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Criterion June Blu-ray titles: Gold Rush, Shallow Grave, The 39 Steps, Samurai Trilogy, Gray’s Anatomy, And Everything Is Going Fine

Are we talking about June titles already?! My god, the summer really is almost upon us, both in home video offerings and local temperatures (it’s 23˚ Celsius/73˚ Fahrenheit here in Montreal already!) Though June title announcements are only just beginning to trickle out of the other studios, Criterion has hit us with a collection of six new Blu-ray releases for the month (two upgrades from DVD) and one holdover from April.

Old news first. The much-anticipated Harold and Maude Blu-ray has been unceremoniously yanked from the April schedule and plopped into the second week of June (to be released on the 12th, to be exact.) Read more about the disc here. Joining it on store shelves that day are Charlie Chaplin‘s The Gold Rush, presented here in both original silent and re-released sound versions (Oh, Criterion, sigh. You know the way to my heart!) and Danny Boyle‘s (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) debut feature, Shallow Grave featuring young and awesome Christopher Eccleston and Ewan McGregor! The 19th sees the Blu-ray debut of Steven Soderbergh‘s duo of Spalding Gray film’s, the 1997 document of the Gray’s Anatomy one man show and And Everything Is Going Fine, the director’s 2010 eulogy of the late monologuist and playright who apparently took his own life in 2004. The month wraps up with two high-def upgrades – Hitchcock‘s The 39 Steps (the last of the Master’s films still in the collection and yet to hit Blu) and the much-in-need-of-a-remaster Samurai Trilogy (note the temp package art below.)

Wow! That’s half-a-year’s worth of Criterion Blu-ray releases already?! Time sure flies when you’ve got amazing movies to watch…


The Gold Rush - The Criterion Collection


THE GOLD RUSH


(June 12, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural / 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio

Special Features:

  • New high-definition digital restoration of the 1942 sound version, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New 2K digital transfer of the reconstructed original 1925 silent film, restored in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, with a newly recorded version of director Charlie Chaplin’s score, presented in 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
  • New audio commentary for the 1925 version by Chaplin biographer and archivist Jeffrey Vance
  • Three new programs: Presenting “The Gold Rush,” which traces the film’s history from original release to rerelease to 2003 reconstruction and features film historian Kevin Brownlow and Vance; Music by Charles Chaplin, featuring conductor and composer Timothy Brock; and Visual Effects in “The Gold Rush,” featuring effects specialist Craig Barron and Chaplin cinematographer Roland Totheroh
  • Chaplin Today: “The Gold Rush” (2002), a short documentary featuring filmmaker Idrissa Ouedraogo
  • Four theatrical trailers
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Luc Sante and James Agee’s review of the 1942 version

Shallow Grave (1994) - The Criterion Collection


SHALLOW GRAVE


(June 12, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

Special Features:

  • New, restored digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Brian Tufano, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • Two audio commentaries: one by director Danny Boyle and the other by screenwriter John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald
  • New interviews with stars Christopher Eccleston, Kerry Fox, and Ewan McGregor
  • Digging Your Own Grave, a 1993 documentary by Kevin Macdonald on the making of the film
  • Andrew Macdonald and Kevin Macdonald’s video diary from the 1992 Edinburgh Film Festival, where they shopped around the script for Shallow Grave
  • Shallow Grave trailer and Trainspotting teaser trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp

And Everything is Going Fine (2010) - The Criterion Collection


AND EVERYTHING IS GOING FINE


(June 19, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural

Special Features:

  • New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Making of “And Everything Is Going Fine,” featuring director Steven Soderbergh, producer Kathie Russo, and editor Susan Littenberg
  • Sex and Death to the Age 14, Spalding Gray’s first monologue, created in 1979 and filmed in 1982
  • Trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by writer Nell Casey, editor of The Journals of Spalding Gray

Gray's Anatomy (1997) - The Criterion Collection


GRAY’S ANATOMY


(June 19, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
Video: 1.85:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural

Special Features:

  • New high definition digital transfer, supervised by director Steven Soderbergh, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • New interviews with Soderbergh and cowriter Renée Shafransky
  • A Personal History of the American Theater, a monologue by Spalding Gray, filmed in 1982
  • Theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Amy Taubin

The 39 Steps (1935) - The Criterion Collection


THE 39 STEPS


(June 26, 2012 – 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 Alfred Hitchcock scholar Marian Keane
  • Hitchcock: The Early Years (2000), a British documentary covering Hitchcock’s prewar career
  • Original footage from British broadcaster Mike Scott’s 1966 television interview with Hitchcock
  • Complete broadcast of the 1937 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation, performed by Ida Lupino and Robert Montgomery
  • Visual essay by Hitchcock scholar Leonard Leff
  • Excerpts from François Truffaut’s 1962 audio interview with Hitchcock
  • Original production design drawings
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Cairns

The Samurai Trilogy - The Criterion Collection


THE SAMURAI TRILOGY


(June 26, 2012 – MSRP $69.95)
Video: 1.33:1 1080p
Audio: uncompressed monaural

Special Features:

  • New high-definition digital restorations of all three films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
  • New interviews with translator and historian William Scott Wilson about the real-life Musashi Miyamoto, the inspiration for the hero of the films
  • Trailers
  • New English subtitle translations
  • PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film historian Stephen Prince and Wilson

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One comment for “Criterion June Blu-ray titles: Gold Rush, Shallow Grave, The 39 Steps, Samurai Trilogy, Gray’s Anatomy, And Everything Is Going Fine”

  1. [...] Criterion June Blu-ray titles: Gold Rush, Shallow Grave, The 39 Steps, Samurai Trilogy, Gray’s Ana… from The Blu-ray Blog on March 19, 2012 at 12:27PM [...]

    Posted by Today’s Links – March 19, 2012 | RyanGallagher.org | March 20, 2012, 4:01 am

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