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Street date: 11/8
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Strictly speaking, Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket has never been remade, but it continues to exert a profound influence on filmmakers. In his introduction to the DVD, Paul Schrader says that nearly all of his screenplays—from American Gigolo to Taxi Driver—owe a debt to Pickpocket. More recently, the Dardenne brothers virtually re-created the film’s ending in their Palme d’or–winning L’enfant . |
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Street date: 11/8
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Kenji Mizoguchi, Akira Kurosawa, and Yasujiro Ozu—the pillars of Japanese cinema—employed such distinct filmmaking styles that it’s easy to overlook the ways in which they influenced each other. Mizoguchi’s competitiveness with the younger Kurosawa, for instance, played a prominent role in shaping Ugetsu. In his commentary on the DVD, critic Tony Rayns suggests that Kurosawa’s international success with Rashomon pushed Mizoguchi toward an atypical choice of subject: Ugetsu was Mizoguchi’s first film set in the ancient past, and it was his first ghost story. According to Rayns, Mizoguchi hoped to gain back critical ground lost to his rival, and believed these subjects would appeal to the international audience that had acclaimed Rashomon. It paid off: Ugetsu won the Silver Lion at the 1953 Venice Film Festival and remains one of the best-loved Japanese films ever made, regularly appearing in Sight & Sound’s “Ten Best” poll decade after decade. |
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Street date: 11/25
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In an era of computer-generated special effects, it’s refreshing to look at Ran, where a director’s desire for spectacle is matched by his commitment to authenticity. While Ran is a masterpiece of production design, nothing in it tops the creation of the “Third Castle.” Kurosawa and company built an actual thirty-nine-foot-high structure on the slopes of Mount Fuji, then put the film’s star, Tatsuya Nakadai, inside—before proceeding to burn it to the ground. For images from the film, click here. |
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Street date: 11/25
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We never tell a lie. More than three years ago, we announced the imminent release of The Tales of Hoffmann. At long last . . . |
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For years, The Browning Version ranked near the top of our list of most-requested titles. It was a mystery to Jon Mulvaney why, week after week, the e-mail flooded in, asking when Criterion would release the 1951 Anthony Asquith classic, starring Michael Redgrave as an English public school master. At a certain point, we began to suspect that there might be a single fanatical fan out there writing us about the film in every spare moment he or she could find. Unfortunately, the original film elements were in rough shape, and the original negative seemed to have been lost, which meant our avid correspondent had to wait while we undertook an extensive digital restoration. To get a sense of the kind of damage that was evident throughout the best surviving elements, click here for a before-and-after look at Criterion’s restoration. We were finally able to release the DVD this year, and while we’ll never know if that letter-writing campaign came from one person or many, we hope he, she, or they enjoyed it as much as another Criterion viewer who wrote us just this week, calling The Browning Version “one of my father’s greatest screen performances. I’m thrilled to have it in my collection. With gratitude and best wishes, Lynn Redgrave.”
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Thanks again to all who responded to our trivia quiz in September. We were thrilled that so many of you took the time to enter. This month, we’ve got Six Degrees of Separation—not with Kevin Bacon, but with the Criterion actors and directors below. This is how it works: Using only Criterion films, link each pair of names below so that the complete chain is no more than six people. Supply correct answers for two sets, and you can win a December title of your choice in a random drawing. If you answer all three correctly, you’ll receive two December titles. We’ll pick three winners.
For example: If the names were Ingmar Bergman/Anthony Asquith, a correct response would be:
* Ingmar Bergman directed Autumn Sonata (1978), with Ingrid Bergman
* Ingrid Bergman starred in Notorious (1946), directed by Alfred Hitchcock
* Alfred Hitchcock directed The Lady Vanishes (1938), featuring Michael Redgrave
* Michael Redgrave starred in The Browning Version (1951), directed by Anthony Asquith
Okay, here goes:
Jean Renoir/Jack Palance
Monica Vitti/Cary Grant
Tony Curtis/Pier Paolo Pasolini
Good luck. All entries
need to be e-mailed to contest@criterionco.com by November 24, 2005. Happy Thanksgiving and happy linking.
No purchase required. U.S. and Canadian addresses only.
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Brick-and-mortar Criterion shoppers should look for a special Criterion sale at all Tower Records and Video locations this month, as well as at all Hastings stores. Borders is featuring a “Best of 2005” promotion in all its stores in November, with ten Criterion titles at a special discount. In New York City, J & R Music continues its dedicated Criterion section; and the Best Buy location on Broadway, in Noho, now has its own dedicated Criterion section, the first of its kind in the chain. Thanks to all these retailers for their support.
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Filmmaker D. A. Pennebaker (Don’t Look Back, Monterey Pop, The War Room) and Chris Hegedus (The War Room, Startup.com)—creative partners and husband and wife—offer these favorites:
D. A. Pennebaker
The Lady Vanishes
Nanook of the North
The Red Shoes
Le million
I Know Where I’m Going!
Children of Paradise
A nous la liberté
The Horse’s Mouth
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
La strada
Jules and Jim
Masculin féminin
Chris Hegedus
8 1/2
Juliet of the Spirits
Contempt
Fanny and Alexander
The Battle of Algiers
Sullivan’s Travels
I Know Where I’m Going!
Jules and Jim
Monterey Pop
Salesman
For Pennebaker and Hegedus’s comments on these films, click here.
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