The Criterion Collection, long a favorite for DVD enthusiasts, has made quite a splash on the Blu-ray market lately. With an announced five films set to be released in high-definition in October, it’s apparent Criterion has nothing less than world domination in sight.
On October 12, the company will release Ingmar Bergman’s 1958 classic The Magician (Ansiket) and Wes Anderson’s vastly underrated 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited. On October 19, Criterion will continue by releasing Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film Seven Samurai (Sinchinin no samurai). Finally, Nobushijo Obayashi’s trippy 1977 supernatural film House (Hasu) will be released alongside Stanley Kubrick’s 1957 film Paths of Glory.
For those that can’t wait until October to get their Criterion on, Barnes and Noble is currently having a 50 percent off sale on all Criterion Collection DVDs and Blu-rays. For more information, visit the store online.
Full details on special features for the October releases are below:
The Darjeeling Limited
- Anderson’s short film Hotel Chevalier (part one of The Darjeeling Limited), starring Natalie Portman, with commentary by Anderson
- Audio commentary featuring Anderson and cowriters Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola
- Behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman
- Anderson and filmmaker James Ivory discussing the film’s music
- Anderson’s American Express commercial
- On-set footage shot by Coppola and actor Waris Ahluwalia
- Audition footage, deleted and alternate scenes, and stills galleries
- Original theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Richard Brody and original illustrations by Eric Anderson
House
- Constructing a House, a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the director Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura
- Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi
- New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil)
- Theatrical trailer
- An essay by Chuck Stephens
The Magician
- New visual essay by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
- Brief 1967 video interview with director Ingmar Bergman about the film
- Rare English-language audio interview with Bergman, conducted by filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Stig Björkman
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoff Andrew, a reprinted essay by Assayas, and an excerpt from Bergman’s autobiography Images: My Life in Film
Paths of Glory
- New audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins
- Television interview from 1979 with star Kirk Douglas
- New video interviews with Kubrick’s longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick
- Excerpt from a French television program about real-life World War I executions similar to the events dramatized in Paths of Glory
- Theatrical trailer
- An essay by Kubrick scholar James Naremore
Seven Samurai
- Two audio commentaries:
- Film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie
- Japanese film expert Michael Jeck
- A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima produced by the Directors Guild of Japan
- Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a new documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that impacted Kurosawa’s masterpiece
- Theatrical trailers and teaser
- Gallery of rare posters and behind-the scenes and production stills
- A booklet featuring essays by Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Kenneth Turan, Stuart Galbraith, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet and an interview with Toshiro Mifune
