Why So Blu?

Heroic Trio, Nothing But a Man, Altman 4K & More Coming to The Criterion Collection February 2024

Coming in February: Eric Rohmer’s Tales of the Four Seasons, a quartet of bittersweet tales about the follies of the human heart; The Heroic Trio / Executioners, two dazzling superhero sagas from martial-arts auteur Johnnie To; Nothing but a Man, Michael Roemer’s civil rights–era American classic; and The Roaring Twenties, one of the most influential crime films of all time, directed by Raoul Walsh. Plus: Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller, a brilliant deglamorization of the American Western, now on 4K UHD. 

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MCCABE & MRS. MILLER 

This unorthodox dream western by Robert Altman may be the most radically beautiful film to come out of the New American Cinema. It stars Warren Beatty and Julie Christie as two newcomers to the raw Pacific Northwest mining town of Presbyterian Church, who join forces to provide the miners with a superior kind of whorehouse experience. The appearance of representatives for a powerful mining company with interests of its own, however, threatens to be the undoing of their plans. With its fascinating, flawed characters, evocative cinematography by the great Vilmos Zsigmond, innovative overlapping dialogue, and haunting use of Leonard Cohen songs, McCabe & Mrs. Miller brilliantly deglamorized and revitalized the most American of genres.

1971 • 121 minutes • Color • Monaural • 2.40:1 aspect ratio 

 

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

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

• Audio commentary from 2002 featuring director Robert Altman and producer David Foster

• Making-of documentary, featuring members of the cast and crew

• Conversation about the film and Altman’s career between film historians Cari Beauchamp and Rick Jewell

• Featurette from the film’s 1970 production

• Art Directors Guild Film Society Q&A from 1999 with production designer Leon Ericksen

• Excerpts from archival interviews with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond

• Gallery of stills from the set by photographer Steve Schapiro

• Excerpts from two 1971 episodes of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Altman and film critic Pauline Kael

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by novelist and critic Nathaniel Rich

 

Available February 6, 2024

 

ERIC ROHMER’S TALES OF FOUR SEASONS

The seasons may change, but the follies of the heart are constant in this ineffably lovely quartet of films by Eric Rohmer, one of cinema’s most perceptive chroniclers of the pangs and perils of romance. Set throughout France, Tales of the Four Seasons is a cycle to stand alongside the director’s two earlier acclaimed film series, Six Moral Tales and Comedies and Proverbs. By turns comic and melancholic, breezy and richly philosophical, these bittersweet tales of love, longing, and the inevitable misunderstandings that shape human relationships probe the most complex of emotions with the utmost grace.

 

FOUR-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 2K digital restorations, supervised by cinematographer Diane Baratier and Laurent Schérer, director Eric Rohmer’s son, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks

• New interview program recorded at Rohmer’s house in Tulle, France, featuring Baratier, producer Françoise Etchegaray, sound engineer Pascal Ribier, and editor Mary Stephen

• Excerpts of radio interviews with Rohmer conducted by film critics Michel Ciment and Serge Daney

• Documentary from 2005 on the making of A Tale of Summer, by Etchegaray and Jean-André Fieschi

• Two short films directed by Rohmer: A Farmer in Montfaucon (1968) and The Kreutzer Sonata (1956)

• Trailer

• New English subtitle translations

• PLUS: An essay by film critic Imogen Sara Smith

 

A TALE OF SPRINGTIME

1990 • 107 minutes • Color • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio 

 

In the first film of Tales of the Four Seasons, a burgeoning friendship between philosophy teacher Jeanne (Anne Teyssèdre) and pianist Natacha (Florence Darel) is strained by jealousy, suspicion, and intrigue. Natacha encourages Jeanne to pursue Igor (Hugues Quester), Natacha’s father, in order to supplant Ève (Eloïse Bennett), his young girlfriend, whom Natacha loathes. Natacha’s scheme, however, risks alienating those closest to her as well as entangling Jeanne in the very kind of romantic drama she has vowed to avoid. DIA Tale of Springtimefinds Eric Rohmer in full command of his subtle visual storytelling as he contrasts the brightness of his characters’ Parisian and suburban surroundings with their conflicting desires, ideas, and temperaments. 

 

A TALE OF WINTER

1992 • 114 minutes • Color • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio 

 

The second Four Seasons tale made by Eric Rohmer is among the most spiritual and emotional films of his storied career. Five years after losing touch with Charles (Frédéric van den Driessche), the love of her life and the father of her young daughter, Félicie (Charlotte Véry) attempts to choose between librarian Loïc (Hervé Furic), who lives in the Parisian suburbs, and hairdresser Maxence (Michel Voletti), who has recently moved to the central French town of Nevers. In the midst of indecision, Félicie holds to an undying faith that a miracle will reunite her with Charles, a faith that Rohmer examines in all of its religious and philosophical dimensions.

 

A TALE OF SUMMER

1996 • 114 minutes • Color • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio 

 

According to Eric Rohmer, A Tale of Summer is the most autobiographical film that he made. Based on events from Rohmer’s youth, this installment of Tales of the Four Seasons follows amateur musician Gaspard (Melvil Poupaud) to a seaside resort in Dinard on the coast of Brittany. There, three women (Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon, and Aurélia Nolin) each offer the possibility of romance, but Gaspard’s inability to commit to just one puts all of his chances at love in jeopardy. The film features Rohmer’s wistful observations on indecisiveness and the fickle nature of desire, as brought to life by a talented young cast in a picturesque setting.

 

A TALE OF AUTUMN

1998 • 111 minutes • Color • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.37:1 aspect ratio 

 

The last entry in the Tales of the Four Seasons tetralogy is a breezy take on the classic American romantic comedies that influenced Eric Rohmer and his French New Wave peers. Set among the golden vineyards of the Rhône Valley, PA Tale of Autumn concerns simultaneous schemes to find a new love for the reserved widow and winegrower Magali (Béatrice Romand). Her son’s girlfriend (Alexia Portal) attempts to pair her with a former professor and lover (Didier Sandre), while Magali’s friend Isabelle (Marie Rivière) assumes a false identity in order to lure eligible bachelor Gérald (Alain Libolt). The misunderstandings that follow are pure Rohmer in bringing out the humor in human folly.

Available February 13, 2024

 

THE HEROIC TRIO / EXECUTIONERS

The star power of cinema icons Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh fuels these gloriously unrestrained action joyrides from auteur Johnnie To and action choreographer Ching Siu-tung. The Heroic Trio and its sequel, Executioners, follow a new kind of justice league: a team of blade-throwing, shotgun-toting, kung fu–fighting heroines who join forces to battle evildoers in a dystopian, noirish city. Blending dazzling martial arts mayhem with exhilarating blasts of comic-book lunacy, these beloved superhero movies reimagine the genre through the giddy genius of the Hong Kong film industry at its height.

 

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 4K digital restorations of The Heroic Trio and Executioners, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks

• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the films and two Blu-rays with the films and special features

• Alternate 5.1 surround Cantonese and English-dubbed soundtracks

• New interview with actor Anthony Wong 

• New interview with film critic Samm Deighan (cohost of the podcast Twitch of the Death Nerve)

• Trailers

• New English subtitle translations

• PLUS: An essay by critic Beatrice Loayza

 

THE HEROIC TRIO

1993 • 88 minutes • Color • Monaural • In Cantonese with English subtitles • 1.78:1 aspect ratio 

 

With this outrageously entertaining cult favorite, director Johnnie To and his lineup of legendary stars gave Hong Kong cinema something new: its own homegrown superhero cinematic universe. Thief Catcher (Maggie Cheung), Wonder Woman (Anita Mui), and Invisible Girl (Michelle Yeoh) are kick-ass crusaders who must overcome their dark pasts in order to defeat an evil, baby-snatching eunuch terrorizing the city. Eye-popping motorcycle stunts, bloodthirsty undead, cannibal infants, and kinetically choreographed wirework are all part of the wall-to-wall delirium in this irresistible showcase for three of the coolest women warriors ever to hit the screen.

 

EXECUTIONERS

1993 • 97 minutes • Color • Monaural • In Cantonese with English subtitles • 1.78:1 aspect ratio 

 

Maggie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Michelle Yeoh return in this gritty, postapocalyptic sequel to The Heroic Trio. Following a devastating nuclear attack, Hong Kong’s supply of clean water has fallen into the hands of a masked maniac (Anthony Wong) intent on seizing political power—forcing the three fearless fighters to settle their differences and unite to stop him. Darker in tone than the original, Executioners finds Johnnie To and co-director/martial-arts choreographer Ching Siu-tung continuing to push their whirlwind action set pieces to new levels of cartoon craziness, while adding an abundance of grungy, dystopian atmosphere and a fresh dose of anti-authoritarian attitude.

Available February 20, 2024

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NOTHING BUT A MAN

Michael Roemer’s groundbreaking first feature, sensitively shot by his close collaborator Robert M. Young, is a still-resonant expression of humanity in the face of virulent prejudice. Made at the height of the civil rights movement, Nothing but a Man reveals the toll of systemic racism through its honest portrait of a southern Black railroad worker (Ivan Dixon) confronting the daily challenges of discrimination and economic precarity, as he attempts to settle down with his new wife (jazz great Abbey Lincoln) and track down his father (Julius Harris). Admired by Malcolm X and now recognized as a landmark of American cinema, this tender film grounds its social critique in characters of unforgettable complexity and truth.

1964 • 91 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.37:1 aspect ratio 

 

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New, restored 4K digital master, approved by director Michael Roemer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

• An Introduction to Michael Roemer, a new interview program featuring Roemer

• Conversation from 2004 between Roemer and coproducer and cinematographer Robert M. Young

• Program featuring archival interviews with actors Ivan Dixon, Abbey Lincoln, and Julius Harris 

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by critic Gene Seymour

 

Available February 20, 2024

 

THE ROARING TWENTIES

 

Ripped from the headlines of the turbulent era between the Great War and the Great Depression, this dynamic, nostalgia-tinged crime drama balances tommy-gun action with epic historical sweep. Legends James Cagney and Humphrey Bogart star as army buddies whose fortunes rise and fall as their fates intersect, first in a foxhole on the front lines of World War I, then in Manhattan’s Prohibition-era underworld. Directed by Hollywood master Raoul Walsh, and based on a story by prolific journalist turned screenwriter and producer Mark Hellinger, The Roaring Twenties brought to a close the celebrated Warner Bros. gangster cycle of the 1930s, and it remains one of the greatest and most influential crime films of all time.

1939 • 106 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.37:1 aspect ratio 

 

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the 4K UHD disc and the Blu-ray

• 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 with film historian Lincoln Hurst

• New interview with critic Gary Giddins

• Excerpt from a 1973 interview with director Raoul Walsh

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by film critic Mark Asch

 

Available February 27, 2024