The Criterion Collection has just announced three very notable movies for release on Blu-ray: Mira Nair's '
Monsoon Wedding'
will street on October 13, followed a week later by two other titles: James Ivory's '
Howards End'
and Wim Wenders' '
Wings of Desire' (
Der Himmel über Berlin) will hit store shelves on October 20.
Release details for each title follow.
Howards End
This movie was the
winner in a poll held at Amazon to let fans vote for the title they preferred to be published next by Criterion. It will use a high-definition digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Tony Pierce-Roberts, accompanied by an uncompressed 5.1 soundtrack.
Special features include:
- New appreciation of the late Ismail Merchant by director James Ivory
- Building Howards End, a documentary featuring interviews with Ivory, Merchant, Helena Bonham Carter, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and Academy Award–winning production designer Luciana Arrighi
- The Design of Howards End, a detailed look at the costume and production designs for the film, including original sketches
- The Wandering Company (1984), a 50-minute documentary about the history of Merchant Ivory Productions
- Original 1992 behind-the-scenes featurette
- Original theatrical trailer
- An essay by critic Kenneth Turan
Monsoon Wedding
Video-wise, this title will feature a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Mira Nair and director of photography Declan Quinn. Audio will be DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1.
Special features include:
- Audio commentary featuring Nair
- Nair's short documentaries So Far from India (1983), India Cabaret (1985), and The Laughing Club of India (2001), featuring video introductions by the director
- Nair's short fiction films The Day the Mercedes Became a Hat (1993), 11'09"01—September 11 (Segment: “India”) (2002), Migration (2007), and How Can It Be? (2008), featuring video introductions by the director
- New video interview with actor Naseeruddin Shah, conducted by Nair
- New video interviews with Quinn and production designer Stephanie Carroll
- Theatrical trailer
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- An essay by critic and travel writer Pico Iyer
Wings of Desire
This director-approved special edition will feature a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Wim Wenders, accompanied by a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack.
Special features include:
- Audio commentary featuring Wenders and actor Peter Falk
- The Angels Among Us (2003), a documentary featuring interviews with Wenders, Falk, actors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander, writer Peter Handke, and composer Jürgen Knieper
- Excerpt from "Wim Wenders Berlin Jan. 87", an episode of the French television program Cinéma cinemas, including on-set footage
- Interview with director of photography Henri Alekan
- Deleted scenes and outtakes
- Excerpts from the films Alekan la lumière (1985) and Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois (about the actor who plays Homer in Wings of Desire)
- Notes and photos by production designer Heidi Lüdi and art director
- Toni Lüdi
- Trailers
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson and writings by Wenders and Handke
Update: contrary to initial pricing information, MSRP for the above three titles is the usual $39.95.