Locating Hard-to-Find Films

[Number_6]

Where do you go looking on the internet for hard-to-find films on VHS and DVD?

Not illegal copies--legit copies of stuff that's out-of-production, or just difficult to acquire.

I've checked eBay and the Amazon Marketplace, but I'm not sure where else to look.

Help?

 

[Peter Octavian]

ioffer sometimes has good stuff....but you have to shop it frequently.

But I've found that the best place to find that stuff are at the big flea markets. There's one up in buffalo all year round, every weekend, and you'd be amazed at the shit you can find there.

 

[Morrhigan]

I use Google. Or AltaVista. What film are you looking for?

 

[Number_6]

I looked through ioffer. Nothing I was looking for so far.

There are a few things I'm looking for. Some of the earlier films of Pedro Almodovar have gone OOP on DVD, as have both Jean de Florette and the sequel, Manon of the Spring.

I'm also looking for a documentary on VHS with the last interview of the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, entitled I'm So-So. Amazon lists it as still being in prodcution . . . maybe. It says it ships in one to two months, and depends on availability from the publisher. That doesn't fill me with confidence.

There are probably a dozen or more other things I've looked for over the course of the last couple of years. Some of the OOP DVDs may come back into production, as they all seem to have been released in the U.S. by the same company. Perhaps the home video rights have expired. And some of them I still have on LD, so replacing them isn't vital.

I'm also just looking for good places to buy used DVDs. I buy a lot of foreign films, and they tend to get expensive, especially the ones Criterion puts out.

How do you search Google for a film to buy? I usually get (1) the film's IMDB page, and (2) lots of websites that reference the film. But rarely do I get someone selling the film, even when I include words like "sale," "buy," and "purchase" in my search.

I don't know of any flea markets around here, but I can try and find out from some of the people I work with.

I was hoping there'd be something like the massive used book store presence online.

 

[Eggs Mayonnaise]

Usually I just Google and go down a few rabbit holes hoping to luck upon some real info. If you want to be more methodical, try the IMDb listing for the movie you want and see if any of the links in the "shop" box are active.

Also, there's DVDtalk, and a bunch of other sites for info that I can post once I get to work, where the bookmarks are...

 

[Morrhigan]

I looked through ioffer. Nothing I was looking for so far.

There are a few things I'm looking for. Some of the earlier films of Pedro Almodovar have gone OOP on DVD, as have both Jean de Florette and the sequel, Manon of the Spring.

I'm also looking for a documentary on VHS with the last interview of the Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski, entitled I'm So-So. Amazon lists it as still being in prodcution . . . maybe. It says it ships in one to two months, and depends on availability from the publisher. That doesn't fill me with confidence.

There are probably a dozen or more other things I've looked for over the course of the last couple of years. Some of the OOP DVDs may come back into production, as they all seem to have been released in the U.S. by the same company. Perhaps the home video rights have expired. And some of them I still have on LD, so replacing them isn't vital.

I'm also just looking for good places to buy used DVDs. I buy a lot of foreign films, and they tend to get expensive, especially the ones Criterion puts out.

How do you search Google for a film to buy? I usually get (1) the film's IMDB page, and (2) lots of websites that reference the film. But rarely do I get someone selling the film, even when I include words like "sale," "buy," and "purchase" in my search.

I don't know of any flea markets around here, but I can try and find out from some of the people I work with.

I was hoping there'd be something like the massive used book store presence online.

Well... I'm looking at Amazon.com and I see several of Pedro Almodovar's films from the '80s. It looks like there are also some on SendIt.com, Shopping.Yahoo.com, and a couple of other places. If you're looking for his short films from the 70's I doubt you'll have any luck, though I could give it the ol' college try if it's important.

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (a.k.a. Jean de Florette II) are available at shopzilla.com and amazon.com.

"I'm so-so" is also available at Amazon.com. There are two sellers, one of which has the disclaimer you mentioned, but the other one says he ships in 1-2 days. The thing about Amazon is that there are a lot of independent used sellers that go through there, and if you check back every so often a title may come available that wasn't before.

All of the places I've mentioned above are good ones to look for hard-to-find titles. I recommend starting with Amazon, then trying Shopzilla and Yahoo Shopping. Not sure why you have trouble with Google... if I get too many hits, I just add key words to narrow things down. For Kieslowski I used the search words "Kryzsztof Kieslowski" "I'm so-so" and interview. For the French films, I used the title and "buy," same with Pedro Almodovar.

If you'rs still having trouble, send me a list of titles, and I'll post a list of URLs for them.

 

[KenDodsDadsDog]

Jean de Florette and Manon of the Spring (a.k.a. Jean de Florette II).

Jesus fucking Christ. it's called Manon Des Sources for gods sake and it is currently available - along with Jean de Florette - at Amazon.co.uk But it is region 2 so you will need to have an all region dvd player if you are a septic.

 

[Number_6]

^^The private seller on Amazon with the Kieslowski documentary had some bad feedback that was cause for pause--stuff not arriving, no refunds issued, etc.

Looks like the problem with Almodovar and the Jean de Florette films (yes, I know what's its title is in French, newbie) is the American distributor and/or the American distribution rights.

Region 2 is getting Almodovar boxed sets.

Time to get a hackable DVD player that does PAL to NTSC conversion. I need to just go buy the Philips down at Target. Sometimes it's as low as $60.

As for the Amazon Marketplace, I'm looking for somewhere not so filled with people ready to raise the price of the DVD by a factor of 4 as soon as it gets harder to find.

Thanks for the links, Morrighan. I wasn't aware a couple of those places existed.

 

[Buttons]

For foreign flicks, even ones other stores have OOP, I use Borders... And jsut wait for one of their Buy two get one free deals.

 

[Buttons]

For the best hackable player, with PAL to NTSC, theres a real ghetto one down at Radioshack, and its typically on sale for $40-50. Does Mpeg-2 as well and photo cds.