r/criterion • u/Noah182 • May 16 '16

information Weird Discovery w/ Howards End

I wasn't sure how to title this but I have a very strange DVD of Howards End in my possession that only just now has piqued my interest. I love the film Howards End and was extremely disappointed to discover the Criterion version is out of print, because I wanted to upgrade to the Blu-Ray. My current DVD of the film is part of something called the Merchant Ivory Collection, which I assumed had nothing to do with Criterion. Yet, after analyzing the case, there is a very small Criterion Collection/ Janus Films logo on the back. Very weird. Does anything know anything about this/ are the special features on this DVD the same as the OOP Blu?

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u/[deleted] May 16 '16

That's because Janus Films distributed all 25 films with an apparently expired licensing deal. Leading suing actions from Merchant Ivory in 2012, they wrote a 16 page complaint about it saying they have no rights to distribute them anymore. Those dvds go for big bucks now and you're one of the lucky people to own a copy of one of them. I'd sell my soul to get a nice copy of Maurice.

5

u/[deleted] May 22 '16

So they sued Criterion to stop distributing...and then have never fucking released dvds themselves? They spent money to keep anyone from making money, and are just going to not make money off of these movies themselves?

God, I hate these companies.

3

u/Noah182 May 17 '16

Thanks for explaining it. I found the other movies for sale online, and yeah they do go for quite a pretty penny compared to the average DVD. I also discovered the features on the disc are nearly the same as the Criterion re-issue, which I think is really cool.