Netflix and The Criterion Collection, two of my my very favorite “people” in the whole world, have teamed up to bring me a surprise Christmas present a few days early:
For years, the Criterion Collection has been around to provide one of the best film educations a casual viewer can receive. Just by checking out any chunk of the now-massive collection, you’ll be exposed to an incredible array of films that cover every spectrum of entertaining and artistic filmmaking. And now it just got a whole lot more accessible, as Criterion has added thirty-five more films to stream via the Netflix ‘Watch Instantly’ service. Now you have no excuse to miss some of the best films ever made.
Quite a few films from the Criterion Collection had hit the Netflix streaming service already, and in the last month the offerings have come fast and furious. With the 35 titles added today, you can multiply your cinematic knowledge a hundredfold, just by queuing up all these titles over the holiday break.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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The list has some exciting titles — Sanjuro, The Vanishing, Rashomon, General Idi Amin Dada, Ikiru, The Seventh Seal — and contains a number of films I’ve been meaning to watch for years. Pickpocket and Wings of Desire, in particular, have been near the top of my Netflix queue for months waiting for a viewing, and the Christmas “holiday” is just the time to Git-R-Done©!
(Watch out for The Vanishing, though. It’s a fantastically creepy film, and well worth watching. But it’s not Christmasy.)