Erstmals überhaupt bietet Criterion alle Neuerscheinungen eines Monats auch in HD auf Blu-ray an. Dies liegt aber wohl vorallem daran, dass nur zwei neue Veröffentlichungen und zwei Neuauflagen erscheinen. Zu den neuen Titeln gehören John Fords Westernklassiker “Höllenfahrt nach Santa Fé [aka: Ringo] / Stagecoach” [USA 1939, John Ford] und ein zweites “by Brakhage: An Anthology“-Set. “Walkabout” [GB 1971, Nicolas Roeg] und Fritz Langs “M (aka: M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder)” [D 1931, Fritz Lang] – der am 22. Februar 2010 auch bei Masters of Cinema auf Blu-ray erscheint – bilden die Neuauflagen.
 
18. Mai 2010
Blu-ray #10: “Walkabout” [GB 1971, Nicolas Roeg]
1 Disc
1.78:1
English
$39.95

A young sister and brother are abandoned in the harsh Australian outback and must learn to exist in the natural world, without their usual comforts, in this hypnotic masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg. Along the way, they meet a young aborigine on his “walkabout,” a rite of passage in which adolescent boys are initiated into manhood by journeying into the wilderness alone. Walkabout is a thrilling adventure as well as a provocative rumination on time and civilization.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, from a newly manufactured restoration element
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary featuring director Nicolas Roeg and actress Jenny Agutter
• Video interviews with Agutter and actor Luc Roeg
• Gulpilil—One Red Blood (2002), an hour-long documentary on the life and career of actor David Gulpilil
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by author Paul Ryan

 
18. Mai 2010
DVD #10: “Walkabout” [GB 1971, Nicolas Roeg]
2 Discs
1.78:1
English
$39.95

A young sister and brother are abandoned in the harsh Australian outback and must learn to exist in the natural world, without their usual comforts, in this hypnotic masterpiece from Nicolas Roeg. Along the way, they meet a young aborigine on his “walkabout,” a rite of passage in which adolescent boys are initiated into manhood by journeying into the wilderness alone. Walkabout is a thrilling adventure as well as a provocative rumination on time and civilization.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, from a newly manufactured restoration element
• Audio commentary featuring director Nicolas Roeg and actress Jenny Agutter
• Video interviews with Agutter and actor Luc Roeg
• Gulpilil—One Red Blood (2002), an hour-long documentary on the life and career of actor David Gulpilil
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by author Paul Ryan

 
11. Mai 2010
Blu-ray #30: “M (aka: M – Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder)” [D 1931, Fritz Lang]
1 Disc
1.19:1
German
$39.95

A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled offscreen tells us that a young girl will be killed. “Who Is the Murderer?” pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert, played by Peter Lorre, closes in on little Elsie Beckmann. In his harrowing masterwork M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller.

• Restored high-definition digital transfer
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• The long-lost English-language version of M
• Audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes, author of the BFI Film Classics volume on M, and Eric Rentschler, author of The Ministry of Illusion: Nazi Cinema and Its Afterlife
• Documentary on the physical history of M, from production to distribution to digital restoration
• Conversation with Fritz Lang, a 50-minute film by William Friedkin
• Claude Chabrol’s M le Maudit, a short film inspired by M, plus an interview with Chabrol by Pierre-Henri Gibert about Lang’s filmmaking techniques
• Classroom audiotapes of editor Paul Falkenberg discussing M and its history, set to clips from the film
• Video interview with Harold Nebenzal, the son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal
• Stills gallery, with behind-the-scenes photos, and production sketches by art director Emil Hasler
• Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann, a 1963 interview with Lang, the script for a missing scene, and contemporaneous newspaper articles

 
25. Mai 2010
Blu-ray #516: “Höllenfahrt nach Santa Fé [aka: Ringo] / Stagecoach” [USA 1939, John Ford]
1 Disc
1.37:1
English
$39.95

This is where it all started. John Ford’s smash hit and enduring masterpiece Stagecoach revolutionized the western, elevating it from B movie to the A-list. The quintessential tale of a group of strangers thrown together into extraordinary circumstances—traveling a dangerous route from Arizona to New Mexico—Stagecoach features outstanding performances from Hollywood stalwarts Claire Trevor, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, and, of course, John Wayne, in his first starring role for Ford, as the daredevil outlaw the Ringo Kid. Superbly shot and tightly edited, Stagecoach (Ford’s first trip to Monument Valley) is Hollywood storytelling at its finest.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• Audio commentary by noted western authority Jim Kitses
• Bucking Broadway (1917), a fifty-four-minute silent western by John Ford, with new music by Donald Sosin
• Extensive video interview with Ford from 1968
• New video interview with Dan Ford, biographer and grandson of the director, about Ford’s home movies
• New video interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
• New video essay by writer Tag Gallagher
• New video feature about Monument Valley
• New video interview with stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong about Stagecoach’s stuntman Yakima Canutt
• Radio dramatization of Stagecoach from 1949
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by David Cairns and the short story that inspired the film

 
25. Mai 2010
DVD #516: “Höllenfahrt nach Santa Fé [aka: Ringo] / Stagecoach” [USA 1939, John Ford]
2 Discs
1.37:1
English
$39.95

This is where it all started. John Ford’s smash hit and enduring masterpiece Stagecoach revolutionized the western, elevating it from B movie to the A-list. The quintessential tale of a group of strangers thrown together into extraordinary circumstances—traveling a dangerous route from Arizona to New Mexico—Stagecoach features outstanding performances from Hollywood stalwarts Claire Trevor, John Carradine, Thomas Mitchell, and, of course, John Wayne, in his first starring role for Ford, as the daredevil outlaw the Ringo Kid. Superbly shot and tightly edited, Stagecoach (Ford’s first trip to Monument Valley) is Hollywood storytelling at its finest.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Audio commentary by noted western authority Jim Kitses
• Bucking Broadway (1917), a fifty-four-minute silent western by John Ford, with new music by Donald Sosin
• Extensive video interview with Ford from 1968
• New video interview with Dan Ford, biographer and grandson of the director, about Ford’s home movies
• New video interview with filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
• New video essay by writer Tag Gallagher
• New video feature about Monument Valley
• New video interview with stunt coordinator Vic Armstrong about Stagecoach’s stuntman Yakima Canutt
• Radio dramatization of Stagecoach from 1949
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by David Cairns and the short story that inspired the film

 
25. Mai 2010
DVD #517: “by Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume Two”
3 Discs
$39.95

In Criterion’s first volume of the anthology By Brakhage, we brought twenty-six astonishing works by the avant-garde film pioneer Stan Brakhage to home video for the first time. Now, in this second installment, we are proud to present thirty more of Brakhage’s innovative creations, from 1950s films to his final work, from 2003. Highlights of this collection include the antiwar film 23rd Psalm Branch; hand-painted films from the Persian Series; The Wonder Ring, made for a commission by Joseph Cornell; the autobiographical Scenes from Under Childhood, Section One; his only found-footage film, Murder Psalm; and much more.

• New high-definition digital transfers of all thirty films
• Brakhage on Brakhage, a collection of video encounters with the filmmaker
• For Stan, a short film by Marilyn Brakhage
• Excerpts from a 1990 interview with Brakhage
• Footage from Brakhage’s salon at the University of Colorado
• Audio recordings of two lectures by Brakhage
• PLUS: A booklet featuring film program notes by Marilyn Brakhage and write-ups of the films by Brakhage expert Fred Camper

 
25. Mai 2010
Blu-ray #518: “by Brakhage: An Anthology, Volumes One and Two”
3 Discs
$79.95

Working outside the mainstream, Stan Brakhage made nearly four hundred films. Challenging all taboos in his exploration of “birth, sex, death, and the search for God,” Brakhage turned his camera on explicit lovemaking, childbirth, even autopsy. Many of his most famous works pursue the nature of vision itself and transcend the act of filming. Some, including the legendary Mothlight, were made without using a camera at all. Instead, Brakhage pioneered the art of making images directly on film—drawing, painting, and scratching it by hand. His visionary style has influenced everything from cartoons and television commercials to MTV music videos and the work of such mainstream moviemakers as Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, and Oliver Stone. With these two volumes, we present the definitive Brakhage collection—fifty-six of his works in high-definition digital transfers, spanning his almost fifty-year career.

VOLUME ONE (ONE DISC)

• New high-definition digital transfers of all twenty-six films
• Uncompressed monaural soundtracks
• Brakhage on Brakhage, a collection of video encounters with the filmmaker
• Audio remarks on selected films by Stan Brakhage

VOLUME TWO (TWO DISCS)

• New high-definition digital transfers of thirty films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
• Brakhage on Brakhage, a collection of video encounters with the filmmaker
• For Stan, a short film by Marilyn Brakhage
• Excerpts from a 1990 interview with Brakhage
• Footage from Brakhage’s salon at the University of Colorado
• Audio recordings of two lectures by Brakhage
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a foreword and program notes by Marilyn Brakhage, as well as write-ups of the films and an essay by Brakhage expert Fred Camper