I love love love love love the Criterion Collection. I can still recall the tremendous thrill I felt when I first found out about the company. I was deep in the throes of obsessive movie fanboy geekdom, and was feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of tracking down all of the things I was learning about. A regular attendee of the annual film festival held at the university in my town, I was thrilled for the chance to see the movies, but often frustrated to no end by the horrible quality of the picture and sound (the films were shown on 16mm prints - nothing wrecks the beautiful silence of an Ozu film like an optical soundtrack that is so battered it sounds like a thunderstorm in the theater), not to mention the ancient projector barely ever made it through a show without breaking down. At least once.
"If only there was some company who dedicated itself to releasing definitive home video releases of these classic and important movies, with sterling picture and sound and an array of beneficial supplements," I would lament.
I put two and two together after realizing that a couple of my favorite movies - Kevin Smith's "Chasing Amy," and Wes Anderson's "Rushmore," were available in two DVD editions, one that was cheaper and more bare bones, and another as part of something called "The Criterion Collection." And then when I got to digging around in local entertainment stores (usually in the foreign films section) I began to notice more and more. The films of Fellini, Godard, Truffaut, Renoir...all in this mysterious collection. My mind began to race.
I can't recall the first Criterion DVD I purchased, but I'm pretty sure there were two - Alfred Hitchcock's "Notorious" and "Rebecca" Looking back on the list of titles in the collection, I got into it around Spine 130 (all releases are given consecutive spine numbers) in the DVD series (they had done laser discs previously, and basically invented the concept of the "special edition," with different audio tracks and supplements). I guess that would have been in the early 2000's. I was obsessed with DVD technology, and the Criterion discs were the ultimate extension of that. Now that we are in the age of Blu, my obsession has only grown deeper.
For a movie nerd, there is nothing sweeter than a Criterion Collection release. They cost more, but are unmatched in terms of quality. When a person buys a movie with the Criterion imprint, they can rest assured they are receiving the best whatever home video format has to offer. I had seen "The Seventh Seal" before, but I never flat-out enjoyed it until I saw it on Criterion blu-ray. The last ten years of my movie-nerd life are filled with such stories.
The collection is closing in on Spine 700, and I have spent the 15th of every month for the last several years without fail checking the Criterion website for news of upcoming releases. They announce on the 15th the movies that will be released in three months time. So, today they announced the releases for April. For the record, I am pumped about Alex Cox's "Repo Man" and a series by Pierre Etaix on blu-ray. Again for the record, I had never heard of Pierre Etaix before I read about the blu-ray set today. But the movies are from the 1960's, and are comedies that fit into the world of Jacques Tati and Jerry Lewis. Count me in!
I've had to be selective - I am less likely to take blind chances on movies that are completely outside my usual tastes than I used to be (for example, Laurence Olivier's "Richard III" also comes out in April...while I know it's a classic, I have little interest in ever watching it) - but over the years I've accumulated quite a stash, and they are the crown jewels in my collection.
I'm sure fellow movie nerds are well aware of the treasures held within "the collection," but if you haven't checked out their holdings for a while, you may want to give them another look. The site is reachable by clicking here.
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