LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Now we turn to some news about a closet - a closet many people wouldn't mind getting stuck in, at least for a while.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
It's the Criterion closet. That's the company that restores and redistributes classic films, ones like "Citizen Kane."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CITIZEN KANE")
ORSON WELLES: (As Charles Foster Kane) I sympathize with you. Charles Foster Kane is a scoundrel. His paper should be run out of town. A committee should be formed to boycott him.
MARTÍNEZ: And 1933's "King Kong."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "KING KONG")
GEORGE MACQUARRIE: (As police lieutenant) The airplanes got him.
ROBERT ARMSTRONG: (As Carl Denham) Oh, no. It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.
FADEL: Criterion filled a closet with its collection of restored movies, then filmed a bunch of Hollywood types inside the closet, rummaging around and talking about their favorite films.
MARTÍNEZ: They made it into an online video series called "Closet Picks." Peter Becker is president of the Criterion Collection.
PETER BECKER: It's exactly what it sounds like. There's a closet in our office where we keep all of the DVDs, Blu-rays and 4Ks that we've released. It's our product closet.
MARTÍNEZ: And he says now that closet is going on tour to mark the company's 40th year in business.
BECKER: We've built a replica of the Criterion closet in a delivery van. It has all of the same films in the same order, and it's all set up like the Criterion closet and bring the closet to people who'd like to visit it.
FADEL: The mobile closet starts out at the New York Film Festival this weekend. If you go, browse quickly - you only get three minutes inside.
MARTÍNEZ: So you won't actually have time to watch films like "Sanjuro," the samurai classic, or the beguiling Hong Kong romance, "In The Mood For Love."
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BECKER: It's this incredible selection of films that's in an order that seems almost random. There's no immediately visible rhyme or reason. It's quite a mixed-up jumble of just great cinema.
FADEL: Criterion's "Closet Picks" started about a decade ago with Guillermo del Toro, who directed "Hellboy" and "Pan's Labyrinth."
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
GUILLERMO DEL TORO: Since I'm being filmed, I'm not going to show any restraint.
BECKER: He went through the whole closet, got excited about a bunch of things, put them, you know, in his tote bag, and at the very end of it, as he was, you know, kind of wrapping up, he said, it's a very small robbery.
MARTÍNEZ: Now Becker says, film lovers can stop in just to browse.
FADEL: Like people used to do, you know, before Netflix.
MARTÍNEZ: I remember. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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