Criterion Discussion and Random Speculation Volume 7

[Drucker]

Ah I didn't realize that. This is a bummer, for me, who may be the last person on this board not to be 4k yet? It may indeed finally be time.

[domino harvey]

I’m not and will never be, so you’ll never be the last

[dadaistnun]

I'm not either. I'll buy the dual format if the price difference isn't too great in an effort at future-proofing, but lack of dual format doesn't keep me from picking up the blu-only versions of titles I love (or even those I don't -- Wild at Heart isn't anywhere close to my favorite Lynch).

[swo17]

Just announced: a UHD-only Complete Michel Deville box

[Lowry_Sam]

The Rebel Samurai box isn’t listed on the site anymore but the films still are… potential upgrade or standalone releases?

I'm hoping it means we're getting a Kobayashi (60s?) box (Radical Japan?) eventually. BAMPFA has a Kobayashi series coming this fall. Unfortunately Kwadan is the only one with a 4k restoration.

[starmanof51]

I’m not and will never be, so you’ll never be the last

I haven’t either. Can’t say I never will, but it doesn’t interest me at all. The only release that’s been a problem is that 4k only Amadeus. Worried they might do the same with The Devils

[Adam X]

Me neither. Though I will eventually, there’s been more than enough favourite films that’ve finally gotten a proper restoration only for them to be UHD-exclusive to justify at least buying a player. Hadn’t even noticed Wild at Heart wasn’t dual format.

The (relatively) uncut version of The Devils, on the other hand, feels like it’ll even get a DVD release somewhere given its unavailability til now.

[zedz]

The Rebel Samurai box isn’t listed on the site anymore but the films still are… potential upgrade or standalone releases?

It’s a very very very long time ago, but wasn’t this a ‘gift set’ rather than a box set, in the old sense. i.e. a slip case enclosing three (four?) individual releases. The only difference was that it was released simultaneously with the individual releases, in which case they’d always have had individual listings.

[therewillbeblus]

Yes, like the Classic Hitchcock four-film blu ray set, which is unbelievably going for insane prices on Amazon and eBay despite all four releases still being in print and there being no additional extras inherent to the box, other than… the box itself

[FrauBlucher]

I too am not and will not be at this point in my life. But I am very much happy for the format's emergence as it has breathed life into physical media

[Matt]

wasn’t this a ‘gift set’ rather than a box set, in the old sense. i.e. a slip case enclosing three (four?) individual releases

You're correct. I think I misremembered it as a box set because of the matching covers.

[zedz]

wasn’t this a ‘gift set’ rather than a box set, in the old sense. i.e. a slip case enclosing three (four?) individual releases

You're correct. I think I misremembered it as a box set because of the matching covers.

I double checked, and the giveaway is that the box itself does not have a spine number. It's a five-sided thin cardboard slip case with the opening at the bottom. Careful, now!

[malachi_lui]

I'm probably biased as a younger collector who hasn't had to upgrade my entire collection several times over, but I have no problem with the shift to UHD-only packages. The format has been around for 10 years and Criterion's been releasing an increasing amount of titles on it for the last five, which to these companies probably seems like plenty of time to get people switched over. These are premium specialty products in the first place, and of course they'd want to get people to start (re)buying in the best format, and also not have to include extra discs for the undecided. For what it's worth, when I started collecting I had a 4K player but not a 4K TV.

However, I sympathise with those who have gone from Laserdisc to DVD to Blu and are now being asked to jump to 4K, and all the rebuying that comes with that. I'm lucky to be fairly new to this, so I can be patient and not buy something on Blu if it's likely to be upgraded to 4K. So far, there haven't been that many titles I have on Blu that I love enough to upgrade to 4K: I upgraded A One And A Two and plan to upgrade Safe, and going from the Fortune Star upscale Blu of The Killer to the Arrow 4K was a massive improvement. But there are plenty of films that I don't like enough to upgrade, or the older Blu is already so great that I can't imagine the 4K being a justifiable improvement given the cost (I watched the old Blu of Taxi Driver the other night and it's basically perfect as is). And I say this as a 4K fan, though the benefit isn't HDR so much as it's 10bit colour and the superior compression of the HEVC codec.

So as a 4K buyer, having the film on 4K and Blu in a combo pack is really only worthwhile for comparing the two formats to see the upgrade, especially if the Blu is an older master. But I think they're yet to figure out how the market actually works on this: are 4K combo pack buyers getting it to watch the 4K or are they watching the Blu and futureproofing? I guess we'll find out as they do more of these 4K-only releases and analyse the market divide between formats. Arrow has already been doing 4K and Blu as separate single-format releases for a while now, but Criterion has a much bigger reach, and there are still people on the subreddit who don't seem to fully know the difference between DVD and Blu-ray.

[Zot!]

However, I sympathise with those who have gone from Laserdisc to DVD to Blu and are now being asked to jump to 4K, and all the rebuying that comes with that.

Well, that is me, but to be honest I think the quality of what we are getting today is so far beyond what we had on Laserdisc and DVD that I am happy to have taken the ride. In the meantime I got to watch a lot of great movies and not just count pixels. Although I have recently dipped a toe into the 4K format, I have to agree that we might have reached the perfect combination of affordability, quality, reliability and availability with regular Blu-Ray. It is basically a perfect format for most home video applications other than the idiotic region restrictions. I don't even know why I am buying 4Ks, but maybe its because it limits my must-buys even more and I can cherry pick my favorites rather than building an exhaustive library.

[jedgeco]

However, I sympathise with those who have gone from Laserdisc to DVD to Blu and are now being asked to jump to 4K, and all the rebuying that comes with that.

Well, that is me, but to be honest I think the quality of what we are getting today is so far beyond what we had on Laserdisc and DVD that I am happy to have taken the ride.

If I upgrade Silence of the Lambs, I will have it on all four Criterion formats.

[redbill]

If I upgrade Silence of the Lambs, I will have it on all four Criterion formats.

Some of the earlier DVD releases you may have even have the "pleasure" of upgrading non-anamorphic DVD to anamorphic DVD. Brazil for sure had this.

[Jean-Luc Garbo]

So as a 4K buyer, having the film on 4K and Blu in a combo pack is really only worthwhile for comparing the two formats to see the upgrade, especially if the Blu is an older master.

This is a big reason why I hold off on upgrading to most Criterion 4k. I really don't need another blu with the older master.

[Big Ben]

I have found it beneficial to skip a generation unless I really like the film. Unless you're compulsively watching Breathless I don't really see the point to upgrade everything.

[rrenault]

However, I sympathise with those who have gone from Laserdisc to DVD to Blu and are now being asked to jump to 4K, and all the rebuying that comes with that.

Well, that is me, but to be honest I think the quality of what we are getting today is so far beyond what we had on Laserdisc and DVD that I am happy to have taken the ride. In the meantime I got to watch a lot of great movies and not just count pixels. Although I have recently dipped a toe into the 4K format, I have to agree that we might have reached the perfect combination of affordability, quality, reliability and availability with regular Blu-Ray. It is basically a perfect format for most home video applications other than the idiotic region restrictions. I don't even know why I am buying 4Ks, but maybe its because it limits my must-buys even more and I can cherry pick my favorites rather than building an exhaustive library.

Well I'll say I was a bit more permissive in terms of which titles I bought on UHD when I first dipped my toes into the format 4-5 years ago, since I mistakenly presumed only a manageable number of titles of interest to me would ever make it to the format anyway.

Boy was I wrong, and now the floodgates have really opened, forcing one to pick and choose. Something like Bela Tarr's Damnation making it to 4K initially seemed unfathomable to me.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Looking through my own collection I'm surprised by how few titles I've re-bought. I have a few Criterions on two formats (usually LD + DVD or LD + BD), but even counting releases from different distributors, the only movies I have on three formats are 2001 (Criterion LD + WB DVD + WB BD), Breaking the Waves (Criterion LD + Artisan DVD + Curzon BD), and Hard Boiled (Criterion LD + Criterion DVD + Arrow UHD), of which only 2001 is actually among my favorite films. I still have some movies on laserdisc I've never gotten around to, so if I haven't felt compelled to watch those yet, I probably shouldn't be re-buying them on BD or UHD.

Some of the earlier DVD releases you may have even have the "pleasure" of upgrading non-anamorphic DVD to anamorphic DVD. Brazil for sure had this.

For Brazil they were at least nice enough to do a single-disc release of the anamorphic DVD, so owners of the original release didn't have to repurchase the entire three-disc box... but the single-disc release used the then-new wacky-C design, so it didn't match the other two discs! This despite the fact that the anamorphic reissue of the three-disc edition kept the original design, I guess because Criterion didn't want to re-design the entire set around the wacky-C scheme.

If I upgrade Silence of the Lambs, I will have it on all four Criterion formats.

This is very pedantic, but the The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, and The Third Man actually got Criterion VHS releases, twice: the first time in oversized cardboard gatefolds with the gray design template from the first LDs, the second in smaller plastic clamshells using the later black design. The first editions had the LD spine numbers (3–5) but the second editions dropped them. None of those films have Criterion UHDs and The Third Man seems unlikely to ever get one, but there is a 4K master of The 39 Steps...