Criterion continue to bring a mix of established classics and acclaimed to works to DVD and Blu-ray with films from Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Abdellatif Kechiche and Yasujiro Ozu.

The Only Son / There Was a Father: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu – DVD only

These rare early films from Yasujiro Ozu are considered by many to be two of the Japanese director's finest works, paving the way for a career among the most sensitive and significant in film history. The Only Son / Hitori musuko (1936) and There Was a Father / Chichi ariki (1942) make a graceful pair, bookending a crucial period in Japanese history. In the former, Ozu's first sound film, made during a time of intense economic crisis, a mother sacrifices her own happiness for her son's education; the latter, released in the midst of World War II, stars Ozu stalwart Chishu Ryu (Late Spring, Tokyo Story) as a widowed schoolteacher trying to raise a son despite financial hardship. Criterion proudly presents these nearly lost treasures for the first time on home video.

This Special Edition double-DVD set contains new high-definition digital transfers and new and improved English subtitle translations, plus the following extras:

• New video interviews with Japanese film scholar Tadao Sato and film scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson;
• Booklets featuring essays by film scholar Tony Rayns and reprints of pieces by actor Chishu Ryu and scholar Donald Richie.

The Only Son / There Was a Father: Two Films by Yasujiro Ozu will be released on US DVD only by Criterion on 13th July 2010 at the SRP of $39.95.

Black Narcissus – DVD and Blu-ray

This explosive work about the conflict between the spirit and the flesh is the epitome of the sensuous style of filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. A group of nuns – played by some of Britain's best actresses, including Deborah Kerr (From Here to Eternity, An Affair to Remember), Flora Robson (The Rise of Catherine the Great, Wuthering Heights), and Jean Simmons (Great Expectations, Hamlet) – struggles to establish a convent in the snowcapped Himalayas; isolation, extreme weather, altitude, and culture page clashes all conspire to drive the well-intentioned missionaries mad. A darkly grand film that won Oscars for its set design and for its cinematography by Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes, The African Queen), Black Narcissus is one of the greatest achievements by two of cinema's true visionaries.

Featuring a new, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition) and the following extra features:

• Video introduction by French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier;
• Audio commentary featuring the late director Michael Powell and filmmaker Martin Scorsese;
• The Audacious Adventurer, a 2006 video piece in which Tavernier discusses Black Narcissus and Powell;
• Profile of "Black Narcissus" (2000), a twenty-five-minute documentary;
• Painting with Light, a twenty-seven-minute documentary about Jack Cardiff's Oscar-winning cinematography on Black Narcissus;
• Original theatrical trailer;
• A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Kent Jones.

Black Narcissus will be released on US DVD and Blu-ray on 20th July 2010 by Criterion at the SRP of $39.95 each.

The Red Shoes – DVD and Blu-ray

The Red Shoes, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema's quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Technicolor visual feasts ever concocted for the screen. Moira Shearer (The Tales of Hoffmann, Peeping Tom) is a rising star ballerina romantically torn between an idealistic composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, The African Queen), Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable, hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, now dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the artist.

Featuring a new, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition), both discs will have the following extras:

• Audio commentary by film historian Ian Christie, featuring interviews with stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale, and filmmaker Martin Scorsese;
• Introductory restoration demonstration with Martin Scorsese;
• Profile of "The Red Shoes" (2000), a twenty-five-minute documentary;
• Video interview with Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, Michael Powell's widow;
• Gallery from Scorsese's collection of The Red Shoes memorabilia;
• The "Red Shoes" Sketches, an animated film made from Hein Heckroth's painted storyboards;
• Readings by actor Jeremy Irons of excerpts from Powell and Pressburger's novelization of The Red Shoes and the original Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale;
• Theatrical trailer;
• A booklet featuring an essay by Christie.

The Red Shoes will be released on US DVD and Blu-ray on 20th July 2010 by Criterion at the SRP of $39.95 each.

The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet) – DVD and Blu-ray

Winner of four César awards, including best picture and director, Abdellatif Kechiche's The Secret of the Grain (La graine et le mulet, released in the UK as Couscous) is a stirring drama about the daily joys and struggles of a bustling French-Arab family. It has the texture of a documentary but a classic, almost Shakespearean structure: when patriarch Slimane acts on his wish to open a port-side restaurant specializing in his ex-wife's fish couscous, the extended clan's passions and problems explode in riveting drama, leading to an engrossing, suspenseful climax. With sensitivity and grit, The Secret of the Grain celebrates the role food plays in family life and gets to the core of contemporary immigrant experience.

Featuring a new high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Abdellatif Kechiche, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition and new and improved English subtitle translation. Both discs have the following extras:

• New video interview with Kechiche;
• Sueur, Kechiche's captivating extended version of the film's climactic belly dancing sequence, featuring a new introduction by the director;
• New video interview with film scholar Ludovic Cortade;
• Excerpt from a 20 heures television interview with Kechiche and actress Hafsia Herzi;
• Video interviews with Herzi, actress Bouraouïa Marzouk, and the film's musicians;
• Theatrical trailer;
• A booklet featuring a new essay by film critic Wesley Morris.

The Secret of the Grain will be released on UK DVD and Blu-ray by Criterion on 27th July 2010 at the SRP of $39.95 each.