Wow, this last month has just rocketed by. It feels like I was just posting about Criterion‘s March titles a few days ago and here we are already, talking about this funky line-up of releases for April. I hate to say it, but I’m not that familiar with this batch (see what happens when you don’t go to film school, kids?) but that actually makes me all the more anxious to sink my teeth into them. I love a new discovery! And that pack of Hollis Frampton shorts looks like it’ll easily sate my desire for unusual and experimental cinema. Both The Organizer and ¡Alambrista! appear to be compelling commentaries on the power of people and human spirit, which makes for great filmmaking at times but more often than not results in being delivered with a fist of ham. I trust Criterion, though, and expect the former while fearing the latter. So, I guess I’m most excited to get my hands on Ozu‘s classic Late Spring (with a feature-length Wim Wenders doc on the director!) and Ashby‘s cult-fav Harold and Maude, which, according to Devin Faraci, sports a cover by cartoonist extraordinaire, Jordan Crane! Huzzah!
HAROLD AND MAUDE
(April 17, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Optional remastered stereo soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and producer Charles B. Mulvehill
- Illustrated audio excerpts of seminars by Ashby and writer-producer Colin Higgins
- New interview with songwriter Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Wood; a 1971 New York Times profile of star Ruth Gordon; and excerpted transcripts of two interviews, one from 1997 with star Bud Cort and director of photography John Alonzo and one from 2001 with executive producer Mildred Lewis
A HOLLIS FRAMPTON ODYSSEY
(April 9, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- Audio commentary and remarks by filmmaker Hollis Frampton on selected works
- Excerpted interview with Frampton from 1978
- A Lecture, a performance piece by Frampton, recorded in 1968 with the voice of artist Michael Snow
- Gallery of works from Frampton’s xerographic series By Any Other Name
- PLUS: A booklet with an introduction by film critic Ed Halter and essays and capsules on the films by Frampton scholars Ken Eisenstein, Bruce Jenkins, and Michael Zryd
Early Films
Manual of Arms (1966 • 17 minutes • Black & White • Silent)
Process Red (1966 • 3 minutes, 30 seconds • Color • Silent)
Maxwell’s Demon (1968 • 4 minutes • Color/Black & White • Silent)
Surface Tension (1968 • 9 minutes, 30 seconds • Color • Monaural)
Carrots & Peas (1969 • 5 minutes • Color • Monaural)
Lemon (1969 • 5 minutes • Color • Silent)
Zorns Lemma (1970 • 60 minutes • Color • Monaural)
Films from Hapax Legomena
(nostalgia) (1971 • 36 minutes • Black & White • Monaural)
Poetic Justice (1972 • 31 minutes, 30 seconds • Black & White • Silent)
Critical Mass (1971 • 25 minutes, 30 seconds • Black & White • Monaural)
Films from Magellan
The Birth of Magellan: Cadenza I (1977–1980 • 6 minutes • Color • Monaural)
Pans 0–4 and 697–700 (1974 • 1-minute each • Color • Silent)
INGENIVM NOBIS IPSA PVELLA FECIT, Part I (1975 • 5 minutes • Color • Silent)
Magellan: At the Gates of Death, Part I: The Red Gate I, 0 (1976 • 4 minutes, 20 seconds • Color • Silent)
Winter Solstice (1974 • 33 minutes • Color • Silent)
Gloria! (1979 • 9 minutes, 30 seconds • Color • Monaural)
¡ALAMBRISTA!
(April 17, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.66:1 1080p
Audio: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New audio commentary featuring director Robert M. Young and coproducer Michael Hausman
- New interview with actor Edward James Olmos
- Children of the Fields, a 1973 short documentary by Young, accompanied by a new interview with the director
- Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Charles Ramírez-Berg
LATE SPRING
(April 17, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Richard Peña, program director of New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center
- Tokyo-ga (1985), filmmaker Wim Wenders’s ninety-two-minute documentary about director Yasujiro Ozu
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Michael Atkinson and Japanese-film historian Donald Richie
THE ORGANIZER
(April 24, 2012 – MSRP $29.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Introduction by director Mario Monicelli from 2006
- Trailer
- PLUS: An essay by film critic J. Hoberman
Discussion
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