Archive for the 'The Criterion Collection' Category
February 12th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
This May, Hou Hsiao-Hsien will join the Criterion Collection with a new, director-approved restoration of his ravishing chamber drama Flowers of Shanghai, a period reverie that confirmed his status as one of the world’s great filmmakers. Hailed as one of the best teen movies ever made, Amy Heckerling’s generation-defining classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High will appear in a new, restored 4K digital transfer. Tyrone Power stars in one of the most haunting and perverse film noirs of the 1940s, Nightmare Alley, making its first appearance on Blu-ray. Dorothy Arzner explores addiction, nonmonogamy, and sexual liberation in her bracingly ahead-of-its time pre-Code triumph Merrily We Go to Hell, starring Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney. And Ahmed El Maanouni’s Trances, an enveloping portrait of the renowned Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, will appear in stand-alone Blu-ray and DVD editions.
Continue reading ‘Fast Times, Shanghai, Nightmare Alley & More Coming to The Criterion Collection May 2021’
February 4th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
For February, the Criterion Collection has decided to honor filmmaker Ramin Bahrani by releasing his first two features on brand-new Blu-rays. Bahrani’s second feature, 2007’s Chop Shop, expands on what he was able to accomplish with Man Push Cart. Already settled into a filmmaking style reminiscent of Italian Neorealism, Bahrani’s sophomore effort tells another deeply felt story about human struggle, focusing on even younger characters and the ongoing struggles they have in trying to stay ahead of their station in life. Thanks to Criterion, the highly praised film now has a new life on a home format to be rediscovered as one of the great indie gems of the 00s, complete with new extras and a remastered audio track.
– Continue reading ‘Chop Shop – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
February 4th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
For February, the Criterion Collection has decided to honor filmmaker Ramin Bahrani by releasing his first two features on brand-new Blu-rays. In this post, Bahrani’s first feature, Man Push Cart, tells a simple story serving as an update of the “Myth of Sisyphus.” With that in mind, Bahrani was praised early on for his style fitting into the realm of Italian Neorealism, given the minimalist nature of the filmmaking, combined with a focus on the conditions of a lesser everyday life, utilizing mostly non-professional actors. Now, looking at this film, having seen Bahrani’s work since, it remains a fascinating effort from a filmmaker harnessing his talents.
– Continue reading ‘Man Push Cart – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
January 15th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
This April, Bong Joon Ho blows up the police procedural with his breakthrough second feature Memories of Murder, based on the true story of a notorious Korean serial killer, now in a new 4K restoration. Maggie Cheung stars in Olivier Assayas’s live-wire international breakthrough Irma Vep, a postmodern blend of silent cinema and martial-arts flicks. Appearing on Blu-ray for the first time, Frank Borzage’s History Is Made at Night stars Charles Boyer and Jean Arthur in one of the most intoxicatingly romantic love stories ever dreamt up by Hollywood. And that’s not all: Anthony Mann’s crackling western-melodrama hybrid The Furies and Jean-Luc Godard’s restless study of 1960s youth Masculin féminin will make their Blu-ray debuts.
Continue reading ‘Jean-Luc Godard, Bong Joon Ho, Olivier Assayas & More Coming to The Criterion Collection April 2021’
January 10th, 2021 by Aaron Neuwirth
One of the most celebrated documentaries of 2018, let alone the past decade, Minding the Gap is a wonderful chronicle of friendship, society, and skateboarding. I was excited when The Criterion Collection announced their plans to release the film last year, and this Blu-ray did not disappoint. As a debut feature, director Bing Liu manages to accomplish so much with a 90-minute period, and it all extends from wanting to explore the lives of himself and his friends as they all enter into adulthood. Now there’s this wonderful release, presenting the film as effectively as possible, with a great collection of extras to further expand on how the film was made and the effects it has had.
Continue reading ‘Minding The Gap – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
December 21st, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
Bursting onto the scene in 2000, after spending years as a radio DJ, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s first film, Amores Perros, is an exceedingly confident debut, which melded together three stories, all linked by one defining moment, and greater themes connected to life, along with the presence of dogs. The Criterion Collection has done all they could to deliver a release fitting of the power Iñárritu’s crime drama hold, complete with a brand new 4K digital restoration, a new 5.1 lossless soundtrack, and a great collection of extras. Those who own or love dogs will still have a lot of stress to concern themselves with (though none were actually harmed), but Amores Perros is an excellent film given a proper Criterion upgrade.
Continue reading ‘Amores Perros – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
December 15th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
For their final new-release announcement of the year, The Criterion Collection has unveiled upcoming editions of a satirical afterlife comedy by Albert Brooks, an enigmatic ode to friendship and imagination from Jacques Rivette, the Palme d’Or–winning family drama that made Mike Leigh one of the world’s most beloved auteurs, and Djibril Diop Mambéty’s convention-shattering debut feature. Plus, there is also their recently announced seven-film World of Wong Kar Wai box set!
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– Continue reading ‘Secrets & Lies, Defending Your Life & More Coming to The Criterion Collection March 2021’
December 10th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
Presented by The Criterion Collection, with his lush and sensual visuals, pitch-perfect soundtracks, and soulful romanticism, Wong Kar Wai has established himself as one of the defining auteurs of contemporary cinema. Joined by such key collaborators as cinematographer Christopher Doyle; editor and production and costume designer William Chang Suk Ping; and actors Tony Leung Chiu Wai and Maggie Cheung Man Yuk, Wong (or WKW, as he is often known) has written and directed films that have enraptured audiences and critics worldwide and inspired countless other filmmakers with their poetic moods and music, narrative and stylistic daring, and potent themes of alienation and memory. Whether they’re tragically romantic, soaked in blood, or quirkily comedic, the seven films collected here are an invitation into the unique and wistful world of a deeply influential artist.
Continue reading ‘Coming 3/21, The Criterion Collection Presents: World of Wong Kar Wai’
November 15th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
It’s not as though The Criterion Collection doesn’t have its share of comedies or romantic films, let alone downright hilarious features. That in mind, seeing 1987’s Moonstruck enter the collection is the kind of move that will ideally not only help restore the value to be found in this Norman Jewison-directed, John Patrick Shanley-written romantic comedy but perhaps even settle some debates concerning who “deserved” an Academy Award. From where I sit, Moonstruck remains a delightful feature that is well-written, performed, and highly entertaining. Now the film has a deluxe release, arriving on Blu-ray with a brand-new restoration. For many, that’s amoré for this feature.
Continue reading ‘Moonstruck – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
November 13th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
In February, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, a troubling and profound coming-of-age story starring Laura Dern in her breakout performance, will join the Criterion Collection in a new 4K restoration supervised by the director. Ousmane Sembène satirizes the greed and dysfunction of postcolonial Senegalese society in his bitterly ironic second feature, Mandabi, newly restored in 4K. Warren Beatty stars in Alan J. Pakula’s chilling conspiracy thriller The Parallax View, a pinnacle of ’70s paranoia, appearing on Blu-ray for the first time. And acclaimed twenty-first-century neorealist Rahmin Bahrani joins the Collection with two humane tales of hardscrabble life at the margins of New York City: Man Push Cart and Chop Shop.
Continue reading ‘Parallax View, Smooth Talk, Chop Shop & More Coming to The Criterion Collection February 2020’
October 15th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
In January, the Criterion Collection presents a mischievous chronicle of a rock icon’s most extravagant tour from one of our greatest filmmakers—Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese makes its home-video debut in an edition featuring never-before-seen concert footage, a new interview with Scorsese, and more. Also appearing for the first time on home video is Bing Liu’s award-winning documentary Minding the Gap, an extraordinary, heartrending story that tracks the coming-of-age of two friends in the skateboarding community of Rockford, Illinois. Larisa Shepitko’s Soviet masterpiece The Ascent, a harrowing Christian allegory set in wartime Belarus, will make its Blu-ray debut in a new 4K restoration. And that’s not all: A new Blu-ray box set gathers the three final films by Luis Buñuel in a feast of non-sequitur surrealism and cutting satire: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, and That Obscure Object of Desire.
Continue reading ‘Scorsese, Buñuel, Minding The Gap & More Coming to The Criterion Collection January 2021’
October 5th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
What once was gone, now is found. Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou was one of the Criterion Collection’s first Blu-ray releases in 2009 before the rights were lost to StudioCanal. That initial release may be a collector’s item, but for those who want to see the film with a deluxe Criterion treatment, this re-release brings back the experimental French New Wave film with a new 2K digital restoration for all to view and enjoy. It may still be a confounding effort for some, but it looks excellent seeing this 60s film that was far ahead of its time.
– Continue reading ‘Pierrot Le Fou – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
September 15th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
This December, the Criterion Collection welcomes the monumental first feature that kick-started twenty-first-century Mexican cinema with an electrifying jolt: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s blistering Amores Perros will appear in an edition featuring a new 4K restoration, along with extensive new interviews with the cast and crew and programs on the making of the film. David Cronenberg’s icily erotic treatise on sex and car crashes, the ever-controversial J.G. Ballard adaptation Crash, will make its Blu-ray debut. And that’s not all: William Greaves’s brilliant, docufictional meta landmark Symbiopsychotaxiplasm and Robert Bresson’s searing portrait of adolescent desperation Mouchette will both appear on Blu-ray for the first time.
Continue reading ‘Cronenberg, Iñárritu, Bresson & More Coming to The Criterion Collection December 2020’
September 4th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming at audiences with a one-two punch this month from The Criterion Collection is a double-dose films from famed and once-blacklisted director Jules Dassin. Both The Naked City and Brute Force have finally been given the Blu-ray upgrade, and what fantastic work it is to see these 70+-year-old films get proper treatment in their restorations. Speaking to 1947’s Brute Force specifically, this prison-set crime drama stars Burt Lancaster in a movie that may feel somewhat standard these days. However, the intensity for its time makes for a good watch and a still-relevant critique of the American incarceration system. This new Blu-ray presentation features the film, complete with a terrific restoration and more.
– Continue reading ‘Brute Force – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
August 18th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
This November, the Criterion Collection will bring Martin Scorsese’s elegiac, Academy Award–nominated mob epic The Irishman to home video in an edition featuring extensive interviews with the cast and crew and behind-the-scenes programs on the film’s production. An Oscar-winning Cher stars alongside Nicolas Cage in the beloved romantic comedy Moonstruck, appearing in a new 4K restoration. Claudia Weill’s trailblazing Girlfriends, an independent classic that has become a touchstone for subsequent generations of filmmakers, will appear on Blu-ray for the first time. Forest Whitaker stars in Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Jim Jarmusch’s radically eccentric take on the hit-man thriller, appearing in a new 4K restoration approved by the director. And that’s not all: our previously announced Essential Fellini centenary box set brings together fourteen films from one of art-house cinema’s most legendary showmen, including new 4K restorations, feature documentaries, extensive supplements, deluxe packaging, and much more!
Continue reading ‘Irishman, Ghost Dog, Moonstruck & More Coming to Criterion Collection November 2020’
August 11th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
Joining in the international celebration of
Federico Fellini’s 100th birthday,
Criterion is thrilled to announce
Essential Fellini, a fifteen-Blu-ray box set that brings together fourteen of the director’s most imaginative and uncompromising works for the first time. Alongside new restorations of the theatrical features, the set also includes short and full-length documentaries about Fellini’s life and work, archival interviews with his friends and collaborators, commentaries on six of the films, video essays, the director’s 1968 short
Toby Dammit, and much more.
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July 15th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
This October, Bong Joon Ho’s international sensation Parasite, winner of the Palme d’Or and four Academy Awards, will join the Criterion Collection in a director-approved edition packed with special features. Diahann Carroll and James Earl Jones star in Claudine, a big-hearted romantic comedy that empathetically explores Black working-class life, with a chart-topping soundtrack composed by Curtis Mayfield and performed by Gladys Knight & the Pips. Henry King’s morally complex western The Gunfighter, starring Gregory Peck in an elegiac twist on the genre, will appear in a new 4K restoration. And that’s not all: Jean-Luc Godard’s era-defining road trip Pierrot le fou returns to the Collection in a new restoration; and Stephen Frears’s taut, stylish thriller The Hit makes its Blu-ray debut.
Continue reading ‘Parasite, Claudine, The Gunfighter & More Coming to The Criterion Collection October 2020’
July 11th, 2020 by Aaron Neuwirth
Here’s another screwball classic getting the Blu-ray upgrade from The Criterion Collection. The Lady Eve is a wonderful romantic comedy about a con gone wrong due to feelings getting in the way. Preston Sturges is in peak form with this film, knocking it out the same year as another one of his classics, Sullivan’s Travels. The combined screen energy from Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda is already enough to deliver something worthwhile, but thanks to sharp writing and a sense of poignancy, the film has many raising it to much higher ground.
– Continue reading ‘The Lady Eve – The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray Review)’
This May, Hou Hsiao-Hsien will join the Criterion Collection with a new, director-approved restoration of his ravishing chamber drama Flowers of Shanghai, a period reverie that confirmed his status as one of the world’s great filmmakers. Hailed as one of the best teen movies ever made, Amy Heckerling’s generation-defining classic Fast Times at Ridgemont High will appear in a new, restored 4K digital transfer. Tyrone Power stars in one of the most haunting and perverse film noirs of the 1940s, Nightmare Alley, making its first appearance on Blu-ray. Dorothy Arzner explores addiction, nonmonogamy, and sexual liberation in her bracingly ahead-of-its time pre-Code triumph Merrily We Go to Hell, starring Fredric March and Sylvia Sidney. And Ahmed El Maanouni’s Trances, an enveloping portrait of the renowned Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, will appear in stand-alone Blu-ray and DVD editions.
