Streaming Services

[ando]

tubi's been a great option for me lately; the free classics, mostly (no ads w/my blocker). Midnight Cowboy tonight. Nice doc.

[knives]

It is really great. Been an excellent source for my Corman watches.

[FrauBlucher]

It's official...Amazon-MGM merger

[Glowingwabbit]

It's official...Amazon-MGM merger

Not great news for physical media.

[cdnchris]

I'm of the hope since they're licensing titles to Criterion they see the benefit of the practice. I'm sure they have to honor previous agreements and if they can get some money from it, or see money in it, they may well continue.

That's my hope at least.

[Glowingwabbit]

I'm of the hope since they're licensing titles to Criterion they see the benefit of the practice. I'm sure they have to honor previous agreements and if they can get some money from it, or see money in it, they may well continue.

That's my hope at least.

Yeah one can hope but currently we've gotten only 3 titles, only from Criterion, and all of those have been newer releases if I'm not mistaken.

Also from my understanding MGM has been one of the easiest studios to work with.

[FrauBlucher]

Right, but the three titles you’re talking about are Amazon Studio productions. That has nothing to do with MGM, but it’s a sign that Amazon’s relationship with Criterion is a good one. I don’t see why Amazon wouldn’t continue to deal with Criterion. Maybe the Kino deals are the ones jeopardy.

[MongooseCmr]

The Prime app is so ugly and unintuitive that I forget I even have it. I’m not sure that even this would bring me to use it for more than very specific titles.

[Glowingwabbit]

Right, but the three titles you’re talking about are Amazon Studio productions. That has nothing to do with MGM, but it’s a sign that Amazon’s relationship with Criterion is a good one. I don’t see why Amazon wouldn’t continue to deal with Criterion. Maybe the Kino deals are the ones jeopardy.

I don't really care about the Criterion relationship (I'm not buying any of these or the Netflix ones so far). I'm worried about the MGM titles. Given there release schedule it would still be a big loss if they were the only ones dealing with Amazon.

[TMDaines]

Klassiki Online is free to everyone until 4 April. After that, for £5.99/month you get the full selection, plus a new film each week(Pick of the Week), though some of the permanent collection remains free. I assume they will add films to the paid service as time goes on. Looks like a pretty decent selection.

I noticed that Klassiki have a few Muratova films available and apparently in HD! Does anyone have a subscription to confirm their HD-listed films are just that?

[ando]

Glad Peacocktv's extended its Hitchcock run. I like this grouping in particular.

[ando]

National Jazz Appreciation Month. Checking out various films across the web. A few recommended picks: Jazz On A Summer's Day on Criterion, Ken Burns' Jazz (among other notable selections) on Hoopla (decent kanopy alternative for public library card holders) and a handful of free jazz docs on PLEX, including The Jazz Loft According to W. Eugene Smith (2015).

[ando]

Eight and a half days left to watch several good ones leaving The Criterion Channel.

[Reifferschizzle]

Netflix UK has just had loads of Swedish films added - including some Victor Sjostrom and Mauritz Stiller's 'Sir Arne's Treasure'!

Have seen almost no chat about this in cinephile circles, really interested in what kind of deal went down between the Swedish Film Institute and Netflix. Dozens of Swedish classics available throughout Europe, from the silent era to stuff from the 1980's! It's pretty surreal that the only pre-1960 content on Netflix right now is a bunch of Swedish films.

They also have the works of Youssef Chahine and some old Belgian films (though to my knowledge a spottier selection than the Swedish stuff).

[ando]

It's pretty surreal that the only pre-1960 content on Netflix right now is a bunch of Swedish films.

I might have said that 15 years ago but Netflix has long converted the cineaste shop.



Leaving The Criterion Channel on May 31st.

[Reifferschizzle]

Well, this from a UK perspective - those movies are literally the only pre-1960 content on Netflix UK.

[thirtyframesasecond]

Netflix UK has the series on Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers, which I think is the set of films Kino Lorber released. These are mostly from the 1910s and has films by Alice Guy-Blanche and others. But that's about it. It might've had the series on African-American filmmakers but seems to have gone if it was there.

[ando]

Not very impressed with The First Lady, currently on Showtime, but the costumes and set designs stand out and Michelle Phiffer's performance as Betty Ford (imo) is effective. She was also given the best material in a generally unremarkably written series. See it for her. Other Showtime May selections of interest are the new Man Who Fell To Earth series, I Love That For You, all 3 seasons of Penny Dreadful and The Green Knight (2021 film). If they beefed up the number of monthly classic film features it might be worth the 10 bucks a month but I'm not sure I'll extend past the trial at this point.

[unclehulot]

Both the criterion channel and Arrow’s streaming service (which share the Vimeo platform) are having problems tonight. The recently played lists are missing in action. Criterion’s had been visible before tonight but has not been working correctly since the beginning of the month… This is the second extended period that this has been the case. What an amateur hour this Vimeo thing is. I can’t speak for computer setups but on the fire TV stick and Apple TV platforms this is the case. Arrow briefly had the problem of recently played titles not being added to that recently played list but fixed it… Criterion channel doesn’t seem to have a clue and it’s been a mess for a long time.

[Matt]

I’m perplexed why Criterion Channel continues to have problems like this. I don’t think they’ve added any new features or functionality since it launched, yet the app keeps getting updated with new bugs introduced. I don’t want to appear ungrateful—I’m happy the service exists at all—but (after 3 years) at minimum I’d like to be able to browse by country or language or sort my watch list by running time.

[ando]

Sorry to hear about the Criterion bugs - I haven't had a single issue with the channel since I updated my drivers. It's really been my default streaming option (though tubi is a close second, lately). Seems to be a location issue for most with problems.

[dekadetia]

Not to pile on to Criterion, but I watched The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp on the Channel earlier this month and found the subtitles so littered with OCR errors as to be practically unusable. To their credit, they had it fixed about a week later, but it was surprising to realize that they are literally over there ripping subs from the bluray's PNG images back to SRT/VTT. So if you see something like this, let them know, they'll amend!

[ando]

468 film titles loaded on Showtime yesterday. And in the middle of the month, too. Odd. The Andromeda Strain is first in the queue.

[dekadetia]

This may not be news, but Kino Lorber's YouTube account has been posting feature films on an almost daily basis, including Blue, Adieu au Langage, Filmworker and Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, among others.

[Computer Raheem]

This may not be news, but Kino Lorber's YouTube account has been posting feature films on an almost daily basis, including Blue, Adieu au Langage, Filmworker and Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth, among others.

Before I add almost all of these to my watchlist, is Goodbye to Language still worth watching even without the 3D? Given what I know about how it utilizes the format, I feel like I'd be missing out on something if I first watched it on YouTube in 2D.