Criterion March Releases (US - DVD R1 | BD RA)
Criterion announces Badlands, The Blob, and more for their March lineup..
Criterion has announced their releases for the month of March. Each film will be available on both DVD and Blu-ray. Special features and artwork for each release are attached below:
Quote: Release Date: 12 March 2013
SRP: $29.95
Synopsis: Suffused with dread and paranoia, this Fritz Lang adaptation of a novel by Graham Greene is a plunge into the eerie shadows of a world turned upside down by war. En route to London after being released from a mental institution, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister underworld with possible Nazi connections. Lang was among the most illustrious of the European émigré filmmakers working in Hollywood during World War II, and Ministry of Fear is one of his finest American productions, an unpredictable thriller with style to spare.
Disc Features
-New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-New interview with Fritz Lang scholar Joe McElhaney
-Trailer
-An essay by critic Glenn Kenny
Quote: Release Date: 12 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: A cult classic of gooey greatness, The Blob follows the havoc wreaked on a small town by an outer-space monster with neither soul nor vertebrae, with Steve McQueen playing the rebel teen who tries to warn the residents about the jellylike invader. Strong performances and ingenious special effects help The Blob transcend the schlock sci-fi and youth delinquency genres from which it originates. Made outside of Hollywood by a maverick film distributor and a crew whose credits mostly comprised religious and educational shorts, The Blob helped launch the careers of McQueen and composer Burt Bacharach, whose bouncy title song is just one of this film’s many unexpected pleasures.
Disc Features
-New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-Two audio commentaries: one by producer Jack H. Harris and film historian Bruce Eder and the other by director Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. and actor Robert Fields
-Trailer
- Blobabilia!, a gallery of collector Wes Shank’s rare trove of stills, posters, props (including the blob itself!), and other ephemera
-An essay by critic Kim Newman
Quote: Release Date: 19 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: Badlands announced the arrival of a major talent: Terrence Malick. His impressionistic take on the notorious Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate killing spree of the late 1950s uses a serial-killer narrative as a springboard for an oblique teenage romance, lovingly and idiosyncratically enacted by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The film also introduced many of the elements that would earn Malick his passionate following: the enigmatic approach to narrative and character, the unusual use of voice-over, the juxtaposition of human violence with natural beauty, the poetic investigation of American dreams and nightmares. This debut has spawned countless imitations, but none have equaled its strange sublimity.
Disc Features
-New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Making “Badlands,” a new documentary featuring actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and production designer Jack Fisk
-New interview with editor Billy Weber about director Terrence Malick’s unique approach to editing
-New interview with producer Edward Pressman
-Trailer
-A booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda
Quote: Release Date: 19 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: Considered by many to be the finest British film ever made, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a stirring masterpiece like no other. Roger Livesey dynamically embodies outmoded English militarism as the indelible General Clive Candy, who barely survives four decades of tumultuous British history (1902 to 1942) only to see the world change irrevocably before his eyes. Anton Walbrook and Deborah Kerr provide unforgettable support, he as a German enemy turned lifelong friend of Candy’s and she as young women of three consecutive generations—a socially committed governess, a sweet-souled war nurse, and a modern-thinking army driver—who inspire him. Colonel Blimp is both moving and slyly satirical, an incomparable film about war, love, aging, and obsolescence shot in gorgeous Technicolor.
Disc Features
-New 4K digital master from the 2012 Film Foundation restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-Audio commentary featuring director Michael Powell and filmmaker Martin Scorsese
-Video introduction by Scorsese
- A Profile of “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” a twenty-four-minute documentary
-Restoration demonstration, hosted by Scorsese
-Interview with editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, Michael Powell’s widow
-Gallery featuring rare behind-the-scenes production stills
-Gallery tracing the history of David Low’s original Colonel Blimp cartoons
-A booklet featuring an essay by critic Molly Haskell
Quote: Release Date: 26 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: With the simplest of concepts and sparest of techniques, Robert Bresson made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time in A Man Escaped. Based on the memoirs of an imprisoned French resistance leader, this unbelievably taut and methodical marvel follows the fictional Fontaine’s single-minded pursuit of freedom, detailing the planning and carrying out of his escape with gripping precision. But Bresson’s film is not merely process-minded—it’s a work of intense spirituality and humanity.
Disc Features
-New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Bresson: Without a Trace, a 1965 episode of the television program Cinéastes de notre temps in which the director gives his first on-camera interview
- The Essence of Forms, a forty-five-minute documentary from 2010 in which some of Bresson’s collaborators and admirers, including actor François Leterrier and director Bruno Dumont, share their thoughts about the director and his work
-New visual essay with text by film scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
-Trailer
-New English subtitle translation
-A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Tony Pipolo
Quote: Release Date: 26 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin plays shockingly against type in his most controversial film, a brilliant and bleak black comedy about money, marriage, and murder. Chaplin is a twentieth-century Bluebeard, an enigmatic family man who goes to extreme lengths to support his wife and child, attempting to bump off a series of wealthy widows (including one played by the indefatigable Martha Raye, in a hilarious performance). This deeply philosophical and wildly entertaining film is a work of true sophistication, both for the moral questions it dares to ask and the way it deconstructs its megastar’s loveable on-screen persona.
Disc Features
-New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Chaplin Today: “Monsieur Verdoux,” a 2003 program on the film’s production and release, featuring filmmaker Claude Chabrol and actor Norman Lloyd
-Charlie Chaplin and the American Press, a new documentary featuring Chaplin specialist Kate Guyonvarch and author Charles Maland
-New video essay featuring an audio interview with actress Marilyn Nash
-Radio advertisements and trailers
-A booklet featuring an essay by critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and reprinted pieces by Chaplin and critic André Bazin
News by Jonathan Hogberg
Ministry of Fear
Quote: Release Date: 12 March 2013
SRP: $29.95
Synopsis: Suffused with dread and paranoia, this Fritz Lang adaptation of a novel by Graham Greene is a plunge into the eerie shadows of a world turned upside down by war. En route to London after being released from a mental institution, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister underworld with possible Nazi connections. Lang was among the most illustrious of the European émigré filmmakers working in Hollywood during World War II, and Ministry of Fear is one of his finest American productions, an unpredictable thriller with style to spare.
Disc Features
-New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-New interview with Fritz Lang scholar Joe McElhaney
-Trailer
-An essay by critic Glenn Kenny
The Blob
Quote: Release Date: 12 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: A cult classic of gooey greatness, The Blob follows the havoc wreaked on a small town by an outer-space monster with neither soul nor vertebrae, with Steve McQueen playing the rebel teen who tries to warn the residents about the jellylike invader. Strong performances and ingenious special effects help The Blob transcend the schlock sci-fi and youth delinquency genres from which it originates. Made outside of Hollywood by a maverick film distributor and a crew whose credits mostly comprised religious and educational shorts, The Blob helped launch the careers of McQueen and composer Burt Bacharach, whose bouncy title song is just one of this film’s many unexpected pleasures.
Disc Features
-New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-Two audio commentaries: one by producer Jack H. Harris and film historian Bruce Eder and the other by director Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. and actor Robert Fields
-Trailer
- Blobabilia!, a gallery of collector Wes Shank’s rare trove of stills, posters, props (including the blob itself!), and other ephemera
-An essay by critic Kim Newman
Badlands
Quote: Release Date: 19 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: Badlands announced the arrival of a major talent: Terrence Malick. His impressionistic take on the notorious Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate killing spree of the late 1950s uses a serial-killer narrative as a springboard for an oblique teenage romance, lovingly and idiosyncratically enacted by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The film also introduced many of the elements that would earn Malick his passionate following: the enigmatic approach to narrative and character, the unusual use of voice-over, the juxtaposition of human violence with natural beauty, the poetic investigation of American dreams and nightmares. This debut has spawned countless imitations, but none have equaled its strange sublimity.
Disc Features
-New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Making “Badlands,” a new documentary featuring actors Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek and production designer Jack Fisk
-New interview with editor Billy Weber about director Terrence Malick’s unique approach to editing
-New interview with producer Edward Pressman
-Trailer
-A booklet featuring an essay by filmmaker Michael Almereyda
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
Quote: Release Date: 19 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: Considered by many to be the finest British film ever made, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a stirring masterpiece like no other. Roger Livesey dynamically embodies outmoded English militarism as the indelible General Clive Candy, who barely survives four decades of tumultuous British history (1902 to 1942) only to see the world change irrevocably before his eyes. Anton Walbrook and Deborah Kerr provide unforgettable support, he as a German enemy turned lifelong friend of Candy’s and she as young women of three consecutive generations—a socially committed governess, a sweet-souled war nurse, and a modern-thinking army driver—who inspire him. Colonel Blimp is both moving and slyly satirical, an incomparable film about war, love, aging, and obsolescence shot in gorgeous Technicolor.
Disc Features
-New 4K digital master from the 2012 Film Foundation restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
-Audio commentary featuring director Michael Powell and filmmaker Martin Scorsese
-Video introduction by Scorsese
- A Profile of “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp,” a twenty-four-minute documentary
-Restoration demonstration, hosted by Scorsese
-Interview with editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, Michael Powell’s widow
-Gallery featuring rare behind-the-scenes production stills
-Gallery tracing the history of David Low’s original Colonel Blimp cartoons
-A booklet featuring an essay by critic Molly Haskell
A Man Escaped
Quote: Release Date: 26 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: With the simplest of concepts and sparest of techniques, Robert Bresson made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time in A Man Escaped. Based on the memoirs of an imprisoned French resistance leader, this unbelievably taut and methodical marvel follows the fictional Fontaine’s single-minded pursuit of freedom, detailing the planning and carrying out of his escape with gripping precision. But Bresson’s film is not merely process-minded—it’s a work of intense spirituality and humanity.
Disc Features
-New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Bresson: Without a Trace, a 1965 episode of the television program Cinéastes de notre temps in which the director gives his first on-camera interview
- The Essence of Forms, a forty-five-minute documentary from 2010 in which some of Bresson’s collaborators and admirers, including actor François Leterrier and director Bruno Dumont, share their thoughts about the director and his work
-New visual essay with text by film scholars David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson
-Trailer
-New English subtitle translation
-A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Tony Pipolo
Monsieur Verdoux
Quote: Release Date: 26 March 2013
SRP: $39.95
Synopsis: Charlie Chaplin plays shockingly against type in his most controversial film, a brilliant and bleak black comedy about money, marriage, and murder. Chaplin is a twentieth-century Bluebeard, an enigmatic family man who goes to extreme lengths to support his wife and child, attempting to bump off a series of wealthy widows (including one played by the indefatigable Martha Raye, in a hilarious performance). This deeply philosophical and wildly entertaining film is a work of true sophistication, both for the moral questions it dares to ask and the way it deconstructs its megastar’s loveable on-screen persona.
Disc Features
-New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Chaplin Today: “Monsieur Verdoux,” a 2003 program on the film’s production and release, featuring filmmaker Claude Chabrol and actor Norman Lloyd
-Charlie Chaplin and the American Press, a new documentary featuring Chaplin specialist Kate Guyonvarch and author Charles Maland
-New video essay featuring an audio interview with actress Marilyn Nash
-Radio advertisements and trailers
-A booklet featuring an essay by critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and reprinted pieces by Chaplin and critic André Bazin
News by Jonathan Hogberg
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lee09
Member
Join Date: May 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 949
Nothing for me from this Criterion batch. Where's The Devil's Backbone darn it? Grrr.
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"Badlands!" Finally Warner Bros!!!
I've been waiting for the Blimp Bluray. I'll easily buy all of this months releases. Good job! Interesting covers though...
Might consider Badlands, if only for the amazing cover.
Love how all of the new features on Badlands not feature Malick himself. I know he's Malick and all but if everyone from your lead to your editor's game; why can't you?
Still awaiting 'The Life Aquatic'
the blob...seriously? and i thought armageddon and the rock seemed like odd choices for them.
It is obnoxious how Terrence Malick absolutely refuses to ever do any interviews ever and never participate in any special features for any of his films. It's extremely pretentious and comes off as him saying screw the fans of his films. Tree of Life was really bloated and disappointing and The New World was not that great either. I like Badlands and Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line but Malick is far from being another Stanley Kubrick.
The only other artist I can think of that is so shy/secretive/private/whatever like Malick is Thomas Harris, author of Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal and so on. He's never done interviews either to anyone.
The only other artist I can think of that is so shy/secretive/private/whatever like Malick is Thomas Harris, author of Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal and so on. He's never done interviews either to anyone.
I coulda sworn Blimp was on Blu-ray. I guess I watched it on Netflix streaming in HD.
Russell78 wrote: It is obnoxious how Terrence Malick absolutely refuses to ever do any interviews ever and never participate in any special features for any of his films. It's extremely pretentious and comes off as him saying screw the fans of his films. Tree of Life was really bloated and disappointing and The New World was not that great either. I like Badlands and Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line but Malick is far from being another Stanley Kubrick.
The only other artist I can think of that is so shy/secretive/private/whatever like Malick is Thomas Harris, author of Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal and so on. He's never done interviews either to anyone.
I figure that they think their work should speak for itself, and if that's their game, more power to them. Keeping a certain mystery makes things intriguing. Steven Spielberg refuses to do commentary tracks on his films, yet he's accessible via interviews and Q&A sessions. And if it's to avoid having their words taken out of context or having their words taken as their own personal interpretations of their films, sure.
But if it's just because they want to be considered one of the echelons of whatever their profession is without having to explain themselves and open themselves up to criticism, then screw 'em.
The only other artist I can think of that is so shy/secretive/private/whatever like Malick is Thomas Harris, author of Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal and so on. He's never done interviews either to anyone.
I figure that they think their work should speak for itself, and if that's their game, more power to them. Keeping a certain mystery makes things intriguing. Steven Spielberg refuses to do commentary tracks on his films, yet he's accessible via interviews and Q&A sessions. And if it's to avoid having their words taken out of context or having their words taken as their own personal interpretations of their films, sure.
But if it's just because they want to be considered one of the echelons of whatever their profession is without having to explain themselves and open themselves up to criticism, then screw 'em.
I really hate the Criterion covers, they're artsy for the sake of being artsy. Can't they just use the original poster?
Alright ! They're putting out The Blob again...on blu-ray, this time. Finally...a Criterion movie I've actually heard of.
Which is cool, but unless it's a multiple disc set, there's no reason for it to cost 40 dollars.
Which is cool, but unless it's a multiple disc set, there's no reason for it to cost 40 dollars.
Matt Stilwell wrote: Alright ! They're putting out The Blob again...on blu-ray, this time. Finally...a Criterion movie I've actually heard of.
Which is cool, but unless it's a multiple disc set, there's no reason for it to cost 40 dollars.
You're proud ignorence of film history is astounding.
Which is cool, but unless it's a multiple disc set, there's no reason for it to cost 40 dollars.
You're proud ignorence of film history is astounding.
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