The Criterion Collection

[Joe Dalek]

Originally Posted by SammyJankis

Only the Fassbinder set, which, like someone else stated, I wish was in Blu.

Oh well.

So, only half of the films announced today.

I'm not surprised re: Eclipse, or especially disappointed. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a second RWF Eclipse at some point. No way all of those films will be mainline.

[UNCMT9]

I may check out To Be or Not to Be. Not familiar with a lot of Ray's work besides The Music Room.

[SammyJankis]

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek

So, only half of the films announced today.

I'm not surprised re: Eclipse, or especially disappointed. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a second RWF Eclipse at some point. No way all of those films will be mainline.

Yep. And none of the other films, which I knew of before the announcements, interest me. Thus making it the worst month of the year for me.

[Hawkguy]

So happy about the Eclipse set... not really upset it's not on blu (I'm sure they're preparing some of the later films for blu-ray).

[pro-bassoonist]

NEWS
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=11165

The Criterion Collection has announced five titles for Blu-ray release in August. On August 6th, the studio will release Max Ophuls' The Earrings of Madame de... (1953). On August 13th, it will release John Frankenheimer's Seconds (1966). On August 20th, it will release Satyajit Ray's The Big City (1963) and Charulata (1964). And on August 27th, it will release Ernst Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be (1942).

The Earrings of Madame de...

The most cherished work from French master Max Ophuls, The Earrings of Madame de . . . is a profoundly emotional, cinematographically adventurous tale of deceptive opulence and tragic romance. When an aristocratic woman known only as Madame de (the extraordinary Danielle Darrieux) sells a pair of earrings given to her by her husband (Charles Boyer) in order to pay a debt, she sets off a chain reaction of financial and carnal consequences that can end only in despair. Ophuls's adaptation of Louise de Vilmorin's incisive fin de siècle novel employs the elegant and precise camera work for which the director is so justly renowned, to ravishing effect.

Special Features:

New, restored high-definition digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Audio commentary featuring film scholars Susan White and Gaylyn Studlar
Introduction by filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson
Interviews with director Max Ophuls's collaborators Alan Jessua, Marc Frédérix, and Annette Wademant
Visual essay by film scholar Tag Gallagher
Archival interview with novelist Louise de Vilmorin on Ophuls's adaptation of her story
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Molly Haskell, an excerpt from costume designer Georges Annenkov's 1962 book Max Ophuls, and the 1951 source novel by Vilmorin, Madame de

Seconds

Rock Hudson is a revelation in this sinister, science-fiction-inflected dispatch from the fractured 1960s. Seconds, directed by John Frankenheimer, concerns a middle-aged businessman dissatisfied with his suburban existence, who elects to undergo a strange and elaborate procedure that will grant him a new life. Starting over in America, however, is not as easy as it sounds. This paranoiac symphony of canted camera angles (courtesy of famed cinematographer James Wong Howe), fragmented editing, and layered sound design is a remarkably risk-taking Hollywood film that ranks high on the list of its legendary director's major achievements.

Special Features:

New 4K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Audio commentary featuring director John Frankenheimer
Actor Alec Baldwin on Frankenheimer and Seconds
New program on the making of Seconds, featuring interviews with Evans Frankenheimer, the director's widow, and actor Salome Jens
Interview with Frankenheimer from 1971
New visual essay by film scholars R. Barton Palmer and Murray Pomerance
PLUS: An essay by critic David Sterritt

The Big City a.k.a Mahanagar

The Big City (Mahanagar), set in mid-1950s Calcutta and directed by the great Satyajit Ray, follows the personal triumphs and frustrations of Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), who decides, despite the initial protests of her bank-clerk husband, to take a job to help support their family. With remarkable sensitivity and attention to the details of everyday working-class life, Ray gradually builds a powerful human drama that is at once a hopeful morality tale and a commentary on the identity of the contemporary Indian woman.

Special Features:

New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New interview with actor Madhabi Mukherjee
Satyajit Ray and the Modern Woman, a new interview program featuring Ray historian Suranjan Ganguly
The Coward (1965), a feature film directed by Ray that also addresses modern female identity and stars Mukherjee and Soumitra Chatterjee
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Chandak Sengoopta and an interview with Ray from the 1980s by his biographer Andrew Robinson

Charulata

This film about a woman's artistic and romantic yearning by Satyajit Ray is set in late nineteenth-century, pre-independence India. It takes place in the gracious home of a liberal-minded, workaholic newspaper editor and his lonely, stifled wife, Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee), whose exquisitely composed features mask a burning creativity. When her husband's poet cousin comes to stay with them, Charulata finds herself both inspired by him to pursue her own writing and dangerously drawn to him physically. Based on a novella by the great Rabindranath Tagore, Charulata is a work of subtle textures, a delicate tale of a marriage in jeopardy and a woman taking the first steps toward establishing her own voice.

Special Features:

New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New interview program with actors Madhabi Mukherjee and Soumitra Chatterjee
Adapting Tagore, a new interview program featuring Indian film scholar Moinak Biswas and Bengali literature historian Supriya Chaudhuri
Archival audio interview with director Satyajit Ray by film historian Gideon Bachmann
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp and a 1980s interview with Ray by his biographer Andrew Robinson

To Be or Not to Be

As nervy as it is hilarious, this screwball masterpiece from Ernst Lubitsch stars Jack Benny and, in her final screen appearance, Carole Lombard as husband-and-wife thespians in Nazi-occupied Warsaw who become caught up in a dangerous spy plot. To Be or Not to Be is a Hollywood film of the boldest black humor, which went into production soon after the U.S. entered World War II. Lubitsch manages to brilliantly balance political satire, romance, slapstick, and urgent wartime suspense in a comic high-wire act that has never been equaled.

Special Features:

New, restored 2K digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New audio commentary featuring film historian David Kalat
Lubitsch le patron, a 2010 French documentary on director Ernst Lubitsch's career
Two episodes of The Screen Guild Theater, a radio anthology series: Variety (1940), starring Jack Benny, Claudette Colbert, and Lubitsch, and To Be or Not to Be (1942), an adaptation of the film, starring William Powell, Diana Lewis, and Sig Ruman
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien
More!

Note: On August 27th, Criterion will also release a five-disc DVD box set with early films directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The box set will be part of Criterion's Eclipse Series.

Pro-B

[Cinemach]

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek

Out of curiosity, to those who consider this a "weak" or "the worst" month, how many of these pictures have you seen?

I mean, 3 Satyajit Ray films, 5 Rainer Werner Fassbinder films, a Lubitsch starring the gorgeous Carole Lombard, The Earrings of Madame... (widely-regarded as one of the greatest films of all-time), and Seconds (a great, tense sci-fi tinged B-thriller)...that is a pretty decent line-up. 11 films, 5 nations, spanning 4 decades. Everyone's tastes are different, but it's hard to believe anyone interested in Criterion in general would scoff at this output. And yet this thread is teeming with disregard. You're doing yourselves an injustice by writing off stuff that you don't know yet, IMHO.

+11.

There are some months where I can see the 'meh' - last year was chock full of them - but for the reasons Joe Dalek has listed, I don't see how you can look at this announcement and say that it's one of the worst months ever. Even if you legitimately harbor no interest for any of these films - a possibility I certainly recognize - I don't know how any reasonable fan of the cinema can call this batch boring. The swath that it cuts from genre to country to era is astounding.

Again, I've been a poster that's 'meh'd' before...but this is absolutely not a boring month.

As for me: I can say each release at least piques my interest, even if I won't be buying all of them. Firstly, I can remove the Studio Canal edition of To Be or Not to Be from my sights and tracking lists (damn thing never went down in price anyway). That's the only definite, a no-wait-for-sale pickup for me. Others:

[Show spoiler]
Fassbinder Eclipse - of interest because of the filmmaker, but...I'm not too crazy about these DVD Eclipse sets. A booklet or something would be nice, esp as many films in these sets could use the context. At least there are 5 pictures, so there's some value.

Satyajit Ray films - I've never seen any of his pictures, but Ray is a filmmaker of world renown amongst the order of a Bergman, Antonioni, and Hitchcock. Which means I'll probably put The Music Room on the next sale list and go ahead from there.

[Abdrewes]

I'm just going to call it right now. Although, my preference is for Lubitsch and Ophuls, quite a few people will be floored by Seconds. I expect to see it on a bunch of "best Criterion releases of 2013 lists."

[Scottie]

Originally Posted by tama

TBONTB is a very hilarious film that modern audiences will appreciate. I highly recommend you give it a view.

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

Please give Earrings of Madame De. a chance....a Plot synopsis doesn't compare with what you'll see. It has spectacular camera movement and very tight storytelling.

I'll pre-order them all, but as far as how soon I watch them will be a different thing.

[Joe Dalek]

Originally Posted by iScottie

I'll pre-order them all, but as far as how soon I watch them will be a different thing.

Interesting approach...

[Joe Dalek]

Originally Posted by Abdrewes

I'm just going to call it right now. Although, my preference is for Lubitsch and Ophuls, quite a few people will be floored by Seconds. I expect to see it on a bunch of "best Criterion releases of 2013 lists."

I agree.

[The Great Owl]

Maybe it's just because I'm a few minutes away from embarking on my long journey through all five seasons of The Twilight Zone on Blu-ray, but I keep thinking that the premise and the camera angles of John Frankenheimer's Seconds make it seem like an extended episode of The Twilight Zone.

If this is even remotely an accurate assumption, then I will certainly be purchasing Seconds.

[UNCMT9]

Seconds looks very appealing. Just checkout out the trailer on YouTube. I'm down for some Rock!

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by Joe Dalek

Interesting approach...

Yeah, why pre-order it, then?

[brandon_260]

Nothing has me jumping for joy this month, but that's mostly due to my lack of knowledge on any of the films and their directors.

However, I will almost certainly be picking up Seconds and the two Ray titles. The latter has been a film maker that I've had interest in for a long time, and I will finally be getting around to his work. I'll definitely give To Be or Not to Be a shot as well, sounds interesting enough. The Earrings of Madame de is the titles I have the least interest in, but I may get around to it one day.

[Abdrewes]

Originally Posted by brandon_260

Nothing has me jumping for joy this month, but that's mostly due to my lack of knowledge on any of the films and their directors.

However, I will almost certainly be picking up Seconds and the two Ray titles. The latter has been a film maker that I've had interest in for a long time, and I will finally be getting around to his work. I'll definitely give To Be or Not to Be a shot as well, sounds interesting enough. The Earrings of Madame de is the titles I have the least interest in, but I may get around to it one day.

Earrings of Madame De. makes a great double feature with Letters from an Unknown Woman. A couple of years ago I did exactly that and I was floored. I've been a Max Ophuls fan ever since.

[Tin Drum]

I about passed out when I saw Seconds included. That movie is amazing and easily in my top five of all time. Keeping the OOP dvd anyway.

August is a killer month. All August titles will be mine (including the eclipse). BEST MONTH EVER from them, IMO.

[pro-bassoonist]

Just a small note that Cohen Media will be releasing Rene Clement's The Damned. We could not review the Gaumont release because it is not English-friendly, but I would like to strongly recommend this film (and the French transfer is beautiful). It has been very difficult to see on this side of the Atlantic for many years:



Also, the Canal Rene Clement Collection has the following films on DVD



Pro-B

[buffetfroid]

Artwork for Earrings clearly done by same person who did Belle de Jour

[Edward J Grug III]

A much better month for me, this month, In fact, one of my predictions! (The Earrings of Madame De..) and I love To Be or Not to Be.

I just got a copy of Music Room. Not sure how it stacks up against the two new announcements, but it will probably decide my interest in them.

Never heard of Seconds.

I've never seen any Fassbinder, and I'm interested, but I'm also pretty much off buying DVDs at this point...

[chris_sc77]

nothing of even slight interest to me