The Criterion Collection has been at
the forefront of boutique home video releasing labels for the past forty years,
beginning with their laserdisc heyday in the 1980s through the late 1990s
before their foray into the DVD and Blu-Ray disc market where they more or less
represented the pinnacle of elite film curation, restoration and
distribution. Always known for their
eclectic choices of film projects to pursue, their comprehensive extras and
their strive to delivery the very best in terms of technical quality from sound
to picture, The Criterion Collection has been the zenith of home video film
collectors for as long as the formats have existed.
But over the last few years or so after
the introduction of a new Blu-Ray format of higher picture and sound quality
now known as 4K Ultra-HD, collectors began to notice something curious about
The Criterion Collection and their refusal for the longest time to adopt the
format into their distribution plan. For
whatever reason while companies like Arrow Video, Vinegar Syndrome and now
Severin Films have since gone 4K UHD disc with many of their releases,
Criterion and its favorite sales partner Barnes & Noble dug their heels in
the ground and proceeded forward with 1080p disc releases of titles that
already had 4K releases elsewhere. The
move put Criterion behind the times and for the first time the company saw most
of its core customer base going elsewhere for some of their high-profile
releases.
After much incessant suggestion (and
backlash from the Blu-Ray community), Criterion have unveiled what could be
their greatest and wisest game changer with an announcement this morning that
the company will at long last finally be going full 4K Ultra-HD disc! A smattering of titles have been teased in
their pre-release announcement which include Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane,
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Jane Campion’s The Piano, The
Hughes Brothers’ Menace II Society, Powell and Pressburger’s The Red
Shoes and finally Richard Lester’s A Hard Day’s Night! Each disc will include a standard Blu-Ray
release and select titles will include Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos sound!
To say this is a major piece of news regarding
4K UHD, The Criterion Collection and the film collecting community in general
is putting it mildly. For decades
Criterion remained the indefatigable monument of cinema curation around the world
and that status was unchanged until the proliferation of the highest quality
home video format currently available became a new norm among videophiles. Now, realizing its time they caught up with
the rest of us, Criterion’s move has shown that yes they are listening to their
core customer base and that they have exciting new developments for their
collection in sore for us! In the coming
weeks more titles will be announced but for now this calls for a celebration!
--Andrew Kotwicki