The Criterion Collection has just unveiled its four new releases for November 2017, bringing together one of Golden Age Hollywood’s wittiest romantic comedies, a swooning landmark of queer cinema, a nonsensical romp through Medieval England and one of the sharpest and coolest films of the 60s, the latter upgraded from the previously available standard DVD edition.
THE PHILADELPHIA STORY
A Film by George Cukor
Release Date: 7 November, 2017
1940 • 112 MINUTES • BLACK & WHITE • MONAURAL • 1.37:1
A fast-talking screwball comedy and one of the greatest American films of all time, George Cukor’s celebrated film pits the formidable Philadelphia socialite Tracy Lord (Katherine Hepburn) against various romantic foils, chief among them her charismatic ex-husband (Cary Grant), who disrupts her imminent marriage by paying her family estate a visit, accompanied by a tabloid reporter on assignment to cover the wedding of the year (James Stewart).
Special Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2005 featuring film scholar Jeanine Basinger
- New introduction to actor Katharine Hepburn’s role in the development of the film by documentarians David Heeley and Joan Kramer
- In Search of Tracy Lord, a new documentary about the origin of the character and her social milieu
- Two full episodes of The Dick Cavett Show from 1973, featuring rare interviews with Hepburn, plus an excerpt of a 1978 interview from that show with director George Cukor
- Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1943, featuring an introduction by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille
- Restoration demonstration
PLUS: An essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme
JABBERWOCKY
A Film by Terry Gilliam
Release Date: 21 November, 2017
1977 • 105 MINUTES • COLOUR • 5.1 SURROUND • 1.85:1
Amid the filth and muck of England in the Dark Ages, a fearsome dragon stalks the land, casting a shadow of terror upon the kingdom of Bruno the Questionable. Who should emerge as the town’s only possible savior but Dennis Cooper (Michael Palin), an endearingly witless bumpkin who stumbles onto the scene and is flung into the role of brave knight?
The first outing as a solo director by Terry Gilliam—inspired by Lewis Carroll’s poem – Jabberwocky showcases his delight in comic nonsense, with a cast chock-full of beloved British character actors. A giddy romp through blood and excrement, this fantasy remains one of the filmmaker’s most uproarious visions of society run amok.
Director-Approved Special Features:
- New 4K digital transfer from a restoration by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, approved by director Terry Gilliam
- 5.1 surround mix, supervised by Gilliam and presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Gilliam and actor Michael Palin
- New documentary on the making of the film, featuring Gilliam, producer Sandy Lieberson, Palin, and actor Annette Badland
- New interview with Valerie Charlton, designer of the Jabberwock, featuring her collection of rare behind- the-scenes photographs
- Selection of Gilliam’s storyboards and sketches
- PLUS: An essay by critic Scott Tobias
DESERT HEARTS
A Film by Donna Deitch
Release Date: 14 November, 2017
1985 • 91 MINUTES • COLOUR • MONAURAL • 1.85:1
The swooning and sensual first narrative feature by Donna Deitch, Desert Hearts was groundbreaking upon its 1985 release: a love story about two women, made entirely independently, on a self-financed shoestring budget, by a woman.
In the 1959-set film, an adaptation of a beloved novel by Jane Rule, straitlaced East Coast professor Vivian Bell (Helen Shaver) arrives in Reno to file for divorce but winds up catching the eye of someone new, the younger free spirit Cay (Patricia Charbonneau), touching off a slow seduction that unfolds against a breathtaking desert landscape.
With undeniable chemistry between its two leads, an evocative jukebox soundtrack, and vivid cinematography by Robert Elswit, Desert Hearts beautifully exudes a sense of tender yearning and emotional candor.
Director-Approved Special Features:
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Robert Elswit, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2007 featuring director Donna Deitch
- New conversation between Deitch and actor Jane Lynch
- New conversation between Deitch, Elswit, and production designer Jeannine Oppewall about the film’s visual style
- New interviews with actors Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau
- Excerpt from Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule, a 1995 documentary about the author of Desert of the Heart, the 1964 novel on which the film is based
- PLUS: An essay by critic B. Ruby Rich
LE SAMOURAI
A Film by Donna Deitch
Release Date: 14 November, 2017
1967 • 105 MINUTES • COLOR • MONAURAL • IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES • 1.85:1
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts.
After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him.
An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean-Pierre Melville, Le samouraï is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone- warrior mythology.
Director-Approved Special Features:
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Interviews with Rui Nogueira, editor of Melville on Melville, and Ginette Vincendeau, author of Jean- Pierre Melville: An American in Paris
- Archival interviews with Melville and actors Alain Delon, François Périer, Nathalie Delon, and Cathy Rosier
- Melville-Delon: D’Honneur et de nuit (2011), a short documentary exploring the friendship between the director and the actor and their iconic collaboration on this film
- PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Thomson. The Blu-ray also features an appreciation by filmmaker John Woo and excerpts from Melville on Melville.
