Criterion Crazy: An Introduction (and the December releases)

Criterion Crazy is a monthly column here at the Film Blah-g--er, blog--where we cover all things Criterion Collection related, from upcoming releases to the latest Fake Criterion covers found on the web. 

First, I think a little explanation may be in order for those who don't know what the Criterion Collection is. Let's see what Merriam-Webster's has to say:

Also, see: awesome

And so, Criterion is a fitting term for the Collection, a boutique DVD and Blu-ray label that strives to bring the greatest examples of film to home video in the finest packages available.

Back in the early days of home video, specifically the dark Medieval days of LaserDisc, Criterion licensed films from companies that were uninterested in releasing classic or foreign titles on the format. Criterion was founded in 1984, and cater to a high(er)-brow film enthusiast crowd. Their moto is to deliver "a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films."

The seal

Criterion are credited with effectively creating the Special Edition DVD market, often offering commentaries, documentares, trailers and other bonus material with their products. The Criterion edition of King Kong (1933) was the first film to ever be released with an audio commentary, which became a staple of the early Criterion Collection releases. The technology was later implemented by the studios in the DVD era. Criterion also popularized the letterbox format, which presents widescreen films in their proper aspect ratio on non-widescreen TV sets.

Each release features a video transfer sourced from the best possible elements--except, in rare cases where a print is held for ransom by studios or private collectors unable or too unwilling to cooperate with the Criterion staff; then it's simply taken from a source they can use--with faithful-to-the-source audio delivered in the original theatrical format (i.e. mono, stereo, surround or silent) and enlightening, often exhaustive, special features.

No fluff.

No bullshit.

Just a few fine Criterions

Just fine films, presented in finer packages, with thoughtful extras. And all given a spine number so the obsessive collector can, much like Pokemon, catch (or, in this case, watch) 'em all.

Each film in the Criterion Collection includes a booklet--usually containing essays--and, where applicable, is signed off by the director and/or cinematographer of the film. As of December 2011 there are 534 releases in the Criterion Collection.

With the advent of the blu-ray format, which Criterion began releasing on in 2008, the distributor has lost the rights to several films in the Collection. In many cases, these films were only licensed for DVD or had their blu-ray licenses expire.

Notable films currently out of print include initial spine number 1, Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937), Jonathan Demme's Silence of the Lambs (1991), John Woo's The Killer (1989) and Hard Boiled (1992) and Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987).

In 2009, Studio Canal, the licensor of several titles leased by the Criterion Collection, began declining requests for license renewal on a number of films and began releasing their own Studio Canal Collection through Lionsgate in the United States. Affected titles include films from French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard such as Contempt (1963) and Alphaville (1965), a number of productions from The Archers (British filmmaking duo Michael Powell and Emeric Pressberger) and Akira Kurosawa's Ran (1985).

Finalized cover art for the cancelled Ran

Criterion's blu-ray edition of Ran was cancelled just weeks from release, when its license was revoked. The disc was never released, however, it was reportedly pressed and waiting to be shipped to retailers. Ran was later released as part of the lesser Studio Canal Collection on the high def format. General critical concsensus says the video transfer is lacking, the extras are not as extensive, packaging is plain and the disc overpriced.

Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949), Nicholas Roeg's The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) starring David Bowie, and Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou (1965) were all released on the blu-ray format by Criterion, but have gone out of print in light of Studio Canal's decision to let the licenses lapse. Only The Third Man has been re-issued by Lionsgate. It, like Ran, is a second-rate release with a worse transfer and fewer extras.

December is typically a slow month for Criterion. Well, usually. (In seasons past, they've released, comparatively, few titles during the final month of the year. This is for a number of reasons--mostly because Criterion is understaffed during the holidays--but one reason in particular: they've released enough (too many?) discs during the other 11 months, that the two or three announced for December are usually suffice.)

However, the December 2011 slate is full of promise with four exceptionally solid films coming to blu-ray; three are blu-ray upgrades of films already released on DVD, one is completely new to the Collection.

On December 6th Criterion released Ernst Lubitsch's Design for Living (1933) and Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes (1938).

Design for Living is the only December title new to the Criterion Collection

Design for Living synopsis from Criterion:

Gary Cooper, Fredric March, and Miriam Hopkins play a trio of Americans in Paris who enter into a very adult “gentleman’s agree­ment” in this continental pre-Code comedy, freely adapted by Ben Hecht from a play by Noël Coward and directed by Ernst Lubitsch. A risqué relationship story and a witty take on creative pursuits, the film concerns a commercial artist (Hopkins) unable—or unwilling—to choose between the equally dashing painter (Cooper) and playwright (March) she meets on a train en route to the City of Light. Design for Living is Lubitsch at his sexiest, an entertainment at once debonair and racy, featuring three stars at the height of their allure.

The blu-ray--spine #592--is presented in 1.33:1 AVC MPEG-4 1080p with LPCM 1.0 and includes:

• New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• “The Clerk,” starring Charles Laughton, director Ernst Lubitsch’s segment of the 1932 omnibus film If I Had a Million
• Selected-scene commentary by film scholar William Paul
• British television production of the play Design for Living from 1964, introduced on camera by playwright Noël Coward
• New interview with film scholar and screenwriter Joseph McBride on Lubitsch and screenwriter Ben Hecht’s adaptation of the Coward play
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kim Morgan

The Lady Vanishes synopsis from Criterion:

In Alfred Hitchcock’s most quick-witted and devilish comic thriller, the beautiful Margaret Lockwood, traveling across Europe by train, meets a charming spinster (Dame May Whitty), who then seems to disappear into thin air. The younger woman turns investigator and finds herself drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure. Also starring Michael Redgrave, The Lady Vanishes remains one of the great filmmaker’s purest delights.

The blu-ray--a re-issuing of spine #3--is presented in 1.37:1 AVC MPEG-4 1080p with LPCM 1.0 and includes:

• High-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• Audio commentary featuring film historian Bruce Eder
• Crook’s Tour, a 1941 feature-length adventure film starring Basil Radford and Naunton Wayne as Charters and Caldicott, their beloved characters from The Lady Vanishes
• Excerpts from François Truffaut’s legendary 1962 audio interview with director Alfred Hitchcock
• Mystery Train, a video essay about Hitchcock and The Lady Vanishes by Hitchcock scholar Leonard Leff
• Stills gallery of behind-the-scenes photos and promotional art
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Geoffrey O’Brien and Hitchcock scholar Charles Barr

On December 13th Criterion will release two films by Seijun Suzuki, Tokyo Drifter (1966) and Branded to Kill (1967).

Tokyo Drifter synopsis from Criterion:

In this jazzy gangster film, reformed killer Tetsu’s attempt to go straight is thwarted when his former cohorts call him back to Tokyo to help battle a rival gang. Director Seijun Suzuki’s onslaught of stylized violence and trippy colors is equal parts Russ Meyer, Samuel Fuller, and Nagisa Oshima—an anything-goes, in-your-face rampage. Tokyo Drifter is a delirious highlight of the brilliantly excessive Japanese cinema of the sixties.

The blu-ray--a re-issuing of spine #39--is presented in 2.35:1 color widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p with LPCM 1.0 and includes:

• New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• Video piece featuring new interviews with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu
• Interview with Suzuki from 1997
• Trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Howard Hampton

Branded to Kill synopsis from Criterion:

When Japanese New Wave bad boy Seijun Suzuki delivered this brutal, hilarious, and visually inspired masterpiece to the executives at his studio, he was promptly fired. Branded to Kill tells the ecstatically bent story of a yakuza assassin with a fetish for sniffing steamed rice (the chipmunk-cheeked superstar Joe Shishido) who botches a job and ends up a target himself. This is Suzuki at his most extreme—the flabbergasting pinnacle of his sixties pop-art aesthetic.

The blu-ray--a re-issuing of spine #38--is presented in 2.35:1 black & white widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p with LPCM 1.0 and includes:

• New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• Video piece featuring new interviews with director Seijun Suzuki and assistant director Masami Kuzuu
• Interview with Suzuki from 1997
• New interview with actor Joe Shishido
• Trailer
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic and historian Tony Rayns