Im Oktober 2011 veröffentlicht Criterion sieben Filme auf Blu-ray, drei davon sind bereits auf DVD erhältlich, darunter Masaki Kobayashis “Harakiri / Seppuku” [J 1962], der am 26. September 2011 auch bei Masters of Cinema in Großbritannien als “Dual Format Edition” erscheint.
 
4. Oktober 2011
Blu-ray #17: “Die 120 Tage von Sodom / Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma / Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom” [I / F 1975, Pier Paolo Pasolini]
1 Disc
$39.95
1.85:1
Italian

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notorious final film, Salò, or The 120 Days of Sodom, has been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic . . . It’s also a masterpiece. The controversial poet, novelist, and filmmaker’s transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth-century opus of torture and degradation to Fascist Italy in 1944 remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time, a thought-provoking inquiry into the political, social, and sexual dynamics that define the world we live in.

• High-definition digital restoration
• “Salò”: Yesterday and Today, a thirty-three-minute 2002 documentary featuring interviews with director Pier Paolo Pasolini, actor-filmmaker Jean-Claude Biette, and Pasolini friend Nineto Davoli
• Fade to Black, a twenty-three-minute 2001 documentary featuring directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, and John Maybury, as well as scholar David Forgacs
• The End of “Salò”, a forty-minute documentary about the film’s production
• Video interviews with set designer Dante Ferretti and director and film scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin
• Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by Neil Bartlett, Breillat, Naomi Greene, Sam Rohdie, Roberto Chiesi, and Gary Indiana, and excerpts from Gideon Bachmann’s on-set diary

 
4. Oktober 2011
Blu-ray #302: “Harakiri / Seppuku” [J 1962, Masaki Kobayashi]
1 Disc
$39.95
2.35:1
Japanese

Following the collapse of his clan, an unemployed samurai (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to be allowed to commit ritual suicide on the property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for a new position, try to force his hand and get him to eviscerate himself—but they have underestimated his beliefs and his personal brand of honor. Winner of the 1963 Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, Harakiri, directed by Masaki Kobayashi is a fierce evocation of individual agency in the face of a corrupt and hypocritical system.

• High-definition digital restoration
• Video introduction by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie
• Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, moderated by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda
• Video interviews with star Tatsuya Nakadai and screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto
• Original theatrical trailer
• A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Joan Mellen and a reprint of a 1972 interview by Mellen with Kobayashi

 
25. Oktober 2011
Blu-ray #336: “Confusion – Sommer der Ausgeflippten / Dazed and Confused” [USA 1993, Richard Linklater]
1 Disc
$39.95
1.85:1
English

America, 1976. The last day of school. Bongs blaze, bell-bottoms ring, and rock and roll rocks. Among the best teen films ever made, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused eavesdrops on a group of seniors-to-be and incoming freshmen. A launching pad for a number of future stars, Linklater’s first studio effort also features endlessly quotable dialogue and a blasting, stadium-ready soundtrack. Sidestepping nostalgia, Dazed and Confused is less about “the best years of our lives” than the boredom, angst, and excitement of teenagers waiting . . . for something to happen.

DIRECTOR APPROVED DEFINITIVE SPECIAL EDITION

• High-definition digital transfer of the director’s cut, supervised by director Richard Linklater and cinematographer Lee Daniel
• Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 soundtracks
• Audio commentary by Linklater
• Making Dazed, a fifty-minute documentary by Kahane Corn
• Rare on-set interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
• Footage from the ten-year anniversary celebration
• Audition footage and deleted Scenes
• Original theatrical trailer
• A booklet featuring essays by Kent Jones, Jim DeRogatis, and Chuck Klosterman; memories of the film from the cast and crew; character profiles; and the original film poster by Frank Kozik

 
11. Oktober 2011
Blu-ray + DVD #583: “Vier Federn / The Four Feathers” [GB 1939, Zoltan Korda]
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
DVD: 1 Disc | $29.95
1.33:1
English

This spectacular Technicolor epic, directed by Zoltán Korda, is considered the finest of the many adaptations of A.E.W. Mason’s classic 1902 adventure novel about the British Empire’s exploits in Africa, and a crowning achievement of Alexander Korda’s legendary production company, London Films. Set at the end of the nineteenth century, The Four Feathers follows the travails of a young officer (John Clements) accused of cowardice after he resigns his post on the eve of a major deployment to Khartoum; he must fight to redeem himself in the eyes of his fellow officers (including Ralph Richardson) and fiancée (June Duprez). Featuring music by Miklós Rózsa and Oscar-nominated cinematography by Georges Périnal, The Four Feathers is a thrilling, thunderous epic.

• New high-definition digital restoration
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Audio commentary by film historian Charles Drazin
• New video interview with David Korda, son of director Zoltán Korda
• A Day at Denham, a short film from 1939 featuring footage of Zoltán Korda on the set of The Four Feathers
• Trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Sragow

 
18. Oktober 2011
Blu-ray + DVD #584: “Kuroneko / Yabu no naka no kuroneko” [J 1968, Kaneto Shindô]
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
DVD: 1 Disc | $29.95
2.35:1
Japanese

In this poetic and atmospheric horror fable, set in a village in war-torn medieval Japan, a malevolent spirit has been ripping out the throats of itinerant samurai. When a military hero is sent to dispatch the unseen force, he finds that he must struggle with his own personal demons as well. From Kaneto Shindo, director of the terror classic Onibaba, Kuroneko (Black Cat) is a spectacularly eerie twilight tale with a shocking feminist angle, evoked through ghostly special effects and exquisite cinematography.

• New high-definition digital restoration
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Video interview with director Kaneto Shindo from the Directors Guild of Japan
• New video interview with critic Tadao Sato
• Theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Maitland McDonagh and an excerpt from film scholar Joan Mellen’s 1972 interview with Shindo

 
25. Oktober 2011
Blu-ray + DVD #585: “Identifikation einer Frau / Identificazione di una donna / Identification of a Woman” [I / F 1982, Michelangelo Antonioni]
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $29.95
DVD: 1 Disc | $19.95
1.85:1
Italian

Michelangelo Antonioni’s Identification of a Woman is a body- and soul-baring voyage into one man’s artistic and erotic consciousness. After his wife leaves him, a film director finds himself drawn into affairs with two enigmatic women, while at the same time searching for the right subject (and actress) for his next film. This spellbinding anti-romance was a late-career coup for the legendary Italian filmmaker, and is renowned for its sexual explicitness and an extended scene on a fog- enshrouded highway that stands with the director’s greatest set pieces.

• New high-definition digital restoration
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic John Powers and a reprinted 1982 interview with Michelangelo Antonioni by critic Gideon Bachmann

 
25. Oktober 2011
Blu-ray + DVD #586: “Island of Lost Souls” [USA 1932, Erle C. Kenton]
Blu-ray: 1 Disc | $39.95
DVD: 1 Disc | $29.95
1.33:1
English

A twisted treasure from Hollywood’s pre-Code horror heyday, Island of Lost Souls is a cautionary tale of science run amok adapted from H. G. Wells’s novel The Island of Dr. Moreau. In one of his first major movie roles, Charles Laughton is a mad doctor conducting ghastly genetic experiments on a remote island in the South Seas, much to the fear and disgust of the shipwrecked sailor (Richard Arlen) who finds himself trapped there. Erle C. Kenton’s touchstone of movie terror is elegantly shot by Karl Struss, features groundbreaking makeup effects that inspired generations of monster-movie artists, and costars Bela Lugosi in one his most gruesome roles.

• New high-definition digital restoration of the uncut theatrical version
• Uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Audio commentary by film historian Gregory Mank, author of Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff and Hollywood’s Maddest Doctors
• New video conversation among filmmaker John Landis (An American Werewolf in London), Oscar-winning makeup artist Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London, Videodrome), and genre expert Bob Burns
• New interviews with horror film historian David J. Skal (The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror); filmmaker Richard Stanley (Hardware, original director of the ill-fated 1996 remake of The Island of Dr. Moreau)
• New interviews with Devo founding members Gerald Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh, whose manifesto is rooted in themes from Island of Lost Souls
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Christine Smallwood