I question the legality and justification of this thread. If this was simply free domain films or commercial sites such as Hulu, there is no problem. But most of the links here are blatant piracy.
Im not trying to take a moral high ground or anything, I just find it sort of strange that people seem to be so “open” about it in a forum made by a company who is trying to sell DVDs…
I mean, whats stopping people from posting torrent sites here? Not to mention sites like ninjavideo.net who post DVD quality rips of movies that aren’t even released yet, like Slumdog Millionare and The Reader?
I mean, whats stopping people from posting torrent sites here? Not to mention sites like ninjavideo.net who post DVD quality rips of movies that aren’t even released yet, like Slumdog Millionare and The Reader?
Heh, I think you just did.
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I don’t think there’s anything wrong with pointing folks in the direction of video sharing sites that are hosting films, Monster – if the videos are violations of said sites TOS, then they’ll be taken down. However, I agree with you on your second point – torrent sites just seem silly to post here.
You beat me to it, Neh!
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In all honesty my actual opinion of file piracy and the like is not a negative one. Personally I only buy music that I’ve already heard, in other words, have downloaded. if anything, I only started buying cds and vinyl once file sharing got big. The same can be said about film and other media…
I just wanted to point out the questionable nature of the thread out of respect for the site’s owners who are indeed trying to run a business. I mean for what its worth, a good portion of the non-youtube links here are completely legit. I just sort of wanted to address the issue before the thread got out of hand. And maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned ninjavideo, I only did because I assume everyone already knows it. I figure if you pirate, you already use it, and if you don’t, me posting it won’t change that.
So yea sorry guys if I pooped all over this thread, didnt mean to really.
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Well I think there’s an important distinction to be made between watching obscure films on video sites and downloading torrents of screeners and cammed movies. There’s also an important distinction between file sharing and piracy.
As far as rare, out of print, or public domain works are concerned, I wholeheartedly encourage sharing. If cinemaphiles can’t learn about those films and share links to watch them on this site, where can they? If I once saw a dirty VHS copy of a 35mm print of an obscure icelandic-language film from 1970 at a friends house who got the tape from the cousin of this guy he met in a dungeon in Tulsa and was only ever screened once and never released, and I’ve managed to FINALLY find it online, well I’m going to talk about it to others who share my interests and tastes.
If anything, I want to conjure up as much excitement over it as I can so that maybe a reputable and talented distributor like Criterion will restore it, research it, interview the cast and director, and slap it all in a two-disc set for my utter delight and amusement. The long tail theory at work!
Lastly, let’s not let the obvious pass us by – this is a Criterion-affiliated site, after all. What better way to determine their market than this site? I love them for it, because everyone benefits. I get a place like this to write the diatribe you just read (amongst other conversations, of course) and they get a thriving community demanding that their favorite films get the Criterion polish!
Yeah, in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have posted the link to the Freaky Flicks group and I apologize for that. Although in my defense, I would like to point out their mandate seems focused on rare, hard-to-find films, many of which of not commercially available (at least not on my continent, anyways). However, files of dubious legality will appear there, and this probably isn’t the ideal forum for those kind of sites.
I’m still an unrepentant file sharer, though. If not for this shady underground world of online cinephiles and torrent sites, I would not have movies like Chimes at Midnight, A Brighter Summer Day, Los Angeles Plays Itself, Celine & Julie Go Boating, and various other rare treats that aren’t commercially available. So thank god for an online system that can keep such movies alive until someone is willing or able to commit to a proper DVD release.
Also, by the way, Archive.org is completely legit as well (they only post public domain works—yes, The Naked Kiss is public domain, apparently). I’m not sure about UbuWeb, and as for Superstar…well, screw Mattel.
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NEH, haven’t you heard? Home taping is killing movies. And it’s illegal.
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Criterion Index from Quicksilverscreen Forum has a good portion of the Criterion Index. Some work, others don’t.
http://ipb.quicksilverscreen.com/index.php?showtopic=87820&st=0&start=0
A Girl, She is 100% : http://vimeo.com/2838020
Watch it before it’s gone!
One my my favorite short stories adapted by one of my favorite filmmakers. Naoto Yamakawa’s Attack on the Bakery is excellent, too.
http://www.cinetube.es/
Everything has been taken down. Please anyone have some active links to accounts of whole films I can view on youtube? I will give you $500
www.indiemoviesonline.com
they have free movies and are now showing Slacker plus odd ones like Saturn 3 and Madame Sin (with Bette Davis)
if they had a better forum, itd be time to jump ship
http://www.archive.org/
Reviving this thread just in case anyone else has more suggestions.
Thanks, Grey!
Thanks for the link NEH! Guy Maddin’s Night Mayor is now loading in HD (O:
Brilliant: Watch more than 500 Russian movies (Tarkovsky etc.) online: Mosfilm
Popular Soviet and Russian films for free viewing.
Golden collection of Mosfilm Studios comprises unique works of Soviet and Russian cinematography which are reflections of the times when they were created. Now the good news is that to anyone in any part of the world the best of Soviet and Russian films are available for free online viewing in the showing rooms of our online cinema.
Every day in the two showing rooms of our round-the-clock cinema we offer free online presentation of the pictures from Mosfilm Cinema Concern archive. Every week the playbill of the showing rooms is changed. Free movies online from the famous Mosfilm Studios in good quality, watching favourite old Soviet comedies at convenient time is simple.
We offer for viewing and downloading a wide range of films from one of the best studios of the Russian cinematography.
Free viewing online at any time any picture from Mosfilm cinema website catalogue which interests you.
the link for mosfilm/ru seems inaccessible, to me at least, but they can be found here : http://www.youtube.com/user/mosfilm
Ubuweb is a great resource if you don’t mind watching miniatures.
There’s also many of the BFI films on DailyMotion
Joseph Caouette
Kudos, Neh, on a great thread topic.
There are a few big resources that have probably been mentioned elsewhere on the forums, but haven’t been mentioned in this thread. First, there’s UbuWeb , a vast collection of experimental filmmaking that includes quite a few notable names. And there’s also Archive.org , which has more films than I could ever link to. To name one example, I recently downloaded Samuel Fuller’s The Naked Kiss from the site, and there are many more excellent older Hollywood and foreign films to be found, including stuff from Hitchcock, John Huston, Fritz Lang, and Howard Hawks, just to name a few.
You can download Todd Haynes’ Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story from this site: http://www.illegal-art.org/video/index.html
The National Film Board of Canada is digitally archiving their films and making them available as streaming video on their site, which means a lot of pro-Canadian propaganda films, but also some really excellent short animation and other strange wonders: http://www.nfb.ca/
And finally, a great resource for the torrent-inclined: http://freakyflicks.proboards54.com/