FANNY AND ALEXANDER – Blu-ray Edition
Through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, we witness the delights and conflicts of the Ekdahl family, a sprawling bourgeois clan in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Sweden. Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal) intended Fanny and Alexander as his swan song, and it is the legendary director’s warmest and most autobiographical film, a four-time Academy Award–winning triumph that combines his trademark melancholy and emotional intensity with immense joy and sensuality. The Criterion Collection is proud to present both the theatrical release and the original five-hour television version of this great work. Also included in the box set is Bergman’s own feature-length documentary The Making of “Fanny and Alexander,†a unique glimpse into his creative process.
Fanny and Alexander—The Television Version
1982 • 320 minutes • Color • Monaural • In Swedish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
Fanny and Alexander—The Theatrical Version
1982 • 188 minutes • Color • Monaural • In Swedish with English subtitles • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
The Making of Fanny and Alexander
1983 • 110 minutes • Color • Monaural • In Swedish with English subtitles • 133:1 aspect ratio
THREE-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• High-definition digital restorations of the television and theatrical versions of Fanny and Alexander
• High-definition digital restoration of Ingmar Bergman’s feature-length documentary The Making of “Fanny and Alexanderâ€
• Ingmar Bergman Bids Farewell to Film, a sixty-minute conversation between Bergman and film critic Nils Petter Sundgren recorded for Swedish television in 1984
• Audio commentary on the theatrical version by film scholar Peter Cowie
• A Bergman Tapestry, a documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
• Costume sketches and footage of the models for the film’s sets
• Stills gallery
• Theatrical trailer
• Optional English-dubbed soundtrack for the theatrical version
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by documentarian and film historian Stig Björkman, novelist Rick Moody, and film scholar Paul Arthur
TITLE: Fanny and Alexander (3-BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2076BD
UPC: 7-15515-08871-8
ISBN: 978-1-60465-503-2
SRP: $59.95
PREBOOK: 10/11/11
STREET: 11/8/11
THE RULES OF THE GAME – Blu-ray & DVD Editions
Considered one of the greatest films ever made, The Rules of the Game (La règle du jeu), by Jean Renoir (Grand Illusion), is a scathing critique of corrupt French society cloaked in a comedy of manners, in which a weekend at a marquis’s countryside chateau lays bare some ugly truths about a group of haute bourgeois acquaintances. The film was a victim of tumultuous history—it was subjected to cuts after premiere audiences rejected it in 1939, and the original negative was destroyed during World War II; it wasn’t reconstructed until 1959. That version, which has stunned viewers for decades, is presented here.
1939 • 106 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • In French with English subtitles • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Introduction to the film by director Jean Renoir
• Audio commentary written by film scholar Alexander Sesonske and read by filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich
• Comparison of the film’s two endings
• Olivier Curchod Presents “The Rules of the Game,†a 2005 documentary comparing today’s 106-minute edit with Renoir’s original script
• Scene analysis by Renoir historian Chris Faulkner
• Excerpts from Jean Renoir, le patron: La règle et l’exception (1966), a French television program by filmmaker Jacques Rivette
• Part one of Jean Renoir, a two-part 1993 BBC documentary by film critic David Thompson
• Video essay about the film’s production, release, and 1959 reconstruction
• 1965 interview from the French television series Les écrans de la ville in which Jean Gaborit and Jacques Durand discuss their reconstruction and rerelease of the film
• Interviews with set designer Max Douy; Renoir’s son, Alain; and actress Mila Parély
• PLUS: A booklet featuring writings by Jean Renoir, François Truffaut, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Bertrand Tavernier; an essay by Sesonske; and tributes to the film and Renoir by J. Hoberman, Kent Jones, Paul Schrader, Wim Wenders, Robert Altman, and others
TITLE: The Rules of the Game (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2075BD
UPC: 7-15515-08861-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-502-5
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 10/18/11
STREET: 11/15/11
TITLE: The Rules of the Game (2-DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2090D
UPC: 7-15515-08741-4
ISBN: 978-1-60465-520-9
SRP: $29.95
PREBOOK: 10/18/11
STREET: 11/15/11
THREE COLORS: BLUE, WHITE, RED – Blu-ray & DVD Editions
This boldly cinematic trio of stories about love and loss from Krzysztof Kieślowski (The Double Life of Véronique) was a defining event of the art-house boom of the 1990s. The films were named for the colors of the French flag and stand for the tenets of the French Revolution—liberty, equality, and fraternity—but this hardly begins to explain their enigmatic beauty and rich humanity. Set in Paris, Warsaw, and Geneva, and ranging from tragedy to comedy, Blue, White, and Red (Kieślowski’s final film) examine with artistic clarity a group of ambiguously interconnected people experiencing profound personal disruptions. Marked by intoxicating cinematography and stirring performances by such actors as Juliette Binoche (Summer Hours), Julie Delpy (Before Sunset), Irène Jacob (The Double Life of Véronique), and Jean-Louis Trintignant (Z), Kieślowski’s Three Colors is a benchmark of contemporary cinema.
Blue
In the devastating first film of the Three Colors trilogy, Juliette Binoche gives a tour de force performance as Julie, a woman reeling from the tragic deaths of her husband and young daughter. But Blue is more than just a blistering study of grief; it’s also a tale of liberation, as Julie learns truths about her late composer husband’s life and attempts to free herself of the past. Shot in icily gorgeous tones by Sławomir Idziak (The Double Life of Véronique) and set to an extraordinary operatic score by Zbigniew Preisner (The Secret Garden), Blue is an overwhelming sensory experience.
1993 • 98 minutes • Color • 2.0 surround • In French with English subtitles • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
White
The most playful but also the grittiest of Kieślowski’s Three Colors films follows the adventures of Karol Karol (The Pianist’s Zbigniew Zamachowski), a Polish immigrant living in France. The hapless hairdresser opts to leave Paris for his native Warsaw after his wife (Julie Delpy) sues him for divorce (her reason: he was never able to perform in bed) and then frames him for arson after setting her own salon ablaze. White, which goes on to chronicle Karol Karol’s elaborate revenge plot, manages to be both a ticklish dark comedy about the economic inequalities of Eastern and Western Europe and a sublime reverie about twisted love.
1993 • 91 minutes • Color • 2.0 surround • In French and Polish with English subtitles • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
Red
Krzysztof Kieślowski closes his Three Colors trilogy in grand fashion with an incandescent meditation on fate and chance, starring Irène Jacob as a sweet-souled yet somber runway model in Geneva whose life intersects with that of a bitter retired judge, played by Jean‑Louis Trintignant. Their blossoming friendship forces each to open up in surprising emotional ways. Meanwhile, just down the street, a seemingly unrelated story of jealousy and betrayal unfolds. Red is an intimate look at forged connections and a splendid final statement from a remarkable filmmaker at the height of his powers.
1994 • 99 minutes • Color • 2.0 surround • In French with English subtitles • 1.85:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restorations, with DTS-HD Master Audio on the
Blu-ray editions
• Three cinema lessons with director Krzysztof Kieślowski
• New interviews with composer Zbigniew Preisner; writer Krzysztof Piesiewicz; and actors Julie Delpy, Zbigniew Zamachowski, and Irène Jacob
• Selected-scene commentary for Blue with actress Juliette Binoche
• Three new video essays, by film writers Annette Insdorf, Tony Rayns, and Dennis Lim
• Kieślowski’s student short The Tram (1966) and his fellow student’s short from the same year The Face, which features Kieślowski in a solo performance
•Two short documentaries by Kieślowski: Seven Women of Different Ages (1978) and Talking Heads (1980)
• Krzysztof Kieślowski: I’m So-So . . . (1995), a feature-length documentary in which the filmmaker discusses his life and work
• Two multi-interview programs, Reflections on “Blue†and Kieślowski: The Early Years, with film critic Geoff Andrew, Binoche, filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, cinematographer Sławomir Idziak, Insdorf, Jacob, and editor Jacques Witta
• Interviews with producer Marin Karmitz and Witta
• Behind-the-scenes programs for White and Red, and Kieślowski Cannes 1994, a short documentary on Red’s world premiere
• Original theatrical trailers
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critics Colin MacCabe, Nick James, Stuart Klawans, and Georgina Evans, an excerpt from Kieślowski on Kieślowski, and reprinted interviews with cinematographers Sławomir Idziak, Edward Klosinski, and Piotr Sobocinski
TITLE: Three Colors: Blue, White, Red (3-BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2077BD
UPC: 7-15515-08901-2
ISBN: 978-1-60465-506-3
SRP: $79.95
PREBOOK: 10/18/11
STREET: 11/15/11
TITLE: Three Colors: Blue, White, Red (4-DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2081D
UPC: 7-15515-08911-1
ISBN: 978-1-60465-507-0
SRP: $59.95
PREBOOK: 10/18/11
STREET: 11/15/11
RUSHMORE – Blu-ray Edition
The dazzling sophomore film from Wes Anderson (Fantastic Mr. Fox) is equal parts coming-of-age story, French New Wave homage, and screwball comedy. Tenth grader Max Fischer (The Darjeeling Limited’s Jason Schwartzman) is Rushmore Academy’s most extracurricular student—and its least scholarly. He faces expulsion, and enters into unlikely friendships with both a lovely first-grade teacher (The
Ghost Writer’s Olivia Williams) and a melancholy self-made millionaire (Groundhog Day’s Bill Murray, in an award-winning performance). Set to a soundtrack of classic British Invasion tunes, Rushmore defies categorization; it captures the pain and exuberance of adolescence with wit, emotional depth, and cinematic panache.
1998 • 93 minutes • Color • Surround • 2.35:1 aspect ratio
DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital transfer of the director’s cut, supervised by director Wes Anderson, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
• Audio commentary by Anderson, cowriter Owen Wilson, and actor Jason Schwartzman
• The Making of “Rushmore,†an exclusive behind-the-scenes documentary by Eric Chase Anderson
• Max Fischer Players Present: Theatrical “adaptations†of Armageddon, Out of Sight, and The Truman Show, staged for the 1999 MTV Movie Awards
• Episode of The Charlie Rose Show featuring Anderson and actor Bill Murray
• Cast audition footage
• Wes Anderson’s hand-drawn storyboards, plus a film-to-storyboard comparison
• Props, posters, behind-the-scenes photos, and other graphic ephemera
• Original theatrical trailer
• Collectible poster
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Dave Kehr
TITLE: Rushmore (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2093BD
UPC: 7-15515-08961-6
ISBN: 978-1-60465-512-4
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 10/25/11
STREET: 11/22/11
12 ANGRY MEN – Blu-ray & DVD Editions
12 Angry Men, by Sidney Lumet (Network), may be the most radical big-screen courtroom drama in cinema history. A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system as riveting as it is spare, the iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose’s teleplay stars Henry Fonda (Young Mr. Lincoln) as the initially dissenting foreman on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. What results is a saga of epic proportions that plays out in real time over ninety minutes in one sweltering room. Lumet’s electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature-film debuts.
1957 • 96 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.66:1 aspect ratio
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Frank Schaffner’s 1955 television version, with an introduction by Ron Simon, director of the Paley Center for Media Studies
• “12 Angry Menâ€: From Television to the Big Screen, a video essay by film scholar Vance Kapley comparing the Sidney Lumet and Schaffner versions
• Archival interviews with Lumet
• New interview about the director with writer Walter Bernstein
• New interview with Simon about television writer Reginald Rose
• New interview with cinematographer John Bailey in which he discusses cinematographer Boris Kaufman
• Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose
• Original theatrical trailer
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum
TITLE: 12 Angry Men (BLU-RAY EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2091BD
UPC: 7-15515-08921-0
ISBN: 978-1-60465-508-7
SRP: $39.95
PREBOOK: 10/25/11
STREET: 11/22/11
TITLE: 12 Angry Men (2-DVD EDITION)
CAT. NO: CC2092D
UPC: 7-15515-08931-9
ISBN: 978-1-60465-509-4
SRP: $29.95
PREBOOK: 10/25/11
STREET: 11/22/11
ECLIPSE SERIES 30: SABU!
In the thirties and forties, the Indian actor known as Sabu (born Selar Shaik) captured the hearts of moviegoers in Britain and the United States as a completely new kind of big-screen icon. Sabu was a maharaja’s elephant driver when he was discovered by documentary trailblazer Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North), who cast him as the lead in Elephant Boy, a Kipling adaptation Flaherty directed with Zoltán Korda (The Four Feathers) that would prove to be enormously popular. Sabu went on to headline a series of fantasies and adventures, transcending the exoticism projected onto him by commanding the screen with effortless grace and humor. This series collects three of the lavish productions Sabu starred in for the British film titans the Korda brothers: Elephant Boy, the colonialist battle adventure The Drum, and the timeless Jungle Book.
THREE-DVD BOX SET INCLUDES:
Elephant Boy
Robert Flaherty and Zoltán Korda shared best director honors at the Venice Film Festival for collaborating on this charming translation of Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book story “Toomai of the Elephants.†A harmonious mix of the two filmmakers’ page 1 of 2
styles—Flaherty’s adeptness at ethnographic documentary meeting Korda’s taste for grand adventure—Elephant Boy also served as the breakthrough showcase for the thirteen-year-old Sabu, whose beaming performance as a young mahout leading the British on an expedition made him a major international star.
1937 • 82 minutes • Black & White • Monaural • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
The Drum
Zoltán Korda’s charged adaptation of a novel by The Four Feathers author A. E. W. Mason features Sabu in his second film role, as the teenage Prince Azim, forced into hiding when his father, the ruler of a peaceful kingdom in northwest India, is assassinated by his ruthless brother. Protected by a friendly British officer (The League of Gentlemen’s Roger Livesey) and his wife (Great Expectations’ Valerie Hobson), and befriended by the regiment’s drummer boy, Prince Azim ends up fighting with the colonialists against his dastardly uncle. This rousing adventure is elevated by Sabu’s exuberant performance and spectacular Technicolor cinematography by Georges Périnal and Osmond Borradaile (The Four Feathers).
1938 • 97 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
Jungle Book
This Korda brothers film is the quintessential version of Rudyard Kipling’s classic collection of fables. Sabu stars as Mowgli, a boy raised by wolves who can communicate with all the beasts of the jungle, friend or foe, and who gradually reacclimates to civilization with the help of his long lost mother and a beautiful village girl. Deftly integrating real animals into its fanciful narrative, Jungle Book is a shimmering Technicolor visual feast, and was nominated for four Oscars, including for cinematography, art direction, special effects, and music.
1942 • 102 minutes • Color • Monaural • 1.33:1 aspect ratio
TITLE: Eclipse Series 30: Sabu!
CAT. NO: ECL139
UPC: 7-15515-08971-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-513-1
SRP: $44.95
PREBOOK: 11/1/11
STREET: 11/29/11
ATTENTION CANADA: FANNY AND ALEXANDER BD is available in English-speaking Canada only. THREE COLORS TRILOGY is not available in Canada. All other November titles are available in all Canada.