Why So Blu?

David Lynch, John Woo & More Coming to The Criterion Collection March 2023

Coming in March: Inland Empire, a nightmarish odyssey into the deepest realms of the unconscious mind by David Lynch; Last Hurrah for Chivalry, a wuxia whirlwind from John Woo, a master of the heroic tragedy; and Chilly Scenes of Winter, a singular anti–romantic comedy from trailblazing director Joan Micklin Silver. Plus: Mildred Pierce, a bitter, noirish cocktail of maternal sacrifice and fierce ambition by Michael Curtiz—now on 4K UHD.

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MILDRED PIERCE

Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford’s iconic performance as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford’s career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by her bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent’s tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain’s rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional.

 

1945 • 111 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.37:1 aspect ratio

 

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

• Conversation with critics Molly Haskell and Robert Polito

• Excerpt from a 1970 episode of The David Frost Show featuring actor Joan Crawford

• Joan Craw­ford: The Ultimate Movie Star, a 2002 feature-length documentary

• Q&A with actor Ann Blyth from 2006, presented by filmmaker Marc Huestis and conducted by film historian Eddie Muller

• Segment from a 1969 episode of the Today show featuring Mildred Pierce novelist James M. Cain

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith

Available March 7, 2023

 

 

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INLAND EMPIRE

“Strange, what love does.” The role of a lifetime, a Hollywood mystery, a woman in trouble . . . David Lynch’s first digitally shot feature makes visionary use of the medium to weave a vast meditation on the enigmas of time, identity, and cinema itself. Featuring a tour de force performance from Laura Dern as an actor on the edge, this labyrinthine Dream Factory nightmare tumbles down an endless series of unfathomably interconnected rabbit holes as it takes viewers on a hallucinatory odyssey into the deepest realms of the unconscious mind.

 

2006 • 180 minutes • Color/Black & White • 5.1 surround • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

 

DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New HD digital master, made from the 4K restoration supervised by director David Lynch, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed stereo soundtracks, newly remastered by Lynch and original rerecording mixers Dean Hurley and Ron Eng

• Two films from 2007, LYNCH (one) and LYNCH2, by blackANDwhite, the makers of David Lynch: The Art Life

• New conversation between actors Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan

• More Things That Happened, seventy-five minutes of extra scenes

• Ballerina, a 2007 short film by Lynch

• Reading by Lynch of excerpts from Room to Dream, his 2018 book with critic Kristine McKenna

• Trailer

• New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: Excerpts from Richard A. Barney’s book David Lynch: Interviews

Available March 21, 2023

 

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LAST HURRAH FOR CHIVALRY

Before he became known as the master of the bullet-riddled heroic tragedy, John Woo sharpened his trademark themes and kinetic action choreography with this whirlwind wuxia spectacle. Unaware they are caught in a deadly game of deception, a pair of rambunctious swordsmen (Wai Pak and Damian Lau) join forces to help a nobleman (Lau Kong) in his quest for vengeance. Paying thrilling homage to his mentor, martial-arts innovator Chang Cheh, Woo delivers both bravura swordplay set pieces and a bloodstained interrogation of the meaning of brotherhood and honor in a world in which loyalty is bought and sold.

 

1979 • 106 minutes • Color • 5.1 surround • In Cantonese with English subtitles • 2.39:1 aspect ratio

 

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 2K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed monaural soundtracks

• Alternate English-dubbed tracks

• Audio interview with director John Woo

• New interview with Grady Hendrix, author of These Fists Break Bricks

• Trailer

• New English subtitle translation

• PLUS: An essay by scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park

Available March 14, 2023

 

 

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CHILLY SCENES OF WINTER

The trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver—one of only five women to direct a film for a Hollywood studio in the 1970s—digs fearlessly into the psychology of a thorny relationship in this anti–romantic comedy, based on Ann Beattie’s best-selling novel, about lovelorn civil servant Charles (John Heard) and his married-but-separated coworker Laura (Mary Beth Hurt). Months after their affair has ended, Charles is haunted by memories as he desperately attempts to rekindle a love that perhaps never was. Switching deftly between past and present, Micklin Silver guides this piercing deconstruction of male wish-fulfillment fantasy beyond standard movie-romance tropes into something more complicated and cuttingly truthful.

 

1979 • 95 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.85:1 aspect ratio

 

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• New program featuring producers Griffin Dunne, Mark Metcalf, and Amy Robinson

• Documentary from 1983 by Katja Raganelli about director Joan Micklin Silver

• Excerpts of a 2005 interview with Micklin Silver

• Original ending of the film, cut by Micklin Silver for its rerelease in 1982

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by scholar Shonni Enelow

 

Available March 28, 2023