Criterion Press Release: April Titles (1 Viewer)

[ChristianB]

APRIL RELEASES:

381:
La Haine (1995; Matthieu Kassovitz)


382:
Overlord (1975; Stuart Cooper)


383:
Brute Force (1947; Jules Dassin)

 

[Mark VH]

Damn - Brute Force and The Naked City in two months? F'ing sweet. What's your source, Christian?

 

[Tim_C]

Their covers have been posted on the official Criterion website, but their website has no official link to them yet...

Here they are anyway:

http://www.criterionco.com/content/i...ox_348x490.jpg
http://www.criterionco.com/content/i...ox_348x490.jpg

"La Haine" was up earlier but has since been taken down.

http://www.criterionco.com/content/i...ox_348x490.jpg

 

[PaulP]

It's back up. But just in case:

 

[John Hodson]

Full details of those April releases now up:

Brute Force :

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
A new interview with Paul Mason, author of Capturing the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture
Theatrical trailer
Stills gallery
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson, and more!

Overlord :

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Audio commentary featuring director Stuart Cooper and actor Brian Stirner
Mining the Archive, a new video featuring Imperial War Museum film archivists detailing the war footage used in the film
“Capa Influences Cooper,” a new photo essay featuring Cooper on photographer Robert Capa
Cameramen at War, the British Ministry of Information’s 1943 film tribute to newsreel and service film unit cameramen
Germany Calling, a 1941 British Ministry of Information propaganda film, clips of which appear in Overlord
Journals from two D-day soldiers, read by Brian Stirner Theatrical trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: A new essay by critic Kent Jones, a short history of the Imperial War Museum, and excerpts from the Overlord novelization, by Cooper and Christopher Hudson

La Haine :

New, restored high-definition digital transfer
New English-language audio commentary by writer-director Mathieu Kassovitz
Optional Dolby Digital 5.1 track
Video introduction by Jodie Foster
Social Dynamite, a new video featurette on the film’s banlieue setting, including interviews with sociologists Sophie Body-Gendrot, Jeffrey Fagan, and William Kornblum
Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
Theatrical trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and notes by acclaimed director Costa-Gavras
and MORE!!

 

[donnie_d]

Video introduction by Jodie Foster ?!!! what Jodie Foster got to do with this movie?! plus,La Haine artwork sucks and i HIGHLY doubt the extras will be better than the 3-disc set by Optimum (UK),and not to mention,better packging and artwork.

 

[Tim_C]

I believe Jodie Foster owns the rights to the movie in the U.S.

And I kind of like the cover, but that's probably just me...

 

[Mark Edward Heuck]

Jodie spotted the film at a festival and was so taken with it she personally arranged for it's U.S. release by the former PolyGram company Gramercy, where she had a production deal (she directed HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS for them). She's a big fan of all things French.

 

[Will*B]

I like the La Haine cover personally. Will consider getting this one (all I have is my old PAL Tartan VHS, but I've seen it so many times - both at home and years ago in college - that I practically know it by heart....)

(Still waiting for Pierrot le Fou!)

 

[Jim_K]

Great news on Brute Force.

Hopefully there'll be more noirs in their future lineups.

 

[Deepak Shenoy]

They seem to have reduced their monthly output to 3 titles (just when I was hoping they would increase it instead). There are so many titles that I have been waiting for, that I know Criterion will eventually release but I have no choice but to wait year after year hoping that each month's trickle of titles will include one I want.

It may have something to do with the Eclipse line taking up some of their resources. In any case Brute Force is a must-have for me in this batch.

-D

 

[Chris*Liberti]

I will be getting La Haine. I haven't even been able to find it on DVD. I saw it when it came out in the theater and loved it.

 

[Nathan V]

Been waiting for La Haine for aaaaggges. A day and date purchase for me. The cover art is fantastic as usual.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Ali B]

I thought the point of the Eclipse line was so that they wouldn't have loads of time taken up with putting out every film by important directors in proper Criterion editions, not taking production time away from the proper Criterion editions?

The artwork for La Haine is probably the worst I've seen Criterion do. No sale from me anyway, as I have the original French SE from years ago and don't plan on upgrading any editions on DVD again - I'd rather buy stuff I don't already have and wait for HD releases for whatever I want to upgrade.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

BRUTE FORCE
As hard-hitting as its title, Brute Force was the first of Jules Dassin's forays into the crime genre, a prison melodrama that takes a critical look at American society as well. Burt Lancaster is the timeworn Joe Collins, who, along with his fellow inmates, lives under the heavy thumb of the sadistic, power-tripping guard Captain Munsey (a riveting Hume Cronyn). Only Collins's dreams of escape keep him going, but how can he possibly bust out of Munsey's chains? Matter-of-fact and ferocious, Brute Force builds to an explosive climax that shows that man's desperation for freedom knows no bounds.

Info
€ Written and directed by Jules Dassin (The Naked City, Night and the City, Rififi)
€ Produced by Mark Hellinger (The Naked City)
€ Starring Burt Lancaster (The Killers, From Here to Eternity, Birdman of Alcatraz)

Special edition features:
€ New, restored high-definition digital transfer
€ Audio commentary by film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
€ A new interview with Paul Mason, author of Capturing the Media: Prison Discourse in Popular Culture
€ Theatrical trailer
€ Stills gallery
€ PLUS: A new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson
Title: Brute Force
CAT: CC1686DVD
UPC: 7-15515-02282-8
ISBN: 1-934121-30-4
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 3/13/07
Street date: 4/17/07

LA HAINE
When he was just twenty-nine years old, Mathieu Kassovitz took the international film world by storm with La haine (Hate), a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically in the low-income banlieue districts on Paris's outskirts. Aimlessly whiling away their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz, Hubert, and Saïd-a Jew, an African, and an Arab-give human faces to France's immigrant populations, their bristling resentments at their social marginalization slowly simmering until they reach a climactic boiling point. A work of tough beauty, La haine is a landmark of contemporary French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country's ongoing identity crisis.

Info
€ Written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz (The Crimson Rivers, Gothika)
€ Starring Vincent Cassel (Irreversible, Elizabeth)
€ Starring Saïd Taghmaoui (The Good Thief, Hideous Kinky)

Special edition features:
€ New, restored high-definition digital transfer
€ New English-language audio commentary by writer-director Mathieu Kassovitz
€ New introduction by Jodie Foster
€ Social Dynamite, a new documentary featuring interviews with Sophie Body-Gendrot, William Kornblum and Jeffrey Fagan
€ Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
€ Optional Dolby Digital 5.1 track
€ New and improved English subtitle translation
€ Plus: A new essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau, and a statement by Costa-Gavras
€ And more!

Title: La haine
CAT: CC1688DVD
UPC: 7-15515-02302-3
ISBN: 1-934121-32-0
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 3/13/07
Street date: 4/17/07

OVERLORD
Seamlessly interweaving archival war footage and a fictional narrative, Stuart Cooper's immersive account of one 20-year-old's journey from basic training to the battle front lines at D-day brings all the terrors and isolation of war to its viewers with jolting authenticity. Overlord, impressionistically shot by Stanley Kubrick's longtime cinematographer John Alcott, is both a document of WWII and a dreamlike meditation on man's smallness in a large, incomprehensible machine.

Info
€ Written and directed by Stuart Cooper (Little Malcolm)
€ Cinematography by John Alcott (Barry Lyndon, The Shining)

Special edition features:
€ New, restored high-definition digital transfer
€ Audio commentary featuring director Stuart Cooper and actor Brian Stirner
€ Mining the Archive: Imperial War Museum film archivists detail the archival war footage used in Overlord
€ Capa Influences Cooper, (2006) a photo essay in which Cooper describes how photographer Robert Capa influenced his work
€ Cameramen at War, (1943) the British Ministry of Information's film tribute to the newsreel and service film unit cameramen
€ The 1941 propaganda film Germany Calling, clips of which appear in Overlord
€ Journals from two D-day soldiers, read by Brian Stirner
€ Theatrical trailer
€ PLUS: A new essay by Kent Jones and excerpts from Overlord novelization by Cooper and co-writer Christopher Hudson
Title: Overlord
CAT: CC1689DVD
UPC: 7-15515-02312-2
ISBN: 1-934121-33-9
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 3/13/07
Street date: 4/17/07

ATTENTION CANADA – BRUTE FORCE AND OVERLORD ARE AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CANADA ONLY. LA HAINE IS AVAILABLE IN ALL CANADA.

 

[Jace_A]

I would have bought La Haine but for the fact that I just ordered the HD DVD from the UK. I will buy Brute Force, though.