Bonjour and buenos dias, "Monty Cristo" here.
Criterion announced their May slate today, and it's something of a surgical strike on your wallet, depending on what kind of cine-geek you are. Bergman, Downey Sr., Kassovitz, Jonze, and Kiarostami films make for a compelling slate, and only one title is a previously-released DVD-to-Blu upgrade. Click the links to find more detail on specific features and their disc supplements on Criterion's site.
8 May 2012
The lone Blugrade of the month is one I've been waiting for: a gritty, black-and-white modern French crime drama that feels far more substantive than one might assume from a mere 97-minute runtime. The accelerant that soaks this story is sociocultural tension that's tied to an increasingly diverse population.
The evolving racial and religious profile of France mixes with the seedy equivalent to the American inner city to produce a film that won its director the Best Director award at Cannes in 1994. It launched Vincent Cassel to the healthy career he's had since, and is one of the classics of modern French cinema, if you ask me.
The disc carries over all the supplements found on the previous DVD edition, including english commentary from the director, an intro by Jodie Foster, a feature-length retrospective doc, and loads of other stuff.
15 May 2012
One of the most welcome modern-era film additions to the Collection is this film, which roger Ebert called the best film of 1999 (I agree with him, based on recollection of everything else from that year). The Criterion release replaces an 11-year-old DVD, and duplicates most of its predecessor's features. Left out is a jokey 3ish minute piece where Spike Jonze is being interviewed in a car. The additions are much more to crow about: selected scene commentary by Michel Gondry (!), a Malkovich interview conducted by John Hodgman (!!), and a new behind-the-scenes doc.
22 May 2012
Once dismissed as not a likely Criterion title by rumors swirling around, its presence on the list here shows that not all speculation comes to pass, even in the niche world of Criterion rumormongering. From the same great Iranian filmmaker as CLOSE UP and TASTE OF CHERRY, this adds another accomplished film from Abbas Kiarostami to Criterion's ranks. The disc includes a new interview with the director, as well as a making-of doc. People have complained about the cover art. These people are nuts, if you ask me.
ECLIPSE SERIES 33: UP ALL NIGHT WITH ROBERT DOWNEY SR.
BABO 73 (1964)
CHAFED ELBOWS (1966)
NO MORE EXCUSES (1968)
PUTNEY SWOPE (1969)
TWO TONS OF TURQUOISE TO TAOS TONIGHT (1975)
This is the title I'm most excited about (something that often happens with Criterion's Eclipse sub-line). When I call myself a fan of Robert Downey Sr., it's because I have seen and love PUTNEY SWOPE. It's about the token black member of a company board accidentally getting elected chairman. He then gets rid of all the white dudes and remakes the board with all black members and renames the company Truth and Soul, Inc. My love of that film on its own sells me on the others, which I've only read about. It's sets like these that make me wish there were Blu-ray editions of the Eclipse sets. This isn't just one of the most promising releases for this month, but probably one of the best of the year (yes, even without extras).
29 May 2012
Another in a recent trend of Criterion releasing a movie with little or no extras (in this case, none save the booklet essay), I'm just glad to have this one on Blu-ray. I consider myself an ever-aspiring Bergman fan, since I've seen his most famous films (SEVENTH SEAL, SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT, FANNY AND ALEXANDER), but I watch documentaries about him and wonder about ones like this, which was apparently a personal landmark for Bergman.
On the same day, we get another Bergman masterwork (as I'm told), one that was re-edited in the U.S. into an exploitation film called MONIKA: STORY OF A BAD GIRL. Greg Mottola personally thanked Criterion on Twitter just now for this release.
It's a young love story apparently dripping with sensuality, so it isn't hard to work out how a distributor would cut it up into something sleazy if they could to make more money. Extras include an intro by the director, a new interview with star Harriet Andersson, an interview with scholar Eric Schaefer about the "sexploitation" cut (nicknaming mine), and a half-hour behind-the-scenes doc. Between this and INTERLUDE, Criterion creeps toward further locking down the director's entire filmography, something they've only gotten this close to with one other director: Akira Kurosawa.
That's it for Criterion in May. What are you mortgaging your house to buy? Sound off in the Talkbacks while I look for a copy of the very rare, OOP Criterion edition of THIS IS SPINAL TAP.
"Monty Cristo"
