Sondheim

The Human Condition

Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition (Ningen no joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.

FOUR-DISC SPECIAL EDITION:

-New, restored high-definition digital transfer
-Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, conducted by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda (Double Suicide)
-New video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai
-Video appreciation of Kobayashi and The Human Condition featuring Shinoda
-Japanese theatrical trailers
-New and improved English subtitle translation
-PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp



Made in USA

With its giddily complex noir plot and color-drenched widescreen images, Made in U.S.A was a final burst of exuberance from Jean-Luc Godard’s early sixties barrage of delirious movie-movies. Yet this chaotic crime thriller and acidly funny critique of consumerism—featuring Anna Karina as the most brightly dressed private investigator in film history, rummaging through an intricate plot for a former lover who might have been assassinated—also points toward the more political cinema that would come to define Godard. Featuring characters with names such as Richard Nixon, Robert McNamara, David Goodis, and Doris Mizoguchi, and appearances by a slapstick Jean-Pierre Léaud and a sweetly singing Marianne Faithfull, this piece of pop art is like a Looney Tunes rendition of The Big Sleep gone New Wave.

-New, restored high-definition digital transfer
-Interviews with stars Anna Karina and Lászlo Szábó
-A video piece on the personal and the political in Made in U.S.A and 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, featuring Godard biographers Richard Brody and Colin MacCabe
-A visual essay cataloguing the multiple references in the film
-Original and rerelease theatrical trailers
-New and improved English subtitle translation
-PLUS: A new essay by film critic J. Hoberman



2 or 3 Things I Know About Her

In 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle) Jean-Luc Godard beckons us ever closer, literally whispering in our ears as narrator. About what? Money, sex, fashion, the city, love, language, war: in a word, everything. Considered by many to be among the legendary French filmmaker’s finest achievements, the film takes as its ostensible subject the daily life of Juliette Janson (Marina Vlady), a housewife from the Paris suburbs who prostitutes herself for extra money. Yet this is only a template for Godard to spin off into provocative philosophical tangents and gorgeous images. 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her is perhaps Godard’s most revelatory look at consumer culture, shot in ravishing widescreen color by Raoul Coutard.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
-New, restored high-definition digital transfer
-Archival television interviews: the first featuring Vlady on the set of the film, the second with Godard engaged in debate with a government official on the subject of prostitution
-New video interview with Godard friend Antoine Bourseiller
-A visual essay cataloguing the multiple references in the film
-New and improved English subtitle translation
-PLUS: A new essay by Sasha Frere-Jones



Repulsion

Roman Polanski followed up his international breakthrough Knife in the Water with this controversial, chilling tale of psychosis, starring Catherine Deneuve as Carol, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up over the course of a terrifying weekend. Left alone by her vacationing sister in their London flat, Carol is haunted by specters real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent pitch. Thanks to its unforgettable attention to disturbing detail and Polanski’s unparalleled adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion remains one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers.

-New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
-Audio commentary featuring director Roman Polanski and actress Catherine Deneuve
-A British Horror Film (2003), a documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor
-A 1964 television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, featuring rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work
-Theatrical trailer
-PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan



For All Mankind (reissue)

In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert’s documentary For All Mankind is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the Moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years later, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earth-shaking event.

-New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by producer-director Al Reinert (with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
-Audio commentary featuring Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to set foot on the moon
-An Accidental Gift: The Making of “For All Mankind,” a new documentary featuring interviews with Reinert, Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean, and NASA archive specialists Don Pickard, Mike Gentry, Morris Williams, and Chuck Welch
-On Camera, a collection of excerpted on-screen interviews with fifteen of the Apollo astronauts
-New video program about Bean’s artwork, accompanied by a gallery of his paintings
-NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage
-Optional on-screen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists
-PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critic Terrence Rafferty and Reinert

BLU-RAY

dx23

wow! Finally a decent version of Repulsion!

Giles

oh come on where is Pasolini's Trilogy of Life films, are we to assume it might be a Eclipse box set?

oh hoo-rah, 'For All Mankind' in hidef in all it's 16mm graininess [that's sarcasm btw]

cranberries fan

I don't about anyone here other than me but The Human Condition has me stoked!!

Geofferson

Repulsion

dx23

I just heard the market for the Human Condition DVD on ebay crash!

jjcool

I could have sworn that "For All Mankind" has been out for a while. Then I saw that the OP posted reissue next to it. Unfortunately I dont see the reissue listed yet on Amazon, so I cant add it to my wishlist. Hopefully I wont forget about the release.

MoviePage

Repulsion is definitely the must-own here. Commentary by Polanski and Deneuve only makes it that much more appealing.

The Human Condition also looks like a nice set, and the For All Mankind reissue was expected, since July marks the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Good marketing opportunity for Criterion, just in case Benjamin Button doesn't pull in enough cash.

Kory

First month in a while that I can say I really like all of the covers.

Sessa17

Made in USA is the one I'm the most excited for, but dissapointed it's not getting a Blu-release.

popcorn

I was just about to watch the 2005 DVD of Repulsion. Can't wait for the new high-def transfer!

NoirFan

Wow, Repulsion in Blu! I'm in for all of these.

steelpotato

Repulsion is the best release in years. Sweet.

man*machine

Very cool about REPULSION!

I wonder where the Polanski-Deneuve commentary was recorded. I'm pretty sure it wasn't in the US, of course. Can't wait to hear it!

Nth Power

Nice to see Repulsion! I own the region 2 and it looks like most of the special features are from there so I don't think I'll double dip, but I'd like to see it in Blu-ray.

marty888

Another for REPULSION!

MTRodaba2468

I am absolutely THRILLED to see Repulsion coming, in BLU-RAY no less!!

Sex Fiend

Repulsion = awesome!

Waited for seemingly forever for a decent R1 release of this. Best Criterion news of the year so far (and I thought I was really stoked when I heard about Wiseblood and The Friends of Eddie Coyle).

AGameWithStones

I'll get Repulsion whenever I get a Blu Ray player. The current R2 DVD from Anchor Bay is fine with me, and I saw it rather recently.

Human Condition, though, looks incredible.

Dr Mabuse

Holy cow!

'Human Condition Trilogy' from Criterion.

I'm stunned and elated.

How awesome is this?

pro-bassoonist

Benjamin Button will not be distributed by Criterion.

This being said, July also sees the release of:

Neeb

Can't go wrong with either release.

And I'm glad I waited on For All Mankind.

logboy

i'm happy about kobayashi's 'human condition' finally making it out; expecting more wallet-busting announcements still - the nikkatsu action sets, eclipse. shame about the lack of BD though.

DonTHX1378

With the release of Repulsion we now know that Sony has some deal in place with Criterion for some titles. Many thought that Bottle Rocket was just going to be a one off or a trade off for Sony or Criterion, but we now know that the rumors of a Sony/Criterion deal were true. Lets hope that this means that Sony lets Criterion release The Fisher King *they did the laserdisc so the extra's are ready and just need to be updated*, The Spanish Prisoner *people have heard rumors that there would be more Mamet in the collection and he has a good relationship with the company*, Shampoo *Criterion released the laser without extras, Jeffery Wells talked on Hollywood Elsewhere that it needs a good making of doc since there was a lot that went on with the making of the film*, and Polanski's Macbeth *I've heard that there was a spine number for the laser that was subpost to have went into production, but then they ended the laser line so nothing came about of it*.
Now all we need is the proof of the Warner's deal besides SuBURbia.

TheDuke

Since when? Again, no Picnic at Hanging Rock re-release