The Criterion Collection UK and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have confirmed the two titles that form their May 2017 release line-up.
First up is Juzo Itami‘s stylish and delectable ‘ramen western’ Tampopo, releasing on 1 May, followed by Sidney’s Lumet‘s masterful courtroom drama, and one of the greatest works in American cinema, 12 Angry Men on 15 May.
TAMPOPO
A Film By Juzo Itami
Release Date: 1 May, 2017
The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle-shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous “ramen western” by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges—our appetites.
Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café a success with the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster and glimpses of food culture both high and low, the sweet, sexy, and surreal Tampopo is a lavishly inclusive paean to the sensual joys of nourishment, and one of the most mouthwatering examples of food on film ever made.
Special Features:
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- The Making of “Tampopo,” a ninety-minute documentary from 1986, narrated by director Juzo Itami
- New interview with actor Nobuko Miyamoto
- New interview with food stylist Seiko Ogawa
- New interviews with ramen scholar Hiroshi Oosaki and chefs Sam White, Rayneil De Guzman, Jerry Jaksich, and Ivan Orkin
- Rubber Band Pistol, Itami’s 1962 debut short film
- New video essay by filmmakers Tony Zhou and Taylor Ramos on the film’s themes of self-improvement and mastery of a craft
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by food and culture writer Willy Blackmore
12 ANGRY MEN
A Film By Sidney Lumet
Release Date: 15 May, 2017
12 Angry Men, by Sidney Lumet, may be the most radical courtroom drama in cinema history.
A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system that is as riveting as it is spare, this iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose’s teleplay stars Henry Fonda as the dissenting member on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father.
The result is a saga of epic proportions that plays out over a tense afternoon in one sweltering room. Lumet’s electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature film debuts.
Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Frank Schaffner’s 1955 teleplay of 12 Angry Men, from the series Studio One, featuring an introduction by Ron Simon, curator at the Paley Center for Media
- Production history of 12 Angry Men, from teleplay to big-screen classic
- Archival interviews with director Sidney Lumet
- New interview with screenwriter Walter Bernstein about Lumet
- New interview with Simon about writer Reginald Rose
- Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose
- New interview with cinematographer John Bailey about director of photography Boris Kaufman
- Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum
