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    Hulu Adds A Criterion Collection Channel With Six Zatoichi Films! (Psst, You Can Find Other Free Criterion Films On Hulu!)

    Ryan Gallagher
    February 23, 2010

    This past week we were treated to a joining of two of our most talked about topics on CriterionCast: Hulu unveiled a channel devoted to the Criterion Collection. While this is certainly cause for celebration, they have only added 6 Zatoichi (the Blind Swordsman) films. This generated a collective head scratching across the internet, as these Zatoichi films have never been hinted at receiving the Criterion treatment. This also is but a tiny sampling of the Zatoichi series (you can currently find dozens of films, over the course several decades, on Netflix).

    You might be thinking to yourself, “self, this is pretty weak news, seeing as how these films aren’t technically in the Criterion Collection?” You would be correct in this train of thought, that is, until next month when theoretically we could see said box set named. Now, you could be this negative nabob, or you, like I, could go and dig a little deeper into those films available on Hulu, and discover that there were already several Criterion Collection films which you can stream for free right this very second.

    Below you’ll find, in no particular order, seven films contained within the Criterion Collection, that are available to watch right now on Hulu. This was a list that I wrote up several months ago, so there may have been even more films added to this list. If you know of any more, feel free to add links to the comments below. Also, share this list with your friends on Facebook and Twitter, thus spreading the joy of the Criterion Collection across the world.

    Are you looking for even more Criterion films to stream on your computer / TV? Check out all of the links for Criterion films on Netflix here.

    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

    Director Terry Gilliam and an all-star cast (headlined by Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro) show no mercy in bringing Dr. Hunter S. Thompson’s legendary Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the screen, creating a film both hilarious and savage.

    Mr Arkadin

    Orson Welles’s Mr. Arkadin (a.k.a. Confidential Report) tells the story of an elusive billionaire who hires an American smuggler to investigate his past, leading to a dizzying descent into a cold-war European landscape.

    Last Days of Disco

    The Last Days of Disco is a clever, comic return to the nighttime party scene in early eighties Manhattan from director Whit Stillman (Metropolitan). At the center of the film’s roundelay of revelers are the icy Charlotte (Kate Beckinsale) and the demure Alice (Chloë Sevigny), by day toiling as publishing house assistants and by night looking for romance and entertainment at a premier, Studio 54’“like club.

    Charade

    A trio of crooks relentlessly pursue a young American (Audrey Hepburn) through Paris to recover the fortune her dead husband stole from them. The only person she can trust is a suave, mysterious stranger (Cary Grant).

    The Lady Vanishes

    In Alfred Hitchcock’s most quick-witted and devilish comic thriller, the beautiful Margaret Lockwood, traveling across Europe by train, meets Dame May Whitty’s charming old spinster, who seemingly disappears into thin air. The young woman then turns investigator and finds herself drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure.

    Slacker

    Richard Linklater’s Slacker presents a day in the life of a loose-knit subculture of marginal, eccentric, and overeducated citizens in Austin, Texas.

    39 Steps

    The best known of Hitchcock’s British films, this civilized spy yarn follows the escapades of Richard Hannay (Robert Donat), who stumbles into a conspiracy that involves him in a hectic chase across the Scottish moors’”a chase in which he is both the pursuer and the pursued.

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    Ryan Gallagher

    Ryan is the Editor-In-Chief / Founder of CriterionCast.com, and the host / co-founder / producer of the various podcasts here on the site. You can find his website at RyanGallagher.org, follow him on Twitter (@RyanGallagher), or send him an email: [email protected].

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    15 comments

    • This is great but holy cow… this page took about a minute to load and froze my browser. Try not embedding so many videos and ads on one page.

    • simultaneously happy and sad so many criterion are available streaming on hulu and netflix. just fear the death of physical media, i like collecting, and i like having a disc to upscale to near HD. double true for criterion's immaculate prints.

    • But I'm so lame, I like the box art and everything, even the cardboard slipcases, but esp. with Criterion owning a disc is an owning a visual and disc cornupcopia. i'm thrilled that Criterion is making these films easily accessible, i just fear, like many, that Blu-Ray and DVD will go the way of the CD. (To be fair, the CD is not dead, just comatose.)

    • i agree with you on Criterion…dubious about less cinemaphile-oritented studios. So many great films never made it to DVD, never mind Blu-Ray. And worse, to me, is some of the films they are choosing on Blu-Ray and the ones they are excluding. E.X. Still baffled by how a critical and box office failure like Constantine makes it to Blu-Ray, but “The English Patient” is still no date announced.

    • simultaneously happy and sad so many criterion are available streaming on hulu and netflix. just fear the death of physical media, i like collecting, and i like having a disc to upscale to near HD. double true for criterion's immaculate prints.

    • But I'm so lame, I like the box art and everything, even the cardboard slipcases, but esp. with Criterion owning a disc is an owning a visual and disc cornupcopia. i'm thrilled that Criterion is making these films easily accessible, i just fear, like many, that Blu-Ray and DVD will go the way of the CD. (To be fair, the CD is not dead, just comatose.)

    • i agree with you on Criterion…dubious about less cinemaphile-oritented studios. So many great films never made it to DVD, never mind Blu-Ray. And worse, to me, is some of the films they are choosing on Blu-Ray and the ones they are excluding. E.X. Still baffled by how a critical and box office failure like Constantine makes it to Blu-Ray, but “The English Patient” is still no date announced.

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