Criterion Watch, July 2009

Okay, okay- here’s the real Criterion Watch as promised. After all, while I’m sure we all would love to walk up to the Criterion section at our local DVD rental emporium (what, you mean yours doesn’t have a Criterion section?) and see the screaming Bale cover for American Psycho or the gorgeous image on the fake Crash DVD, for now we have to accept what Criterion gives us. Thankfully, they’re still coming through with fascinating new releases. Per longtime Hats friend Adam Villani's request, you can click the images to link to the Criterion site.
For me, this is the biggie, being a Deneuve fan of long standing and all. I practically wore out my old VHS tape, so I’d be more than happy to trade up to this. And for those of you with Blu-Ray players, this is one of Criterion’s Blu-Ray releases for July, so that’s cool too.

And here’s their other Blu-Ray for the month, which will also get rereleased in standard-definition for those of us who are feeling the current economic crunch. I haven’t seen this one yet, so maybe this new pressing will give me an excuse to finally do so.

A Godard double-feature is always good news, especially when there’s one I haven’t seen in the mix. I’ve always been curious about Made in USA, so this will finally give me a chance to check it out. And while Two or Three Things isn’t my favorite sixties Godard, it’s still sixties Godard- in other words, awesome.

Of the July release slate, this is probably the most interesting of the bunch, a massive Japanese epic that’s being released for the first time on DVD. This is another one I haven’t seen yet, and while I don’t know if I’ll have time to sit down and watch the whole thing as I might have done in the past, I’m sure I’ll find time to watch it sooner rather than later. But then, I said the same thing about Berlin Alexanderplatz…
Finally, here’s the latest in the Essential Art House line that Criterion introduced a year or so ago. I’m of two minds about these sets, since while the DVDs are mostly bare-bones versions of pre-existing Criterion titles, it’s good to have these movies out there. Still, the titles they’ve chosen for this one (Variety Lights, The Hidden Fortress, Richard III, Ashes and Diamonds, Forbidden Games, and the Queen Latifah-less version of Last Holiday), don’t seen particularly “essential”, aside from Kurosawa’s film, which I already own. So I’m guessing that I’ll skip this one in favor of spending my limited amount of incidental cash on the Polanski. But if you’re aching to buy this, don’t let me stop you.