The Criterion Collection and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have confirmed the titles to be released on Blu-ray in the UK in April 2023. On 17 April comes Wanda, written, directed and starring Barbara Loden, the film is a ground-breaking work of American independent cinema, bringing to life a kind of character seldom seen on-screen. Following on 24 April is Mystery Train,directed by Jim Jarmusch and one of his very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to Memphis and a paean to the music it gave the world. 

WANDA (USA 1970) | Blu-ray | 17 April 2023

With her first and only film—a hard-luck drama she wrote, directed, and starred in—Barbara Loden turned in a ground-breaking work of American independent cinema, bringing to life a kind of character seldom seen on-screen.

Set amid a soot-choked Pennsylvania landscape, and shot in an intensely intimate vérité style, the film takes up with distant and soft-spoken Wanda (Loden), who has left her husband, lost custody of her children, and now finds herself alone, drifting between dingy bars and motels, where she falls prey to a series of callous men—including a bank robber who ropes her into his next criminal scheme.

A difficult-to-see masterpiece that has nonetheless exerted an outsize influence on generations of artists and filmmakers, Wanda is a compassionate and wrenching portrait of a woman stranded on society's margins.

SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• New 2K digital restoration by the UCLA Film & Television Archive, The Film Foundation, and Gucci, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
• I Am Wanda, an hour-long documentary by Katja Raganelli featuring an interview with director Barbara Loden filmed in 1980
• Audio recording of Loden speaking to students at the American Film Institute in 1971
• Segment from a 1971 episode of The Dick Cavett Show featuring Loden
• The Frontier Experience, a short educational film from 1975 about a pioneer woman's struggle to survive, directed by and starring Loden
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Amy Taubin

MYSTERY TRAIN (USA 1989) | Blu-ray | 24 April 2023

Aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntledBritish immigrant all converge in the city of dreams—which, in Mystery Train, from Jim Jarmusch (Stranger Than Paradise, Night on Earth), is Memphis.

Made with its director's customary precision and wit, Mystery Train is a triptych of stories that pay playful tribute to the home of Stax Records, Sun Studio, Graceland, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the King himself, who presides over the film like a spirit. Mystery Train is one of Jarmusch's very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to an iconic American ghost town and a paean to the music it gave the world.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the lu-ray edition) 
• Q&A with Jarmusch in which he responds to questions sent in by fans 
• Original documentary on Mystery Train's locations and Memphis's rich social and musical history 
• On-set photos by Masayoshi Sukita, and behind-the-scenes photos 
• New and improved English subtitle translation 
• PLUS: a booklet featuring essays by writers Peter Guralnick and Dennis Lim, as well as a collectible poster