The Criterion Collection has announced six titles for Blu-ray release in July. On July 12th, the independent studio will release
Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993). A week later, it will release
The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958) and
Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946). And finally, on July 26th it will release
High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963),
Léon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961), and
Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, 2010).
Technical specs and special features include:
Naked
- Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Mike Leigh, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary by Leigh and actors David Thewlis and Katrin Cartlidge
- Exclusive video interview with director Neil LaBute
- An episode of the BBC program The Art Zone in which author Will Self interviews Leigh
- The Short and Curlies, a short comedy from 1982 directed by Leigh and starring Thewlis, with audio commentary by Leigh
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critics Derek Malcolm and Amy Taubin
Beauty and the Beast
- High-definition digital transfer from restored film elements, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Composer Philip Glass's opera La Belle et la Bête, presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio as an alternate soundtrack
- Two commentaries: one by film historian Arthur Knight and one by writer and cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling
- Screening at the Majestic, a 1995 documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Interview with cinematographer Henri Alekan
- Rare behind-the-scenes photos and publicity stills
- Film restoration demonstration
- Original trailer, directed and narrated by director Jean Cocteau, plus restoration trailer from 1995
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Geoffrey O'Brien, a piece on the film by Cocteau, excerpts from Francis Steegmuller's 1970 book Cocteau: A Biography, and an introduction to Glass's opera by the composer
The Music Room
- New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Satyajit Ray (1984), a feature documentary by Shyam Benegal that chronicles Ray's career and includes interviews with the filmmaker, family photographs, and extensive clips from his films
- New interview with filmmaker Mira Nair
- New interview in which Ray biographer Andrew Robinson discusses the making of The Music Room and the film's cultural significance
- Excerpt from a 1981 French roundtable discussion with Ray, film critic Michel Ciment, and filmmaker Claude Sautet
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp as well as reprints of a 1963 essay by Ray and a 1986 interview with the director about the film's music
High and Low
- High-definition digital restoration, with original four-track surround sound presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
- Audio commentary by Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
- Documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- Rare video interview with actor Toshiro Mifune
- Video interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki, who plays the kidnapper
- Theatrical trailers from Japan and the U.S.
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and a reprinted on- set account by Japanese film scholar Donald Richie
Léon Morin, Priest
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Archival interview with director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo
- Visual essay by French film scholar Ginette Vincendeau
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic and novelist Gary Indiana
Life During Wartime
- New digital transfer, supervised and approved by director of photography Ed Lachman, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Ask Todd, an audio Q&A with director Todd Solondz
- Making "Life During Wartime," a new documentary featuring interviews with actors Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Michael Lerner, Paul Reubens, Ally Sheedy, and Michael Kenneth Williams, and on-set footage of the actors and crew
- New video piece in which Lachman discusses his work on the film
- Original theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Sterritt