I don't have a name. I'm sorry. I lost it.

November 26, 2007 2:15 PM

Alain Robbe-Grillet's La Belle Captive, Andrzej Zulawski's 'comedy,' My Nights Are Better Than Your Days, Carl Theodor Dreyer's Vampyr, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Seance, Masahiro Shinoda's Pale Flower, Seijun Suzuki's Tattooed Life and Kanto Wanderer, Lucio Fulci's House by the Cemetery, Kinji Fukasaku's Blackmail is my Life, If You Were Young: Rage and Legend of the Eight Samurai, five films by Takashi Miike, the entire Ring series, thirteen(!) Zatoichi sequels, and 500+ other movies, streaming, online, free and legal. (Some links, NSFW)

There have been many BitTorrent posts, but it seems the original company are also content distributors, and their new "Watch Now" feature allows portions of their catalog to be viewed free, albeit at lower resolution with little periodic ad graphics. You can buy the torrents too, but I'm not sure why anyone would?

(Anyone not already familiar with the first two films won't be excited about them finally being available in the US, and might be put off by their aggressive pretentiousness... the rest of us will luxuriate in it.) There could be some gems amongst the HK and Korean films too. I'm just starting to work my way through the list.

posted by broodle (19 comments total)

Andrzej Zulawski is made of awesome and glorious, but I'm not sure why anyone would buy a torrent of it when this movie is very much on DVD and so easily NetFlixed. Still, it's a smart marketing move.

Give me a buzz when they have his not-yet-available-on-DVD movies up on there, such as The Silver Globe.

Or when we get the Criterion Edition of this.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:25 PM on November 26, 2007

Oh, also, Blackmail Is My Life is another fantastic movie. Brisk, nasty, and fun.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:28 PM on November 26, 2007

The Silver Globe is actually one of four Zulawski films recently released on DVD in the states, all at Netflix. It's an awesome, astonishing and punishing ordeal to watch, but totally worth it. Besides perhaps Inland Empire, I haven't been more affected by a movie this year.
posted by broodle at 2:38 PM on November 26, 2007

Wow, they made a movie based on a Robbe-Grillet novel? Does it consist of random non-sequential shots?
posted by nasreddin at 2:46 PM on November 26, 2007

I'm impressed, SticherBeast. I'm sure it was tough to find something lackluster about a post offering over five hundred free and legal movie downloads, but somehow you found a way to pull out a "meh." And in the first comment, nonetheless. Bravo!
posted by Ian A.T. at 2:52 PM on November 26, 2007

I'm impressed, SticherBeast. I'm sure it was tough to find something lackluster about a post offering over five hundred free and legal movie downloads, but somehow you found a way to pull out a "meh." And in the first comment, nonetheless. Bravo!

No free downloads. You pay for that. Just free streaming in a tiny window. Which is still neat, and I like the post, but still.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:55 PM on November 26, 2007

The Astro Zombies
posted by hortense at 3:01 PM on November 26, 2007

No, the shots are random, but entirely sequential!

Actually, after writing the script for Resnais' Last Year at Marienbad, Robbe-Grillet went on to write and direct several of his own films, La Belle Captive being the only one you can currently see without going into the gray market.

As for the streams, they open up to fullscreen - in fact, I find it's the only way to tolerably view them. Otherwise the ads overlap the image.
posted by broodle at 3:02 PM on November 26, 2007

Or when we get the Criterion Edition of this.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:25 PM on November 26 [+] [!]

You'd buy Bad Boyz II if it was on Criterion. Look at all the attention to detail that went into this fold-out map of the story arc! This interview with Martin Lawrence on Charlie Rose is superb!

Then you'd log on to MeFi and snark at all the awesomeness that exists all around you.

Then you'd go start a kickball league.
posted by basicchannel at 3:11 PM on November 26, 2007

V interesting, thanks!

Does it consist of random non-sequential shots?

Nothing random about Robbe-Grillet.

Nothing.

Whatsoever.
posted by Wolof at 3:34 PM on November 26, 2007

Yay! People who actually know of Robbe Grillet outside the context of Marienbad. That makes me happy.
posted by juv3nal at 3:40 PM on November 26, 2007

I was just talking about Robbe-Grillet (in the context of 'In the Labyrinth' is a good experimental novel, versus, um, a very popular one that I can't stand.) So add me to the AR-G yay! crowd.
posted by cobaltnine at 3:53 PM on November 26, 2007

For the Criterion-types, DeSica's classic (and Bunuel's favorite) Bicycle Thief, is there too.

(Sorry, this is my first post. I'm hovering a bit!)
posted by broodle at 3:57 PM on November 26, 2007

Cool service! Watching Shinjuku Triad Society now.

Sadly, looks like Mac users will have to settle for the tiny, advertising-laced, embedded versions. Downloads appear to be WinXP, IE6+, Windows Media 10 only.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:28 PM on November 26, 2007

"Watch Now service currently available to U.S. visitors only"
Boo.
posted by tellurian at 4:34 PM on November 26, 2007

There's a reason they're streaming them for free.
posted by fire&wings at 5:09 PM on November 26, 2007

I am doing a dance! This is wonderful!

Thanks for linking. I don't use bittorrent, so I would have never thought to look at it.
posted by winna at 10:41 PM on November 26, 2007

They also have Max von Sydow in Steppenwolf.
posted by winna at 11:38 PM on November 26, 2007

There's a reason they're streaming them for free.
Are you responding to me? 'available to U.S. visitors only' or just generally? Please explain.
posted by tellurian at 5:47 AM on November 27, 2007