What to Buy at the Barnes and Noble Criterion Sale

Every fall cinephiles in America count down the days until the most important holiday event of the year: the Barnes and Noble Criterion sale. Ever since the Criterion Collection was launched in 1984 with its Laserdisc of Orson Welles‘ “Citizen Kane,” the company’s releases have been embraced by students, filmmakers, and enthusiasts for its “film school in a box” approach to home video. Although Criterion‘s 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD special editions are well worth the expense for their meticulous transfers and abundance of supplementary features, they can get a little pricey — hence the eagerness with which we all await the Barnes and Noble sale, during which every Criterion disc is 50% off.

The savings are particularly helpful when it comes to Criterion’s boxed sets, such as the recently released “CC40,” a mammoth collection of essential titles from the company’s catalog that’s around four hundred dollars cheaper if you buy it from Barnes and Noble between now and the end of the sale on December 2. There are also substantial savings to be enjoyed on indispensable boxed sets collecting the work of filmmakers ranging from Ingmar Bergman and Agnes Varda to Federico Fellini and Wong Kar-Wai; all of the collections are packed with scholarly extras and highly recommended.

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Given the nearly two thousand titles that now comprise the Criterion Collection, trying to narrow one’s shopping list down to the essentials can be a bit overwhelming, but IndieWire’s got your back. Here are 10 recommendations for individual titles that give you the most bang for your buck — editions that deliver in terms of both the quality and quantity of their supplements, and best embody that “film school in a box” idea that has made Criterion so beloved.

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