Criterions die in september worden uitgebracht:
Richard Linklater's Slacker presents a day in the life of a loose-knit subculture of marginal, eccentric, and overeducated citizens in Austin, Texas. Shooting the film on 16mm for a mere twenty-three thousand dollars, writer/producer/director Linklater and his close-knit crew of friends eschewed a traditional plot, choosing instead to employ long takes and fluid transitions to create a tapestry of over a hundred characters, each as unique as the last, culminating in an episodic portrait of a distinct vernacular culture and a tribute to bohemian cerebration. Slacker is a prescient look at an emerging generation of aggressive nonparticipants, and one of the key films of the American independent film movement of the 1990s.
DIRECTOR APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES
DISC ONE
* New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound supervised by director Richard Linklater and director of photography Lee Daniel, made from original 16mm film elements
* Three audio commentaries featuring Richard Linklater and members of the cast and crew
* Casting tapes featuring select "auditions" from the over one-hundred-member cast, with an essay from production manager/casting director Anne Walker-McBay
* An early film treatment
* Home movies
* Ten-minute trailer for a documentary about the landmark Austin café, Les Amis, which served as location for several scenes in Slacker
* Stills gallery featuring hundreds of rare behind-the-scenes production and publicity photos
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
DISC TWO
* It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988), Linklater's first full-length feature, with commentary by the director, available here for the first time on home video
* Woodshock, an early short 16mm film made by Linklater and Lee Daniel in 1985
* "The Roadmap," the working script of Slacker, including fourteen deleted scenes and alternate takes
* Footage from the Slacker tenth-anniversary in Austin, Texas, in 2001
* Original theatrical trailer
* Slacker culture essay by Linklater
* Information about the Austin Film Society, founded in 1985 by Linklater with Daniel, including early flyers from screenings
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
One of the most influential films in the history of political cinema, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers focuses on the harrowing events of 1957, a key year in Algeria’s struggle for independence from France. Shot in the streets of Algiers in documentary style, the film vividly recreates the tumultuous Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the 1950s. As violence escalates on both sides, the French torture prisoners for information and the Algerians resort to terrorism in their quest for independence. Children shoot soldiers at point-blank range; women plant bombs in cafés. The French win the battle, but ultimately lose the war as the Algerian people demonstrate that they will no longer be suppressed. The Criterion Collection is proud to present Gillo Pontecorvo’s tour de force—a film with astonishing relevance today.
SPECIAL EDITION THREE-DISC SET FEATURES:
DISC 1: THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS
* New high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Marcello Gratti, with restored image and sound, and enhanced for widescreen televisions
* Theatrical and re-release trailers
* Poster gallery
* New and improved English subtitle translation
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
DISC 2: PONTECORVO AND THE FILM
* The Making of The Battle of Algiers: an exclusive new documentary created for this release guided by Pontecorvo biographer Irene Bignardi and featuring interviews with the director himself, cinematographer Marcello Gatti, composer Ennio Morricone, editor Mario Morra, actors Jean Martin and Saadi Yacef, and film critic Tullio Kezich
* The Dictatorship of Truth: a 37-minute documentary narrated by Edward Said about the relationship between Pontecorvo’s politics and filmmaking style
* Five Directors: a discussion about the The Battle of Algiers influence, style, and importance featuring, Spike Lee, Mira Nair, Julian Schnabel, Steven Soderbergh, and Oliver Stone
DISC 3: THE FILM AND HISTORY
* Remembering History: a new documentary featuring interviews with historians Alistair Horne, Hugh Roberts and Benjamin Stora, former FLN members Zohra Drif-Bitat, Mohammed Harbi and Saadi Yacef, and writer and torture victim, Henri Alleg (The Question)
* “Etats d’Armes”—a 30-minute excerpt from Patrick Rotman’s 3-part documentary, L’Ennemi Intime, which focuses on the horror of the French-Algerian War. It features interviews with various members of the French military during the French-Algerian War, including General Jacques Massu, General Roger Trinquier, General Paul Aussaresses, and others
* How to Win the Battle But Lose the War of Ideas: a conversation about the contemporary relevance of The Battle of Algiers between former National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism and author of Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terror, Richard A. Clarke, former State Department Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Michael A. Sheehan, and Chief of Investigative Projects for ABC News, Christopher E. Isham
* Return to Algiers (1992, 55 minutes): three decades following its emergence as a nation, director Gillo Pontecorvo and his son return to Algeria to talk with its people about independence
* Plus: a booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Peter Matthews, a reprinted interview with writer Franco Solinas, brief biographies on the key figures in the French-Algerian War, and more
John Cassavetes’ directorial debut revolves around an interracial relationship between Lelia (Lelia Goldoni), a light-skinned black woman living in New York City with her two brothers, and Tony (Anthony Ray), a white man. Their relationship crumbles when Tony meets Lelia’s brother Hugh (Hugh Herd), a talented dark-skinned jazz singer who struggling to find work, and discovers that Lelia is actually black. Shot on location in Manhattan with an amateur cast and crew, Cassavetes’ Shadows is a visionary work and a landmark in the history of American independent film.
* New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
* Video interviews with actress Lelia Goldoni and associate producer Seymour Cassel
* Rare silent 16mm footage of John Cassavetes and Burt Lane’s acting workshop rehearsals
* Restoration demonstration
* Stills gallery featuring dozens of behind-the-scenes production photos
* Trailer
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
The disintegration of a bourgeois marriage is dissected in John Cassavetes’ searing Faces. Shot in high-contrast 16mm black and white, the film follows Richard (John Marley) and Maria (Lynn Carlin) as they futilely attempt to escape the anguish of their empty marriage in the arms of others. Featuring astonishingly powerful, nervy performances from Marley, Carlin, and Cassavetes regulars Gena Rowlands and Seymour Cassel, Faces confronts suburban alienation and the battle of the sexes with a brutal honesty and compassion rarely matched in cinema.
DISC ONE—THE FILM
* New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound and enhanced for widescreen televisions
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
DISC TWO—THE SUPPLEMENTS
* Seventeen-minute alternate opening sequence, from the Library of Congress version of Faces
* Cinéastes de notre temps (1968, 48 minutes): an episode from the French television series dedicated to Cassavetes, featuring rare interviews and behind-the-scenes footage
* New video interviews with actors Gena Rowlands, Lynn Carlin, Seymour Cassel, and director of photography Al Ruban
* Lighting and shooting the film: Ruban explains how he and the crew achieved the distinct look of Faces, featuring specific sequences from the film
John Cassavetes’ devastating drama details the emotional breakdown of a suburban housewife and her family’s struggle to save her from herself. Starring Peter Falk and Gena Rowlands (in one of the greatest and most harrowing screen performances of the 1970s) as a married couple, deeply in love, yet unable to express their love in terms that the other can understand, A Woman Under the Influence is an uncompromising examination of mental illness and an honest portrayal of domestic life. The Criterion Collection is proud to present one of the benchmark films of the American independent cinema—a heroic document from a true maverick director.
* New high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisions
* Audio commentary by longtime Cassavetes collaborators Mike Ferris (camera operator) and Bo Harwood (sound recordist/composer)
* New video interview with actors Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk
* Original TV spots
* Stills gallery featuring dozens of behind-the-scenes production photos
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
John Cassavetes engages film noir in his own inimitable style with The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. In it, Ben Gazzara brilliantly portrays gentlemen’s club owner Cosmo Vitelli, a man dedicated to pretenses of composure and self-possession. When he runs afoul of a small-time gangster, Cosmo is forced to commit a horrible crime in a last-ditch effort to save his beloved club and his way of life. Suspenseful, mesmerizing, and idiosyncratic, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie is a brilliant examination of desperation and masculine identity.
DISC ONE—THE 1976 CUT
* New high-definition digital transfer of John Cassavetes’ original 135-minute edit of the film, unavailable since 1976, with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisions
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
DISC TWO—THE 1978 CUT
* New high-definition digital transfer of Cassavetes’ 108-minute edit, from the 1978 theatrical re-release, with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisions
* New video interviews with star Ben Gazzara and producer Al Ruban
* Stills gallery of dozens of behind-the-scenes photos
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon (Gena Rowlands) rehearses for her latest play, which concerns a woman who is unable to admit that she is aging. When she witnesses the accidental death of an adoring young fan, she begins to confront the personal and professional turmoil she faces in her own life. Featuring a moving performance by Rowlands and shot on stages with live audiences reacting freely to the writing and performing, John Cassavetes’ Opening Night exposes the drama of an actress who at great personal cost makes a part her own.
* New high-definition digital transfer with restored image and sound, enhanced for widescreen televisions
* New video interview with actors Gena Rowlands and Ben Gazzara
* Stills gallery featuring dozens of behind-the-scenes production photos
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
As intense and passionate as its subject, Charles Kiselyak’s A Constant Forge provides a detailed journey through the life and art of one of cinema’s greatest pioneers and iconoclasts: John Cassavetes. Assembled from candid interviews with Cassavete’s collaborators and friends, rare photographs, archival footage, and the words of Cassavetes himself, the film paints a revealing portrait of a man whose fierce love, courage, and dedication changed the face of cinema forever.
* Biographical sketches of the actors Cassavetes used in many of his films, written by Tom Charity (John Cassavetes: Lifeworks)
* Poster gallery for Cassavetes’ Faces, Shadows, A Woman Under the Influence, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, and Opening Night
* English subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired
* Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
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