This is significant especially because Criterion has done such good work preserving great films. In 2004, the company released a 282-disc box set of its entire collection—making clear just how many important works it has saved from disintegration or obscurity. The primary focus, says Kim Henrickson, executive producer at Criterion, is on image quality: ensuring that films by the likes of Douglas Sirk and Preston Sturges are as clear and crisp as possible. But a film like "comes to us pretty clean," she says. "There shouldn't be any scratches, there shouldn't be any dirt." So why anoint it?
