Little red packages.

Film It's now exactly a year since I signed up to the dvd rental company ScreenSelect. If anyone is a film fan, it's certainly something I'd recommend. I've spoken to a few people who've like me given up their subscriptions to satellite and cable and are using a service like this -- it's just very convenient and you're able to see the things you'd like to see rather than what just happens to be on. In some cases I've simply stopped watching television on an episodic basis when I know a dvd release is imminent. It's amazing how much more enjoyable some things are in concentrated burst -- all of the subtle links between episodes become much more obvious without a week of forgetfulness. It's also opened the door to see a much wider range of cinema, with the ability to see everything available by a particular director -- I've finished Truffaut and I'm currently working on Tarkovsky and Bergman.

Largely so that I've got a copy somewhere as a record if I ever leave the service, here (in no particular order) is a list of everything I've rented from them in the past twelve months.

11/09/01 - September 11
24 - Season 3
400 Blows
8 Women
A Hard Day's Night
Martin Scorsese: A Personal Journey Into American Movies
Adventures Of Robin Robin Hood
Aguirre, Wrath Of God
Alias - Season 1
Alias - Season 2
Alphaville
Amelie - Bonus Disc
American Pie: The Wedding
Anastacia - Video Collection
Anatomy Of A Murder
Angel - Season Four
Arsenic and Old Lace
Balzac And The Chinese Seamstress
Bande A Part
Barry Lyndon
Belle Epoque
Bill Bailey... Part Troll
Blue Crush
Blue Gate Crossing
Boudu Saved From Drowning
Breathless
Brubaker
Buena Vista Social Club
Buffalo 66
Buffalo Soldiers
Cabin Fever
Cambridge Spies
Can't Hardly Wait
Catch 22
Caught On A Train
Chain Reaction
Cinema 16... Short Films
City Of God
Code Unknown
Confidence
Cookie's Fortune
Corrs, The - The Best Of... The Videos
Coupling - Series 1
Coupling - Series 2
Crisis
Croupier
Cul-De-Sac
Cypher
Daemos Rising
Dangerous Minds
Dark Water
Das Cabinet... Dr Caligari
Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure
Dawn Of The Dead
Day Of The Locust
Days Of Heaven
Death To Smoochy
Dirty Pretty Things
Divorcing Jack
Doctor T. And The Women
Duets
Eloge De L'Amour
Emma
Fahrenheit 451
Feel Like Going Home
Five Easy Pieces
Five Obstructions
Following
Freaky Friday
French Connection - Feature
Game Over: Kasparov And The Machine
Gattaca
Goldwyn - The Man... His Movies
Goodbye Lenin!
Great Expectations
Harvard Man
Have I Got News For You
He Loves... Me Not
Heartbreakers
Heaven
Hellboy
Himalaya With Michael Palin
Holes
Honest
How Green Was My Valley
Hulk
Human Nature
Hush
Identity
In Cold Blood
In The Soup
In This World
Intolerance
Inventing The Abbotts
Irreversible
Japanese Story
Jewel - Live At Humphrey's
Jules Et Jim
Kundun
La Jetee / Sans Soleil
La Peau Douce
Last Life In The Universe
Last Party 2000
Le Mepris
Le Petit Soldat
Les Enfants Du Paradis
Magnum Force
Malena
Master And Commander
Max
McCabe And Mrs Miller
Mean Girls
Midnight Cowboy
Mississippi Mermaid
Murder One: Seasob One
Norah Jones... New Orleans
One Night At McCool's
Outfoxed
Partie De Campagne
Parting Glances
Perfect Crimes
Phone Booth
Pocket Money
Possession
Punch-Drunk Love
Rebecca
Red Lights
Rosemary's Baby
Seabiscuit
Serpico
Shanghai Knights
Shattered Glass
Sheryl Crow... The Videos
Silent Shakespeare
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter And Spring
Stepmom
Sunrise
Sylvia
The Anniversary Party
The Birth Of A Nation
The China Syndrome
The Claim
The Company
The Conversation
The Fog Of War
The Gingerbread Man
The Girl Next Door
The Governess
The Graduate
The Honeymooners
The Last Metro
The Long Way Around
The Man Who Loved Women
The Mexican
The Mod Squad
The Other Side Of The Bed
The Princess & the Warrior
The Professionals
The Ring
The Station Agent
The Stone Tape
The Story Of Adele H
The Sweet Smell Of Success
The Thin Red Line
The Third Man
The Wild Child
The Wizard Of Oz
The Work of... Spike Jonze
Three Colours Blue
Three Colours Red
Three Colours White
Trilogy - One / Two / Three
Two Weeks Notice
Un Coeur En Hiver
U-Turn
View From The Top
Way Down East
Welcome To Collinwood
Wild Strawberries

I'm on the £14.99/three discs at a time package and sometimes, depending on what other things are happening I can get through about 20 discs a month which is bit cheaper than the £3.50 I believe it is in Blockbuster now. The only improvement which could be made to the service would be to complement the user reviews with something from an official source, for example Time Out -- or even a link through to an aggregated service such as Google Film or Rotten Tomatoes. Although user opinions are sometimes useful, the only showing for the Ingmar Bergman film 'Crisis' says something like 'It would have been helpful if it said this was in Swedish with English Subtitles' well yes, but what were you expecting?