OldBoy

I always wondered how and why a movie becomes a Criterion. It seems in the olden days they took some major commercial movies like "The Rock", "Armageddon", even "Traffic", but now, not so much.

So what determines a Criterion exactly?

ernestrp

http://www.criterionco.com/asp/about.asp

g

They spend a lot of time releasing Janus film releases which is one of their affiliated companies. They also release Rialto Films releases.

Alan Smithee

In the laserdisc days, they used to put out movies from MGM, Columbia and New Line. They haven't been able to release any titles on DVD from those companies, though they just recently started doing Universal movies, and I've heard they'll be putting out 20th Century Fox titles as well.

DonnachaOne

You mean what are the criteria.

g

I think they still have a relationship with new line as they just released short cuts and others.

Mr. Salty

It's weird that Criterion has never been discussed here before.

marty888

compulsive dvd

Some of Criterion'd work is just amazing, but they were loads of fun in the days of laserdisc. With audio commentary from people like John Woo and 4 disc editions of movies in CAV format (for some reason, side breaks and disc changes never bothered me and I actually paid $100 for Pulp Fiction and SE7EN) in their original theatrical aspect ratio, their releases made the experience of already classic films even better. I have no idea why they didn't go ahead and go with anamorphic transfers of their initial dvd releases. I know someone who used to work at a facility they used for editing and he said that the person in charge was extremely picky when it came to quality of masters. It always shows.

grem458

I wonder if they ever consider any animated films.

Shagrath

Akira was one of their laserdisc titles. I'm sure they would add some to their dvd collection if they could find some good films to license. Most studios, however, know that they can make money off animated stuff and just release it themselves.

PatrickMcCart

Criterion's criteria basically consist of not screwing up.

Steve

The logic is this - they do what they what and charge what they what. I can find no ryhme or reason for the films they choose or any consistency in their audio/video transfers or qualify of their supplements. As far as 'not screwing up' - I guess you haven't seen their W.C. Fields transfers....slightly above par than Mandacy. Sorry - it really irks me that people put this company on a higher platform than others. Yes, they do some incredible transfers, some incredible supplements of some incredible films (that they charge an incredible price for) but they have some lousy transfers, lousy supplements, of horrible films (that they still charge an incredible price for).

dx23

Even though Akira was released on the laserdisc days, i still wonder if Criterion considers releasing animated films on DVD. They recently passed on Animal Farm, a classic animated film in its own right, and let HVE release it instead. There are classic animated films available and I haven't heard of Criterion doing anything to acquire and release them.

Mr. Cinema

Warner Bros. does some really incredible transfers too with great features. But they only charge $29.99

marty888

I agree with you about WB - their product line has been amazing. But keep in mind (concerning the pricing) that WB actually owns the films that they are releasing and therefore does not pay a licensing fee like Criterion. A perfect example would be the Criterion Hitchcock editions that are now out of print (Rebecca, etc.) - the price for those products had to cover the cost of all the wonderful extras while keeping in mind that they might lose the license and have only an abbreviated sales window to recoup their investment.

Jericho

There is no real determination per se, such as to quality of the film or whatever. It's just an economic decision as to if the movie can be profitable or can draw attention to the company. Most of their reputation stems from the Laserdisc days, which carried over to DVD and was spread to new DVD users.

illennium

Fewer than 10 of their films are truly horrible. Maybe 30 more are mediocre. About 100 are essential to any canonical film library. I agree that blind devotion to Criterion is a weak substitute for exercising one's own critical faculties, but it cannot be denied that the company releases far more important and great films (in great packages) than almost any other.

dealer

Obviously, the criteria is more than one criterion.

Dr. DVD

It seems to me that the movie must be A)A cult hit from a studio that never achieved mainstream success, B) A lost title from a long since defunct studio, C) A foreign title where DVD distiribution is easy to acquire, or D) a little bit/all of the above.

Josh Z

Somehow I doubt that quality film elements were available for movies like that.

The Criterion folks are skilled at what they do, but they're not magicians.

Richard Malloy

Criterion discusses its selection criteria:
THE DISC MASTER: A conversation with the Criterion Collection's Peter Becker, the man who created the ultimate DVD versions of "Grand Illusion," "This Is Spinal Tap" -- and "Armageddon."

Randy Miller III

I'm fairly certain they produced a "World's Greatest Animation" collection as well.

PatrickMcCart

Well, if you actually watched Criterion's W.C. Fields 6-Films DVD, you'd notice they don't look like the Madacy disks. They're not perfect, but saying they're as bad as Madacy's either means you didn't see Criterion's set or you're lying.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDRev..._6_shorts_.htm

Despite the fact it's interlaced video, the visual quality is stunning. Universal's remaster of W.C. Field's The Bank Dick is an improvement over the Criterion DVD, but theirs was still quite good. Not really a good example, though, since Universal provided them with the master.