Spirit Entertainment has announced that the UK UHD and Blu-ray releases from the Criterion Collection will be John Cassavetes' offbeat gangster tale Mikey and Nicky, Jean Eustache's magnum opus The Mother and The Whore, and Richard Pryor getting raw and real in Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling.
MIKEY AND NICKY (USA 1976)
Blu-ray | 13 January 2024
Elaine May crafted a gangster film like no other in the nocturnal odyssey Mikey and Nicky, capitalizing on the chemistry between frequent collaborators John Cassavetes and Peter Falk by casting them together as small-time mobsters whose lifelong relationship has turned sour. Set over the course of one night, this restless drama finds Nicky (Cassavetes) holed up in a hotel after the boss he stole money from puts a hit out on him. Terrified, he calls on Mikey (Falk), the one person he thinks can save him.
Scripted to match the live-wire energy of its stars – alongside supporting players Ned Beatty, Joyce Van Patten, and Carol Grace – and inspired by real-life characters from May's own childhood, this unbridled portrait of male friendship turned tragic is an unsung masterpiece of American cinema.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Elaine May, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New program on the making of the film featuring interviews with distributor Julian Schlossberg and actor Joyce Van Patten
- New interviews with critics Richard Brody and Carrie Rickey
- Audio interview from 1976 with actor Peter Falk
- Trailer and TV spot
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Nathan Rabin
- New cover by Connor Willumsen
THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE [LA MAMAN ET LA PUTAIN] (France 1973)
4K UHD | Blu-ray | 20 January 2024
After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and the upheavals of May 1968 came the near religiously revered magnum opus by Jean Eustache. In his long-unavailable body of work, ranging from documentaries about his native village to closely autobiographical narrative films, Eustache pioneered a forthright and fearless brand of realism.
The pinnacle of this innovative style, The Mother and the Whore, follows Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a Parisian pseudo-intellectual who lives with his tempestuous girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), even as he begins a dalliance with the sexually liberated Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), leading the three into an emotionally turbulent love triangle.
Through daringly sustained long takes and confessional dialogue, Eustache captures a generation navigating the disillusionment of the 1970s, and in the process achieves an intimacy so deep it cuts.
4K UHD & BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- [UHD ONLY] One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New interview with actor Françoise Lebrun
- New conversation with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and writer Rachel Kushner
- Program on the film's restoration
- Segment from the French television series Pour le cinéma featuring Lebrun, director Jean Eustache, and actors Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Léaud
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Lucy Sante and an introduction to the film by Eustache
- New cover by Eric Skillman
JO JO DANCER: YOUR LIFE IS CALLING (USA 1986)
4K UHD | Blu-ray | 27 January 2024
One of the greatest comedians of all time, Richard Pryor, gets raw and real in this brutally funny and lacerating self-portrait. Following the notorious incident in which he caught on fire while high on cocaine, nearly losing his life, Pryor exorcised his inner demons by writing, producing, directing, and starring in this dizzying hall-of-mirrors biopic and backstage drama, which traces a young comedian's rise to fame, from his childhood growing up in a brothel to the colorful experiences that shaped his edgy comic voice to the addiction struggles that brought him to the brink of death. As he did in his legendary stand-up sets, here Pryor fearlessly turns his soul inside out, revealing the deep vulnerability that made his art so compelling.
4K UHD & BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
- New 4K digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- [UHD ONLY] One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New interview on the film with filmmaker Robert Townsend
- Interview with director Richard Pryor from a 1985 episode of The Dick Cavett Show
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An appreciation by critic Hilton Als
- New cover by Matt Small
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