The Criterion Collection Newsletter

Author and actor Christa Lang-Fuller married director Samuel Fuller in 1967. In 1981, they founded Chrisam Films, which Lang-Fuller has continued to run since her husband’s death, in 1987. She coedited Fuller’s autobiography, A Third Face, for Random House and is currently writing a new book and working on two screenplays. She has one daughter by Fuller, Samantha, a glass artist and actor, and a granddaughter, Samira, eight years old. They are all big film buffs.

1. Children of Paradise
2. The Rules of the Game
3. That Obscure Object of Desire
4. Pickpocket
5. The Tin Drum
6. The BRD Trilogy
7. Alphaville
8. Contempt
9. M
10. Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss

To read Lang-Fuller’s thoughts on her top ten selections, click here.

This time last year, we asked you to name five Criterion titles that had won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This year, we’d like to change it a little: name five actors who appear in Criterion releases and who have also won Academy Awards in the Best Actor category. The winner will receive a single-disc Criterion DVD of their choice, and four runners-up will receive Criterion T-shirts. Send an email to contest@criterion.com to enter.

When we released Jim Jarmusch’s film Down by Law a few years back, the Ask Jim feature was so popular, we’ve decided to do it again. We are currently working on the special edition DVD of Jarmusch’s Night on Earth, and we are wondering what questions you would like answered about the film. We can’t guarantee he will answer all (or any) of your questions on the DVD, but please send them to: noe@criterion.com.

We will be accepting your questions through February 19. Please do not send any personal requests; they will not be answered. Please do send thoughtful and creative questions, as many as you like. But remember to include your full name, city, state, and country of residence. Thanks for participating and look out for the DVD this fall!

NOTE: By sending a question to this address you allow the Criterion Collection to use your full name, city, state, and country of residence and your question, in full or edited form, in any or all media, worldwide, in perpetuity.

Forest Whitaker is winning awards left and right, in the race up to the Oscars, for his portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. To see the real Idi Amin, however, check out the documentary General Idi Amin Dada, by legendary director Barbet Schroeder (Koko: A Talking Gorilla, Maitresse). In the French filmmaker’s incisive, disturbing profile, the unsettlingly charming tyrant comes across as far more colorful, dangerous, and strange than any fiction could possibly capture.

Fires on the Plain
The Burmese Harp
The Naked City

And . . . the launch of Eclipse!
Series 1: Early Bergman


For many viewers, the collection Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist will be a major education—much as it was for us. We’ve put out a lot of “important” films at the Criterion Collection, but rarely does a release seem as utterly essential as this first-ever DVD set devoted to cinema’s first African American leading man. The legacy of this monumental icon has been kept alive over the past half century thanks to the tireless efforts of Paul Robeson Jr., who worked with us as a close adviser on the four-disc, eight-film collection. Robeson Jr. recently wrote to us to let us know how he felt about the finished product: “It’s a benchmark in the legacy of my father . . . It’s a necessary punctuation: Robeson’s back.” Happy viewing!		Author and actor Christa Lang-Fuller married director Samuel Fuller in 1967. In 1981, they founded Chrisam Films, which Lang-Fuller has continued to run since her husband’s death, in 1987. She coedited Fuller’s autobiography, A Third Face, for Random House and is currently writing a new book and working on two screenplays. She has one daughter by Fuller, Samantha, a glass artist and actor, and a granddaughter, Samira, eight years old. They are all big film buffs. 1. *Children of Paradise* 2. *The Rules of the Game* 3. *That Obscure Object of Desire* 4. *Pickpocket* 5. *The Tin Drum* 6. *The BRD Trilogy* 7. *Alphaville* 8. *Contempt* 9. M 10. *Shock Corridor* and *The Naked Kiss* To read Lang-Fuller’s thoughts on her top ten selections, click here. This time last year, we asked you to name five Criterion titles that had won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. This year, we’d like to change it a little: name five actors who appear in Criterion releases and who have also won Academy Awards in the Best Actor category. The winner will receive a single-disc Criterion DVD of their choice, and four runners-up will receive Criterion T-shirts. Send an email to contest@criterion.com to enter. When we released Jim Jarmusch’s film *Down by Law* a few years back, the Ask Jim feature was so popular, we’ve decided to do it again. We are currently working on the special edition DVD of Jarmusch’s Night on Earth, and we are wondering what questions you would like answered about the film. We can’t guarantee he will answer all (or any) of your questions on the DVD, but please send them to: noe@criterion.com. We will be accepting your questions through February 19. Please do not send any personal requests; they will not be answered. Please do send thoughtful and creative questions, as many as you like. But remember to include your full name, city, state, and country of residence. Thanks for participating and look out for the DVD this fall! NOTE: By sending a question to this address you allow the Criterion Collection to use your full name, city, state, and country of residence and your question, in full or edited form, in any or all media, worldwide, in perpetuity. Forest Whitaker is winning awards left and right, in the race up to the Oscars, for his portrayal of Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. To see the real Idi Amin, however, check out the documentary General Idi Amin Dada, by legendary director Barbet Schroeder (Koko: A Talking Gorilla, *Maitresse). In the French filmmaker’s incisive, disturbing profile, the unsettlingly charming tyrant comes across as far more colorful, dangerous, and strange than any fiction could possibly capture. Fires on the Plain The Burmese Harp The Naked City And . . . the launch of Eclipse! Series 1: Early Bergman*

STREET DATE: 2/13	When Eugene O’Neill granted producers John Krimsky and Gifford Cochran permission to adapt his play The Emperor Jones for the big screen, his one requirement was that they cast Paul Robeson in the lead role. Robeson, having already moved his family to London, also had a demand for the producers: the film must be shot north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Thus, under the art direction of Herman Rosse, Long Island, New York, stood in for a Caribbean island, Harlem, and the Deep South. As it turned out, working in such close proximity to Harlem was a boon for the producers, who enlisted several performers from the legendary Cotton Club.
STREET DATE: 2/13	Acclaimed filmmaker Sergio Leone was just sixteen years old when he served as an assistant and gofer on the set of Bicycle Thieves. And keep an eye out: Leone also appeared in front of the camera, briefly, playing one of the German priests who appear in the rain at the Porta Portese market, conversing while Bruno and Antonio take refuge from the downpour. Although they aren’t heard, De Sica wanted the priests to be speaking German for verisimilitude, but since Leone’s German was so limited, it actually ended up consisting of them simply reciting numbers over and over.
STREET DATE: 2/13	As Green for Danger was going into production, the censor, upon reviewing the novel on which it was based, gave his opinion that the film shouldn’t be made. It was too soon after World War II, and since hospitals were still overflowing with wounded soldiers, a film in which soldiers die on the operating table simply wasn’t fitting propaganda. Nevertheless, writer-director Sidney Gilliat (The Lady Vanishes) proceeded with the script, though perhaps to allay the censor’s concerns, the hospital in the film isn’t a military hospital, as in the book, and the doctors are civilians.
STREET DATE: 2/20	During the filming of *49th Parallel, shot on location in Canada, actor Eric Portman (A Canterbury Tale*), who plays Nazi lieutenant Hirth, had a rocky relationship with director Michael Powell. The star believed that Powell was putting the actors in harm’s way, particularly in the film’s dynamic submarine sequences. In his diary, Powell recalled Portman standing on the deck of the submarine shouting, “You’ll kill us all for your damn movie!” Portman’s outbursts were heard on the guide track by the film’s editor, David Lean, who, according to Powell, imitated it for years to come. This and many other stories can be heard on the DVD, in excerpts from Powell’s dictation of his diary.
STREET DATE: 2/20	Considered by many to be one of Japan’s most important filmmakers—along with Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Kurosawa—but still relatively unknown in the United States, Mikio Naruse was a bit of an enigma, on and off the set. He was known for his uncanny ability to capture nuance in the eyes and faces of his actors, even though he never gave them “direction.” In an essay reprinted with this release, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs star and Naruse muse Hideko Takamine explains, “He would never say if something was good or bad, interesting or trite. He was completely unresponsive.” In spite of this, Takamine says that she felt no other director so beautifully captured the life of the common person.

For further information on Criterion and our products, please visit our website at www.criterion.com. The Criterion Collection Newsletter is e-mailed every month. If you are not already on our e-mailing list and would like to be added, please consult our Newsletter sign-up page. Click here if you wish to be removed from Criterion's e-mailing list. © 2007 The Criterion Collection