Criterion Crazy: Ashby, Ozu and others in April (plus a rumor roundup)

It's that time of the month again--Criterion's April titles have been announced. And, I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed underwhelmed.

The induction of Hal Ashby's comedic ode to cross-generational love, Harold and Maude (1971), into the Collection and a release of Yasujiro Ozu's Late Spring (1949) are among the films making their blu-ray (and DVD) bow this spring. A new boxset of avant-garde films from Hollis Frampton, another Eclipse release and two other discs are also on the horizon.

But first, my, admittedly mild, disappointment, which is petty, stupid and not really disappointment at all. It's just... the boutique distributor has some really exciting titles lined up for blu-ray (and DVD) in the first three months of 2012: a godly Godzilla release, an impending high def upgrade of one of Martin Scorsese's most controversial films, The Last Temptation of Christ, a personally much anticipated special edition of A Night to Remember, and the 212-minute restoration of World on A Wire, the previously-thought lost sci-fi flick from fascinating fabricator and filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder, among many others. And that's coming off of the terrific autumn and winter slate at the the tail end of 2011: 12 Angry Men, the Three Colors Trilogy, a blu-ray upgrade of Alfred Hitchcock's The Lady Vanishes, The Rules of the Game, the grand Fanny and Alexander boxset...

So, with Criterion's latest Friday (1/13/12) announcement of April's six ho-hum releases, I suppose its time for an "off month". Then again, I'm sure some filmfans are overjoyed by this eclectic selection. I'm just a bit underwhelmed.

Of the five blu-ray titles in the April wave, only one--Ozu's Late Spring--is an upgrade. The 24-film boxset A Hollis Frampton Odyssey, Robert M. Young's ¡Alambrista! (1977), Asby's aforementioned Harold and Maude, and Mario Monicelli's The Organizer (1963) are new to the Collection.

Criterion will also release a new Elipse Series boxset, Pearls of the Czech New Wave, a 4-disc set which includes six films from 1960s communist-era Czechoslovakia, which will street on April 24.

Eclipse 32: Pearls of the Czech New Wave synopsis from Criterion:

Of all the cinematic New Waves that broke over the world in the 1960s, the one in Czechoslovakia was among the most fruitful, fascinating, and radical. With a wicked sense of humor and a healthy streak of surrealism, a group of fearless directors—including eventual Oscar winners Miloš Forman and Ján Kadár—began to use film to speak out about the hypocrisy and absurdity of the Communist state. A defining work was the 1966 omnibus film Pearls of the Deep, which introduced five of the movement’s greatest voices: Věra Chytilová, Jaromil Jireš, Jiří Menzel, Jan Němec, and Evald Schorm. This series presents that title, along with five other crucial works that followed close on its heels, one from each of those filmmakers—some dazzlingly experimental, some arrestingly realistic, all singular expressions from a remarkable time and place.

The Collector's set includes six films on four discs. Pearls of the Deep (1966) and Evald Schorm's Return of the Prodigal Son (1967) will each have their own DVD. Věra Chytilová's Daisies (1966) and Jan Němec's A Report on the Party Guests (1966) will share one disc. Jiří Menzel's Capricious Summer (1968) and Jaromil Jireš' The Joke (1969) will share another. Criterion will present each film in its original 1.37:1 aspect ratio (Daisies and Capricious Summer in color; all others in black-and-white) with mono Czech Dolby Digital sound.

Per usual for an Elipse release, none of the films in the Eclipse 32 set have any special features, and haven't been restored to the typical quality befitting an official, numbered, release in the Collection. 

On April 9, Criterion will release A Hollis Frampton Odyssey.

A Hollis Frampton Odyssey synopsis from Criterion:

con of the American avant-garde Hollis Frampton made rigorous, audacious, brainy, and downright thrilling films, leaving behind a body of work that remains unparalleled. In the 1960s, having started out as a poet and photographer, Frampton became fascinated with the possibilities of 16 mm filmmaking. In such radically playful, visually and sonically arresting works as Surface Tension, Zorns Lemma, (nostalgia), Critical Mass, and the enormous, unfinished Magellan cycle (cut short by his death at age forty-eight), Frampton repurposes cinema itself, making it into something by turns literary, mathematical, sculptural, and simply beautiful—and always captivating. This collection of works by the essential artist—the first home video release of its kind—includes twenty-four films, dating from 1966 to 1979.

The blu-ray--spine #607--includes 24-films, of varying length, with sound or silent, either color or black-and-white, in 1080p AVC MPEG-4 high definition and lossless monaural sound, and will include:

• New high-definition digital restorations of all twenty-four films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray edition
• Early Films

1. Manual of Arms (1966 • 17 minutes • Black & White • Silent)
2. Process Red (1966 • 3 minutes, 30 seconds • Color • Silent)
3. Maxwell’s Demon (1968 • 4 minutes • Color/Black & White • Silent)
4. Surface Tension (1968 • 9 minutes, 30 seconds • Color • Monaural)
5. Carrots & Peas (1969 • 5 minutes • Color • Monaural)
6. Lemon (1969 • 5 minutes • Color • Silent)
7. Zorns Lemma (1970 • 60 minutes • Color • Monaural)

• Films from Hapax Legomena

1. (nostalgia) (1971 • 36 minutes • Black & White • Monaural)
2. Poetic Justice (1972 • 31 minutes, 30 seconds • Black & White • Silent)
3. Critical Mass (1971 • 25 minutes, 30 seconds • Black & White • Monaural)

• Films from Magellan

1. The Birth of Magellan: Cadenza I (1977–1980 • 6 minutes • Color • Monaural)
2. Pans 0–4 and 697–700 (1974 • 1-minute each • Color • Silent)
3. INGENIVM NOBIS IPSA PVELLA FECIT, Part I (1975 • 5 minutes • Color • Silent)
4. Magellan: At the Gates of Death, Part I: The Red Gate I, 0 (1976 • 4 minutes, 20 seconds • Color • Silent)
5. Winter Solstice (1974 • 33 minutes • Color • Silent)
6. Gloria! (1979 • 9 minutes, 30 seconds • Color • Monaural)

• Audio commentary and remarks by filmmaker Hollis Frampton on selected works
• Excerpted interview with Frampton from 1978
• A Lecture, a performance piece by Frampton, recorded in 1968 with the voice of artist Michael Snow
• Gallery of works from Frampton’s xerographic series By Any Other Name
• PLUS: A booklet with an introduction by film critic Ed Halter and essays and capsules on the films by Frampton scholars Ken Eisenstein, Bruce Jenkins, and Michael Zryd

April 17 will see the arrival of ¡Alambrista!, Harold and Maude and Late Spring.

¡Alambrista! synopsis from Criterion:

In ¡Alambrista!, a farmworker sneaks across the border from Mexico into California in an effort to make money to send to his family back home. It is a story that happens every day, told here in an uncompromising, groundbreaking work of realism from American independent filmmaker Robert M. Young. Vivid and spare where other films about illegal immigration might sentimentalize, Young’s take on the subject is equal parts intimate character study and gripping road movie, a political work that never loses sight of the complex man at its center. ¡Alambrista!, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s inaugural Camera d’Or in 1978, remains one of the best films ever made on this perennially relevant topic.

The blu-ray--spine #609--will be presented with a 1.66:1 widescreen 1080p AVC MPEG-4 HD transfer and English/Spanish DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 sound, and will include:

• New high-definition digital restoration, with 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• New audio commentary featuring director Robert M. Young and co-producer Michael Hausman
• New interview with actor Edward James Olmos
• Children of the Fields, a 1973 short documentary by Young, accompanied by a new interview with the director
• Trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film historian Charles Ramírez-Berg

Harold and Maude synopsis from Criterion:

With the idiosyncratic American fable Harold and Maude, countercultural director Hal Ashby fashioned what would become the cult classic of its era. Working from a script by Colin Higgins, Ashby tells the story of the emotional and romantic bond between a death-obsessed young man (Bud Cort) from a wealthy family and a devil-may-care, bohemian octogenarian (Ruth Gordon). Equal parts gallows humor and romantic innocence, Harold and Maude dissolves the line between darkness and light along with the ones that separate people by class, gender, and age, and it features indelible performances and a remarkable soundtrack by Cat Stevens.

The blu-ray--spine #608--will be presented with a 1.85:1 widescreen 1080p AVC MPEG-4 HD transfer with LPCM mono sound, and will include:

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the
• Blu-ray edition
• Optional remastered stereo soundtrack
• Audio commentary by Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson and producer Charles B. Mulvehill
• Illustrated audio excerpts of seminars by Ashby and writer-producer Colin Higgins
• New interview with songwriter Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Wood; a 1971 New York Times profile of star Ruth Gordon; and excerpted transcripts of two interviews, one from 1997 with star Bud Cort and director of photography John Alonzo and one from 2001 with executive producer Mildred Lewis

Late Spring synopsis from Criterion:

One of the most powerful of the family portraits by Yasujiro Ozu, Late Spring tells the story of a widowed father who feels compelled to marry off his beloved only daughter. Eminent Ozu players Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara command this poignant tale of love and loss in postwar Japan, which remains as potent today as ever—and as strong a justification for its maker’s inclusion in the pantheon of cinema’s greatest directors.

The blu-ray--an upgrade of spine #331--will be presented with 1.37:1 black-and-white 1080p AVC MPEG-4 HD with Japanese LPCM mono sound, and will include:

• High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Audio commentary by Richard Peña, program director of New York’s Film Society of Lincoln Center
• Tokyo-ga (1985), filmmaker Wim Wenders’s ninety-two-minute documentary about director Yasujiro Ozu
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Michael Atkinson and Japanese-film historian Donald Richie

Finally, on April 24, Criterion will release the last of their April blu-rays with the debut of Mario  The Organizer. 

The Organizer synopsis from Criterion:

In turn-of-the-twentieth-century Turin, an accident in a textile factory incites workers to stage a walkout. But it’s not until they receive unexpected aid from a traveling professor (Marcello Mastroianni) that they find a voice, unite, and stand up for themselves. This historical drama by Mario Monicelli is a beautiful and moving ode to the power of the people, brimming with humor and honesty. The Organizer (I compagni) features engaging, naturalistic performances; cinematography by the great Giuseppe Rotunno; and a multilayered, Oscar-nominated screenplay, by Monicelli, Agenore Incrocci, and Furio Scarpelli.

The blu-ray--spine #610--will be presented in a 1.85:1 widescreen 1080p AVC MPEG-4 HD transfer with Italian LPCM mono sound, and will include:

• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the
• Blu-ray edition
• Introduction by director Mario Monicelli from 2006
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by film critic J. Hoberman

Harold and Maude is a great, great film, and I'm glad that it's coming to blu-ray. That Ashby's masterpiece is coming from Criterion, meaning it'll have a competent AV transfer and some interesting extras, is something to cheer. (And that cover art is awesome). But, overall, I think this slate is kinda ho-hum. 

Late Spring is the only other disc I'd even remotely consider adding to my own movie collection, and it's also the only upgrade (sure, it's great that more movies are getting added to the Collection and all, but so many older, DVD-only, discs need to re-issued on blu-ray).

Once again, one film--The Organizer--is basically devoid of extras (appropriately priced $29.99 MSRP to reflect the discs near-barebones nature). Several other discs look to have minimal material. Compare some of these packages to the multi-disc debuts Criterion was issuing five years ago. Like I said: underwhelming. I'm all for rarer, under-appreciated films getting a release from the Criterion Collection, but they deserve the criterion (in the dictionary definition meaning of the word) treatment as much, if not more so, than the more widely-seen pictures. 

Criterion's 2012 release schedule...sort of.

In related news, Criterion posted their annual clue-packed drawing, hinting at their 2012 release slate, on its blog on New Years day. The picture is packed with promise, referencing several would-be-awesome releases for the next year. The image includes hints that are confirmed with yesterday's title announcement--Harold and Maude; the old woman on the motorcycle--and several others, including releases previously known (the iceberg surely hints at the forthcoming A Night to Remember) and not. All credit for the decipher of clues in the following list goes to the looney dudes at Criterionforum.org:

• The trio of embracing lovers suggest the long rumored release of Alfonso Cuarón's Y Tu Mama Tambien.
• the bike could be The Who's rock opera Quadrophenia.
• The honking and the traffic point to Jean-Luc Godard's Week End, which is enjoying a theatrical re-release on the art-house circuit through Criterion's own Janus Films. 
• The female marionette ties into Spike Jonze's Being John Malcovich, which was also recently re-released in theaters in New York as part of a month of special Criterion-sponsored screenings. 
• The girl on top of the car suggests a blu-ray upgrade of Igmar Bergman's Summer with Monika, which Criterion released on DVD as part of a 4-film Bergman box in 2007. 
• The the gravedigger could mean Danny Boyle's directorial debut Shallow Grave.
• The smiling billboard is Eating Raoul.
• The Coney Island sign = Lonesome, a silent german comedy from 1928.(?)