Criterion Adds Clouzot’s Diabolique To Their Hulu Plus Line-Up

Just when you thought that Criterion had completely forgotten about it’s Hulu Channel, which kicked off last year around this time with the collection of Zatoichi films, it returns to add a very timely release to it’s line-up. In what has to be somewhat connected to today’s announcement of an upcoming restored edition of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Diabolique (available May 17th), the folks at Criterion have decided to allow those of you who chose to invest in Hulu’s “Plus” subscription, the option of watching the entire film on their website.

Over the past year, Criterion has added several other films in addition to the Zatoichi films that started off their channel. They’ve mostly added documentaries:

Grey Gardens

For All Mankind

General Idi Amin Dada

The Beales Of Grey Gardens

Harlan County USA

Salesman

(you can click those links to head to their respective Hulu pages.)

I haven’t gone through Hulu’s options recently, to see which other films may actually be in the Criterion Collection, but not on their page. I had a list last year, but I think some have been taken down since then. Hopefully tonight’s addition of Diabolique will be the first of many more to come. I have a strong hunch that we’ll see The Spirit Of The Beehive in Criterion’s Hulu channel soon.

If, like me, you’ve canceled your Hulu Plus subscription, but still have your Netflix account up and running, you can watch Diabolique, which is currently available on Watch Instantly. I’m not sure if the newly added version on Hulu is any better or worse than the transfer available on Netflix. If you don’t subscribe to either plan, you can probably just wait, as most of the films in Criterion’s Hulu channel were once “plus” only, and were later made available to everyone.

However you end up watching it, I’m sure it will whet your appetite enough to pre-order the new Blu-ray or DVD (I’m linking the covers below). What do you think of Criterion’s Hulu options? What would you like to see them add next? Do you watch much Hulu? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.