I’m going to have to get a second job. There isn’t a single title in Criterion‘s October release slate that isn’t a must-own for me. They are all films I love, most from directors I’m quite passionate about (Kurosawa, Anderson, Kubrick, Bergman.) What’s a film nut to do but offer up all of his hard earned cash to the gods of home video?
PS: See, I told you Criterion was preparing Hausu for Blu-ray disc!
SEVEN SAMURAI
(October 19, 2010 – MSRP $49.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Two audio commentaries: one by film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie; the other by Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
- A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima produced by the Directors Guild of Japan
- Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a new documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that impacted Kurosawa’s masterpiece
- Theatrical trailers and teaser
- Gallery of rare posters and behind-the scenes and production stills
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Kenneth Turan, Stuart Galbraith, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet and an interview with Toshiro Mifune
THE MAGICIAN
(October 12, 2010 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- New visual essay by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
- Brief 1967 video interview with director Ingmar Bergman about the film
- Rare audio interview with Bergman conducted in English by filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Stig Björkman
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoff Andrew, a reprinted essay by Assayas, and an excerpt from Bergman’s autobiography Images: My Life in Film
PATHS OF GLORY
(October 26, 2010 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.66:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- New audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins
- Television interview from 1979 with star Kirk Douglas
- New video interviews with Kubrick’s longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick
- Excerpt from a French television program about real-life World War I executions similar to the events dramatized in Paths of Glory
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: An essay by Kubrick scholar James Naremore
HOUSE
(October 26, 2010 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Constructing a House, a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the director Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura
- Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi
- New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil)
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by Chuck Stephens
THE DARJEELING LIMITED
(October 12, 2010 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 2.40:1 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson (with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition)
- Anderson’s short film Hotel Chevalier (part one of The Darjeeling Limited), starring Natalie Portman, with commentary by Anderson
- Audio commentary featuring Anderson and cowriters Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola
- Behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman
- Anderson and filmmaker James Ivory discussing the film’s music
- Anderson’s American Express commercial
- On-set footage shot by Coppola and actor Waris Ahluwalia
- Audition footage, deleted and alternate scenes, and stills galleries
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Richard Brody and original illustrations by Eric Anderson
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by theblurayblog, Blu-ray Elite. Blu-ray Elite said: Criterion announces October Blu-ray titles: Seven Samurai, The Magician, Paths of Glory, House, The Darjeeling Lim… http://bit.ly/bWzXCK [...]
[...] I feel like I’ve been waiting for this Criterion Collection Blu-ray release of House (also known as Hausu in its native Japan) forever! After almost a year of hints that the film would join the collection, House finally hits shelves this week and it is tremendous. As you’d expect from any Criterion release, the film has never looked or sounded so good and never been released in any home video edition that featured as many special features as this. For a full rundown of the disc, read our previously published article here: Criterion announces October Blu-ray titles: Seven Samurai, The Magician, Paths of Glory, House, The … [...]