Leaving soon?
Uh, try the whole damn inventory is "leaving soon."
FILMSTRUCK will be no more in a matter of weeks:
We regret to inform you that FilmStruck will be shutting down. Our last day of service will be November 29, 2018, and we are currently no longer enrolling new subscribers.
All current FilmStruck subscribers will receive an email with details about your account and the refund process as applicable. Please see the options below for more information or email the customer service team at help@filmstruck.com.
So November 29th, everything's leaving.
We've endured many consumer losses during our time online. Significant ones like the loss of TOWER RECORDS and the loss of BORDERS BOOKS.
On that level of grand loss, how does FILMSTRUCK rank?
Not all that bad honestly.
The hysterical articles since Friday have only reminded us how many do not subscribe to the service -- while pretending to know about it. The bulk of the articles don't even get the cost right for a month of FILMSTRUCK.
If you're looking for big time stupid, turn -- of course -- to THE NEW YORKER where Richard Brady sports his ignorance like two huge implants he just had added to his chest.
No, classics from TCM were not "recently added," as Brady maintains. TCM films were always the bulk of the mix -- even the press promoting then then-upcoming FILMSTRUCK service noted that they would have films from TCM as well as some from THE CRITERION COLLECTION. Brady then goes on to disparage the offerings from TCM implying they aren't diverse when, in fact, they are much more diverse than the 200 or so CRITERION served up each month since CRITERION has always built its own film library around European White male directors with a small sprinkling of men of color and of women tossed in.
For example, CRITERION's new releases webpage currently promotes 14 films -- Hal Ashby's SHAMPOO (White male director), Rainer Werner Fassbinder EIGHT HOURS DON"T MAKE A DAY (White male director), Daniel Petrie's A RAISIN IN THE SUN (the studio refused to allow the African-American director of the play to direct the film, choosing instead a White male), Olivier Assayas' COLD WATER (White male director), Cuba's Tomas Guiterrez Alea's MEMORIES OF UNDERDEVELOPMENT (he's basically White with Latino ethnicity but due to political idealogy, we'll count this as a diverse film), Terrence Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE (White male director), Susan Seidelman's SMITHEREENS, Robert M. Young's THE BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ (White male director), Cornel Wilde's THE NAKED PREY (White male director), Ernst Lubitsch's HEAVEN CAN WAIT (White male director), Igmar Bergman's SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE (White male director), George La Cava's MY MAN GODFREY (White male director), Brian de Palma's SISTERS (White male director) and Andrei Tarkovsky's ANDREI RUBLEV (Russian). So of the fourteen, all but the Russian Adrei Rublev really do fall under White. In terms of diversity of approach, thought and means it's two -- Rublev and Tomas Guiterrez Alea. That leaves us with 12 White people. There's also only one woman in the group of 14.
13 men and one woman? Why it's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame all over again!
If you're not getting just how bad the tokenism is at CRITERION, please note the opening of this sentence to an online essay, "Jane Campion is a rarity, not simply because she is a world-class female director . . ."
And, boys and girls, that sentence was not written in 1976 when female directors were thought to only be Ida Lupino, Elaine May and Barbara Loden but also included and had included -- among others -- Agnes Varda, Julie Dash, Chantel Akerman, Kinuyo Tanaka, Safi Faye, Maya Deren, Joan Micklin Silver, Therese Sita-Bella, Liliana Cavani, Sally Potter, Matilde Landeta, Claudia Weill, Shirley MacLaine, Jacquline Audry, Jan Oxenberg, Barbara Kopple, Josefina Molina, Shirley Clarke, Wang Ping, Pilar Miro, Forough Farrokhzad, Ana Carolina, Vera Chytilova, Bette Gordon, Laura Mulvey, Lina Wertmuller, Yvonne Rainer, Sangeeta, Jane Arden and Bonnie Sherr Klein.
No, that sentence was written in 2005. That's appalling but, yes, that's CRITERION.
CRITERION is something we're all supposed to love but the reality is that CRITERION isn't the calling card it's thought to be. For several years, HULU subscribers had access to CRITERION. During those days of streaming, the only significant streams were of the films TO BE OR NOT TO BE and I MARRIED A WITCH.
CRITERION didn't pull people to FILMSTRUCK either. Why? Some CRITERION fans were put off that the entire collection was not available (about 200 films were available at a time). TURNER CLASSIC MOVIES tended to provide a better offering of classic films -- especially if it was film noir or UK cinema.
With the impending death of FILMSTRUCK, lovers of classic films would do well to subscribe to HULU PLUS LIVE which includes TCM and FXM. FXM usually offers a classic film or two on Saturdays and TCM offers them constantly. In fact, Shirley Clarke's classic film PORTRAIT OF JASON isn't part of the CRITERION COLLECTION but it is a film that TCM has aired twice in the last six months (and one that made the National Film Registry in 2015). More to the point, you can stream these films live or for a week or so after in most cases.
Back in May, we noted how little FILMSTRUCK actually had to offer. And we noted that those thinking it had a wealth of choices -- and it was keeping that wealth off TCM -- were wrong. We also discussed NETFLIX and we'll note that it has two classics it's now streaming: THE STRANGER with Orson Welles (who also directed), Loretta Young and Edward G. Robinson and Carol Reed's THE THIRD MAN (also starring Welles). And on the subject of NETFLIX, please note that this month has everyone talking about the service's desire to go $2 billion into debt for new content over the next year. This move only makes the question we asked last June more pertinent "TV: Is NETFLIX the new DUMONT?"
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