Criterion News

Criterion have announced the following titles for October 2004... 5th October 2004: Tanner '88 - $29.95 - During the 1988 presidential campaign, Democratic hopefuls spiritedly canvass the country, jostle for their party’s nomination and the honor of opposing Republican Vice president George Bush, when Senator Jack Tanner, suddenly emerges from the shadows of a lengthy political hiatus to challenge candidates such as Al Gore, Jesse Jackson, Gary Hart, and Michael Dukakis. Filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Garry Trudeau created this mock-documentary television miniseries, which brought a fictitious presidential candidate out on the campaign trail and shed a revelatory light on America’s political process and landscape. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Tanner ’88 in its entirety, from New Hampshire to the convention… and beyond. Features include:New digital transfers of all eleven episodesNew video discussion between series creators Robert Altman and Garry TrudeauEssays by film critic Michael Wilmington, video critic/curator Michael Nash, and culture critic Garry KornblauEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedSecret Honor - $39.95 - Sequestered in his home, a disgraced President Richard Millhouse Nixon arms himself with a bottle of Scotch and a gun to record memoirs that no one will hear. Surrounded by the silent portraits of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Kissinger, and his mother, Nixon resurrects his past in a passionate attempt to reconcile his failed political career. Based on the original play by Donald Freed and Arnold M. Stone, and starring Philip Baker Hall in a tour de force solo performance, Robert Altman’s Secret Honor is a searing interrogation of the Nixon mystique and an audacious depiction of unchecked paranoia. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundTwo audio commentaries by director Robert Altman and co-writer Donald FreedNew video interview with actor Philip Baker HallExcerpts from archival films documenting key events in President Richard M. Nixon’s political careerEssay by film critic Michael WilmingtonEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired19th October 2004: Eyes Without A Face - $29.95 - Secluded in the French countryside, a brilliant, obsessive doctor attempts a radical plastic surgery to restore his beloved daughter’s once-beautiful face, but at a horrifying price. Lauded as a true rarity of horror cinema, Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux sans visage) has influenced countless films in its wake and stunned audiences around the world with its shocking yet poetic imagery. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Georges Franju’s lyrical black and white classic in a long-awaited DVD edition. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsBlood of the Beasts (Le Sang des bêtes), Georges Franju’s graphic but beautiful poetic 1949 short documentary about Paris slaughterhousesTheatrical trailersStills gallery of rare production photos and promotional materialNew essays by acclaimed novelist Patrick McGrath (Spider, Dr. Haggard’s Disease) and writer/film historian David Kalat (Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe, The Strange Case of Dr. Mabuse: A Study of the Twelve Films and Five Novels)New and improved English subtitle translationMore!Fat Girl - $29.95 - Twelve-year old Anaïs is fat. Her older sister, Eléna, is a teenage beauty. While on vacation with her parents, Anaïs tags along behind Eléna, exploring the dreary seaside town. Eléna meets Fernando, an Italian law student, who seduces her with promises of love, as the ever-watchful Anaïs bears witness to the corruption of her sister’s innocence. Precise and uncompromising, Fat Girl (À Ma soeur!) is a bold dissection of sibling rivalry and female adolescent sexuality from one of contemporary cinema’s most controversial directors. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsDolby Digital and DTS 5.1 soundtracksThe making of Fat Girl, compiled from behind-the-scenes footageOriginal French and U.S. theatrical trailersAn essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau, plus an interview with Breillat, translated from the French film magazine, PositifNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!

Criterion have announced the following Region 1 titles for September 2004... 7th September 2004: Great Adaptations - $99.95 - Just in time for the start of the school year, Criterion presents four classic literary adaptations together in a single set at a special price. Previous Criterion releases included in the set are: Great Expectations, Lord of the Flies, The Most Dangerous Game and Oliver Twist. 21st September 2004: The Battle of Algiers - $49.95 - One of the most influential films in the history of political cinema, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers focuses on the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria’s struggle for independence from France. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film vividly recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range; women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed. The Criterion Collection is proud present Gillo Pontecorvo’s tour de force—a film with astonishing relevance today. Features on this three-disc set include:Disc 1: The Battle of Algiers New high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Marcello Gratti, with restored image and sound, and enhanced for widescreen televisions Return to Algiers (1992, 55 minutes): three decades following its emergence as a nation, director Gillo Pontecorvo and his son return to Algeria to talk with its people about independence Theatrical and re-release trailers Poster gallery New and improved English subtitle translation Disc 2: Pontecorvo and the film The Making of The Battle of Algiers: an exclusive new documentary created for this release guided by Pontecorvo biographer Irene Bignardi and featuring interviews with the director himself, cinematographer Marcello Gatti, composer Ennio Morricone, editor Mario Morra, actors Jean Martin and Saadi Yacef, and film critic Tullio Kezich The Dictatorship of Truth: a 37-minute documentary narrated by Edward Said about the relationship between Pontecorvo’s politics and filmmaking style Directors on The Battle of Algiers: a discussion about the film’s influence, style, and importance featuring, Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone Disc 3: The Film and History The Battle of Algiers and History: a new documentary featuring interviews with historians Alistair Horne, Hugh Roberts and Benjamin Stora, former FLN members Zohra Drif-Bitat, Mohammed Harbi and Saadi Yacef, and writer and torture victim, Henri Alleg (The Question) “Etats d’Armies”—a 30-minute excerpt from Patrick Rotman’s 3-part documentary, L’Ennemi Intime, which focuses on the horror of the French-Algerian War. It features interviews with various members of the French military during the French-Algerian War, including General Jacques Massu, General Roger Trinquier, General Paul Aussaresses, and others How to Win the Battle But Lose the War of Ideas: a conversation about the contemporary relevance of The Battle of Algiers between former National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism and author of Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, Richard A. Clarke, former State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Michael A. Sheehan, and Chief of Investigative Projects for ABC News, Christopher E. Isham Plus: a booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, a reprinted interview with writer Franco Solinas, brief biographies on the key figures in the French-Algerian War, and more John Cassavetes: Five Films - $124.95 - John Cassavetes has been called a genius, a visionary, and the father of independent film. But all this rhetoric threatens to obscure the humanism and generosity of his art. The five films included here represent his self-financed works made outside the studio system of Hollywood, on which he was afforded complete control. While about beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, and children, all of them are beautiful, emotional testaments to compassion. Cassavetes has often been called an actor's director, but this body of work—-astoundingly, even greater than the sum of its extraordinarily significant parts—reveals him to be an audience’s director. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night in stunning new transfers. Details on the films and and bonus documentary disc included in this set follow... A Woman Under the Influence - John Cassavetes’ devastating drama details the emotional breakdown of a suburban housewife and her family’s struggle to save her from herself. Starring Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands (in one of the greatest and most harrowing screen performances of the 1970s) as a married couple, deeply in love, yet unable to express their love in terms that the other can understand. A Woman Under the Influence is an uncompromising examination of mental illness and an honest portrayal of domestic life. The Criterion Collection is proud to present one of the benchmark films of the American independent cinema—a heroic document from a true maverick director. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisionsAudio commentary by longtime Cassavetes collaborators Mike Ferris (camera operator) and Bo Harwood (sound recordist/composer)New video interview with actors Gena Rowlands and Peter FalkOriginal TV spotsStills gallery featuring dozens of behind-the-scenes production photosEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedFaces - The disintegration of a bourgeois marriage is dissected in John Cassavetes’ searing Faces. Shot in high-contrast 16mm black and white, the film follows Richard (John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin) as they futilely attempt to escape the anguish of their empty marriage in the arms of others. Featuring astonishingly powerful, nervy performances from Marley, Carlin, and Cassavetes regulars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, Faces confronts suburban alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema. Features include:Disc One: The Film New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired Disc Two: The Supplements Seventeen-minute alternate opening sequence, from the Library of Congress version of FacesCinéastes de notre temps (1968, 48 minutes): an episode from the French television series dedicated to Cassavetes, featuring rare interviews and behind-the-scenes footageNew video interviews with actors Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel, and director of photography Al RubanLighting and shooting the film: Ruban explains how he and the crew achieved the distinct look of Faces, featuring specific sequences from the filmThe Killing of a Chinese Bookie - John Cassavetes engages film noir in his own inimitable style with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. In it, Ben Gazzara brilliantly portrays gentlemen’s club owner Cosmo Vitelli, a man dedicated to pretenses of composure and self-possession. When he runs afoul of a small-time gangster, Cosmo is forced to commit a horrible crime in a last-ditch effort to save his beloved club and his way of life. Suspenseful, mesmerizing, and idiosyncratic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a brilliant examination of desperation and masculine identity. Feature include:Disc One: The 1976 Cut New high-definition digital transfer of John Cassavetes’ original 135-minute edit of the film, unavailable since 1976, with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisionsEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired Disc Two: The 1978 Cut New high-definition digital transfer of Cassavetes’ 108-minute edit, from the 1978 theatrical re-release, with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisionsNew video interviews with star Ben Gazzara and producer Al RubanStills gallery of dozens of behind-the-scenes photosEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedOpening Night - Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) rehearses for her latest play, which concerns a woman who is unable to admit that she is aging. When she witnesses the accidental death of an adoring young fan, she begins to confront the personal and professional turmoil she faces in her own life. Featuring a moving performance by Rowlands and shot on stages with live audiences reacting freely to the writing and performing, John Cassavetes’ Opening Night exposes the drama of an actress who at great personal cost makes a part her own. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisionsNew video interview with actors Gena Rowlands and Ben GazzaraStills gallery featuring dozens of behind-the-scenes production photosEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedShadows - John Cassavetes’ directorial debut revolves around an interracial relationship between Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), a light-skinned black woman living in New York City with her two brothers, and Tony (Anthony Ray), a white man. Their relationship crumbles when Tony meets Lelia’s brother Hugh (Hugh Herd), a talented dark-skinned jazz singer who struggling to find work, and discovers that Lelia is actually black. Shot on location in Manhattan with an amateur cast and crew, Cassavetes’ Shadows is a visionary work and a landmark in the history of American independent film. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundVideo interviews with actress Lelia Goldoni and associate producer Seymour CasselRare silent 16mm footage of John Cassavetes and Burt Lane’s acting workshop rehearsalsRestoration demonstrationStills gallery featuring dozens of behind-the-scenes production photosTrailerEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedA Constant Forge - As intense and passionate as its subject, Charles Kiselyak’s A Constant Forge provides a detailed journey through the life and art of one of cinema’s greatest pioneers and iconoclasts: John Cassavetes. Assembled from candid interviews with Cassavete’s collaborators and friends, rare photographs, archival footage, and the words of Cassavetes himself, the film paints a revealing portrait of a man whose fierce love, courage, and dedication changed the face of cinema forever.Biographical sketches of the actors Cassavetes used in many of his films, written by Tom Charity (John Cassavetes: Lifeworks)Poster gallery for Cassavetes’ Faces, Shadows, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening NightEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedAnd finally the set will also boast a Booklet featuring new essays on Cassavetes and the films by writers/critics Jonathan Lethem, Gary Giddins, Stuart Klawans, Kent Jones, Philip Lopate, Dennis Lim, and director Charles Kiselyak, as well as reprinted writings by and interviews with Cassavetes, a tribute to Cassavetes by director Martin Scorsese, and more!

Criterion have announced the following titles for release in August 2004... 24th August 2004: I Vitelloni - $29.95 - Five young men linger in post-adolescent limbo dreaming of adventure and escape from their small seacoast town. They while away their time spending the lira doled out by their indulgent families on drink, women, and nights at the local pool hall. Federico Fellini’s second solo directorial effort (originally released in the U.S. as The Young and the Passionate) is a semi-autobiographical masterpiece of sharply drawn character sketches: Skirt chaser Fausto, forced to marry a girl he has impregnated; Alberto, the perpetual child; Leopoldo, a writer, thirsting for fame; and Moraldo, the only member of the group troubled by a moral conscience. An international success and recipient of an Academy Award® nomination for Best Original Screenplay, I Vitelloni compassionately details a year in the life of small-town layabouts struggling to find meaning in their lives. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundThe Making of I Vitelloni: an exclusive documentary featuring interviews with late actor Leopoldo Trieste, actor Franco Interlenghi, assistant director Moraldo Rossi, Fellini biographer Tullio Kezich, Fellini friend Vincenzo Mollica, and director of the Fellini Foundation, Vittorio BoariniCollection of stills, posters, and memorabiliaOriginal theatrical trailer and movie newsreels from the time of the film’s releaseNew essay by Grammy Award-winning writer Tom Piazza (Martin Scorsese Presents the Blues: A Musical Journey)New and improved English subtitle translationMore!31st August 2004: Videodrome - When Max Renn goes looking for edgy new shows for his sleazy cable TV station, he stumbles across the pirate broadcast of a hyperviolent torture show called Videodrome. As he unearths the origins of the program, he embarks on a hallucinatory journey into a shadow world of right-wing conspiracies, sadomasochistic sex games, and bodily transformation. Renn’s ordinary life dissolves around him, he finds himself at the center of a conflict between opposing factions in the struggle to control the truth behind the radical human future of “the New Flesh.” Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry in one of her first film roles, Videodrome is one of writer/director David Cronenberg’s most original and provocative works, fusing social commentary with shocking elements of sex and violence. With groundbreaking special effects makeup by Academy Award®-winner Rick Baker, Videodrome has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and mind-bending science fiction films of the 1980s, and The Criterion Collection is proud to present it in its full-length unrated edition. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsAudio commentaries by director David Cronenberg, actors James Woods and Deborah Harry, and director of photography Mark IrwinCamera, a short film starring Videodrome’s Les Carlson, written and directed by David Cronenberg in 2000 as part of the 25th anniversary celebration of the Toronto Film FestivalForging the New Flesh, a new half-hour documentary featurette by video effects artist Michael Lennick about the creation of Videodrome’s landmark video and prosthetic makeup effects, featuring new interviews with Rick Baker and othersSamurai Dreams, the complete and unedited faux Japanese AV feature seen in the filmFear on Film, a 26-minute roundtable discussion from 1982 between filmmakers David Cronenberg, John Carpenter, John Landis, and Mick Garris about censorship, special effects makeup, and horror cinemaOriginal theatrical trailers, plus a promotional featuretteStills gallery featuring hundreds of rare behind-the-scenes production photos, special effects makeup tests, and publicity photos, many never before seenEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedEssays by film critic Carrie Rickey and Videodrome expert Tim LucasMore!Slacker - $39.95 - Richard Linklater's Slacker presents a day in the life of a subculture of marginal, eccentric, and overeducated citizens in and around the University of Texas at Austin. Shooting the film on 16mm for a mere $23,000, writer/producer/director Linklater and his close-knit crew of friends eschewed a traditional plot, choosing instead to employ long takes and fluid transitions to create a tapestry of over a hundred characters, each as unique as the last, culminating in an episodic portrait of a distinct vernacular culture and a tribute to bohemian cerebration. Slacker is a prescient look at an emerging generation of aggressive nonparticipants, and one of the keynote films of the American independent film movement of the 1990s. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound supervised by director Richard Linklater and directory of photography Lee Daniel, made from the original 16mm film elementAudio commentaries featuring Richard Linklater and members of the cast and crewIt's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988), Linklater's first full-length feature, with commentary by Linklater, available here for the first time on home videoRare casting tapes featuring select "auditions" from the over one hundred member castDeleted scenes and on-set footageFootage from the Slacker 10th Anniversary Reunion in Austin, Texas in 2001Original theatrical trailerStills gallery featuring hundreds of rare behind-the-scenes production and publicity photos, and early script versionsHistory of the Austin Film Society, founded by Linklater with Lee Daniel, including early flyers from screeningsBooklet featuring reviews, essays, production notes, an introduction to Plow by director Monte Hellman (Two Lane Blacktop, The Shooting), an essay by John Pierson (Spike Mike Reloaded: A Guided Tour Across a decade of American Independent Cinema) and a complete cast and crew listingEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impairedMuch more!

Criterion have announced the following titles for release on 20th July 2004... Port of Shadows - $29.95 - Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean (Jean Gabin), an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and kindness turn him into front-page news. Also starring the blue-eyed phenomenon Michèle Morgan in her first major role, and the menacing Michel Simon, Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) starkly portrays an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with their own destinies. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, the inimitable team of director Marcel Carné and writer Jacques Prévert deliver a quintessential example of poetic realism, one of the classics of the golden age of French cinema.New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundInterviews with director Marcel Carné, writer Jacques Prévert, and stars Jean Gabin and Michèle MorganNew essay by acclaimed cultural historian Luc Sante, author of Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New YorkOriginal theatrical trailerPoster galleryNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!Early Summer - $39.95 - A nuanced examination of a family falling apart, Early Summer tells the story of the Mamiya family and their efforts to marry off their headstrong daughter, Noriko, played by the extraordinary Setsuko Hara. A seemingly simple story, it is among the director’s most emotionally complex. The Criterion Collection is proud to present one of Ozu’s most enduring classics.New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundAudio commentary by Japanese-film expert Donald Richie, author of Ozu and A Hundred Years of Japanese FilmOzu’s Films from Behind-the-Scenes, a conversation between Ozu producer Shizuo Yamanouchi, actor and technician Kojiro Suematsu, and assistant cameraman Takashi KawamataNew essay by film scholar David Bordwell, author Ozu and the Poetics of CinemaOriginal theatrical trailerNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir - $79.95 - Near the end of his long and celebrated career, master filmmaker Jean Renoir indulged his lifelong obsession with life-as-theater and directed The Golden Coach (1953), French Cancan (1955), and Elena and Her Men (1956), three delirious film, infatuated with the past, love, and artifice. Awash in jubilant Technicolor, each film interweaves public display and private feelings through the talents of three immortal film icons—Anna Magnani, Jean Gabin, and Ingrid Bergman. The Criterion Collection is proud to present these three majestic films by Jean Renoir for the first time on DVD.New high definition digital transfers of all three features, with restored image and soundIntroductions to The Golden Coach and Elena and Her Men by Jean RenoirVideo introduction to The Golden Coach by director Martin ScorseseVideo introduction to French Cancan by director Peter BogdanovichOriginal theatrical trailersPart two of Jean Renoir: a two-part 1993 BBC documentary by David Thompson, featuring reflections on Renoir from his family, friends, collaborators, and admirersInterview with French Cancan production designer Max DouyCollections of behind-the-scenes and publicity stillsNew and improved English subtitle translationsA new essay by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum discussing all three filmsMore!

Criterion have announced three titles for release on 22nd June 2004 including the previously delayed The Lower Depths as a two-disc/film set... A Woman is a Woman - $29.95 - With A Woman is a Woman (Une Femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents “a neorealist musical, that is, a contradiction in terms.” Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of adorability, A Woman is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard’s signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession—the cinema.New digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Raoul Coutard, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsCharlotte et Véronique ou Tous les garçons s’appellent Patrick (All Boys Are Called Patrick, 1957), an early short film by director Jean-Luc GodardQui ëtes-vous Anna Karina?; excerpts from a 1966 French television interview with Karina, Brialy, and Serge GainsbourgCollection of A Woman Is a Woman posters from around the worldOriginal theatrical trailerNew essay by film critic J. Hoberman, author of The Dream Life: Movies, Media, and the Mythology of the SixtiesNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!Mamma Roma - $39.95 - Anna Magnani is Mamma Roma, a middle-aged prostitute who attempts to extricate herself from her sordid past for the sake of her son. Filmed in the great tradition of Italian neorealism, Mamma Roma offers an unflinching look at the struggle for survival in postwar Italy, and highlights director Pier Paolo Pasolini’s lifelong fascination with the marginalized and dispossessed. Though banned upon its release in Italy for obscenity, today Mamma Roma is considered a classic: a glimpse at a country’s most controversial director in the process of finding his style and a powerhouse performance by one of cinema’s greatest actresses.New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundThree new interviews about director Pier Paolo Pasolini: Bernardo Bertolucci, an assistant to Pasolini on his early films; Tonino Delli Colli, cinematographer on eleven of Pasolini’s fourteen films; and Enzo Siciliano, author of Pasolini: A BiographyPier Paolo Pasolini (1955), a 55-minute documentary by filmmaker Ivo Barnabò Micheli covering the career of the controversial artistLa ricotta (1963), a 35-minute film by Pasolini about a director who sets out to make a film about the Passion of JesusOriginal theatrical trailerPoster galleryEssay by novelist and cultural critic Gary IndianaNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!The Lower Depths (Special Edition Double-Disc Boxed Set) - $39.95 - The Criterion Collection is proud to present dramatically different interpretations of Maxim Gorky’s classic play by two of cinema’s greatest masters: Director Akira Kurosawa’s transformation of Maxim Gorky’s classic proletarian play, The Lower Depths, demonstrates another side of the acclaimed filmmakers’ remarkable versatility. In contrast to his usual broad canvas and kinesthetic filmmaking style, here he explores the possibilities of the stage, finding intimacy in his examination of a group of destitutes set, ironically, within Japan’s prosperous Edo period. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, and Minoru Chiaki, this adaptation is a Buddhist meditation on the human condition and a poignant yet comic investigation of one of Kurosawa’s favorite themes—the conflict between illusion and reality. Made in the 1930s, amidst the rise of Hitler in Germany and the Popular Front in France, Jean Renoir had need to take license with Maxim Gorky’s source material for The Lower Depths. Aware that the plight of Gorky’s desperates might sit uneasily in a country on the edge of war, Renoir never lets his derelicts reach quite the depths, offering them—like in so many of his other films—the possibility of hope. Marking the first time the director would work with Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion) and featuring the great Louis Jouvet (Quai des Orfèvres, Carnival in Flanders), The Lower Depths demonstrates one of cinema’s greatest directors transforming a classic play into his own terms for a distinct time.New high-definition digital transfers of both films, with restored image and soundAudio commentary on Kurosawa's The Lower Depths featuring Japanese-film expert Donald Richie (A Hundred Years of Japanese Cinema)A documentary on the making of Kurosawa's The Lower Depths, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to CreateIntroduction to Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths by the directorOriginal theatrical trailer of Kurosawa's The Lower DepthsNew essay by Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films) and Thomas Rimer (A Reader’s Guide to Japanese Literature) for the Kurosawa film; new essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924-1939, for the RenoirNew and improved subtitle translations

Criterion have announced the following titles for release in May... Arriving on 4th May 2004 is the Samurai Trilogy: Three-Disc Boxed Set with a retail price of $69.95. Hiroshi Inagaki’s acclaimed Samurai Trilogy is a sweeping saga of the legendary 17th-century samurai Musashi Miyamoto (powerfully portrayed by Toshiro Mifune) set against the turmoil of a devastating civil war, and follows Musashi’s odyssey from unruly youth to enlightened warrior. This specially priced gift pack contains the three DVDs previously only available separately: Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto, Samurai II: Duel at Ichijoji Temple, Samurai III: Duel at Ganryu Island. Arriving on 18th May 2004 are... The Tin Drum - $39.95 - Danzig, Germany, 1924. Oskar Matzerath is born with an intellect beyond his infancy. As he witnesses the hypocrisy of adulthood and the irresponsibility of society, Oskar rejects both, and, at his third birthday, refuses to grow older. Caught in a baffling state of perpetual childhood, Oskar lashes out at all he surveys with piercing screams and frantic poundings on his tin drum, while the unheeding, chaotic world marches onward to the madness and folly of World War II. Honored with the Palme d’Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival and the 1979 Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language film, Volker Schlöndorff’s The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel) is a truly visionary adaptation of Nobel laureate Günter Grass’ acclaimed novel, an unforgettable fantasia of surreal imagery, striking eroticism, and unflinching satire. Features on this director approved double-disc set include:New digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsAudio commentary by director and cowriter Volker SchlöndorffRemastered Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrackIsolated music track, featuring the score by Academy Award®-winning composer Maurice JarreRare deleted scenesVolker Schlöndorff Remembers The Tin Drum, a 21-minute audio/video montage featuring Schlöndorff’s thoughts and recollections about the film, along with on-set photos, storyboards, and images not included in the final filmAn illuminating collection of video interviews, including Schlöndorff and actor David Bennent at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival; cowriter Jean-Claude Carrière and actor Mario Adorf; Schlöndorff and author Günter Grass during filming; and Schlöndorff after winning the Palme d’Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival“The Platform,” a rare 1987 German recording of Günter Grass reading an excerpt from his novel The Tin Drum, accompanied by the music of famed improvisational percussionist Günter “Baby” SommerReprinted excerpt of the screenplay’s original, unfilmed endingBanned in Oklahoma, a documentary by Gary D. Rhodes following the child pornography lawsuit revolving around The Tin DrumProduction sketches, designs and promotional artOriginal theatrical trailerNew and improved English subtitle translationMoreThe Testament of Dr. Mabuse - $39.95 - A sequel to his enormously successful silent film Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse was recently released here in the UK by Eureka Video. Noel Megahey's review of that release can be found here. Features on this Criterion double-disc special edition include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound, presented here in its original aspect ratio of 1.19:1 for the first timeAudio commentary by David Kalat, author of The Strange Case of Dr. MabuseComplete French-language version of the film, Le Testament du Dr. Mabuse, filmed simultaneously by Lang with French actorsExcerpts from For Example Fritz Lang (Zum Beispiel: Fritz Lang), 1964 interview with Lang, directed by famed German documentarian Erwin Leiser (Mein Kampf)Mabuse in Mind (Mabuse Im Gedächtnis), 1984 film by Thomas Honickel featuring an interview with actor Rudolf Schündler (Hardy in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse)Comparison between the 1933 German version, the French version, and The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse, the edited and dubbed American version of the filmInterview with German Mabuse expert Michael Farin about the literary inventor of the series, Norbert JacquesRare production design drawings by art director Emil Hasler (M, The Blue Angel)Collection of memorabilia, press books, stills, and postersLiner notes by Tom Gunning, author of The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and ModernityNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!And then one week later on 25th May 2004 you can expect the following titles... Smiles of a Summer Night - $29.95 - After fifteen films of mostly local acclaim, the 1956 prize-winning comedy Smiles of a Summer Night at last ushered in an international audience for director Ingmar Bergman. Set in turn-of-the-century Sweden, four women and four men attempt to juggle the laws of attraction amidst their daily bourgeois life. When a weekend in the country brings them all face to face, the women ally to force the men's hands in their matters of the heart, exposing their pretentions and insecurities along the way. Chock full of flirtatious propositions and sharp-witted wisdom delivered by such legends of the Swedish screen as Gunnar Björnstrand, Eva Dahlbeck, Harriet Andersson, and Ulla Jacobson, Smiles of a Summer Night is one of film history's great tragicomedies, a bittersweet view of the transience of human carnality. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundVideo introduction to the film by director Ingmar BergmanNew video conversation with historian Peter Cowie and writer Jörn Donner (producer, Fanny and Alexander)Swedish theatrical trailerNew and improved English subtitle translationPrinted booklet including a new illustrated essay by renowned theater and film critic John Simon and an essay by film critic Pauline KaelThe Leopard - $49.95 - An epic of the grandest possible scale, Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard recreates, with nostalgia, action, and opulence, the tumultuous years of the Risorgimento—when the aristocracy lost its grip and the middle classes rose and formed a unified, democratic Italy. Burt Lancaster stars as the aging prince watching his culture and fortune wane in the face of a new generation, represented by his upstart nephew Tancredi (Alain Delon) and his love for the beautiful daughter of a Sicilian merchant (Claudia Cardinale). Awarded a special Palme d’Or at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival, The Leopard translates the original novel, and the history it recounts, into a truly cinematic masterpiece. The Criterion Collection is proud to present the film in two distinct versions: Visconti’s original Italian version, and the English-language version released in America. Features on this special edition three-disc set include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsNew transfer of the 161-minute American release, with English-language dialogue (including Burt Lancaster’s actual voice)Audio commentary by film scholar Peter CowieA Dying Breed, a new hour-long documentary featuring interviews with Claudia Cardinale, screenwriter Suso Ceccho D’Amico, cinematographer Giuseppe Rotunno, Sydney Pollack, and many othersAn exclusive video interview with professor Millicent Marcus of the University of Pennsylvania on the history behind The LeopardOriginal theatrical trailersStills gallery of rare behind-the-scenes production photosNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!Stray Dog - $39.95 - A bad day gets worse for young detective Murakami when a pickpocket steals his gun on a hot, crowded bus. Desperate to right the wrong, he goes undercover, scavenging Tokyo’s sweltering streets for the stray dog whose desperation has led him to a life of crime. With each step, cop and criminal’s lives become more intertwined and the investigation becomes an examination of Murakami’s own dark side. Starring Toshiro Mifune, as the rookie cop, and Takeshi Shimura, as the seasoned detective who keeps him on the right side of the law, Stray Dog (Nora Inu) from director Akira Kurosawa goes beyond a crime thriller, probing the squalid world of postwar Japan and the nature of the criminal mind. Features include:New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and soundAudio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira KurosawaAkira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create, a 32-minute documentary on the making of Stray DogA booklet featuring essays by film critics Terrence Rafferty and Chris Fujiwara and an excerpt from Kurosawa's autobiography, Something Like an Autobiography, in which he discusses the production of Stray DogNew and improved English subtitle translationMore!

Criterion have released details on their April DVD line-up that will include a re-release of Stanley Donen's classic spy thriller Charade which has been out of print for nearly three years now. The re-release features an all-new Anamorphic Widescreen high-definition digital transfer in addition to the supplements on the original release. Charade will arrive on 6th April 2004 with the two new releases making their debut later on 20th April 2004. Retail is $39.95 each... Charade - Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this dark comedic thriller from director Stanley Donen that is now being re-released with a gorgeous new anamorphic transfer.New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsAudio commentary: A conversation with Stanley Donen and screenwriter Peter StoneThe Films of Stanley Donen: A selected filmography, with an introduction by Donen biographer Stephen M. SilvermanPeter Stone’s career highlightsOriginal theatrical trailerEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired3 Women - Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall star in Robert Altman's dreamlike masterpiece that careens from the humorous to the chilling to the surreal, resulting in one of the most unusual and compelling films of the 1970s.New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisionsAudio commentary by director Robert AltmanStills gallery of rare production and publicity photosOriginal theatrical trailerEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impairedA Story of Floating Weeds & Floating Weeds - In 1959, Yasujiro Ozu remade his 1934 silent classic A Story of Floating Weeds in colour with the celebrated cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa (Rashomon, Ugetsu), both are presented on this Criterion Collection release.Disc One: A Story of Floating WeedsNew high-definition digital transfer with restored image and soundAudio commentary by Japanese film historian Donald RichieNew score by noted silent-film composer Donald SosinNew and improved English subtitle translation by Donald RichieDisc Two: Floating WeedsNew high-definition digital transfer with restored image and soundAudio commentary by film critic Roger EbertOriginal theatrical trailerNew and improved English subtitle translation by Donald Richie