How to begin praising this crystalline transfer of Orson Welles masterpiece, the durable and endlessly fascinating Citizen Kane? Critics have hailed the astonishing detail, praised the commentary tracks by Roger Ebert and Peter Bogdanovich, and noted Warner’s generosity in including the fascinating 1995 American Experience documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane in the set (it’s on disc two). In short, this two-disc presentation is everything the fan would hope for from a studio that clearly cares deeply for the treasures within its vaults. During the year, Warners also distinguished themselves with the boxed set of Ken Burns’ PBS saga "Jazz," their second pass at a Stanley Kubrick box and a Dirty Harry that restores director Don Siegel’s early 1970s action classic to its visceral widescreen glory.

Let us now praise The Criterion Collection. No imprint has done more during the calendar year to bring important world cinema to the consumer. Packaged with care, class and skill, each Criterion release comes with that most critical of components, a lavish, multi-page inner sleeve that features at least one critically reverent essay, detailed and complete credits and crucial information on the disc mastering process. And the films themselves are priceless: the screwball comedy My Man Godfrey was rescued from public domain hell via a shimmering print, while the Powell-Pressburger Technicolor classic Black Narcissus presents a luminous transfer of Jack Cardiff’s Oscar-winning cinematography. Yet of the some 140 invaluable international works currently in the collection, arguably the most adventurous is the immortal Jacques Tati’s 1960s nearly silent visual feast Playtime -- reconstructed and restored from the original 70mm print in all its widescreen glory. The overwhelming majority of Criterion Collection releases belong on the shelves of any serious collector. Period. 

Over and above the controversial nature of Leni Riefenstahl’s influential yet chilling documentary on Adolph Hitler’s Nuremberg rally of 1934, the film itself had fallen into disrepair, its original negative having been whisked away just after the war. Working from an early positive print provided by legendary restorer Robert Harris, Synapse Films "Grand Poobah" Don May, Jr. painstakingly restored the film to a quality unseen in generations. He also employed the increasingly popular "windowboxing" format, which preserves the edges of a full-frame presentation in much the same way letterboxing restores the outer edges of a widescreen film. Even more important, May cleaned up and expanded the English subtitles considerably; in tandem with scholar Anthony Santoro’s informative commentary track and the inclusion of Riefenstahl’s previously lost short Day of Freedom, this edition of Triumph of the Will is an important addition to film history and the documentary tradition.

There was a time not so long ago when building a collection of your favorite television programs meant laboriously taping new episodes each week, usually with the VHS set to extended play, and hoping that life wouldn’t draw you away from the set on the day of a crucial episode. Thanks to DVD, those days are gone, as 2001 saw the release of a multitude of beloved series on the format. Among the most welcome were John Cleese’s immortal (and recently elusive) "Fawlty Towers," starring the former Monty Python member as an abrasive rural England innkeeper. As for "The Simpsons," Fox has begun an aggressive program of releases that will see two seasons street per calendar year, bringing America’s favorite animated family up to date by 2006 or so (now, if they’d just do a separate boxed set of those great Halloween episodes…). Both editions feature invaluable behind-the-scenes extras. Of course there’s much more out there, from "Absolutely Fabulous" to "Twin Peaks" (avoid Warner’s "Friends" collections, which aren’t complete chronological seasons but somebody’s idea of a kind of greatest hits thing). And now your evenings are freed up for more important things -- unless, of course, you’re taping "Law and Order" ...

Legendary director David Lean had not been well served on laserdisc, making this lavish release from Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment all the more welcome. Lawrence of Arabia won seven Oscars in its day, including Best Picture, Director and Cinematography (Freddie Young), but it wasn’t until a 1989 reissue that the film looked and sounded anywhere near its vintage 1960s glory. This DVD pressing, on two discs, presents the 215-minute directors’ cut (with blacklisted writer Michael Wilson’s name digitally restored to the credits) in a glorious transfer. Yet for every welcome inclusion (a reprint of the original theatrical program, a restored widescreen trailer) there are irksome exclusions; where, for instance, are original lead Albert Finney’s screen test and, most crucially, a commentary track? Still, in a year that saw fine DVD releases of such period epics as The Greatest Story Ever Told, Ben-Hur, Cleopatra, Criterion’s excellent Spartacus and Lean’s own Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence is king. CTSHE also deserves praise for fine transfer work on older Columbia titles, including Sahara, His Girl Friday, On the Waterfront, From Here to Eternity, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, The Big Heat, Dr. Strangelove, yet another cut of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and even a definitive pressing of an extras-packed edition of the marvelous Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And, of course, Lean’s own Oscar-winning The Bridge on the River Kwai, which streeted in November 2000 (spring for the special edition, if you can still find it). 

Of the multitude of genre titles lovingly restored by Troy, Michigan-based Anchor Bay Entertainment, the trio above provided perhaps the greatest pleasure during the year. A schizophrenically packaged yet essential special edition of Robin Hardy’s legendary The Wicker Man (loved the wooden box, hated the pedestrian jewel case within) restores a key 1970s fantasy title to public view, while some dazzling transfer work on Val Guest’s key British science fiction title The Day the Earth Caught Fire makes the red-tinted bookending sequences glow with otherworldly menace. Finally, the two-disc special edition of Richard Rush’s landmark moviemaking black comedy/thriller The Stunt Man is the very definition of cult, marrying a fine transfer of the film itself to a feature-length documentary on its storied production. With a clutch of Werner Herzog, Dirk Bogarde and cult horror titles in the short-term pipeline for 2002 (how’s that for diversity?), Anchor Bay Entertainment is among the best and most important distributors in the DVD universe. 

What sets Kino on Video apart from other DVD and VHS imprints is more than their variety, it’s a fundamental understanding of film history and contemporary art-house cinema unparalleled in the business. Thus, the literally dozens of releases they streeted in 2001 include a spectacular two-disc restoration of Marlene Dietrich’s first important word for director Joseph von Sternberg (The Blue Angel) and German director Volker Schlondorff’s exhilarating return to 1970s thriller form (The Legend of Rita). While the endlessly fascinating Keaton Plus disc is only available as part of Kino’s DVD-only boxed set assemblage of comedian Buster Keaton’s collected works, it’s a fine motivation to take the plunge and make that essential set part of your collection. Other Kino highlights from the year include Hungarian director Miklos Jancso’s Cinemascope treasure The Red and the White, Russian director Elem Klimov’s 1985 war film Come and See and the 1920 Lon Chaney vehicle The Penalty.

Possessed of one of the largest DVD and tape libraries in the country, Chicago-based Facets Video is the one-stop online shop for popular, international and alternative cinema. While their proprietary releases aren’t as voluminous as other imprints, Facets offers titles unavailable anywhere else, with a slight yet invaluable emphasis on eastern European cinema. The jewel in the crown of their 2001 releases is Joan the Maid, which was distilled from its original six-hour running time for presentation on two discs. The film tells in meticulous detail the journey of Joan (Sandrine Bonnaire) from rural maid to reluctant martyr. Bonnaire brings a vulnerable dignity to the proceedings, and the film is earthy and deliberate in a way other renderings never approach. Revered director Jacques Rivette is still working, and CTSHE has just announced an early 2002 release date for his latest film, the magnificent Va Savoir.

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