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.

i thought days of heaven was one of the movies that's going away this month? are they taking it away and then adding it back?

i am pumped that mccabe & mrs. miller is coming back, last time i had to turn it off with about a half hour left because i was too tired, forgetting that it was the last day of the month and it would be gone the next day

whoa very excited about all the Lotte Reiniger stuff!

I really need to carve out more time to use this service. Lots of great stuff. Also maybe I'll finally get around to watching Bob Le Flambeur.

one thing that's great about bob le flambeur is lots of french people saying "bob" in french accents

I wish they'd get Only Angels Have Wings back so I can finish watching it. The prints are so much more beautiful than the other streaming services, I'd always rather just wait. (Also I don't have a Bluray player.)

....go get one, bro!

damn the ending is so good too

I think Days of Heaven was gone for a month...it's not available right now. That happens a fair amount...Blood Simple was coming and going constantly. It's back now but I don't know if it's part of the permanent collection or not.

lol I still mix up BOB LE FLAMBEUR and PIERROT LE FOU, I have seen neither and have no idea what either one of them are about but every time I see either of them I'm like "oh yeah that one Godard film"

I saw a screening of BAD GIRLS GO TO HELL a few years ago and it is... rough

Waiting for the WKW sh1t to be ripped and shared

How Green Was My Valley is necessary to show to anyone that dismisses John Ford or doesn't like Westerns--it's probably one of the most visually moving and evocative "memory pieces" I've ever seen. Don't watch it if you don't like Irish people

Sergeant Rutledge, fwiw, is a better liberal race 1960s movie than, for example, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Got a line on 2046, 24 gig rip

Been watching some films with Morricone scores this past week -- Big Gundown, Machine Gun McCain, Bird w/the Crystal Plumage. McCain was the least of the films for sure.

May 2021 titles:

Along for the Ride, Nick Ebeling, 2016
Bad Day at Black Rock, John Sturges, 1955**
The Backseat, Joe Stankus and Ashley Connor, 2017
The Blot, Lois Weber, 1921
The Blue Dahlia, George Marshall, 1946
The Booksellers, D. W. Young, 2019
Butter on the Latch, Josephine Decker, 2013
The Cat o’ Nine Tails, Dario Argento, 1971
The Chess Players, Satyajit Ray, 1977
The Cigarette, Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff, 1933
Cowboy, Delmer Daves, 1958
Crossfire, Edward Dmytryk, 1947
Dance, Girl, Dance, Dorothy Arzner, 1940
Darling, How Could You!, Mitchell Leisen, 1951
Day of Freedom, Leni Riefenstahl, 1935
Death Takes a Holiday, Mitchell Leisen, 1934
Dina, Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini, 2017
Discontent, Lois Weber and Allen G. Siegler, 1916
The Dumb Girl of Portici, Lois Weber, 1916
Easy Living, Mitchell Leisen, 1937
The Erl King, Marie-Louise Iribe, 1931
Escapes, Michael Almereyda, 2017
The Fall, Jonathan Glazer, 2019
Falling Leaves, Alice Guy Blaché, 1912
The Fate of Lee Khan, King Hu, 1973
Fire Will Come, Oliver Laxe, 2019**
First Day Out, Josephine Decker, 2016
Flames, Zefrey Throwell, Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell, 2017
Girlfriends, Claudia Weill, 1978
The Girl in the Armchair, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1912
Gloria, John Cassavetes, 1980
The Green-Eyed Blonde, Bernard Girard, 1957
He Ran All the Way, John Berry, 1951
The Heart of the World, Guy Maddin, 2000
Hooligan Sparrow, Nanfu Wang, 2016
The Hot Rock, Peter Yates, 1972
The House Is Black, Forough Farrokhzad, 1962
King Rat, Bryan Forbes, 1965
Kitty, Mitchell Leisen, 1945
Kitty Foyle, Sam Wood, 1940**
The Last Detail, Hal Ashby, 1973
The Last Emperor, Bernardo Bertolucci, 1987
The Last Movie, Dennis Hopper, 1971
The Last Sunset, Robert Aldrich, 1961
Lilith, Robert Rossen, 1964
Lonely Are the Brave, David Miller, 1962
Mabel’s Strange Predicament, Mabel Normand, 1914
Making an American Citizen, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1912
Mala mala, Dan Sickles, Antonio Santini, 2014
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Nunnally Johnson, 1956
MASH, Robert Altman, 1970
The Mask Task, Josephine Decker, 2018
Me the Terrible, Josephine Decker, 2012
The Men, Fred Zinnemann, 1950
Midnight, Mitchell Leisen, 1939
Minnie and Moskowitz, John Cassavetes, 1971
Miss Dundee and Her Performing Dogs, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1902
Murder at the Vanities, Mitchell Leisen, 1934
A Night on Bald Mountain, Claire Parker and Alexandre Alexeieff, 1933
No Man of Her Own, Mitchell Leisen, 1950
Odds Against Tomorrow, Robert Wise, 1959
On Dangerous Ground, Nicholas Ray, 1951
On the Barricade, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1907
Our Vines Have Tender Grapes, Roy Rowland, 1945
Parabola, Mary Ellen Bute and Ted Nemeth, 1937
Patton, Franklin J. Schaffner, 1969
The Peasant Women of Ryazan, Olga Preobrazhenskaya and Ivan Pravov, 1927
A Pistol for Ringo, Duccio Tessari, 1965
Property Is No Longer a Theft, Elio Petri, 1973
The Razor’s Edge, Edmund Goulding, 1946
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, Allan Dwan, 1938
Remember the Night, Mitchell Leisen, 1940
The Return of Ringo, Duccio Tessari, 1965
Roman Holiday, William Wyler, 1953**
The Set-Up, Robert Wise, 1949
Shoes, Lois Weber, 1916
Skinningrove, Michael Almereyda, 2013
The Smiling Madame Beudet, Germaine Dulac, 1923
Spartacus, Stanley Kubrick, 1960
Spook Sport, Mary Ellen Bute, Norman McLaren, Ted Nemeth, 1940
Squeezebox, Josephine Decker, 2010
The Star Prince, Madeline Brandeis, 1918
A Story Well Spun, Alice Guy-Blaché, 1906
Suspense, Lois Weber and Phillips Smalley, 1913
Tempest, Paul Mazursky, 1982
The Thing, John Carpenter, 1982
Thirty Seconds over Tokyo, Mervyn LeRoy, 1944
Thou Wast Mild and Lovely, Josephine Decker, 2014
To Each His Own, Mitchell Leisen, 1946
To the Unknown, Michael Almereyda, 2017
Tricheurs, Barbet Schroeder, 1984
Welcome Home, Soldier Boys, Richard Compton, 1971
What Happened Was . . . , Tom Noonan, 1994
What Have You Done to Solange?, Massimo Dallamano, 1972
Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, Matt Wolf, 2008
The Wild Bunch, Sam Peckinpah, 1969
William Eggleston in the Real World, Michael Almereyda, 2005
The Woman Condemned, Dorothy Davenport, 1934
Wolf, Mike Nichols, 1994

Girlfriends is GREAT

Anyone seen the William eggleston one?

Minnie and Moskowitz is pretty rare on streaming, right? Glad people will have a chance to check it out. Should have a higher profile among his works imo.

It’s the only major Cassavetes that I’ve never been able to see, so I’m pretty excited about this.

The two "Ringo" westerns by Duccio Tessari are quite good and seldom seen here (both were extremely popular in Italy)

Something I still remember: an interview with Janet Maslin where she said she thought Nicholson was great for the first half-hour of Wolf.

Interviewer: "What happened then?"
Maslin: "He turned into a wolf."

I remember it as being pretty good.

I remember the scene where he pees on James Spader (iirc) to be pretty great.

The only thing I remember about that movie is a gag involving Nicholson's, er, keen sense of smell.

The Hot Rock is so good

It's striking that Peter Yates made that movie back to back with The Friends of Eddie Coyle--such different approaches to "the crime movie," both done so well.

The Hot Rock is so good

I really liked Max Ophuls' Caught the other night. Billed as a noir, it's really somewhere between psychological thriller and a melodramatic "woman's picture."

The book is fun, but a little *too* light. I didn't know there was a movie - conceivably it might be much better than the book. Robert Redford and George Segal? Definitely sold.

(The book of The Hot Rock.)

I've never synched with Eddie Coyle, found it drab and miserable - which obviously, it is, on purpose! - but Mitchum's such a hopeless shmuck from start to finish, it's hard to feel much for the ending. (I may need to rewatch.)

Yeah you do

xp Had a similar feeling, tbh. Though I respect the movie on its merits.

Some stan for the book of Eddie Coyle but I had similar problems with it.

Two great flavors of crime film... I do prefer Eddie Coyle's pessimistic/realistic outlook... obviously can see Mitchum coming off like an asshole in *any* movie but I love the old bastard in this one especially--ugh, that hockey game! Played beautifully. Not a bad way to die, either.

June 2021 titles:

Blackmendream, Shikeith, 2014
12 Angry Men, Sidney Lumet, 1957
About Tap, George T. Nierenberg, 1985
The AIDS Show, Peter Adair and Rob Epstein, 1986
The Assignation, Curtis Harrington, 1953
Aya of Yop City, Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie, 2013**
Bells Are Ringing, Vincente Minnelli, 1960
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Russ Meyer, 1970
The Blood of a Poet, Jean Cocteau, 1930
BPM (Beats Per Minute), Robin Campillo, 2017
A Cat in Paris, Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli, 2010**
The Celluloid Closet, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1995
Christ Stopped at Eboli, Francesco Rosi, 1979
Clash By Night, Fritz Lang, 1952
The Class, Laurent Cantet, 2008**
Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1989
Cruising, William Friedkin, 1980
Daddy and the Muscle Academy, Ilppo Pohjola, 1991
Dos monjes, Juan Bustillo Oro, 1934
Downpour, Bahram Beyzai, 1972
The Fall of the House of Usher, Curtis Harrington, 1942
Female Trouble, John Waters, 1974
The Four Elements, Curtis Harrington, 1966
Fragment of Seeking, Curtis Harrington, 1947
Francisca, Manoel de Oliveira, 1981
Freak Orlando, Ulrike Ottinger, 1981
Full of Life, Richard Quine, 1956
Funeral Parade of Roses, Toshio Matsumoto, 1969
Greaser’s Palace, Robert Downey Sr., 1972
Gypsy 83, Todd Stephens, 2001
Hands Across the Table, Mitchell Leisen, 1935
Heidi, Allan Dwan, 1937
His Kind of Woman, John Farrow, 1951
Howl, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, 2010
In Name Only, John Cromwell, 1939
Incoherence, Bong Joon-ho, 1994
It Should Happen to You, George Cukor, 1954
Macao, Josef von Sternberg, 1952
Mädchen in Uniform, Leontine Sagan and Carl Froelich, 1931
The Mark of Zorro, Rouben Mamoulian, 1940
The Marrying Kind, George Cukor, 1952
Men in War, Anthony Mann, 1957
The Middleman, Shira Geffen and Etgar Keret, 2020
Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Alfred Hitchcock, 1941
My Man Godfrey, Gregory La Cava, 1936
No Man of Her Own, Mitchell Leisen, 1950
No Maps on My Taps, George T. Nierenberg, 1979
Nothing Sacred, William A. Wellman, 1937
O Fantasma, João Pedro Rodrigues, 2000
Olivia, Jacqueline Audry, 1951
On the Edge, Curtis Harrington, 1949
The Ox-Bow Incident, William A. Wellman, 1943
Paragraph 175, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 2000
Personal Best, Robert Towne, 1982
Phffft, Mark Robson, 1954
Picnic, Curtis Harrington, 1949
Pink Flamingos, John Waters, 1972
Poison, Todd Haynes, 1991
The Queen, Frank Simon, 1968
The Revolt of Mamie Stover, Raoul Walsh, 1956
Rosetta, Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, 1999
Safe, Todd Haynes, 1995
Say Amen, Somebody, George T. Nierenberg, 1982
Scanners, David Cronenberg, 1981
The Solid Gold Cadillac, Richard Quine, 1956
Spoor, Agnieszka Holland, 2017
Sylvia Scarlett, George Cukor, 1935
Tales of the Night, Michel Ocelot, 2011**
Testament of Orpheus, Jean Cocteau, 1959
Tom of Finland, Dome Karukoski, 2017
Topsy-Turvy, Mike Leigh, 1999
True Confession, Wesley Ruggles, 1937
Usher, Curtis Harrington, 2000
Vigil in the Night, George Stevens, 1940
Virtue, Edward Buzzell, 1932
Western, Valeska Grisebach, 2017
We Will Always Be Here, Monique Walton, 2013
Where Are We? Our Trip Through America, Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1992
Word Is Out: Stories of Some of Our Lives, Mariposa Film Group, 1977
The Wormwood Star, Curtis Harrington, 1956

That is one rainbow flag of a month right there.

Very Carole Lombard heavy, very good! Kind of surprised by the inclusion of von Sternberg's Macao-- is that any good? Can anyone attest to post-Dietrich von Sternberg films?

Macao is meh.

Macao is fun!

lol how many times can I watch Topsy-Turvy in a row? A lot probably.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZtbCOpx8Sk

Challops perhaps: I can watch a few "Von" Sternberg films but as he got more sophisticated the rhythms get too attenuated for what's in essence schlock.

Macao not even fully Von Sternberg, right? Nicholas Ray finished it off, though it's more Sternberg in sensibility for sure.

I think of it as more of a Mitchum star vehicle than anything tho.

Okay, fine if you want to take away his "von," but then do we still have to call you "Lord"?

EVERYONE WATCH FUNERAL PARADE OF ROSES THIS VERY MINUTE

Also on Mubi.

I highly recommend The Celluloid Closet.

Figure this is as good a place to try to drum up a few more cinephile ballots: ILX All-Time Film and Morbsies Poll: Voting And Campaigning Thread (Ballots Due Like I Dunno Maybe March 1, 2021?)

(Accepting ballots for a few more days.)

Very happy to see a rare Ulrike Ottinger film streaming this month! And the Curtis Harrington stuff too. Peachy.