Criterion Collection - November 2018 releases

One of a string of late-career masterworks made by Kenji Mizoguchi in the early 1950s, A Story from Chikamatsu (a.k.a. The Crucified Lovers) is an exquisitely moving tale of forbidden love struggling to survive in the face of persecution. Based on a classic of eighteenth-century Japanese drama, the film traces the injustices that befall a Kyoto scroll maker’s wife and his apprentice after each is unfairly accused of wrongdoing. Bound by fate in an illicit, star-crossed romance, they go on the run in search of refuge from the punishment prescribed them: death. Shot in gorgeous, painterly style by master cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, this subtly sensuous indictment of societal oppression was heralded by Akira Kurosawa as a “great masterpiece that could only have been made by Mizoguchi.”

A Story from Chikamatsu was restored by Kadokawa Corporation and The Film Foundation with the cooperation of the Japan Foundation.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interview with actor Kyoko Kagawa
• Mizoguchi: The Auteur Behind the “Metteur-en-scène,” a new illustrated audio essay by film scholar Dudley Andrew
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Haden Guest

One of the most beloved films of all time, this sizzling masterpiece by Billy Wilder set a new standard for Hollywood comedy. After witnessing a mob hit, Chicago musicians Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, in landmark performances) skip town by donning drag and joining an all-female band en route to Miami. The charm of the group’s singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe, at the height of her bombshell powers) leads them ever further into extravagant lies, as Joe assumes the persona of a millionaire to woo her and Jerry’s female alter ego winds up engaged to a tycoon. With a whip-smart script by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond, and sparking chemistry among its finely tuned cast, Some Like It Hot is as deliriously funny and fresh today as if it had just been made.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary from 1989 featuring film scholar Howard Suber
• New program on Orry-Kelly’s costumes for the film, featuring costume designer and historian Deborah Nadoolman Landis and costume historian and archivist Larry McQueen
• Three making-of documentaries
• Appearance from 1982 by director Billy Wilder on The Dick Cavett Show
• Conversation from 2001 between actor Tony Curtis and film critic Leonard Maltin
• French television interview from 1988 with actor Jack Lemmon
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by author Sam Wasson

Orson Welles’s beautiful, nostalgia-suffused second feature—the subject of one of cinema’s greatest missing-footage tragedies—harks back to turn-of-the-twentieth-century Indianapolis, chronicling the inexorable decline of the fortunes of an affluent family. Adapted from an acclaimed Booth Tarkington novel and characterized by restlessly inventive camera work and powerful performances from a cast including Joseph Cotten, Tim Holt, and Agnes Moorehead, the film traces the rifts deepening within the Amberson clan—at the same time as the forces of progress begin to transform the city they once ruled. Though RKO excised over forty minutes of footage, now lost to history, and added an incongruously upbeat ending, The Magnificent Ambersons is an emotionally rich family saga and a masterful elegy for a bygone chapter of American life.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Two audio commentaries, featuring film scholars Robert Carringer and James Naremore and critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
• New interviews with scholars Simon Callow and Joseph McBride
• New video essay on the film’s cinematographers by scholar François Thomas
• New video essay on the film’s score by scholar Christopher Husted
• Welles on The Dick Cavett Show in 1970
• Segment from Pampered Youth, a 1925 silent adaptation of The Magnificent Ambersons
• Audio from a 1979 AFI symposium on Welles
• Two Mercury Theatre radio plays: Seventeen (1938), an adaptation of another Booth Tarkington novel by Welles, and The Magnificent Ambersons (1939)
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Molly Haskell and (Blu-ray only) essays by authors and critics Luc Sante, Geoffrey O’Brien, Farran Smith Nehme, and Jonathan Lethem, and excerpts from an unfinished 1982 memoir by Welles

Music icon David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make this sole foray into feature film directing, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind. Byrne plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness. As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyperrealistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls, and prefab metal buildings. In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals, and a singular variety show—all in the service of uncovering the rich mysteries that lurk under the surface of everyday experience.

SPECIAL FEATURES
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director David Byrne and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, supervised by Byrne, on the Blu-ray
• New documentary about the film’s production, featuring Byrne, Lachman, writer Stephen Tobolowsky, executive producer Ed Pressman, coproducer Karen Murphy, fashion-show costume designer Adelle Lutz, consultant Christina Patoski, actor Jo Harvey Allen, and musician Terry Allen
• CD with 23 songs, containing the film’s complete soundtrack, compiled here for the first time (Blu-ray only)
• Real Life (1986), a short documentary by Pamela Yates and Newton Thomas Sigel made on the set of the film
• No Time to Look Back, a new homage to Virgil, Texas, the fictional town where True Stories is set
• New program about designer Tibor Kalman and his influence on Byrne and role in the film, featuring Byrne and Kalman’s wife, artist Maira Kalman
• Deleted scenes
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Rebecca Bengal, along with, for the Blu-ray edition, new pieces by journalist and author Joe Nick Patoski and Byrne, a 1986 piece by actor Spalding Gray on the film’s production, some of the tabloid stories that inspired the film, and a selection of Byrne’s preproduction photography and writing about the film’s visual motifs

 

In honor of Ingmar Bergman’s one-hundredth birthday, the Criterion Collection is proud to present the most comprehensive collection of his films ever released on home video. One of the most revelatory voices to emerge from the postwar explosion of international art-house cinema, Bergman was a master storyteller who startled the world with his stark intensity and naked pursuit of the most profound metaphysical and spiritual questions. The struggles of faith and morality, the nature of dreams, and the agonies and ecstasies of human relationships—Bergman explored these subjects in films ranging from comedies whose lightness and complexity belie their brooding hearts to groundbreaking formal experiments and excruciatingly intimate explorations of family life.

Arranged as a film festival with opening and closing nights bookending double features and centerpieces, this selection spans six decades and thirty-nine films—including such celebrated classics as The Seventh Seal, Persona, and Fanny and Alexander alongside previously unavailable works like Dreams,The Rite, and Brink of Life. Accompanied by a 248-page book with essays on each program, as well as by more than thirty hours of supplemental features, Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema traces themes and images across Bergman’s career, blazing trails through the master’s unequaled body of work for longtime fans and newcomers alike.

 

Bergman, Wells & Wilder for me.

 

True Stories is a bit of a head-scratcher. That movie is a mess...

 

Getting both Ambersons and Midnight Cowboy in same year has been like a dream come true for me. All they have to do now is announce "Over The Edge" for December and Ill lose my mind!

 

Fingers crossed for 'Face To Face' in December!

I kid, I kid. But I'm definitely in for 'True Stories' and I've already pre-ordered the Bergman box. Firm maybe on the Welles and the Mizoguchi. Didn't care enough about the Wilder to buy the earlier BluRay edition, so I'm really not sure of the point of this one. Sure wish Criterion wouldn't issue so many titles that are already readily available in Hi-Def. I'm afraid next year might be even worse.

 

I can't decide if I should preorder the Ingmar Bergman set on Amazon or wait until the November sale on B&H. I'm worried they might run out of stock on B&H rather quickly since loads of people are waiting to buy it when the sale happens.

 

While I would love to have the Bergman set, I already have most of his theater films from Summer Interlude on, with the exceptions such as Virgin Spring and (sadly) Fanny and Alexander. I don't, however, have most of the television films. So I'm not sure whether it is worth it, since I tend to think the pre-Summer Interlude work is when he was still finding his way. While that is no doubt of interest, I am not of the impression that such period has a number of films that are if you will of close to the stature of what followed.

Other post Summer Interlude films I do not have and have not seen include Sawdust and Tinsel, Dreams, Waiting Women, Brink of Life and The Touch. Not being a completist by nature, I am not sure if such "holes" in my collection justify this purchase. All in all I have 20 dvd's of his already.

My guess is that the sale of this comprehensive collection will actually make it more difficult to find the dvd's I would like to add singly.

 

The cover art for Some Like It Hot has changed. Here's the new art.

 

Nice set missing Face To Face, but a must own.

 

I remember Wells commenting that some of the crucial bits of Ambersons were cut; in particular, scenes involving the psychological hang-ups of some of the characters. As the film deals with the harkening back to an American past that never was those cuts really do leave the film resembling something like a picture postcard of a bygone era. Might be worth a perusal for the extras.

 

Is it worth mentioning the only versions seen by an audience were about 20-30 minutes longer?

 

I have a dvd of Face to Face, but the production quality is not very good. It almost looks like VHS tape was used to create the dvd.

The film itself is excellent, though. Great performance by Liv Ullmann.

 

Great (and expensive!) month.

I’m in for the Welles, Mizoguchi, and Bergman sets. Might pick up True Stories at a later date.

 

Not a bad group of contemporary classics, but it's disappointing that Criterion dropped the ball on Harold Lloyd's remaining silent releases on BD. Although Criterion released excellent transfers of Safety Last, The Freshman and Speedy, they've overlooked one of Lloyd's best silent features, The Kid Brother.

If Criterion stops after that one it might be understandable as these four features are arguably Lloyd's best features. Of course, hopefully there's a planned combined release of shorter features and two reel comedies set(s) as well. However, The Kid Brother shouldn't be overlooked as a stand-alone. Perhaps this is on theor schedule for future release, but I've heard nothing but crickets since the last Lloyd film on BD and I'm getting impatient.


Cat

 

I'm surprised they didn't mention that John Goodman is in True Stories. I have a soft spot for TS because I watched it with my sister and a few of her friends back in the day. One of her girlfriends and I noticed that we were both laughing at the same things and a romance was born. Thank you David Byrne (even though it didn't last)!

 

As far as I know the cut that Welles' turned in never had a public viewing. How can you argue with a director who flatly states that his own studio cut out some of the best parts of his/her film? It could partly be sour grapes but what did Welles have to gain from blaming studio hacks for an edit he didn't like? Further, when it came to self-assessment as far as his talents were concerned Welles was always brutally honest.

 

How about a director who didn't have final cut on his movie? (Orson surrendered it in good faith to make sure Ambersons and Journey into Fear were completed before he had to head to Brazil.)

 

Waiting on that Bergman set is like a kid waiting for Christmas day. I do wonder if we'll ever get his non theatrical films on blu...and if Criterion will release upgrades of the final few Godard First Wave films.

 

Ha, I thought he was in Mexico naking All Is True when heard about the Amberson cuts. Maybe that was Touch of Evil; man, after Kane seems American studios had little faith in a Welles production.

 

The Bergman box will be region free.

 

I had it on laserdisc back in the day.
I never made it all the way through, I'm fairly certain.

 

What's the purpose of all the 4K masterings that Criterion is doing?

 

To make money.

 

I've been struck with a bad feeling about the Ingmar Bergman box set. Think about it, 30 discs. How the hell does one make a sturdy package for that many discs? Maybe like the Olympic box set, but criterion are doing it as a book.