Criterion Collection Recommendations (Part 1 of 2)

I mentioned previously that Barnes & Noble is having a 50% off sale on the Criterion Collection that began on the 12th and is running through the 1st of August. Furthermore, I mentioned that I would provide a list of recommended titles that you should consider acquiring during the sale. What follows are the first five out of ten; the link attached to the film title will take you to its page on the Criterion Collection website, from which each synopsis has been taken, while the link attached to the prices will take you to their DVD listings at Barnes&Noble.com (if you opt for the Blu-ray format, they are the same price). Unless otherwise noted, these titles are likely to be found in most stores:



Revanche (Götz Spielmann, 2008) - Spine # 502 - "A gripping thriller and a tragic drama of nearly Greek proportions, Revanche is the stunning, Oscar-nominated international breakthrough of Austrian filmmaker Götz Spielmann. In a ragged section of Vienna, hardened ex-con Alex (the mesmerizing Johannes Krisch) works in a brothel, where he falls for Ukrainian hooker Tamara. Their desperate plans for escape unexpectedly intersect with the lives of a rural cop and his seemingly content wife. With meticulous, elegant direction, Spielmann creates a tense, existential, and surprising portrait of vengeance and redemption, and a journey into the darkest forest of human nature, in which violence and beauty exist side by side."

Supplements: A video interview with the director, Götz Spielmann; a half-hour "making-of" featurette; Foreign Land - an award-winning short film directed by Spielmann; a booklet featuring an essay by critic Armond White.

The sale price is $19.99.



Harakiri (Masaki Kobayashi, 1962) - Spine # 302 - "Following the collapse of his clan, an unemployed samurai (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to be allowed to commit ritual suicide on the property. Iyi’s clansmen, believing the desperate ronin is merely angling for a new position, try to force his hand and get him to eviscerate himself—but they have underestimated his beliefs and his personal brand of honor. Winner of the 1963 Cannes Film Festival’s Special Jury Prize, Harakiri, directed by Masaki Kobayashi is a fierce evocation of individual agency in the face of a corrupt and hypocritical system."

Supplements: Video introduction by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie; excerpt from a Directors Guild of Japan video interview with the director, Masaki Kobayashi; video interviews with star Tatsuya Nakadai and screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto; poster gallery; a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Joan Mellen as well as a reprint of her 1972 interview with Kobayashi.

The sale price is $19.99.



M (Fritz Lang, 1931) - Spine # 30 - "A simple, haunting musical phrase whistled offscreen tells us that a young girl will be killed. “Who Is the Murderer?” pleads a nearby placard as serial killer Hans Beckert (Peter Lorre) closes in on little Elsie Beckmann . . . In his harrowing masterwork M, Fritz Lang merges trenchant social commentary with chilling suspense, creating a panorama of private madness and public hysteria that to this day remains the blueprint for the psychological thriller."

Supplements: Audio commentary by German film scholars Anton Kaes and Eric Rentschler; Conversation with Fritz Lang - a 50-minute film by William Friedkin (director of The Exorcist); Claude Chabrol's M le maudit - a short film inspired by M; an interview with Chabrol about Lang's filmmaking technique; classroom tapes of M editor Paul Falkenberg discussing the film and its history; interview with Harold Nebenzal, the son of M producer Seymour Nebenzal; A Physical History of M; stills gallery with behind-the-scenes photos and production sketches by art director Emil Hasler; a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Stanley Kauffmann, a 1963 interview with Lang, the script for a missing scene, and contemporaneous newspaper articles.

The sale price is $19.99.



Gomorrah (Matteo Garrone, 2008) - Spine # 493 -  "Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah is a stark, shocking vision of contemporary gangsterdom, and one of cinema’s most authentic depictions of organized crime. In this tour de force adaptation of undercover Italian reporter Roberto Saviano’s best-selling exposé of Naples’ Mafia underworld (known as the Camorra), Garrone links five disparate tales in which men and children are caught up in a corrupt system that extends from the housing projects to the world of haute couture. Filmed with an exquisite detachment interrupted by bursts of violence, Gomorrah is a shattering, socially engaged true-crime story from a major new voice in Italian cinema."

Supplements: Five Stories - a 60-minute documentary on the making of Gomorrah; video interviews with director Matteo Garrone and actor Toni Servillo; video interview with writer Roberto Saviano (the author of the book on which the film is based); short video piece featuring Toni Servillo and actors Gianfelice Imparato and Salvatore Cantalupo; deleted scenes; a book featuring an essay by critic Chuck Stephens.

The sale price is $19.99.



Wings of Desire (Wim Wenders, 1987) - Spine # 490 - "Wings of Desire is one of cinema’s loveliest city symphonies. Bruno Ganz is Damiel, an angel perched atop buildings high over Berlin who can hear the thoughts—fears, hopes, dreams—of all the people living below. But when he falls in love with a beautiful trapeze artist, he is willing to give up his immortality and come back to earth to be with her. Made not long before the fall of the Berlin wall, this stunning tapestry of sounds and images, shot in black and white and color by the legendary Henri Alekan, is movie poetry. And it forever made the name Wim Wenders synonymous with film art."

Supplements: Audio commentary with director Wim Wenders and actor Peter Falk; The Angels Among Us - a 2003 documentary featuring interviews with Wenders, Falk, actors Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander, writer Peter Handke, and composer Jürgen Knieper; "Wim Wenders Berlin Jan. 87" - an episode of the French television program Cinéma cinémas; interview with director of photography Henri Aleka; deleted scenes and outtakes; excerpts from Alekan la lumière (1985) and Remembrance: Film for Curt Bois (1982); notes and photos by art directors Heidi Lüdi and Toni Lüdi; a booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Atkinson and writings by Handke and Wenders.

The sale price is $19.99.


If you have a Barnes & Noble membership ($25/year), you will save an extra 10% if purchasing these titles in-store. Check back next week for my other five recommendations.