Im August 2011 bringt Criterion wieder eine Reihe erstklassiger Filme auf den Markt. Meiner Meinung nach der bisher interessanteste Monat des New Yorker Labels in diesem Jahr.
Der zuvor nur in der “The Orphic Trilogy” erhältliche “Orpheus” von Jean Cocteau wird erstmals auf Blu-ray erscheinen, außerdem kommt eine 2-DVD-Neuauflage. Gillo Pontecorvos hervorragender “The Battle of Algiers” erscheint endlich auf Blu-ray. Das erstklassige Bonusmaterial des 3-DVD-Sets (eine der besten Criterion-Veröffentlichungen überhaupt) wird natürlich übernommen. In Deutschland erscheint er übrigens demnächst bei Pierrot le Fou, allerdings nur auf DVD und mit wenigen Extras. Auch Lindsay Andersons “If…” mit Malcolm McDowell wird in HD zugänglich gemacht. Neu in die Criterion Collection aufgenommen werden Roman Polanskis “Cul-de-Sac“, Lee Chang-dongs “Secret Sunshine” und endlich Stanley Kubricks “The Killing“. Letztere Edition bietet auch gleich noch Kubricks “Killer’s Kiss” mit einem restaurierten Transfer (und hoffentlich ebenfalls in HD). Das Highlight des Monats allerdings ist meiner Meinung die “The Complete Jean Vigo“-Edition mit den vier Filmen des 1934 mit gerade einmal 29 Jahren viel zu früh an einer Tuberkulose-Erkrankung verstorbenen französischen Regisseurs. Bisher waren alle Filme zusammen in Frankreich (jedoch ohne englische Untertitel) und in Großbritannien auf DVD erhältlich. Criterion bringt diese Filme nun erstmals auch in HD.
 
30. August 2011
DVD + Blu-ray #68: “Orphée / Orpheus” [F 1950, Jean Cocteau]
DVD: 2 Discs | $29.95
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
1.33:1
French

This 1950 update of the Orphic myth by Jean Cocteau depicts a famous poet (Jean Marais) scorned by the Left Bank youth, and his love for both his wife Eurydice (Marie Déa) and a mysterious princess (Maria Casarès). Seeking inspiration, the poet follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead through Cocteau’s famous mirrored portal. Orpheus represents the legendary Cocteau at the height of his abilities for peerless visual poetry and dreamlike storytelling.

• New high-definition digital restoration
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack (on the Blu-ray edition)
• Audio commentary by French film scholar James Williams
• Jean Cocteau: Autobiography of an Unknown, a 1984 feature-length documentary
• Video piece from 2008 featuring assistant director Claude Pinoteau on the special effects in the film
• 40 Minutes with Jean Cocteau, an interview with the director from 1957
• In Search of Jazz, a 1956 interview with Cocteau on the use of jazz in the film
• La villa Santo-Sospir, a 16 mm color Cocteau film from 1951
• Gallery of images by French film portrait photographer Roger Corbeau
• Raw newsreel footage
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by author Mark Polizzotti, selected Cocteau writings on the film, and an essay on La villa Santo-Sospir by Williams

 
9. August 2011
Blu-ray #249: “Schlacht um Algier / La battaglia di Algeri / The Battle of Algiers” [I / DZ 1966, Gillo Pontecorvo]
2 Discs
$39.95
1.85:1
French, Arabic

One of the most influential political films in history, The Battle of Algiers, by Gillo Pontecorvo, vividly re-creates a key year in the tumultuous Algerian struggle for independence from the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, children shoot soldiers at point-blank range, women plant bombs in cafés, and French soldiers resort to torture to break the will of the insurgents. Shot on the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film is a case study in modern warfare, with its terrorist attacks and the brutal techniques used to combat them. Pontecorvo’s tour de force has astonishing relevance today.

• High-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Marcello Gatti
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Gillo Pontecorvo: The Dictatorship of Truth, a documentary narrated by literary critic Edward Said
• Marxist Poetry: The Making of “The Battle of Algiers,” a documentary featuring interviews with Pontecorvo, Gatti, composer Ennio Morricone, and others
• Interviews with Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone on the film’s influence, style, and importance
• Remembering History, a documentary reconstructing the Algerian experience of the battle for independence
• “États d’armes,” a documentary excerpt featuring senior French military officers recalling the use of torture and execution to combat the Algerian rebellion
• “The Battle of Algiers”: A Case Study, a video piece featuring U.S. counterterrorism experts
• Gillo Pontecorvo’s Return to Algiers, a documentary in which the filmmaker revisits the country after three decades of independence
• Production gallery
• Theatrical and rerelease trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, excerpts from Algeria’s National Liberation Front leader Saadi Yacef’s original account of his arrest, excerpts from the film’s screenplay, a reprinted interview with cowriter Franco Solinas, and biographical sketches of key figures in the French-Algerian War

 
30. August 2011
Blu-ray #391: “If…” [GB 1968, Lindsay Anderson]
1 Disc
$39.95
1.66:1
English

Lindsay Anderson’s If…. is a daringly chaotic vision of British society, set in a boarding school in late-sixties England. Before Kubrick made his mischief iconic in A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell made a hell of an impression as the insouciant Mick Travis, who, along with his school chums, trumps authority at every turn, finally emerging as a violent savior against the vicious games of one-upmanship played by both students and masters. Mixing color and black and white as audaciously as it mixes fantasy and reality, If…. remains one of cinema’s most unforgettable rebel yells.

• Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by cinematographer Miroslav Ond?í?ek and assistant editor Ian Rakoff
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring film critic and historian David Robinson and actor Malcolm McDowell
• Episode of the Scottish TV series Cast and Crew from 2003, featuring interviews with McDowell, Ond?í?ek, Rakoff, director’s assistant Stephen Frears, producer Michael Medwin, and screenwriter David Sherwin
• Video interview with actor Graham Crowden
• Thursday’s Children (1954), an Academy Award–winning documentary about a school for deaf children, by director Lindsay Anderson and Guy Brenton and narrated by actor Richard Burton
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic David Ehrenstein as well as reprinted pieces by Sherwin and Anderson

 
16. August 2011
DVD + Blu-ray #575: “Die Rechnung ging nicht auf / The Killing” [USA 1956, Stanley Kubrick]
DVD: 2 Discs | $29.95
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
1.66:1
English

Stanley Kubrick’s account of an ambitious racetrack robbery is one of Hollywood’s tautest, twistiest noirs. Aided by a radically time-shuffling narrative, razor-sharp dialogue from pulp novelist Jim Thompson, and a phenomenal cast of character actors, including Sterling Hayden, Coleen Gray, Timothy Carey, and Elisha Cook Jr., The Killing is both a jaunty thriller and a cold-blooded punch to the gut. And with its precise tracking shots and gratifying sense of irony, it’s Kubrick to the core.

• New high-definition digital restoration
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack (on the Blu-ray edition)
• New video interview with producer James B. Harris
• Excerpts of interviews with actor Sterling Hayden from the French television series Cinéma cinémas
• New video interview with film scholar Robert Polito about writer Jim Thompson and his work on The Killing
• Restored transfer of Stanley Kubrick’s 1955 noir feature Killer’s Kiss
• New video appreciation of Killer’s Kiss with film critic Geoffrey O’Brien
• Theatrical trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Haden Guest and a reprinted interview with Marie Windsor on The Killing

 
23. August 2011
DVD + Blu-ray #576: “Milyang / Secret Sunshine” [ROK 2007, Lee Chang-dong]
DVD: 1 Disc | $29.95
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
2.35:1
Korean

A master of intensely emotional human dramas, director Lee Chang-dong is a leading light of contemporary Korean cinema, and his place on the international stage was cemented by this stirring and unpredictable work examining grief and deliverance. An effortless mix of light and uncompromising darkness, Secret Sunshine (Miryang) stars Cannes best actress winner Jeon Do-yeon as a widowed piano teacher who moves with her young son from Seoul to her late husband’s provincial hometown for a fresh start. Quietly expressive, supple filmmaking and sublime, subtle performances distinguish this remarkable portrayal of the search for grace amid tragedy.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

• New digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Lee Chang-dong and cinematographer Cho Yong-kyu
• dts-HD Master Audio (on the Blu-ray edition)
• New interview with Lee
• On the Set of “Secret Sunshine,” a video piece featuring interviews with actors Jeon Do-yeon and Song Kang-ho, as well as behind-the-scenes footage
• U.S. theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dennis Lim

 
16. August 2011
DVD + Blu-ray #577: “Wenn Katelbach kommt … / Cul-de-Sac” [GB 1966, Roman Polanski]
DVD: 1 Disc | $29.95
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
1.66:1
English

Roman Polanski orchestrates a mental ménage à trois in this slyly absurd tale of paranoia from the director’s golden 1960s period. Donald Pleasance and Françoise Dorléac star as a withdrawn couple whose isolated house is infiltrated by a rude, burly American gangster on the run, played by Lionel Stander. The three engage in a game of shifting identities and sexual and emotional humiliations. Cul-de-sac is an evocative, claustrophobic, and morbidly funny tale of the modern world in chaos.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

• New digital restoration, approved by director Roman Polanski
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack (on the Blu-ray edition)
• Two Gangsters and an Island, a 2003 short documentary about the making of Cul-de-sac, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor
• Interview with Polanski from 1967
• Theatrical trailers
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Thompson

 
30. August 2011
DVD + Blu-ray #578-581: “The Complete Jean Vigo”
DVD: 2 Discs | $29.95
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
Silent, French

Even among cinema’s greatest legends, Jean Vigo stands alone. The son of a notorious anarchist, Vigo had a brief but brilliant career making poetic, lightly surrealist films before his life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis at age twenty-nine. Like the daring early works of his contemporaries Jean Cocteau and Luis Buñuel, Vigo’s films refused to play by the rules. This set includes all of Vigo’s titles: À propos de Nice, an absurdist, rhythmic slice of life from the bustling coastal city of the title; Taris, an inventive short portrait of a swimming champion; Zéro de conduite, a radical, delightful tale of boarding-school rebellion that has influenced countless filmmakers; and, of course, L’Atalante, widely regarded as one of cinema’s finest achievements, about newlyweds beginning their life together on a canal barge. These are the endlessly witty, visually adventurous works of a pivotal film artist.

• New high-definition digital restorations of all of Jean Vigo’s films: À propos de Nice, Taris, Zéro de conduite, and L’Atalante
• Uncompressed monaural soundtracks (on the Blu-ray edition)
• Audio commentaries featuring Michael Temple, author of Jean Vigo
• Alternate shots from À propos de Nice, featuring footage Vigo cut from the film
• Animated tribute to Vigo by filmmaker Michel Gondry
• Ninety-minute 1964 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps on Vigo, directed by Jacques Rozier
• Conversation from 1968 between filmmakers François Truffaut and Eric Rohmer on L’Atalante
• Les voyages de “L’Atalante,” Bernard Eisenschitz’s 2001 documentary tracking the history of the film
• Video interview from 2007 with director Otar Iosseliani on Vigo
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film writers Michael Almereyda, Robert Polito, B. Kite, and Luc Sante

“À propos de Nice” [F 1930, Jean Vigo]
Jean Vigo was twenty-five when he made this, his debut film, a silent cinematic poem that reveals, through a thrilling and ironic use of montage, the economic reality hidden behind the facade of the Mediterranean resort town of Nice. The first of Vigo’s several collaborations with cinematographer Boris Kaufman (Dziga Vertov’s brother and a future Oscar winner), À propos de Nice is both a scathing and invigorating look at 1930 French culture.

“Betragen ungenügend / Zéro de conduite: Jeunes diables au collage” [F 1933, Jean Vigo]
So effervescent and charming that one can easily forget its importance in film history, Jean Vigo’s enormously influential portrait of prankish boarding-school students is one of cinema’s great acts of rebellion. Based on the director’s own experiences as a youth, Zéro de conduite presents childhood as a time of unfettered imagination and brazen rule-flouting. It’s a sweet-natured vision of sabotage made vivid by dynamic visual experiments—including the famous, blissful slow-motion pillow fight.

“Atalante / L’Atalante” [F 1934, Jean Vigo]
In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope. Jean (Jean Dasté), a barge captain, marries Juliette (Dita Parlo), an innocent country girl, and the two climb aboard Jean’s boat, the L’Atalante—otherwise populated by an earthy first mate (Michel Simon) and a multitude of mangy cats—and embark on their new life together. Both a surprisingly erotic idyll and a clear-eyed meditation on love, L’Atalante, Vigo’s only feature-length work, is a film like no other.