The recent partnership/combination of Benten Films and Watchmaker Films, both being strong but young labels with worlds of potential, is something that I’m very much excited about.
If both companies can hold on to each other, and survive the next few years of economic hardship, they will essentially become the Criterion Collection for modern world cinema, with a few classic releases thrown in.
Would Kino be considered a label? They do have a nice little collection of films including some that are difficult to find anywhere else. I would recommend Kino for silent film fans especially.
Well I love my MoC DVDs. Their catalogue is probably more selective than Criterion’s but they offer wonderful films and their discs are usually very satisfying in the extra department too. Truly wonderful stuff to discover!
Another great label is Second Run – they are experts in releasing more rare movies from around the world. Most of the DVDs I have are blind buys.
PWA (Polish Audiovisual Publishers/Polskie Wydawnictwo Audiowizualne) have great polish films to offer on DVD (and they are all english-friendly!).
The BFI has become one of my favorite labels – releasing a vast catalogue of DVDs/Blu-rays these guys are truly dedicated to film!
Then there’s the German label Edition Filmmuseum which offer a lot of high quality releases specializing in German and silent movies.
Speaking of silent movies, the Det Danske Filminstitut/Danish Film Institute (DFI) offer a great selection of rare movies too – a lot of early Dreyer, Benjamin Christensen etc.
KinoVideo is very good. Second Run is better. Digital MEME is a still unknown Japanese label – with English subtitles – that restores unknown Japanese silent films. Then, also Eureka, that is almost superior to Criterion.
Masters of Cinema are great- big big thanks for spreading the word with the twinned late Mizoguchi films especially, superb quality sets all round.
Yes, the labels Grey Daisies has suggested are great, too.
I’m personally a fan of plexifilm. Nice mix of art cinema, and art music DVD’s/videos.
http://www.plexifilm.com/
New Yorker was second, for me, until it folded. I guess they’re still up there, but it’s sad they couldn’t make it.
Kenji, aye. I remember the box set with two films by Mizoguchi was elected the best of the year, months ago!
Plexifilm has a few great releases, but has yet to surpass their first, in my opinion. That first release being Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Mysterious Object at Noon.
I really wish that as a company they went more in the direction of releasing films like that, as opposed to where they did wander… into the realm of music documentaries, which has pretty much been hit or miss. I do very much desire their recent and enormous 13 Most Beautiful… Songs for Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests box-set, though.
Palm Pictures is another decent label, very similar to Plexifilm in style and content, but with more feature narratives.
I like the way MOC matched up Mizo period films with contemporary ones. Just a shame they didn’t have room for Tales of the Taira Clan, which i much prefer to Yang Kwei Fei
Maybe it’s just because I enjoy Minutemen, and Wilco (and indeed many of the bands they release documentaries for), so, I still enjoy much of the stuff they’ve released, but I will agree plexifilm hasn’t yet surpassed Mysterious Objects at Noon.
@Soybean – Yes, KINO got great stuff.
The Masters of Cinema is awesome. I only discovered it recently when I picked up De Sica’s hard to find gem “Shoeshine”, and Murnau’s “Tabu”, during a stop in Mumbai, of all places. The extra features are outstanding, the packaging and artwork add to the appeal. I’d love to have the Mizoguchi set.
Another good label is FACETS, which release many fine international films and documentaries, including those from Latin America, Eastern Europe and Africa.
Also BLUE UNDERGROUND, their catalog features lots of cult classics. Notables include Alan Clarke’s "Made in Britain’’ and “The Firm”, Mondo Cane shockumentaries, films of Larry Cohen, Jess Franco, Spaghetti Westerns and many sexy Euro kitsch.
I’ll second Palm Pictures and also mention Celestial Pictures for continually re-releasing and remastering the whole Shaw Brothers back-catalog.
New Yorker got a bad rap from some fans for the quality of there transfers but
i recently watched their release of THE WEEPING MEADOW by Angelopoulos and it is exquisite. I didn’t know they folded. They will be missed.
I like Blue Underground, I like Tartan (actually, I like Tartan Asia Extreme), I like KINO and Facets for the most part, and I like Other Cinema. All of these labels, including the Criterion Collection, have a fair share of crap, but their choices catch my attention pretty often.
—PolarisDiB
Kino and Flicker Alley for silent films especially.
Facets has some good titles, they also have some really mediocre prints.
I subscribe to Film Movement and generally enjoy their selections of contemporary indies.
I’d like to add FANTOMA dvd to the list. Their catalog is small, but the titles selection are good imo. Last time I checked, they’re about to release Sam Fuller’s “Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street”. In the past I’ve purchased a few of their titles like Y. Masumura’s Japanese industry satires and Fassbinder’s early film like “Pioneers in Ingolstadt” and “Martha”. The quality ain’t bad either.
Something Weird Video
www.somethingweird.com
MK2 is a very good French label.
Broad range of stuff from Buster Keaton to Resnais to Van Sant to Kiarosmati to…
Girl bites pen
OK I appreciate this is a Criterion affiliated site and they might not like this thread, but let’s have a go anyway.
One of the other labels I’ve come to trust as much as Criterion is the Masters of Cinema collection. I was just wondering what the opinions on the site were about other labels like MOC and whether we can throw some more into the mix?