The Criterion Collection and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have confirmed the titles to be released on Blu-ray in September 2021. On 13 September comes Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, one of David Lynch’s most confrontational but humane films, in this prequel to his ground-breaking 1990s television series. Also on 13 September Original Cat Album: Company, D. A. Pennebaker (Dont Look Back) offers an up-close view of the larger-than-life personalities, frayed-nerve energy, and explosive creative intensity that go into capturing the magic of live performance. Following on 27 September comes Beasts of No Nation, starring Idris Elba, a film in which the nightmare of war is seen through the eyes of one of its most tragic casualties – a child soldier – in this harrowing vision of innocence lost from Cary Joji Fukunaga.
TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME (USA 1992) | Blu-ray | 13 September 2021
In the town of Twin Peaks, everyone has their secrets, but especially Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). In this prequel to his ground-breaking 1990s television series, David Lynch (Eraserhead, Blue Velvet) resurrects the teenager found wrapped in plastic at the beginning of the show, following her through the last week of her life and teasing out the enigmas that surround her murder. Homecoming queen by day and drug-addicted thrill seeker by night, Laura leads a double life that pulls her deeper and deeper into horror as she pieces together the identity of the assailant who has been terrorizing her for years. Nightmarish in its vision of an innocent torn apart by unfathomable forces, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me is nevertheless one of Lynch’s most humane films, aching with compassion for its tortured heroine – a character as enthralling in life as she was in death.
DIRECTOR APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- Restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director David Lynch
- 7.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray, supervised by Lynch
- Alternate original 2.0 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
- The Missing Pieces, ninety minutes of deleted and alternate takes from the film, assembled by Lynch
- New interview with actor Sheryl Lee
- Interviews from 2014 by Lynch with actors Lee, Ray Wise, and Grace Zabriskie
- More!
- PLUS: An interview with Lynch from the 2005 edition of filmmaker and writer Chris Rodley’s book Lynch on Lynch
ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM: COMPANY (USA 1970) | Blu-ray | 13 September 2021
This holy grail for both documentary and theatre aficionados offers a tantalizingly rare glimpse behind the Broadway curtain. In 1970, right after the triumphant premiere of the ground-breaking concept musical Company by Stephen Sondheim (West Side Story), the renowned composer, his director Harold Prince, the show’s stars, and a large pit orchestra all went into a Manhattan recording studio as part of a time-honoured Broadway tradition: the recording of the original cast album. What ensued was a marathon session in which, with the pressures of posterity and the coolly exacting Sondheim’s perfectionism hanging over them, all involved pushed themselves to the limit, including theatre legend Elaine Stritch (30 Rock), who fought anxiety and exhaustion to record her iconic rendition of “The Ladies Who Lunch.” With thrilling immediacy, legendary filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker offers an up-close view of the larger-than-life personalities, frayed-nerve energy, and explosive creative intensity that go into capturing the magic of live performance.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by Chris Hegedus and Nate Pennebaker, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New audio commentary by composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim
- Audio commentary from 2001 featuring director D. A. Pennebaker, actor Elaine Stritch, and Broadway producer Harold Prince
- New conversation among Sondheim, orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, and critic Frank Rich
- New interview with Tunick on the art of orchestrating, conducted by author Ted Chapin
- Never-before-heard audio excerpts from interviews with Stritch and Prince, conducted by Pennebaker and Hegedus in 2000
- “Original Cast Album: Co-Op,” a 2019 episode of the TV series Documentary Now! that parodies the film
- Reunion of the cast and crew of “Original Cast Album: Co-Op” recorded in 2020, featuring director Alexander Buono; writer-actor John Mulaney; actors Rénee Elise Goldsberry, Richard Kind, Alex Brightman, and Paula Pell; and composer Eli Bolin
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by author Mark Harris
BEASTS OF NO NATION (USA 2015) | Blu-ray | 27 September 2021
The nightmare of war is seen through the eyes of one of its most tragic casualties – a child soldier – in this harrowing vision of innocence lost from Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective). Based on the acclaimed novel by Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation unfolds in an unnamed, civil war-torn West African country, where the young Agu (Abraham Attah, in a haunting debut performance) witnesses carnage in his village before becoming the captive of a band of rebel soldiers led by a ruthless commander (an explosive Idris Elba [The Wire]), who moulds the boy into a hardened killer. Fukunaga’s relentlessly roving camera work and stunning visuals – realism so intensely visceral it borders on the surreal – immerse the viewer in a world of unimaginable horror without ever losing sight of the powerful human story at its centre.
DIRECTOR APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- 2K digital master, approved by director Cary Joji Fukunaga, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring Fukunaga and first assistant director Jon Mallard
- Two new documentaries on the development and making of the film, featuring interviews with Fukunaga; author Uzodinma Iweala; actors Idris Elba and Abraham Attah; and producers Amy Kaufman, Daniela Taplin Lundberg, and Riva Marker
- New conversation between Fukunaga and producer and cultural commentator Franklin Leonard
- New interview with costume designer Jenny Eagan
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- English descriptive audio
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Robert Daniels
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