The Master Class

You might have noticed that my coverage of the Criterion Collection has been less frequent these days. In fact, the last Criterion release I reviewed was April’s excellent special edition of Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident. I choose to see this as a sign of an overwhelmed marketing department – interest in physical media has surged in the last year or so, and the Collection is the face of that interest – but in any case, I haven’t received anything from Criterion in a while, and I was pretty sure the office wouldn’t even consider my request for something as gargantuan as The Complete Kubrick.

But late last week, the promotional team at Cinema Cellar – Criterion’s Canadian distributor, and the proprietors of the brick-and-mortar shop that opened last month with a dedicated Criterion popup – reached out to ask if I might be interested in one. And you know what? I was.

This is not a review: I have only just begun to go through the thing, which does indeed contain all of Kubrick’s features and shorts on both 4K and Blu-ray, with almost every bit of supplemental material produced for their earlier releases and a host of new extras. But I’m putting this up today as a public service, because the release of The Complete Kubrick just happens to be tied to Criterion’s semi-annual 50% flash sale … meaning right now, it’s as cheap as it’s ever likely to get.

It’s just $299.95 USD at the Criterion website … or rather it was, because it went out of stock in the time it took me to write this. But Canadians can still grab it direct from Cinema Cellar for $385.49 before taxes and shipping – which is just $275 USD at the current exchange rate. Factor in what one might recoup by selling or trading the discs one has already acquired over the years, and this is a bargain.

It’s also a bargain that will be repeated when Barnes & Noble’s 50% off Criterion sale returns next month. (Cinema Cellar usually mirrors the sale in Canada, but who knows how the upcoming midterms might affect the US dollar.) And of course the set is also available at other retailers; in Toronto, Bay Street Video had it on the shelves this morning. Who knows how long it’ll stay in stock.

And, yeah. For all my crabbing about Criterion deciding to do a box filled with titles that are already available in 4K – the only feature making its UHD debut is Lolita, though the international version of The Shining is also included in 2160p – this set does appear to finally offer the definitive presentation of Kubrick’s work after almost half a century of questionable masters and mixes. I really am delighted to have this thing in my hands, and I look forward to experiencing the films within as they were originally produced and released, rather than compromised by Leon Vitali’s monomania. More to come. So much more.

Up next: More, but a different more. You’ll see. And don’t forget about Friday’s What’s Worth Watching for paid subscribers; there’s some great stuff coming out and you need to know about it. Not a paid subscriber? Why not upgrade? It’s really easy and kind of fun, probably!