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What's New: February 7, 1999

Catalog listings begin to be available!
A list of The Criterion Colletion on DVD is now online. We will be adding to it daily, including information on our laserdisc catalog. Remember, this site is still in transition.

Fishing with John on DVD
Armageddon, DVD and LD features
What's up with Seven Samurai?
Critics pick top films of '98

DVD-Daily Magazine picked four of our recent releases for their "gotta-have" lists: Nanook of the North, The Seventh Seal, Wages of Fear and Diabolique. Comments appear on the linked pages Nanook and the Clouzots.

Read up on our two newest releases on DVD, Great Expectations and Oliver Twist on DVD! Check out synopses, special features, liner notes, and Jon Mulvaney's wisdom.
Newest Releases
Nanook of the North on DVD (laser release TBA), Andrei Rublev, The Seventh Seal and
two by French master Clouzot: Wages of Fear and Diabolique


February 16
Two from wildman Suzuki Seijun: Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill

March Releases
Armageddon on laser March 16th (DVD on April 20)
English treats: Time Bandits, Olivier's Henry V, and Peter Brook's Lord of the Flies
Put on your waders and go Fishing with John on DVD

April
The Red Shoes, The Most Dangerous Game and the highly acclaimed A Taste of Cherry from Iran (see lists below)


What's up with Seven Samurai?
Seven Samurai has not been recalled, contrary to what has been going around on the newsgroups and elsewhere (the rumors you folks start....). It has, however, been remastered, and all subsequent copies of the disc will be region 1 encoded in order to satisfy the anti-piracy concerns of our Japanese licensor. In addition, the restoration demonstration has been removed from the disc for legal reasons, but the restoration work remains and the image and commentary track are identical. If you have a copy of the original release, hang on to it! It's already a collector's item. But fear not: Seven Samurai will continue to be available in its new, restored Criterion DVD version for many years to come.

Critics' choices
Not surprisingly, we like to keep tabs on the "Best of '98" lists currently making the rounds. Check 'em out, and watch this page soon for our Oscar® predictions:

The National Board of Review
1: Gods and Monsters
2: Saving Private Ryan
3: Elizabeth
4: Happiness
5: Shakespeare in Love
6: The Butcher Boy
7: Lolita
8: The Thin Red Line
9: A Simple Plan
10: Dancing At Lughnasa
Best Actor: Ian Mckellen (Gods and Monsters)
Best Actress: Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station)
Best Foreign Film: Central Station
Best Director: Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth)
Best Supporting Actor: Ed Harris (The Truman Show and Stepmom)
Best Supporting Actress: Christina Ricci (The Opposite of Sex, Buffalo 66, and Pecker)
Best Documentary: Wild Man's Blues
Best Ensemble Acting: The cast of Happiness Special Achievement in Filmmaking: Roberto Benigni, director, producer, writer and star of Life Is Beautiful
Billy Wilder Award: Martin Scorsese
Lifetime Achievement: Michael Caine

 New York Film Critics Circle

Picture: Saving Private Ryan
Director: Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line)
Screenplay: Marc Norman, Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love)
Foreign-language: The Celebration (Denmark)
Actor: Nick Nolte (Affliction)
Actress: Cameron Diaz (There's Something about Mary; this is NOT a misprint)
Supporting Actor: Bill Murray (Rushmore)
Supporting Actress: Lisa Kudrow (The Opposite of Sex)
Documentary: The Farm: Angola USA (Jonathan Stack, Liz Garbus, Wilbert Rideau)
Best First Film: Richard Kwietniowski (Love and Death in Long Island)

National Society of Film Critics

Picture: Out of Sight; runner-up: Affliction
Director: Steven Soderbergh (Out of Sight);
runners-up (tie): Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line) and Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan)
Screenplay: Scott Frank (Out of Sight);
runner-up: Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (Shakespeare in Love)
Actor: Nick Nolte (Affliction);
runner-up: Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters)
Actress: Ally Sheedy (High Art);
runner-up: Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth)
Supporting Actor: Bill Murray (Rushmore);
runner-up: Donald Sutherland (Without Limits)
Supporting Actress: Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love);
runner-up: Patricia Clarkson (High Art)
Cinematography: John Toll (The Thin Red Line);
runner-up: Januscz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan)
Foreign Language Film: Taste of Cherry (Iran); runner-up: Fireworks (Japan)
Nonfiction film: The Farm: Angola U.S.A.; runner-up: Public Housing
Special Citations:
Experimental film: Mother and Son; Restoration of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil; Publication of Manny Farber's Negative Space

 The LA Film Critics
Picture: Saving Private Ryan
Director: Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan)
Screenplay: Warren Beatty, Jeremy Pikser (Bulworth)
Foreign-language: The Celebration (Denmark)
Actor: Ian McKellen (Gods and Monsters)
Actress: Fernanda Montenegro (Central Station);
and Ally Sheedy (High Art)
Supporting Actor: Bill Murray, (Rushmore and Wild Things);
and Billy Bob Thornton (A Simple Plan)
Supporting Actress: Joan Allen (Pleasantville)
Production Design: Jeanine Oppewall (Pleasantville)
Music: Elliot Goldenthal (The Butcher Boy)
Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan)
Documentary: The Farm: Angola USA (Jonathan Stack, Liz Garbus, Wilbert Rideau)
Animation: A Bug's Life (John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton);
T.R.A.N.S.I.T.(Piet Kroon)
New Generation: Wes Anderson (Rushmore)

Boston Film Critics

Picture: Out of Sight
Director: John Boorman (The General)
Actor: Brendan Gleeson (The General and I Went Down)
Actress: Samantha Morton (Under the Skin)
Screenplay: Out of Sight
Supporting Actor: Billy Bob Thornton (A Simple Plan);
and William H. Macy (Pleasantville, Psycho and A Civil Action)
Supporting Actress: Joan Allen (Pleasantville)
New filmmaker: Carine Adler (Under the Skin)
Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski (Saving Private Ryan)
Foreign: A Taste of Cherry (Iran)
Documentary: Michael Moore's The Big One


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