The other night we went to see Jean Cocteau’s Beauty and the Beast at the new SIFF Theater. At the show I picked up a flier advertising Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films. I so totally want it. Janus is the distribution company that brought most of the classic foreign films over the US from the 50s on. To celebrate they have released this enormous boxed set that features 50 films, one for each year they’ve been in business. You can see the list at http://www.janusfilms.com and as a collection it is truly awesome. From Kurosawa and Fellini to Wajda and Eisenstein to Truffaut and Bergman, it’s a who’s who of art house directors. Even after a SIFF discount though the set is still $600. That is a great deal considering what you get, but I can’t really justify dropping that much money when I’ve got credit cards to pay down. It is quite tempting though, so I’m considering selling some minis and game stuff on Ebay to fund a purchase. Then it’d be more like trading for it, or so I could tell myself.