Ertsmals wird Criterion in einem Monat mehr Titel auf Blu-ray als auf DVD veröffentlichen. Das Verhältnis beträgt vier zu zwei, wobei zwei der Filme, die nun in HD erscheinen, bereits als DVD erhältlich sind: Stanley Donens “Charade” [USA 1963] und Jean-Luc Godards “Außer Atem / À bout de souffle / Breathless” [F 1960, Jean-Luc Godard]. Bei den anderen beiden Filmen handelt es sich um Nagisa Ôshimas “Furyo – Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence / Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” [J / GB 1983] und Terrence Malicks Kriegsfilm “Der schmale Grat / The Thin Red Line” [USA 1998]. Keine großen Überraschungen, denn dass diese Titel in diesem Jahr erscheinen sollten, war bereits bekannt.
 
21. September 2010
Blu-ray #57: “Charade” [USA 1963, Stanley Donen]
1 Disc
$39.95
1.85:1
English

In this deliciously dark comedic thriller, a trio of crooks relentlessly pursue a young American, played by Audrey Hepburn, outfitted in gorgeous Givenchy, through Paris in an attempt to recover the fortune her dead husband stole from them. The only person she can trust is a suave, mysterious stranger, played by Cary Grant. Director Stanley Donen goes splendidly Hitchcockian for Charade, a glittering emblem of sixties style and macabre wit.

• New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen telelvisions
• Audio commentary: A conversation with Stanley Donen and screenwriter Peter Stone
• The Films of Stanley Donen: A selected filmography, with an introduction by Donen biographer Stephen M. Silverman
• Peter Stone’s career highlights
• Original theatrical trailer
• English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired

 
14. September 2010
Blu-ray #408: “Außer Atem / À bout de souffle /Breathless” [F 1960, Jean-Luc Godard]
1 Disc
$39.95
1.33:1
French

There was before Breathless, and there was after Breathless. Jean-Luc Godard burst onto the film scene in 1960 with this jazzy, free-form, and sexy homage to the American film genres that inspired him as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma. With its lack of polish, surplus of attitude, anything-goes crime narrative, and effervescent young stars Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, Breathless helped launch the French New Wave and ensured that cinema would never be the same.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director of photography Raoul Coutard
• Archival interviews with director Jean-Luc Godard, and actors Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg, and Jean-Pierre Melville
• New video interviews with Coutard, assistant director Pierre Rissient, and filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker
• New video essays: filmmaker and critic Mark Rappaport’s “Jean Seberg” and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum’s “Breathless as Film Criticism”
• Chambre 12, Hotel de suede, an eighty-minute French documentary about the making of Breathless, with members of the cast and crew
• Charlotte et son Jules, a 1959 short film by Godard, starring Belmondo
• French theatrical trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring writings from Godard, film historian Dudley Andrew, François Truffaut’s original film treatment, and Godard’s scenario

 
28. September 2010
Blu-ray #535: “Furyo – Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence / Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” [J / GB 1983, Nagisa Ôshima]
1 Disc
$39.95
1.78:1
English, Japanese

In this captivating, exhilaratingly skewed World War II drama from Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie regally embodies the character Celliers, a high-ranking British officer interned by the Japanese as a POW. Music star Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed this film’s hypnotic score) plays the camp commander, who becomes obsessed with the mysterious blond major, while Tom Conti is British lieutenant colonel Mr. Lawrence, who tries to bridge the emotional and language divides between his captors and fellow prisoners. Also featuring actor-director Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a multilayered, brutal, at times erotic tale of culture clash that was one of Oshima’s greatest successes.

Disc Features

• New, restored high-definition master
• dts-HD Master Audio
• The Oshima Gang, an original making-of featurette
• New video interviews with producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Paul Mayersberg, actor Tom Conti, and actor-composer Ryuichi Sakamoto
• Hasten Slowly, an hour-long documentary about author and adventurer Laurens van der Post, whose autobiographical novel is the basis for the film
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film writer Chuck Stephens and a 1983 interview with director Nagisa Oshima by Japanese film writer Tadao Sato

 
28. September 2010
DVD #535: “Furyo – Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence / Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence” [J / GB 1983, Nagisa Ôshima]
2 Discs
$29.95
1.78:1
English, Japanese

In this captivating, exhilaratingly skewed World War II drama from Nagisa Oshima, David Bowie regally embodies the character Celliers, a high-ranking British officer interned by the Japanese as a POW. Music star Ryuichi Sakamoto (who also composed this film’s hypnotic score) plays the camp commander, who becomes obsessed with the mysterious blond major, while Tom Conti is British lieutenant colonel Mr. Lawrence, who tries to bridge the emotional and language divides between his captors and fellow prisoners. Also featuring actor-director Takeshi Kitano in his first dramatic role, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence is a multilayered, brutal, at times erotic tale of culture clash that was one of Oshima’s greatest successes.

Disc Features

• New, restored high-definition master
• The Oshima Gang, an original making-of featurette
• New video interviews with producer Jeremy Thomas, screenwriter Paul Mayersberg, actor Tom Conti, and actor-composer Ryuichi Sakamoto
• Hasten Slowly, an hour-long documentary about author and adventurer Laurens van der Post, whose autobiographical novel is the basis for the film
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film writer Chuck Stephens and a 1983 interview with director Nagisa Oshima by Japanese film writer Tadao Sato

 
28. September 2010
Blu-ray #536: “Der schmale Grat / The Thin Red Line” [USA 1998, Terrence Malick]
1 Disc
$39.95
2.35:1
English

After directing two of the most extraordinary movies of the 1970s, Badlands and Days of Heaven, American artist Terrence Malick disappeared from the film world for twenty years, only to resurface in 1998 with this visionary adaptation of James Jones’s 1962 novel about the World War II battle for Guadalcanal. A big-budget, spectacularly mounted epic, The Thin Red Line is also one of the most deeply philosophical films ever released by a major Hollywood studio, a thought-provoking meditation on man, nature, and violence. Featuring a cast of contemporary cinema’s finest actors—Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, and Woody Harrelson among them—The Thin Red Line is a kaleidoscopic evocation of the experience of combat that ranks as one of cinema’s greatest war films.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Terrence Malick and cinematographer John Toll
• dts-HD Master Audio
• New audio commentary featuring Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill
• Outtakes from the film
• Video interviews with several of the film’s actors, including Kirk Acevedo, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, Tom Jane, Elias Koteas, Dash Mihok, and Sean Penn
• New video interview with casting director Dianne Crittenden, featuring original audition footage
• New interview with composer Hans Zimmer
• New video piece featuring interviews with editors Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein
• An interview with writer James Jones’s daughter Kaylie Jones
• World War II newsreels featuring footage from Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Sterritt and a 1963 essay by James Jones on war films

 
28. September 2010
DVD #536: “Der schmale Grat / The Thin Red Line” [USA 1998, Terrence Malick]
2 Discs
$29.95
2.35:1
English

After directing two of the most extraordinary movies of the 1970s, Badlands and Days of Heaven, American artist Terrence Malick disappeared from the film world for twenty years, only to resurface in 1998 with this visionary adaptation of James Jones’s 1962 novel about the World War II battle for Guadalcanal. A big-budget, spectacularly mounted epic, The Thin Red Line is also one of the most deeply philosophical films ever released by a major Hollywood studio, a thought-provoking meditation on man, nature, and violence. Featuring a cast of contemporary cinema’s finest actors—Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, and Woody Harrelson among them—The Thin Red Line is a kaleidoscopic evocation of the experience of combat that ranks as one of cinema’s greatest war films.

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Terrence Malick and cinematographer John Toll
• New audio commentary featuring Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill
• Outtakes from the film
• Video interviews with several of the film’s actors, including Kirk Acevedo, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, Tom Jane, Elias Koteas, Dash Mihok, and Sean Penn
• New video interview with casting director Dianne Crittenden, featuring original audition footage
• New interview with composer Hans Zimmer
• New video piece featuring interviews with editors Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein
• An interview with writer James Jones’s daughter Kaylie Jones
• World War II newsreels featuring footage from Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Sterritt and a 1963 essay by James Jones on war films