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| On October 25, Criterion is presenting four outstanding examples of the "outlaw samurai” film in Rebel Samurai: Sixties Swordplay Classics, a collector's set featuring Masaki Kobayashi’s Samurai Rebellion, Hideo Gosha’s Sword of the Beast, Masahiro Shinoda’s Samurai Spy, and Kihachi Okamoto’s Kill! The films—packaged together at a special low price—are also available individually, but if you like one, you’re sure to love them all! Also due on October 25 is Jean-Pierre Melville's sleek Le samouraï, the brilliantly stylized gangster film that exerted a profound influence on contemporary directors as diverse as John Woo and Jim Jarmusch, and a remastered, two-disc edition of Henri-Georges Clouzot's stirring The Wages of Fear, featuring a host of new supplements, including a look at how almost fifty minutes of scenes perceived as anti-American were cut upon its initial U.S. release, in 1955. |
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Many readers have undoubtedly come across the news that one of Criterion's distributors, Image Entertainment, recently purchased our other distributor, Home Vision Entertainment. Image has now become Criterion's exclusive distributor in the U.S. Rest assured, these changes will not affect our content in any way. If anything, you will see our discs available in more places than ever. We look forward to continuing our successful relationship with Image. |
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Thanks to everyone who submitted responses to our first-ever Criterion Trivia Quiz, and congratulations to our three winners—Anthony Formato from the Bronx, New York; Judson Picco from Chicago; and Bries Vannon, also from Chicago!
The correct answers to the questions are: |
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1) The Honeymoon Killers
A young Martin Scorsese was originally hired to direct this darkly comic story of love and serial murder. Due to conflicts with the film’s producers, however, he was removed from the picture after two weeks of shooting. |
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2) Masaru Sato
Acclaimed Japanese composer Masaru Sato has composed music for no less than ten Criterion films—Crazed Fruit, The Hidden Fortress, High and Low, Kill!, The Lower Depths, Red Beard, Sanjuro, The Sword of Doom, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo. And if you include our laserdisc catalog, that number jumps to eleven. A close second for this title is Nino Rota, with nine titles to his name (ten, with laserdiscs). |
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3) Milos Forman
Forman (Loves of a Blonde; The Fireman’s Ball), directed Nicholas Ray in Hair, Norman Mailer in Ragtime, and Tina Turner and Carly Simon in Taking Off. No stranger to larger-than-life personalities, Forman has also directed the likes of Jack Nicholson, James Cagney, and Courtney Love! |
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Throughout his eclectic career, director Steven Soderbergh has managed to assume the mantle of both staunch independent and consummate insider, freely shuttling back and forth between large-budget studio pictures and much more modest fare made on the outskirts of the system. Schizopolis is a prime example of his dedication to small-scale, personal filmmaking. Made on a shoestring, in his native Baton Rouge, Schizopolis was Soderbergh’s way of returning to his roots and rediscovering his passion for filmmaking after years of struggle in and around Hollywood. The result is a wild, surrealistic, free-form satire of the corporate world and suburban malaise. When Criterion set out to produce a DVD of the film, Soderbergh insisted that the release maintain its bold irreverence, resulting in an unorthodox collection of supplements, including a commentary in which Soderbergh interviews himself. Soderbergh has enjoyed many major successes since Schizopolis (including his sprawling portrait of the drug trade, Traffic), but his commitment to independent filmmaking remains fully intact: his latest film, Bubble—to be released by Magnolia Pictures in January—is a low-budget production that stars nonprofessional actors and was made in and around an Ohio doll factory. |
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Forbidden Games
René Clément, 1952
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Shoot the Piano Player
François Truffaut, 1961
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For further information on Criterion and our products, please visit our website at www.criterionco.com
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©2005 The Criterion Collection |
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| Last month, we received the following e-mail:
Dear Sir or Madam,
[Is there] any veracity to the reports circulating on the Internet that Criterion will be rereleasing Jacques Tati's Playtime in 2005, in a revised edition?
I was contemplating buying a $199 copy of the Tati film on an Internet auction, so I am hoping someone at Criterion might have some knowledge concerning this impending rerelease, or tell me if it is just a pipe dream of some cinephiles.
I am the proud owner of over eighty Criterion discs, all of which are most rewarding and entertaining, and would prefer to add your rerelease of Playtime to my collection, rather than some of the older DVD copies from other sources, which are proliferating on the Internet.
Thank you for any assistance you can give me about this Tati DVD!
Most sincerely,
Maura W.
We’ve received many such e-mails from fans wondering about the status of Tati’s astounding 1967 comedy, and we are happy to report that we are indeed planning to release a new edition of Playtime—either individually or as part of a Jacques Tati box set—sometime in 2006. Watch the Criterion website for details. |
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Currently under way at New York City’s Film Society of Lincoln Center is the 43rd New York Film Festival, one of the premier festivals of international cinema in the U.S. Included in this year’s lineup are new films by an incredible group of cinematic luminaries, including Mona Lisa director Neil Jordan (Breakfast on Pluto), Element of Crime director Lars von Trier (Manderlay), Traffic director Stephen Soderbergh (Bubble), and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou screenwriter Noah Baumbach (The Squid and the Whale). Also featured at this year’s fest is a sprawling retrospective of films from the 110-year reign of Japan’s Shochiku Studio, including such classics as Yasujiro Ozu’s A Story of Floating Weeds and Masahiro Kobayashi’s Harakiri. |
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Recent winner of a 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellows Program “genius grant,” Jonathan Lethem is one of America’s premier contemporary writers. His works include the novels Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, as well as a vast array of short stories and essays. He has also contributed essays to the Criterion releases of Robert Siodmak’s The Killers, Preston Sturges's Unfaithfully Yours, and the John Cassavetes: Five Films box set. For this month’s Selects, we thought we’d asked Mr. Lethem to contribute a list of favorite Criterion films:
F for Fake
Red Beard
I Know Where I’m Going
Le trou
Videodrome
3 Women
The Making of Fanny & Alexander
Slacker
Sword of Doom
The Man Who Fell to Earth
Click here for Lethem's comments, which are definitely worth a look.
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