6. The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Everybody knows Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but you can't talk about the silent cinema's comedy pantheon without mentioning Harold Lloyd. A comedy genius whose films have long been out of print or absurdly hard to come by, Lloyd finally gets his due with this massive, 7-disc set that includes nearly his entire output (15 feature films, including his masterpiece Safety Last). As if that weren't enough to restore Lloyd to his rightful place in cinema's holy trinity of clowns, this definitive collection includes dozens of featurettes, commentaries, interviews and even some galleries of those cool 3-D photographs that Lloyd began taking when he stopped making movies.
7. Fox Film Noir Series I'm cheating a little by lumping this entire series into one spot on our list, but how can you really choose between great stuff like Nightmare Alley, Whirlpool, Kiss of Death, Where the Sidewalk Ends and the numerous other fabulous film noirs Fox released this year? Film noir is as significant an American treasure as jazz or Twinkies, and these DVDs — with their sparkling transfers, lively commentaries and budget-line prices — have gone a long way to making folks aware of that. (And while we're noir-ing it up here, let me just mention our runner-up: Kino's DVD of Fritz Lang's immortal Scarlet Street.)
8. Le Samourai John Woo's all-time favorite film (and an acknowledged influence on The Killer), Le Samourai is one of the grand classics of French cinema, and quite possibly the classiest gangster movie ever. Director Jean-Pierre Melville infuses what in lesser hands might have been a run-of-the-mill pulp-crime flick with elegance and existential weight, while star Alain Delon projects an icy charisma that burns like cold fire. Melville and Delon are featured extensively in the many supplements that round out this great package.
9. The Astaire/Rogers Collection Gorgeous digital transfers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers tripping the light fantastic in Top Hat, Swingtime, Shall We Dance, Follow the Fleet and The Barkleys of Broadway — plus loads of extras specially created for this box set. Is there any way you can resist?
10. Raging Bull: Special Edition Long relegated to a pathetic, bare-bones DVD release, Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece finally gets the deluxe digital treatment it's been crying out for. MGM's beautifully produced 2-disc set features a stunning transfer and comes complete with extensive extras including breakdowns of the film's fight sequences and no less than three commentary tracks, including one by Jake LaMotta himself.
11. Ran Kurosawa's marvelous retelling of King Lear has already had several DVD incarnations, but Criterion's new 2-disc set renders them all obsolete. The film's spectacular visual scheme is finally presented properly framed and with impressive depth and clarity, and the extras are incredible, even by Criterion's high standards. Besides the first-rate interviews, commentaries and making-of's, we get a rare look at Kurosawa's original paintings for the film (they're wonderful) and, best of all, A.K., a feature-length documentary by Chris Marker that is alone worth the disc's asking price.
12. The Greta Garbo Signature Collection Although I have a particular fascination for the three early silent films on this monumental 10-disc set (Flesh and the Devil is a particular favorite), the other, later movies included here are nothing to sneeze at. One of the most magnificent presences to ever appear on a movie screen, the mythic Garbo struts, sways and sashays her way through meticulously restored versions of Anna Karenina, Grand Hotel, Ninotchka and other legendary offerings. The set is bolstered by hours of special features that put us up close and personal with the legend.
13. Tales of Hoffman After The Red Shoes, Powell and Pressburger extended their marriage of film and dance with this opulent version of Offenbach's opera, and the results — one of the most sumptuously colorful visual extravaganzas ever to grace the screen — are presented beautifully here. The copious extras include an appreciation from zombie guru George Romero (!) and a Martin Scorsese commentary ported over from Criterion's old laserdisc, still one of my favorite cine-chats.
14. Punishment Park New Yorker made great strides with their DVD line this year, releasing solid editions of fantastic films like Sembene's Black Girl, Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach and Landscape in the Mist — but this is the one to get. Peter Watkins' too-little-seen what-if tale of young dissidents hunted and imprisoned in a fascist future America was shot in 1971, but is timelier than ever. New Yorker's outstanding DVD edition places the film in its historical and cultural context with text essays, an insightful commentary track and a 30-minute introduction by the elusive Watkins himself.
