Criterion releases for August 2010
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Criterion releases for August 2010
Black Orpheus - Spine 48
Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus was a cultural event, kicking off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning.
Disc Features
* New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
* Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
* Archival interviews with director Marcel Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn
* New video interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins, and Brazilian author Ruy Castro
* À la recherche d’“Orfeu negro,” a feature-length documentary about Black Orpheus’s cultural and musical roots and its resonance in Brazil today
* Theatrical trailer
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson
Crumb - Spine 533
Terry Zwigoff’s landmark 1995 film is an intimate documentary portrait of underground artist Robert Crumb, whose unique drawing style and sexually and racially provocative subject matter have made him a household name in popular American art. Zwigoff candidly and colorfully delves into the details of Crumb’s incredible career, as well as his past, including his family of reclusive eccentrics, some of the most remarkable people you’ll ever see on-screen. At once a profound biographical portrait, a riotous examination of a man’s controversial art, and a devastating look at a troubled family, Crumb is a genuine American original.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
* New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Terry Zwigoff, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
* Two audio commentaries, one from 2010 with Zwigoff, and one from 2006, featuring Zwigoff and critic Roger Ebert
* Outtakes and deleted scenes
* Stills gallery
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
Louis Bluie - Spine 532
Crumb director Terry Zwigoff’s first film is a true treat: a documentary about the obscure country blues musician and idiosyncratic visual artist Howard “Louie Bluie” Armstrong, member of the last known black string band in America. As beguiling a raconteur as he is a performer, Louie makes for a wildly entertaining movie subject, and Zwigoff honors him with an unsentimental but endlessly affectionate tribute. Full of infectious music and comedy, Louie Bluie is a humane evocation of the kind of pop-cultural marginalia that Zwigoff would continue to excavate in the coming years.
Disc Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION
* New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Terry Zwigoff
* Audio commentary featuring Zwigoff
* Outtakes and deleted scenes
* Illustrations by Howard Armstrong
* Stills gallery
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Sragow
L'enfance Nue - Spine 534
The singular French director Maurice Pialat (Loulou, À nos amours) puts his distinct stamp on the lost-youth film with this devastating portrait of a damaged foster child. We see François (Michel Terrazon), on the cusp of his teens, shuttled from one home to another, his behavior growing increasingly erratic, his bonds with his surrogate parents perennially fraught. In this, his feature debut, Pialat treats this potentially sentimental scenario with astonishing sobriety and stark realism. With its full-throttle mixture of emotionality and clear-eyed skepticism, L’enfance nue (Naked Childhood) was advance notice of one of the most masterful careers in French cinema, and remains one of Pialat’s finest works.
Disc Features
* New, restored high-definition digital transfer
* L’amour existe, director Maurice Pialat’s 1960 short film about life on the outskirts of Paris
* Choses vues, autour de “L’enfance nue,” a fifty-minute documentary shot just after the film’s release
* Excerpts from a 1973 French television interview with Pialat
* New visual essay by critic Kent Jones on the film and Pialat’s cinematic style
* Video interview with Pialat collaborators Arlette Langmann and Patrick Grandperret
* New and improved English subtitle translation
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate
Three Silent Classics by Josef von Sternberg: Underworld, The Last Command, Docks of New York - Spine 528
Vienna-born, New York–raised Josef von Sternberg (Shanghai Express, Morocco) directed some of the most influential, extraordinarily stylish dramas ever to come out of Hollywood. Though best known for his star-making collaborations with Marlene Dietrich, Sternberg began his movie career during the final years of the silent era, dazzling audiences and critics with his films’ dark visions and innovative cinematography. The titles in this collection, made on the cusp of the sound age, are three of Sternberg’s greatest works, gritty evocations of gangster life (Underworld), the Russian Revolution (The Last Command), and working-class desperation (The Docks of New York) made into shadowy movie spectacle. Criterion is proud to present these long unavailable classics of American cinema, each with two musical scores.
SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DVD SET
* New, restored high-definition digital transfers
* Six scores: one by Robert Israel for each film; two by the Alloy Orchestra, for Underworld and The Last Command; and a piano and voice piece by Donald Sosin for The Docks of New York
* Two new visual essays: one by UCLA film professor Janet Bergstrom and the other by film scholar Tag Gallagher
* 1968 Swedish television interview with director Josef von Sternberg, covering his entire career
* PLUS: A ninety-six-page booklet featuring essays by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien, film scholar Anton Kaes, and author Luc Sante; the original film treatment for Underworld by Ben Hecht; and an excerpt from Sternberg’s autobiography, Fun in a Chinese Laundry, on Emil Jannings
Underworld
Josef von Sternberg’s riveting breakthrough is widely considered the film that launched the American gangster genre. George Bancroft is the main heavy, “Bull” Weed, an urban criminal kingpin whose jealous devotion to his moll, Feathers (Evelyn Brent), gets him into hot water with a rival hood and, ultimately, the authorities. Further complicating matters is the attraction blossoming between Feathers and an alcoholic former lawyer (Clive Brook). With its supple, endlessly expressive camera work, and a screenplay by legendary scribe Ben Hecht (who won a best original story Oscar the first year the awards were given), Underworld solidified Sternberg’s place as one of Hollywood’s most exciting new talents.
The Last Command
Emil Jannings won the first best actor Academy Award for his passionate, heartbreaking performance as a sympathetic tyrant, an exiled Russian military officer turned Hollywood actor whose latest part—a czarist general—brings about his emotional downfall. With its brilliantly realized Russian Revolution sequences, virtuoso camera work, and grandly designed sets and effects, Josef von Sternberg’s The Last Command is a gripping silent melodrama that grapples with tumultuous recent history, as well as a striking portrait of one man’s increasing blurring of the line between fantasy and reality.
The Docks of New York
Roughneck stoker Bill Roberts (George Bancroft) gets into all sorts of trouble during a brief shore leave when he falls hard for Mae (Betty Compson), a wise and weary dance hall girl, in Josef von Sternberg’s evocative portrait of lower-class waterfront folk. Fog-enshrouded cinematography by Harold Rosson (The Wizard of Oz), expressionist set design by Hans Dreier (Sunset Boulevard), and sensual performances make this one of the legendary director’s finest works, and one of the most exquisitely crafted films of its era.
The First Films of Akira Kurosawa Eclipse Series 23
Years before Akira Kurosawa changed the face of cinema with such iconic works as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, and Yojimbo, he made his start in the Japanese film industry with four popular and exceptional works, created while World War II was raging. All gripping dramas, those rare early films—Sanshiro Sugata; The Most Beautiful; Sanshiro Sugata, Part Two; and The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail—are collected here, including a two-part martial arts saga, a portrait of female volunteers helping the war effort, and a kabuki-derived tale of deception. These captivating films are a glorious introduction to a peerless career.
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"Crumb" and "Black Orpheus" will be available on both DVD and Blu-ray.
Last edited by Sondheim; 05-14-10 at 11:45 AM.
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
Naturally, a rerelease of Black Orpheus is announced after I purchased the previous release (granted, it was from a Hollywood Video closing sale, but still).
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
So I have a question. I didn't research this or anything, just something I wondered. How can Black Orpheus be spine #48 if it's just being releases? Does Criterion skip/save certain numbers for future titles?
Another example is Walkabout spine #10 which is set to release Tuesday.
Another example is Walkabout spine #10 which is set to release Tuesday.
Last edited by Hendersonfan; 05-14-10 at 02:05 PM.
#6
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
So I have a question. I didn't research this or anything, just something I wondered. How can Black Orpheus be spine #48 if it's just being releases? Does Criterion skip/save certain numbers for future titles?
Another example is Walkabout spine #10 which is set to release Tuesday.
Another example is Walkabout spine #10 which is set to release Tuesday.
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
So I have a question. I didn't research this or anything, just something I wondered. How can Black Orpheus be spine #48 if it's just being releases? Does Criterion skip/save certain numbers for future titles?
Another example is Walkabout spine #10 which is set to release Tuesday.
Another example is Walkabout spine #10 which is set to release Tuesday.
This is a great month. I really need those B&N sales this year.
#8
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
More silents, at last! Main-line, no less. I was expecting a Sternberg Eclipse set. Since L'enfance Nue isn't Blu, there's no need to double-dip, as the MoC is identical.
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
Just out of curiosity, whatever happened to the Criterion of Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos that was supposed to come out last fall?
#13
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
I *LOVE* Black Orpheus, that's a must get on Blu-Ray. Crumb is a fascinating documentary, but not one I could see watching enough to justify the purchase.
The Kurosawa is easily the must purchase. Those are some great films. I'm probably correct in thinking they won't make their way to Blu-Ray anytime soon...
The Kurosawa is easily the must purchase. Those are some great films. I'm probably correct in thinking they won't make their way to Blu-Ray anytime soon...
#14
Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
In for Kurosawa. Yeah sadly these ones won't hit Blu in the near future, though hopefully the others in the 100th anniversary box set that were not released yet will, like Madadayo.
#16
Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
Also must note: that Kurosawa set will be mine!
#18
Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
I definitely will pick up "Crumb" in August.
However, I still want a "Matinee" Criterion (especially after the burn Universal pulled). *sulks*
However, I still want a "Matinee" Criterion (especially after the burn Universal pulled). *sulks*
Last edited by PatD; 05-14-10 at 10:12 PM.
#19
Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
Cannot WAIT to see Crumb in glorious Blu-Ray. The DVD is fine but trying to see the detail of the artwork on a regular TV has always been kind of a let down. This movie belongs on Blu Ray.
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
OK that makes sense. After I posted that I looked at Criterions website and found quite a few numbers skipped. Are they titles that are out of print or ones that will be re-released? I'll post the numbers tomorrow or make a thread about it. Thanks for the info.
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
A good month. L'Enfance nue is an essential film, but the extras are identical to the R2 edition (with a few exceptions), so I won't buy it unless it goes Blu suddenly. Renting the Zwigoffs and two of the Kurosawas (Sanshiro and Tiger), probably buying Black Orpheus on Blu. But *definitely* getting the von Sternberg box...looks like one of the year's most essential purchases.
#22
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
Glad that we didn't have to wait too long after the AK 100 release for these four early Kurosawa titles to be separately released.
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Re: Criterion releases for August 2010
If you are asking specifically about the Criterion BD list, missing spine numbers are titles that have never been released on BD. Criterion started releasing BDs less than two years ago.
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