criterionforum.org

The rate of additions, and the variety of content, has finally hit a point where I'm very excited about Filmstruck. My main disappointment at this point is just that the extras either don't exist, or fail to work for me. But oh well when you get this type of bounty.

My main question for the service now is what their rotation system is like when live. How long are these movies available for?

Today's non-Criterion additions on FilmStruck:

Battle of the Rails (1946) - René Clément
El castillo de la pureza (1973) - Arturo Ripstein
The Stunt Man (1980) - Richard Rush
You Only Live Once (1937) - Fritz Lang

Film Movement

Shun Li and the Poet (2011) - Andrea Segre
Viva Cuba (2005) - Juan Carlos Cremata Malberti

Kino Lorber:

Adua and Her Friends (1960) - Antonio Pietrangeli
Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler (1922) - Fritz Lang
House by the River (1952) - Fritz Lang

MGM:

Marat/Sade (1967) - Peter Brook

Milestone:

The Exiles (1961) - Kent MacKenzie

Oscilloscope:

The Law (1959) - Jules Dassin

Zeitgeist:

Careful (1992) - Guy Maddin

The first Warner Bros. addition to FilmStruck:

Gaslight (1944)

doh286 wrote:Additions today:

Buena Vista Social Club is now streaming with a Janus logo.

Film Movement is now involved with Filmstruck as Once Were Warriors and Off White Lies have been added.

Ripstein's El lugar sin limities has been added but not with a Janus logo.

I am Cuba has been added and still has a Milstone Films logo.

doh286, how is the quality on I am Cuba, is it in HD and does it look restored? I used to have the old DVD and have been anticipating a restoration of that film. Thanks.

doh286 wrote:Additions today:

Buena Vista Social Club is now streaming with a Janus logo.

Film Movement is now involved with Filmstruck as Once Were Warriors and Off White Lies have been added.

Ripstein's El lugar sin limities has been added but not with a Janus logo.

I am Cuba has been added and still has a Milstone Films logo.

doh286, how is the quality on I Am Cuba, is it HD and has it been restored?

Filmstruck tweeted a gif of Jane Campion's Holy Smoke, so I think it's safe to conclude that Miramax will be a part of the service.

And a gif of Interiors!

Bergman's Shame was added and played with a Janus logo.

This commercial I saw linked on Twitter says Filmstruck is launching in October, which certainly would explain the very rapid pace in the past week or two. (Though, to be entirely honest, I think the Website still has a *ton* of work to be in sell-able condition by then, so maybe it'll just be going into a kind of open-paid-beta-state or something.)

doh286 wrote:Bergman's Shame was added and played with a Janus logo.

Awesome. Presumably they grabbed the whole MGM box

Just this morning there's a ton of new movies, it's just that at this point most films have 3-4 listings and I can't open any extras and it's becoming really wonky to navigate. The film selection is already by far the best on the internet, but the site is somehow more annoying every day.

The "Serious Woody" category now includes a promo image for Interiors.

Today's batch of morning additions includes Welles' Othello... though it plays without a Janus logo at the beginning. I don't know what version, but it runs at about 1:33 (despite the description saying 1:31).

The main page for the FilmStruck website is being slowly updated to have more and more information available, though there are a lot of links to 404 pages at present. The previously mentioned trailer that announces an October launch is up, though.

add on the Criterion Collection to enjoy the largest collection of Criterion films available for streaming anywhere

There's a tiny chance I'm misreading but I don't like how that sounds. So far TCM's involvement has been extremely vague, getting top billing in the ad but not a single clip of their films. If Criterion is a package you need to buy then what exactly is Filmstruck?

MongooseCmr wrote:

add on the Criterion Collection to enjoy the largest collection of Criterion films available for streaming anywhere

There's a tiny chance I'm misreading but I don't like how that sounds. So far TCM's involvement has been extremely vague, getting top billing in the ad but not a single clip of their films. If Criterion is a package you need to buy then what exactly is Filmstruck?

I rather hope they don't go this direction with the service. It seems like only Netflix has this right - where both Hulu + Amazon have these idiotic "add-on services" - where you have to pay an additional monthly fee for access to some other company's catalog. To me it comes across as, "we didn't feel like paying to have those films, so you get to do it instead." Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if each add-on service didn't have the same mediocre collection of titles with a sporadic interesting film thrown in. As a random aside: I'll also ask how Comic-Con is an add-on service? Do they actually own the rights to anything?

So this will be awful if we have to pay extra for every other company's catalogs (does Film Movement really think there's going to be a new gold rush of subscribers?). I think the initial press release indicated that the full catalogs would be extras, but there would be rotating weekly selections? So perhaps if you're patient, you'll get to access everything.

Minkin wrote:

MongooseCmr wrote:

add on the Criterion Collection to enjoy the largest collection of Criterion films available for streaming anywhere

There's a tiny chance I'm misreading but I don't like how that sounds. So far TCM's involvement has been extremely vague, getting top billing in the ad but not a single clip of their films. If Criterion is a package you need to buy then what exactly is Filmstruck?

I rather hope they don't go this direction with the service. It seems like only Netflix has this right - where both Hulu + Amazon have these idiotic "add-on services" - where you have to pay an additional monthly fee for access to some other company's catalog. To me it comes across as, "we didn't feel like paying to have those films, so you get to do it instead." Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if each add-on service didn't have the same mediocre collection of titles with a sporadic interesting film thrown in. As a random aside: I'll also ask how Comic-Con is an add-on service? Do they actually own the rights to anything?

So this will be awful if we have to pay extra for every other company's catalogs (does Film Movement really think there's going to be a new gold rush of subscribers?). I think the initial press release indicated that the full catalogs would be extras, but there would be rotating weekly selections? So perhaps if you're patient, you'll get to access everything.

ala Carte is the future of streaming. Ye olden days of the early Netflix streaming are no more. Ultimately, paying for entertainment ala Carte will cost consumers far more than bundled tv ever did. This is why consumers have been clamoring for it, right?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'd think (hope?) most of the labels are included in the base tier, but Criterion and maybe Miramax are put on rotation with the option of a catalog sub. I mean, considering in many ways this just represents a more comprehensive version of Fandor, I'd hope that the Kino titles which have really always been the backbone of that service make it to the base layer here!

I'm really very concerned about the pricing, though; the base price should probably be less than the $8/month standard for Hulu/Netflix/Amazon simply due to the vastly different size of this operation, but I fear it'll be that plus an additional $8 for the actual Criterion channel each month.

MongooseCmr wrote:There's a tiny chance I'm misreading but I don't like how that sounds. So far TCM's involvement has been extremely vague, getting top billing in the ad but not a single clip of their films. If Criterion is a package you need to buy then what exactly is Filmstruck?

Going by the press release, Filmstruck's service is a large, rotating selection of Criterion, studio and independent films, with the option of a permanent 1100-film Criterion library add-on.

The descriptions of TCM's involvement have been vague:

Combining Turner’s programming experience with Criterion’s library of films and supplemental content made all the sense in the world.

I assume in addition to their programming "expertise," TCM will provide a majority of the rotating studio films.

Ribs wrote:I'm really very concerned about the pricing, though; the base price should probably be less than the $8/month standard for Hulu/Netflix/Amazon simply due to the vastly different size of this operation, but I fear it'll be that plus an additional $8 for the actual Criterion channel each month.

Don't think FIlmstruck will be cheaper than Fandor ($10), but ~$8 a month for the CC add-on sounds about right.

Didn't read the press release carefully till a few weeks ago. Though Filmstruck, for those willing to pay for the Criterion add-on, may become the best arthouse and classic film service, Hulu, with their 900-film non-rotating Criterion library for $8 a month, was a better bargain.

I still think this is a huge missed opportunity if they're ignoring the Turner library, though more and more this looks like it's Criterion branching out into its own platform using Turner's assets and $ to get a foothold in a market that's rough to break into (see the overall lack of anyone caring about Fandor or Mubi). I hope that's still on the table somehow if this is succesful, as I remain incredibly displeased with TCM's web presence otherwise.

I think it might be cheaper than Fandor because if you are actually paying Fandor $10 a month you are a sucker - it's been perpetually available at a $45/year annual rate for months if not over a year now. Seeso, NBC's recent comedy streaming service which actually spends the ridiculous amount of cash to be funding dozens of new shows to PRODUCE, is somehow $3.99 a month. I think a lot of these sites are learning that unless you are Netflix/Hulu/Amazon you can't get away with charging $8/month.

Hope you're right.

it's been perpetually available at a $45/year annual rate

Way better, but there are many folks who don't like to commit to a year in advance.

Filmstruck likely views itself as having more value than Fandor, so I'm guessing it will be ~$10 a month -- perhaps they'll offer a yearly or other type of discount as well, though we know it won't be nearly as good as the Fandor yearly one.

As others have pointed out, the TCM content will probably just all rotate as it does on TCM and its existing platforms. It would be sensible to make the Warner Archive service a cheap add-on, but there hasn't been any mention of a permanent Turner library at all so far.

Warner Archive is currently undergoing a rejig and relaunch, but as of right now (it's also in beta) it looks like it's exactly the same service I can't imagine any sane person paying for of far too few titles but with a new coat of paint. So I expect it's off the table for the near future.

Ribs wrote:Warner Archive is currently undergoing a rejig and relaunch

Then it seems even more unlikely there will be any base Turner films on Filmstruck.

Alternatively, it could mean much of the Warner Archive stuff will shortly moving to Filmstruck. I remember when the Warner Archive streaming service first started out. They had a load of great stuff on it. Everything from Get Carter and Day for Night to Garbo silents and Sjostrom's Scarlet Letter. There where also films by Bertolucci and Clement. Besides some choice pre-code films, nothing that interesting has been on there for a while. There are a whole three silents on the service now.

Well, here's a big one that will make alot of people happy - and with a Criterion logo:

Bondarchuk's War and Peace