Filmstruck / Criterion Channel

The film streaming service from TCM & Criterion Collection goes live in 13 days — October 19th.
$6.99/month for the basic service, $10.99/month (or $99/year) for Filmstruck + Criterion Channel

Who's in?

looks good that they have the commentaries, extras etc of Criterion discs, or at least some of that kind of content. i hope this won't mean the end of the Criterion blu rays. i'm expecting 'that market' will always want the 36 page books and fancy packaging and such. i know i will.

http://www.filmstruck.com/

I'm in.

i wonder why the TCM lot and the Criterion gang decided to get into bed together. i mean Criterion doesn't seem like an obvious match for Ted 'Colourization' Turner.

Turner hasn't been involved in years...? TCM is a pretty good channel. Have they ever shown a colorized film?

Cons: US only, no Roku support at launch, extreme vagueness (how many films? "HUNDREDS of films!")

But I'll sign up, at least for a few months.

I'll wait to start until Criterion joins up in November. I'll drop the $99 for their catalog alone.

Criterion won't be available from day 1? I hadn't heard that part.

Yet no one posts on my Fandor thread

November 11th for Criterion. They have to wait for the Hulu deal to expire.

Not bad, if you do the $99 once-a-year payment, it's about $20 cheaper than a year of Netflix. Is there any way to browse the TCM catalog at the moment?

On their FB page they said Criterion will be available at launch.

I want to sign up but my two devices (Nvidia Shield TV and XB1) aren't supported.

I went by this press release that says the 1th of November.

https://thefilmstage.com/news/filmstruck-and-the-criterion-channel-reveal-subscription-pricing-plans/

Been reading a lot of information on the website and elsewhere, but haven't seen anything that says the TCM movies will also be part of the package. I have a nagging feeling that they're not. Also wonder if the Criterion movies will be available in 1080, instead of the 720 now on Hulu.

I don't think everything on nightly at TCM will be on there but a selection of TCM-sequel films.

I'm going to guess it will be like Mubi with a larger rotating library plus Criterion.

TCM-esque

yeah, TCM's tweet that filmstruck "will focus on indie, foreign & cult titles, not Old Hollywood. Some limited titles, not many" considerably dampened my enthusiasm.

https://twitter.com/tcm/status/777661149911347200

my guess is milo z otm re: criterion plus larger mubi. Which is cool, but not the turner library plus janus library nearly nonstop excellence that i had prematurely imagined

I have a Hulu subscription and honestly never watched a single Criterion title. The ones I want, I just buy.

I was excited when I thought this was gonna be criterion + old Hollywood tcm stuff. The latter element was critical for me. If it's criterion + buffet of other stuff then no.

Yeah, that's a bummer. I figured $99 was a no brainer but if it's Criterion plus some random rotating films I don't know.

basically i would pay... let's see... $15 a month for some reasonable fascimile of access to TCM's programming without having to have fucking cable tv

aw man. I too was pretty stoked for the TCM+Criterion version of this.

This weird in-between time where the biggest events still happen on old-fashioned cable TV, the "prestige" TEH DISCOURSE TV shows are on Netflix, film is either exploded across multiple competing streaming services or iTunes rental downloads that disappear after 24 hours or totally unavailable, video stores are rare — is totally excruciating.

whiney otm, i feel a deep nostalgia for, like, 2008-2010, when a full decade of DVD production had led to lot of foreign/classic/arthouse stuff to be available, and Netflix was still in the business of providing just about any DVD that got produced.

Like, the fact that we let this happen is ridiculous: http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/2014/09/12/netflix_streaming_dvds/

maybe i just wasn't reading the early filmstruck announcements carefully, but it seems like everyone i know was expecting it to have a major focus on classic hollywood, given tcm's involvement. My guess is that getting streaming rights to that old hollywood stuff is probably just insanely complicated and, from a business perspective, not worth the investment of time and resources. Still disappointing though.

I've never watched any Criterions on Hulu but that's because their interface is such a disaster - you don't know what's streaming in HD, there's no easy way to sort the entire Criterion list, etc. Higher hopes for this, though I'm a lot less inclined toward a burning need to watch Truffaut than when I was 23.

Their interface/searching/tagging/credits is all pretty awful in comparison to Netflix and even Amazon Prime. That said, damn I'm gonna have to rush out some screenings before they leave. Better get Lady Snowblood queued up.

The FAQ has changed to specify that only 4th-gen Apple TV will support this, so me and my 3rd-gen box are out of luck. I'll have to load a film on my iMac and push it to the tv with Airplay.

With airplay/casting, does it make a difference if you're casting from a phone vs. a computer?

(I think my Apple TV is second generation...)

I honestly don't know. That time David Lynch cussed traumatized me so bad I've never tried watching film or video on my phone.

sad trombone

Hello film fans:

We want to share some news that the launch of FilmStruck is delayed until November as we work to complete a seamless and easy registration process for subscribers.

Just like the final stages of completing a film, this additional time will allow us to put the finishing touches on FilmStruck in order to bring you a premium service with beautifully curated content and the largest streaming library of world-renowned arthouse, indie, cult and foreign films. Rest assured, we're working hard to bring you the high-quality streaming movie service you've been waiting for.

Thank you for both your patience and your enthusiastic interest in FilmStruck.

The FilmStruck Team

At this point they should wait until the Hulu contract for the Criterions expires.

Yep. I wasn't planning on starting any free trial until everything was available.

Launched.
Looks like the Criterions are up with an 11-day overlap with Hulu. Seeing a lot of fussing on the Facebook page about errors while setting up payment.

Anyone start using this yet? Any thoughts (apart from the still unavailable (?) Criterions?

I'm in, just getting the apps installed now. I need a tivo app! Apple and Amazon will do for now.

Sound like it's worth waiting a few weeks for them to get all the bugs worked out

Not available on Roku til Jan so nope for a while. Also copy on their site suggested that virtually all Criterions wd be available but several that I've searched for are not (incl All That Jazz, ugh)

They have someone responding to comments on Facebook, putting on the shiny happy face but being really vague with specific questions.

Some Guy Named Dave: Your Criterion selection seems to be quite limited. Are you ever going to offer the same number of Criterion titles as Hulu - over 900?

FilmStruck: Hi Dave, on the #CriterionChannel side you will find the largest selection of Criterion releases available to stream

Me: That doesn't really answer the question that was asked...

FilmStruck: #CriterionChannel has the largest Criterion selection available streaming, more than was ever available elsewhere.

Me: Ozu on Hulu: 30 features, 2 shorts and a trailer
Ozu on Filmstruck: looks like 18 features

Filmstruck: (crickets)

Huh, why would it have less than Hulu does? That doesn't make any sense to me. I did notice through a cursory search that they had at least two titles not on Hulu (Godard's Every Man for Himself and Yang's A Brighter Summer Day), so I was hopeful that maybe it had more than Hulu.

It doesn't have all the Oshima titles that are currently on Hulu either

I'm hoping they're still loading up the buffet table. They have quite a few things that aren't on Hulu -- Blood Simple, that JFK documentary stuff. They got The Killing of a Chinese Bookie back, which disappeared from Hulu a year or more ago.

I'm hopeful too, though the way filmstruck has been marketed and rolled out has dampened my expectations all around

Even Criterion doesn't have the rights to all the Criterions anymore

yeah, otm, and i'm sure there are a number of criterions that got dvd release, but where they never had streaming rights. the more i search around on filmstruck the more i think that WilliamC is probably right that they're still adding movies to the service.

hm. no amazon app even!

TBF, this is the day where they're going nuts with the press.

Good timing on No Home Movie!

Bros Quay!

Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay! (as i've never seen them refered to as)

Chantal Akerman getting a Criterion Channel spotlight in June, including her hard-to-come-by musical GOLDEN EIGHTIES, which I’ve only seen sans subs pic.twitter.com/3TproQHd6Z

— Scott Nye (@railoftomorrow) May 20, 2020

🚨 ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM: "COMPANY" coming to Criterion Channel in June 🚨 pic.twitter.com/jWGps6rnKU

— Marshall Shaffer (@media_marshall) May 20, 2020

https://thefilmstage.com/the-criterion-channels-june-lineup-features-chantal-akerman-early-scorsese-mike-leigh-more/

Alice, Jan Švankmajer, 1988
All or Nothing, Mike Leigh, 2002
Almayer’s Folly, Chantal Akerman, 2011
American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince, Martin Scorsese, 1978
And When I Die, I Won’t Stay Dead, Billy Woodberry, 2015
Another Country, Marek Kanievska, 1984
Another Year, Mike Leigh, 2010**
Anybody’s Woman, Bette Gordon, 1981
Artie Shaw’s Class in Swing, Leslie M. Roush, 1939
The Big Shave, Martin Scorsese, 1967
Black and Tan, Dudley Murphy, 1929
Black Peter, Miloš Forman, 1964
Born Free, James Hill, 1966
A Bundle of Blues, Fred Waller, 1933
But I’m a Cheerleader, Jamie Babbit, 1999
Cab Calloway’s Hi-De-Ho, Fred Waller, 1934
Call Your Father, Jordan Firstman, 2016
La captive, Chantal Akerman, 2000
Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman, Chantal Akerman, 1997
Columbus, Kogonada, 2017**
The Count of Monte Cristo, Rowland V. Lee, 1934
Death in Venice, Luchino Visconti, 1971
Dirt Daughter, Marnie Ellen Hertzler, 2019
Down There, Chantal Akerman, 2006
Empty Suitcases, Bette Gordon, 1980
The Eyes of Orson Welles, Mark Cousins, 2018
From the East, Chantal Akerman, 1993
From the Other Side, Chantal Akerman, 2002
Golden Eighties, Chantal Akerman, 1986
Grand Prix, John Frankenheimer, 1966
Greetings from Africa, Cheryl Dunye, 1996
Happy-Go-Lucky, Mike Leigh, 2008
Histoires d’Amérique: Food, Family and Philosophy, Chantal Akerman, 1989
Hoagy Carmichael, Leslie M. Roush, 1939
Husbands, John Cassavetes, 1970
I Surrender Dear, Mack Sennett, 1931
I-94, Bette Gordon and James Benning, 1974
Intimate Lighting, Ivan Passer, 1965
Into the West, Mike Newell, 1992
It’s Not Just You, Murray!, Martin Scorsese, 1964
Italianamerican, Martin Scorsese, 1974
Janine, Cheryl Dunye, 1990
The Living End, Gregg Araki, 1992
Loves of a Blonde, Miloš Forman, 1965
Luminous Motion, Bette Gordon, 1998
Mafioso, Alberto Lattuada, 1962
Maurice, James Ivory, 1987
Michigan Avenue, Bette Gordon and James Benning, 1973
Museum Hours, Jem Cohen, 2012
My Beautiful Laundrette, Stephen Frears, 1985
My Own Private Idaho, Gus Van Sant, 1991
Mysterious Skin, Gregg Araki, 2004
Olivia, Jacqueline Audry, 1951
One Day Pina Asked . . . , Chantal Akerman, 1983
Original Cast Album: “Company,” D. A. Pennebaker, 1970
The Owls, Cheryl Dunye, 2010
Parting Glances, Bill Sherwood, 1986
The Potluck and the Passion, Cheryl Dunye, 1993
Red Road, Andrea Arnold, 2006
The Red Tree, Paul Rowley, 2018
A Rhapsody in Black and Blue, Aubrey Scotto, 1932
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World, Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana, 2017
Sergeant York, Howard Hawks, 1941
She Don’t Fade, Cheryl Dunye, 1991
Sing, Bing, Sing, Babe Stafford, 1933
South, Chantal Akerman, 1999
Spellbound, Jeffrey Blitz, 2002
St. Louis Blues, Dudley Murphy, 1929
Symphony in Black: A Rhapsody of Negro Life, Fred Waller, 1935
Synonyms, Nadav Lapid, 2019
Tarnation, Jonathan Caouette, 2003
Totally F***ed Up, Gregg Araki, 1993
The United States of America, Bette Gordon and James Benning, 1975
An Untitled Portrait, Charyl Dunye, 1993
Vanilla Sex, Cheryl Dunye, 1992
Variety, Bette Gordon, 1983**
Vera Drake, Mike Leigh, 2004
The Watermelon Woman, Cheryl Dunye, 1996
West Side Story, Robert Wise, Jerome Robbins, 1961
What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?, Martin Scorsese, 1963
Zombi Child, Bertrand Bonello, 2019

I'm excited about the Akerman collection. A lot of those were in a collection on Filmstruck and I didn't manage to watch them all. Now I can get caught up and then some.

Looking forward to seeing the Akerman films on the Criterion Channel, I haven't seen any of them

Just did a Targets rewatch. Quite something.

(the newly added Akerman films)

noticed that Synonyms is on that list, would recommend it

looking forward to seeing Zombi Child

I like some of that guy's other stuff.

in Synonyms Tom Mercier is both really relatable and strange/unknowable, I think it’s one of the more interesting first-time performances I have seen

I don't listen to many commentary tracks because I don't make a lot of time to rewatch films, but the commentary for The Limey is interesting and hilarious, with screenwriter Lem Dobbs grousing at Soderbergh's choices of what to cut from his script, and Soderbergh mostly just taking it, occasionally pushing back.

anyone experienced/solved this? watched Anna Christie yesterday, can't see shit today! It sucks. Keep it simple, i'm a moron here.

https://gizmodo.com/the-criterion-channel-should-be-my-favorite-streaming-p-1834150845

I've had a good experience with the iOS app. I think it has better developer support than some of the other stuff they're doing.

Limey commentary is a true classic of the form

Morbs, are you watching on a browser window, or on a tv with a streaming device like Roku or Apple TV? Need some more details. Thanks to HDCP Chrome on Mac won't work for playback, but Safari works fine.

I'm also having trouble! Glad I wasn't alone.

I use Chrome on my Dell laptop.

Just checked the Criterion Channel facebook group and apparently this is cropping up for a number of users. Alfred, do you watch on the laptop screen or push the video to a tv with an HDMI cable? It seems the cable and the tv have to be HDCP-compliant.

I push the video to a TV from a laptop, and it will only work if I set the remote to the applicable option. Even if the connection is plugged in, Criterion won't play the film if I have the remote set to TV or DVD.

Normally I plug the laptop into the TV with an HDMI cable, but the streaming ain't working on laptop-only either.

TV aint an option in the hospital.

ie keep it simpler

im quitting if this doesn't resolve in 4 days

If you haven’t already, definitely try using a different browser

^^^

different from...?

Different from whatever browser you're using.

Morbs, do you know what the program you use to access the web is called? Might be Chrome, Edge, Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox ...

Chrome - https://www.google.com/chrome/
Firefox - https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/
Opera - https://www.opera.com/

All free and fairly easy to get running if you have a few minutes.

I just got it to run on IE.

Anyone caught the first Maren Ade feature?

https://www.criterionchannel.com/leaving-may-31/videos/the-forest-for-the-trees

Yes, it's very good! Funny and sad, all about loneliness, I really enjoyed it

I am stoked as fuuuuck abt this Cheryl Dunye program, everyone should watch The Watermelon Woman

I downloaded Firefox and it's fine. I'd wanted to avoid downloading another browser.

July titles:

12 O’Clock Boys, Lotfy Nathan, 2013
5x2, François Ozon, 2004
The Adjuster, Atom Egoyan, 1991
Adoration, Atom Egoyan, 2008**
The Amateurist, Miranda July, 1998
Arizona Dream, Emir Kusturica, 1993
Attenberg, Athina Rachel Tsangari, 2010
Barbarella, Roger Vadim, 1968
Between the Lines, Joan Micklin Silver
The Big Combo, Joseph H. Lewis, 1955
The Bigamist, Ida Lupino, 1953
Blood on the Moon, Robert Wise, 1948
Born in Flames, Lizzie Borden, 1983
The Bowery, Sara Driver, 1994
Bullitt, Peter Yates, 1968
Calendar, Atom Egoyan, 1993
California Suite, Herbert Ross, 1978
California Typewriter, Doug Nichol, 2016
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Richard Brooks, 1958
Certain Women, Kelly Reichardt, 2016
Come Back, Little Sheba, Daniel Mann, 1952
Contemporary Color, Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross, 2016
Day of the Outlaw, André De Toth, 1959
Dear Mom, Tammy Rae Carland, 1995
A Dry White Season, Euzhan Palcy, 1989
Exotica, Atom Egoyan, 1994
Family Viewing, Atom Egoyan, 1987**
Fit Model, Myna Joseph, 2019
Fun with Dick and Jane, Ted Kotcheff, 1977
The Future, Miranda July, 2011
Gigi (from 9 to 5), Joanne Nucho, 2001
Gohatto, Nagisa Oshima, 1999
Gun Crazy, Joseph H. Lewis, 1950
The Handmaid’s Tale, Volker Schlöndorff, 1990
Hawai, Ximena Cuevas, 1999
High Heels, Pedro Almodóvar, 1991
Hollywood Shuffle, Robert Townsend, 1987
Infinite Football, Corneliu Porumboiu, 2018
Joanie 4 Jackie: A Quick Overview, Shauna McGarry, 2008
Kramer vs. Kramer, Robert Benton, 1979
Last House on the Left, Wes Craven, 1972
Lenny Cooke, Josh and Benny Safdie, 2013
La Llorona, Stephanie Saint Sanchez, 2003
Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon, John Maybury, 1998**
Lust for Gold, S. Sylvan Simon, 1949
Mad Hot Ballroom, Marilyn Agrelo, 2005
Man with the Gun, Richard Wilson, 1955
Me and You and Everyone We Know, Miranda July, 2005
Miss Annie Rooney, Edwin L. Marin, 1942
My Twentieth Century, Ildikó Enyedi, 1989
The Naked Spur, Anthony Mann, 1953
Nest of Tens, Miranda July, 2000
Next of Kin, Atom Egoyan, 1984**
No Place Like Home #1 and #2, Karen Yasinsky, 1999
Nostalgia for the Light, Patricio Guzmán, 2010
Ophelia’s Opera, Abiola Abrams, 2001
Pillars, Haley Elizabeth Anderson, 2020
Rancho Notorious, Fritz Lang, 1952
Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, Stephen Nomura Schible, 2017
A Separation, Asghar Farhadi, 2011
Shadow Animals, Jerry Carlsson, 2017
The Sheltering Sky, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1990
Sleepwalk, Sara Driver, 1986
The Slow Escape, Sativa Peterson, 1998
Soleil Ô, Med Hondo, 1967
Speaking Parts, Atom Egoyan, 1989**
Station West, Sidney Lanfield, 1948
The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach, 2005**
The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan, 1997
Tchoupitoulas, Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross, 2012
Tony Takitani, Jun Ichikawa, 2004
Transeltown, Myra Paci, 1992
untitled video, Sujin Lee, 2013 (?)
The Violent Men, Rudolph Maté, 1955
The Walking Hills, John Sturges, 1949
When Pigs Fly, Sara Driver, 1993
The White Balloon, Jafar Panahi, 1995
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Mike Nichols, 1966
Women Without Men, Shirin Neshat, 2009
You Are Not I, Sara Driver, 1981
Young Ahmed, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, 2019**

Whoever somewhere that one time was saying they'd never seen any Atom Egoyan ... now's your chance!

The Naked Spur rocks.

Always more interested in what titles are leaving at the end of the month, tbh, as those are more likely to direct my immediate viewing.

I recently saw "Man of the West" and did not dig it, so wary of wading back into Mann westerns.

the leaving-June-30 list is nuts! so overwhelming I only managed to watch Foxy Brown lol

Was just looking at it, trying to get a handle on it. Lots on Luis Buñuel and Jean Arthur.

Douglas Sirk, Fritz Lang, Jane Campion, LQ Jones, Saul Bass,...

Tom, delete the Criterion Channel now, please!

Godard going away after this month.

...sort of like he did at the end of Faces/Places?

finally caught up with Between the Lines today, which had a little too much Stephen Collins and Bruno Kirby, but all those early Joan Micklin Silver films are good.

wait a minute, Redd, i only see 3 JLG films listed as leaving out of the 26 they currently host.

I'm glad you have the Channel now, Morbs, I always figured you'd find it a great service if/when you finally got it.

Watched Blood on the Moon last night, Akerman's D'Est today...still trying to decide what to watch tonight.

xp under the Leaving July 31 tab I see 14 JLGs... https://www.criterionchannel.com/leaving-july-31

The rubrics for Directed by Jean-Luc Godard says 22 films in the collection but maybe some already went away.

Oh looks like all twenty two are there.

A Walk on the Wild Side, which was part of a Saul Bass series also going away, with music by Mack David - Happy Birthday!- and Elmer Bernstein.

well i've seen all on there cept Le Gai Savoir. xp