Criterion: March 2023 Titles Announced

December 15, 2022 / Leave a Comment

by Christopher Haskell

Mildred Pierce

United States
1945
111 minutes
Black & White
1.37:1
English
Directed by Michael Curtiz
SPINE #860

4K UHD+Blu-ray
BLU-RAY
DVD

MARCH 7, 2023

Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Joan Crawford’s iconic performance as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford’s career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by her bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent’s tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain’s rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional.

4K UHD + Blu-ray Special Edition Features

4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
Conversation with critics Molly Haskell and Robert Polito
Excerpt from a 1970 episode of The David Frost Show featuring actor Joan Crawford
Joan Crawford: The Ultimate Movie Star, a 2002 feature-length documentary
Q&A with actor Ann Blyth from 2006, presented by filmmaker Marc Huestis and conducted by film historian Eddie Muller
Segment from a 1969 episode of the Today show featuring Mildred Pierce novelist James M. Cain
Trailer
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith

Cover by Sean Phillips

Last Hurrah for Chivalry

Hong Kong
1979
106 minutes
Color
2.39:1
Cantonese
Directed by John Woo
SPINE #1174

BLU-RAY

MARCH 14, 2023

Before he became known as the master of the bullet-riddled heroic tragedy, John Woo sharpened his trademark themes and kinetic action choreography with this whirlwind wuxia spectacle. Unaware they are caught in a deadly game of deception, a pair of rambunctious swordsmen (Wai Pak and Damian Lau) join forces to help a nobleman (Lau Kong) in his quest for vengeance. Paying thrilling homage to his mentor, martial-arts innovator Chang Cheh, Woo delivers both bravura swordplay set pieces and a bloodstained interrogation of the meaning of brotherhood and honor in a world in which loyalty is bought and sold.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

2K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed monaural soundtracks
Alternate English-dubbed tracks
Audio interview with director John Woo
New interview with Grady Hendrix, author of These Fists Break Bricks
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by scholar Aaron Han Joon Magnan-Park

New cover designed and illustrated by Alphaville

Inland Empire

United States
2006
180 minutes
Black and White/Color
1.85:1
English, Polish
Directed by David Lynch
SPINE #1175

BLU-RAY

MARCH 21, 2023

“Strange, what love does.” The role of a lifetime, a Hollywood mystery, a woman in trouble . . . David Lynch’s first digitally shot feature makes visionary use of the medium to weave a vast meditation on the enigmas of time, identity, and cinema itself. Featuring a tour de force performance from Laura Dern as an actor on the edge, this labyrinthine Dream Factory nightmare tumbles down an endless series of unfathomably interconnected rabbit holes as it takes viewers on a hallucinatory odyssey into the deepest realms of the unconscious mind.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

New HD digital master, made from the 4K restoration supervised by director David Lynch, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio and uncompressed stereo soundtracks, newly remastered by Lynch and original rerecording mixers Dean Hurley and Ron Eng
Two films from 2007, LYNCH (one) and LYNCH2, by blackANDwhite, the makers of David Lynch: The Art Life
New conversation between actors Laura Dern and Kyle MacLachlan
More Things That Happened, seventy-five minutes of extra scenes
Ballerina, a 2007 short film by Lynch
Reading by Lynch of excerpts from Room to Dream, his 2018 book with critic Kristine McKenna
Trailer
New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
PLUS: Excerpts from Richard A. Barney’s book David Lynch: Interviews

New cover based on an original theatrical poster

Chilly Scenes of Winter

United States
1979
95 minutes
Color
1.85:1
English
Directed by Joan Micklin Silver
SPINE #1176

BLU-RAY

MARCH 28, 2023

The trailblazing Joan Micklin Silver—one of only five women to direct a film for a Hollywood studio in the 1970s—digs fearlessly into the psychology of a thorny relationship in this anti–romantic comedy, based on Ann Beattie’s best-selling novel, about lovelorn civil servant Charles (John Heard) and his married-but-separated coworker Laura (Mary Beth Hurt). Months after their affair has ended, Charles is haunted by memories as he desperately attempts to rekindle a love that perhaps never was. Switching deftly between past and present, Micklin Silver guides this piercing deconstruction of male wish-fulfillment fantasy beyond standard movie-romance tropes into something more complicated and cuttingly truthful.