Criterion Blu-ray in May: Kassovitz, Jonze, Kiarostami, Bergman

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Criterion Blu-ray in May: Kassovitz, Jonze, Kiarostami, Bergman

Posted February 16, 2012 06:04 PM by Josh Katz

After much speculation, the Criterion Collection has posted its full roster of Blu-ray releases for May 2012.

Titles include Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine, Spike Jonze's Being John Malkovich, Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy, and two features from Ingmar Bergman - Summer Interlude and Summer with Monika.

Of those, La Haine is the only previously available Criterion entry receiving a Blu-ray upgrade; the rest are new to the Criterion Collection.

Furthermore, the Jonze, Kiarostami, and Bergman films are making their respective debuts onto the North American Blu-ray format.

Quoted below are Criterion's release date and disc specifications for each film.

La Haine (May 8th, 2012) —
  • Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Mathieu Kassovitz
  • 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • English-language audio commentary by Kassovitz
  • Introduction by actor Jodie Foster
  • Ten Years of La haine, an eighty-minute documentary that brings together cast and crew a decade after the film's landmark release
  • Featurette on the film's banlieue setting, including interviews with sociologists Sophie Body-Gendrot, Jeffrey Fagan, and William Kornblum
  • Production footage
  • Deleted and extended scenes, each featuring an afterword by Kassovitz
  • Gallery of behind-the-scenes photos
  • Trailers
  • New essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and an appreciation by acclaimed filmmaker Costa-Gavras
Being John Malkovich (May 15th, 2012) —
  • New high-definition digital restoration
  • 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • New selected-scene audio commentary featuring filmmaker Michel Gondry
  • New behind-the-scenes documentary by filmmaker Lance Bangs
  • Conversation between John Malkovich and humorist John Hodgman
  • Director Spike Jonze discusses Being John Malkovich via photos from its production
  • Two films within the film:
  • - 7½ Floor Orientation
    - American Arts & Culture Presents John Horatio Malkovich, "Dance of Despair and Disillusionment"
  • An Intimate Portrait of the Art of Puppeteering, a documentary by Bangs
  • Trailer and TV spots
  • Booklet featuring a conversation between Jonze and pop-culture critic Perkus Tooth
Certified Copy (May 22nd, 2012) —
  • New high-definition digital restoration
  • 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • New interview with director Abbas Kiarostami
  • Let's See Copia conforme, an Italian documentary on the making of Certified Copy, featuring interviews with Kiarostami and actors Juliette Binoche and William Shimell
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • Booklet featuring an essay by film critic Godfrey Cheshire
Summer Interlude (May 29th, 2012) —
  • New high-definition digital restoration
  • Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • New English subtitle translation
  • Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Peter Cowie
Summer with Monika (May 29th, 2012) —
  • New high-definition digital restoration
  • Uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Introduction by director Ingmar Bergman
  • New interview with actress Harriet Andersson, conducted by film critic Peter Cowie
  • New interview with film scholar Eric Schaefer about Kroger Babb and Babb's distribution of Monika: Story of a Bad Girl as an exploitation film
  • Images from the Playground, a half-hour documentary by Stig Björkman with behind-the-scenes footage shot by Bergman, archival audio interviews with Bergman, and new interviews with actresses Bibi Andersson and Harriet Andersson
  • Trailer
  • New English subtitle translation
  • Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Laura Hubner, a 1958 review by filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, and a publicity piece from 1953 in which Bergman interviews himself
The Blu-rays are available for pre-order on Amazon.