The Criterion Collection Announces Its August 2016 Blu-ray And DVD Release Calendar

The Criterion Collection unveiled its August release calendar this past week and topping the list of Blu-ray and DVD selections — which is always a matter of taste mind you — is auteur filmmaker Robert Altman’s 1971 neo-Western, McCabe & Mrs. Miller.

With the film’s star, Warren Beatty, much-anticipated return to the silver screen this Thanksgiving in Rules Don’t Apply  — written, directed and starring Beatty as none other than Howard Hughes — Criterion seems to be right on top of things with this new 4K restoration.

The street date will be Aug. 9 and SKU configuration will be a Blu-ray and a double-disc DVD edition.

As to bonus goodies for the Blu-ray and double-disc DVD selections of McCabe & Mrs. Miller — and there are plenty to be sure — they begin with a vintage 2002 commentary option featuring the late Robert Altman, who was joined by the film’s producer, David Foster (The Getaway, The Thing, Short Circuit, etc.), a new documentary on the making of the film and a newly prepared video session featuring film historians Cari Beauchamp (author: “Without Lying Down: Frances Marion and The Powerful Women of Early Hollywood” and “Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years”) and Rick Jewell (author: “RKO Radio Pictures:  A Titan Is Born” and “The Golden Age of Cinema: Hollywood, 1929-1945”).

Other nuggets include a vintage interview with cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, 1970 making-of featurette, a 1999 Q&A session with production designer Leon Ericksen and snippets from a 1971 airing of The Dick Cavett Show featuring filmmaker Robert Altman and critic Pauline Kael.

The following week, Aug. 16, will see Blu-ray and DVD editions of documentary filmmaker Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words.  

The ARR for this 2015 Swedish-language import is 277 days and arthouse ticket sales amounted to $133,283.

Bonus features include a newly-prepared video session with filmmaker Stig Björkman, Landskamp (1932) and outtakes from the 1936 film, On the Sunny Side.

extended scenes, a pair of deleted scenes, bonus 8mm home footage from the 1930s, a clip from Bergman’s first film,

Aug. 23 marks the arrival of a new restoration of director Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Oscar nominated Woman of the Dunes (Best Foreign Language Film) — Blu-ray and double-disc DVD editions will be available.

Bonus features include four short films from Teshigahara — Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958) and Ako (1965) — and the documentary, Teshigahara and Abe.

On the same date, Aug. 23, the Criterion Collection will be issuing a new 4K restoration of director Tony Richardson’s 1961 film adaptation of Shelagh Delaney stage play, A Taste of Honey.

Available will be DVD and Blu-ray SKUs of this award-winning British “Kitchen Sink” drama.    Bonus nuggets a vintage (circa 1962) interview with Richardson, a vintage interview (circa 1960) with playwright Shelagh Delaney and filmmaker Tony Richardson’s theatrical short film, Momma Don’t Allow (1955, co-directed with Karel Reisz).

Rounding out the month of August — street date of Aug. 30 — are two from auteur filmmaker Orson Welles.  These are a 4K restoration of The Immortal Story and a newly prepared restoration of Chimes at Midnight.

Both Chimes at Midnight and The Immortal Story will be configured as double-disc DVD releases and single-disc Blu-ray product offerings.