Criterion's February Titles (1 Viewer)

[Marc Colella]

- SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Raoul Coutard
- New video interview with actor Anna Karina
- A "Pierrot" Primer, a new video program with audio commentary by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
- Godard, l'amour, la poésie, a fifty-minute French documentary about Godard and his collaborative life and films with Anna Karina
- Archival interview excerpts with director Jean-Luc Godard, actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Anna Karina
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Richard Brody, an review by Andrew Sarris, and an interview with Godard



- DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FOUR-DISC SET FEATURES:
- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer of the extended television version
- Audio commentary by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and screenwriter Mark Peploe
- The Italian Traveler, a documentary by Fernand Mozskowicz, exploring Bertolucci's journey from Parma to China
- The Making of "The Last Emperor," a new documentary featuring Storaro, editor Gabriella Cristiana, costume designer James Acheson, and art director Gianni Silvestre
- Postcards from China, video images taken by Bertolucci while on preproduction
- The Late Show: Face to Face, a 30-minute BBC interview with Bertolucci from 1989
- New video interviews with composers David Byrne and Sakamoto
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by David Thomson and excerpts from script supervisor Fabien Gerard’s journals from the production
- More!


- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Alex Cox
- Audio commentary by Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer
- Dispatches from Nicaragua, an original documentary about the filming of Walker
- On Moviemaking and the Revolution, an audio reminiscence from actor and writer Linda Sandoval about the shoot
- Rare behind-the-scenes photos
- PLUS: A booklet featuring writings by film critic Graham Fuller, Wurlitzer, and Linda Sandoval


Been waiting for Pierrot Le Fou for a while now. Great to see it finally has a release date.

 

[Travis Brashear]

THE LAST EMPEROR - All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro

Yikes...will this mark the first Criterion not to adhere to the OAR? Vittorio is nefarious for insisting home video versions of his 2.35:1 works be cropped to a 2:1 aspect ratio.

 

[DonaldB]

Criterion has released 1.66:1 films cropped down to 1.78:1, like Peeping Tom and The Marriage of Maria Braun.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Tokyo Drifter comes to mind.

If its any consolation, Criterion.com is listing it at 2.35:1 in their spec list.

 

[Will*B]

Have been waiting for Pierrot le fou for years!

Every time there's been a Criterion announcement since I joined HTF in '03, I've commented on this film. It's finally here!

(I'll have to find a new obsession now.....)

 

[John Hodson]

I can't imagine that they could better the Criterion, but it's also coming in January from Optimum in the U.K.

 

[Travis Brashear]

Yes, my comment was much less interested in asserting accuracy with regards to Criterion's previous releases as it was an expression of dismay regarding a possible alteration of TLE's aspect ratio--thanks for providing the spec sheet info; that helps (mostly) set my mind at ease.

 

[Jon Martin]

Love the PIERROT LE FOU artwork! A must buy.

But yikes, WALKER? This is one that was hard to find for years. When I finally saw it, I can see why it was so hard, it is a pretty terrible film, not worth reissuing. I know Cox has his fans though.

 

[Martin Teller]

I consider this to be a good, but not great, month for Criterion/Eclipse. I'm actually interested in all of the titles (none of which I've seen yet) but there's none that I'm incredibly jazzed up for.

I wish they (or SOMEONE) would get around to doing some proper Satyajit Ray releases already.

 

[Lord Dalek]

Rumour has it they're working on acquiring some films. Exactly which (hopefully the Apu Trilogy) is anyone's guess.

 

[Mark Cappelletty]

Walker? WALKER?! Holy crap. I am SO glad I didn't get the R2 version now.

 

[Casey Neutron]

Okay, so WALKER isn't Cox's best film, but it's at least an interesting mess, and the documentary is something I'd really like to see. Kinda looking forward to this one.

 

[JonZ]

Wow, I just saw Last Emperor coming from Criterion.

MUST have and cant wait to see it. Ive been meaning to watch this for awhile and Im glad I held off.

 

[JackKay]

THE LAST EMPEROR, does this make it the first Academy Award winning Best Picture from Criterion?

 

[Marc Colella]

I believe Silence of the Lambs is the first.

 

[Bob Cashill]

RE: Best Pictures--REBECCA and HAMLET are other Criterion DVD releases. Which came first I don't know.

It had I think CASABLANCA, THE ENGLISH PATIENT, LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, WEST SIDE STORY, MIDNIGHT COWBOY, and ANNIE HALL on LD but I don't think they made it over.

 

[DanMel]

I don't think anyone that works at Criterion has any interest in any of the movies I consider classic that are in public domain status. I mean what the heck is a Perot Le Fou or a Walker. It is quite obvious they stay away from Gary Cooper movies with a ten foot pole when they could have made a ton of money releasing a restored A Farewell to Arms or Meet John Doe. The only movie I own from them is Charade with Grant and Hepburn and they won't be getting any more money from me until they show me interest with other titles. With all the dreadful transfers of the public domain title Penny Serenade ussually included on on the same disc as Charade from other companies, I think it is about time to look into releasing that movie as well or does Criterian hold a predudice against releasing classic romantic tearjerkers? I mean these are the type of movies I consider the best with movies like Random Harvest alrady out on dvd, Waterloo Bridge (1940), A Farewell To Arms (1932), Penny Serenade, In Name Only ect ect. Or course with Criterion staying clear of these types of movies, I am sure that any fans of Criterion that will be the only one's reading this post probably consider these the worst movies ever made since they are not into the classic romantic movies. Yet I can assure you that there is myself and probably a hundred thousand housewives that consider movies like Penny Serenade more classic than any Hitchcock movie or any of the movies mentioned for Feb releases.

 

[Bob Cashill]

If there were a "ton of money" to be made in restoring MEET JOHN DOE, I'm sure someone would have made it by now. There are many factors dictating what gets onto the DVD market, but I don't think hostility toward Gary Cooper and PENNY SERENADE (which I adore) by Criterion is one of them. Criterion has released plenty of "Golden Age" titles, most of which are under the thumb of their respective studios. It may cause you to break out your hankerchief yet.

 

[PaulDA]

The former is a very hard to find film by one of the most important directors of the twentieth century and the latter is an iconoclastic historical feature film that, while certainly not mainstream, has its devoted fans among major historical film scholars like Robert Rosenstone.

To your broader point, while I don't agree with every choice Criterion has made in selecting its films, my understanding is that its mandate is largely to bring unusual and/or difficult to find films that are not necessarily mainstream. The classics to which you allude, while worthy of fine presentations, don't appear, to me, to fit within Criterion's general mission (though clearly, with Charade, they saw fit to include an example of the genre you prefer).

 

[Sergio A]

Criterion has actually released several films that fall within the mainstream Hollywood tradition you revere, including REBECCA and NOTORIOUS (and other Hitchcock titles of course) as well as the wonderful British whodunnit GREEN FOR DANGER and the classic romantic screwball comedy MY MAN GODFREY. And what about melodramas like WRITTEN ON THE WIND and ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS or the epic SPARTACUS? These are not obscure arthouse movies but big budget commercial titles - hell, they've even released ARMAGEDDON and THE ROCK!

The main reason why Criterion probably stays normally away from Public Domain titles like PENNY SERENADE is the same reason Sony does - good quality film elements are probably hard to find and so once you've spent a lot of cash making a decent digital master, what would happen? The contents of the DVD would be stolen by all those companies that specialise in PD titles and they would sell it at a fraction of the cost and eat into Criterion's profits to the extent that they would make a loss.

Why be annoyed at Criterion for not releasing it when you could be annoyed at Sony (when it used to be Columbia, as it where) for not looking after the copyright so it didn't go into PD hell instead? Or better still, see if Sony wouldn't mind releasing it themselves as they are the ones likely to have the most viable elements that may be knocking around - and in the meantime cheer yourself up and go watch ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS courtesy of those wonderful people at Criterion.