I have only taken one semester of Film Crit, and that was in high school (’98). As you can guess High School film crit is probably not the most expansive or in depth of analytical forums. This fact aside I have always been in love with film. If you have been a long time reader of my LJ you may remember my period of reviewing films. I stopped doing that after realising I was a bit pretentious about it with my analysis and lack of background.

I needed to learn more about film (even with my broad history of viewing) so I purchased some books and attempted to expand my viewing range into films I had written off or not heard of. I also started saving up for some Criterion Collection DVDs.

I really love Criterion. They take such great effort to deliver the best possible product with some of the best information they can find. You can really feel the love of the product and the customer with this company. Better than most special edition or collectors editions from other companies, these come with well tracked down historical and analytical information.

Most of the DVDs they put out can be used as a self study of the film, and I can really appreciate that. Now, with a small film vocabulary, I don’t really get lost in these items and I can get into the meaning behind the façade of the film. I have saved up a few times to purchase Criterion DVDs and I will usually buy 3 to 5 at a time with the total between $100 and $150. So far all purchases has been worth every penny.

Let me give you an example from one of the skimpier DVDs I own; Onibaba. I paid $25 for this film and it has probably the least amount of special features that Criterion offers. First the film is restored to excellent quality — which I appreciate a lot, especially after watching a great film like My Left Foot last night which has hundreds of shots with hairs on them, dirt specs and fuzzy audio at times — through a process that is extremely tedious. They also re-translated the English subtitles which are not too big a thing, but it helps the integrity of the film. This is standard with every Criterion along with audio restoration and enhancements. All of this is very important to me, and sometimes enough on its own to warrant the higher price tag of a Criterion DVD. DVDs will frequently have horrible audio where the action (explosions and the like) are extremely loud and the talking is very quite, resulting in horrible balance and an unpleasant viewing experience. The Last of the Mohicans is a recently watched example of this: I had to literally turn on the subtitles with the hotel TV volume all the way up.

I know many people who never watch the extras on DVDs. Generally speaking I don’t either because they are poorly put together and mostly unimportant to the film. For Onibaba they tracked down the original Buddhist fable that inspired the film and retranslated it, giving an unfamiliar viewer a better grasp of the background and relevance of certain aspects. They also tracked down the director and conducted a new interview with him recalling some very interesting points and symbolic choices with the film. Included is some personal footage of the filming of the movie from one of the actors which they found and restored. You also have standard fare trailers, production photos, and promotional material on the DVD.

This is going above and beyond what is needed to put out a historical DVD, especially a little known foreign DVD. I have near total comprehension of the film after two viewings, the interview, filming footage and reading the insert. Well worth the money for a good (not great, though important) film.

I recently had a gift certificate for Best Buy and found the Criterion Collection edition of Ran, a film I had passed on purchasing after watching it a year or so back because of the low quality of the transfer. The new transfer and translation excite me enough about this film, but the special features really get me going. I’ve been a big fan of Akira Kurosawa after receiving The Seven Samurai Criterion Edition for Christmas of ’98 after completing my Film Crit class. I am really looking forward to this full study of Ran.

I guess what I am saying is that Criterion is a really great thing for people like me. I don’t like the price of the DVDs, but no one does. I can respect, and understand it at least.