Charlie_Chaplin

I've recently purchased Kino's Intolerance DVD from Amazon and thought that it was an amazing movie on an amazing DVD! But the price was high($30.00!!!) and the DVD company, Kino, is not one I'm very familiar with. It's almost as high as Criterion's! What is Kino (I don't like their cover arts though) and why do they sell their DVDs so expensive?

bboisvert

They are just a video/DVD company... like Criterion or Image. Their DVDs are so pricey for many of the same reasons that Criterion's are. They're a small company, and they're releasing movies that are likely only going to appeal to a small segment of the population and sell few copies.


You can get more info and view their catalog here: http://www.kino.com/

ernestrp

Their box set are not to bad like:

http://www.deepdiscountdvd.com/dvd.c...25&promotion=y

Especially when used with a coupon/code etc. like DDD just had.

devilpants

Kino releases a lot of great silent films that most studios would probably not bother dealing with because the profit margin isn't big enough.

mifuneral

Right now Kino is my third favorite dvd company, behind Anchor Bay and Criterion.

paulringodaman

Keno is a game played in most of the casinos in the United States

Cameron

I love Kino. They keep doing great stuff. They are the best when it comes to silent film. They put together a great free catalog that mails out a few times a year. The newest one i recieved was not as stellar (B&W and half the size of the normal catalogs) But you can get them free by requesting them at http://www.kino.com/ Look around the website, it has some good stuff. THe edison set they released earlier in the year is amazing, and I finally broke down during the DDD sale and bought the buster keaton set.

The Valeyard

I LOVE Kino. A great company that has great releases. I have 6 of their titles and currently saving my pennies to pick up the Edison set.


Andrew

mookiemeister

I don't think all their titles are expensive. I bought Kino's Metropolis a couple of years ago for around $15.

Skoobooz

Did Kino handle the most recent version of Metropolis? If so, then they seem to put care into the actual transfer and technical specs, but the features left much to be desired (for an influential film like Metropolis, it deserves at least as much interesting disucssion and context as Testament of Dr. Mabuse or M).

Miyazaki

I just got Kino's The Art of Buster Keaton boxset during the DDD 20% sale. It's a great set, glad I got it.

gorgo99

Like Criterion, they really put a lot into finding and restoring the best elements for their films. Especially with the silents, this can be quite expensive. I think it's worth the price for what you're getting.

FilmFanSea

Kino didn't put much of any work into their Metropolis release: it was essentially a port of the German Transit and Eureka editions with the substitution of English intertitles. The other major drawback to the Kino is that it derives from the PAL master, and the PAL-to-NTSC ghosting artifacts are bothersome (at least to me).

Overall, Kino tends to port the contents of European editions (German, French, British) of many silent and foreign films for release in the US market. They also release packages produced by David Shepard, et al. I'm not aware of them creating any unique content (like Criterion frequently does).

I am happy that Kino exists, but since I went all-region, I find myself buying fewer and fewer of their releases.

Squirrel God

'Kino' is the German word for 'cinema'.

Daniel Windsor

...and a few other languages too.


Kino do have some good releases but they also have a lot of garbage quality back catalogue.

I think they charge what they do because people will pay the price. Simple.


It's always best to shop around (multiregion) as many of their films have been released in other regions at lower prices.

Squirrel God

My excuse is that I only took French and German at school

Daniel Windsor

Hey, that's a lot more than most people reading this