1992 Sight and Sound Poll Top 131 Films on DVD Countdown

The following are films that are voted by three or more critics as the ten best films in the 1992 Sight and Sound poll. The list is meant to inform DVDphiles the DVD availability of those films on the 1992 Sight and Sound poll list and help them to locate the studio or distributer who possibly owns the rights to the films that are not on DVD yet.
PLEASE NOTE THAT MANY OF INFORMATION HERE ARE JUST HUNCHES AND GUESSES BASED ON THE VHS OR LASERDISC RIGHTS. NONE OF THESE ARE CONFIRMED AND MANY ARE FROM UNCHECKED SOURCES. THIS LIST SHOULD BE VIEWED AS AN ATTEMPT TO GATHER SOME INFORMATION, NOT AS THE ACCURATE SOURCE FOR INFORMATION. The company in parentheses indicates the owner of VHS or Laserdisc rights. The titles whose owner are uncertain or unknown are marked by question mark. If you know the owners of DVD rights to any of these movies, please drop a note at ilian73@yahoo.com

Many Thanks to the members of Home Theater Forum, who contributed to the compilation of this list.

Those movies already released on DVD are listed in red color, announced titles in purple, titles that are rumored to be planned blue, and the rest are in black colors.


Title (Director) - Distributer (VHS)
1. Citizen Kane (Welles) - Warner is in the restoration process.
2. The Rules of the Game (Renoir) - Criterion is expected to release it in 2001.
3. Tokyo Story (Ozu) - gathering dusts in New Yorker vault
4. Vertigo (Hitchcock) - gloriously restored on Universal DVD
5. The Searchers (Ford) - Warner DVD. Well, they could have done it better.
6. L'Atalante (Vigo) - New Yorker is sitting on this, too! The nerve!
6. Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein) - Image DVD. But restored one will be coming from Criterion, maybe 2001.
6. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer) - fabulous disc from Criterion.
6. Pather Panchali (or any other Apu Trilogy title) (Ray) - waiting for rescue from Columbia vault.
10. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick) - Warner DVD. There will be new release for year 2001.
11. 8 1/2 (Fellini) - Criterion DVD will come in 2001.
11. Sunrise (Murnau) - Fox (Critics' Choice Video)
13. L'Avventura (Antonioni) - Criterion, 2000 or 2001? It even got a spine number of #98, so I'm giving it a purple mark.
13. The Bicycle Thief (De Sica) - Image DVD with not so great transfer.
13. The General (Keaton) - Image/Kino DVD - basically tranfer of splendid VHS to DVD.
13. Seven Samurai (Kurosawa) - Criterion says it all.
13. Singin' in the Rain (Kelley/Donen) - Warner DVD.
18. City Lights (Chaplin) - Image DVD. great quality.
19. Breathless (Godard) - ? (Connoisseur)
19. Letter from Unknown Woman (Ophuls) - Artisan?
19. Pierrot le fou (Godard) - Fox Lorber - OK transfer, though it could be better.
19. Raging Bull (Scorsese) - MGM DVD. looks good.
19. Ugetsu Monogatari (Mizoguchi) - Janus film collection, which means Criterion could give it Criterion treatment. (Home Vision)
19. Wild Strawberries (Bergman) - Criterion is apparently planning to release this gem.
25. Intolerance (Griffith) - Image DVD.
25. Paisan (Rossellini) - ? (Hen's Tooth) Hen's Tooth has recently entered DVD market.
27. Andrei Rublev (Tarkovsky) - Criterion DVD rules!
27. The Music Room (Ray) - Columbia, wake up please!
27. Rear Window (Hitchcock) - being shown in theater after restoration. Universal DVD will follow up shortly next year.
27. Some Like It Hot (Wilder) - According to the DVD File, DVD is in production by MGM. Fabulous.
31. Gertrud (Dreyer) - Criterion
31. The Children of Paradise (Carne) - Criterion is supposed to be working on it.
31. Journey to Italy (Rossellini) - ? (Connoisseur)
31. Madame de... (Ophuls) - ? (Connoisseur)
31. Contempt (Godard) - Criterion? This movie was restored and theatrically released about three years ago. How hard can it be to just put it on DVD?
31. Mirror (Tarkovsky) - Kino DVD.
31. Pickpocket (Bresson) - New Yorker
31. Stalker (Tarkovsky) - Fox Lorber
31. Touch of Evil (Welles) - coming to DVD on 10/31/00 by universal.
40. Ordet (Dreyer) - Criterion, please do it.
41. Black Narcissus (Powell) - Although it has official release date of 10/31/00, it has been announced and delayed, and so on. Still I give it purple color. Grand Illusion did come out after all. Spine number #93.
41. Charulata (Ray) - Columbia, give us at least one Ray.
41. Decalogue (Kieslowski) - kudos to Image DVD.
41. La Dolce Vita (Fellini) - Artisan? (Republic)
41. Fanny and Alexander (Bergman) - Has MGM released any foreign movie?
41. The Grand Illlusion (Renoir) - Criterion DVD. Gloriously resgored, it was worth 2 years of wait.
41. Greed (von Stroheim) - Warner/Turner. Greed was recently restored. Why is it not on DVD yet?!
41. Ikiru (Kurosawa) - another Janus film, Criterion candidate.
41. Jules et Jim (Truffaut) - one of better transfers form Fox Lorber.
41. M (Lang) - Criterion DVD.
41. The Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov) - Image DVD with very nice transfer considering its age.
41. Monsieur Verdoux (Chaplin) - Image DVD.
41. My Darling Clementine (Ford) - Fox, Come on.
41. Nashville (Altman) - Paramount DVD. Excellent as expected, only if they'll get more titles out.
41. North by Northwest (Hitchcock) - Warner DVD with truly remarkable restoration.
41. Shoah (Lanzmann) - New Yorker
41. The Third Man (Reed) - Criterion DVD with great transfer as usual.
41. Trouble in Paradise (Lubitsch) - ? Gee, there is not even VHS for this movie. Com'on, this is a Lubitsch movie for God's sake.
41. Two or Three Things I Know About Her (Godard) - New Yorker is the culprit. VHS of this has been at rental price ($90), I don't know, for five years now, isn't it?
61. Germany, Year Zero (Rossellini) - ? Another gem neglected by whomever owns the video rights.
61. The Gold Rush (Chaplin) - Image DVD, good transfer but not the original silent version (It's version in which Chaplin reads intertitle). But be even more wary of $10 Gold Rush DVD's released by noname company for it is in public domain.
63. L'Age d'Or (Bunuel) - ?
63. Apocalypse Now (Coppola) - Paramount DVD
63. Au Hasard Balthazar (Bresson) - ? (Nouveau Film in UK)
63. The Birth of a Nation (Griffith) - Image DVD
63. Bringing Up Baby (Hawks) - Warner (Turner)
63. Un Chien Andalou (Bunuel) - ? (Video Yesteryear)
63. Chimes at Midnight (Welles) - Disney? There's a rumor that Mirmax is restoring it.
63. The Godfather, Part 2 (Coppola) - Paramount is supposedly working on Godfather trilogy.
63. Ivan the Terrible (Eisenstein) - Criterion is releasing this two-parts movie together with Alexander Nevsky in the box set on 11/14/00. You can buy already-released Image DVD's separately for both movies, but those in the know will wait for the restored Criterion set.
63. Kings of the Road (Wenders) - ?
63. Listen to Britain (Jennings) - ?
63. The Magnificent Ambersons (Welles) - Warner (Turner)
63. Modern Times (Chaplin) - Image DVD. excellent transfer.
63. Night of the Hunter (Laughton) - MGM DVD
63. Once Upon a Time in the West (Leone) - Paramount. As I said, they are slow.
63. Out of the Past (Tourneur) - Warner (Turner)
63. Passion (Godard) - Fox Lorber
63. Performance (Cammell) - Warner
63. Sansho Dayu (Mizoguchi) - Criterion (Janus)
63. The Scarlet Empress (von Sternberg) - Universal
63. Stagecoach (Ford) - Warner DVD
63. To Be or Not to Be (Lubitsch) - Warner? MGM? Didn't they exchange their catalog? In any case, it used to be Warner video. (Warner)
63. The Travelling Players (Angelopoulos) - ?
63. My Life to Live (Godard) - Fox Lorber DVD with OK transfer.
63. Week-end (Godard) - New Yorker
63. Yellow Earth (Kaige) - Fox Lorber
89. Distant Voices, Still Lives (Davies) - ?
90. October (Eisenstein) - Image DVD. Transfer not satisfactory at all. But as mentioned above, Criterion will release all (or almost all) of Eisenstein's movies on DVD, and it will be worth the wait.
91. Accatone (Pasolini) - Criterion
91. In the Realm of the Senses (Oshima) - Fox Lorber
91. L'Argent (Bresson) - New Yorker
91. An Autumn Afternoon (Ozu) - New Yorker (I'll keep my calm.)
91. Belle de jour (Bunuel) - Disney.
91. Boudu Saved from Drowning (Renoir) - ?
91. Brief Encounter (Lean) - Criteiron
91. The Conformist (Bertolucci) - Paramount
91. The Crowd (Vidor) - Warner/MGM (MGM)
91. Dead Ringers (Cronenberg) - Criterion DVD.
91. L'Eclisse (Antonioni) - ? (Connoissuer)
91. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Hawks) - Warner/MGM (MGM)
91. His Girl Friday (Hawks) - coming to DVD on 11/21/00 by Columbia! Restored! At last! Don't even think about those $10 ones in the market.
91. Imitation of Life (Sirk) - Universal
91. Jeanne Dielman (Akerman) - ?
91. The Leopard (Visconti) - Fox (the Fox, not Fox Lorber)
91. Life of Oharu (Mizoguchi) - Criterion
91. Limelight (Chaplin) - Image DVD.
91. Meet Me in St. Louis (Minnelli) - Warner/MGM (MGM)
91. Meshes of Afternoon (Deren) - ?
91. Metropolis (Lang) - Actually, there is shiny round thingy released by Madacy, but I'm not going to call it DVD. This movie is in public domain, but it will be nice to know who owns the rights to Moroder version. (Paramount was apparently the original distributer, but I don't know if they are involved with the movie in any way any more.)
91. La Notte (Antonioni) - ? (Connoisseur)
91. A Day in the Country (Renoir) - ?
91. Peeping Tom (Powell) - Criterion DVD
91. Persona (Bergman) - MGM
91. The Player (Altman) - Warner/New Line DVD
91. Playtime (Tati) - ?
91. Rashomon (Kurosawa) - Criterion
91. The Seventh Seal (Bergman) - Criterion DVD
91. La Signora di Tutti (Ophuls) - ? (Connoisseur)
91. Spring in a Small Town (Mu) - ?
91. Sunset Boulevard (Wilder) - Paramount. According to the Digital Bits, it's rumored to be in works for DVD.
91. La Terra Trema (Visconti) - ?
91. Why did Bodhi-Dharma Leave for the East? (Bae) - Image DVD
91. The Wind (Sjostrom) - MGM (MGM/UA)
127. Aparajito (Ray) - Columbia
127. Late Spring (Ozu) - New Yorker
127. Hiroshima, mon amour (Resnais) - Criterion
127. Strike (Eisenstein) - Image DVD. Criterion next year maybe.
127. The World of Apu (Ray) - Columbia

REPORT CARD: 37 red (released), 5 purple (announced), 10 blue (rumored to be planned), 79 black (unreleased). Definitely, WE NEED MORE MOVIES ON DVD.


Posted on Sept. 2000


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