The Criterion Collection and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment have announced three new titles to released on Blu-ray in October 2020.
THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK
Directed by Robert Epstein
Release Date: 5 October 2020
A true twentieth-century trailblazer, Harvey Milk was an outspoken human rights activist and the first openly gay U.S. politician elected to public office; even after his assassination, in 1978, he continues to inspire disenfranchised people around the world.
The Oscar-winning The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Robert Epstein (The Celluloid Closet, Paragraph 175) and produced by Richard Schmiechen, was, like its subject, groundbreaking.
One of the first feature documentaries to address gay life in America, the film is a work of advocacy itself, bringing Milk’s message of hope and equality to a wider audience. This exhilarating trove of archival footage and heartfelt interviews is as much a vivid portrait of a time and place (San Francisco’s historic Castro District in the seventies) as a testament to the legacy of a political visionary.
Director-Approved Special Edition Features:
- Director-approved digital transfer, from the meticulous UCLA Film and Television Archive restoration, with DTS-HD Master Audio
- Audio commentary featuring director Robert Epstein, co-editor Deborah Hoffmann, and photographer Daniel Nicoletta
- New interview with documentary filmmaker and UC Berkeley professor Jon Else
- New program about The Times of Harvey Milk and Gus Van Sant’s Milk, featuring Epstein, Van Sant, actor James Franco, and Milk friends Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, and Nicoletta
- Postscript containing interview clips not used in the film
- Rare collection of audio and video recordings of Harvey Milk
- Interview excerpts from Epstein’s research tapes
- Footage from the film’s Castro Theatre premiere and the 1984 Academy Awards ceremony
- Panel discussion on Supervisor Dan White’s controversial trial
- Excerpts from the twenty-fifth anniversary commemoration of Milk’s and Mayor George Moscone’s assassinations
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic B. Ruby Rich, a tribute by Milk’s nephew Stuart Milk, and a piece on the film’s restoration by the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s Ross Lipman
ERASERHEAD
Directed by David Lynch
Release Date: 19 October 2020
David Lynch’s 1977 debut feature, Eraserhead is both a lasting cult sensation and a work of extraordinary craft and beauty.
With its mesmerizing black-and-white photography by Frederick Elmes, evocative sound design, and unforgettably enigmatic performance by Jack Nance, this visionary nocturnal odyssey remains one of American cinema’s darkest dreams.
Director-Approved Special Edition Features:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack
- “Eraserhead” Stories, a 2001 documentary by David Lynch on the making of the film
- New high-definition restorations of six short films by Lynch: Six Figures Getting Sick (1966), The Alphabet (1968), The Grandmother (1970), The Amputee, Part 1 and Part 2 (1974), and Premonitions Following an Evil Deed (1996), all with vide o introductions by Lynch
- New and archival interviews with cast and crew
- Trailer
TOPSY-TURVY
Directed by Mike Leigh
Release Date: 19 October 2020
The world of Gilbert and Sullivan comes to vivid life in Mike Leigh‘s extraordinary dramatisation of the staging of their legendary 1885 comic opera, The Mikado.
Jim Broadbent and Allan Corduner brilliantly inhabit the roles of the world-famous Victorian librettist and composer, respectively, who, along with their troupe of temperamental actors, must battle personal and professional demons while mounting this major production.
A lushly produced epic about the harsh realities of creative expression, featuring bravura performances and Oscar-winning costume design and makeup, Topsy-Turvy is an unexpected period delight from one of contemporary cinema’s great artists.
Director-Approved Special Edition Features:
- Director-approved digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Dick Pope, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh
- New video conversation between Leigh and the film’s musical director, Gary Yershon
- A Sense of History, Leigh’s 1992 short film written by and starring actor Jim Broadbent
- Deleted scenes
- Featurette from 1999 including interviews with Leigh, stars Broadbent and Allan Corduner, and other cast members
- Theatrical trailer and TV spots
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Amy Taubin
