For christmas, my grandparents are thinking of getting me the Criterion box set of Truffaut's 'THE ADVENTURES OF ANTOINE DOINEL'.

I actually don't own a singly criterion (I should start), and I wanted to know if the english subtitles are optional, 'cause I speak french...

I think it's just as optional as it would be on any other DVD.

Even if you did have subtitles you can't remove, what's it matter? Criterion does awesome transfers and extra features.

Just a basic question while on the subject of Criterion, why are they so much more expensive than other dvds? I mean there are so many films that Criterion has that I would love to see, but I can;t afford to buy em, and no video stores ever have them. This is just quite troubling for me because I'm gunna get the John Cassavetes 5 pack Criterion Collection but I've never seen a Cassavetes film cause theres no way to see em unless I buy em, and I'd be blowing over a hundred bucks if I find out I hate his work or soemthing, and that $100 is like a third of the budget for my feature film im doin this summer so obviously its alot to me.

They're expensive because the people that do the mastering/transfers are employees of Criterion, not people from the studios that own the film. So Criterion has to pay the studio for permission to scan the negatives to get the best transfer possible, and then pay people to fix anything that's wrong with the negative, and make sure it all looks like it's supposed to.

Sometimes they get ahold of the director, d.p., editor, or whoever else they can, and ask them about the film so that they can make adjustments to these people's requests, because we know that studios don't always listen to what the creative department says. Getting a hold of these people takes time and money.

And usually, Criterion goes out of their way to find other things to put on the DVD: documentaries by other people, interviews with historians, the student films. All these things cost time and money to do, which Criterion pays for, not the studios that own the film.

This is also a reason why some Criterion DVDs are hard to find, because they studio will only let them make a limited number of copies.


Cassavetes films are "different". The most I can describe them as are Jean-Luc Goddard films in that they didn't really care about the "rules" of filmmaking as much as they did about the actors living out the character's lives. So the framing is off sometimes, sometimes it's out of focus, sometimes there's no edits. But this is because Cassavetes wasn't worried about all that stuff. He wouldn't yell cut because the actor went out of focus if the actor wss really getting into the character. And if that's the best performance they get, then that's what makes it into the film.

One way I think about his films, and that I like, it's sort of a cross between theatre and home movies. Cassavetes was an actor, and he knew some of the best actors in theatre and film, so he would get them to act for his movies. So imagine if all these actors are your friends, and you decided to make home movies of them acting out characters. That's the sense you get from his movies. It's a bunch of people sitting around, making low-production home movies of really intimate and intense portrayals of human beings.

I don't think there's any one of his films that I like all the way through, but there's some really good stuff in each one. Really good writing too. It's like real people talking about the stupid things people talk about in real life. It's not witty like Tarantino, or well planned out like the Coens (they tend to use a lot of "real" dialogue too, but it's too polished to be reallly real)


that's my take on it anyways. i think Netflix has Criterion DVDs on it's list, so you can watch them before you buy them.

thanx alot, i really appreciate it, that helps me alot