The Criterion Collection

"The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents...""

- The back of every Criterion release ever

The Criterion Collection is a series of video releases of, in its words, "important classic and contemporary films". Its first releases were laserdiscs of Citizen Kane and King Kong; it currently releases DVD and Blu Ray editions of films. The films the above description covers range from cult classics to internationally acknowledged masterpieces, and from the silent era to the Present Day; no genre or country of origin is left unturned.

Since its founding in 1984 by arthouse film distributor Janus Films, Criterion pioneered much of what is now taken for granted on DVD and Blu-ray releases: the use of letterboxing to preserve the correct aspect ratio of a film, audio commentaries (which they essentially created on the laserdisc of King Kong), director's cuts, and including supplemental materials. And when it comes to supplements, they have supplements -- every trailer and TV spot that can be scrounged up, vintage and new documentaries, thick booklets of critical essays -- even print copies of the source material if the film was an adaptation of a short story or novel... Criterion are also noted for the intense care they take to clean up the film prints and for the quality of their finished products.

Criterion licenses titles from their studios, so the releases occasionally go out of print... taking their bonus features with them. Also note that Up Marketing applies to the collection, due in part to the relatively small audiences for many of these films; with rare exceptions, a single-disc title is $30 (U.S.)...and many, many Criterion releases are multi-disc sets. Their "Essential Art House" line of discs offers a budget alternative -- it consists of particularly famous Collection films without bonus features for $20 each. Another line, Eclipse, consists solely of box sets that collect such thematically linked titles as the more obscure work of particularly prolific major filmmakers (i.e., a set of early Ingmar Bergman titles), and the works of lesser-known but innovative ones.

As of 2011, and including titles no longer in print, the Criterion Collection has released 562 films on DVD. Each film has a spine number, ostensibly to denote the order in which Criterion released it to DVD. Updated versions of a Criterion release inherit the spine number from the previous version. For instance, Seven Samurai has a spine number of "2", denoting that it was the second DVD Criterion released (the first for those keeping score at home was The Grand Illusion). When Criterion issued a three disc set for Seven Samurai in 2006, it supplanted that earlier (and now out of print) DVD from the late 90's.

Directors frequently included in the Criterion Collection:

 * Robert Altman
 * Paul Thomas Anderson
 * Wes Anderson
 * Ingmar Bergman
 * Frank Capra
 * Charlie Chaplin
 * David Cronenberg
 * Federico Fellini
 * David Fincher
 * Terry Gilliam
 * Alfred Hitchcock
 * The Hughes Brothers
 * Stanley Kubrick
 * Akira Kurosawa
 * Kenji Mizoguchi
 * Orson Welles
 * Roman Polanski
 * Martin Scorsese
 * Andrei Tarkovsky
 * Jacques Tati
 * Francois Truffaut

Films released in The Criterion Collection include:

 * Eight and A Half (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * 12 Angry Men (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * The 39 Steps (LD/DVD)
 * 2001: A Space Odyssey (LD)
 * Ace in The Hole (DVD)
 * The Adventures of Antoine Doinel
 * The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (LD)
 * The Adventures of Robin Hood (LD)
 * Akira (LD)
 * Amarcord (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Anatomy of a Murder (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Andrei Rublev (LD/DVD)
 * Annie Hall (LD)
 * Antichrist (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Armageddon (LD/DVD)
 * Arsenic and Old Lace (LD)
 * Bad Day At Black Rock (LD)
 * Bad Timing (DVD)
 * The Battle of Algiers (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Beastie Boys Video Anthology(DVD)
 * Beauty and The Beast (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Belle De Jour (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Being John Malkovich (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * The Big Chill (LD)
 * Blade Runner (LD)
 * The Blob (1958) (LD/DVD)
 * Boogie Nights (LD)
 * Bottle Rocket (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Boyz N the Hood (LD)
 * Bram Stokers Dracula (LD)
 * Brazil (LD/DVD)
 * Breaker Morant (LD)
 * Broadcast News (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * La Cage Aux Folles (LD)
 * Carrie (LD)
 * Casablanca (LD)
 * Cat People (LD)
 * Charade (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Chasing Amy (LD/DVD)
 * Chungking Express (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * El Cid (LD)
 * Citizen Kane (LD)
 * Close Encounters of the Third Kind (LD)
 * Closely Watched Trains (DVD)
 * The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Crash (LD)
 * The Darjeeling Limited (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Daysof Heaven (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Dazed and Confused (DVD)
 * Dead Presidents (LD)
 * Dersu Uzala (LD)
 * The Devil and Daniel Webster (LD/DVD)
 * Diabolique (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Do the Right Thing (LD/DVD)
 * The Double Life of Veronique (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Dr. No (LD)
 * Dr. Strangelove (LD)
 * The English Patient (LD)
 * Equinox (DVD)
 * Evita (LD)
 * F for Fake (DVD)
 * Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * The Fisher King (LD)
 * Five Easy Pieces (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Forbidden Planet (LD)
 * From Russia With Love (LD)
 * The Game (LD)
 * Ghostbusters (LD)
 * Godzilla (1954, aka Gojira) (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Godzilla, King Of the Monsters (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Goldfinger (LD)
 * The Graduate (LD)
 * The Grand Illusion (LD/DVD)
 * The Great Dictator (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * The Great Escape (LD)
 * Halloween (LD)
 * Hard Boiled (LD/DVD)
 * A Hard Days Night (LD)
 * Harold and Maude (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Hausu (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Haxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (DVD)
 * Head (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Heaven Can Wait (DVD)
 * Help (LD)
 * The Hidden Fortress (LD/DVD)
 * High Noon (LD)
 * Howards End (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Hunger (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * If (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Ikiru (LD/DVD)
 * In the Mood For Love (DVD)
 * In the Realm of The Senses (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (LD)
 * It's a Wonderful Life (LD)
 * Jason and The Argonauts (LD)
 * Jungle Book (DVD)
 * The Killer (LD/DVD)
 * King Kong (LD)
 * The Lady Eve (DVD)
 * Lady for A Day (LD)
 * The Lady Vanishes (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * The Last Emperor (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Last Tango in Paris (LD)
 * The Last Temptation of Christ (LD/DVD)
 * Lawrence of Arabia (LD)
 * Le Samourai (DVD)
 * The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (DVD)
 * The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (DVD)
 * Life of Brian (LD/DVD)
 * Lolita (1962) (LD)
 * Lord of the Flies (1963) (LD/DVD)
 * M (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Man Bites Dog (LD/DVD)
 * The Man Who Fell to Earth (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Menace II Society (LD)
 * Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Midnight Cowboy (LD)
 * Missing (DVD)
 * Modern Times (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * My Dinner With Andre (DVD)
 * My Man Godfrey (DVD)
 * My Own Private Idaho (DVD)
 * Monty Python and The Holy Grail (LD)
 * Naked Lunch (DVD)
 * A Night At the Opera (LD)
 * A Night to Remember (LD/DVD)
 * The Night of the Hunter (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * North By Northwest (LD)
 * Notorious (LD/DVD)
 * Onibaba (DVD)
 * The Passion of Joan of Arc (DVD)
 * Paths of Glory (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Peeping Tom (LD/DVD)
 * Picnic At Hanging Rock (LD/DVD)
 * Pink Flamingos (LD)
 * The Player (LD)
 * The Princess Bride (LD)
 * The Producers (1968) (LD)
 * Pulp Fiction (LD)
 * Raging Bull (LD)
 * Ran (DVD)
 * Rashomon (LD/DVD)
 * Rebecca (LD/DVD)
 * The Red Balloon (DVD)
 * Red Beard (DVD)
 * Robocop (LD/DVD)
 * The Rock (LD/DVD)
 * The Royal Tenenbaums (DVD)
 * Rushmore (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Salò/or the 120 Days of Sodom (LD/DVD)
 * Sanjuro (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Se7en (LD)
 * Seven Samurai (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * The Seventh Seal (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Short Cuts (LD/DVD)
 * The Silence of the Lambs (LD/DVD)
 * Silverado (LD)
 * Singin in The Rain (LD)
 * Slacker (DVD)
 * Solaris (1972) (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Some Like It Hot (LD)
 * Spartacus (LD/DVD)
 * Spellbound (DVD)
 * Stagecoach (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Taxi Driver (LD)
 * The Thief of Bagdad (1940) (DVD)
 * The Third Man (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * The Thin Red Line (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * This Is Spinal Tap (LD/DVD)
 * Three Colors Trilogy (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Throne of Blood (LD/DVD)
 * Time Bandits (LD/DVD)
 * Tootsie (LD)
 * Topsy Turvy (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Traffic (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Trainspotting (LD)
 * Trouble in Paradise (DVD)
 * Unfaithfully Yours (DVD)
 * The Vanishing (1988) (DVD)
 * Videodrome (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * West Side Story (LD)
 * Withnail and I (LD/DVD)
 * The Wizard of Oz (LD)
 * W.R.: Mysteries of the Organism (DVD)
 * Yi Yi (DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Yojimbo (LD/DVD/Blu-ray)
 * Z (LD/DVD)