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Criterion January Titles!

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Criterion January Titles!

Old 10-15-07, 06:00 PM
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Criterion January Titles!


Swedish filmmaker Alf Sjöberg's visually innovative, Cannes Grand Prix–winning adaptation of August Strindberg's renowned 1888 play brings to scalding life the excoriating words of the stage's preeminent surveyor of all things rotten in the state of male-female relations. Miss Julie vividly depicts the battle of the sexes and classes that ensues when a wealthy businessman's daughter (Anita Bjork, in a fiercely emotional performance) falls for her father's bitter servant. Celebrated for its unique cinematic style (and censored upon its first release in the United States for its adult content), Sjöberg's film was an important turning point in Scandinavian cinema.

Special Features

* - New, restored high-definition digital transfer
* - New video essay by film historian Peter Cowie
* - Archival television interview with director Alf Sjöberg
* - 2006 television documentary about the play Miss Julie and dramatist August Strindberg
* - Theatrical trailer
* - New and improved English subtitle translation
* - PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by film scholars Peter Matthews and Birgitta Steene

Glamorous leading man turned idiosyncratic auteur Cornel Wilde created a handful of gritty, violent explorations of the nature of man in the sixties and seventies, none more memorable than The Naked Prey. In the late nineteenth century, after an ivory-hunting safari offends an African tribe, the colonialists are captured and hideously tortured. Only Wilde's marksman is released, without clothes or weapons, to be hunted for sport, and he embarks on a harrowing journey through savanna and jungle. back to a primitive state. Distinguished by vivid widescreen camerawork and unflinching savagery, The Naked Prey is both a propulsive, stripped-to-the-bone narrative and a meditation on the notion of civilization.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary by film scholar Stephen Prince
- "John Colter’s Escape," a 1913 written record of the trapper's flight from Blackfoot Indians—which was the inspiration for The Naked Prey—read by actor Paul Giamatti
- Original soundtrack cues created by director Cornel Wilde and ethnomusicologist Andrew Tracey, along with a written statement by Tracey on the score
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Michael Atkinson and a 1970 interview with Wilde


One of the finest British films ever made, this benchmark of "kitchen-sink realism" follows the self-defeating professional and romantic pursuits of a miner turned rugby player eking out an existence in drab Yorkshire. With an astonishing, raging performance by a young Richard Harris, an equally blistering turn by fellow Oscar nominee Rachel Roberts as the widow with whom he lodges, and electrifying direction by Lindsay Anderson, in his feature-film debut following years of documentary work, This Sporting Life remains a dramatic powerhouse.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Audio commentary featuring Paul Ryan, editor of Never Apologise: The Collected Writings of Lindsay Anderson, and David Storey, screenwriter and author of This Sporting Life
- Theatrical trailer
- Lindsay Anderson: Lucky Man? (2004, 30 min), a documentary from BBC Scotland featuring interviews with many of the director's close friends and collaborators
- New video interview with Lois Sutcliffe Smith, Anderson's close friend and president of the Lindsay Anderson Memorial Foundation
- Meet the Pioneers (1948), Lindsay Anderson's first documentary short
- Wakefield Express (1952), Anderson's short-film contribution to England's Free Cinema series, shot in the same town that served as the location for This Sporting Life
- Is That All There Is? (1992, 50 min), Anderson's autobiographical, final film


The great Agnes Varda's career began with this graceful, penetrating study of a marriage on the rocks, set against the backdrop of a small Mediterranean fishing village. Both a stylized depiction of the complicated relationship between a married couple (played by Silvia Monfort and Philippe Noiret) and a documentary-like look at the daily struggles of the locals, Varda's discursive, gorgeously filmed debut was radical enough to later be considered one of the progenitors of the coming French new wave.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- New video interview with Varda
- Archival 1964 television episode from Cinéastes de notre temps, in which Varda discusses her early career
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation


Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Therese (Claire Drouot), young husband and father François (Jean-Claude Drouot) finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker. One of Agnes Varda's most provocative films, the art-house hit Le bonheur examines, with a deceptively cheery palette and the spirited strains of Mozart, the ideas of fidelity and happiness in a modern, self-centered world.

Special Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- Actor Jean-Claude Drouot revisits the film's setting forty years later
- A 2006 interview with actors Claire Drouot and Marie-France Boyer
- A 2006 discussion with four scholars and intellectuals discussing the concept of happiness and its relation to the film
- Archival footage of Varda shooting Le bonheur
- 1998 interview with Varda, discussing Le bonheur
- Du Côté de la côte (1958), a short film directed by Varda exploring the tourist destination of the Côte D'Azur
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation

Sandrine Bonnaire won a César award for her portrayal of Mona, a defiant young drifter who is found frozen in a ditch. Using a largely non-professional cast, famed New Wave filmmaker Agnès Varda recollects Mona’s story through the flashbacks of those who encountered her, producing the splintered portrait of an enigmatic woman. Told in sparsely poetic images set against the frozen landscape of mid-winter Nîmes, this is Varda’s masterpiece. Criterion presents Vagabond (Sans toit ni loi) in a brilliant color transfer supervised by the director.

Special Features
- New restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- Remembrances: a 2003 documentary on the making of the film, including interviews with Sandrine Bonnaire and other cast members
- The Story of an Old Lady: Varda's 2003 short film revisiting actress Marthe Jarnias, who plays the old aunt in the film
- A 2003 interview with Varda and composer Joanna Bruzdowicz
- A 1986 radio interview with writer Nathalie Sarraute, who inspired the film
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by Chris Darke and written introduction by Agnes Varda


Agnes Varda eloquently captures Paris in the sixties with this real-time portrait of a singer (Corinne Marchand) set adrift in the city as she awaits test results from a biopsy. A chronicle of the minutes of one woman’s life, Cleo from 5 to 7 is a spirited mix of vivid vérité and melodrama, featuring a score by Michel Legrand (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg) and cameos by Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina.

Special Features
- New, restored digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Agnes Varda
- Remembrances: a 2005 documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with Varda, Corinne Marchand, and Antoine Bourseiller
- Excerpt from a 1993 French television program featuring Madonna and Varda talking about Cléo
- Cleo's Real Path Through Paris, a short film from 2005 in which Varda retraces Cleo's steps through Paris, on a motorcycle
- Les Fiancés du Pont Macdonald (1961), a short film directed by Varda, featuring Jean-Luc Godard and Anna Karina, and Varda explaining why this film was featured as the film within the film L’opéra Mouffe (1958), an early short by Varda, with a score by Georges Delerue New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A new essay by Adrian Martin and a written introduction by Agnès Varda

Last edited by EEz28; 10-15-07 at 07:39 PM.
Old 10-15-07, 06:14 PM
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Wow. What a month. I've seen all of these and they are all worth owning.

Le Bonheur is one of the best and most unique movies not yet released on DVD.
Old 10-15-07, 06:21 PM
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That's an amazing list. I'll be getting the Sporting Life and the Varda set.

Last edited by Yakuza Bengoshi; 10-16-07 at 11:24 AM. Reason: To correct mistake as to Verda set
Old 10-15-07, 06:46 PM
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Originally Posted by Yakuza Bengoshi
That's an amazing list. I'll be getting the Naked Prey, the Sporting Life and the three(!) Varda releases.
Well, it's a box set so I guess you mean you'll be getting all four(!) Varda releases.
Old 10-15-07, 06:46 PM
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Glad I held off on the previous Varda editions. Great to see Sporting Life as well. Pity they couldn't include White Bus as an extra.
Old 10-15-07, 07:20 PM
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I can't wait to finally see The Naked Prey, I hear nothing but positive things.
Old 10-15-07, 07:35 PM
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Definitely in for the Varda set and The Naked Prey. Great month!
Old 10-15-07, 08:00 PM
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Where is Salo???

Good month.
Old 10-15-07, 08:09 PM
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Originally Posted by PopcornTreeCt
Where is Salo???
Saving it for a special Valentine's Day (week of) release. The perfect gift for that special someone.
Old 10-15-07, 08:21 PM
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is Salo ever going to be re released?
Old 10-15-07, 08:21 PM
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I;m psyched about The Sporting Life and The Naked Prey, but I'm also anxious for Salo.
Old 10-15-07, 08:23 PM
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Well, seven releases is very impressive...but I'm not familiar with any of these except for the Naked Prey. Where is the Last Emperor?
Old 10-15-07, 08:26 PM
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im waiting for salo myslef. when someone gets a date for salo let me know. I went to a hollywood video that was closing down and I asked about it and apparently it had been sold at least thats what I was told
Old 10-15-07, 09:00 PM
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Amazing...THE NAKED PREY getting the Criterion treatment. seems an unlikely choice for them but I'm not complaining. Can't wait to see it...
Old 10-15-07, 09:21 PM
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Sporting Life looks like it will be the definitive Lindsay Anderson disc...though its a shame that Wakefield Express; already available on BFI's spectacular Free Cinema set, is being released here in place of an unavailable Anderson short. Or, looking in WB's direction, that the McDowell documentary is repeated from Clockwork Orange, in place of one of those shorts...after all, Wakefield wasn't previously available in the states. Clockwork Orange is being released again on the same day!

I wasn't particularly blown away by the previously available Varda films...but that was a few years back, when I was just a kid (he said contemptuously). Being particularly interested in any New Wave or New Wave era French film maker who isn't Francois Truffaut, the contents of this package are too mind blowing not to snatch up.

And then there's Miss Julie...the good old Criterion that I like. Obscure and foreign.
Old 10-15-07, 09:31 PM
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I wonder if the people in this thread who are practically rubbing themselves in anticipation over Salo have actually seen it.
Old 10-15-07, 09:39 PM
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This Sporting Life and The Naked Prey for me. Not really interested in Miss Julie, the Varda's I'll rent at the library and maybe purchase sometime in the future.
Old 10-15-07, 10:02 PM
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The Naked Prey!
Old 10-15-07, 10:24 PM
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I'm very interested in the Agnes Varda set. I've heard some great things about Naked Prey and will give it a rent.
Old 10-15-07, 10:49 PM
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I would buy the Agnes Varda set if The Naked Prey and This Sporting Life weren't being released.

I bet the set is going to be expensive.
Old 10-15-07, 11:46 PM
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lets just say that the film NAKED PREY give a whole new meaning to 'backyard Barbeque'


Damn, such a month of releases-never thought we would see VAGABOND again-Im holding out for a WALKABOUT reissue
Old 10-16-07, 12:21 AM
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My budget has unfortunately been very limited recently, but I will most definitely be buying "This Sporting Life". I saw a portion of it on TCM a few years ago, and have been meaning to own it ever since. It's great to see three major Lindsay Anderson films get released on DVD in such a short period of time.

The only Agnes Varda film I've seen is "The Gleaners and I", which I liked very much, so I'll give all of these a rental, with hopes to buy it at some point in the future.

I'm quite curious about the other two, but they'll also probably end up only being rentals.

Anyways - a great start to the new year for Criterion, in my opinion.
Old 10-16-07, 02:47 AM
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Yay! This Sporting Life.
Old 10-16-07, 08:27 AM
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Originally Posted by dman988
I would buy the Agnes Varda set if The Naked Prey and This Sporting Life weren't being released.

I bet the set is going to be expensive.
Criterion has $99.95 srp on their site.
Old 10-16-07, 08:58 AM
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I loooved 'Cleo from 5 to 7' will definately be buying that!

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