Yes it is a sad story for people living outside North America.
I wonder if there’s gonna be a online-streaming platform and download-on-demand for Europe (etc.)?
To answer your question; No, Criterion has no plans to ever release discs in Region 2, or “Region B” for blu-ray. For a hundred bucks or so you can get a nice NTSC+PAL Region free dvd player. There’s no hassle to them at all, and they’re far from illegal.
Here’s an extremely long Amazon link to find some on your side of the pond…
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=multi-region+dvd&x=0&y=0
Blu-ray is a whole other issue, you can buy a region free blu-ray player, but at this early stage of the game I wouldn’t trust them quality-wise.
hi steve, im in the UK and have imported criterion discs for almost ten years. i have never heard that multi-region dvd players were illegal, in fact i bought a brand new upscaling one on monday for just £48 from richersounds. as the financial situation at the moment is not in our favour its proving a lot more expensive than it used to be to import discs from the states, but i use dvdslimited.com for all my criterion needs, as theyre the fastest and most reliable service out there. most new releases cost £21 at the moment, but when i get the discs three weeks before theyre actually released in the states im not going to complain! some older titles are £15, which isnt bad at all.
i too am hooked on masters of cinema releases too, but the scattershot nature of the bfi catalog dictates that i find it much harder to get overtly excited about them as a customer. may i suggest the great boutique label “second run” to you? theyre a very small label based in the uk that have released some truly wonderful titles from hungary, czechoslovakia and asia to name but a few places, as well as some wonderful home grown work.
The reason Criterion can’t release stuff in the UK (and, yes, I’m a resident of London, so sometimes share your frustration) is the copyright issue. Many of Criterion’s films are available in the UK, either on the BFI or Masters of Cinema labels, as well as a few others. I’m sure they would love to make them available in the UK, but the rights issues are many, varied and complicated, so have to make do with U.S distribution only. But we live in a world wide age, so there’s plenty of places to buy Criterions, either new or second hand.
As for multi-region dvd players, you can’t go wrong with the Toshiba 230 E, which costs £30 including shipping from Amazon.co.uk. There’s a multi region code on the Amazon page where you buy the dvd from a helpful customer and it takes seconds to input via the remote, and, hey presto, films from around the world. Hope that’s a help.
Happy viewing and Merry Christmas.
there are a few criterion releases that have made it to the uk in one form or another. the chasing amy dvd is the same as the criterion, theyve even used the same menu screens, and its the same with the beastie boys anthology. hardly the two most exciting titles i know, but its interesting to see just how lazy some companies are!
its really strange, but despite the rights issues criterion discs are readily available off of the shelf in many places in paris. i picked up robinson crusoe on mars in virgin megastore there this summer. i have a friend who sold region 1 dvds in his small dvd shop in leeds, and the one area of contention from the authorities funnily enough wasnt issues with rights or anything, but the fact that they werent bbfc rated.
I have to say I’m somewhat baffled by some of Steve’s complaints. For starters, it is NOT illegal, “technically” or otherwise, to own a multi-region player, and neither is it illegal to import a foreign DVD. Secondly, it’s unbelievably easy to go multi-region in Britain – a huge number of players are either multi-region from the start or can be easily modified (often by a remote control hack), and you don’t have to pay through the nose either: my last player cost a grand total of £50 (some three years ago) and plays everything I’ve thrown at it. In theory, some older televisions might baulk at handling NTSC video signals, but in my experience they generally have to be ancient: most modern sets should have no problem whatsoever. Certainly, it is far, far easier to go multi-region in PAL-using countries (i.e. Europe) than it is in NTSC-using ones (i.e. the US/Japan).
The reason Criterion doesn’t release its films in Britain (aside from licensing its masters – for instance, Masters of Cinema’s F FOR FAKE has the same core transfer as the Criterion) is because it generally doesn’t license the distribution rights outside North America. There’s no reason why they couldn’t, but it would cost them more (they’d have to pay an upfront fee to the rightsholder for each additional territory), and they’d almost certainly reason that hardcore fans would import anyway, so there’d be no advantage.
And the reason you can’t buy imported Criterions over the counter in Britain is to do with the 1984 Video Recordings Act, which doesn’t apply in France (or indeed anywhere else). Basically, with only a few exceptions (documentaries and music titles, generally), ALL video recordings, regardless of format, have to be approved by the British Board of Film Classification, which pretty much prevents imports from being sold in the UK. But since it’s generally much cheaper to order them online from abroad (bricks-and-mortar retailers add a hefty premium), it’s not a major problem.
I also strongly disagree that Masters of Cinema and the BFI are the only outstanding arthouse labels in the UK – just off the top of my head, there’s Artificial Eye, Axiom, Mr Bongo, Optimum, Second Run, Second Sight and Soda Pictures, most of whom are very reliable indeed (Mr Bongo got off to a dreadful start, but has significantly raised its game since). In fact, so healthy is the British arthouse DVD sector at the moment that I find I’m importing less and less from the US – probably just as well given the current exchange rate, but the slowdown was months before the credit crunch.
You can order them from Amazon.com but it would be nice if you could order direct from Criterion….
I’ve always bought my Criterions from Amazon. If they come in at over £18 (the brake point for incurring import duty) get them delivered to my daughter who lives in New Jersey, to be picked up on my next visit. And, as a matter of principle, I’ve always purchased region free players.
The Criterion film quality, packaging and presentation are always beyond reproach, although sometimes companies like Artificial Eye top them: compare both editions of Tarkovsky’s Solaris and AE is the best – although the AE Andrei Rublev is the shorter version (God knows why).
The problem now is blu-ray. The increase in quality is significant and I made a resolution to stop buying DVDs (except for vintage films only available on DVDRs). With a 40-inch screen, even a good upscaling player can’t beat the real McCoy, and some films just deserve the very best. With a Fellini collection only two-thirds complete (DVD-wise) I now have to start upgrading what I already have!
As someone mentioned above, region-free blu-ray players only play DVDs from other regions. We can only wait and hope that comprehensive region-free blu-ray players to start to appear on the market.
steve hardisty
Is there any chance criterion could make available their DVDs in the UK? Apart from the odd UK label such as masters of cinema and BFI there is an appalling defict in the quality and range of world cinema titles which meet the excellent standards of criterion. Multi-region DVD players are a hassle (and technically illegal) and the emergence of criterion’s blue ray range makes the situation for UK film lovers even more desperate. For instance I’m in a state of frenzied anticipation with the news of the latest Rossellini releases.