You won't find me complaining about it. It's just that most of their catalogue isn't mainstream so it's an interesting addition. It's a movie that probably should have been released by the original studio, but being put out by Criterion is the best thing that can happen to it. Nothing wrong with any movie getting the best possible treatment.
How so? Remember Armageddon and The Rock on Criterion DVD...now that was a head scratcher until you learn that they don't sell many Criterion's to the mainstream and need some of those type films to generate more cash.
L'Avventura is the only Antonioni film I really care about, and enjoy. It is, in my honest opinion, the best of the three. I made the mistake to watch L'Avventura first, it really put a high bar in my expectations of Antonioni films.
Same for me, at least for the time being, as I've only seen each film once.
Planning on an Antonioni-Vitti Fest in December (if not just a little bit earlier).
I was initially inclined to think of Tootsie as "too mainstream" for Criterion, but a realization occurred to me.
This film is over 30 years old.
1980s kids like me still think of this movie as a mainstream choice because we remember the time of its release as though it were yesterday. I did not see Tootsie at the time of its release, but I do remember flipping through the local newspaper page for what seemed like weeks and weeks in my small rural city, seeing the theatrical movie poster art for Tootsie, and thinking, "This movie is still playing at the theater?" In truth, though, it makes just as much sense to have a film like Tootsie in the collection as it does to have a film like I Married a Witch in the collection. It may not be the most cerebrally heavyweight title in the Collection, but it does speak for a certain era in a way that is becoming of the best that the Collection has to offer.
This seems to be a very similar situation to "The Night of the Hunter", where it is now packaged in a plastic, two-disc case, as opposed to the DigiPack.
I'm 100% sure that Criterion will offer a replacement case for the film for those who already own it.
This was a great month. Tootsie is one of the all-time great American comedies. So is It Happened One Night. Now that L'Avventura has been updated, it's time for the Antonioni focus to move to Blow Up. I need that film on BD; I think the DVD is OOP. They could do an amazing special feature with Coppola, Scott, and De Palma, all of whom directed films that drew upon Antonioni's work.
In the mid-sixties, the maverick American director Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop) conceived of two westerns at the same time. Dreamlike and gritty by turns, the two films would prove their maker’s adeptness at brilliantly deconstructing genre. As shot back-to-back for famed producer Roger Corman (The Wild Angels), they feature overlapping casts and crews, including Jack Nicholson (Five Easy Pieces) in two of his meatiest early roles. The films—The Shooting, about a motley assortment of loners following a mysterious wanted man through a desolate frontier, and Ride in the Whirlwind, about a group of cowhands pursued by vigilantes for crimes they did not commit—are rigorous, artful, and wholly unconventional journeys into the American West.
THE SHOOTING: 1966 • 82 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND: 1966 • 82 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restorations of both films, supervised by director Monte Hellman, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentaries on both films, featuring Hellman and film historians Bill Krohn and Blake Lucas
• New interviews with actors John Hackett, B. J. Merholz, Millie Perkins, and Harry Dean Stanton, assistant director Gary Kurtz, and chief wrangler Calvin Johnson, all in conversation with Hellman
• New conversation between actor Will Hutchins and film programmer Jake Perlin
• New video essay on actor Warren Oates by critic Kim Morgan
• PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Atkinson
• More!
TITLE: THE SHOOTING/RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2414BD
UPC: 7-15515-12321-1
ISBN: 978-1-60465-889-7
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 11/11/14
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT
Opposites attract with magnetic force in this romantic road-trip delight from Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), about a spoiled runaway socialite (The Palm Beach Story’s Claudette Colbert) and a roguish man-of-the-people reporter (Gone with the Wind’s Clark Gable) who is determined to get the scoop on her scandalous disappearance. The first film to accomplish the very rare feat of sweeping all five major Oscar categories (best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, and best screenplay), It Happened One Night is among the most gracefully constructed and edited films of the early sound era, packed with clever situations and gags that have entered the Hollywood comedy pantheon. Featuring two actors at the top of their game, sparking with a chemistry that has never been bettered, this is the birth of the screwball comedy.
1934 • 105 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between critics Molly Haskell and Phillip Lopate
• Frank Capra’s American Dream, a 1997 feature-length documentary
• New 2Kdigital transfer of director Frank Capra’s first film, the 1922 silent short The Ballad of Fisher’s Boarding House
• American Film Institute tribute to Capra from 1982
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme
• More!
TITLE: IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2416BD
UPC: 7-15515-11961-0
ISBN: 978-1-60465-887-3
SRP: $39.95
STREET: 11/18/14
L’AVVENTURA
Michelangelo Antonioni (La notte) invented a new film grammar with this masterwork. An iconic piece of challenging 1960s cinema and a gripping narrative in its own right, L’avventura concerns the enigmatic disappearance of a young woman during a yachting trip off the coast of Sicily, and the search taken up by her disaffected lover (Once Upon a Time in the West’s Gabriele Ferzetti) and best friend (L’eclisse’s Monica Vitti, in her breakout role). Antonioni’s controversial international sensation is a gorgeously shot tale of modern ennui and spiritual isolation.
1960 • 143 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Italian with English subtitles • 1.77:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring film historian Gene Youngblood
• Selected-scene commentary by filmmaker Olivier Assayas
• Antonioni: Documents and Testimonials, a fifty-eight-minute 1966 documentary by Gianfranco Mingozzi
• Writings by director Michelangelo Antonioni, read by actor Jack Nicholson, plus Nicholson’s personal recollections of the director
• New English subtitle translation
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, along with the statement Antonioni made about the film and the letter that circulated in support of it after its 1960 Cannes premiere
An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen—mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad. Seemingly off-the-cuff yet poetically constructed, these films are humane, sometimes wry, always engaging tributes to musicians, food, and all sorts of regionally specific delights. This collector’s set provides a diverse survey of Les Blank’s vast output, including the warmly funny The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins, about the legendary Texas musician; Always for Pleasure, which captures the vivacious spirit of New Orleans; Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, a hilarious celebration of the pungent, flavorful “stinking rose” of the title; and eleven other unexpected features, plus eight of Blank’s short films.
Films Include: The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1968); God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance (1968); Spend It All (1971); A Well Spent Life (1971); Dry Wood (1973); Hot Pepper (1973); Always for Pleasure (1978); Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980); Sprout Wings and Fly (1983); In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984); Gap-Toothed Women (1987); Yum, Yum, Yum (1990); The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994); Sworn to the Drum (1995)
1968–1995 • 569 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 2K digital restorations of all fourteen films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
• Excerpt from Les Blank: A Quiet Revelation, an upcoming documentary by Gina Leibrecht
• New interviews with director Les Blank’s sons, Harrod and Beau; Blank documentary subject Gerald Gaxiola (a.k.a. the Maestro); filmmakers Skip Gerson, Maureen Gosling, Taylor Hackford, Tom Luddy, and Chris Simon; and chef and author Alice Waters
• Blank’s short films Lightnin’ Les (1968), Mr. Charlie, Your Rollin’ Mill Is Burnin’ Down (1968), The Sun’s Gonna Shine (1968), More Fess (1978), Julie: Old Time Tales of the Blue Ridge (1991), My Old Fiddle: A Visit with Tommy Jarrell in the Blue Ridge (1995), and The Maestro Rides Again (2005)
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Andrew Horton
TITLE: LES BLANK: ALWAYS FOR PLEASURE (3-BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2418BD
UPC: 7-15515-11941-2
ISBN: 978-1-60465-885-9
SRP: $ 124.95
STREET: 11/25/14
TOOTSIE
In Tootsie, the character Michael Dorsey lands the role of a lifetime—as does the actor playing him, Dustin Hoffman. This multilayered comedy from director Sydney Pollack follows the increasingly elaborate deception of a down-on-his-luck New York actor who disguises himself as a woman to get a coveted soap opera gig; while his female persona skyrockets to fame, he finds himself learning to be a better man. Hoffman’s ball-busting yet disarmingly sweet Dorothy Michaels is a sensational comic creation, given support by a stellar cast including Dabney Coleman, Charles Durning, Teri Garr, George Gaynes, Bill Murray, and, in her first Oscar-winning role, Jessica Lange. Imbued with poignant drama, Tootsie is a funny and cutting film from an American moment defined by shifting social and sexual identities.
1982 • 116 minutes • Color • Monaural • 2.40:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary featuring director Sydney Pollack, taken from Criterion’s 1991 laserdisc edition of the film
• New interview with comedy writer Phil Rosenthal
• Interview with Dorothy Michaels by film critic Gene Shalit, from the film’s production
• Making of “Tootsie,” a 1982 documentary directed by Rocky Lang
• A Better Man: The Making of “Tootsie,” a 2007 documentary directed by Charles Kiselyak and featuring interviews with Pollack; actors Dabney Coleman, Teri Garr, Hoffman, and Jessica Lange; and writers Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal
• Screen and wardrobe test footage of Hoffman
• Deleted scenes and trailers
• PLUS: An essay by critic Michael Sragow
• More!
Attention Canada: THE SHOOTING/RIDE THE WHIRLWIND, L’AVVENTURA,TOOTSIE, and IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, are available in all Canada. The Les Blank set is available in English-Speaking Canada only.
Hint: Key cover ingredient is missing for an Antonioni film that stars Monica Vitti.
I totally agree.
Although his premise of "alienation" or whatever people are calling it today can get cumbersome to watch, Antonioni as well as Bergman had a great scouting talent for beautiful great actresses. Any cover lacking the beautiful female star of the film gets downgraded by me.
I am surprised criterion did not use the image of the poster they are selling for L'Avventura. I guess Vitti's profile/back is better then a grim house.
Although his premise of "alienation" or whatever people are calling it today can get cumbersome to watch, Antonioni as well as Bergman had a great scouting talent for beautiful great actresses. Any cover lacking the beautiful female star of the film gets downgraded by me.
I am surprised criterion did not use the image of the poster they are selling for L'Avventura. I guess Vitti's profile/back is better then a grim house.
Oh, the cover not having Vitti is a downgrade? :lol:
Although his premise of "alienation" or whatever people are calling it today can get cumbersome to watch, Antonioni as well as Bergman had a great scouting talent for beautiful great actresses. Any cover lacking the beautiful female star of the film gets downgraded by me.
I am surprised criterion did not use the image of the poster they are selling for L'Avventura. I guess Vitti's profile/back is better then a grim house.
I would have preferred Criterion using the original DVD artwork, but hey, at least we're getting it on Blu-ray.
Maybe they will change it in similar fashion to Sundays And Cybele?
I've seen all of the Michelangelo Antonioni directed films in The Criterion Collection, as well as Blow-Up, so any new films that the studio decides to add is perfectly fine by me.
By the way, have you seen "Story of a Love Affair"? I noticed that it is streaming on Netflix so I may check it out.
I would have preferred Criterion using the original DVD artwork, but hey, at least we're getting it on Blu-ray.
Maybe they will change it in similar fashion to Sundays And Cybele?
Very true, the cinematography is fantastic in this film. I am looking forward to watching it in HD. I believe the poster is the same image as the DVD.
But I am really looking forward to the "acid" westerns by Monte Hellman. After watching Two-Lane Blacktop about a year ago (one of Warren Oates greatest movies), it sparked a great interest in this director. Now we get two westerns by him starring with no other than JACK NICHOLSON.
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It's just that most of their catalogue isn't mainstream so it's an interesting addition. It's a movie that probably should have been released by the original studio, but being put out by Criterion is the best thing that can happen to it. Nothing wrong with any movie getting the best possible treatment.
trilogy is complete. 
Linear Mode
