Tag Archive for 'The Criterion Collection'
August 16th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
This November, golden-age Hollywood’s wittiest romantic comedy will join the Criterion Collection: The Philadelphia Story, starring Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and James Stewart, all at the height of their dazzling charms. Our edition will feature a new 4K restoration, along with new supplements exploring the film’s production, which launched Hepburn back to stardom thanks largely to her […]
July 31st, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
Money serves as a symbol of success and has said to be the root of all evil. It is also fittingly the meaning of the French term L’argent, which happens to be the title of writer/director Robert Bresson’s final film. L’argent captures Bresson’s minimalist style, as it tells the tale of how one counterfeit bill […]
July 2nd, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
Here’s a tale of love, family, and ambition set during a time of war. That would seemingly be the kind of film anyone would be able to relate to. I am admittedly less familiar with Kenji Mizoguchi, compared to other acclaimed Japanese filmmakers, but Ugetsu was a movie with a level of acclaim I could […]
June 16th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
In September, Murray Lerner’s Festival will join the Criterion Collection in time for its fortieth anniversary. The era-defining documentary caught the crest of a musical movement at the Newport Folk Festival from 1963 to 1966 and includes performances by giants like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash, and the Staples Singers; the Criterion release’s special features will showcase rare additional footage from the festivals. […]
June 1st, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
While I’ve mainly tackled reviews of Criterion Collection films that reflect the past, it is neat to deal with something more modern. Dheepan is a 2015 French film that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of Tamil refugees reconstructing their lives in France. The film comes from writer-director […]
May 16th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
In August, Criterion will take you into uncharted waters with the Hollywood master Michael Curtiz’s unsung classic The Breaking Point – a white-knuckle Hemingway adaptation starring John Garfield and Patricia Neal – on Blu-ray for the first time. The films of Sacha Guitry have long been celebrated in France, including the late-career black comedy La […]
May 4th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
Get ready for a colorful and musical delight with The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. This Criterion Collection release has actually already been available in 2014’s The Essential Jacques Demy Blu-ray box set. However, it would seem the resounding success of the Oscar-winning La La Land led to a separate release, as that film is so indebted […]
April 17th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
This July, Criterion will travel to the Zone with Andrei Tarkovsky’s hypnotic, philosophical sci-fi masterpiece Stalker-making its U.S. Blu-ray debut in a new 2K restoration, with special features that explore this endlessly mysterious film’s production and significance, including interviews with the crew as well as a new conversation with author Geoff Dyer. Albert Brooks and […]
April 13th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
I was actually surprised to learn that Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up was not already in The Criterion Collection and simply making its Blu-ray debut. This 60’s classic tells a great story that defies convention by subverting the plot any viewer was expecting to see, while also presenting a good look at Swinging London. The result is […]
April 1st, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
The sublime comedy Being There has finally made its way to The Criterion Collection, further cementing its status as a true classic. The film received multiple awards and other acclaim, including a Best Actor nomination for star Peter Sellers and a Best Supporting Actor win for Melvyn Douglas. This praise was well-earned, as the Hal […]
March 15th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
This June, Criterion will bring three of the most beloved classics of French cinema to Blu-ray for the first time with a newly restored edition of Marcel Pagnol‘s Marseille Trilogy, a sweeping saga set in the author’s native Provence that tracks the lives and loves of its characters over the course of a generation. A […]
February 16th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
Michael Curtiz, the acclaimed journeyman director of films such as Casablanca, The Adventures of Robin Hood and Yankee Doodle Dandy, finally finds one of his films as a part of The Criterion Collection with Mildred Pierce. An ambitious mix of film noir and melodrama, this acclaimed 1945 film marked a career comeback for Joan Crawford, […]
February 15th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
This May, Criterion will present a special edition of Orson Welles’s Othello, featuring two different versions of this visually astonishing Shakespeare adaptation as well as a host of special features chronicling its tumultuous production. Our second World Cinema Project collector’s set will feature restorations of hard-to-see classics from the Philippines (Insiang), Thailand (Mysterious Object at Noon), Soviet Kazakhstan (Revenge), Brazil (Limite), Turkey (Law […]
January 17th, 2017 by Aaron Neuwirth
This April, Criterion is serving up a special edition of Tampopo, Juzo Itami’s delirious, genre-bending “ramen western,” fresh from its theatrical run. The kitchen becomes a battleground in Woman of the Year, where Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy play journalist spouses with different ideas about what makes for a successful marriage. There’s also Francis Ford […]
December 19th, 2016 by Aaron Neuwirth
Time to kick off some lists! First up we have the Blu-ray list. Like previous years (2013, 2014, 2015), I have decided to tackle every aspect of what I enjoyed about this year in Blu-ray. This list consists of what I consider to be the best 2016 had to offer for the Blu-ray format based […]
December 15th, 2016 by Aaron Neuwirth
In March, Criterion will be celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s existential portrait of swinging-sixties London, with a special edition packed with supplements. It’ll be joined by John Waters’ outrageous take on American counterculture Multiple Maniacs, a filth-spattered spectacle never before available on home video. We’re also proud to present the first-ever U.S. release of Felipe Cazals’s Canoa: […]
October 25th, 2016 by Aaron Neuwirth
The Criterion Collection has been quite kind to director Robert Altman this year. In addition to putting out The Player, Nashville and McCabe and Mrs. Miller for the first time, we now have a Blu-ray release for his LA-based, character epic Shot Cuts. Inspired by a series of short stories and poems by Raymond Carver, […]
October 17th, 2016 by Bron Anderson
If you, like I, are a lover of great cinema, but sometimes look at those price tags on Criterion Collection releases and think “well, maybe someday,” then today is that day! Until 9:00 AM (PDT) tomorrow, the Criterion Collection is having a 50% off sale on their own website. If you are still reading this […]
