A Virtual Film Treasure Box

Where do rare films go besides DVD-- try online!

We all know about the classic films that are available in a million different formats and milieus-- Dracula, Metropolis, Gone with the Wind-- and even those that are so present they exist as remakes-- cinematic perennials that keep popping up year after year.

But what about those films that are so rare or little thought-of that they are not currently distributed by tape or DVD in the USA, like Luchino Visconti's Lo Straniero (1967) [at upper-right].

Well, how about YouTube?

Visconti was a well-known Italian director who produced a number of classic films, including The Leopard (Il Gattopardo, 1963) [available at the UCC library: DVD 791.43 L] . These classics are available on DVD, but in the past, some of the director's other works have fallen off the screen. The British Film Institute has this to say about Lo Straniero, one of these "lesser" works:

Lo straniero (The Stranger) (1967), Visconti's adaptation of Albert Camus's novel "L'Etranger", received mixed press on first release and has rarely been seen since.

But now we have other options! Online digital services, like YouTube, Hulu, and even digital streaming services like iTunes and Amazon Unbox, are making previously rare films as accessible as any US-based cinephile can hope (N.B. - most of these digital services work within the United States only):

• On YouTube, where video length is limited to roughly 10 minutes or less, clever film fans have been linking public-domain foreign films in sequential clips, as this playlist does. Watch classic films from Africa, Japan, Italy, and more- most with subtitles and in languages other than English.
  
  
• Hulu is a service that allows viewers to watch videos and (mainly) television episodes online for free. (The clips are ad-supported). The service includes digitization of a number of classic TV shows such as The Addams Family and I Spy.
  
  
• Amazon Unbox and Apple's iTunes Store are two places where you can buy "copies" of films and television shows to watch digitally on your computer (or in some cases, your music player). These two stores have many of the same videos that are also available physically on DVD for a by-the-episode price.

• The Criterion Collection, which publishes high-quality reprints of classic cinema, offers its own "online cinema," titled The Auteurs, which includes free digital screenings of rare films each month (requires signing up for a username).

And there you have it! Happy viewing!