Barnes & Noble's Criterion DVD sale!

[xbl0x180]

As a video collector/hoarder, I always look forward to the 50%-off yearly sale from Barnes & Noble. Criterion Collection usually puts out some interesting movies in high-quality home video editions, but the prices can be quite restricting, esp. in light of the fact a lot of it could be downloaded for free. I'm OCD, so I always prefer to own a copy of the video with the cover, booklets, and other extras

Check it out:

http://video.barnesandnoble.com/u/DVD-T ... /379000756

[rancor]

Awesome!! Thanks for that! I ordered:

Diabolique
Crumb
The Last Emperor
Ikiru
Dazed and Confused


I highly recommend Diabolique for anyone that hasn't seen it - A great movie with a fantastic twist ending that you'll never see coming!

[CMoon]

Wow, and I just ordered Solaris on Amazon. *sighs*

[cj iwakura]

Criterion had one of these a while ago, and I grabbed

Le Samourai (wonderful film)
Rashomon
Down By Law (weird if nothing else)


I kind of want to see House(the Japanese horror film), but I'm worried I'll regret it. It looks kind of freaky.


IMO, there's two kinds of Criterions: genuinely awesome films(Robocop, Charade), and 'significant' films; not very watchable, but groundbreaking for some reason or other(The Last Temptation of Christ, most of the 1930s flicks).


I thought the one with Alec Guinness playing like seven roles was pretty great, though. (The name escapes me)

[njiska]

Damn, those are good prices. To bad I already have most of the criterion releases that I want.

[xbl0x180]

Wow, and I just ordered Solaris on Amazon. *sighs*

Same here. I paid about 35 bucks for the first release of Solaris when it first came out - of the thousands of movies I've seen, I rank it as one of the best and one of my top favourite films. I think this new dvd release features a different tint in the black-and-white segments, which is weird and odd. Purists may want to stick with the original dvd since this may be a degenerative effect on the film. I gave away my old MGM copy of Brian De Palma's Blow Out and bought the Criterion release; I love this movie

Seriously, I may have to sell one of my kidneys on the black market to pay off some of this junk. I managed to haul off:

America's Lost And Found: The BBS Story
Bakushu/"Early Summer"
Banshun/"Late Spring"
Basil Dearden's London Underground - Eclipse Series No. 25
Blow Out
L'Enfance Nue
Fassbinder's BRD Trilogy
Fish Tank
Le Jour Se Leve (an Essential Art House title only)
Kawaita Hana/"Pale Flower"
Kedamono No Ken/"Sword Of The Beast"
Kes (I already have a R2 dvd of this from another company, but this one I can play on any North American dvd player)
Ohayo/"Good Morning"
Paths Of Glory
Raffaello Matarazzo's Runaway Melodramas - Eclipse Series No. 28
Sasame-yuki/"The Makioka Sisters"
Solaris
Tokyo Monogatari/"Tokyo Story"

I left some stuff back, but I figure there may be another sale in the future. This stack of videos should keep me going 'til the next sale. Hey, mebbe I can make a YouTube video opening this massive package of videos hahahah

[CMoon]

Glad someone else likes Kes. I just saw it earlier this year and after ruminating over it a bit, picked it up. Definitely not for everyone.

I'm not so much into buying films anymore, especially with so many available streaming, but I'll pick up any Tarkovsky without hesitation, but so far Solaris is the only one criterion has put out on Blu-Ray. Wish they would put Stalker out.

[Skykid]

DVD's are worthless, stop buying them!

Y'know all these VHS tapes that charity stores are actually refusing to take because they can't even sell them for 20p?

That's DVD in the very near future.

[CMoon]

pssst! They're selling criterion blu-rays half off too!

[xbl0x180]

DVD's are worthless, stop buying them!

Y'know all these VHS tapes that charity stores are actually refusing to take because they can't even sell them for 20p?

That's DVD in the very near future.

I know. I have vhs as well (about 100) and watch them often. I'd pay for some raer video editions that never made it out of vhs, laserdisc, or are out of print on dvd

[GaijinPunch]

That's DVD in the very near future.

It's also BluRay at some point.

[xbl0x180]

That's DVD in the very near future.

It's also BluRay at some point.

It's any physical format. Most normal people will move on to the speediest, smallest, and most convenient way to access entertainment. Oddly enough, vinyl never went outta style

[GaijinPunch]

It's any physical format.

That was kinda my point...

Most normal people will move on to the speediest, smallest, and most convenient way to access entertainment. Oddly enough, vinyl never went outta style

There was a small article in Wired magazine this month about how cassette tapes are now officially cool as they're out of production. There are even some people putting out stuff exclusively on the format. Vinyl I get. Plenty of DJs still using vinyl (although they're fading, and it's extremely expensive). Tape (of any kind) I do not, other than for nostalgic purposes.

[xbl0x180]

The only audio cassettes I'd buy would be stuff that was released exclusively in that format back then. Even then, those cassettes are usually converted to mp3, wav, or flac, and uploaded by someone. The last one I was looking for was the Beat Boy album by Visage, which was only released on cassette. I think there's a cd bootleg of that floating around in Amazon.com





Cd is a dead format, too

[CMoon]

Formats are dead.

But are we at the point you can easily stream blu-ray quality from your unlimited cloud server?

[xbl0x180]

Formats are dead.

But are we at the point you can easily stream blu-ray quality from your unlimited cloud server?

Hell, I couldn't even find a decent download of Patrick Juvet's music score for Laura, Les Ombres De L'Ete and Fred Bongusto's music for Malizia... AND those movies aren't available in blu-ray quality even for sale, let alone for downloading. I had to buckle and buy the vinyl lps. There's a lot of stuff out there not making the full transition(s), which is how we still have companies such as Criterion, Blue Underground, Cult Epics, Anchor Bay, and Media Blasters filling a niche market for raer, strange, and [sometimes] good films

[xbl0x180]

The Barnes & Noble Criterion Collection sale is ON again. I just blew about 500 bucks on junk [/hoarder]



It will end this weekend, so get thee to your local B&N and get yours today!

Related sausage link:
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?dref=&P ... &view=grid

[rancor]

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up again this year! I'm sure to spend more than I need to there this summer.

I have a real love/hate with Criterion. Some of the best films I've ever seen are on that label (Seven Samurai, Diabolique) and the absolute worst movie as well (A Taste of Cherry - seriously, WTF?). I have to admit that it's their awesome graphic design department that's responsible for 80% of my purchases with them.

[Op Intensify]

There was a small article in Wired magazine this month about how cassette tapes are now officially cool as they're out of production.

Not quite. I read an article recently about the final cassette manufacturer left in my state. All they do anymore is audiobooks for the blind.

Blind people rely heavily on cassettes. They're easy to grip, insert and distinguish top from bottom. You can also print Braille on them. They can't deal with CDs (which end is up?), and using voice interfaces on a computer or MP3 player is a huge pain.

[xbl0x180]

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up again this year! I'm sure to spend more than I need to there this summer.

I have a real love/hate with Criterion. Some of the best films I've ever seen are on that label (Seven Samurai, Diabolique) and the absolute worst movie as well (A Taste of Cherry - seriously, WTF?). I have to admit that it's their awesome graphic design department that's responsible for 80% of my purchases with them.

The sale was for this week only, so I think it ends tomorrow right before midnight. I made off like a bandit on Friday by hitting up two B&N stores. I didn't even have to order on-line this time and ended up with 30+ movies and box sets.

Admittedly, I'm also very attracted to the packaging: their logo, their different/alternate versions of covers, DVD extras, booklets, inserts, essays, the whole lot. If I were to compare them to anything, it would be like buying Special Editions of your favourite shoot-'em-up video games. And, in this instance, I do very much go into every bit offered. I watch the behind-the-scenes, listen to the audio commentary, deleted scenes, movie trailers, etc. I freeze-frame, slo-mo, rewind, re-watch, subtitle the hell out of this junk! [/OCD]

Yeah, I'm not your typical movie watcher when it comes to... watching movies

There was a small article in Wired magazine this month about how cassette tapes are now officially cool as they're out of production.

Not quite. I read an article recently about the final cassette manufacturer left in my state. All they do anymore is audiobooks for the blind.

Blind people rely heavily on cassettes. They're easy to grip, insert and distinguish top from bottom. You can also print Braille on them. They can't deal with CDs (which end is up?), and using voice interfaces on a computer or MP3 player is a huge pain.

How hard can playing a CD be? It's only got two sides and the players have, what? 7 or 8 buttons along with volume knobs and bass settings? MP3s [and any other digital media] blow. I would never pay for those - either I download it for free or I don't download it at all

[xbl0x180]

I think I made off with a good score. Here's most of it:

[CMoon]

Curious how three outlaw samurai is.

I was very, VERY tempted by this sale, but tried to be realistic that except for a very small handful of favorite films, I rarely watch something more than once every 5 or 10 years.

[xbl0x180]

Barnes & Noble's Criterion Collection sale is back from the dead I stopped by the local one and got a buncha stuff for 60% OFF (I got the member discount).

[njiska]

I'll half to take a look as I need their Kurosawa stuff.

Still can't believe I found a near mint condition secondhand Blu-Ray of Salo for $10 the last time I was in the states.

[Octopod]

I wish that AK-100 Kurosawa set was Blu-ray. $199 seems pretty decent for that but I don't really like buying DVDs much.