Sondheim

The Seventh Seal



Few films have had as large a cultural impact as Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (Det sjunde inseglet). Disillusioned and exhausted after a decade of battling in the Crusades, a knight (Max von Sydow) encounters Death on a desolate beach and challenges him to a fateful game of chess. Much studied, imitated, even parodied, but never outdone, Bergman’s stunning allegory of man’s search for meaning was one of the benchmark foreign imports of America’s 1950s art house heyday, pushing cinema’s boundaries and ushering in a new era of moviegoing.

* New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
* Introduction by Ingmar Bergman, recorded in 2003
* Audio commentary by Bergman expert Peter Cowie
* A new afterword to the commentary by Cowie
* Bergman Island (2006), an 83-minute documentary on Bergman by Marie Nyreröd, featuring in-depth and revealing interviews with the director
* Archival audio interview with Max von Sydow
* A 1998 tribute to Bergman by filmmaker Woody Allen
* Theatrical trailer
* Bergman 101, a selected video filmography tracing Bergman’s career, narrated by Cowie
* Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
* New and improved English subtitle translation
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Gary Giddins

My Dinner with Andre



In Louis Malle’s captivating and philosophical My Dinner with André, actor and playwright Wallace Shawn sits down with friend and theater director André Gregory at a Manhattan restaurant, and the two proceed into an alternately whimsical and despairing confessional on love, death, money, and all the superstition in between. Playing variations on their own New York–honed personas, Shawn and Gregory, who also wrote the screenplay, dive in with introspective, intellectual gusto, and Malle captures it all with a delicate, artful detachment. A fascinating freeze-frame of cosmopolitan culture, My Dinner with André remains a unique work in cinema history.

* New, restored high-definition digital transfer
* New video interviews with actors André Gregory and Wallace Shawn by filmmaker and friend Noah Baumbach
* “My Dinner with Louis,” an episode from the BBC program Arena, in which Shawn interviews director Louis Malle
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Amy Taubin and the prefaces written for the printed screenplay by Gregory and Shawn

Last Year at Marienbad



Not just a defining work of the French New Wave but one of the great, lasting mysteries of modern art, Alain Resnais’ epochal visual poem has been puzzling appreciative viewers for decades. A surreal fever dream, or perhaps a nightmare, Last Year at Marienbad (L’année dernière à Marienbad), written by the radical master of the New Novel, Alain Robbe-Grillet, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-bedecked château they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais’ investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story.

* New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Alain Resnais (with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
* New audio interview with Resnais
* New documentary on the making of Last Year at Marienbad, featuring interviews with many of Resnais’ collaborators
* New video interview with film scholar Ginette Vincendeau on the history of the film and its many mysteries
* Two short documentaries by Resnais: Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) and Le chant du styrène (1958)
* Theatrical trailer
* Optional original, unrestored French soundtrack
* New and improved subtitle translation
* PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Mark Polizzotti and film scholar François Thomas, and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s introduction to the published screenplay and comments on the film

Bergman Island



Just four years before his death, legendary filmmaker Ingmar Bergman sat down with Swedish documentarian Marie Nyreröd in his home on Fårö Island to discuss his films, his fears, his regrets, and his ongoing artistic passion. This resulted in the most breathtakingly candid series of interviews that the famously reclusive director ever took part in, later edited into the feature-length film Bergman Island. In-depth, revealing, and packed with choice anecdotes about Bergman’s films, as well as his personal life, Nyreröd’s documentary is an unforgettable final glimpse of a man who transformed cinema.

* New, restored digital transfer
* Bergman 101, a selected video filmography tracing Bergman’s career, narrated by Cowie
* New and improved English subtitle translation
* PLUS: A written remembrance by filmmaker Marie Nyreröd

BLU-RAY:

The Seventh Seal



Last Year at Marienbad

kingtopher

So is the Bergman Island DVD included with the Seventh Seal reissue as well as on its own? According to the Criterion site the SS reissue is at the lower price point, so if it includes the documentary disc as well that's a steal.

TheDuke

Good lord, I almost thought that the cover art for Last Year At Marienbad just wasn't loading. If you are using a laptop like I am, you might have to adjust your screen to see it... I will pick up The Seventh Seal, although I'm still pissed about the lack of a Picnic at Hanging Rock upgrade that was promised a few years ago.

chris_sc77

I will definitely pick up the new Seventh Seal DVD. My Dinner with Andre's Extras sound pretty weak so i may pass on that unless I find it for around $12.

NoirFan

That Marienbad cover art is certainly....white.

Cosmic Bus

I have trouble justifying the money to upgrade a DVD I already own (even if it's to a Blu edition), so I'll probably stick with my current Seventh Seal disc; I'll certainly pick up Bergman Island, though, as it'll be pretty cheap.

Will give Marienbad a rent to see what the fuss is about.

zombeaner

I'm in for Seventh Seal, Andre, and Marienbad. Another expensive month.

JiM T

Holy crap, what a great month! For the first time years, I'll be getting all the titles on the list. "Bergman Island" is a great surprise. I've been hoping for a DVD of that film for a while now. But I wonder what exactly we'll be getting on this DVD - according to IMDb, the original cut runs 174 minutes, as opposed to the 85 minute U.S. release.

NoirFan

According to Criterion's website, it will be the 83 minute version. Very disappointing. As the Blu-ray/reissued Seventh Seal will include the documentary, I can't see it faring too well as a stand-alone release.

Giles

already have Seventh Seal on blu, but can't wait to see/own Bergman's Island. Marienbad on blu - ah, bliss!

MoviePage

Fantastic month. So far I've managed to stick to my policy of not buying Criterion Blu-Rays until they change the awful packaging, but Seventh Seal may be the greatest temptation yet.

Either way, all 3 of these titles are must-buys for me.

MTRodaba2468

Fantastic month. I've been holding off on Seventh Seal for quite some time now, since it always seemed like a title that was ripe for rerelease.

manicsounds

I emailed Criterion a few years ago, asking about a reissue of Seventh Seal, as the original subtitles for it was very incomplete. They said there were no plans for a re-do. Well here it is!

Giles

looks like the Seventh Seal Criterion has the Bergman's Island as a supplement but it doesn't have the short film: Karin's Face that the import DVD/Bluray release has.

jmj713

Need to catch up with a few Criterions. When's that little DVD sale again?

big e

I believe the sale is in June and October.

Al_Tahoe

Fixed.

I'm definitely down for Seventh Seal and Dinner with Andre. Someone want to talk me into Marienbad?

nitin77

marienbad and seventh seal for me.

Now where are Le Jour se Leve, Walkabout and Before the Revolution?

hijacktheparade

I've been waiting for the announcement of My Dinner With Andre.

Cosmic Bus

Also coming up in June, an "essentials" release that has never been in the main collection. A bit unusual..

WEEDEDOUT

into the seventh seal reissue - looks awesome

redcon1

Never having seen any Bergman, this may be a good place to start with "The Seventh Seal" and some excellent-sounding extras, especially Bergman 101.

"Last Year at Marienbad", baaah...saw this in a college film class and disliked it very much. I'll pass.

alfonsosoriano

Seeing that The Seventh Seal is quite possibly my favorite film, I'll have no problem double dipping here.

JiM T

"Seventh Seal" may be an okay 1st Bergman film, but do know that Bergman, perhaps more so than other filmmakers, is an acquired taste of sorts. Many agree that "Wild Strawberries" is the ideal jumping-in point for Bergman's filmography, and I agree with that. I saw "Seal" a couple times before I saw "Strawberries", and I wish I would've done it the other way around - then maybe I would've warmed up to this amazing filmmaker a bit more quickly.

Giles

^ I'd actually recommend seeing 'Smiles of a Summer Night' as a primer to Bergman