Criterion have announced their October DVD and Blu-ray releases, and once again there's enough there to make a UK viewer weep for the cost of multi-region recorders. All are seriously worthy releases and there are a couple of real humdingers here. So let's get to the titles. Are you ready?

The Darjeeling Limited - 2-disc DVD ($29.95) and Blu-ray ($39.95) - 12th October 2010

In The Darjeeling Limited, from director Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Fantastic Mr. Fox), three estranged American brothers reunite for a meticulously planned, soul-searching train voyage across India, one year after the death of their father. For reasons involving over-the-counter painkillers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray, the brothers eventually find themselves stranded alone in the middle of the desert – where a new, unplanned chapter of their journey begins. Featuring a sensational cast, including Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Jason Schwartzman, and Anjelica Huston, The Darjeeling Limited is a visually striking and hilarious film that takes Anderson's work to richer, deeper places than ever before.

This director-approved Special Edition features a new high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition and the following extras:

• Anderson's short film Hotel Chevalier (part one of The Darjeeling Limited), starring Natalie Portman, with commentary by Anderson;
• Audio commentary featuring Anderson and co-writers Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola;
• Behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman;
• Anderson and filmmaker James Ivory discussing the film's music;
• Anderson's American Express commercial;
• On-set footage shot by Coppola and actor Waris Ahluwalia;
• Audition footage, deleted and alternate scenes, and stills galleries;
• Original theatrical trailer;
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Richard Brody and original illustrations by Eric Anderson.

The Magician (Ansiktet) - DVD ($29.95) and Blu-ray ($29.95) - 12th October 2010

The Magician, directed by Ingmar Bergman, is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema's premier illusionists. Max von Sydow stars as Dr. Vogler, a mid-nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test by a small town's cruel, eminently rational minister of health, Dr. Vergerus (Wild Strawberries' Gunnar Bjornstrand). The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that's both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.

• This Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray features a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition, with new and improved English subtitle translation, plus the following extras:
• New visual essay by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie;
• Brief 1967 video interview with director Ingmar Bergman about the film;
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoff Andrew, a reprinted essay by Assayas, and an excerpt from Bergman's autobiography Images: My Life in Film.

Seven Samurai - Blu-ray ($49.95) - 19th October 2010

One of the most thrilling movie epics of all time, Seven Samurai (Shichinin no samurai) tells the story of a sixteenth-century village whose desperate inhabitants hire the eponymous warriors to protect them from invading bandits. This three-hour ride from Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, Yojimbo, Ran)—featuring legendary actors Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura – seamlessly weaves philosophy and entertainment, delicate human emotions and relentless action, into a rich, evocative, and unforgettable tale of courage and hope.

This 2-disc Blu-ray Special Edition features a restored, high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack and the following extra features:

• Audio commentary by film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie;
• Audio commentary by Japanese film expert Michael Jeck;
• Fifty-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai;
• My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between directors Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima;
• Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a documentary that looks at the samurai traditions and films that helped shape Kurosawa's masterpiece;
• Theatrical trailers and teaser;
• Gallery of rare posters and behind-the-scenes and production stills;
• A booklet featuring essays by Kenneth Turan, Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Stuart Galbraith, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet, and an interview with Toshiro Mifune from 1993.

You can read our review of the Criterion DVD release here.

Paths of Glory - DVD ($29.95) and Blu-ray ($29.95) - 26th October 2010

A pivotal work by Stanley Kubrick, Paths of Glory is among the most powerful anti-war films ever made. A fiery Kirk Douglas stars as a French colonel serving in World War I who goes head-to-head with the army's ruthless top brass when his men are accused of cowardice after being unable to carry out an impossible mission. This haunting, exquisitely photographed dissection of the military machine in all its absurdity and capacity for dehumanization (a theme Kubrick would continue to explore throughout his career) is assembled with its legendary director's customary precision, from its tense trench warfare sequences to its gripping courtroom climax to its ravaging final scene.

This new Special Edition features a new restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition, plus the following extras:

• New audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins;
• Television interview from 1979 with star Kirk Douglas;
• New video interviews with Kubrick's longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick;
• Excerpt from a French television program about real-life World War I executions similar to the events dramatized in Paths of Glory;
• Theatrical trailer;
• An essay by Kubrick scholar James Naremore.

House (Hausu) - DVD ($29.95) and Blu-ray ($29.95) - 26th October 2010

How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi's indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt's creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via a series of mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equal parts absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it's one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.

This Special Edition features a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition, new and improved English subtitle translation, and the following extras:

• Constructing a House, a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the director Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura;
• Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi;
• New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil);
• Theatrical trailer;
• An essay by Chuck Stephens.

You can read our review of the UK Masters of Cinema DVD release here.