Three classics from Criterion [30 Aug 2005]

Joining Kenji Mizoguchi's magnificent Ugetsu monogatari in November are three more classic films given the Criterion makeover. First up is Robert Bresson's 1959 Pickpocket, a compelling neo-realist study of crime and redemption that is often regarded as Bresson's best film. Criterion's disk will feature a new high definition transfer, a commentary by film scholar James Quandt, a new video introduction by writer-director Paul Schrader, The Models of Pickpocket, a 2003 documentary by filmmaker Babette Mangolte featuring actors from the film, a 1960 interview with Bresson from the French television program Cinépanorama, Q&A on the film with actress Marika Green and filmmakers Paul Vecchiali and Jean-Pierre Améris, 1962 TV footage of sleight-of-hand artist and Pickpocket consultant Kassagi, the original theatrical trailer, and a new essay by novelist and culture critic Gary Indiana.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's stylistically dazzling Tales of Hoffman is a favourite film of directors as diverse as Martin Scorsese and George Romero, who became good friends through their love of the film and are both involved in this disk's extra features. Previously released by Criterion as a laserdisk, the DVD incarnation has long been anticipated and is finally on the way. The new, high definition transfer transfer will be joined by a commentary by Martin Scorsese and film-music historian Bruce Eder, a new video interview with George Romero, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1956), a short musical film directed by Michael Powell and based on the Goethe story, a rare collection of production designer Hein Heckroth’s design sketches and paintings, a gallery of archival production and publicity photographs, the original theatrical trailer and a new essay by opera and film historian Ken Wlaschin.

Finally we have Kurosawa's masterful Ran, a more surprising release given its region 1 release from Wellspring and the region 2 from Warner Brothers. Both releases have excellent transfers, the Wellspring featuring two commentary tracks, the Warner disk Chris Marker's fascinating documentary on the shooting of the film, A.K.. The Criterion 2-disk Special Edition appears to be an amalgamation of both releases, plus a few features of their own: the commentary by author and Japanese film scholar Stephen Prince looks as if it may have been bought in from the Wellspring version (though the second commentary by producer Peter Grilli is absent), as is A.K. from the Warner disk, but also included is an appreciation of the film by director Sidney Lumet, Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, a 37-minute documentary on the making of Ran, Image: Kurosawa’s Continuity, a 35-minute video piece reconstructing Ran through Akira Kurosawa’s paintings and sketches, a new video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai, the original theatrical trailer, and a new essay by film critic Michael Wilmington.

Exact release dates will be added when we have them.

Ugetsu monogatari in November [29 Aug 2005]

Another film on our Wish List is nailed as Criterion announce the November release of Kenji Mizoguchi's brilliant Ugetsu monogatari under the truncated title of Ugetsu. This haunting, gorgeously ghost story of love, obsession, power and the folly of war is probably the most widely admired work of a master film-maker, and has influenced filmmakers across the globe, including Japan's own Kaneto Shindo and his own ghost story Kuroneko. Arriving as a two-disk special edition, the region 1 DVD release will showcase the film in a new high-definition transfer and have the following special features: a commentary by Japanese cinema expert Tony Rayns, a two-and-a-half hour 1975 documentary on the director entitled Kenji Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director, an appreciation of Ugetsu by director Masahiro Shinoda, a new video interview with the film's first assistant director Tokuzo Tanaka about the making of the film, a video interview with cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, theatrical trailers and a booklet featuring the original short stories on which the film is based and a new essay by critic Phillip Lopate. Exact street date will be added when confirmed.

The Batman special editions [29 Aug 2005]

You might well ask why we of all people would be reporting news of special editions of big Hollywood movies, but Batman is something of a special case by way of its director, a rare outsider who works within the studio system, Mr. Tim Burton. Whatever the merits of Batman Begins, it's Burton's original that remains the visionary work, a remarkable melding of indie artistic sensibilities with the the demands of the Hollywood product. The rumours of a special edition have been around for a long time, but it finally looks like it's on the way. Well, all five Batman films, as it happens. Yes, including those two... All are set for two-disk releases with DTS soundtracks, but confirmation is still pending on some of the special features.

Pride of the pack has to be Batman itself, which should boast a Burton commentary, a history of the comics entitled Legends of the Dark Knight, Shadows of the Bat - The Cinematic Sage of the Dark Knight parts 1, 2 and 3, featurettes on the production design, the batmobile, the props, the batsuit, The Joker, the storyboards and the music, three Prince music videos ('Batdance', 'Partyman' and 'Scandalous'), heroes and Villains profiles, and the theatrical trailer.

Burton's own sequel Batman Returns should also come with a Burton commentary, a cast and crew look back at the film entitled The Bat, The Cat And The Penguin, part 4 of Shadows of the Bat, featurettes on the production design, costume design, The Penguin, his penguin army, and the visual effects, Siouxsie and the Banshees' 'face to Face' music video, a Heroes and Villains gallery and the theatrical trailer.

For most of us, that's where the story ends, but in democratic fashion warner are also to the tiresome Batman Forever a makeover, which is slated for a Joel Schumacher commentary, deleted scenes, a retrospective featurette on the production, part 5 of Shadows of the Bat (telling titled Reinventing a Hero), featurettes on the production design, the cast, the stunts, the visual effects and the music, Seal's 'Kiss From a Rose' music video, the Heroes and Villains gallery and trailer.

And then there's the wretched Batman and Robin, despite the fact that my local Blockbuster were selling off all their copies for £2 a pop just a month after its release. Another Schumacher commentary is promised (unless it consists of apologies I'm not interested), a deleted scene, part 6 of Shadows of the Bat, featurettes on the production design, the vehicles, the costumes, the makeup and the visual effects, music videos from Smashing Pumpkins, Jewel, R. Kelly and Bone Thus N' Harmony, the Heroes and Villains gallery and a trailer.

Finally we are brought up to date with Batman Begins, which will sport featurettes on the story development and casting, the fighting styles, the production design, the new batsuit, the location filming, the monorail chase sequence and the incarnations of batman from the 1980s to the present, plus stills galleries and a character and weaponry gallery.

The region 2 street date for the first four disks is 24 October, while Batman Begins is set for 21 October. All are priced at £19.99. We will confirm disk contents when we have them.

The Warriors director's cut, game, and remake [28 Aug 2005]

Fans of Walter Hill's 1979 melding of new York gang culture, comic book action and Homer's Odyssey should by now have heard that a director's cut is on the way, and now Paramount have confirmed an October DVD release for both region 1 and region 2 and released information on the disk specifications. The film's cult status has steadily grown over the years, with whole web sites set up to supply news on screenings and the subsequent work of the film's stars, and twenty-six years after its release director Walter Hill has b

een personally involved in the production of this new, director's cut DVD, his first such DVD venture. Grandly titled The Warriors: The Ultimate Director's Cut, the disk will feature a 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer and 5.1 sound, an introduction to the new version by Walter Hill, featurettes on adapting the novel, the casting, the production and the release (including the controversy it whipped up), 7 deleted/extended scenes and a trailer. Some sources suggest there will also be a Walter Hill commentary, but this has yet to be confirmed. It would fall a bit short of being an 'ultimate' director's cut without it. Street date is 4 October for region 1, 17 October for region 2.

With perfect timing, there is also set to be a video game released based on the film for all the usual formats, but those who groan at the whole idea of a film-based game (and there have been some stinkers in the past) can take heed from the fact that it is being produced by none other that Rockstar, the people behind the spectacularly amoral and insanely addictive Grand Theft Auto series. What really gives us hope here is that those behind the game are clearly huge fans of the film - just nip over and take a look at their web site and you'll see what I mean (you need to enter your age - no cheating) - and are clearly keen to capture the essence of the film's style, look and cult appeal. The game is set for release on 21 October.

So it's a great year for an old favourite, no? Well, in very typical Hollywood fashion, there's a fly in the ointment in a depressingly familiar form. Yes, in a world where original ideas are now frowned on and the original is undergoing a popular revival, a remake is on the way, helmed by master of gloss over substance, Tony Scott. And before any of you run to his defence, remember what John McTiernan, director of the original Die Hard, did with another 1970s action classic Rollerball...

Kurosawa double from Eureka in November [26 Aug 2005]

Although the cinema of the great Akira Kurosawa is widely celebrated, a fair proportion of his earlier works remain not that widely seen in the West, but in November Eureka, under their splendid Masters of Cinema banner, will be helping to set that right. Scandal (Hakuchi 1950) is an attack on the Japanese gutter press, their disrespect of personal privacy and the voyeuristic public fascination with celebrity that fuels it, a tale that is as relevant now as it ever was. Available on home video for the first time in the UK, the DVD of Scandal will feature a newly restored high-definition 1.33:1 transfer, a production stills gallery, one of the always excellent Masters of Cinema booklets that accompany the disks, featuring a new essay by Joan Mellen, and, we are promised, more! The film stars Kurosawa favourites Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura and Noriko Sengoku, all of whom featured in the director's masterpiece Seven Samurai.

Probably one of the biggest surprises in Kurosawa's film cannon is his 1951 adaptation of Dostoevsky's The Idiot (Hakuchi), though it is less so when you know that Dostoevsky was Kurosawa's favourite author. Starring Toshiro Mifune, Takashi Shimura, Tokyo Story's Setsuko Hara and Ugetsu Monogatari's Masayuki Mori, the action is transformed from a Russian summer to snow-covered Hokkaido, and Kurosawa's devotion to his material delivered a two-part film that ran a weighty 266 minutes, which was severely cut by the studio prior to its release. Tragically, this version is now lost, but the original domestic release version - the longest available print at a still substantial 166 minutes - is to be released as a Masters of Cinema title with a newly restored 1.33:1 transfer, a production stills gallery, a 36-page booklet featuring a new essay by daryl Chin and a reprint of the section on The Idiot from Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto's Kurosawa: Film Studies and Japanese Cinema, and more.

Both disks have a street date of November 14 at present.

Le samouraï in October [21 Aug 2005]

There are certain films we here at Outsider hold as sacred, few more obviously that Jean-Pierre Melville utterly gorgeous Le samouraï (in case you're wondering, it's the one film featured as part of our banner). Alain Delon creates one of cinema's most iconic characters in Jef Costello, a super-cool, hitman of few words with the instincts of a a samurai in a film that combines the look and iconography of 40s US gangster films with 60s French pop culture and Japanese minimalism and lone warrior tales (the film was a popular hit on its initial release in Japan). And it's utterly wonderful and if you haven't seen it then you really, really should. And now's your chance, thanks to those lovely people at Criterion, who have announced it as part of their October release schedule. The disk will feature a new, restored, high definition transfer (anamorphic 1.85:1), new video interviews with Jean-Pierre Melville historians Rui Nogueira and Ginette Vincendeau, excerpts from archival interviews with Melville and actors Alain Delon, Cathy Rosier, Nathalie Delon, and François Périer, a theatrical trailer, a new essay by film scholar David Thomson and a reprinted tribute by filmmaker John Woo (who, along with Quentin Tarantino, is one of the film's most prominent fans), and more to be announced.

Release date is set for 18 October 2005 and the disk will be encoded for region 1. I'm dribbling with anticipation already.

Criterion redo Wages of Fear [21 Aug 2005]

In a rare but most welcome move, Criterion have announced that they are to re-release Henri-Georges Clouzot's magnificent thriller The Wages of Fear in a feature-packed two-disk special edition. The story of a group of desperate French ex-patriots attempting to scrape a living in an impoverished South American town who agree to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerine across a treacherous mountain terrain, the film was originally released as a feature-free disk early in Criterion's DVD days, the print used for the transfer was some way short of the company's usual high standards. This is about to be put right by the new version, which will contain a new, high-definition digital transfer, new video interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff and Henri-Georges Clouzot biographer Marc Grodin, a 1988 interview with leading man Yves Montand on working with Clouzot, a 2004 documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot: An Enlightened Tyrant, Censored - an analysis of the cuts made for the 1955 US release, and a 24-page booklet featuring a new essay by novelist Dennis Lehane (author of Mystic River and Sacred) and a reprinted compilation of interviews with the film's cast and crew.

Street date is 18 October 2005, the disk is region 1.

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