Oh, for an intravenous feeding tube, a hundred-disc DVD changer, a 60-inch Sony Grand WEGA set, a Craftmatic adjustable bed, and two months off . . . then we could catch up with all the great DVDs of 2004 for the sheer enjoyment of them. Watching them for critical purposes is great, true, but a little more stressful than we always like. In the meantime, Important Arbiters of Cultural Legitimacy are dubbing the DVD format the savior of cinephilia (something we’ve been saying around these parts for years), so the world is getting hip to the fact that you can construct a grand film archive from the home. The titles below are the very best from a vintage year.

THE LEOPARD
(Criterion) The pioneering label really could do no wrong this year—the question in constructing this list was not which of Criterion’s titles to include, but which we could legitimately afford to keep off. This three-disc exploration of Luchino Visconti’s sumptuous, supremely intelligent 1963 Sicilian saga, starring Burt Lancaster, is, among other things, possibly the most physically beautiful film on DVD we’ve ever seen.

THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
(Criterion) Gillo Pontecorvo’s urgent 1965 study of the Algerian agitation for independence and the French colonialist response against it became the go-to film for Understanding Terrorism in the post-9/11 era. This three-disc set does full justice to both the film itself and its newfound relevance, combining the usual cinephilia-intensive extras with contributions from policy wonks, historians, and more.