The following is a bootleg version of a presentation on the Criterion Collection, narrated Peter Bogdanovich (Last Picture Show), and shown at Il Cinema Ritrovato (via CriterionCast).
Bogdanovich illustrates the inventiveness of Criterion’s work beginning with its Laserdisc releases on up through their DVD releases, which is to say the presentation was made before Criterion started releasing Blu-rays in December 2008.
Most interesting are the titles the Collection released on Laserdisc that we may never see them get their hands on again, titles such as Citizen Kane, Blade Runner, King Kong and The Wizard of Oz. The list goes on from there and can be seen in full right here. Nowadays studios handle their own special edition releases as I’m sure they would prefer to see all the profits go in their pockets rather than Criterion’s, but I think we all know, nothing can replace a Criterion release of a classic film.
