The Projector #100: We Can't Find the Movie You're Looking For (Patreon)

by Keith Phipps

We received tremendous response to our episode on movies that have all but disappeared due to unavailability, titles that either aren’t streaming anywhere or never made it to DVD or Blu-ray, or did so in editions that are now long out of print. (For an example, read Mike Ryan’s account of trying to watch Cocoon, the sixth most popular film of 1985.) There’s no definitive list of such films — and one that took into account the many, many films of the silent era and golden age that have become inaccessible for one reason or another would be massive. But one listener made a list on Letterboxd of titles we mentioned on the episode, and The Stranger has an even more extensive list, which seems to be updated pretty regularly. There are some real surprises on there, too, like Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, which you can’t stream and will cost you dearly to buy on DVD or Blu-ray. That’s a relatively recent movie. Most fall into the ‘90s/early-‘00s netherworld that’s claimed a lot of movies from that era.

(At this point we should probably echo a comment we received, which we’ll likely address on the next show as well: libraries are an invaluable resource and shouldn’t be just an afterthought. Go to your library.)

But wait. There’s more. When I put out a call on Twitter I got a lot of suggestions. Here are a few (and we’re focusing on North America here, so some of these might be available elsewhere):

Looking for Mr. Goodbar

Pass the Ammo

Health

Truly, Madly, Deeply

Inchon

Nothing Lasts Forever

Meet the Applegates

Spice World

The House of Mirth

Let it Be

The Fourth Man

Songs from the Second Floor

Nowhere

The Tales of Hoffman

Near Dark

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Possession (it’s being rereleased)

Last Year at Marienbad

The Man Who Fell To Earth

The Mission (1999)

Sleuth (1972)

Whistle Down the Wind

I Went Down

The Dreamers

The Fall (as we well know)

City Girl

Play it as it Lays

Siesta

Household Saints

A Perfect Couple

A Wedding

O.C. and Stiggs

Atlantics

Black Lizard

Bremen Freedom

High Hopes

Jail Bait

Just Another Girl on the IRT

The Mother and the Whore

No Fear No Die

The Terrorizers…

…the list, quite literally, goes on, but we’ll stop it there. That said, if you’ve got some more titles to contribute to the list, please add them in the comments.

So what’s to be done? I’m not sure, beyond finding ways to keep up the demand. Until then, hold onto your physical media and appreciate the rare titles when you find them. You never know when they might disappear (or what might disappear next).

In the meantime, we hope you’re enjoying our Hard Eight episode. Its sequel, an episode on The Card Counter, drops this week. (You can’t find Schrader’s Light of Day anywhere, ether). We’ve got some reading suggestions for you, too.

• At Polygon, Charles Bramesco offers a nuanced look at Dear Evan Hansen. At Vox, Alissa Wilkinson has complicated feelings about the film.

• At Vulture, David Chase talks to Matt Zoller Seitz about following The Sopranos.

• Also at Vulture, Bilge Eibiri talks to under-the-radar action movie auteur Jonathan Mostow.

• Finally, this week at The Reveal, you can read Scott Tobias on The Many Saints of Newark and Titane, and Restrepo and the end of the war in Afghanistan. You can read Keith Phipps on David Chase’s Not Fade Away, A Quiet Place Part II, and Timothy Dalton’s run as James Bond.