Archive for the 'The Criterion Collection' Category
November 7th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
Terminator 2, Predator, the Evil Dead films, Die Hard; some movies are just regularly given new home media releases. The Princess Bride is most certainly one of them. However, this time audiences can bring home Rob Reiner’s classic romantic adventure on a brand-new Blu-ray from The Criterion Collection. Brought out of the depths of the laserdisc era, Criterion’s updated release of this modern classic looks and sounds better than ever, with plenty of extras to go with it. It would be inconceivable to think the film wouldn’t earn such a great release anyway, but it’s always nice to see this sort of thing be delivered upon. Now would you like to learn more about this latest release? As you wish…
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October 15th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
In January, Elaine May will join the Criterion Collection with Mikey and Nicky, an unsung masterpiece of 1970s cinema, starring John Cassavetes and Peter Falk as small-time gangsters in a barbed study of friendship and betrayal. Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant enact an anguished romance in Alfred Hitchcock’s classic spy thriller Notorious, appearing in a stunning new 4K restoration. Cristian Mungiu’s riveting 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, the Palme d’Or-winning breakout film of the New Romanian Cinema, will appear on Blu-ray for the first time. The indomitable Sidney Poitier faces off against Rod Steiger in In the Heat of the Night, an Academy Award-winning landmark in Hollywood’s treatment of racism, appearing in a new 4K restoration. And there’s more: Abbas Kiarostami’s final film, the contemplative 24 Frames, breathes motion into still images in a poignant coda to a life dedicated to cinema.
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September 17th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This December, Euzhan Palcy will join the Criterion Collection with A Dry White Season, a courageous chronicle of injustice and resistance in apartheid South Africa that made history as the first Hollywood studio film directed by a black woman. Barbara Stanwyck leads the charge in Samuel Fuller’s unconventional western Forty Guns, a thrilling exemplar of the director’s no-holds-barred approach to genre filmmaking, appearing on Blu-ray for the first time. Julien Duvivier’s long-unavailable Panique, an atmospheric thriller shot through with postwar paranoia, will appear in a new 2K restoration. And there’s more: Ingmar Bergman’s piercing psychological drama Sawdust and Tinsel, an early breakthrough for the legendary Swedish filmmaker, will appear in a stand-alone Blu-ray edition.
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September 10th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
While acclaimed filmmaker Terrence Malick is no stranger to The Criterion Collection, one could see The Tree of Life as one of the best examples of a film made with the eventual intention of being released in this manner. While the movie received plenty of plaudits and accolades in 2011, its regard as one of the defining films of this decade by many is not at all surprising. At the same time, the ethereal mystery that is this film makes it the perfect example of cinema bound to be explored by many, let alone given new perspective by those who appear on this new released to speak on its behalf. There’s also the matter of the entirely new cut of the film, which is just one of the many things to go over for this impressive release.
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August 15th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This November, the Criterion Collection will present Orson Welles’s elegiac second feature, The Magnificent Ambersons, in its first-ever Blu-ray release, an edition packed with supplemental features. Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis star in Billy Wilder’s gender-bending Some Like It Hot, a pinnacle of Hollywood comedy, appearing in a new 4K restoration. David Byrne explores the wild, wild life of Texas in the musical odyssey True Stories, making its Blu-ray debut in a special edition that also includes a never-before-released CD of the film’s complete soundtrack. And Kenji Mizoguchi’s long-unavailable late-career classic A Story from Chikamatsu will appear in a new 4K restoration. Plus: the previously announced Blu-ray box set Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema celebrates the visionary Swedish director’s 100th birthday with the most comprehensive collection of his films ever released on home video.
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July 27th, 2018 by Bron Anderson
There is a slow, quiet magic to the films of Aki Kaurismäki (Le Havre, The Man Without a Past) that allows the viewer to be lulled into the idea that there is just a simple story going on with some dry humor and then it turns out one is watching a scathing indictment of society dressed up as a slow moving dramatic tale. With The Other Side of Hope, the director maintains that skill and applies it to a story about a Syrian refugee and a Finnish shirt salesperson separately attempting to change the courses of their respective lives. It is an odd film that requires attention, patience, and a likely a second viewing to fully soak it up.
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July 24th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
I was happy to put together my first write-up about an Ingmar Bergman film, and now I’ve had the chance to write at some length about a terrific film from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. A Matter of Life and Death is finally debuting on The Criterion Collection Blu-ray, and it does not disappoint. Heralded as one of the best British films ever made, the 1946 fantasy-romance has had a significant impact on cinematic storytelling, influencing so many filmmakers in the decades since its original release. Now, everyone can have access to this restored feature that looks and sounds extraordinary and features an excellent set of supplemental material.
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July 16th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This October, the beloved fairy-tale classic The Princess Bride will join the Criterion Collection in a clothbound storybook Blu-ray edition packed with special features-as you wish! Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s long-unavailable television series Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day, a working-class soap opera suffused with affection and solidarity will appear in a new 2K restoration. Warren Beatty stars in Shampoo– a sly send-up of sex and politics in the 1960s directed by Hal Ashby- making its Blu-ray debut. Brian De Palma’s Sisters, the virtuoso director’s twisted and terrifying first foray into Hitchcock territory, will appear in a new 4K restoration. And there’s more: Cornel Wilde plumbs primal terror and colonialist violence in the stripped-down action film The Naked Prey, on Blu-ray for the first time.
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July 12th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
As much a fan I may be of legendary director Ingmar Bergman, I’ve never actually written at length about one of his films. Thanks to this re-release of his Oscar-winning film, The Virgin Spring, from The Criterion Collection, I now have the chance. Numerous superlatives go with almost any of Bergman films, and this one is no different. In addition to being an odd inspiration for some films that came later on, this was the movie that brought Bergman a lot more international acclaim, having already delivered some of his signature work. All that success and he wasn’t even much of a fan of this entry in his oeuvre. All that and more in this assessment of another great Blu-ray upgrade for a terrific feature.
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June 15th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
Coming this September, Olivier Assayas’s long-unavailable coming-of-age masterpiece Cold Water, recently released theatrically for the first time in the U.S., will join the Criterion Collection in a new 4K restoration supervised by the director. Andrei Tarkovsky’s monumental epic Andrei Rublev will make its Blu-ray debut in an edition that includes both the director’s preferred 185-minute cut and the extended cut that was suppressed by Soviet censors. A Raisin in the Sun, the classic film version of Lorraine Hansberry’s groundbreaking play about a Chicago family’s struggle against racism and class barriers, starring Sidney Poitier and Ruby Dee, will appear in a new 4K restoration. American inequality gets lampooned from the top down in My Man Godfrey, the uproarious Depression-era screwball comedy starring William Powell and Carole Lombard, now on Blu-ray. And that’s not all: Ingmar Bergman plumbs the emotional depths of a couple’s life together and apart in Scenes from a Marriage, on Blu-ray for the first time.
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May 15th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This August, The Tree of Life, visionary filmmaker Terrence Malick’s magnum opus starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, will join the Criterion Collection in an edition featuring a new cut that includes nearly fifty minutes of additional footage. And fifty years after its initial release put Cuban cinema on the map, Memories of Underdevelopment, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea’s long-unavailable masterpiece set against the tumultuous backdrop of the Cuban Revolution, will appear in a new 4K restoration. Director Robert M. Young brings his keen eye for socially engaged drama to The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez, a passion project for producer-star Edward James Olmos and a landmark of Chicano cinema, appearing on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time. Susan Seidelman will join the collection with her trailblazing independent debut, Smithereens, a punk-rock portrait of down-and-out scenesters in 1980s New York, in a new, director-approved 2K restoration. And that’s not all: Ernst Lubitsch’s sly Technicolor comedy Heaven Can Wait will makes its first appearance on Blu-ray in a new 4K restoration.
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April 19th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
Jim Jarmusch is one of my favorite directors, and The Criterion Collection has seen fit to treat me with a release of Dead Man, his offbeat western from 1995, starring Johnny Depp. Featuring a strong and very Jarmusch supporting cast, beautiful black and white cinematography, and an improvised electric guitar score by Neil Young, Dead Man is the epitome of 90s indie film and one of Jarmusch’s best works as a director. Given my love for 2013’s Only Lovers Left Alive and the declaration of Paterson as my favorite film of 2016, Jarmusch has not stopped entertaining me, so I was thrilled to take in a spectacular new release for his acid western.
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April 16th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This July, the Criterion Collection will pay tribute to one of cinema’s most legendary collaborations with Dietrich and von Sternberg in Hollywood, a lavish box set featuring six newly restored classics starring the alluring Marlene Dietrich and directed by the visually extravagant Josef von Sternberg: Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil Is a Woman. Steven Soderbergh’s disarmingly frank debut, sex, lies, and videotape, the film that changed the course of American independent cinema, will join the collection in a new, restored 4K digital transfer supervised by the director. Ron Shelton’s hall-of-fame baseball comedy Bull Durham, starring Kevin Costner, Susan Sarandon, and Tim Robbins in one of the most beloved sports movies of all time, will also appear in a director-approved 4K digital transfer. And there’s more: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s otherworldly Technicolor romance A Matter of Life and Death and King Hu’s martial-arts classic Dragon Inn will both make their Blu-ray debuts in stunning new 4K digital restorations.
Continue reading ‘Bull Durham, Powell and Pressburger & More Coming to The Criterion Collection in July 2018’
March 15th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This June, John Waters’ outrageous Female Trouble, starring the criminally beautiful Divine, will join the Criterion Collection decked out in cha-cha heels, doused in liquid eyeliner, and restored in 4K. Also appearing in a new 4K restoration is Lino Brocka’s searing urban melodrama Manila in the Claws of Light, widely recognized as one of the greatest films in Filipino cinema. Then, Víctor Erice investigates Spain’s troubled history through the eyes of a child captivated by her father in El Sur, a haunting masterpiece never before available on DVD or Blu-ray. Michael Moore will join the Collection with the Oscar-winning Bowling for Columbine, his incisive and perennially relevant documentary on the culture of fear that keeps gun-loving America locked and loaded. And there’s more: Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, a harrowing tale of vengeance and faith, will appear on Blu-ray in a new 2K restoration.
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February 15th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This May, John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy, the era-defining classic of New American Cinema whose sexual frankness helped earn it both an X rating and an Oscar for best picture, will join the Criterion Collection in a new 4K digital restoration. But first, a major rediscovery: Moonrise, the long-unavailable final triumph by neglected Hollywood master Frank Borzage, will appear in a new, restored 4K digital transfer. Then, fresh from its celebrated theatrical run, Aki Kaurismäki’s award-winning The Other Side of Hope, the dryly comic tale of a Syrian refugee and the restaurateur who helps him find a foothold in Finland, arrives on home video. Cristian Mungiu, leading light of the New Romanian Cinema, examines the fine line between faith and fanaticism in Beyond the Hills, and shows how a father’s concern for his daughter draws him into a network of corruption in Graduation, both new to home video. And that’s not all: Robert Bresson’s profoundly compassionate masterpiece Au hasard Balthazar and Paul Schrader’s wildly unconventional biopic Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters will make their first appearances on Blu-ray, in new restorations.
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February 14th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
At long last, on the year of its 50th anniversary, Night of the Living Dead has been given the ultimate Blu-ray release it deserves. George A. Romero’s 1968 film, the godfather of modern zombie movies, is one that has received so many different releases due to its public domain status that it was only a matter of time for real justice to be done. Thankfully, The Criterion Collection has once again gone all out for a true classic (‘Night’ was even added into the National Film Registry nearly 20 years ago). This spectacular new release boasts 4K digital restoration, a workprint edit of the film, multiple commentaries, never-before-seen footage, new interviews, and more. It’s practically everything one can want for the perfect release of this film, which I was thrilled to dive into for this review.
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January 16th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
This April, Sergei Parajanov’s masterpiece The Color of Pomegranates, a revelatory film-poem overflowing with sensuous imagery, will join the Criterion Collection, on Blu-ray for the first time and in a stunning new 4K restoration. Also making its Blu-ray debut, Leo McCarey’s genre-defining comedy The Awful Truth stars the irresistible Irene Dunne and Cary Grant as would-be ex-spouses who can’t get enough of each other. The latest entry in our Eclipse line provides an origin story for another one of Hollywood’s most iconic stars: Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years collects six of the actor’s earliest performances and showcases her extraordinary range, which spanned crime thrillers, comedy, and melodrama. And there’s more: Dead Man, an ambitious, hypnotic western by Jim Jarmusch that enlists the poetry of William Blake and the music of Neil Young to turn the genre on its head, appears in a new 4K restoration supervised by the director. Plus, Sofia Coppola joins the collection with her debut, The Virgin Suicides, an ominously dreamy coming-of-age reverie adapted from Jeffrey Eugenides’s celebrated novel, appearing in a 4K digital transfer supervised by cinematographer Ed Lachman and approved by the director.
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January 4th, 2018 by Aaron Neuwirth
Kicking off this year of films released by The Criterion Collection we have John Hughes iconic high school film The Breakfast Club. The acclaimed coming-of-age comedy-drama primarily works as a chamber drama that happens to be deconstructing various high school clichés and has been held up high by audiences from all over. Taking this story of high school students stuck in Saturday detention and turning it into a beloved modern classic speaks to what a particular generation responded to. Even if one is not a fan, I believe it’s easy to see why the film has been given its share of praise and has even been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry for being culturally significant. With this new Blu-ray release, fans can see the film looking and sounding better than ever, along with plenty of new and never-before-seen extra material.
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