The Criterion Collection

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