Criterion Announces More OOP DVDs for March

As reported by Criterion this morning in an email to its subscribing fans, 23 titles spanning Criterion and Essential Art House lines will go out of print at the end of March when their agreement with Canal Plus ends. Some of the titles are surprisingly new - Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy (Eclipse Series 6) as well as The Fallen Idol, Mayerling, and The Small Back Room had fairly short lives under the label, and one suspects Canal Plus may either be planning their own line of special editions, spanning DVD and Blu-ray formats.

Ran, formerly available from Criterion as a special edition and announced for a Blu-ray release at one time is now OOP, but the title will be back in circulation Feb. 16 via Lionsgate, who have an agreement with Canal Plus/Studio Canal to bring out their own DVD and Blu-ray editions, much like Contempt (also Feb. 16).

For collectors, it means the feeding frenzy against speculators has now begun, much in the way The Third Man DVD and Blu-rays were snatched up as soon as word leaked that these troublesome titles for North American distribution were going OOP yet again.

Here's the list of imminently OOP Criterions:

Alphaville

Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy (Eclipse Series 6)

Le corbeau

Coup de torchon

Diary of a Country Priest

The Fallen Idol

Forbidden Games (Criterion and Essential Art House editions)

Gervaise (Essential Art House edition)

Grand Illusion (Criterion and Essential Art House editions)

Le jour se lève (Essential Art House edition)

Last Holiday (Essential Art House edition)

Mayerling (Essential Art House edition)

The Orphic Trilogy

Peeping Tom

Pierrot le fou (DVD and Blu-ray editions)

Port of Shadows

Quai des Orfèvres

The Small Back Room

The Tales of Hoffmann (Criterion and Essential Art House editions)

Trafic (1971)

Le trou

Variety Lights (Essential Art House edition)

The White Sheik