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

(the-criterion-closet.vercel.app)

187 points | by olievans 3 days ago

23 comments

  • asymmetric 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day 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.

        • Sounds like an idea for another closet.

        • olievans 1 day ago

          It's coming! Thanks for the suggestion!

        • klaussilveira 1 day ago

          The text really needs some better rendering technique. It is very hard to read. Have you considered Slug https://github.com/EricLengyel/Slug ?

          • Cider9986 1 day ago

            Just btw, the Amazon links are affiliate/tracking.

            • davidhariri 1 day ago

              Awesome! I recently replaced Netflix for Criterion so this is quite welcome!

            • dnlzro 1 day 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 1 day ago

                Thanks for the feedback, planning to add this in!

                • topherjaynes 1 day ago

                  Also, which haven't been picked, I would be curious to see those.

              • mcint 1 day 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!

                • TimC123456 1 day 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.

                • VarunMenon 3 days ago

                  really nice! Criterion should have this as a view on their website!

                  • aarmenante 1 day ago

                    you need to add a feature where You can put your self in there with a webcam and record a interview

                    • I love this and wasted more time than I want to admit looking through the collection. This is a closet I hope to own some day.

                      • thedougd 1 day 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 1 day 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...

                        • gosub100 1 day 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 1 day 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 1 day ago

                              They really tapped into clever marketing with that one. (Good for them.)

                            • bashtoni 1 day 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.

                              • Why do you need it?

                                • nhinck2 1 day ago

                                  Decades of muscle memory is hard to overcome?

                                  • 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 1 day ago

                                      Yeah I'm sure those 4 lines of code are a big ask.

                                      • JKCalhoun 1 day ago

                                        Just to defend the OP, it's that extra UI (and small niggle of confusion) that are the bigger ask.

                                        • nhinck2 1 day 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 1 day ago

                                          They’re free as in puppies!

                                          • ofcrpls 1 day ago

                                            You haven't walked behind them picking up their poop have ?

                                • DuncanCoffee 1 day ago

                                  Wow! Definitely not what I was expecting. If you turn around and look at the door there's a menu with some filters.

                                • LeonRubin 1 day ago

                                  Nice... love it, what a shame I couldn't use it more before

                                  • thombat 1 day 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)

                                  • apresmoi 3 days ago

                                    Really nice. You could use polycss.com and render the library and form all together!

                                    • a_c 1 day ago

                                      I thought I can flip open the book and read

                                      • sarmadc 2 days ago

                                        This is so cool!

                                      • starkparker 3 days ago

                                        Missing quite a few compilations,

                                      • julia-kafarska 3 days ago

                                        Are those movies public domain?

                                        • olievans 3 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 1 day ago

                                            Its not even close to Boutique. Napolean Dynamite was rejected. That breaks the coccyx.

                                          • Triphibian 1 day ago

                                            There are public domain movies in the collection, notably Night of the Living Dead and Carnival of Souls.

                                          • lou1306 1 day ago

                                            Today I learned that This Is Spin̈al Tap is on the Criterion Collection.

                                            • jbaber 2 days ago

                                              Very, very nice!