I interrupt your normally scheduled programming (a review of solid popcorn movie The Mummy) to talk about the Criterion Flash Sale, which will be going on until noon.

My personal haul: Don’t Look Now, Foreign Correspondent, The Game, Inside Llewyn Davis, Pan’s Labyrinth, The Uninvited, and Rebecca.  What have people picked up?

Collections of any kind are partly about self-identification.  Books do furnish a room, and the same goes for movies.  The Criterion Collection has a graceful, restrained aesthetic that’s consistent (enough for people to make those incredible mock Criterion covers) but still allows each volume its own individual feeling.  I think part of building up my collection has partly been about the pleasure of owning volumes so obviously cared for–from curation to essays to special features to restorations, love and expertise went into what goes on that shelf.  It’s a way (an admittedly very passive way) to feel part of a wide, enthusiastic community.

And enough care has gone into the Criterion Collection’s development that gradually familiarizing myself with it has helped draw me into the cultural conversation.  That’s what canons are supposed to be for–establishing a set of landmarks and shared references, teaching you what you’re looking at, illuminating the way art interacts with art and life over years and continents.  I’ve always liked that concept.  Rigor might not be a good place to end, but when you’re still getting to know the ground, it’s a good place to start.

Of course, canons–literary, cinematic, and otherwise–have always had their problems.  They’re biased politically (Gillianren wrote about the way films popular with women gradually group together into an informal canon that still hasn’t been nailed down) and in terms of taste (cultural consensus can all too quickly become monoculture).  But they remain a good way to get an education, and it’s been a while since we talked about them in a general way.

So what are your thoughts on the canon?  On Criterions and special editions?