The Criterion Collection have just announced that they have opened up their collection online. For $5 you can rent a film for an entire week, the fee of which will actually go towards the purchase of the actual disc when you want to buy it.
For now there is a small selection including Au Revoir Les Enfants (Louis Malle, 1987), Cléo From 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962), Juliet of the Spirits (Fellini, 1965), Sans Soleil (Chris Marker, 1983), The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973) and The Thief of Baghdad (Michael Powell, Ludwig Berger, Tim Whelan, 1940). Every week more titles will be published.
Perhaps even more exciting is that they have partnered with The Auteurs where you can stream movies for free. Right now. These include a selection of modern quality world cinema, including one of my very favourites, After Life (Japan, 1998, dir: Hirokazu Kore-Eda). Other titles currently available include Le Vent de La Nuit starring Catherine Deneuve, Midnight directed by Walter Salles and another Kore-Eda film, Maborosi.
There are huge possibilities here for serious filmgoers and for films that are costly to publish to DVD and to export.
Now to see if I can rent Criterion from outside the U.S…
After Life:
The Classic Film Show 
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November 30, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Raquelle
Welcome back Christian!
That’s really cool news about Criterion Collection. I like how the $5 rental fee goes to the purchase. A nice way of testing out something before you buy it, but not paying to much for it in the end.
~Raquelle~