This is officially one of the most exciting days in the history of HD news reporting. The Criterion Collection has announced no fewer than five films for release on Blu-ray in October. On October 12, it will release
The Magician (
Ansiktet; Ingmar Bergman, 1958) and
The Darjeeling Limited (Wes Anderson, 2007); a week later, the anxiously-awaited
Seven Samurai (
Shichinin no samurai; Akira Kurosawa, 1954); and finally, on October 26, the label will release
House (
Hausu; Nobuhijo Obayashi, 1977) and
Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957).
Special features include:
The Darjeeling Limited
- Anderson's short film Hotel Chevalier (part one of The Darjeeling Limited), starring Natalie Portman, with commentary by Anderson
- Audio commentary featuring Anderson and cowriters Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola
- Behind-the-scenes documentary by Barry Braverman
- Anderson and filmmaker James Ivory discussing the film's music
- Anderson's American Express commercial
- On-set footage shot by Coppola and actor Waris Ahluwalia
- Audition footage, deleted and alternate scenes, and stills galleries
- Original theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Richard Brody and original illustrations by Eric Anderson
House
- Constructing a House, a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the director Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura
- Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi
- New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil)
- Theatrical trailer
- An essay by Chuck Stephens
The Magician
- New visual essay by Bergman scholar Peter Cowie
- Brief 1967 video interview with director Ingmar Bergman about the film
- Rare English-language audio interview with Bergman, conducted by filmmakers Olivier Assayas and Stig Björkman
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoff Andrew, a reprinted essay by Assayas, and an excerpt from Bergman's autobiography Images: My Life in Film
Paths of Glory
- New audio commentary by critic Gary Giddins
- Television interview from 1979 with star Kirk Douglas
- New video interviews with Kubrick's longtime executive producer Jan Harlan, Paths of Glory producer James B. Harris, and actress Christiane Kubrick
- Excerpt from a French television program about real-life World War I executions similar to the events dramatized in Paths of Glory
- Theatrical trailer
- An essay by Kubrick scholar James Naremore
Seven Samurai
- Two audio commentaries:
- Film scholars David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie
- Japanese film expert Michael Jeck
- A 50-minute documentary on the making of Seven Samurai, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- My Life in Cinema, a two-hour video conversation between Akira Kurosawa and Nagisa Oshima produced by the Directors Guild of Japan
- Seven Samurai: Origins and Influences, a new documentary looking at the samurai traditions and films that impacted Kurosawa's masterpiece
- Theatrical trailers and teaser
- Gallery of rare posters and behind-the scenes and production stills
- A booklet featuring essays by Peter Cowie, Philip Kemp, Peggy Chiao, Alain Silver, Kenneth Turan, Stuart Galbraith, Arthur Penn, and Sidney Lumet and an interview with Toshiro Mifune