Show HN: Criterion Closet as a website – pull any of 1,247 films off the shelf

(the-criterion-closet.vercel.app)

158 points | by olievans 2 days ago

21 comments

  • asymmetric 7 hours ago
    Nice!

    Would be really nice to have links to director's picks. Eg I clicked on Che, saw that it was in Denis Villeneuve's list, and wanted to check out his other picks.

    • JKCalhoun 3 hours ago
      I would add: Indicate which ones are listed in the "1001 Movies to See Before You Die".

      (Perhaps also the "AFI Top 100" list as well.)

      • alper 3 hours ago
        If you're going to go into this direction, it seems like this would become sort of a "Letterboxd list visualizer" which honestly could be pretty cool.
    • olievans 6 hours ago
      It's coming! Thanks for the suggestion!
  • Cider9986 6 hours ago
    Just btw, the Amazon links are affiliate/tracking.
  • klaussilveira 6 hours ago
    The text really needs some better rendering technique. It is very hard to read. Have you considered Slug https://github.com/EricLengyel/Slug ?
  • TimC123456 3 hours ago
    This is impressive! Perhaps this is because I’m from an English-speaking country, but I believe even in the real Criterion Closet, the spine title text orientation is top-to-bottom, rather than bottom-to-top.
    • olievans 3 hours ago
      Will change that now! Thanks for the feedback!
      • actionfromafar 2 hours ago
        Are these tapes? 16mm film?
        • throw2ih020 44 minutes ago
          The real Criterion Closet is full of Criterion's catalog of Blu Rays and DVDs.
  • thedougd 3 hours ago
    IMO, the text is in the wrong direction. I thought it felt uncomfortable to read. On my real life bookshelf, it flows from top to bottom.
    • brainwad 2 hours ago
      This is locale-dependent. English is top to bottom but German is bottom to top, for example. It looks bad when you have a mixed language shelf...
  • davidhariri 13 hours ago
    Awesome! I recently replaced Netflix for Criterion so this is quite welcome!
  • gosub100 3 hours ago
    If you don't know what the Criterion Closet is, it's a YouTube channel run by Criterion which is a movie publisher/ distributor (?).

    https://youtu.be/VsywXM8vMLs?is=YBuq2lZEilUb_B9x

    The channel has a mobile trailer full of their movies in DVD and blu ray. They are well respected in the industry and are able to get famous actors to come into the "closet" and pick out their favorite movies and comment on why they like them.

    • throw2ih020 41 minutes ago
      Distributor with a focus on restorations of important films (especially films important to the history of filmmaking). Kind of like GOG but for movies instead of games.
    • JKCalhoun 3 hours ago
      They really tapped into clever marketing with that one. (Good for them.)
  • mcint 14 hours ago
    Nice to be reminded of the collection, and another way to present it.

    I want to view the boxes, especially after filtering, grouped near eye level and seeing the faces not just the spines.

    Nice to see VR (potential for XR), cool use!

  • dnlzro 15 hours ago
    I’m going to use the heck out of this!

    Just one suggestion: Could you add another sort order for the list view based on the number of “closet picks”? It would be cool to see which films are most popular among Criterion Closet guests.

    • olievans 8 hours ago
      Thanks for the feedback, planning to add this in!
      • topherjaynes 4 hours ago
        Also, which haven't been picked, I would be curious to see those.
  • a_c 2 hours ago
    I thought I can flip open the book and read
  • DuncanCoffee 5 hours ago
    Wow! Definitely not what I was expecting. If you turn around and look at the door there's a menu with some filters.
  • bashtoni 8 hours ago
    This is great, but unusable for people like me that need to have the y axis inverted. It would be amazing if you could add that functionality.
    • globular-toast 8 hours ago
      Why do you need it?
      • nhinck2 8 hours ago
        Decades of muscle memory is hard to overcome?
        • globular-toast 6 hours ago
          If I were the author I wouldn't bother implementing the option for that reason. I was curious whether it was due to a genuine accessibility reason, like using a device other than a mouse that makes it really hard to adjust.
          • nhinck3 6 hours ago
            Yeah I'm sure those 4 lines of code are a big ask.
            • JKCalhoun 3 hours ago
              Just to defend the OP, it's that extra UI (and small niggle of confusion) that are the bigger ask.
              • nhinck2 2 hours ago
                <button class="closet-camera" id="closet-camera" type="button" aria-label="Invert camera">

                  <svg class="cf-ic" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" stroke-width="2" stroke-linecap="round" stroke-linejoin="round" aria-hidden="true"><polygon points="21 4 3 4 10 12.4 10 19 14 21 14 12.4 21 4"/></svg>
                
                  <span class="cf-tx">Invert camera</span>
                
                  <kbd class="cf-key">I</kbd>
                
                </button>
            • cadamsdotcom 4 hours ago
              They’re free as in puppies!
              • ofcrpls 2 hours ago
                You haven't walked behind them picking up their poop have ?
  • aarmenante 15 hours ago
    you need to add a feature where You can put your self in there with a webcam and record a interview
  • thombat 9 hours ago
    The link to Criterion streaming doesn't work for "Brazil" (#51) - it shows a list of movies that likely have the word in their synopsis such as "Kiss of the Spider Woman" but not the actual film (which famously doesn't reference the country at all)
  • VarunMenon 1 day ago
    really nice! Criterion should have this as a view on their website!
  • apresmoi 1 day ago
    Really nice. You could use polycss.com and render the library and form all together!
  • lou1306 5 hours ago
    Today I learned that This Is Spin̈al Tap is on the Criterion Collection.
  • sarmadc 1 day ago
    This is so cool!
  • starkparker 1 day ago
    Missing quite a few compilations,
  • julia-kafarska 2 days ago
    Are those movies public domain?
    • olievans 2 days ago
      The Criterion Collection is a boutique film distributor. They are famous for their Criterion Closet videos on youtube. This project was to recreate the experience 'virtually'.
      • j5dgx76 8 hours ago
        Its not even close to Boutique. Napolean Dynamite was rejected. That breaks the coccyx.
    • Triphibian 13 hours ago
      There are public domain movies in the collection, notably Night of the Living Dead and Carnival of Souls.
  • jbaber 16 hours ago
    Very, very nice!
    • olievans 8 hours ago
      Thank you! Much appreciated!