Why Won't They Release Only What I Want?

[TMDaines]

I only have two non US releases, Cleopatra and Obsession which are both region-free from the UK.

Judging from your description then, you're not someone who puts the films themselves first, but rather you're a Criterion collector, so it really wouldn't matter what they release, as you'd buy it anyway?

I'm personally the complete opposite. If I stumble upon a film I'd like to watch, I'll go about finding the best way to watch it, whether that be a Criterion Blu-ray, an Italian DVD or a 1989 German TV recording that is being shared online. Occasionally, the lure of Blu-ray will pull me in a certain direction and get me watching a film that I probably wouldn't buy otherwise. 98% of the time though, it's the film, regardless of the format.

I always find it strange when people, who visit a forum like this, don't import or are not region-free. I find it really hard to believe that you're truly into cinema that much, if, once you're aware of importing, you don't show any interest in all the treasures out there. Surely, there's dozens, even hundreds of films you're love to watch, but are you not going to watch them because there isn't a US DVD release? Strikes me as strange.

---

By the way, judging by people's comments here, it seems that most people's university libraries don't import stuff from outside the US. Is that really the case? Both our language resource centre and the main university library have a large amount of imports. Why do DVDs need to be region free for students, the majority of whom will be watching them on a PC?

[Cremildo]

I only have two non US releases, Cleopatra and Obsession which are both region-free from the UK.

Judging from your description then, you're not someone who puts the films themselves first, but rather you're a Criterion collector, so it really wouldn't matter what they release, as you'd buy it anyway?

I'm personally the complete opposite. If I stumble upon a film I'd like to watch, I'll go about finding the best way to watch it, whether that be a Criterion Blu-ray, an Italian DVD or a 1989 German TV recording that is being shared online. Occasionally, the lure of Blu-ray will pull me in a certain direction and get me watching a film that I probably wouldn't buy otherwise. 98% of the time though, it's the film, regardless of the format.

I always find it strange when people, who visit a forum like this, don't import or are not region-free. I find it really hard to believe that you're truly into cinema that much, if, once you're aware of importing, you don't show any interest in all the treasures out there. Surely, there's dozens, even hundreds of films you're love to watch, but are you not going to watch them because there isn't a US DVD release? Strikes me as strange.

I agree 100%.

Some people just seem to cherish more a label (they're collectors) than the movie (not really cinephiles).

What matters more is the cover art, the label, the bonus materials etc., even at the expense of availability! Baffling.

I went region-free two years ago. It is hardly as expensive as detractors say - that is, unless you're not willing to make a small sacrifice here and there.

[Drucker]

I appreciate what you're saying Daines, but I'd also assume that a bunch of dorks who spend time talking film on the internet don't have unlimited time or funds in terms of resources. I appreciate the rules Moe for example has put on themselves because as Black Hat put it, some rules to guide your self-control are necessary so you don't go broke and spend your money most wisely!

For me, I try earnestly to only buy blu rays. I still consider my film love in its earliest stages (3 years in earnest at this point). There are enough high quality blu rays on my want list, that I feel it's smarter to buy those first and just hope other films on my want list (non-Rififi Dassins for example) will eventually get to blu ray. I held off on actually buying my own copies of the 70s Herzog films, in anticipation that they just had to go blu, and sure enough, I'm glad I'm waiting and am only buying the films once.

I guess in conclusion, just because someone isn't inclined to go region-free doesn't mean they aren't as serious about you as film. Everyone's got their own priorities. Quite frankly, I'm at the point I'm happy to pay the extra 30 dollars to get a DVD immediately at Barnes and Noble every time I get a coupon, because I just want to go home with it from work and I know it won't be messed up in the mail. I know I could get it cheaper online, but that's not the most important thing to me.

[swo17]

I am region-free and can attest that it is extraordinarily expensive.

[TMDaines]

I understand what you mean, Drucker. I'm not speaking arrogantly from a position of wealth. I'm an average student, but I do spend a lot of my disposable income on film (and will cut down).

However, it's just so easy and cheap to be region-free (for DVD at least) that I can never understand why people aren't. If you have a fairly recent laptop, especially one with an HDMI port, that will work great as region-free DVD player.

The things is that once you go region-free, you'll never look back. Once you start discovering fansubs online, you'll wonder why you didn't do sooner. You're restricting yourself so much by only having the choice in your own region, especially if you're really into European cinema. Being in the EU, we're quite fortunate to have the single market and so importing, for the most part, is so hassle-free.

[Moe Dickstein]

I think one can be both a collector and a cinephile, I'd consider myself both, but my tastes do tend more to the mainstream than the median here I would suspect.

Not that this is in and of itself indicative of anything, but in addition to my day-job as an assistant to two film directors, I am a film director myself. I'm preparing my second feature to direct at the end of the year, writing another one, graduated film school a few years back and have made many shorts and music videos along the way, I've been a Criterion fan since I was in my teens and the first laserdisc I got was the CC of Ghostbusters, and I learned how we could finally see all four of them on screen at once with those black bars, and that there were "deleted scenes" and commentaries etc. Criterion is a big reason why I became a filmmaker, and a massive part of my film education going back to the mid-90s. I used to dream that someday I could have "all" of them, and now I'm making that happen.

So I would consider myself a cinephile, but I don't know your terms so perhaps I'm not. I do own a whole lot of non-CC films as well but most of the things I personally have wanted to acquire I didn't have to go out of Region 1/A to get. There were two DVD's I did get in R4 - Death Becomes Her (not WS in R1) and Eyes Wide Shut (Uncensored not then available in R1). Had a region free DVD player years ago, but when it died I didn't replace it with another, so count me as one who was region free and didn't really care enough about it and I did go back...

edit: also, as Captveg notes, PAL speedup is impossible to listen to (admittedly not an issue on Blu)

[domino harvey]

Look, I think we trust the cinema bonafides of Joe Piscopo

[Moe Dickstein]

*claps* Domino, you're the first one that ever pegged where that name came from You can't go too wrong with DePalma...

[captveg]

Out of curiosity, why would anyone who posts on this forum NOT be region free? It's not like it's a luxury; I purchased two region free blu ray players for about a hundred dollars each and now import MoCs and BFIs and Arrows and AEs and StudioCanals to my hearts content. For any serious fan of film (which assumedly everyone on this forum is,) what is the reservation?

My reservation is I like having just my PS3 do everything, plus there are plenty of US releases I want that I haven't picked up so there's no rush.

I also dislike PAL speedup.

[matrixschmatrix]

I agree 100%.

Some people just seem to cherish more a label (they're collectors) than the movie (not really cinephiles).

What matters more is the cover art, the label, the bonus materials etc., even at the expense of availability! Baffling.

I went region-free two years ago. It is hardly as expensive as detractors say - that is, unless you're not willing to make a small sacrifice here and there.

So wait, bonus materials- where people talk about movies and show you how movies are made and sometimes have shorts and so forth- are not part of loving movies? I mean, I agree that favoring brand over all other considerations isn't necessarily a good idea, but literally nobody anywhere can watch all of the good releases that exist, and one must therefore have some method for deciding what's going to get seen- for some, that's a brand, while for others, it's Roger Ebert's Great Movies lists, and for others it's directors or national cinemas or whatever else, but I don't see where having one method for picking things out is somehow morally or artistically superior to others. I imagine that it would be possible to spend all your life watching amazing movies without ever leaving R1 English language releases- and while I would find that frustrating, I'm not going to assume that someone else is a philistine because of it. I went region free because I love commentaries, and I didn't want to miss out on the ones released outside the US- but I can imagine that for others, there wouldn't necessarily be such a specific push to take the leap.

It also seems as though importing as a practice is much more firmly established in Europe and the UK, and I'm not sure that assumptions about how easy it is or how many people do it carry over from there to the US. Even for something like the Alien blu ray set, where it was far cheaper and region free in the UK, a lot of people here simply don't realize you can just buy things normally from other Amazon sites.

[Black Hat]

I am region-free and can attest that it is extraordinarily expensive.

Do you mean from a price point standpoint or a doubling your intake point of view? I've found to my surprise that a lot of the time dvd/blurays are actually cheaper abroad than here. The problem I'm having is because there's so much more now available to me my spending has greatly increased.

[swo17]

The more you buy the more you realize you have not bought.

[knives]

The more you buy the more you realize you have not bought.

I have this same philosophy with coke.

[triodelover]

I have this same philosophy with coke.

The soft dink or the nose candy?

[knives]

The Mexican soft drink which I use as nose candy.

[zedz]

I am region-free and can attest that it is extraordinarily expensive.

On the other hand, you're probably keeping the economies of several European nations afloat, so there might be a medal or honour in it for you one day.

[Lowry_Sam]

I am region-free and can attest that it is extraordinarily expensive.

I thought I was region-bound (blu-ray, I have an Oppo dvd player that's been liberated), but after reading an online home theater forum I discovered the Panasonic workaround & am much poorer as a result.

Speaking of poverty & Fassbinder, at least there's one new Criterion/Eclipse release that I won't have to buy, as I already own all the Wellspring titles (always look on the bright side of irrelevant releases). I hope this means that Criterion is putting time & effort into proper restoration of Fassbinder titles (a complete Querelle?) & just throwing out a bone for the time being.

[Black Hat]

It's a drug.

Seriously! For now I've limited myself to the Amazons and a couple of the British companies but reading about the stuff some of you are buying from all over the place, especially the Czech Republic, is causing great inner conflict that's making my conscience cringe without even having spent a dime. Yet.

The more you buy the more you realize you have not bought.

I have this same philosophy with coke.

And the women who came and left with it!

[HistoryProf]

I was under the impression that most of the world's home video consumers aren't region free. Seems a bit silly to me to whine when you're clearly the minority customer but what do I know.

Bingo. I get incredibly tired of bitching about "but this is already available in france!" when something is announced. Personally I am ecstatic about the Fassbinder Eclipse...bummer they aren't blu, but it's still the gem of the month because I live in the US and do not have a region free player and have no intention of buying one. Criticizing an American company for releasing films in America that aren't currently available in America is just ludicrous.

Also very excited about To Be or Not to Be and Seconds....and intrigued by the Rays. the latter is a big whole in my personal experience, so I am anxious to see them. That said, I am incredibly annoyed with yet another tease about Picnic at Hanging Rock only to have a single upgrade this month and have it be something from the 400s. It's really starting to piss me off.

[HistoryProf]

Out of curiosity, why would anyone who posts on this forum NOT be region free? It's not like it's a luxury; I purchased two region free blu ray players for about a hundred dollars each and now import MoCs and BFIs and Arrows and AEs and StudioCanals to my hearts content. For any serious fan of film (which assumedly everyone on this forum is,) what is the reservation?

for me there are already HUNDREDS of R1 releases that I can't afford to buy. I'm not about to open myself to a global marketplace and multiply that ten fold. I'm happy to pick from what does come out in the US and the occasional region-free foreign release and wait and see what happens in the future for stuff I'm interested in or, more often, don't yet know even exists. I am on a tight budget and I can't even buy every Criterion release I want...if I were to add MOC, BFI, and the dozens of other labels from abroad i'd go insane trying to choose.

I'm also a little OCD and I like the uniformity of R1 titles on my shelves. the non R1 stuff I have, while minimal, sticks out like a sore thumb. With a kevyip over 200 right now I don't think I need to worry about making it easier to buy more movies.

[HistoryProf]

I always find it strange when people, who visit a forum like this, don't import or are not region-free. I find it really hard to believe that you're truly into cinema that much, if, once you're aware of importing, you don't show any interest in all the treasures out there. Surely, there's dozens, even hundreds of films you're love to watch, but are you not going to watch them because there isn't a US DVD release? Strikes me as strange.

who says I'm not going to watch them? you could make days 36 hours long and I still wouldn't have enough time to watch everything I want to in R1. the point is i'm willing to wait to see what's not in R1 until it IS in R1.

It also makes it a little more exciting when something like the Fassbinder Eclipse comes along, because I don't sit around and bitch about how there's already the Arrow set so it's totally pointless. Instead *I* get to be excited about it and look forward to its release so I can buy it. Frankly, I don't see the allure of opening yourself to being able to get anything you want whenever you want. Strikes me as strange.

However, it's just so easy and cheap to be region-free (for DVD at least) that I can never understand why people aren't. If you have a fairly recent laptop, especially one with an HDMI port, that will work great as region-free DVD player.

And therein lies the rub. I can count on two hands the number of DVDs i've purchased in the last year. maybe even 18 months. At this point it's all blu all the time with few exceptions - Eclipse sets and other box sets being the primary ones. For me going HD was far more important than Region free. And There is so much stuff coming out on blu ray that I can't afford to buy as it is that I can't even imagine the frustration I would endure knowing how many other blu rays were available to me via Europe and Asia.

And again, I've found that i LIKE the excitement of something finally getting an upgrade here. I honestly don't care if X title(s) have been already released in France in loaded blu rays before being announced here. I'm excited that they are now being released here so that I can buy them and that hopefully others will too.

I really think this forum and others like it vastly over-estimate the numbers of people who are truly region free and shop globally. I own almost 1,100 films...which is patently ridiculous in a lot of ways. Yet I have a wishlist that would put that instantly over 1,500 if I were able to buy everything on it tomorrow. And in two years that list would be back up over 100 or more. Is Riffifi available on blu ray somewhere? Don't know...don't care. However, when it's finally upgraded HERE, i'm going to be giddy with anticipation. And i'm willing to wait for that moment.

But then i'm also the guy that can sit around on xmas morning and watch everyone else open their presents and have to be forced to open mine when everyone else is done. Anticipation is part of the fun with this hobby. upcoming examples include Marketa Lazarová, Medium Cool, Babette’s Feast, and now To Be or Not to Be. Two of those are blind buys - but i'm more excited for them than Medium Cool and the Lubitsch. I save money to be able to spend $250+ at the B&N sale twice a year, and otherwise try to pick up a release here and there when coupons and sales allow. I had my Criterion blu ray wishlist down to single digits in December...with the latest announcement it's back up to 30. Why on earth would I want to complicate my life so much by quadrupling that with overseas labels? I'm a patient man. I like knowing 10 years from now i'll get to discover yet another amazing when it's finally released in R1.

[Tommaso]

It's not about buying everything you want at once. That would be impossible not just from a financial point-of-view, but also because of the limited time available for watching (and the kevyip of course looks frightening already). But I simply wouldn't want my options to be dictated by what companies from the country I happen to live in by chance choose to release or not. Compare this to books: you can get basically everything, and even totally obscure books, ever released in the 20th century from libraries, even though you perhaps have to make an inter-library loan. But they're available if for whatever reason you want to read them. Why shouldn't the same go for films? Of course even with buying globally you won't be able to get many films because simply nobody has ever bothered to release them anywhere, but at least it's a first step. The backchannels and fansubs are the next.

[Black Hat]

But I simply wouldn't want my options to be dictated by what companies from the country I happen to live in by chance choose to release or not.

Want & reality often have no relationship to one another.

[Tommaso]

Which is why more and more people begin to take things in their own hands.

[MichaelB]

I don't think that's true at all. Many people especially in America are region locked whether they are a big cinephile or not. I know many Fassbinder fans who have no interest importing for example.

I was region-locked on Blu-ray for over three years, and bought my first Criterion BD in late 2011. I daresay quite a few of us are still region-locked to this day.