Enjoy Criterion’s March Releases While Playing a Game of Solitaire

Posted By on in | 83 Responses

Criterion’s March slate is so solid that I don’t even really have any jokes to accompany it. The titles announced include the long-awaited entry into the Collection by Jacques Rivette, a classic John Frankenheimer thriller, one of the most-anticipated upgrades in the Collection, and the releases of two long-MIA masterpieces, by Les Blank and by the late Taiwanese master Edward Yang. Covers and specifications (as of this writing) are below.

bicycle

 

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Working with De Sica, a collection of interviews with screenwriter Suso Cecchi d’Amico, actor Enzo Staiola, and film scholar Callisto Cosulich
  • Life as It Is, a program on the history of Italian neorealism, featuring scholar Mark Shiel
  • Documentary from 2003 on screenwriter and longtime Vittorio De Sica collaborator Cesare Zavattini, directed by Carlo Lizzani
  • Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
  • PLUS: A book featuring essays by critic Godfrey Cheshire and filmmaker Charles Burnett, classic writing by Zavattini and critic André Bazin, and reminiscences by De Sica and his collaborators

 

paris belongs to us

 

  • New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interview with Richard Neupert, author of A History of the French New Wave Cinema
  • Jacques Rivette’s 1956 short film Le coup du berger, featuring cameos by fellow French New Wave directors Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, and François Truffaut
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Luc Sante

 

poem

 

  • New, restored 2K digital transfer, supervised by executive producer Harrod Blank, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New interviews with Harrod Blank, musician Leon Russell, assistant editor Maureen Gosling, and artist Jim Franklin
  • Behind-the-scenes material, shot and edited by Gosling
  • Trailers
  • More!
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones

 

manchurian

 

  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • Audio commentary from 1997 featuring director John Frankenheimer
  • New interview with actor Angela Lansbury
  • New piece featuring filmmaker Errol Morris discussing his appreciation for The Manchurian Candidate
  • Conversation between Frankenheimer, screenwriter George Axelrod, and actor Frank Sinatra from 1988
  • New interview with historian Susan Carruthers about the Cold War brainwashing scare
  • Trailer

 

summer

 

  • New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • New audio commentary featuring critic Tony Rayns
  • New interview with actor Chen Chang
  • Our Time, Our Story, a 117-minute documentary from 2002 about the New Taiwan Cinema movement, featuring interviews with Yang and filmmakers Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang, among others
  • Videotaped performance of director Edward Yang’s 1992 play Likely Consequence
  • New English subtitle translation
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire and a 1991 director’s statement by Yang