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Comment by afkqs | Hacker News Reader

I wanted to start watching more classic movies recently as I realised that beside Chaplin's, I've seen very few movies made prior to the 1960s. I've found the main streaming platforms to have very little choice when it comes to these. Where would you recommend watching these old classic movies listed here?

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Criterion is the best place to get "important classic and contemporary films" if it is available in your region. I am also hearing a lot of good things about Mubi these days though I have not tried it personally.

I don't have Criterion available in my region nor can I find DVD/blurays anywhere so sailing the high seas is the only option for me.

If you're in the US, might be worth checking out Kanopy[0]. It requires a library card, and a participating library. I haven't been able to use it as Brooklyn and NYC don't seem to be participating, so it might in fact be terrible.

[0]https://www.kanopy.com/

It's really good, actually. I don't think they stream 4K but for most people that barely matters (screen either too small or too far away for it to make a huge difference).

They have a rotating selection of Criterion films. Heavy on documentaries (of the plays-the-festival-circuit variety, not the narrated-by-David-Attenborough variety) too, if you like that sort of thing. Usually several fairly-recent good movies as well. It's where I watched Ex Machina, for example. Kids' features really lacking, mostly low-quality stuff that would have been (maybe was?) bargain-bin straight-to-VHS material back in the day. No substitute for PBS or Disney+ for that purpose. Material for adults is much stronger.

Views are limited per-month but unless you consistently watch more than a movie a week on that service specifically you'll never have a problem with it.

I've got an address that qualifies for two library systems, and the one I'd normally use didn't have it, so I had to get a card for the one I'd practically never use otherwise to gain access to Kanopy.

I think Kanopy is pretty good, but it's the only streaming service I use regularly...other than YouTube.

Last I checked, Monterey Public Library has Kanopy and anyone who lives in California can get a card there.

I'm a big fan of Kanopy. It has roughly 1/3 of the Criterion Collection, and a good mix of classic + modern (mostly indie) movies

If in the US, HBO Max and the Criterion Channel will get you most of the way there.

HBO Max has a portion of Criterion's canon plus a lot of Turner Classic Movies (American movies 1930s-50s).

I'm the reverse of you - 90% of the time I watch films made before the 1960s, and these two services have a bunch of what I watch. Still gotta torrent or rent from iTunes every now and then though.

IMO, for whatever reason, the great comedies of the silent era are a lot more approachable to a modern viewer than the great dramas. Even the lesser comedies are usually quite watchable. Of the dramas I'd recommend The Passion of Joan of Arc over anything else I've seen, for someone who hasn't watched much from that time period. It's both excellent, and easier to watch (in one sense, I mean, obviously the subject is pretty rough) than most other non-comedy silent films.

Mubi.com frequently shows films from prior to the 1960s.

https://mubi.com/showing

Definitely check out The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which is on YouTube and linked to in the article. Once you go back far enough, a lot of great films are in the public domain and you can find them on YouTube, Daily Motion, etc. Streaming services probably don't find much value in them for that reason.

Streaming services probably don't find much value in them for that reason.

I wonder why not. Imagine a Netflix marketing campaign claiming "we have all the great movies of the early 20th century on our streaming platform!" Maybe target senior citizens. They could just rip the movies from YouTube since they're in the public domain.

I don't know of it's okay to make this suggestion but many of these movies are available for download in common places. I personally have no qualms downloading movies from the 30s and 40s. It gets grayer for me in as the age gets younger.

To give a HN safe-ish link, here's entry #11, The Thin Man (1934) on the archive

https://archive.org/details/the-thin-man-william-powell-myrn...

If that's not a good encoding you can easily find other sources.

If that's against your policies, many of these are available on Amazon

When you say "streaming platforms" do you mean subscription platforms? While you have a lot of weird exceptions, in general a lot of older movies are available for a la carte rental streaming. (You can also subscribe to Netflix' DVD rental service although the back catalog has degraded in recent years.)

Movies that are old enough to fall out of copyright are sometimes on Youtube. Certainly plenty of Buster Keaton.

If you have a local library, often they either have or can borrow these kinds of films.

I mentioned it in another comment, but LaCinetek is extremely good if it's available for you.

The catalog is based on the recommendations of famous directors, and you end up with a lot of very high quality movies.

you really should check out Kurosawa’s own films if you haven’t. He is easily a top five all time director. his films run laps around basically everything else.

I know BFI does a streaming service, can't vouch for the historical distribution but it's certainly this sort of stuff.

I've been surprised how many (copywrited) old movies I can find on YouTube. Individuals upload whole movies in lower resolutions and YouTube Movies itself has full length films in 720p and 1080p, many free with (easily blocked) ads.

You can also find full length public domain movies on archive.org.

Torrents are an option, without guilt when the creators have passed on.

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