I'm definitely picking up The Last Emperor.

I watched it back in a History high school class over the span of a week, and enjoyed it.

all over pierrot le fou.

will think about last emperor.

Great titles: I shall pick The Last Emperor and Pierrot...

Pro-B

This an amazing batch of titles. I'm quite excited to see Pierrot Le Fou and The Last Emperor.

<b>Pierrot le Fou</b>

What fantastic news.

C'mon, where's the love for Walker? After Repo Man, it's my favorite Alex Cox movie, and since it will surely be uncut horsefall-wise it'll will be one of my few upcoming SD purchases. You just have to roll with the intentional anachronisms and the heavy-handed metaphor and let the sheer audacity of the movie wash over you. The nearest equivalent I can think of is Art Spiegelman's Maus. Even though Queimada probably gets more credit for mining the same vein, I think Walker is more relevant today. That's a standard-issue shitty late '80s-style trailer (that tries to hide the film's more twisted aspects); don't put too much stock in it.

I've been expecting Last Emperor and Pierrot for a while, but holy shit on that Lubitsch set.

Given it's Storaro, one would think so, but criterion.com says 2.35:1. Hope it's not a typo.

This was my question as well. But I will buy this regardless because I passed on the crappy old artisan disc and have been waiting for a good release forever. And this is materializing pretty much as I expected it would...four discs, with theatrical cut included! I'm thrilled.

Between this, a possible purchase of Two-Lane Blacktop next month, and the fact I just bought a stack of their titles in the DVD Planet sale, Criterion is really hitting my wallet lately...not that I'm complaining, of course.

I was wondering that myself. If it IS, in fact, the OAR, then that further solidifies my plans to pick it up.

Criterion.com has changed its listing:

Film Info

1987
164 minutes
Color
2.00:1
Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0
Anamorphic
English

With great disappointment, I will pass.

Ouch...

For those who want Last Emperor, Amazon has it for $42

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Emperor-C..._sim_d_title_6

Dvdplanet has it for $34.95

Special Features
* - DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FOUR-DISC SET FEATURES:
* - All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
* - All-new, restored high-definition digital transfer of the extended television version
* - Audio commentary featuring director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Mark Peploe, and composer-actor Ryuichi Sakamoto
* - The Italian Traveler: Bernardo Bertolucci, a 53-minute film by Fernand Moszkowicz tracing the director's geographic influences, from Parma to China
* - Video images taken by Bertolucci while on preproduction in China
* - The Chinese Adventure of Bernardo Bertolucci, a 52-minute documentary that revisits the film's making
* - A new, 47-minute documentary featuring Storaro, editor Gabriella Cristiana, costume designer James Acheson, and art director Gianni Silvestri
* - A 66-minute BBC documentary exploring Bertolucci's creative process and the making of The Last Emperor
* - A 30-minute interview with Bertolucci from 1989
* - A new interview with composer David Byrne
* - A new interview with Ian Buruma examining the historical period of the film
* - Theatrical trailer
* - PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by David Thomson, interviews with production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti and actor Ying Ruocheng, a reminiscence by Bertolucci, and an essay and production-diary extracts from Fabien S. Gerard


These features sound great but that aspect ratio has me a bit worried.

:up:

I remember liking Walker a lot back when I saw it on Cinemax in the late '80s. Yes, it's heavy-handed with its political message, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

(And that trailer is awful - it's nothing like the movie itself)

It looks like an impressive set. I'm still going to pick it up, I'm just disappointed that Storaro's post-revisionism mentality with his Univisium AR has to affect this release, just like it did with Apocalypse Now.

I'm dissapointed at Storaro's tampering, too (not that I'd ever notice it on my own...eheh), and I am definitely going to wait for the November DVDPlanet sale to get this (have the Optimum), but...these extras are phenomenally plenty. I think that's going to weight in close to five hours, not counting the commentary!

A release of Fanny and Alexander proportions.

okay I'm confused, what's the street date for 'Last Emperor' and 'Pierrot le fou' Amazon states the 26th, Criterion's website states the 12th and Landmark's Theatre's website says a Landmark theatre deal will have 'The Last Emperor' for sale on the 19th - so.... ???

also, is there two cuts of the film on this release - the US theatrical cut and the extended tv cut? if it's both, which version will have the commentary track accompanying it?

The Last Emperer = Feb 26th
Pierrot le fou' = Feb. 19th

okay so the Landmark website is true then... they will have it a week prior (on the 19th)

I just rented this movie from Netflix and, before I watched it, I tried to find the trailer on the disc, and couldn't figure out where it was. I thought that maybe Criterion had not gotten into the "no trailers" game, and that seemed unfortunate.

So thanks for correcting me on the matter; there seems a perfectly good reason they didn't include the trailer -- it has little, if anything, to do with the actual movie.

Another correction (I think.)

The trailer indeed appears on the 'Walker' DVD. It is selectable via the Criterion "C" logo on the main menu.

The other "hidden" feature shows Cox discussing the movie's reviews. It is selectable via the "A" in Walker.

Just watched Walker last night from Netflix. WOW, best Criterion I've discovered in a long time.

No idea why this movie got completely shat on when it came out. It's absolutely brilliant and completely ahead of its time, like a cross between Peckinpah and the "fuck-you" morality of Repo Man. One of the best performances Ed Harris has ever given, and a majestic scenery feast from Peter Boyle. Joe Strummer's score was so badass too.

Alex Cox is some sort of unsung cult god of cinema. I also love Straight to Hell (love to see that get Criterion treatment too), which is the Leone to Walker's Peckinpah.

Didn't watch the features, but I'll probably buy this one eventually since the transfer looked amazing upconverted on my A3. And the trailer IS nothing like the film at all.

Rented Walker from Netflix about a few weeks ago not really knowing what to expect and prepared to be disappointed. I havn't really enjoyed most of the Alex Cox films I have seen and been disappointed by the ones that I did like. However I have to say I LOVED WALKER. I ended up watching all of the features and plan on buying it soon. I loved the pacing, music, acting and overall feel of the film. Certainly the best Cox film I have seen.