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Criterion March Blu-ray titles: Persona, The Hidden Fortress, A Brief History of Time

Criterion March Blu-ray titles: Persona, The Hidden Fortress, A Brief History of Time

March appears to be a banner month to upgrade old Criterion Collection DVD titles to high-def. I’ve been looking forward to replacing my DVD copy of The Hidden Fortress for some time but never expected to see George Washington get the Blu-ray treatment. This is great news! Also great news: more Bergman on Blu! Others will go bananas for Harold Lloyd‘s The Freshman making its high-def debut but I’m personally more stoked to get my grubby paws on Persona in 1080p.

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The Criterion Collection: Tokyo Story Blu-ray disc review $39.95

The Criterion Collection: Tokyo Story Blu-ray disc review

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  • THE FILM
  • VIDEO
  • AUDIO
  • EXTRAS

TOKYO STORY
(1953, Blu-ray released November 19, 2013 – MSRP $39.95)

THE FILM:

    A profoundly stirring evocation of elemental humanity and universal heartbreak, Tokyo Story is the crowning achievement of the unparalleled Yasujiro Ozu (Late Spring). The film, which follows an aging couple as they leave their rural village to visit their two married children in bustling postwar Tokyo, surveys the rich and complex world of family life with the director’s customary delicacy and incisive perspective on social mores. Featuring lovely performances from Ozu regulars Chishu Ryu (There Was a Father) and Setsuko Hara (Late Autumn), Tokyo Story plumbs and deepens the director’s recurring themes of generational conflict, creating what is without question one of cinema’s mightiest masterpieces.
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The Vincent Price Collection Blu-ray disc review $79.97

The Vincent Price Collection Blu-ray disc review

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  • THE FILMS
  • VIDEO
  • AUDIO
  • EXTRAS

THE VINCENT PRICE COLLECTION
(1960-1971, Blu-ray released October 22, 2013 – MSRP $79.97)

THE FILMS:

    Get ready for six chilling tales starring the master of horror, Vincent Price! This collection includes new and vintage bonus features that focus not just on each film, but on Price’s illustrious and enduring legacy as cinema’s most chilling actor. Films include: “The Pit and the Pendulum“, “The Masque of the Red Death“, “The Haunted Palace“, “The Fall of the House of Usher“, “The Abominable Dr. Phibes“, and “Witchfinder General“.
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Criterion February Blu-ray titles: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Foreign Correspondent, Blue is the Warmest Color

Criterion February Blu-ray titles: Fantastic Mr. Fox, Foreign Correspondent, Blue is the Warmest Color

Wha?! Fantastic Mr. Fox on Criterion Blu?! Has Christmas come early? I mean, we all know Criterion loves them some Wes Anderson, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised, but seriously dudes, it’s a rare animated film that gets the deluxe treatment (the last one was Akira on Laserdisc in 1993!) I’m pretty satisfied with the quality of the previous Fox Blu-ray release so I’ll be grabbing this one solely for the bonus goodies.

The other surprise this month is that Criterion is letting it be known that they’ll be releasing a more deluxe version of Blue is the Warmest Color in the future, just as they put a bare-bones disc on the market. Hm. I’m not sure why they’re rushing this scaled down edition if that’s their intention. At least they’ve set the price point of this one lower.

One final note: Breathless is a dual-format re-release. Nothing new here. Just Blu and DVD in the same package.

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The Criterion Collection: John Cassavetes: Five Films Blu-ray disc review $124.95

The Criterion Collection: John Cassavetes: Five Films Blu-ray disc review

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  • THE FILMS
  • VIDEO
  • AUDIO
  • EXTRAS

JOHN CASSAVETES: FIVE FILMS
(1959-1977, Blu-ray released October 22, 2013 – MSRP $124.95)

THE FILMS:

    John Cassavetes was a genius, a visionary, and the progenitor of American independent film, but that doesn’t begin to get at the generosity of his art. A former theater actor fascinated by the power of improvisation, Cassavetes brought his search for truth in performance to the screen. The five films in this collection—all of which the director maintained total control over by financing them himself and making them outside the studio system—are electrifying and compassionate creations, populated by all manner of humanity: beatniks, hippies, businessmen, actors, housewives, strippers, club owners, gangsters, children. Cassavetes has often been called an actor’s director, but this body of work—even greater than the sum of its extraordinary parts—shows him to be an audience’s director.
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Batman: The Brave and the Bold coming to Blu-ray

Batman: The Brave and the Bold coming to Blu-ray

Batman: The Brave and the Bold isn’t my favourite Batman series by a long shot but it is super fun to watch. I’m really happy to see Warner taking a chance with this one by making it available through their manufacturing-on-demand Archive program. I hope this is a sign that we’ll eventually see the Batman and Superman Animated Series‘ as well as the final two seasons of Justice League on Blu in the near future. Fingers crossed.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold – The Complete First Season is available for pre-order from WB now for a November 5 release.

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Shout at the Devil Blu-ray Disc Review $19.97

Shout at the Devil Blu-ray Disc Review

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  • FILM
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  • AUDIO
  • EXTRAS

SHOUT AT THE DEVIL
(1976, Blu-ray released October 8, 2013 – MSRP $19.97)

THE FILM:

    Peter Hunt (DEATH HUNT) directed this fast-paced action film, based on the best-selling novel by Wilbur Smith. Lee Marvin (THE DIRTY DOZEN) stars as a gruff, opportunist Colonel Flynn O Flynn who enlists the help of an upper-class Englishman Sebastian Oldsmith (Roger Moore) to carry out his ivory smuggling operations in East Africa during World War I. When Sebastian falls in love with O Flynn s beautiful young daughter (Barbara Parkins) the unlikely duo come to blows in the jungle but put their differences aside when forced to get their fortune past German occupying forces readying a battleship for war. Also starring Ian Holm (ALIEN)
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The Criterion Collection: 3 Films By Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman Blu-ray Box Review $99.95

The Criterion Collection: 3 Films By Roberto Rossellini Starring Ingrid Bergman Blu-ray Box Review

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  • THE FILMS
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  • AUDIO
  • EXTRAS

3 FILMS BY ROBERTO ROSSELLINI STARRING INGRID BERGMAN
(1950-1954, Blu-ray released September 24, 2013 – MSRP $99.95)

THE FILM:

    In the late 1940s, the incandescent Hollywood star Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca) found herself so moved by the revolutionary neorealist films of Roberto Rossellini (Rome Open City) that she sent the director a letter, introducing herself and offering her talents. The resulting collaboration produced a series of films that are works of both sociopolitical concern and metaphysical melodrama, each starring Bergman as a woman experiencing physical dislocation and psychic torment in postwar Italy. It also famously led to a scandalous affair and eventual marriage between filmmaker and star, and the focus on their personal lives in the press unfortunately overshadowed the extraordinary films they made together. Stromboli, Europe ’51, and Journey to Italy are intensely personal portraits that reveal the director at his most emotional and the glamorous actor at her most anguished, and that capture them and the world around them in transition.

    STROMBOLI

      The first collaboration between Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman is a devastating portrait of a woman’s existential crisis, set against the beautiful and forbidding backdrop of a volcanic island. After World War II, a Lithuanian refugee (Bergman) marries a simple Italian fisherman (Mario Vitale) she meets in a prisoner of war camp and accompanies him back to his isolated village on an island off the coast of Sicily. Cut off from the world, she finds herself crumbling emotionally, but she is destined for a dramatic epiphany. Balancing the director’s trademark neorealism (exemplified here in a remarkable depiction of the fishermen’s lives and work) with deeply felt melodrama, Stromboli is a revelation.

    EUROPE ’51

      Ingrid Bergman plays a wealthy, self-absorbed socialite in Rome racked by guilt over the shocking death of her young son. As a way of dealing with her grief and finding meaning in her life, she decides to devote her time and money to the city’s poor and sick. Her newfound, single-minded activism leads to conflicts with her husband and questions about her sanity. The intense, often unfairly overlooked Europe ’51 was, according to Rossellini, a retelling of his own The Flowers of St. Francis from a female perspective. This unabashedly political but sensitively conducted investigation of modern sainthood was the director’s favorite of his films.

    JOURNEY TO ITALY

      Among the most influential dramatic works of the postwar era, Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy charts the declining marriage of a couple (Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders) from England while on a trip in the countryside near Naples. More than just an anatomy of a relationship, Rossellini’s masterpiece is a heartrending work of emotion and spirituality. Considered a predecessor to the existentialist films of Michelangelo Antonioni; hailed as a groundbreaking modernist work by the legendary film journal Cahiers du cinéma; and named by director Martin Scorsese as one of his favorite films, Journey to Italy is a breathtaking cinematic benchmark.”

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