautiful new 2-disc DVD set this July. In addition to the 97-minute film, the set will also include a 2-hour documentary from 1969 entitled In the Footsteps of Monsieur Hulot, referring to the alter-ego that Tati has portrayed in nearly all of his films.

As usual, the cover art looks fantastic:



Now, I just hope Criterion will get around to releasing Tati's debut feature, Jour de Fete. Also on tap for July: a new 2-disc re-release of Kurosawa's modern crime drama High and Low.

Kubrick, Godard, and more finally get the DVDs they deserve!

2007 is slowly turning out to be the year to score some classic movies on new fully-loaded special edition DVDs. Here's just a sample:

• Warner Bros. Video has announced that they will be releasing a Director's Series: Stanley Kubrick Collection box set on 10/23. The set will include brand-new, two-disc, remastered special editions of 2001: A Space Odyssey (my constant pick for greatest movie of all-time), The Shining, A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Wide Shut and single-disc editions of Full Metal Jacket and the documentary Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures. The Shining has been restored to its original widescreen version, and Eyes Wide Shut will finally be released uncut. Documentaries and making-of featurettes abound. In addition, bare-bones but remastered versions of Lolita and Barry Lyndon will be available separately. (Source: DVDActive)
  
  
• The Criterion Collection has revamped their website, turning it into an online store where you can buy their über-awesome special edition DVDs directly from the source, at a discount price, no less! This October, they will release a new 2-disc edition of Jean-Luc Godard's landmark film Breathless, which will include video interviews with cast and crew, an 80-min. French documentary on the making of the film, and tons more. Other noteworthy releases include Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, a 2-disc re-release of Alfred Hitckcock's The Lady Vanishes (featuring audio from François Truffaut's famous interview with Hitchcock), and new movies by Criterion regulars Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman.
  
  
• If crazy TV is more your style, you'll be happy to know that David Lynch's groundbreaking series Twin Peaks will finally be available, pilot episode and all, in a new Gold Box Edition on 10/30.
  
  
• Pixar will finally release all of their beloved (and often award-winning) short films in one collection, Pixar Short Films Collection Volume 1, on 11/6, which will include every single short film since 1984's The Adventures of André and Wally B. (Also, Ratatouille will be out the same day.)
  
  
• And, of course, unless you've been avoiding the Internet for the last year or so, you probably already know about the 5-disc Ultimate Edition of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, which will include the highly-anticipated "Final Cut" of the movie, with new scenes, effects, and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound, as well as three other versions of the film (theatrical and international versions, as well as the first director's cut), a three-hour documentary, and the never-before-seen "workprint version" of the film. Fortunately, if you don't have the greenbacks for the 5-disc edition (which comes in a f**king suitcase!), there are tons of other versions available to purchase, from a 2-disc edition that just features the final cut and the documentary, to a 4-disc edition that includes everything but the workprint.