I just spotted this gem, and man would I love this for Christmas: Going back to my childhood I’ve always noticed that Janus Films logo whenever I’d see a offbeat movie. The company was founded in 1956, and one of the co-founders ran the 55th Street Playhouse in New York City which was one of the first cinemas to specialize in art house films. Over the years they’ve distributed films from some of the best directors from Federico Fellini to Akira Kurosawa. In 2006 to celebrate their 50th anniversary the Criterion Collection put out a 50 set DVD collection titled Essential Art House – 50 Years of Janus Films. To me this would be the ultimate gift for any cinema fanboy, in fact I’d say owning the set would be like taking a college level course on film history. Here’s a trailer showing some of the goodies in the collection:
Cinema fanboys rejoice! The Criterion Collection has started putting their films online for viewing. Unlike YouTube this will cost you $5 a movie, but the quality and variety is high. To me this is an important first step as my prediction is a that over the next few years we’ll see traditional media not only embrace the likes of YouTube, but my gut feeling is that this may lead to something that may be the next golden age of a new medium. But for now I’d suggest checking out the vintage 1972 science fiction film Solaris before the revolution starts.
