criterionforum.org

CC40



This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition. CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology reflects the cinematic joys and inspirations of the creative community that makes the Criterion Collection possible.

The films: 8½ (1963), Tokyo Story (1953), All That Jazz (1979), Bicycle Thieves (1948), Repo Man (1984), Naked (1993), Jules and Jim (1962), Being There (1979), Weekend (1967), Yi Yi (2000), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Pickpocket (1959), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), On the Waterfront (1954), Do the Right Thing (1989), Ratcatcher (1999), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Mirror (1975), Barry Lyndon (1975), Safe (1995), Seconds (1966), His Girl Friday (1940), Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), Y tu mamá también (2001), My Own Private Idaho (1991), Love & Basketball (2000), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Ace in the Hole (1951), 3 Women (1977), The Red Shoes (1948), Down by Law (1986), La Ciénaga (2001), Wanda (1970), House (1977), Sullivan’s Travels (1941), The Battle of Algiers (1966), A Woman Under the Influence (1974), Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962), Persona (1966), In the Mood for Love (2000)

49-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES

• Digital restorations of all forty films
• Hundreds of hours of supplemental features
• Alternate soundtracks and dubbed tracks
• Audio commentaries
• Extensive documentaries and making-of programs
• Interviews with casts and crews
• Outtakes and deleted scenes
• Trailers and TV spots
• English subtitles and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Selection of Criterion Closet Picks videos
• And more!
• PLUS: Deluxe packaging with a lavishly illustrated 216-page book featuring essays on the films by critics, scholars, and authors

BLU-RAY BOX SET AVAILABLE NOVEMBER 19

there are Fox titles here, wonder if it means anything?

For me it’s beyond belief how unbelievably lazy this edition is and what a giant opportunity they missed. Sure, for people starting out to collect this is fantastic but them simply recycling all their old BDs is a stab in the heart for all longtime collectors / fans and physical media enthusiasts. Would all of these be UHDs… my God what a statement that could’ve been to all those in doubt about where physical media is going and what kind of films could end up on the format beyond the usual genre fare and new blockbusters. They could’ve “slapped” whatever 4K restoration they had available on these discs, be it SDR or HDR and make something special just by doing this. Now we’re probably left waiting at least another year for one of the many long overdue mega-collections of an iconic director.

EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS for this hideous thing.

If this is their big year end release, this label is doing worse than I realized

Hey, that's about $17 per BD, which is cheap by any Criterion standards.
(But yeah, that's still overpriced and lazy)

Finally, a Blu-ray Disc of YouTube videos of celebs talking off the cuff about movies they’ve heard of

We're getting this instead of Jean Eustache and Kinuyo Tanaka.

It’s just occurred to me that this is what the marketing of the last few weeks has been leading up to. A shameless exercise in branding. (And, again, not a very good one, at that.)

Exciting! Personal! Unpredictable!

They couldn’t have saved this for the 50th anniversary?

In honor of the closet, they should have shelved it (indefinitely)

Honest question: how is this a meaningfully different exercise than when the 50 Years of Janus film box was released?

Great question! It’s worse! Because that had some films in it that at the time were not otherwise available

Exactly. In this case, it looks like a glorified End Of Year repacking boxset, and even the book looks like it'll have nothing new. The only thing new will indeed be the disc of Criterion Closets videos, of which we don't know how many there'll be and if it'll really just be a BD compiling YouTube videos available for free.

It's, I guess, why not of a boxset, but there's absolutely nothing grandiose or meaningful about it. It's akin of the US studios boxsets we always get in France for Christmas, except they're at least bringing prices down by A LOT. Here, you barely get a discount compared to the bi-annual 50% sales.

If I can, I will give one positive in that I like the idea of the cover being a radar to represent how Criterion helped bring a lot of these films to more people’s attention. Honestly it’s kind of cute.

Echoing similar sentiments but this was a complete waste of resources. Do they not have a marketing team who at one point thought, “who is our target market besides our dedicated customers who already own all or most of these titles”. Also, of the titles they picked, some are a bit puzzling as I rarely see them get a shoutout from celebrities (Weekend being the Godard they picked was a major huh moment).

They are sitting on Eustache, Ozus, Buñuel, so MANY films that have been restored I am getting frustrated just how much of a miscalculation this was, and how worried I am over the future direction of the label.

This will be $400 during a sale, which is $10 per film. Which is definitely more of a discount than what is being suggested above.

This release is whatever to me since I already own the discs that I want, so will glad save some money.

Over under on Criterion shifting solely to streaming in the next five years and licensing out their holdings to another label to release physically?

Blutarsky wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 5:49 pm Echoing similar sentiments but this was a complete waste of resources. Do they not have a marketing team who at one point thought, “who is our target market besides our dedicated customers who already own all or most of these titles”. Also, of the titles they picked, some are a bit puzzling as I rarely see them get a shoutout from celebrities (Weekend being the Godard they picked was a major huh moment).

They are sitting on Eustache, Ozus, Buñuel, so MANY films that have been restored I am getting frustrated just how much of a miscalculation this was, and how worried I am over the future direction of the label.

Don’t get me started on how pissed off I am about the no-show Fassbinder and Oshima sets that could’ve been out years ago

Sadly disappointing. I don't know who would actually want this. In the absence of Ozu, Bunuel, Kiarostami (add whomever else who want: Fassbinder!) box sets, it's almost insulting. But after the Bergman, Fellini, Pasolini, and Varda I guess we can forgive them and hope they get to work on more of these auteur sets.

Well, at least we have a winner for most unnecessary release

domino harvey wrote: Thu Aug 08, 2024 5:37 pm Great question! It’s worse! Because that had some films in it that at the time were not otherwise available

Frankly the approach they should’ve had is (and they’ll do this sometime in the future though I’m not hopeful) a box set of films that wouldn’t really sell otherwise that Criterion hasn’t put out to not only pay tribute to their defunct Eclipse line but also to the whole point of why the Criterion Collection is so important to so many, because it brings forth films they’ve otherwise would’ve never heard of.

Whoever ends up doing the End of Year ballots for Criterion this year might as well give this the honor of Worst 2024 CC Release upfront as I can't imagine anything else topping this for most people's choice.

My Peter Strickland box set, which includes four (out of six) discs that I had already, now looks like a total bargain.