Samantha Clark

Criterion on Blu-ray
August 18, 2008

Criterion originally said it would release its first Blu-ray titles in October, but that has been delayed until November.

The initial titles on the slate are Bottle Rocket, Chungking Express, The Third Man, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Last Emperor.

Criterion's product is distributed by Image Entertainment.

Up first will  be The Third Man, The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Last Emperor, arriving Nov. 18 (prebook Oct. 21). Each is priced at $39.95. The Last Emperor also will be released in a new single-DVD edition, priced at $29.95. No extras listed for The Last Emperor, but here are the others:

The Third Man:

€ Video introduction by writer-director Peter Bogdanovich
€ Two audio commentaries: one by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Tony Gilroy, and one by film scholar Dana Polan
€ Shadowing “The Third Man” (2005), a ninety-minute feature documentary on the making of the film
€ Abridged recording of Graham Greene’s treatment, read by actor Richard Clarke
€ “Graham Greene: The Hunted Man,” an hour-long, 1968 episode of the BBC’s Omnibus series, featuring a rare interview with the novelist
€ Who Was the Third Man? (2000), a thirty-minute Austrian documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
€ The Third Man on the radio: the 1951 “A Ticket to Tangiers” episode of The Lives of Harry Lime series, written and performed by Orson Welles, and the 1951 Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of The Third Man
€ Illustrated production history with rare behind-the-scenes photos, original UK press book, and U.S. trailer
€ Actor Joseph Cotten’s alternate opening voice-over narration for the U.S. version
€ Archival footage of postwar Vienna
€ A look at the untranslated foreign dialogue in the film
€ PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by Luc Sante

The Man Who Fell to Earth:

€ Audio commentary by Roeg and actors David Bowie and Buck Henry
€ Video interview with screenwriter Paul Mayersberg
€ Performance, video interviews with actors Candy Clark and
Rip Torn
€ Audio interviews with costume designer May Routh and production designer Brian Eatwell
€ Audio interview from 1984 with author Walter Tevis, conducted by Don Swaim
€ Multiple stills galleries, including Routh’s costume sketches; behind-the-scenes photos; and production and publicity stills, introduced by set photographer David James
€ Gallery of posters from Roeg’s films
€ PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Graham Fuller

Bottle Rocket and Chungking Express will be released Nov. 25 (prebook Oct. 28), also priced at $39.95, but these also will be released in a new DVD set priced the same as Blu-ray. Here's the extras:

Bottle Rocket:

€ Commentary by director/co-writer Anderson and co-writer/star Owen Wilson
€ The Making of “Bottle Rocket”: an original documentary by filmmaker Barry Braverman featuring Anderson, James L. Brooks, James Caan, Temple Nash Jr., Kumar Pallana, Polly Platt, Mark Mothersbaugh, Robert Musgrave, Richard Sakai, David and Sandy Wasco, Andrew and Luke and Owen Wilson, and Robert Yeoman
€ The original thirteen-minute black-and-white Bottle Rocket short film from 1992
€ Eleven deleted scenes
€ Anamorphic screen test, storyboards, location photos, and behind-the-scenes photographs by Laura Wilson
€ Murita Cycles, a 1978 short film by Braverman
€ The Shafrazi Lectures, no. 1: Bottle Rocket
€ PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by executive producer James L. Brooks, an appreciation by Martin Scorsese, and original artwork by Ian Dingman

Chungking Express:

€ Audio commentary by noted Asian cinema critic Tony Rayns
€ PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Amy Taubin and excerpts from a 1996 Sight and Sound interview with Wong by Rayns

Posted by Samantha Clark on August 18, 2008 | Comments (0)