Criterion Crazy: Upcoming in January and February 2012

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.

Gojira (1954) on Criterion? Oh hell yes!

Because I'm lazy, crazy and a little bit OCD, I'm planning on making Criterion Crazy a month column. In most months, anyway. December is a little different.

Because I'm lazy and etcetera, I waited until the last month of the year to start this blog. And that means I already have a horrible backlog of certain news items and releases to discuss before everything can go on as planned.

Case in point: the Criterion release schedule.

The specialty distributor has 11 planned releases in the first two months of 2012, including the long rumored blu-ray upgrade of Steven Soderbergh's Traffic (2000), the even longer awaited induction of the grandaddy of Kaiju cinema into the Collection, and an Elipse boxset... and that's just in January.


What's Eclipse? Again, a little explanation is probably in order. Wikipedia says the following about the Eclipse Series:

The brand was created to produce budget-priced, high-quality DVD editions of hard-to-find films. The DVDs are released in boxed sets that typically contain between two to seven films across and focus on a specific film director. Future sets will also focus on themes. Typically, they are released monthly. In order to keep prices low, the films do not receive the same degree of remastering nor any of the special features that have became associated with Criterion Collection titles.

On Jan. 17 Criterion is releasing Eclipse 13: Three Popular Films by Jean-Pierre Gorin. The 3-disc boxset will include Poto and Canbengo (1980), Routine Pleasures (1986) and My Crasy Life (1992).

The synopsis from Criterion reads:

Jean-Pierre Gorin, widely known for his collaborations with Jean-Luc Godard in the Dziga Vertov Group (including Tout va bien), established his personal voice with this trio of fascinating, nontraditional documentaries. Made in Southern California after the filmmaker relocated there in the midseventies, Poto and Cabengo, Routine Pleasures, and My Crasy Life illuminate hidden corners of our culture. With these films, Gorin revealed himself as a major chronicler of American life at its most hauntingly enigmatic.

On Jan. 17, Criterion will also release two blu-ray editions of films in the Collection: one upgrade and one new induction (which will also be available on DVD)--Soderberg's Traffic and Luis Bruñel's Belle de Jour (1967).

Traffic synopsis from Criterion:

Traffic examines the question of drugs as politics, business, and lifestyle. With an innovative color-coded cinematic treatment to distinguish his interwoven stories, Steven Soderbergh embroils viewers in the lives of a newly appointed drug czar and his family, a West Coast kingpin’s wife, a key informant, and police officers on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. The film, which delivers a complex and nuanced take on an issue of international importance without sacrificing any energy or suspense, is a contemporary classic, and the winner of four Oscars, for best director, best screenplay, best editing, and best supporting actor for Benicio del Toro.

The blu-ray--an upgrade of spine #151--will be presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 surround and will include:

• Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Steven Soderbergh and supervising sound editor and rerecording mixer Larry Blake, with 5.1 and 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on the Blu-ray edition
• Three audio commentaries, featuring Soderbergh and writer Stephen Gaghan; producers Laura Bickford, Edward Zwick, and Marshall Herskovitz and consultants Tim Golden and Craig Chretien; and composer Cliff Martinez
• Twenty-five deleted scenes, with optional commentary by Soderbergh and Gaghan
• Three sets of demonstrations: one on film processing and the look of the Mexico sequences; one on film editing, with commentary by editor Stephen Mirrione; and one on dialogue editing
• Additional unused footage of various scenes, from multiple angles
• Theatrical trailers and television spots
• Gallery of trading cards depicting the U.S. Customs canine squad used to detect narcotics and other illegal substances
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Manohla Dargis

Belle de Jour synopsis from Criterion:

Catherine Deneuve’s porcelain perfection hides a cracked interior in one of the actress’s most iconic roles: Séverine, a Paris housewife who begins secretly spending her after­noon hours working in a bordello. This surreal and erotic late-sixties daydream from provocateur for the ages Luis Buñuel is an examination of desire and fetishistic pleasure (its characters’ and its viewers’), as well as a gently absurdist take on contemporary social mores and class divisions. Fantasy and reality commingle in this burst of cinematic transgression, which was one of Buñuel’s biggest hits.

The blu-ray--spine #593--will be presented in a 1.66:1 color widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer with French LPCM 1.0 with English subtitles and will include:

• New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• Audio commentary featuring Michael Wood, author of the BFI Film Classics book Belle de jour
• New video piece featuring writer and sexual-politics activist Susie Bright and film scholar Linda Williams
• New interview with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière
• Segment from the French television program Cinéma, featuring interviews with Carrière and actress Catherine Deneuve
• Original and rerelease trailers
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Melissa Anderson and a 1970s interview with director Luis Buñuel

Two new entries into the Collection arrive on Jan. 24--Ishiro Honda's daikaiju masterpiece Gojira (1954) and Francesco Rosi's The Moment of Truth (1965). Both films will be available on blu-ray and DVD. 

Godzilla synopsis from Criterion:

Godzilla (a.k.a. Gojira) is the roaring granddaddy of all monster movies. It’s also a remarkably humane and melancholy drama, made in Japan at a time when the country was reeling from nuclear attack and H-bomb testing in the Pacific. Its rampaging radioactive beast, the poignant embodiment of an entire population’s fears, became a beloved international icon of destruction, spawning almost thirty sequels. A thrilling, tactile spectacle that continues to be a cult phenomenon, the original, 1954 Japanese version is presented here, along with Godzilla, King of the Monsters, the 1956 “Americanized” version.

The blu-ray--spine #594--will be presented in a 1.37:1 black & white AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer with Japanese/English LPCM 1.0 with English subtitles and will include:

• New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• New high-definition digital restoration of Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Terry Morse’s 1956 reworking of the original (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• Audio commentary for both movies by film historian David Kalat
• New interviews with actors Akira Takarada and Haruo Nakajima and special effects technicians Yoshio Irie and Eizo Kaimai
• Interview with legendary Godzilla score composer Akira Ifukube
• Featurette detailing Godzilla’s photographic effects, introduced by special effects director Koichi Kawakita and special effects photographer Motoyoshi Tomioka
• New interview with Japanese-film critic Tadao Sato
• The Unluckiest Dragon, an illustrated audio essay featuring historian Greg Pflugfelder describing the tragic fate of the fishing vessel Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a real-life event that inspired Godzilla
• Trailers for Godzilla and Godzilla, King of the Monsters
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic J. Hoberman

The Moment of Truth synopsis from Criterion:

The Moment of Truth (Il momento della verità), from director Francesco Rosi, is a visceral plunge into the life of a famous torero—played by real-life bullfighting legend Miguel Mateo, known as Miguelín. Charting his rise and fall with a single-minded focus on the bloody business at hand, the film is at once gritty and operatic, placing the viewer right in the thick of the ring’s action, as close to death as possible. Like all of the great Italian truth seeker’s films, this is not just an electrifying drama but also a profound and moving inquiry into a violent world—and it’s perhaps the greatest bullfighting movie ever made.

The blu-ray--spine #595--will be presented in a 2.35:1 color widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with Italian  LPCM 1.0 with English subtitles and will include:

• New high-definition digital restoration (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
• Exclusive interview with director Francesco Rosi from 2004
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Peter Matthews

In February, Criterion will release six films from the Collection; one blu-ray upgrade and five new-to-disc editions available on both blu-ray and DVD. 

The lone blu-ray upgrade of the month arrives on Feb. 7: a double feature of Chris Marker's films Le Jetée (1963) and San Soleil (1983). 

Le Jetée and San Soleil collector's set synopsis from Criterion:

One of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made and a mind-bending free-form travelogue: La Jetée and Sans Soleil couldn’t seem more different—but they’re the twin pillars of an unparalleled and uncompromising career in cinema. A filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, Chris Marker has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his investigations of time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet. These two films—a tale of time travel told in still images and a journey to Africa and Japan—remain his best-loved and most widely seen.

The blu-ray--an upgrade of spine #387--will present two films, the 27-minute Le Jetée and the 101-minute San Soleil, on one disc. Le Jetée will feature a 1.66:1 black & white widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with French LPCM 1.0 and English subtitles. San Soleil will feature 1.66:1 color widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p with French LPCM 1.0 with English subtitles. The collector's set will include:

• Restored high-definition digital transfers, approved by director Chris Marker, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
• Two interviews with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
• Chris on Chris, a video piece on Marker by filmmaker and critic Chris Darke
• Two excerpts from the French television series Court-circuit (le magazine): a look at David Bowie’s music video for the song “Jump They Say,” inspired by La Jetée, and an analysis of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and its influence on Marker
• Junkopia, a six-minute film by Marker, Frank Simone, and John Chapman about the Emeryville Mudflats
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by Marker scholar Catherine Lupton, an interview with Marker, notes on the films and filmmaking by Marker, and more

On Feb. 24 Criterion will release Hideo Gosha's chanbara debut Three Outlaw Samurai (1964) and Tiny Furniture (2010), an indie film from first-time director Lena Dunham. 

Three Outlaw Samurai synopsis from Criterion:

This first feature by the legendary Hideo Gosha is among the most beloved chanbara (sword-fighting) films. An origin-story offshoot of a Japanese television phenomenon of the same name, Three Outlaw Samurai is a classic in its own right. A wandering, seen-it-all ronin (Tetsuro Tamba) becomes entangled in the dangerous business of two other samurai (Isamu Nagato and Mikijiro Hira), hired to execute a band of peasants who have kidnapped the daughter of a corrupt magistrate. With remarkable storytelling economy and thrilling action scenes, this is an expertly mounted tale of revenge and loyalty.

The blu-ray--spine #596--will be presented in a 2.35:1 black & white widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with Japanese LPCM 1.0 with English subtitles and will include:

• High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri

Tiny Furniture synopsis from Criterion:

Lena Dunham got her start making YouTube videos, but she emerged as a major talent thanks to the breakthrough success of this exceptionally sharp comedy, which garnered the twenty-four-year-old writer-director-actor comparisons to the likes of Woody Allen. Dunham plays Aura, a recent college graduate who returns to New York and moves back in with her mother and sister (played by the filmmaker’s real-life mother and sister). Though Aura is gripped by stasis and confusion about her future, Dunham locates endless sources of refreshing humor in her plight. As painfully confessional as it is amusing, Tiny Furniture is an authentic, incisive portrait of a young woman at a crossroads.

The blu-ray--spine #597--will be presented in a 2.40:1 color widescreen AVC/MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround and will include:

• High-definition digital master, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Director Lena Dunham talks about filmmaking and autobiography in a new interview with writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron
• New interview with writer-director Paul Schrader
• Creative Nonfiction, Dunham’s first feature film, with an introduction by the director
• Four short films by Dunham
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Phillip Lopate

On Feb 24, Criterion will release two new-to-disc editions (on blu-ray and DVD)--German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder's once-thought-lost World on a Wire (1973) and Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959). 

World on a Wire synopsis from Criterion:

World on a Wire is a gloriously paranoid, boundlessly inventive take on the future from German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder. With dashes of Stanley Kubrick, Kurt Vonnegut, and Philip K. Dick, Fassbinder tells the noir-spiked tale of reluctant hero Fred Stiller (Klaus Löwitsch), a cybernetics engineer who uncovers a massive corporate conspiracy. At risk? (Virtual) reality as we know it. Originally made for German television, this recently rediscovered, three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satirical and surreal look at the world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.

The blu-ray--spine #598--will be presented in a 1.33:1 color AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with German LPCM 1.0 mono with English subtitles and will include:

• New, restored digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Fassbinder’s World on a Wire: Looking Ahead to Today, a fifty-minute documentary about the making of the film by Juliane Lorenz
• New interview with German-film scholar Gerd Gemünden
• New English subtitles
• Trailer for the 2010 theatrical release
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Ed Halter

Anatomy of a Murder synopsis from Criterion:

A virtuoso James Stewart plays a small-town Michigan lawyer who takes on a difficult case: the defense of a young army lieutenant (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a local tavern owner who he believes raped his wife (Lee Remick). This gripping envelope-pusher, the most popular film by Hollywood provocateur Otto Preminger, was groundbreaking for the frankness of its discussion of sex—but more than anything else, it is a striking depiction of the power of words. Featuring an outstanding supporting cast—with a young George C. Scott as a fiery prosecutor and the legendary attorney Joseph N. Welch as the judge—and an influential score by Duke Ellington, Anatomy of a Murder is an American movie landmark, nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture.

The blu-ray--spine #600--will be presented in a 1.85:1 black & white widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with LPCM 1.0 mono and DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround and will include:

• New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New alternate 5.1 soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, on the Blu-ray edition
• New interview with Otto Preminger biographer Foster Hirsch
• Critic Gary Giddins explores Duke Ellington’s score in a new interview
• A look at the relationship between graphic designer Saul Bass and Preminger with Bass biographer Pat Kirkham
• Newsreel footage from the set
• Excerpts from a 1967 episode of Firing Line, featuring Preminger in discussion with William F. Buckley Jr.
• Excerpts from the work-in-progress-documentary Anatomy of Anatomy
• Behind-the-scenes photographs by Life magazine’s Gjon Mili
• Trailer, featuring on-set footage
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Nick Pinkerton and a 1959 Life magazine article on real-life lawyer Joseph N. Welch, who plays Judge Weaver in the film

Finally, on Feb. 28 Criterion will release blu-ray and DVD editions of Louis Malle's final film, Vanya on 42nd Street (1994). 

Vanya on 42nd Street synopsis from Criterion:

In the early nineties, theater director André Gregory mounted a series of spare, private performances of Anton Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya in a crumbling Manhattan playhouse. This experiment in pure theater—featuring a remarkable cast of actors, including Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, Brooke Smith, and George Gaynes—would have been lost to time had it not been captured on film, with subtle cinematic brilliance, by Louis Malle. Vanya on 42nd Street is as memorable and emotional a screen version of Chekhov’s masterpiece as one could ever hope to see. This film, which turned out to be Malle’s last, is a tribute to the playwright’s devastating work as well as to the creative process itself.

The blu-ray--spine #599--will be presented in a 1.66:1 color widescreen AVC MPEG-4 1080p transfer, with LPCM 2.0 stereo and will include: 

• New, restored digital transfer, supervised by director of photography Declan Quinn, with uncompressed 2.0 soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New documentary featuring interviews with André Gregory, the play’s director; actors Lynn Cohen, George Gaynes, Julianne Moore, Larry Pine, Wallace Shawn, and Brooke Smith; and producer Fred Berner
• Trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Steven Vineberg and a 1994 on-set report by film critic Amy Taubin

Gojira film can from Toho 

I'm overjoyed by the news of a Criterion Gojira. Come January, the film will finally receive the proper treatment it deserves. 

The most recent 2-disc DVD of Gojira/Godzilla by Classic Media was merely decent. The transfer of the '54 version in that set is, if apparently a big step over earlier editions, still riddled with print defects, scratches, murky details and weak contrast. The American Godzilla, King of the Monsters version included on disc two looks like a bad VHS dub and is barely watchable. (The less said about Classic Media's failure of a blu-ray released in 2009--which doesn't include many special features or the 1956 American version with spliced in footage featuring Raymond Burr--the better. It is an SD upconvert and a poor one at that.) 

This Godzilla Fake Criterion accomplies both:
the original title (in Japanese) and
the '56 American title.

Criterion's edition will contain restored HD transfers of both films; the original film is sourced from archival 35mm film elements held by Toho studios in Japan. I'm not expecting miracles--in either form, Gojira/Godzilla is still almost 60 years old--but I firmly believe both versions will look far better than "decent". Also, those extras sound like they'll be insanely good. 

The one thing that bothers me about the giant monster's Criterion debut is the cover. First, I think it should really be titled Gojira. Or, perhaps both Gojira and Godzilla: King of the Monsters could've fit on there together somewhere? Also the colorized image is just wrong--for a whole mess of reasons. It's pretty bad that amateur photoshoppers can outdo a company (which prides itself of film preservation) with a couple of Fake Criterions. 

I'm also excited about the blu-ray's of World on a Wire--it looks delightfully trippy in the best way possible--and Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder. Both releases have pretty awesome cover art too. I especially like how the latter gives homage to Saul Bass' title sequence. 

And Tiny Furniture... yeah... no. Nothing about it seems appealing. Like, at all. And I'm really rather confused as to why I was selected by Criterion. (It's worth noting that the film was produced by IFC, which has a distribution deal with Criterion.) I suppose hipsters need representation in the Collection too? Watch the trailer here. Or don't.