Just when I think that a crop of Criterion Blu-ray announcements can’t possibly get any stronger, they hit me with this awesome group of titles. A record seven new releases will hit store shelves this coming August, including classics new to the Collection like Polanski‘s Cul-de-Sac along with re-issues like Cocteau‘s Orpheus (newly remastered with new special features!) and Pontecorvo‘s The Battle of Algiers. I’m most excited about getting my hands on Lee Chang-dong‘s Secret Sunshine and Kubrick‘s The Killing, which actually includes the director’s previous film, Killer’s Kiss! Bonus film!
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
(August 9, 2011 – MSRP $49.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Special Features:
- High-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Marcello Gatti with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth, a documentary narrated by literary critic Edward Said
- Marxist Poetry: The Making of “The Battle of Algiers,” a documentary featuring interviews with Pontecorvo, Gatti, composer Ennio Morricone, and others
- Interviews with Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film’s influence, style, and importance
- Remembering History, a documentary reconstructing the Algerian experience of the battle for independence
- “États d’armes,” a documentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the Algerian rebellion
- “The Battle of Algiers”: A Case Study, a video piece featuring U.S. counterterrorism experts
- Gillo Pontecorvo’s Return to Algiers, a documentary in which the filmmaker revisits the country after three decades of independence
- Production gallery
- Theatrical and rerelease trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, excerpts from Algeria’s National Liberation Front leader Saadi Yacef’s original account of his arrest, excerpts from the film’s screenplay, a reprinted interview with cowriter Franco Solinas, and biographical sketches of key figures in the French-Algerian War
CUL-DE-SAC
(August 16, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.66:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Special Features:
- New digital restoration, approved by director Roman Polanski (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
- Two Gangsters and an Island, a 2003 short documentary about the making of Cul-de-sac, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor
- Interview with Polanski from 1967
- Theatrical trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Thompson
THE KILLING
(August 16, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.66:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New video interview with producer James B. Harris
- Excerpts of interviews with actor Sterling Hayden from the French television series Cinéma cinémas
- New video interview with film scholar Robert Polito about writer Jim Thompson and his work on The Killing
- Restored transfer of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 noir feature Killer’s Kiss
- New video appreciation of Killer’s Kiss with film critic Geoffrey O’Brien
- Theatrical trailers
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Haden Guest and a reprinted interview with Marie Windsor on The Killing
SECRET SUNSHINE
(August 23, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 2.35:1 1080p
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio
Special Features:
- New digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Lee Chang-dong and cinematographer Cho Yong-kyu with DTS-HD Master Audio
- New interview with Lee
- On the Set of “Secret Sunshine,” a video piece featuring interviews with actors Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho, as well as behind-the-scenes footage
- U.S. theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim
ORPHEUS
(August 30, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary by French film scholar James Williams
- Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown, a 1984 feature-length documentary
- Video piece from 2008 featuring assistant director Claude Pinoteau on the special effects in the film
- 40 Minutes with Jean Cocteau, an interview with the director from 1957
- In Search of Jazz, a 1956 interview with Cocteau on the use of jazz in the film
- La villa Santo-Sospir, a 16 mm color Cocteau film from 1951
- Gallery of images by French film portrait photographer Roger Corbeau
- Raw newsreel footage
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by author Mark Polizzotti, selected Cocteau writings on the film, and an essay on La villa Santo-Sospir by Williams
IF….
(August 30, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.66:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Special Features:
- Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by cinematographer Miroslav Ondříček and assistant editor Ian Rakoff with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring film critic and historian David Robinson and actor Malcolm McDowell
- Episode of the Scottish TV series Cast and Crew from 2003, featuring interviews with McDowell, Ondříček, Rakoff, director’s assistant Stephen Frears, producer Michael Medwin, and screenwriter David Sherwin
- Video interview with actor Graham Crowden
- Thursday’s Children (1954), an Academy Award–winning documentary about a school for deaf children, by director Lindsay Anderson and Guy Brenton and narrated by actor Richard Burton
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic David Ehrenstein as well as reprinted pieces by Sherwin and Anderson
THE COMPLETE JEAN VIGO
(August 30, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
4 Film Box:
À propos de Nice
Zéro de conduite
L’Atalante
Taris
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restorations of all of Jean Vigo’s films: À propos de Nice, Taris, Zéro de conduite, and L’Atalante (with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray edition)
- Audio commentaries featuring Michael Temple, author of Jean Vigo
- Alternate shots from À propos de Nice, featuring footage Vigo cut from the film
- Animated tribute to Vigo by filmmaker Michel Gondry
- Ninety-minute 1964 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps on Vigo, directed by Jacques Rozier
- Conversation from 1968 between filmmakers François Truffaut and Eric Rohmer on L’Atalante
- Les voyages de “L’Atalante,” Bernard Eisenschitz’s 2001 documentary tracking the history of the film
- Video interview from 2007 with director Otar Iosseliani on Vigo
- New and improved English subtitle translations
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film writers Michael Almereyda, Robert Polito, B. Kite, and Luc Sante
Secret Sunshine is a very powerful film. One of the best films I saw back when it was playing the festival circuit a few years ago. Recommended.
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