Solveig Dommartin as Marion in 'Wings of Desire'

We had to adapt to different makets as they’ve come up. And most recently we’ve had to adapt to Blu-Ray, which has been actually very good for us. We’ve been doing hi-def transfers for the past 10 years, so we can go back and re-release a lot of our older titles, dig up more stuff and present it in this beautiful transfer that we have been sitting on for a while.

So it’s nice to have the technology catch up. But at the same time it’s hard because the technology is constantly changing. And when you’re in the home video market and you’re trying to sell a product, while people are watching things on YouTube, which, great, it’s free, but it looks terrible. So you’re competeting with people who want it to look like they’re in a movie theater and people who don’t care and want to watch it on their iPhone. You can have the convenience or you can have the beautiful, gorgeous presentation. It’s kind of hard to see where people are going to end up -– are people going to end up not wanting any packaging at all and just streaming video?

We launched a new website a year ago and we have streaming video, so you can rent films for a week, try them out, and if you decided you want to buy the Criterion edition, you get $5 off. So you can try before you buy on certain titles. I have to say the compression looks pretty good on our website.
 
MG: We’re huge fans of the site.
SA: That was a new thing we decided to try, we were like, “well new people are watching stuff online, let’s make our website like a cinematheque, a place where you can go, click on a title, read five articles about it, join a discussion about it.” We’re constantly putting up new material on our website in our feature called The Current … we’re always getting new things on there that aren’t going to be on the discs. It’s an ongoing update as to what we’re doing on a daily basis. That’s a pretty big change for us … look at all the other ways you can explore these films and talk to people about it.
 
To check out the Criterion Collection’s online cinemateque, visit criterion.com. Or, check out additional titles at Criterion’s online movie theater/social hub The Auteurs.
 
photos courtesy of The Criterion Collection

Cul-de-Sac, 1966

The eerie setting from Polanski’s ‘Cul-de=Sac’ is none other than Holy Island in the far northeast of England. To get there you’ll need to traverse a narrow causeway from Northumberland; if the tide is high, only boat will do. Once on the island, you’ll find 16th-century Lindisfarne Castle, home to the quarrelsome couple held hostage in the film. Read more about Holy Island and other iconic UK film sites with Tom Beer as your guide in Film+Travel: Europe from Museyon Guide.

Rosemary’s Baby, 1968

Mia Farrow stars as a young wife in Polanski’s creepiest thriller. She and her young husband (John Cassavetes) are the picture of a happy Manhattan couple, living in the swanky Upper West Side building “The Bramford,” played by The Dakota (1 W. 72nd St. at Central Park West). To read more about the Dakota, and other Manhattan movie locations, pick up Film+Travel: North America, South America, where Nisha Gopalan is your guide.

Chinatown, 1974

This neo-noir is one of the all-time great LA movies and the final film Polanski shot in the U.S. Set in 1937, the film made use of real-life LA locations, including Lake Hollywood (a man-made reservoir with stunning views of the Hollywood sign, located at 2600 Lake Hollywood Drive)and Silver Lake, where Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes rows across. While you’re in the area, be sure to check out the charming nearby neighborhoods of Silver Lake and Echo Park, just about five miles east of downtown LA. Another famous LA waterway in the film is the bone-dry Los Angeles River. Of course, you’ll also want to visit Chinatown, to see it start off at Central Plaza and explore from there.

Pirates, 1986

For his follow-up to ‘Chinatown,’ Polanski penned what is arguable his biggest flop, ‘Pirates.’ The film took nearly 10 years to complete and brought in only $1.65 at the box office in the U.S. (its budget was $15 million, though the film cost in the neighborhood of $40 million). Filming took two years in Tunisia, where the crew built a full-scale ship, the Neptune. Today you can still visit the Il Galeone Neptune, at Ponte Calvi in Genoa, Italy. To find out more about Tunisia and cinema, pick up Film+Travel: Asia, Africa, Oceania from Museyon Guides and tour Tunisia with Lee Middleton as your guide. 

The Pianist, 2002

The film that won Polanski an Oscar for Best Director, ‘The Pianist’ is his most personal film. The film tells the story of Polish pianist Władysław Szpilman (Adrien Brody), as he hides from the Nazis during WWII. The movie was a multi-national co-production of German, French, British and Polish film companies, and filming began in Potsdam, Germany’s Babelsberg Studios. From there, production moved to Warsaw, to the run-down neighborhood of Praga, which played the Warsaw Ghetto. The scene where Jewish families wait at the Umschlagplatz to be shipped to the Treblinka death camp was filmed at Warsaw’s National Defense University. Today, a monument reminiscent of a railcar stands on Ulica Stawki at the actual location of the Umschlagplatz. For more on Germany and film, pick up a copy of Film+Travel: Europe, and join Museyon Guide Hannah Tucker for a Teutonic tour. 

image: Polanski on the cover of ‘Rolling Stone‘, 1981

Lola's Apartment

We don’t envy Franka Potente’s predicament as the titular Lola in Tom Tykwer’s 1998 thriller ‘Run Lola Run,’ but you’ve got to admit, there’s no better way to see Berlin than by following her whirlwind tour of the city. Some creative cutting means that, unfortunately, it would be impossible to recreate her 20-minute run and see the same sites, but here are enough highlights from her tour of the city to fill a weekend.

 
See it all, after the jump…

Potente starts out in her mother’s apartment at 13-14 Albrechtstraße in Berlin-Mitte, the city’s center. To reach it, take the U-Bahn to the Friedrichstraße station. (Click here for a map of the Berlin subway system.)

That’s not the only U-Bahn station you’ll want to see on the trip. Be sure to pause for a photo under the overpass at the corner of Falckensteinstraße and Oberbaumstraße where Lola ran as a yellow U1 train passed overhead. While you’re here, keep an eye out for the Oberbaumbrücke bridge, a former east-west pedestrian passage way nearby Checkpoint Charlie — that’s where Lola runs under an arched bridge (you’ll find the same bridge in the ‘Bourne Supremacy’). Also worth checking out the Französische Straße U-Bahn station’s south enterance, that’s the one in the middle of the road. 

Oberbaumsbrücke Bridge

From there head to the Deutsche Transfer Bank, where Lola’s father works. You’ll find it at the corner of Behrenstraße and Hedwigskirchgasse. The exteriors were played by Bebelplatz, a site best known for the 1933 Nazi book burnings, commemorated today with a memorial of a glass window looking onto rows of empty bookshelves. It is also home to the State Opera, Humboldt University and St. Hedwig’s Cathedral. 

To see more of Berlin’s cultural side, follow Lola through the iconic Gendarmenmarkt, which features a 19th-century Konzerthaus, and two cathedrals dating back to the 17 hundreds — one German, one French. If you find yourself in the city, especially near Christmas, this is one spot you won’t want to miss.

Feeling lucky? Head to the casino, which can be found on the swanky Unter den Linden, but unlike Lola you’ll want to dress up. To find it look for where Unter den Linden meets Hinter dem Gießhaus, across from the German Historical Museum.

When all of this running around has left you tired, head to the Supermarket from the film. You’ll find it at the corner of Osnabrücker Straße and Tauroggener Straße in Charlottenburg, the city’s former British quarter. Just don’t make like Lola’s boyfriend Mani or you’ll have to deal with the Polizei.

To find out more about film in Germany, pick up Film + Travel from Museyon Guides, where Hannah Tucker is your guide to all things Deutsch.   

images: Lola’s apartment, K_Gradinger/Flickr; Oberbaumbrücke, muckster/Flickr

For a country ravaged by the legacy of war and once divided by Communism, there is so much more to see in Germany than bunkers and battlefields. Start in Germany’s dynamic capital city, Berlin, before heading south to Bavaria to see the charming cities that starred in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

About Your Guide: Hannah Tucker is a language consultant and freelance writer living in Hamburg, Germany. She has written about film and pop culture for Entertainment Weekly magazine.

photo: iStock