The Criterion Collection has announced five titles for Blu-ray release in March. On March 15, the independent studio will release two acclaimed international titles: the deeply personal drama
Au revoir les enfants (Louis Malle, 1987) and the family epic
Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 2000). A week later, the Oscar-winning documentary
The Times of Harvey Milk (Robert Epstein, 1984) will hit store shelves. And finally, on March 29, Criterion will roll out the carpet for Gilbert and Sullivan with two releases:
The Mikado (Victor Schertzinger, 1939) and
Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, 1999).
As to the transfers,
Au revoir les enfants has been supervised by director of photography Renato Berta.
The Times of Harvey Milk is director-approved and uses the UCLA Film and Television Archive restoration. The transfer of
Topsy-Turvy is approved by the director and supervised by cinematographer Dick Pope.
Special features include:
Au revoir les enfants
- Video interviews with biographer Pierre Billard and actress Candice Bergen, director Louis Malle's widow
- Joseph: A Character Study – a profile of the provocative character from Au revoir les enfants
- The Immigrant: Charlie Chaplin's 1917 short comedy, featured in the film
- Audio excerpts from a 1988 AFI interview with Malle
- Original theatrical trailer and teaser
- A booklet featuring essays by film critic Philip Kemp and historian Francis J. Murphy
The Mikado
- New video interview with Topsy-Turvy director Mike Leigh on The Mikado and its adaptation for the screen
- New video interview with Mikado scholars Josephine Lee and Ralph MacPhail Jr., tracing the 1939 filmed version of the opera back to its 1885 stage debut
- Short silent film promoting the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's 1926 stage performance of The Mikado
- A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien
The Times of Harvey Milk
- Audio commentary featuring director Robert Epstein, coeditor Deborah Hoffmann, and photographer Daniel Nicoletta
- New interview with documentary filmmaker and UC Berkeley professor Jon Else
- New program about The Times of Harvey Milk and Gus Van Sant's Milk, featuring Epstein, Van Sant, actor James Franco, and Milk friends Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, and Nicoletta
- Postscript containing interview clips not used in the film
- Rare collection of audio and video recordings of Harvey Milk
- Interview excerpts from Epstein's research tapes
- Footage from the film's Castro Theatre premiere and the 1984 Academy Awards ceremony
- Panel discussion on Supervisor Dan White's controversial trial
- Excerpts from the twenty-fifth anniversary commemoration of Milk's and Mayor George Moscone's assassinations
- Original theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring an essay by film critic B. Ruby Rich, a tribute by Milk's nephew Stuart Milk, and a piece on the film's restoration by the UCLA Film and Television Archive's Ross Lipman
Topsy-Turvy
- Audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh
- New video conversation between Leigh and the film's musical director, Gary Yershon
- A Sense of History: Leigh's 1992 short film written by and starring actor Jim Broadbent
- Deleted scenes
- Featurette from 1999 including interviews with Leigh, stars Broadbent and Allan Corduner, and other cast members
- Theatrical trailer and TV spots
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Amy Taubin
Yi Yi
- Audio commentary by writer-director Edward Yang and Asian-cinema critic Tony Rayns
- Video interview with Rayns about Yang and the New Taiwan Cinema movement
- US theatrical trailer
- A booklet featuring an essay by film writer Kent Jones and notes from the director