I can’t tell you how excited I am about this crop of upcoming titles from The Criterion Collection. I’ve been waiting a long time to see my idol, Bela Lugosi, on Blu-ray. I can honestly say, though, that I never thought he’d make his high-def debut on a Criterion disc! Hitting shelves just in time for Halloween, Island of Lost Souls is an exciting addition to the Collection that, until now, hasn’t even been issued on DVD, and will become a shining star in my library of Lugosi films and collectables (Yeah, that’s right… toys and junk. ‘You got a problem with that?!) While Souls wouldn’t be the first film I’d choose to showcase the man and his singular acting chops, he certainly delivers in his role of the hirsute Sayer of the Law. This disc, for me, might be the most highly anticipated of the year. That said, I’d give my left arm for a Criterion edition of Dracula or White Zombie.
Also of note in October, Kuroneko, a cat-horror film from the director of Onibaba, the long-awaitied Criterion edition of the classic 1939 version of The Four Feathers, a truly bare-bones edition of Antonioni‘s Identification of a Woman, and Blu-ray ports of previous Criterion DVDs – Dazed and Confused, Harakiri and (gasp!) Pasolini‘s Salò.
I don’t usually mention Criterion’s new DVD releases in this monthly update by this time around I have to give a shout out to their newest Eclipse series set. It’s a collection of Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys films – Leningrad Cowboys Go America, Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses and the concert doc, Total Balalaika Show. I’ve never seen the sequel or the doc but I have a special affection for Leningrad Cowboys Go America, even going so far as to track down the Laserdisc back in the day. This boxed set will be an exception to my vow not to buy anything on DVD.
ISLAND OF LOST SOULS
(October 25, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration of the uncut theatrical version with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary by film historian Gregory Mank, author of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff and Hollywood’s Maddest Doctors
- New video conversation among filmmaker John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome), and genre expert Bob Burns
- New interviews with horror film historian David J. Skal (The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror); filmmaker Richard Stanley (Hardware, original director of the ill-fated 1996 remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau)
- New interviews with Devo founding members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, whose manifesto is rooted in themes from Island of Lost Souls
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Christine Smallwood
KURONEKO
(October 18, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 2.35:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Video interview with director Kaneto Shindo from the Directors Guild of Japan
- New video interview with critic Tadao Sato
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
-
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Maitland McDonagh and an excerpt
from film scholar Joan Mellen’s 1972 interview with Shindo
IDENTIFICATION OF A WOMAN
(October 25, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic John Powers and a reprinted 1982 interview with Michelangelo Antonioni by critic Gideon Bachmann
THE FOUR FEATHERS
(October 11, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary by film historian Charles Drazin
- New video interview with David Korda, son of director Zoltán Korda
- A Day at Denham, a short film from 1939 featuring footage of Zoltán Korda on the set of The Four Feathers
- Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Sragow
SALÒ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM
(October 4, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- High-definition digital restoration
- “Salò”: Yesterday and Today, a thirty-three-minute 2002 documentary featuring interviews with director Pier Paolo Pasolini, actor-filmmaker Jean-Claude Biette, and Pasolini friend Nineto Davoli
- Fade to Black, a twenty-three-minute 2001 documentary featuring directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, and John Maybury, as well as scholar David Forgacs
- The End of “Salò”, a forty-minute documentary about the film’s production
- Video interviews with set designer Dante Ferretti and director and film scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin
- Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Neil Bartlett, Breillat, Naomi Greene, Sam Rohdie, Roberto Chiesi, and Gary Indiana, and excerpts from Gideon Bachmann’s on-set diary
HARAKIRI
(October 4, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 2.35:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- High-definition digital restoration
- Video introduction by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie
- Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, moderated by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda
- Video interviews with star Tatsuya Nakadai and screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto
- Original theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Joan Mellen and a reprint of a 1972 interview by Mellen with Kobayashi
DAZED AND CONFUSED
(October 24, 2011 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: TBA
Special Features:
- High-definition digital transfer of the director’s cut, supervised by director Richard Linklater and cinematographer Lee Daniel
- Audio commentary by Linklater
- Making Dazed, a fifty-minute documentary by Kahane Corn
- Rare on-set interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
- Footage from the ten-year anniversary celebration
- Audition footage and deleted Scenes
- Original theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis, and Chuck Klosterman; memories of the film from the cast and crew; character profiles; and the original film poster by Frank Kozik
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