Criterion Announces July Titles

[John Johnson]

The Criterion Collection has announced that it will add six new titles to its Blu-ray catalog in July. Amongst them are Terrence Malick's The New World, Alain Resnais' Muriel, or The Time of Return, and Arthur Hiller's The In-Laws.

The New World

This singular vision of early seventeenth-century America from Terrence Malick is a work of astounding elemental beauty, a poetic meditation on nature, violence, love, and civilization. It reimagines the apocryphal story of the meeting of British explorer John Smith (Colin Farrell) and Powhatan native Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher, in a revelatory performance) as a romantic idyll between spiritual equals, then follows Pocahontas through her marriage to John Rolfe (Christian Bale) and her life in England. With art director Jack Fisk's raw re-creation of the Jamestown colony, Emmanuel Lubezki's marvelous, naturally lit cinematography, and James Horner's soaring musical score, The New World is a film of uncommon power and technical splendor, one that shows Malick at the height of his visual and philosophical powers.

Special Features:
New 4K digital restoration of the 172-minute extended cut of the film, supervised by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and director Terrence Malick and featuring material not released in theaters, with both theatrical and near-field 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on the Blu-ray
High-definition digital transfers of the 150-minute first cut and the 135-minute theatrical cut of the film, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks on the Blu-rays
New interviews with actors Colin Farrel and Q'orianka Kilcher
New program about the making of the film, featuring interviews with producer Sarah Green, production designer Jack Fisk, and costume designer Jacqueline West
Making "The New World," a documentary shot during the production of the film in 2004, directed and edited by Austin Jack Lynch
New program about the process of cutting The New World and its various versions, featuring interviews with editors Hank Corwin, Saar Klein, and Mark Yoshikawa
Trailers
PLUS: A book featuring an essay by film scholar Tom Gunning, a 2006 interview with Lubezki from American Cinematographer, and a selection of materials that inspired the production
STREET DATE: JULY 26.

Muriel, or The Time of Return

Alain Resnais's Muriel, or The Time of Return, the director's follow-up to Last Year at Marienbad, is as radical a reflection on the nature of time and memory as its predecessor. The always luminous Delphine Seyrig stars as an antique shop owner and widow in Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose past comes back to haunt her when a former lover reenters her life. Meanwhile, her stepson is tormented by his own ghosts, related to his service in France's recently ended war in Algeria. Featuring a multilayered script by Jean Cayrol, and inventively edited to evoke its middle-class characters' political and personal realities, the fragmented, emotionally powerful Muriel reminds viewers that the past is always present.

Special Features:
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Excerpt from the 1980 documentary Une approche d'Alain Resnais, révolutionnaire discret
Excerpt from a 1969 interview with actor Delphine Seyrig
Interview with composer Hans Werner Henze from 1963
New interview with film scholar François Thomas, author of L'atelier d'Alain Resnais
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar James Quandt
STREET DATE: JULY 19.

A Touch of Zen

"Visionary" barely begins to describe this masterpiece of Chinese cinema and martial arts moviemaking. A Touch of Zen by King Hu depicts the journey of Yang (Hsu Feng), a fugitive noblewoman who seeks refuge in a remote, and allegedly haunted, village. The sanctuary she finds with a shy scholar and two aides in disguise is shattered when a nefarious swordsman uncovers her identity, pitting the four against legions of blade-wielding opponents. At once a wuxia film, the tale of a spiritual quest, and a study in human nature, A Touch of Zen is an unparalleled work in Hu's formidable career and an epic of the highest order, characterized by breathtaking action choreography, stunning widescreen landscapes, and innovative editing.

Special Features:
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Documentary from 2012 about director King Hu
New interviews with actors Hsu Feng and Shih Chun
New interview with filmmaker Ang Lee
New interview with film scholar Tony Rayns
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Bordwell and notes by Hu from a 1975 Cannes Film Festival press kit
STREET DATE: JULY 19.

Night and Fog

Ten years after the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, filmmaker Alain Resnais documented the abandoned grounds of Auschwitz and Majdanek in Night and Fog (Nuit et brouillard), one of the first cinematic reflections on the Holocaust. Juxtaposing the stillness of the abandoned camps' empty buildings with haunting wartime footage, Resnais investigates the cyclical nature of humanity's violence against humanity, and presents the devastating suggestion that such horrors could occur again.

Special Features:
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Excerpt from a 1994 audio interview with director Alain Resnais
New interview with documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer
Face aux fantômes, a 99-minute 2009 documentary featuring historian Sylvie Lindeperg that explores the French memory of the Holocaust and the controversy surrounding the film's release
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Colin MacCabe
STREET DATE: JULY 19.

Carnival of Souls

A young woman in a small Kansas town survives a drag race accident, then agrees to take a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she becomes haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels her toward an abandoned lakeside pavilion. Made by industrial filmmakers on a modest budget, the eerily effective B-movie classic Carnival of Souls was intended to have "the look of a Bergman and the feel of a Cocteau"—and, with its strikingly used locations and spooky organ score, it succeeds. Herk Harvey's macabre masterpiece gained a cult following on late-night television and continues to inspire filmmakers today.

STREET DATE:
New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Selected-scene audio commentary featuring director Herk Harvey and screenwriter John Clifford
New interview with comedian and writer Dana Gould
New video essay by film critic David Cairns
The Movie That Wouldn't Die!, a documentary on the 1989 reunion of the film's cast and crew
The Carnival Tour, a 2000 update on the film's locations
Excerpts from movies made by the Centron Corporation, an industrial film company based in Lawrence, Kansas, that once employed Harvey and Clifford
Deleted scenes
Outtakes, accompanied by Gene Moore's organ score
History of the Saltair Resort in Salt Lake City, where key scenes in the film were shot
Trailer
More!
PLUS: An essay by writer and programmer Kier-La Janisse
STREET DATE: JULY 12.

The In-Laws

Peter Falk and Alan Arkin make for a hilarious dream team in this beloved American sidesplitter. Directed by Arthur Hiller from an ingenious script by Andrew Bergman, The In-Laws may at first seem like a generic meet-the-parents comedy, as Arkin's mild-mannered dentist suspiciously eyes Falk's volatile mystery man, whose son is engaged to his daughter. But soon, through a series of events too serpentine and surprising to spoil, the two men are brought together by a dangerous mission that takes them from suburban New Jersey to Honduras. Fueled by elaborate stunt work and the laconic, naturalistic charms of its two stars, The In-Laws deserves its status as a madcap classic—and has continued to draw ardent fans in the years since its release.

Special Features:
New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 2003 featuring director Arthur Hiller, actors Alan Arkin and Peter Falk, and writer Andrew Bergman
New interview with Arkin
In Support of "The In-Laws," a new interview program featuring actors Ed Begley Jr., Nancy Dussault, James Hong, and David Paymer
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by comedy writer Stephen Winer and a 2011 recollection of the making of the film by Hiller
STREET DATE: JULY 5.

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