Neil M.

Lord of the Flies and The Ice Storm are also coming.

Sondheim

Special features:

The Life of Oharu

A peerless chronicler of the soul who specialized in supremely emotional, visually exquisite films about the circumstances of women in Japanese society throughout its history, Kenji Mizoguchi had already been directing movies for decades when he made The Life of Oharu in 1952. But this epic portrait of an inexorable fall from grace, starring the incredibly talented Kinuyo Tanaka as an imperial lady-in-waiting who gradually descends to street prostitution, was the movie that gained its director international attention, ushering in a new golden period for him.

New high-definition digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Introductory commentary by scholar Dudley Andrew
Mizoguchi’s Art and the Demimonde, an illustrated audio essay featuring Andrew
Kinuyo Tanaka’s New Departure, a 2009 film by Koko Kajiyama documenting the actor’s 1949 goodwill tour of the United States
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Gilberto Perez

Babette's Feast

At once a rousing paean to artistic creation, a delicate evocation of divine grace, and the ultimate film about food, the Oscar-winning Babette’s Feast is a deeply beloved cinematic treasure. Directed by Gabriel Axel and adapted from a story by Isak Dinesen, this is the layered tale of a French housekeeper with a mysterious past who brings quiet revolution in the form of one exquisite meal to a circle of starkly pious villagers in late nineteenth-century Denmark. Babette’s Feast combines earthiness and reverence in an indescribably moving depiction of pleasure that goes to your head like fine champagne.

New 2K digital film restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
New interview with actor Stéphane Audran
Karen Blixen: Storyteller, a 1995 documentary about the author of the film’s source story, who wrote under the pen name Isak Dinesen
New visual essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda
New interview with sociologist Priscilla Parkhurst Ferguson about the significance of cuisine in French culture
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Mark Le Fanu and Dinesen’s 1950 story

The Devil's Backbone

The most personal film by Guillermo del Toro is also among his most frightening and emotionally layered. Set during the final week of the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone tells the tale of a ten-year-old boy who, after his freedom-fighting father is killed, is sent to a haunted rural orphanage full of terrible secrets. Del Toro effectively combines gothic ghost story, murder mystery, and historical melodrama in a stylish concoction that reminds us—as would his later Pan’s Labyrinth—that the scariest monsters are often the human ones.

New 2K digital film restoration, approved by director Guillermo del Toro and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Audio commentary featuring Del Toro
Video introduction by Del Toro from 2010
New interviews with Del Toro about the process of creating the ghost Santi and the drawings and designs made in preparation for the film
¿Que es un fantasma?, a 2004 making-of documentary
Spanish Gothic, a 2010 interview with Del Toro about the genre and its influence on his work
Interactive director’s notebook, with Del Toro’s drawings and handwritten notes, along with interviews with the filmmaker
Four deleted scenes, with optional commentary
New featurette about the Spanish Civil War as evoked in the film
Program comparing Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches and Carlos Giménez’s storyboards with the final film
Selected on-screen presentation of Del Toro’s thumbnail sketches alongside the sections of the final film they represent (Blu-ray edition only)
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Mark Kermode

Lord of the Flies

New, restored 4K digital film transfer, supervised by cameraman and editor Gerald Feil, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Audio commentary featuring director Peter Brook, producer Lewis Allen, director of photography Tom Hollyman, and Feil
Audio recordings of William Golding reading from his novel Lord of the Flies, accompanied by the corresponding scenes from the film
Deleted scene, with optional commentary and reading by Golding
Interview with Brook from 2008
Collection of behind-the-scenes material, featuring home movies, screen tests, outtakes, and stills
New interview with Feil
Excerpt from Feil’s 1972 documentary The Empty Space, showcasing Brook’s theater methods
Something Queer in the Warehouse, a piece composed of never-before-seen footage shot by the boy actors during production, with new voice-over by Tom Gaman, who played Simon
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Geoffrey Macnab and an excerpt from Brook’s book The Shifting Point

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The extras on The Ice Storm remain the same, as far as I can tell.

Why So Blu?

Wow, looks like those 2010 special features may have been taken directly from the UK import copy of Devil's Backbone.

Dan

Every month, I hope for at least one more Kurosawa film upgraded to HD...
and every month, I'm disappointed.

When was their last Kurosawa release? Maybe they're planning a massive box set... (like the AK100 DVD set...) but I want individual releases first.

riotinmyskull

DEVIL'S BACKBONE, ICE STORM and LORD OF THE FLIES for me!

gryffinmaster

Mercy. Look at those features for Devil's Backbone and Lord of the Flies.

LPMA

Rashomon was last, which wasn't THAT long ago.

sleepyhead55

Blind buying Babette's Feast and The Devil's Backbone. Might pickup Ice Storm and Lord of the Flies as well when BN has it's Criterion sale.

BambooLounge

These are all 50% Off titles for me. Nothing too pressing here.

Ozu is huge, but in my ideal Criterion world there would be at least one film from Fellini, Bergman, or Kurosawa each month. I want them all in high definition ASAP.

TimeandTide

Definitely in for Lord of the Flies.

Just showed the DVD to my students a couple of weeks ago.

Coral

Babette's Feast for sure. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

asianxcore

The Devil's Backbone & Lord Of The Flies

OldBoy

The Ice Storm...yay!! But when?

E Unit

Devil's Backbone. Nuff said.

GoldenJCJ

I'll just be picking up The Devil's Backbone but damn that Lord of the Flies has some nice cover art!

gerrythedon

I will complete my Guillermo Blu-ray collection!

Randy Miller III

Next up? Ikiru and/or Red Beard, please.

zekeburger1979

Here's the upcoming releases (as of 4/17/2013)

4/23
Pierre Etaix
Richard III

5/7
Band of Outsiders

5/14
Jubal
3:10 to Yuma

5/21
Medium Cool

5/28
Life is Sweet

6/11
Wild Strawberries

6/18
Safety Last
Marketa Lazarova
Things to Come

6/25
Shoah

7/9
The Life of Oharu

7/16
The Lord of the Flies

7/23
Babette's Feast
The Ice Storm

7/30
The Devil's Backbone

OldBoy

thank you.

Giles

okay I seriously need a job now, in order to buy all these blurays

Whiskey Warfield

Might be a dumb question, but was Seven Samurai ever released in the standard plastic case or has it always been cardboard box only?

slop101

7S's very first dvd release (and subsequent re-issue of that same release, sans the restoration comparison) was in a standard amaray case.

Shagrath

Way to be witty.

As far as I know, Seven Samurai has never been released in a standard plastic case on blu-ray.

LPMA

It appears to me Criterion doesn't change its packaging unless there's a complete reissue of a title. The only exception to this would be their first couple of blu-ray titles where they started offering the pastic cases instead of the digipacks.

wahlers

Looks like most everything from the Devil's Backbone special edition DVD has either been ported over or improved. That still leaves the original DVD's commentary with the director and cinematographer MIA. Maybe Del Toro was unhappy with it.

As for Kurosawa I would love getting Madadayo on blu-ray or even DVD separate from a box set...

And Seven Samurai does not appear to be one of the titles that Criterion sells plastic case sleeve art replacements for.