I have friends who collect Criterion DVDs. However, even they, I think, will be hard-pressed to pick up Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films. With a whopping 50 films (and an even-more whopping price tag of $772 through Amazon), you get a lot of classic films (The Seven Samurai, Kind Hearts and Coronets, M), so I suppose it would be a good deal if you planned on picking up all of them anyway. Until I stumbled across this, I never realized Janus FIlms distributed so much of what we regard as the essential “art house” films of the 20th Century. If they had never existed, would only hardcore film buffs know of these films, or would a we revere a completely different set of art house films that are currently obscure?
I was also fiddling with Amazon’s Carousel widget, so here it is with a bunch of other DVD sets:
Although this box set is nearly four years old, I stumbled across it when looking for information on Hausu, which looks to be a completely insane Japanese haunted house movie that’s also distributed by Janus Films. Just take a gander at this off-the-charts, blood-and-weirdness packed trailer.
I’m given to understand that, later on, one of them gets eaten by a piano.
What’s more, it’s playing here in Austin at the Alamo Ritz May 22-27th.
I hope it’s better on the Weird Japanese Cinema front than Wild Zero, which was a real disappointment.
Tags: Criterion Collection, Hausu, Janus Films, Japan, WTF
Oh, that looks awesome! I gotta see that.