The company that makes the Criterion Collection laserdiscs and DVDs is (of course) the Criterion Collection, a joint venture with Janus Films. The web site URL is (http://www.criterionco.com). Currently, the company has released DVDs of foreign films (like The Seventh Seal), but you can also find the movie Armageddon and Rushmore released with the same "Criterion Collection Touch."

Some might call their releases overpriced and being only a product of massive amounts of hype, but IMHO their DVDs easily qualify as uber cool. I love my Criterion editions of Brazil, The Killer, Hard Boiled, Life of Brian and RoboCop.

There are many other titles in the collection I'd like to own. But all Criterion discs are limited editions, and some of them have been out of print for a long time.
The second-hand prices for these titles are naturally ridiculous, and I'm happy I bought my copy of Die xue shuang xiong when it was still available in the stores.

"The Janus head coin looks at once to the past and the future, a fitting symbol for the company that over 40 years has kept the classics of cinema history alive for new audiences. Throughout the fifties and sixties, as theatrical distributor of Bergman, Kurosawa, Renior, Fellini, Hitchcock, Truffaut, Welles and many more, Janus Films introduced American moviegoers to the great international masters. Janus Films Festivals became the staple of film schools and revival houses, and by 1973, the great George Eastman House Award declared, "Janus Films occupies a position of fantastic eminence...the films they have offered over the years provide a collection unmatched in either the importance of the artistic careers they represent or the taste demonstrated in their selection". In the ensuing twenty years, Janus has continued to look reverently to the past, preserving and restoring films throughout the world, but always with an eye to the future of new media, through its partnership with the Criterion Collection."

The Criterion Collection is a set of DVDs released by the Criterion Collection Company, in partnership with Janus Films. The following is a comprehensive list of the titles in the collection, listed in order of spine number. I've included delayed titles, as they have already been assigned spine numbers, but have left out pending titles. I may add them as "coming soon" or something to that effect. I'm going through the list, noding the films that already haven't been noded, so this may take awhile. Also, not all the "out of print" ones have been noted; I'll fix that as I add individual information about each movie.
  1. Grand Illusion
  2. Seven Samurai
  3. The Lady Vanishes
  4. Amarcord
  5. The 400 Blows (out of print)
  6. Beauty And The Beast
  7. A Night to Remember
  8. The Killer (out of print)
  9. Hard Boiled (out of print)
  10. Walkabout
  11. The Seventh Seal
  12. This is Spinal Tap
  13. The Silence of the Lambs
  14. Samurai I
  15. Samurai II
  16. Samurai III
  17. Salo (out of print)
  18. Naked Kiss
  19. Shock Corridor
  20. Sid & Nancy
  21. Dead Ringers
  22. Summertime
  23. RoboCop
  24. High and Low
  25. Alphaville
  26. The Long Good Friday
  27. Flesh for Frankenstein
  28. Blood for Dracula
  29. Picnic at Hanging Rock
  30. M
  31. Great Expectations
  32. Oliver Twist
  33. Nanook of the North
  34. Andrei Rublev
  35. Diabolique
  36. Wages of Fear
  37. Time Bandits
  38. Branded to Kill
  39. Tokyo Drifter
  40. Armageddon
  41. Henry V
  42. Fishing with John
  43. Lord of the Flies
  44. The Red Shoes
  45. Taste of Cherry
  46. Most Dangerous Game
  47. Insomnia
  48. Black Orpheus
  49. Nights of Cabiria
  50. And the Ship Sails On
  51. Brazil
  52. Yojimbo
  53. Sanjuro
  54. For All Mankind
  55. Unbearable Lightness
  56. The 39 Steps
  57. Charade
  58. Peeping Tom
  59. The Night Porter
  60. Autumn Sonata
  61. Life of Brian
  62. Passion of Joan of Arc
  63. Carnival of Souls
  64. The Third Man
  65. Rushmore
  66. Cocteau Box
  67. Blood of a Poet (part of the Jean Cocteau Orphic Trilogy box set)
  68. Orpheus (part of the Jean Cocteau Orphic Trilogy box set)
  69. Testament of Orpheus (part of the Jean Cocteau Orphic Trilogy box set)
  70. Last Temptation of Christ
  71. The Magic Flute
  72. Le Million
  73. Cléo from 5 to 7
  74. Vagabond
  75. Chasing Amy
  76. Brief Encounter
  77. And God Created Woman
  78. The Bank Dick
  79. W.C. Fields; Six Short Films
  80. The Element of Crime
  81. Variety Lights
  82. Hamlet
  83. The Harder They Come
  84. Good Morning
  85. Pygmalion
  86. Eisenstein: The Sound Years
  87. Alexander Nevsky
  88. Ivan the Terrible - Parts I & II
  89. Sisters
  90. Kwaidan
  91. The Blob
  92. Fiend without a Face
  93. Black Narcissus
  94. I Know Where I'm Going!
  95. All That Heaven Allows
  96. Written on the Wind
  97. Do the Right Thing
  98. L' Avventura
  99. Gimme Shelter
  100. Beastie Boys Video Anthology
  101. Cries and Whispers
  102. The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
  103. The Lady Eve
  104. Double Suicide
  105. Spartacus
  106. Coup de torchon
  107. Mona Lisa
  108. The Rock
  109. The Scarlet Empress
  110. M. Hulot's Holiday
  111. Mon Oncle
  112. Playtime
  113. Big Deal on Madonna Street
  114. My Man Godfrey
  115. Rififi
  116. The Hidden Fortress
  117. Diary of a Chambermaid
  118. Sullivan's Travels
  119. Withnail and I
  120. How to Get Ahead in Advertising
  121. Billy Liar
  122. Salesman
  123. Grey Gardens
  124. Dreyer Box Set
  125. Day of Wrath
  126. Ordet
  127. Gertrud
  128. Carl Th. Dreyer - My Métier
  129. Le Trou
  130. The Shop on Main Street
  131. Closely Watched Trains
  132. The Ruling Class
  133. The Vanishing
  134. Häxan
  135. Rebecca
  136. Spellbound
  137. Notorious
  138. Rashomon
  139. Wild Strawberries
  140. 8 ½
  141. Children of Paradise
  142. The Last Wave
  143. That Obscure Object of Desire
  144. Loves of a Blonde
  145. The Firemen's Ball
  146. The Cranes Are Flying
  147. In the Mood for Love
  148. Ballad of a Soldier
  149. Juliet of the Spirits
  150. Bob le Flambeur
  151. Traffic
  152. George Washington
  153. General Idi Amin Dada
  154. The Horse's Mouth
  155. Tokyo Olympiad
  156. Hearts and Minds
  157. The Royal Tenenbaums
  158. The Importance of Being Earnest
  159. Red Beard
  160. À Nous la Liberté
  161. Under the Roofs of Paris
  162. Ratcatcher
  163. Hopscotch
  164. Solaris
  165. Man Bites Dog
  166. Down by Law
  167. The Complete Monterey Pop Festival
  168. Monterey Pop
  169. Jimi Plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey
  170. Trouble in Paradise
  171. Contempt
  172. Pépé le Moko
  173. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
  174. Band of Outsiders
  175. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
  176. The Killers
  177. Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
  178. My Life as a Dog
  179. I Am Curious...
  180. I Am Curious?Yellow
  181. I Am Curious?Blue
  182. Straw Dogs
  183. Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
  184. by Brakhage?An Anthology
  185. The Adventures of Antoine Doinel
  186. Stolen Kisses
  187. Bed and Board
  188. Love on the Run
  189. The White Sheik
  190. Throne of Blood
  191. Jubilee
  192. Coup de Grâce
  193. Quai des Orfèvres
  194. Il Posto
  195. I Fidanzati
  196. Hiroshima Mon Amour
  197. Night and Fog
  198. Ali: Fear Eats the Soul



As Kit Lo so correctly pointed out, the URL is http://www.criterionco.com, and I got a bulk of the information on the individual movies from the site. All text taken is quoted and attributed, so dem bones won't have to make me stay after school and write lines on the nodeboard.
Criterion didn't begin with DVDs. The originally produced deluxe editions of important movies on laserdisc, by finding the best elements for a film, producing supplementary material - lots of which is currently unavailable on DVD - and presenting it superbly. Without Criterion, there would be no Special Edition DVDs, or audio commentaries.

The first Criterion Collection laserdisc to be released is King Kong, and was presented in CAV format with a visual essay on the making of King Kong, and footage from a pre-Kong monster movie. Things did improve.. :)

The URL for a list of Criterion Collection Laserdiscs is : http://www.mysunrise.ch/users/mmathis/criterion/criterion_bytitle.html

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