1. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Really Unexpected), A New Hitchcock Movie, Jules and Jim, a lesbian movie, a film from the maker of Sex Lies and Video Tape, a film by a Rapist, and an upgrade of a film already on Criterion BD. This'll be an interesting month.
2. Also, has there been any other animated films on Criterion? Just wondering.
3. I'll probably get Breathless and not open it, cause it'll be worth something inn the future...
4. One final note, I'll probably wait for the 'Special Edition' release of BITWC that they said is coming soon
Also, has there been any other animated films on Criterion? Just wondering.
Their only previous animated film release was their laserdisc edition of Akira.
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I'll probably get Breathless and not open it, cause it'll be worth something inn the future...
The dual-format edition they're releasing in February won't likely be "worth something in the future" as long as Criterion keeps it in print. The BD-only and DVD-only editions that will be going OOP will be the ones that might get an uptick in price on the collector's market, but probably not by much.
What a huge month! Hitchcock, Truffaut, Soderbergh, Polanski, Anderson. I really can't complain. The Blue is the Warmest Color release seems like a real cop out though if there is a "true" Criterion release set up down the road. I'm all in, except for Blue and the Breathless re-issue.
This is the first month in a long time where I've actually seen half of the releases. I'm very interested in King of the Hill, as my knowledge of early Soderbergh is pretty embarrassing.
I'm not sure I'd agree that it's "just as good as" The Third Man, but yes, it's a hell of a film. Criterion released it on laserdisc back in the day, though I don't have a copy. I do, however, have the Image/Janus DVD.
I really love them both so much. The Third Man has one of the greatest screenplays ever written and both of them are phenomenally shot, acted and directed.
Maybe it is a bit of an exaggeration to say its on par but it just struck all the right notes for me. I'm a real sucker for films where the protagonist jumps from situation to situation and gets involved with a lot of characters. I especially loved how all the characters in Odd Man Out had all their different ideas about what to do with him and their motives behind them.
Really took me from the very start and just seemed to get better and better. Gonna be giving this one another watch real soon!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lemonski
I do. I got sick of waiting and got the Network UK BD to tide me over.
There's a great unmined run of Carol Reed titles, maybe Criterion could do something like the Noel Coward box with them - Odd Man Out, The Fallen Idol, The Man Between, Outcast of the Islands, and The Key. They could chuck in a BD upgrade of Night Train to Munich. Sorted. Get onto it Criterion.
If I was region free I might have done this too. But then theres also that part of me that thinks Criterion could do better on the extras. Only time will tell though I guess. Would also love to see a Reed box set, he seems criminally underrated and it'd be great to see him get some more love.
I don't know why The Darjeeling Limited is hated. I loved the soundtrack, cinematography in India and the three actors played off each other pretty well. I liked how Frences was just like his mom when they finally showed her towards the end. A nuance you notice in life but rarely in film.
For a long time, I cited this as my least-favorite Anderson. Rewatching it recently, though, I finally warmed up to it a little.
I really love them both so much. The Third Man has one of the greatest screenplays ever written and both of them are phenomenally shot, acted and directed.
Maybe it is a bit of an exaggeration to say its on par but it just struck all the right notes for me. I'm a real sucker for films where the protagonist jumps from situation to situation and gets involved with a lot of characters. I especially loved how all the characters in Odd Man Out had all their different ideas about what to do with him and their motives behind them.
Interesting announcement today. Since they're rereleasing Breathless as a combo pack, hopefully they'll do the same with The 400 Blows. I'm surprised at the Fantastic Mr. Fox announcement (I'd rather they release Life Aquatic but oh well). Interesting that they're releasing a bare bones version of Blue is the Warmest Color with a special edition coming later.
I just watched The Secret of the Grain in preparation for Blue is the Warmest Color and I really enjoyed it!
Nice! I just netflixed The Secret of the Grain after seeing and LOVING Blue is the Warmest Color.
I'm so so so excited Criterion is releasing BITWC, and will be available in less than 3 months!
Already own Breathless, but so in for Foreign Correspondent and Jules and Jim as well.
I wish Moonrise Kingdom was the Anderson film receiving the Criterion treatment. I've still been holding off on this one! I'm pretty satisfied with the current release of Fantastic Mr. Fox, but I could see eventually upgrading.
Definitely in for Jules et Jim and Foreign Correspondent. Haven't see Blue is the Warmest Color yet. As for Fantastic Mr. Fox, I love the film but not sure I can justify an upgrade. The current Blu Ray looks great.
Jules and Jim (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
Hailed as one of the finest films ever made, Jules and Jim charts, over twenty-five years, the relationship between two friends and the object of their mutual obsession. The legendary François Truffaut (The 400 Blows) directs, and Jeanne Moreau (Elevator to the Gallows) stars as the alluring and willful Catherine, whose enigmatic smile and passionate nature lure Jules (The Spy Who Came in from the Cold’s Oskar Werner) and Jim (The Fire Within’s Henri Serre) into one of cinema’s most captivating romantic triangles. An exuberant and poignant meditation on freedom, loyalty, and the fortitude of love, Jules and Jim was a worldwide smash in 1962 and remains every bit as audacious and entrancing today.
1962 • 105 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DIRECTOR-APPROVED DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the
Blu-ray
• Two audio commentaries: one featuring screenwriter Jean Gruault, François Truffaut collaborator Suzanne Schiffman, editor Claudine Bouché, and film scholar Annette Insdorf; the other featuring actor Jeanne Moreau and Truffaut biographer Serge Toubiana
• Excerpts from The Key to “Jules and Jim” (1985), a documentary about author Henri-Pierre Roché and the real-life relationships that inspired the novel and film
• Interviews with Truffaut, Gruault, and cinematographer Raoul Coutard
• Conversation between scholars Robert Stam and Dudley Andrew
• Excerpt from a 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps dedicated to Truffaut
• Segment from a 1969 episode of the French television program L’invité du dimanche featuring Truffaut, Moreau, and filmmaker Jean Renoir
• Excerpts from Truffaut’s first appearance on American television, a 1977 interview with New York Film Festival director Richard Roud
• Excerpts from a 1979 American Film Institute seminar given by Truffaut
• Audio interview with Truffaut from 1980, conducted by film scholar Claude-Jean Philippe
• Trailer
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic John Powers, a 1981 piece by Truffaut on Roché, and script notes by Truffaut
TITLE: Jules and Jim (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2334BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11351-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-822-4
SRP:$39.95
STREET: 2/4/14
Blue is the Warmest Color (Blu-ray & DVD Editions)
The colorful, electrifying romance that took the Cannes Film Festival by storm courageously dives into a young woman’s experiences of first love and sexual awakening. Blue is the Warmest Color stars the remarkable newcomer Adèle Excharpoulos as a high schooler who, much to her own surprise, plunges into a thrilling relationship with a female twenty something art student, played by Léa Seydoux (Midnight in Paris). Directed by Abdellatif Kechiche (The Secret of the Grain), this finely detailed, intimate epic sensitively renders the erotic abandon of youth. It has captivated international audiences and been widely embraced as a defining love story for the new century.
2013 • 179 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • In French with English subtitles • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Abdellatif Kechiche, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Trailer and TV spot
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic B. Ruby Rich
TITLE: Blue Is the Warmest Color (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2336BD
UPC: 7-15515-11381-6
ISBN: 978-1-60465-825-5
SRP: $24.95
STREET: 2/11/14
TITLE: Blue Is the Warmest Color (DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2337DDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11391-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-826-2
SRP: $19.95
STREET: 2/11/14
Fantastic Mr. Fox (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
Fantastic Mr. Fox is the story of a clever, quick, nimble, and exceptionally well-dressed wild animal. A compulsive chicken thief turned newspaper reporter, Mr. Fox settles down with his family at a new foxhole in a beautiful tree directly adjacent to three enormous poultry farms—owned by three ferociously vicious farmers: Boggis, Bunce, and Bean. Mr. Fox simply cannot resist. This adaptation of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s novel from Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums) is a meticulous work of stop-motion animation featuring vibrant performances by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Willem Dafoe, Michael Gambon, and Bill Murray.
2009 • 87 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New digital master, approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring Anderson
• Storyboard animatics for the entire film
• Footage of the actors voicing their characters, puppet construction, stop-motion setups, and the recording of the score
• Interviews with cast and crew
• Puppet animation tests
• Photo gallery of puppets, props, and sets
• Animated awards acceptance speeches
• Audio recording of author Roald Dahl reading the book on which the film is based
• Gallery of Dahl’s original manuscripts
• Discussion and analysis of the film
• Stop-motion Sony robot commercial by Anderson
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay; a 2002 article on Dahl’s Gipsy House by Anderson; White Cape, a comic book used as a prop in the film; and drawings, original paintings, and other ephemera
TITLE: Fantastic Mr. Fox (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2319BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11141-6
ISBN: 978-1-60465-788-3
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/18/14
Foreign Correspondent (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
In 1940, Alfred Hitchcock made his official transition from the British film industry to Hollywood. And it was quite a year: his first two American movies, Rebecca and Foreign Correspondent, were both nominated for the best picture Oscar. Though Rebecca prevailed, Foreign Correspondent is the more quintessential Hitch film. A full-throttle espionage thriller, starring Joel McCrea (Sullivan’s Travels) as a green Yank reporter sent to Europe to get the scoop on the imminent war, its wall-to-wall witty repartee, head-spinning plot twists, and brilliantly mounted suspense set pieces, including an ocean plane crash climax with astonishing special effects. Foreign Correspondent deserves to be mentioned alongside The 39 Steps and North by Northwest as one of the master’s greatest adventures.
1940 • 120 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.37:1 aspect ratio
DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New piece on the visual effects in the film with effects expert Craig Barron
• Hollywood Propaganda and World War II, a new interview with writer Mark Harris
• Interview with director Alfred Hitchcock from a 1972 episode of The Dick Cavett Show
• Radio adaptation of the film from 1946, starring Joseph Cotten
• Have You Heard? The Story of Wartime Rumors, a 1942 Life magazine “photo-drama” by Hitchcock
• Trailer
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar James Naremore
TITLE: Foreign Correspondent (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2335BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11371-7
ISBN: 978-1-60465-824-8
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/18/14
Breathless (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. Jean-Luc Godard (Band of Outsiders) burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy, free-form, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent young stars Jean-Paul Belmondo (Pierrot le fou) and Jean Seberg (Bonjour tristesse), Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured that cinema would never be the same.
1960 • 90 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photographyRaoul Coutard, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Archival interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Jean-Pierre Melville
• Contemporary interviews with Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
• Two video essays, one on Seberg and one on Breathless as film criticism
• Chambre 12, Hôtel de suède, an eighty-minute 1993 documentary about the making of Breathless
• Charlotte et son Jules, a 1959 short by Godard starring Belmondo
• Trailer
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by scholar Dudley Andrew, writings by Godard, François Truffaut’s original treatment, and Godard’s scenario
TITLE: Breathless (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2348BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11141-6
ISBN: 978-1-60465-788-3
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/25/14
King of the Hill (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
For his first Hollywood studio production, Steven Soderbergh (whose independent debut, sex, lies, and videotape, had won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival a few years earlier) crafted this small jewel of a growing-up story. Set in St. Louis during the Depression, King of the Hill follows the daily struggles of a resourceful and imaginative adolescent (Bring It On’s Jesse Bradford) who, after his tubercular mother is sent to a sanatorium, must survive on his own in a run-down hotel during his salesman father’s long business trips. This evocative period piece, faithfully adapted from the memoir by the novelist A. E. Hotchner, is among the ever versatile Soderbergh’s most touching and surprising films, and features a remarkable supporting cast, including Karen Allen (Raiders of the Lost Ark), Adrien Brody (The Pianist), Katherine Heigl (Grey’s Anatomy), singer Lauryn Hill, Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey), and Spalding Gray (Gray’s Anatomy).
1993 • 103 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Steven Soderbergh and supervising sound editor and rerecording mixer Larry Blake, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interviews with Soderbergh and A. E. Hotchner, author of the memoir on which the film is based
• Against Tyranny, a new video essay by ::kogonada in which he explores Soderbergh’s unique approach to character subjectivity
• The Underneath (1995), Soderbergh’s follow-up feature to King of the Hill, with an interview with the director
• Trailers
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Peter Tonguette, a 1993 interview with Soderbergh, and an excerpt from Hotchner’s 1972 memoir
TITLE: King of the Hill (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2339BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11411-0
ISBN: 978-1-60465-828-6
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 1/25/14
Tess (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
This multiple-Oscar-winning film by Roman Polanski (Rosemary’s Baby) is an exquisite, richly layered adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. A strong-willed peasant girl (Paris, Texas’s Nastassja Kinski, in a gorgeous breakthrough) is sent by her father to the estate of some local aristocrats to capitalize on a rumor that their families are from the same line. This fateful visit commences an epic narrative of sex, class, betrayal, and revenge, which Polanski unfolds with deliberation and finesse. With its earthy visual textures, achieved by two world-class cinematographers—Geoffrey Unsworth (Cabaret) and Ghislain Cloquet (Au hasard Balthazar)—Tess is a work of great pastoral beauty as well as vivid storytelling.
1979 • 172 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DIRECTOR-APPROVED DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Roman Polanski, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Once Upon a Time . . . “Tess,” a 2006 documentary on the film
• Three programs on the making of the film—From Novel to Screen, Filming “Tess,” and “Tess”: The Experience— featuring interviews with Polanski, actors Nastassja Kinski and Leigh Lawson, producer Claude Berri, costume designer Anthony Powell, composer Philippe Sarde, and others
• Interview with Polanski from a 1979 episode of The South Bank Show
• Forty-five-minute documentary shot on location for French television during the making of the film
• Trailer
• One Blu-ray and two DVDs, with all content available in both formats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Colin MacCabe
TITLE: Tess (DUAL-FORMAT BLU-RAY AND DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2338BDDVD
UPC: 7-15515-11401-1
ISBN: 978-1-60465-827-9
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 2/25/14
Off topic but related to scifi cult classics am I the only one out there that liked Gattaca?
I just watched this film a few nights ago on blu-ray! It's a superb film and one of my favorite sci-fi films ever! You're not the only one out there who likes it.
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Notes on the Feb. Announcments
Linear Mode
