The Criterion Collection

[pro-bassoonist]

FOR ALL MANKIND



In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert’s documentary For All Mankind is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the Moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years later, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earth-shaking event. Also available on Blu-ray: trust us, you’ve never seen the moon so clearly.

INFO
- Directed by Al Reinert (writer, Apollo 13, From the Earth to the Moon)
- Original Music by Brian Eno (Sebastiane, Jubilee, Clean)

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by producer-director Al Reinert (with a DTS-HD master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentary featuring Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to set foot on the Moon
- An Accidental Gift: The Making of “For All Mankind,” a new documentary featuring interviews with Reinert, Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean, and NASA archive specialists Don Pickard, Mike Gentry, Morris Williams, and Chuck Welch
- On Camera, a collection of excerpted, on-screen interviews with fifteen of the Apollo astronauts
- New video program about Bean’s artwork, accompanied by a gallery of his paintings
- NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage
- Optional on-screen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critic Terrence Rafferty and Reinert

REPULSION



Roman Polanski followed up his international breakthrough Knife in the Water with this controversial, chilling tale of psychosis, starring Catherine Deneuve as Carole, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up over the course of a terrifying weekend. Left alone by her vacationing sister in their London flat, Carole is haunted by specters real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent pitch. Thanks to its unforgettable attention to disturbing detail and Polanski’s unparalleled adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion remains one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers, and we're pleased to offer it in both standard definition and blu-ray editions.

INFO
- Directed by Roman Polanski (Knife in the Water, Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Pianist)
- Starring Catherine Deneuve (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Belle de jour, The Last Metro, A Christmas Tale)

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary featuring director Roman Polanski and actress Catherine Deneuve
- A British Horror Film (2003), a documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor
- A 1964 television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, featuring rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan

Pro-B

[McCrutchy]

OK, so I just watched Repulsion on iTunes because I have a gift card and it was brilliant. Strangely, even though it used the cover art for the current R1 DVD (which is shamefully cropped to 1.33:1), the iTunes copy seemed to be in the OAR of 1.85:1. An amazing and deeply disturbing film that I knew nothing about before I saw it on the Criterion release list. This film could look incredible in Blu-ray and should benefit immensely from the lossless audio as well, since much of the film relies on sound effects. I can't wait to hear the commentary from Deneuve and Polanski on this.

I must admit I was slightly disappointed to see that most of the extras are duplicated from the 2003 Anchor Bay R2 PAL SE DVD, but the 1964 documentary seems unique to the Criterion edition and perhaps that and the 2003 documentary will be rendered in HD.

Really looking forward to this now, likely a day one purchase!

And Deneuve was HOT.

[Beta Man]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

And Deneuve was HOT.
[/URL]

Oh you tease!!!

[DFS61]

Hello, All Criterion Admirers! Just thought I'd drop my two-cents' worth of info in on this conversation. Kurosawa's "Ran" has been removed from the Criterion Web site, so I suspect that it's "on-hold." Criterion also announced two new Blu-ray releases for this summer: Al Reinert's Academy Award-winning 1989 documentary, "For All Mankind," as well as Roman Polanski's seminal 1965 psychological thriller, "Repulsion" (with an incomparably young Catherine Deneuve). Oshima's "In The Realm Of The Senses" is definitely a MUST-own on Blu-ray, as is Clouzot's "Wages Of Fear." (Now if only they'd release Billy Friedkin's revisionist "Sorcerer" that'd be far-out!!! A highly-underrated master re-working of Clouzot's masterpiece -- in my opinion, of course....)

Also, Pasolini's "Salo" is out in the UK on Blu-ray -- released by the British Film Institute, no less...! (Why are we -- the U.S. -- so far behind is a mystery....) Ciao!

[DFS61]

P.S. Sorry, folks, I guess I was too slow in posting what I thought was my "scoop" on Criterion's latest.... I'll keep my eyes and ears open for anything new -- and keep on top of other future Criterion posts....

BTW: The Atlanta Film Festival starts today -- 10 days of 166 independent movies! Here's hoping anyone reading from the South can attend...!

[kndy]

Actually, there are five titles for July from Criterion aside from "For All Mankind" and "Repulsion", here are the other three [Update: These three are DVD titles as of now, no word of the BD release]

THE HUMAN CONDITION
Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition (Ningen no joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.

INFO
- Directed by Masaki Kobayashi (Harakiri, Kwaidan, Samurai Rebellion)
- Starring Tatsuya Nakadai (When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, Yojimbo, Ran)

FOUR-DISC SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, conducted by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda (Double Suicide)
- New video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai
- Video appreciation of Kobayashi and The Human Condition featuring Shinoda
- Japanese theatrical trailers
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp

Title: The Human Condition
CAT: CC1819D
UPC: 7-15515-04661-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-161-4
SRP: $79.95
Prebook: 6/16/09
Street date: 7/14/09

2 OR 3 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER
In 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle) Jean-Luc Godard beckons us ever closer, literally whispering in our ears as narrator. About what? Money, sex, fashion, the city, love, language, war: in a word, everything. Considered by many to be among the legendary French filmmaker’s finest achievements, the film takes as its ostensible subject the daily life of Juliette Janson (Marina Vlady), a housewife from the Paris suburbs who prostitutes herself for extra money. Yet this is only a template for Godard to spin off into provocative philosophical tangents and gorgeous images. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is perhaps Godard’s most revelatory look at consumer culture, shot in ravishing widescreen color by Raoul Coutard.

INFO
- Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Contempt, Alphaville, Tout va bien_
- Produced by Anatole Dauman (Masculin féminin, In the Realm of the Senses, The Tin Drum)
- Cinematography by Raoul Coutard (Shoot the Piano Player, Jules and Jim, Contempt)

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Archival television interviews: the first featuring Vlady on the set of the film, the second with Godard engaged in debate with a government official on the subject of prostitution
- New video interview with Godard friend Antoine Bourseiller
- A visual essay cataloguing the multiple references in the film
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by Sasha Frere-Jones

Title: 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
CAT: CC1822D
UPC: 7-15515-04771-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-174-4
SRP: $29.95
Prebook: 6/23/09
Street date: 7/21/09

MADE IN U.S.A
With its giddily complex noir plot and widescreen, color-drenched images, Made in U.S.A was a final burst of exuberance from Jean-Luc Godard’s early-sixties barrage of delirious movie-movies. Yet this chaotic crime thriller and acidly funny critique of consumerism—featuring Anna Karina as the most brightly dressed private investigator in film history, rummaging through an intricate plot for a former lover who might have been assassinated—also points toward the more political cinema that would come to define Godard. Featuring characters with names such as Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, David Goodis, and Doris Mizoguchi, and appearances by a slapstick Jean-Pierre Léaud and a sweetly singing Marianne Faithfull, this piece of pop art is like a Looney Tunes rendition of The Big Sleep gone New Wave.

INFO
- Directed by Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Contempt, Alphaville, Tout va bien)
- Starring Anna Karina (A Woman Is a Woman, Band of Outsiders, Pierrot le fou)
- Cinematography by Raoul Coutard (Shoot the Piano Player, Jules and Jim, Contempt)

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Interviews with stars Anna Karina and Lászlo Szábó
- A video piece on the personal and the political in Made in U.S.A and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, featuring Godard biographers Richard Brody and Colin MacCabe
- A visual essay cataloguing the multiple references in the film
- Original and re-release theatrical trailers
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by film critic J. Hoberman

Title: Made in U.S.A
CAT: CC1821D
UPC: 7-15515-04521-6
ISBN: 978-1-60465-147-8
SRP: $29.95
Prebook: 6/23/09
Street date: 7/21/09

[PowellPressburger]

It is good to know the standard DVD releases from Criterion but most people may get confused and think these are for Blu Ray release also, but for some strange reason Criterion.com doesn't have the 2 or 3 things Movie listed at all yet.

[DFS61]

Yes, I agree with PowellPressburger that some may, indeed, get confused by kndy's posting since it is a release listing of Criterion's DVD pressings, not Blu-ray. Nonetheless, it's always good to hear any kind of news about Criterion releases -- and from fellow Criterion-philes...!

[kndy]

Originally Posted by PowellPressburger

It is good to know the standard DVD releases from Criterion but most people may get confused and think these are for Blu Ray release also, but for some strange reason Criterion.com doesn't have the 2 or 3 things Movie listed at all yet.

You're correct. I figured that there are people who are hardcore Criterion fans, they tend to still buy DVD's (knowing that they may not come out on BD), heck there are Criterion titles I still hunt on eBay on LD because they haven't come out on DVD and we'll never know if they will come out on BD.

Lately, for Criterion releases because I know there are few people who like to get them all or try to get most (like this guy, wish I had a lot of these titles), I'm now trying to see if I can get on the same page of the people on Criterion's Explore top 10 lists and seeing if I can find the titles that they have recommended.

[fallofparadise]

Has there been any announcement for The Last Temptation of Christ on blu ray?

[JJJ225]

Originally Posted by fallofparadise

Has there been any announcement for The Last Temptation of Christ on blu ray?

No, but I hope it's not too far off. It's one of my top ten films of all-time.

[zedd_117]

Hey all,
Just wanted to let everybody know that the latest Criterion Newsletter to hit mailboxes announced a sale on all of The Beales' movies. These include "Grey Gardens", "The Beales of Grey Gardens", and the Box-set collecting both of the films. $5 off each title. I ordered the Box-set for $31 + S&H.

Just thought you'd want to know.

[Lao Che]

I'm amazed there hasn't been a single Fellini movie released on Blu-ray -- or even a new DVD? Idea: Eclipse series Satyricon > City of Women? No? They are visually among the best films ever made - not to mention all the other stuff. I get the impression that, market-wise, Fellini may be considered yesterday's news. Too bad. I love loads of other films, but this post is for Mr. Fellini only.

Rights permitting on some of these -- my Blu-ray/re-issued DVD wish list:

• Amarcord
• And The Ship Sails On (badly, badly needed)
• Juliet of the Spirits
• I Vitelloni
• La Dolce Vita
• Roma (personal favorite)
• Satyricon
• The Clowns (lost to VHS)
• City of Women
• Casanova (not his best, but an adventure.)

[pro-bassoonist]

Originally Posted by Lao Che

I'm amazed there hasn't been a single Fellini movie released on Blu-ray --

This isn't entirely correct . And, in fact, I am going to do my best to get the review for this disc before the end of the week:

https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/movies.php?id=3728

Pro-B

[Rhylliam]

I was wondering if anyone had a picture of the new style of Criterion case... Personally, I love the cardboard/digipak cases, so to hear that they plan on changing it kinda sucks IMO. But I guess its not for everybody.

[zedd_117]

Originally Posted by Rhylliam

I was wondering if anyone had a picture of the new style of Criterion case... Personally, I love the cardboard/digipak cases, so to hear that they plan on changing it kinda sucks IMO. But I guess its not for everybody.

Yeah, there's pics posted around page 22 or 23 of this thread. Somebody lucky got Wages of Fear like 3 weeks ago.

[Zen_Amako]

I preordered In the Realm of the Senses from Criterion directly, but it hasn't shipped yet. Getting a little worried, since the release date is coming up. I had hoped they would ship it early. :P

[ccfixx]

Originally Posted by Zen_Amako

I preordered In the Realm of the Senses from Criterion directly, but it hasn't shipped yet. Getting a little worried, since the release date is coming up. I had hoped they would ship it early. :P

Yes, everyone hopes for that, but ultimately on your Criterion order page, it's only guaranteed that the pre-order will ship by the release date.

So, technically, they could wait 'til April 28th to ship out your "In The Realm Of The Senses" disc and you might not see it until a few days after the release date.

I was hoping for the same thing, but I decided not to justify the higher cost for just the "possibility" that I would get my discs a week or two early from Criterion. I ended up going back to Amazon and replacing my pre-orders.

CC

[ccfixx]

Originally Posted by zedd_117

Yeah, there's pics posted around page 22 or 23 of this thread. Somebody lucky got Wages of Fear like 3 weeks ago.

Yes, there are some pics further back in the posts. Also, DVD Talk's review for "In The Realm Of The Senses" has a picture of that case, too.

CC

[Rhylliam]

Originally Posted by zedd_117

Yeah, there's pics posted around page 22 or 23 of this thread. Somebody lucky got Wages of Fear like 3 weeks ago.

Excellent, on page 21 thanks. Even though I said I like the digipaks, these new plastic cases are nice enough too. Mainly because they stray from the normal plastic blu-ray case.