rexinnih

Last Emperor and Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence will finally be added to my collection! Thanks Criterion!

BuckNaked2k

Barnes & Noble also carry a respectable selection of Criterions, and sometimes even try to market them on a special endcap, although they too charge the full $40 (or more). Because of this, I never buy anything there, so if they did discontinue stocking these titles, I guess I would have no cause for complaint.

domino harvey

This is like saying "Burger King is so expensive!" based solely on the fact that the Burger King in the Phoenix Airport charges $9.79 for a value meal.

Jackson_Browne

I never said anything in my post about paying list price for Criterions. Even with the discount, $26 for most titles is a lot more than most companies charge, even art house labels like Kino. The main point of my bitching comes from the fact that a title they have had on the market for 10 years still costs exactly that much - they don't adjust their prices at all. Most other companies will start a DVD at a similar price when it comes out, but will gradually drop the price as time goes on until it becomes very affordable. Criterion doesn't do this for whatever reason.

dx23

The "whatever reason" is that Criterion doesn't own the film rights for most of their releases. They have to pay the owner of the rights to the film so they can release it on DVD. Add to that, the fact that all Criterion titles are given a incredible treatment in terms of bonus material. In the DVD industry, Criterion is the luxury car of the business.

siegfried

I think it is great that we can have an option to go for either the bare bones, or Criterion. I will go with Image releases.

nycbrent

They're all the same price at Netflix.

The best part about them releasing a high-profile film like The Last Emperor, to me, is that it will probably sell quite well and allow them to purchase rights to some more esoteric stuff for their catalogue.

Sex Fiend

And some people love to bitch about other people bitching...

domino harvey

Kino puts zero effort into 90% of their releases, and their lower tier list price is $29.95... identical to Criterions lower tier titles, which are rarely as completely bare bones as Kino's and are progressively transferred to boot. New Yorker video rarely goes more than a few dollars below its list price of $29.99, making them on par with Higher-tier Criterions. Same story with Facets, which is still providing the best in Making DVDs Look Like VHS Copies technology. Fox Lorber/Wellspring releases run about the same price as lower tier Criterions and are often of a Facets-level of quality.

As for your price reasoning concerning specifically Criterion, you appear to have no concept of the independent DVD market. How many copies of Green For Danger did you pass by at Target last week? I loved the eye-catching display of Naked and Sweetie on the endcaps at Wal-Mart. Criterions have a limited audience and the price reflects this. You pay "more" (comparative to say, a studio that makes money hand over fist on Bernie Mac's baseball movie being sold in bins) for a specialized product. Criterion releases very few titles that have cross-appeal to even a limited definition of the "masses" (Dazed and Confused, Fear and Loathing, a handful of others), and the sales for these titles are in no way enough to enable them to lower their prices.

And finally, and this is directed across the board at all bemoaners, Criterion routinely produces some of the best supplemental material in the DVD market, and their reputation for this is well-earned. Some of us are film students, more are just eager viewers dying to know more, but just because you don't watch an extra doesn't make it a superfluous feature. Commentaries recorded exclusively for the release by film scholars cost money, licensing existing commentaries from Laserdiscs cost money, interviews, archival and new, cost money, and Criterion is able to provide these features thanks to the price points of its release. It costs money to be the best and it costs money to have the best. Criterion isn't a studio, you can't say "Oh, but Warner Brothers routinely offers their special discs at $14.99" because that's not the same thing at all.

tsetse27

still think (most of the) Criterion worth the extra $$

(I use to pay $100+ for each Criterion laserdisc years ago...)

already won both of these titles on UK R2 edition... look to see what Criterion can come up...

samper

Such good news about Merry Xmas - cant wait for the disk(s). Loved Bowie in this movie.

indy81

Where's the love for Insignificance? Too obscure? This is a very cool, apocalyptic, typically crazy Roeg film with Gary Busey as Joe DiMaggio (!) I'm very pleased that it will be getting the Criterion treatment.

PopcornTreeCt

Yes, let's all get pissed off at Criterion because they charge so much for their movies. I could buy this argument back a few years ago. But nowadays, when studios like Warner and Universal actually give a movie a decent 2-disc release they charge a premium usually around $22.99 if you're lucky on release week. Of course when Universal does release a 2-disc DVD you can't find it anywhere and it typically goes OOP within a month. And you still don't get an insert. At least Criterion's releases get better and still charge the same price they always have, unlike the opposite which is what the major studios are doing.

Fok

hopefully they'll the Last Emperor some justice

Arpeggi

Don't forget Borders, which has every Criterion on release day.

Giles

that'd be great since Criterion has released dual versions of Scenes From a Marriage and Fanny and Alexander in long cut + US theatrical cut form

I keep hoping Criterion could get the rights to Bille August's The Best Intentions and release the original six hour mini series cut of that film.

BuckNaked2k

Not the ones where I live!

Rusty James

Best. Post. EVER.

Superdaddy

The Last Emperor is one of my most wanted DVD titles. I never bought the subpar Artisan release and have been saying for a long time, "Criterion should have this. They will do it right."

I am sure the list price will be high. I am also sure I will not pay list price for this title, but whatever it does cost me will be worth every cent. I am not a rabid Criterion buyer who just buys them for the sake of owning Criterions. But I have enjoyed every one I have bought and am thrilled about the prospect of finally having a quality version of this title. (I still have my VHS copy of the director's cut; I am hoping Criterion will include both this and the shorter version in their package).

Thank you, Criterion, thank you! Now if you will only give Walkabout an anamorphic transfer, my life will be complete.

tonyjg

I'm going to wait til i see the specs on THE LAST EMPEROR.

Hoping for at minimum 5.1 sound - unlike the R2 Edition which only is in 2.0. This edition contains both the theatrical and directors cut version - and can be currently picked up for $U9.95 via CDwow.

Giles

'Last Emperor' is up for preorder on Amazon, the link says it's 4 discs:

The Last Emperor (Criterion)

street date: Feb. 26, 2008

cranberries fan

The Sweetest news of this month thanks Glies

Giles

might as well post this info as well, which is part of the provided link:

- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer of the extended television version
- Audio commentary by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and screenwriter Mark Peploe
- The Italian Traveler, a documentary by Fernand Mozskowicz, exploring Bertolucci's journey from Parma to China
- The Making of "The Last Emperor," a new documentary featuring Storaro, editor Gabriella Cristiana, costume designer James Acheson, and art director Gianni Silvestre
- Postcards from China, video images taken by Bertolucci while on preproduction
- The Late Show: Face to Face, a 30-minute BBC interview with Bertolucci from 1989
- New video interviews with composers David Byrne and Sakamoto
- Theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring essays by David Thomson and excerpts from script supervisor Fabien Gerard's journals from the production

EEz28

This month!?!

Where the heck were you last month?

Giles

I even missed that news - there are too many Criterion threads ...