Criterion Announces November Slate

The Criterion Collection, much adored blu-ray release company (and the benefactor of any of my potential children’s college fund) has revealed their releases for November.  This grouping consists of one of Kurosawa’s final films, works by modern auteurs P.T. Anderson and Noah Baumbach, Brando’s sole directorial effort, and a samurai classic box set.

Let’s take a look.

Lone Wolf and Cub Collection - November 8

Based on the best-selling manga series, the six 'Lone Wolf And Cub' get a glorious release featuring 2k restorations and the US Edit of the first two films, known as 'Shogun Assassin'.

Here's what you're getting:

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell

Special Features

• New 2K digital restorations of all six films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays
• High-definition presentation of Shogun Assassin, the 1980 English-dubbed reedit of the first two Lone Wolf and Cub films
• New interview with Kazuo Koike, writer of the Lone Wolf and Cub manga series and screenwriter on five of the films
• Lame d'un père, l'âme d'un sabre, a 2005 documentary about the making of the series
• New interview in which Sensei Yoshimitsu Katsuse discusses and demonstrates the real Suio-ryu sword techniques that inspired those in the manga and films
• New interview with biographer Kazuma Nozawa about filmmaker Kenji Misumi, director of four of the six Lone Wolf and Cub films
• Silent documentary from 1937 about the making of samurai swords, with an optional new ambient score by Ryan Francis
• Trailers
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay and film synopses by Japanese pop culture writer Patrick Macias

Punch Drunk Love - November 15

Paul Thomas Anderson's odd romance picture featuring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, and a very angry Philip Seymour Hoffman gets an all new 4k transfer and some other cool stuff.

Special Features:

• 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Paul Thomas Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Blossoms & Blood, a twelve-minute 2002 piece by Anderson featuring Adam Sandler and Emily Watson, along with music by Jon Brion
• New interview with Brion
• New piece featuring behind-the-scenes footage of a recording session for the film's soundtrack
• New conversation between curators Michael Connor and Lia Gangitano about the art of Jeremy Blake
• Additional artwork by Blake
• Cannes press conference from 2002
• NBC News interview from 2000 with David Phillips, "the pudding guy"
• Twelve Scopitones
• Deleted scenes
• Mattress Man commercial
• Trailers

Dreams - November 15

Kurosawa brings his dreams to life featuring a group of mythical events and a Martin Scorsese turn as Vincent van Gough.

Special Features:

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Masaharu Ueda, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New audio commentary featuring film scholar Stephen Prince
• Making of "Dreams" (1990), a 150-minute documentary shot on-set and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
• New interview with assistant director Takashi Koizumi
• New interview with production manager Teruyo Nogami
• Kurosawa's Way (2011), a fifty-minute documentary by director Akira Kurosawa's longtime translator Catherine Cadou, featuring interviews with filmmakers Theodoros Angelopoulos, Bernardo Bertolucci, Clint Eastwood, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Bong Joon-ho, Abbas Kiarostami, Hayao Miyazaki, Martin Scorsese, Julie Taymor, Shin'ya Tsukamoto, and John Woo
• Trailer
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and Kurosawa's script for a never-filmed ninth dream, introduced by Nogami

The Squid And The Whale - November 22

Receiving an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay, Noah Baumbach's third film elevated his work to a whole new level.  An intimate portrayal of a family coming apart due to divorce, it's an honest and rattling look at life.

Special Features:

• New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Robert Yeoman and director Noah Baumbach, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New interviews with Baumbach and actors Jeff Daniels, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, and Laura Linney
• New conversation about the score and other music in the film between Baumbach and composers Dean Wareham and Britta Phillips
• Behind "The Squid and the Whale," a 2004 documentary featuring on-set footage and cast interviews
• Audition footage
• Trailers

One Eyed Jacks - November 22

The only film he directed and one of his great performances, Brando plays Rio.  A bank robber determined to get revenge on the partner that betrayed him.  

Special Features:

• New 4K digital restoration, undertaken with the support of The Film Foundation and supervised by filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New introduction by Scorsese
• Excerpts from voice-recordings director and star Marlon Brando made during the film's production
• New video essays on the film's production history and its potent combination of the stage and screen icon Brando with the classic Hollywood western
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Howard Hampton