Why So Blu?

4Ks For Seven Samurai, Godzilla, Paper Moon & More Coming to The Criterion Collection November 2024

Coming in November to the Criterion Collection: Funny Girl, a musical screen debut for the ages, directed by William Wyler; Paper Moon, one of American cinema’s unlikeliest criminal double acts, directed by Peter Bogdanovich; Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, a swooning monster movie with a heart; Scarface, Howard Hawks’s gangster film that set the standard for the genre; and, now on 4K UHD, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, one of the most thrilling warrior epics of all time, and Ishiro Honda’s Godzilla, a cult phenomenon that spawned over thirty sequels. Plus, our recently announced forty-film CC40 box set!

–

–

GODZILLA

1954 • 96 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Japanese with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio 

Godzilla (a.k.a. Gojira) is the roaring granddaddy of all monster movies. It’s also a remarkably humane and melancholy drama, made in Japan at a time when the country was reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire population’s fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning more than thirty sequels. A thrilling, tactile spectacle that continues to be a cult phenomenon, the original 1954 Japanese version is presented here, along with Godzilla, King of the Monsters, the 1956 “Americanized” version.

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• High-definition digital restoration of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Terry Morse’s 1956 reworking of the original, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary for both movies by film historian David Kalat
• Interviews with actors Akira Takarada and Haruo Nakajima and special effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
• Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
• Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects, introduced by special effects director Koichi Kawakita and special effects photographer Motoyoshi Tomioka
• Interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato
• The Unluckiest Dragon, an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla
• Trailers
• PLUS: An essay by critic J. Hoberman

Available November 5, 2024

–

SEVEN SAMURAI

1954 • 207 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In Japanese with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio 

One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, Seven Samurai tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This three-hour-plus ride from Akira Kurosawa—featuring legendary actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura—seamlessly weaves philosophy and entertainment, delicate human emotions and relentless action, into a rich, evocative, and unforgettable tale of courage and hope.

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with the original uncompressed monaural soundtrack and an optional 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
• Two audio commentaries, one featuring film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie, and the other Japanese-film expert Michael Jeck
• Making-of documentary, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
• My Life in Cinema (1993), a two-hour conversation between director Akira Kurosawa and filmmaker Nagisa Oshima
• “Seven Samurai”: Origins and Influences, a documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that helped shape Kurosawa’s masterpiece
• Trailers and teaser
• Gallery of rare posters, behind-the-scenes photos, and production stills
• PLUS: Essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Stuart Galbraith IV, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet, and an interview with actor Toshiro Mifune from 1993

Available November 12, 2024

–

SCARFACE

1932 • 95 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.35:1 aspect ratio 

Blazing across the screen in a spray of bullets, the gangster-film sensation Scarface helped set the standard for the genre for decades to come. Swaggering, scary, and unexpectedly charming, Paul Muni gives an iconic portrayal of criminal sociopathy as Tony Camonte, the ruthless, machine-gun-toting mobster who rises through the ranks of a bootlegging empire atop an ever-increasing body count, but whose possessive relationship with his wild-child sister (Ann Dvorak) threatens to be his undoing. With rat-a-tat command of editing and dialogue, and his trademark panache, director Howard Hawks creates an unstoppable sense of dynamism while pushing on-screen violence to new heights of brutality.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Alternate ending, from the censored version of the film
• New conversation between author Megan Abbott and actor Bill Hader
• New interview with film scholar Lea Jacobs on director Howard Hawks’s innovative use of sound and editing
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith

Available November 12, 2024

–

FUNNY GIRL

1968 • 155 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio 

Witness the birth of a movie star as Barbra Streisand makes a screen debut for the ages in this musical spectacular. From humor to pathos, she hits every note as popular 1920s singer-comedian Fanny Brice, a young Jewish New Yorker whose spirit and supernova talent propel her to fame in the Ziegfeld Follies, but whose devotion to an unreliable gambler (a charismatic Omar Sharif) brings drama and heartbreak into her life. Adapted from a hit Broadway show and directed by Hollywood master William Wyler, Funny Girl hits emotional highs in unforgettable performances of songs like “People” and “Don’t Rain on My Parade”—moments that won Streisand one of the most richly deserved Best Actress awards in Oscar history.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New audio interview with actor Barbra Streisand
• New conversation between director William Wyler’s son David and author Alicia Malone
• Directed by William Wyler (1986), a documentary on Wyler’s life and career
• Archival interview with actor Omar Sharif
• Deleted scene featuring Streisand and Sharif
• Featurettes from the original theatrical release
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by author and film critic Michael Koresky

Available November 19, 2024

–

PAPER MOON

1973 • 102 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio 

Maverick director Peter Bogdanovich affectionately recreates the world of the 1930s Dust Bowl in this beloved, briskly entertaining chronicle of one of cinema’s unlikeliest crime sprees. Real-life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal (who became the youngest-ever Oscar winner for her spark-plug performance) play off each other with almost musical agility as a Bible-hawking con man and the precocious, recently orphaned tomboy who falls into his care—and soon rivals her newfound father figure’s skill as a swindler. With period-perfect detail, glowing monochrome imagery by cinematographer László Kovács, and a memorable supporting cast (including the inimitable Madeline Kahn), Paper Moon is a witty, loving portrait of two natural-born hustlers on a road trip through Depression-era America.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• Audio commentary featuring director Peter Bogdanovich
• Introduction to the film by Bogdanovich
• New video essay by Bogdanovich biographer Peter Tonguette
• Three-part making-of documentary featuring Bogdanovich, production designer Polly Platt, associate producer Frank Marshall, and cinematographer László Kovács
• Archival interview with Platt
• Excerpts from a 1973 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson featuring Bogdanovich and actors Ryan and Tatum O’Neal
• Trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Harris

Available November 26, 2024

–

THE SHAPE OF WATER

2017 • 123 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio 

Cinema’s great modern mythmaker Guillermo del Toro uses the hallmarks of classic horror and fantasy to tell a strange and sublime fable about outsiderhood, connection, and love’s transcendence. An ineffably touching Sally Hawkins plays Elisa, a mute janitor at a top-secret government laboratory who finds herself drawn to the facility’s newest research subject: a humanoid amphibian—for whom she is soon risking everything, amid the stifling conformity of 1960s America. A triumph of visual imagination that combines elements of sci-fi, noir, and the golden-age musical, this swooning cinematic dreamscape—winner of four Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director—is a monster movie with a human heart.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital master, supervised by director Guillermo del Toro, with 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
• New conversation between del Toro and filmmaker David Lowery
• A Fairy Tale for Troubled Times, a documentary highlighting the film’s production design, performances, special effects, and score
• Anatomy of a Scene: Prologue and Anatomy of a Scene: The Dance, both featuring on-set footage and interviews with del Toro
• Shaping the Waves, an interview with illustrator James Jean
• Masterclass from 2017 on the film’s technical aspects, featuring del Toro, director of photography Dan Laustsen, visual-effects supervisor and co–creature designer Shane Mahan, visual-effects supervisor Dennis Berardi, costume designer Luis Sequeira, and production designer Paul D. Austerberry
• Trailers
• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Carlos Aguilar

Available November 26, 2024

–

CC40

This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition. CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series. Neither a historical survey nor a top-forty compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology reflects the cinematic joys and inspirations of the creative community that makes the Criterion Collection possible.

Watch the Teaser Trailer for this set.

Available November 19, 2024