Netflix and Other Home-Video Vendors [was: DVD-by-Mail]

[kenmorefield]

MUBI is now on Roku...yeah!

If anyone is going to sign up for the free month trial, please PM me and I can send a referral (that way I get a free additional month).

 

[Brian D]

I receive this news like a late Christmas present:

Amazon Prime has added Cameraperson, The Fits, and The Innocents, all (I think) within the past week.

 

Amazing that movies like these appear with almost no fanfare, whereas the latest Amazon TV shows on Prime are advertised non-stop.

 

Sometimes it seems to me that streaming services like Amazon Prime and Netflix need to hire some more staff who understand independent, foreign, and otherwise obscure films. Not only that, but who understand those who love those films. 

 

In any case, I have completely rearranged my film viewing schedule for the next few weeks. Thank you, Amazon Prime, even if you are a little like the Tim Robbins pitcher in Bull Durham when he threw a brilliant pitch and said something like "what did I just do?”

[Peter T Chattaway]

Brian D wrote:
: Amazon Prime has added Cameraperson, The Fits, and The Innocents, all (I think) within the past week.

Only in the U.S., it seems.

The Innocents is on Netflix in Canada, though.

[ralfy]

"Netflix, Streaming Video and the Slow Death of the Classic Film"

Quote

 

Netflix’s selection of classic cinema is abominable—and it seems to shrink more every year or so. As of this month, the streaming platform offers just 43 movies made before 1970, and fewer than 25 from the pre-1950 era (several of which are World War II documentaries). It’s the sort of classics selection you’d expect to find in a decrepit video store in 1993, not on a leading entertainment platform that serves some 100 million global subscribers. Netflix’s DVD subscribers enjoy a much wider selection (four million customers still opt to receive discs in the mail), but as the company shifts its focus to streaming and original content, cinephiles fear the cinematic canon is being left behind.

 

http://www.newsweek.com/2017/09/22/netflix-streaming-movies-classics-664512.html

 

[Peter T Chattaway]

: As of this month, the streaming platform offers just 43 movies made before 1970, and fewer than 25 from the pre-1950 era (several of which are World War II documentaries).

I assume these are the documentaries that Netflix posted in conjunction with the  brand-new documentary Five Came Back, which is about the *making* of those documentaries.

: It’s the sort of classics selection you’d expect to find in a decrepit video store in 1993, not on a leading entertainment platform that serves some 100 million global subscribers. Netflix’s DVD subscribers enjoy a much wider selection (four million customers still opt to receive discs in the mail) . . .

Netflix doesn't have any DVD subscribers outside of the US. And it bears mentioning that Netflix's selection varies from country to country, so it's possible that there are different numbers of pre-1970 and pre-1950 films in each territory.

[kenmorefield]

Film Movement now has Film Movement Plus with its own Roku channel. I think they have a great selection.
 

[kenmorefield]

OVID.tv announced today via press release. Bold added to highlight distributor labels onboard:

 

Quote

(New York, January 17, 2019)  Jonathan Miller, of Icarus Films, announced today an unprecedented collaborative effort between six of the most noteworthy independent film distributors in the U.S., each respected for the depth of their industry experience and the vitality of their collections. Together, they are supporting the launch of OVID.TV, an innovative new video-on-demand subscription service drawing from the catalogs of these leading content providers of quality arthouse, documentary, and social issue films.
 
The six founding content partners are Bullfrog Films, Distrib Films US, First Run Features, Grasshopper Film, Icarus Films, and KimStim (details below), with more companies expected to join soon.