The Criterion Collection has announced three titles for release on Blu-ray in April. Olivier Assayas' '
Summer Hours'
(L'heure d'été), voted 2009's best film in a poll of over 100 critics at indieWIRE, and the visually stunning New Wave Jean-Luc Godard masterwork '
Vivre sa vie', are set for April 20. A week later, Ang Lee's '
Ride with the Devil' will come out, reconstructed to the director's original vision, with 13 minutes of additional footage.
All three titles were among the guesses made by forum enthusiasts after studying Criterion's cryptic New Year's card (see blu-ray.com,
January 1).
Special features are as follows:
Summer Hours
- New video interview with Assayas
- A short documentary featuring interviews with Assayas and actors Charles Berling and Juliette Binoche, and showing the cast and crew on set
- Inventory, an hour-long documentary by Olivier Gonard, shot partly in Paris's Musée d'Orsay, that examines the film's approach to art
- Theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones
Vivre sa vie
- Audio commentary featuring film scholar Adrian Martin
- Video interview with film scholar Jean Narboni, conducted by historian Noël Simsolo
- Television interview from 1962 with actress Anna Karina
- Excerpts from a 1961 French television exposé on prostitution
- Illustrated essay on La prostitution, the book that served as inspiration for the film
- Stills gallery
- Director Jean-Luc Godard's original theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson, interviews with Godard, a reprint by critic Jean Collet on the film's soundtrack, and Godard's original scenario
Ride with the Devil
- Two audio commentaries:
- Ang Lee and producer-screenwriter James Schamus
- Director of photography Frederick Elmes, sound designer Drew Kunin, and production designer Mark Friedberg
- New video interview with star Jeffrey Wright
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Godfrey Cheshire