Deep Discount DVD is, however, one of those annoying sites from which it is impossible to get information as to whether they ship outside the US without registering and becoming a member.

Sorry, that was a wonky sentence, I'm being a bit of a lapsoassole, what I meant was it's impossible, without first registering and becoming a Deep Discount DVD member, to find out whether the company ships to, for example, the UK.

Good question, Brian. I’m 95 percent sure they ship overseas, but it definitely ain’t *free*. Their prices are tough to beat, but I can see how the forced membership policy could be vexing.

One thing that annoys me slightly about Criterion is their influx of new transfers/editions of old titles (ie. M & Wages of Fear to name a few). It's akin to labels like Blue Note and Impulse perennially repackaging their catalogs, though admittedly in Criterion's case the new versions are noticeably expanded over the earlier ones.

I know what you mean, Derek, but Criterion is the blue chip company of art house DVDs - they source the best prints to work with, the digitisation (is that the correct word?) is done sensitively, and the extras are genuinely worth having. But some of the few Criterion films I've been able to compare with UK releases from other companies have been half a shade too dark for my liking, losing shadow detail. I don't know whether that's a Criterion characteristic or a low-stat anomaly - you or some other Bagser may have a better perspective on this than I do.

The one annoying thing about Criterion is that they are awfully Euro-centric in their collection. Apart from a handful of Kurosawa titles (and John Woo's The Killer and Wong Kar-Wai's In the Mood for Love), they have really been unable or unwilling to feature prominent Chinese/Hong Kong, Indian, and Korean titles. Still Criterion is the tiffany DVD reissue company and what they do - they do better than anyone, but they should get some more Asian diversity. But they did recently release The Bad Sleep Well, a great Kurosawa film that is perfect for the Criterion treatment. Plus, I think Criterion owes all film freaks an apology for releasing a Michael Bay/Jerry Bruck film. What's next? Coyote Ugly with an essay from the girls of Scores?

I think the Michael Bay/Bruckheimer type releases are done as a way of making enough money so as to finance their more esoteric offerings. If so, I have absolutely no problem with it.

Other good Criterion news: Bergman's The Virgin Spring is going to be released next Tuesday.

"The one annoying thing about Criterion is that they are awfully Euro-centric in their collection."

they've done tons of Japanese films this past year, where have you been? Kobayashi (Harakiri should be near the top of anyone's list who hasn't seen it, the best Japanese film I've ever seen, handily trumping all Kurosawa), Ozu, Seijun Suzuki, the first Mizoguchi, and a bunch of others. if anything, they spent the last year being Japan-centric.

they don't have the rights to everything, I believe they wanted to do the Satayajit Ray Apu trilogy, but haven't been able to get the rights yet.

I had to get the Kurosawa samurai set and Red Beard.

I'd sure like to see more German stuff, early Herzog and Wenders.

Okay, so this was my order:

Nights of Cabiria
Diary of a Country Priest
L'Avventura
Life of Brian

I also pre-ordered The Virgin Spring. Hopefully all will arrive within the next week or so.

Michael Bay is very, very good at what he does. If the criterion (sorry) for being included in the Criterion Collection is the ability to make a quality film, regardless of genre, he surely merits inclusion. Whether you personally like what Bay does is another matter - he's a master of his chosen medium.

Too bad his medium is often jingoistic bombast-laden schlock (Armageddon anyone?)

But I've certainly got no beef with Criterion trying to turn a buck to finance other less megaplex-friendly projects.

David & Djll, I’m expecting cineaste-worthy essays from both of you, sooner rather than later :)

And in the interest of full disclosure here’s my own (wallet-mauling) haul:

Andrei Rublev
Children of Paradise
Le Samourai
Coup de Torchon
Harakiri
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
The Bad Sleep Well
Salesman

Oh, and put a sock in it Narew, Bay’s got the cajones to helm a live-action rendition of the Transformers™, a luckless project that has every possibility of being a train wreck before it even hits the silver screen- for that sort of boundless temerity I gotta give him mad props. And along those lines I’m looking forward to the Lost in La Mancha-style documentary that will hopefully follow in the wreckage of pre-production, trading the foibles & follies of Spanish desert-filmmaking for coke-fueled, green screen-back dropped tirades & disasters. Bring it on!

My understanding is that their involvement with Michael Bay nearly split the company at the time but at that same time they were a company that was having financial difficulty and seriously needed something to allow them to carry on. The cost to move their technology from laserdisc to the inferior dvd format (and anyone's whose seen a Criterion LD and done a comparison will see a difference) at a time when one format had never caught on and the other was still taking off; coupled with their arthouse catalog, meant that they were listing severely starboard and taking on water. Bay threw them a cash life-jacket and they weathered the storm and seem to be doing pretty well considering the amount of releases coming out these days. They've also been aided by the popularity of the DVD format. There's plenty of stuff I would like to see them do but realize they do what they can and do a great job. I'm particularly happy to get the Tarkovsky and Bresson releases. This sale is definitely going to eat into my wallet...

I'm not sure if this is really a sale, or just their permanent prices on Criterions. is there a time frame marked for this sale anywhere on the site? I didn't see one.

something strange is going on with Criterion distribution now, Amazon now has them for full price, and Criterion had a message on their site for a bit saying that people should look elsewhere because prices were lower on other sites.

I have so far abstained with great success.

But David's a prick since he titledropped The Virgin Spring. I may have to just jump when it comes out.

Djll, for early Herzog, check out New Yorker Video and Anchor Bay. NYV has Herzog's first film, "Signs of Life", and Anchor Bay has his second - "Even the Dwarves Started Small" - and "Fata Morgana", which was shot at the same time.

Criterion fans should definitely not pass up Fassbinder's "BRD Trilogy" and "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul". It doesn't get any better.

I can also vouch for the John Cassevetes Five Films set - the transfers are beautiful, and the extras are a godsend for fans. Having seen several of these films on video (more than once), I can truly say that they are worth returning to repeatedly (which helps justify the price tag) and they have never looked better.