The Criterion Collection,
with sales and distribution support provided by Image Entertainment, will be
anchoring its four-strong December release schedule with a pair of Blu-ray
releases from well known auteur
filmmakers.
Up first on Dec. 3 is a
newly restored Blu-ray/Double-DVD Combo Pack of director Robert Altman’s 1975
Best Picture/Best Director nominee, Nashville.
Included as bonus goodies
are a vintage commentary track from Altman, a newly prepared documentary on the
film featuring insights from actors Keith Carradine (Oscar-winner for his song,
“I’m Easy”), Michael Murphy, Lily Tomlin and Allan Nicholls, plus scripter Joan
Twekesbury and assistant director Alan Rudolph, behind the scenes footage,
demos of Keith Carradine singing and a vintage interview with Altman.
The following week, Dec.
10, look for the nine-disc (three Blu-rays and six DVDs), six-film SKU titled Martin
Scorsese's World Cinema Project.
This intriguing collection showcases six international films that have
been restored and brought to the collector’s market under Scorsese’s World
Cinema Project (launched in 2007).
Included in the mix are: Touki
Bouki (Senegal, 1973, in Wolof … directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty), Redes
(Mexico, 1936, in Spanish … co-directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred
Zinnemann), A River Called Titas (Bangladesh, 1973, in Bengali … directed
by Ritwik Ghatak), Dry Summer (Turkey, 1964, in Turkish … co-directed by Metin
Erksan and David E. Durston), Trances (Morocco, 1981, in Arabic …
written and directed by Ahmed El Maanouni) and The Housemaid (South
Korea, 1960, in Korean … directed by Ki-young Kim).
Also heading home on
Blu-ray in December from Criterion are Italian filmmaker Elio Petri’s 1970
Cannes Film Festival Grand Prize-winner, Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
(a Blu-ray/2 DVD Combo Pack release on Dec. 3), and the double-feature
presentation of Grey's Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens (Blu-ray
on Dec. 10).