The Criterion Collection Announces It February Of 2019 Film Restoration Titles For DVD And Bu-ray Release

The Criterion Collection announced its list of film restorations destined for DVD and Blu-ray release during the month of February this past week.   

It is always a subjective pick as to which new product offering from Criterion is the pick of the litter.   So, with that in mind, we are going to go with the hi-def restoration of auteur German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1980 epic vision, Berlin Alexanderplatz.

It will be available on Feb. 12 as a four-disc Blu-ray set as well as seven-disc DVD presentation.

Bonus goodies include film editor Juliane Lorenz’s 2007 short documentary titled Fassbinders Berlin Alexanderplatz Remastered, documentary filmmaker Hans-Dieter Hartl’s 1980 film, Notes on the Making of Berlin Alexanderplatz, director Phil Jutzi’s 1931 version of Berlin-Alexanderplatz and a 2007 video session with author Peter Jelavich (“Berlin Alexanderplatz: Radio, Film and the Death of Weimar Culture”).

Elsewhere on the DVD and Blu-ray release calendar in February from the Criterion Collection are a new 2K restoration of director Ingmar Bergman’s Shame (Feb. 5); the 1960 Brigitte Bardot courtroom drama, La Vérité (Jan. 12), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot; a new 4K restoration of director 1971 film adaptation of the Thomas Mann novel, Death in Venice (Feb. 19) and on Feb. 26 look for a new 4K restoration of director Charles Burnett’s 1990 film release of To Sleep with Anger.