The pull of that multi-region Blu-ray player continues with the latest set of release announcements from Criterion. Another mouth-watering collection that blends A-list Hollywood entertainment with cult B-movie pulp. James L. Brooks, the movie and TV titan who transformed the American media landscape with such programs as The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Simpsons, enters the collection with Broadcast News, his incisive eighties newsroom satire and romantic comedy starring Holly Hunter and William Hurt, in Blu-ray and DVD editions. And there are new releases of two killer classics from Samuel Fuller, the influential and very twisted looks at America in the sixties Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss, in newly restored Blu-ray and DVD editions. Two other favorites from the collection are returning too, restored and on Blu-ray: Jean-Pierre Melville's World War II French Resistance thriller Army of Shadows and the acclaimed, cult-adored Byron Haskin directed Robinson Crusoe on Mars.
Army of Shadows – Blu-ray only ($39.95) – 11th January 2011
This masterpiece by Jean-Pierre Melville about the French Resistance went unreleased in the United States for thirty-seven years, until its triumphant theatrical debut in 2006. Atmospheric and gripping, Army of Shadows (L'armée des ombres) is Melville's most personal film, featuring Lino Ventura (Le deuxième souffle), Paul Meurisse (Les Diaboliques), Jean-Pierre Cassel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), and the incomparable Simone Signoret (Casque d'or, Les Diaboliques) as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their conception of honor in their battle against Hitler's regime.
This new Blu-ray special edition features a high-definition digital transfer of the 2004 restoration, supervised by director of photography Pierre Lhomme, with an uncompressed monaural and optional DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack and the following extras:
- Audio commentary featuring film historian Ginette Vincendeau;
- Interviews with Lhomme and editor Françoise Bonnot;
- On-set footage and excerpts from archival interviews with director Jean-Pierre Melville, cast members, writer Joseph Kessel, and real-life Resistance fighters;
- Jean-Pierre Melville et 'L'armée des ombres' (2002), a short program on the director and his film;
- Le journal de la Résistance (1944), a rare short documentary shot on the front lines during the final days of German-occupied France;
- Film restoration demonstration by Lhomme;
- Theatrical trailers;
- A booklet featuring essays by critic Amy Taubin and historian Robert O. Paxton, as well as excerpts from Rui Nogueira's Melville on Melville.
Broadcast News – 2-disc DVD ($29.95) and single disc Blu-ray ($39.95) – 25th January 2011
In the 1970s, the name James L. Brooks (The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Terms of Endearment, The Simpsons) was synonymous with intelligent television comedy – his shows were insightful about work and love and always tapped into the zeitgeist. With his transition to film in the 1980s, he became a master Hollywood storyteller, and none of his films was more quintessentially Brooks than Broadcast News. This caustic inside look at the Washington news media stars Holly Hunter (Raising Arizona, The Piano), in her breakout role, as a feisty television producer torn between an ambitious yet dim anchorman (William Hurt) and her closest confidant, a cynical veteran reporter (Albert Brooks). Brooks's witty, gentlyprophetic entertainment is a captivating transmission from an era in which ideas on love and media were rapidly changing.
This director-approved special edition features a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director James L. Brooks and editor Richard Marks (with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition), plus the following extras:
- New audio commentary featuring James L. Brooks and Richard Marks;
- New documentary on Brooks's career in television and film, featuring actors Marilu Henner (Taxi) and Julie Kavner (Rhoda, The Simpsons) and several other of Brooks's collaborators;
- Deleted scenes and an alternate ending, with commentary by Brooks;
- New video interview with veteran CBS news producer Susan Zirinsky, one of the models for actress Holly Hunter's character and an associate producer on the film;
- Featurette containing on-set footage and interviews with Brooks, Hunter, and actor Albert Brooks;
- Original theatrical trailer;
- A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Carrie Rickey.
Robinson Crusoe on Mars – Blu-ray only ($39.95)
Special effects wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy film lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the unknown. Robinson Crusoe on Mars tells the story of U.S. astronaut Commander "Kit" Draper (Paul Mantee), who must fight for survival when his spaceship crash-lands on the barren waste of Mars, a pet monkey his only companion. But is he actually alone? Shot in vast Techniscope and blazing color, this is an imaginative and beloved marvel of classic science fiction.
This Blu-ray Special Edition features a restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack and the following extras:
- Audio commentary featuring screenwriter Ib Melchior, actors Paul Mantee and Victor Lundin, production designer Al Nozaki, Oscar-winning special effects designer and Robinson Crusoe on Mars historian Robert Skotak, and excerpts from a 1979 audio interview with director Byron Haskin;
- Destination Mars, a video featurette by filmmaker and space historian Michael Lennick detailing the science behind the film;
- Music video for Lundin's song 'Robinson Crusoe on Mars';
- Stills gallery;
- Theatrical trailer;
- A booklet featuring an essay by Lennick as well as Melchior's "Brief Yargorian Vocabulary" (a glossary of original alien dialect) and a list of facts about Mars, both from his original screenplay.
Shock Corridor – DVD ($29.95) and Blu-ray ($39.95)
In Shock Corridor, the great American writer-director-producer Samuel Fuller (The Naked Kiss, The Big Red One) masterfully charts the uneasy terrain between sanity and dementia. Seeking a Pulitzer Prize, reporter Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) has himself committed to a mental hospital to investigate a murder. As he closes in on the killer, madness closes in on him. Constance Towers (The Naked Kiss) co-stars as Johnny's coolheaded stripper girlfriend. With its startling commentary on race in sixties America and daring photography by Stanley Cortez (The Night of the Hunter), Shock Corridor is now recognized for its far-reaching influence.
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 video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis;
- Excerpts from The Typewriter, the Rifle and the Movie Camera, Adam Simon's 1996 documentary on director Samuel Fuller;
- Original theatrical trailer;
- Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes (Eightball, Ghost World) and a booklet featuring an essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller's autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking.
The Naked Kiss – DVD ($29.95) and Blu-ray ($39.95)
The setup is pure pulp: a former prostitute (a crackerjack Constance Towers) relocates to a buttoned-down suburb, determined to fit in with mainstream society. But in the strange, hallucinatory territory of writer-director-producer Samuel Fuller, perverse secrets inevitably simmer beneath a seemingly wholesome surface. Featuring radical visual touches, full-throttle performances, brilliant cinematography by Stanley Cortez (The Night of the Hunter), and one bizarrely beautiful musical number, The Naked Kiss is among Fuller's greatest, boldest entertainments.
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 video interview with star Constance Towers by film historian and filmmaker Charles Dennis;
- Excerpts from a 1983 episode of the The South Bank Show dedicated to director Samuel Fuller;
- Interview with Fuller from a 1967 episode of the French television series Cinéastes de notre temps;
- Interview with Fuller from a 1987 episode of the French television series Cinéma cinémas;
- Original theatrical trailer;
- Illustrations by cartoonist Daniel Clowes and a booklet featuring an essay by critic and poet Robert Polito and excerpts from Fuller's autobiography, A Third Face: My Tale of Writing, Fighting, and Filmmaking.
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