Criterion's Feburary Titles
 

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- SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Raoul Coutard
- New video interview with actor Anna Karina
- A "Pierrot" Primer, a new video program with audio commentary by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
- Godard, l'amour, la poésie, a fifty-minute French documentary about Godard and his collaborative life and films with Anna Karina
- Archival interview excerpts with director Jean-Luc Godard, actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Anna Karina
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Richard Brody, an review by Andrew Sarris, and an interview with Godard

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- 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 by director Bernardo Bertolucci, producer Jeremy Thomas, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and screenwriter Mark Peploe
- The Italian Traveler, a documentary by Fernand Mozskowicz, exploring Bertolucci's journey from Parma to China
- The Making of "The Last Emperor," a new documentary featuring Storaro, editor Gabriella Cristiana, costume designer James Acheson, and art director Gianni Silvestre
- Postcards from China, video images taken by Bertolucci while on preproduction
- The Late Show: Face to Face, a 30-minute BBC interview with Bertolucci from 1989
- New video interviews with composers David Byrne and Sakamoto
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by David Thomson and excerpts from script supervisor Fabien Gerard’s journals from the production
- More!

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- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Alex Cox
- Audio commentary by Cox and screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer
- Dispatches from Nicaragua, an original documentary about the filming of Walker
- On Moviemaking and the Revolution, an audio reminiscence from actor and writer Linda Sandoval about the shoot
- Rare behind-the-scenes photos
- PLUS: A booklet featuring writings by film critic Graham Fuller, Wurlitzer, and Linda Sandoval

I still can't over the fact that Walker is coming out from Criterion. What a bizarre choice for the Collection.

:banana: So freakin' psyched over Pierrot Le Fou, my all-time favorite director & Goddard & Anna Karina :drool: is film perfection.

Man, I can only imagine how much The Last Emperor set will be....

SRP $59.95

I really want all three of those, I just sold my Pierrot le Fou on eBay in preparation for this...

So about the same as The Leopard or Battle of Algiers in actual retail terms, I'm guessing...

Pierrot le Fou finally! That Last Emperor set looks amazing. Walker should be worth a rental, though the trailer makes it look like a straight to video crapfest.

Probably deserves its own thread, but:

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Eclipse Series 8:
Lubitsch Musicals
Ernst Lubitsch

Film Info
Not only the man who refined Hollywood comedy with such masterpieces as Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be, Ernst Lubitsch also helped invent the modern movie musical. With the advent of sound and audiences clamoring for "talkies," Lubitsch combined his love of European operettas and his mastery of film to create this entirely new genre. These elegant, bawdy films, made before strict enforcement of the Hays morality code, feature some of the greatest stars of early Hollywood (Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins), as well as that elusive style of comedy that would thereafter be known as "the Lubitsch touch."


4-Disc
Box Set
SRP: $59.95

Box Set Includes:

The Love Parade
Ernst Lubitsch, 1929
Ernst Lubitsch’s first "talking picture" was also Hollywood's first movie musical to integrate songs with narrative. Additionally, The Love Parade made stars out of toast-of-Paris Maurice Chevalier and girl-from-Philly Jeanette MacDonald, cast as a womanizing military attaché and the man-hungry queen of "Sylvania." With its naughty innuendo and satiric romance, The Love Parade opened the door for a decade of witty screen battles of the sexes.

Monte Carlo
Ernst Lubitsch, 1930
Jeanette MacDonald's independent-minded countess leaves her foppish prince fiancé at the altar, and whisks herself away to the Riviera. There, she strikes the fancy of the sly Count Rudolph (Broadway crossover Jack Buchanan), who poses as a hairdresser to get into her boudoir. Lubitsch's follow-up to The Love Parade shows even more musical invention, and presents MacDonald at her sexily haughty best.

One Hour With You
Ernst Lubitsch, 1932
Lubitsch reunites Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald, this time as a seemingly blissful couple whose marriage hits the skids when her flirtatious school chum comes on to her husband a bit too strong. Necking in the park at nighttime, husbands and wives having casual dalliances, and a butler telling his master, "I did so want to see you in tights!": it's one of Lubitsch's sauciest escapades and his final pre-Code musical.

The Smiling Lieutenant
Ernst Lubitsch, 1931
Maurice Chevalier's randy Viennese lieutenant is enamored of Claudette Colbert's freethinking, all-girl-orchestra-leading cutie. Yet complications ensue when the sexually repressed princess of the fictional kingdom of Flausenthurm, played by newcomer Miriam Hopkins, sets her sights on him. The Smiling Lieutenant is a delightful showcase for its rising female stars, who are never more charming than when Colbert tunefully instructs Hopkins, "Jazz Up Your Lingerie."
Film Info
Black and White
1.33:1
Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Not Anamorphic
English

I cannot wait for Pierrot le Fou!! The Last Emperor looks pretty good too and Walker sounds very interesting.

As an HD-DVD/Blu-ray adopter it's hard to swallow seeing that these DVDs are coming from High Definition transfers and aren't being released that way.

The Lubitsch set will be mine. He is a favorite of mine.

So the aspect ratio will be 2:1?

Awesome titles.

Great titles! Looking forward to them all especially the loaded "Last Emperor" set.

Four discs for Emperor? Extras seem a bit slim for that. Regardless, a must-own.

Well the director's cut is 219 minutes, so that's two discs right there. Also, we don't know how long the first two documentaries are. And don't forget there's "-More!"

Awesome!

Lubitsch, Bertolucci and Godard will be mine.

That looked....not good. The kiss/slap was pretty funny, though.

Very exciting titles this time. The Last Emperor will be a blind buy must purchase for me.

I've been wanting to see Walker for a while now. I remember reading that Ebert gave it zero stars when it first came out, however I'm madly in love with Alex Cox's other work (if you haven't seen his proto-Tarantino Leone homage Straight to Hell, make it a priority) and have a lot of interest in seeing the politics of it.

Isn't this the movie where they have helicopters and walkie-talkies in the 1890's? I thought I remember hearing that, not entirely sure though.

EDIT: I just read the writer of this also penned Two-Lane Blacktop and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, two great 70's gems (the former of which is coming from Criterion), so now I'm officially adding this to Netflix.

Are there are details with regards to the 'specs' for THE LAST EMPEROR ?

What are the sound formats ? ratio ??

a couple of the extra look like they've been 'recycled' from other releases ...

from DVDCOMPARE.NET
and from the French DVD I wonder if this is the same as this The Italian Traveler, a documentary by Fernand Mozskowicz, exploring Bertolucci's journey from Parma to China - with English subtitles ??

I'm looking forward to owning Pierrot le Fou, The Last Emperor and the Lubitsch set.

I haven't seen The Last Emperor in years, so I'm especially looking forward to revisiting it.

I got a chuckle out of the laughably incongruous "Walker With Seat Sale" ad that scrolls along the bottom. Ed Harris' PC pronunciation of NicaraYOUah at the end is funny in a nostalgic way - took me straight back to college during the Reagan years.

Thank goodness for titles like Walker, though, since otherwise I might be tempted to be a spine completist...

Yes, and Casio watches, Newsweek magazine, automobiles etc. It's apparently a satire about US interventionism in Latin America in the 1980s. Watching the trailer, it looks A LOT like "The Wild Bunch" with all the tan-uniformed soldiers being blown about in slow motion.

Finally, The Last Emperor! I've been contemplating pulling the trigger on one of the Asian editions that is Region free and anamorphic but now I can hold out for this one, which seems like it will be the definitive release on Standard DVD.

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.