This is a sad, sad day. The Criterion Collection has announced that they have lost the right to publish a significant group of their titles. I’m aghast. From the sounds of things, all of these titles will now be a part of the Studio Canal/Lionsgate deal which has recently brought us the less-than-spectacular Blu-ray release of Akira Kurosawa’s Ran. You might remember that Criterion was just about to release Ran on Blu-ray when the earlier part of this deal yanked the carpet out from under them. It’s so depressing to know that a superior transfer exists but until the current Studio Canal disc goes Out Of Print we’ll never see it. …Continued…