Janus Essential Art House titles for $14.48 at DVD Empire
 

Apparently Janus Films is going to start releasing volume sets from their Essential Art House collection as well as bare-bones individual titles.

This should present a good option for those who are budget minded or don't desire the extra features, commentaries, booklets, etc. that are typically included with the Criterion releases of the same films.

DVD Empire currently lists the following titles for pre-order (9/9/2008) at $14.48:
Grand Illusion
Knife in the Water
Lord of the Flies (1963)
Wild Strawberries
Beauty and the Beast (1946)
Rashomon

A set containing all six titles is available for $69.97.

I saw this announced on the criterion forum. They should be less expensive elsewhere as the msrp is less than the standard releases.

You could be right, since this is around 27% off MSRP while DVD Planet offers up to 35% off Criterion titles. Looks like Empire has the best deal available so far though. (Amazon has them at $17.99.) Exciting news either way!

Will the disc come with fast-forward and rewind capability? :mad2:

I don't get this...

http://www.imagesjournal.com/2003/re...water/text.htm

Note: The DVD's liner notes indicate "the step function has been disabled during the playback of the feature film"--upon the request of Roman Polanski, who was closely involved with the preparation of the DVD package. However, the step feature worked fine on the three DVD players that I tested. Unfortunately, though, the fast forward and rewind features have been turned off, which is extremely annoying. On several occasions, I missed a bit of dialogue and hit my remote control's rewind button to catch the dialogue again--but no such luck. You can't do it. You can only navigate among the 14 chapter stops.