Coming in January: the revolutionary first decade of a singular filmmaker, an American tragedy set in the Mississippi Delta of the 1940s, a 1990s British indie phenomenon, and a neowestern mystery set in a small Texas border town. Plus: a milestone of world cinema and a scorching neonoir—now on 4K UHD.
The Apu Trilogy (#782) out Jan 2
A breathtaking milestone that brought India into the golden age of international art-house film, Satyajit Ray’s The Apu Trilogy follows one indelible character, a free-spirited child in rural Bengal who matures into an adolescent urban student and, finally, a sensitive man of the world. Ray’s delicate masterworks—Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)—based on two books by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee, were shot over the course of five years, and each stands on its own as a tender, visually radiant journey. These films—which have risen from the ashes in meticulously reconstructed restorations, after the original negatives were burned in a fire—are among the most achingly beautiful, richly humane movies ever made. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- 4K digital restorations of all three films, undertaken in collaboration with the Academy Film Archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and L’Immagine Ritrovata, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the 4K UHD and Blu-ray editions
- In the 4K UHD edition: Three 4K UHD discs of the films and three Blu-rays with the films and special features
- Audio recordings from 1958 of director Satyajit Ray reading his essay “A Long Time on the Little Road” and in conversation with film historian Gideon Bachmann
- Interviews with actors Soumitra Chatterjee, Shampa Srivastava, and Sharmila Tagore; camera assistant Soumendu Roy; and film writer Ujjal Chakraborty
- Making “The Apu Trilogy”: Satyajit Ray’s Epic Debut, a video essay by Ray biographer Andrew Robinson“The Apu Trilogy”: A Closer Look, a program featuring filmmaker, producer, and teacher Mamoun Hassan
- Excerpts from the 2003 documentary The Song of the Little Road, featuring composer Ravi Shankar
- The Creative Person: “Satyajit Ray,” a 1967 documentary short by James Beveridge, featuring interviews with Ray, several of his actors, members of his creative team, and film critic Chidananda Das Gupta
- Footage of Ray receiving an honorary Oscar in 1992
- Programs on the restorations by filmmaker Kogonada
- PLUS: Essays by critics Terrence Rafferty and Girish Shambu, as well as a selection of Ray’s storyboards for Pather Panchali
Blood Simple (#834) out Jan 9
Joel and Ethan Coen’s career-long darkly comic road trip through misfit America began with this razor-sharp, hard-boiled neonoir set somewhere in Texas, where a sleazy bar owner releases a torrent of violence with one murderous thought. Actor M. Emmet Walsh looms over the proceedings as a slippery private eye with a yellow suit, a cowboy hat, and no moral compass, and Frances McDormand’s cunning debut performance set her on the road to stardom. The tight scripting and inventive style that have marked the Coens’ work for decades are all here in their first film, in which cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld abandons black-and-white chiaroscuro for neon signs and jukebox colors that combine with Carter Burwell’s haunting score to lurid and thrilling effect. Blending elements from pulp fiction and low-budget horror flicks, Blood Simple reinvented the film noir for a new generation, marking the arrival of a filmmaking ensemble that would transform the American independent cinema scene. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- Restored 4K digital transfer, approved by cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Conversation between Sonnenfeld and the Coens about the film’s look, featuring Telestrator video illustrations
- Conversation between author Dave Eggers and the Coens about the film’s production, from inception to release
- Interviews with composer Carter Burwell, sound editor Skip Lievsay, and actors Frances McDormand and M. Emmet Walsh
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by novelist and critic Nathaniel Rich
Lone Star (#1202) out Jan 16
A keen observer of America’s social fabric, writer-director John Sayles uncovers the haunted past buried beneath a small Texas border town in this sprawling neowestern mystery. When a skeleton is discovered in the desert, lawman Sam Deeds (Chris Cooper), son of a legendary local sheriff, begins an investigation that will have profound implications both for him personally and for all of Rio County, a place still reckoning with its history of racial violence. Sayles’s masterful film—novelistic in its intricacy and featuring a brilliant ensemble cast, including Joe Morton, Elizabeth Peña, and Kris Kristofferson—quietly subverts national mythmaking and lays bare the fault lines of life at the border. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director John Sayles and director of photography Stuart Dryburgh, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New conversation between Sayles and filmmaker Gregory Nava
- New interview with Dryburgh
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by scholar Domino Renee Perez
Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978 (#1203) out Jan 23
In the revolutionary first decade of her filmmaking career, Chantal Akerman devoted herself to nothing less than the total resculpting of cinematic time and space. Journeying between Europe and New York City, Akerman forged a highly personal style that fuses avant-garde influences with deeply human expressions of alienation, desire, and displacement—themes that she would explore in a series of increasingly ambitious shorts, documentaries, and features, including the towering Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. With immersive rhythms that render the most minute details momentous, these landmarks of twentieth-century art continue to reveal new ways of experiencing cinema and framing reality. The Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration of Les rendez-vous d’Anna and 2K digital restorations of Saute ma ville; L’enfant aimé, ou Je joue à être une femme mariée; La chambre; Hotel Monterey; Le 15/8; Je tu il elle; Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles; and News from Home, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
- Hanging Out Yonkers, an unfinished film from 1973 by Chantal Akerman
- Film-school tests
- New program on Akerman featuring critic B. Ruby Rich
- New visual essay on Akerman featuring archival interviews with the director
- Autour de “Jeanne Dielman,” a documentary made during the filming of Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, shot by actor Sami Frey and edited by Agnès Ravez and Akerman
- Interviews with Akerman, cinematographer Babette Mangolte, actors Aurore Clément and Delphine Seyrig, and Akerman’s mother, Natalia
- Appreciation by filmmaker Ira Sachs
- PLUS: An essay and notes on the films by critic Beatrice Loayza
Trainspotting (#1204) out Jan 30
A jolt of adrenaline shot straight to the heart of 1990s British cinema, this darkly funny adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel was a major breakthrough for director Danny Boyle, producer Andrew Macdonald, and screenwriter John Hodge. With live-wire energy and stylistic verve, Trainspotting bounces across the life and times of Mark Renton (Ewan McGregor), a Scottish heroin addict who, along with his misfit mates, gets high, gets in trouble, gets clean, and gets high again, all in a bid to outrun the banality of modern existence. Kinetically cut to an iconic soundtrack of techno, rock, and Britpop, this indie phenomenon chooses life in all its ugly, beautiful, terrifying exhilaration. The Filmmaker-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Danny Boyle, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Boyle, producer Andrew Macdonald, screenwriter John Hodge, and actor Ewan McGregor
- Nine deleted scenes with commentary from the filmmakers
- Off the Rails: The Making of “Trainspotting,” a documentary featuring archival interviews with cast and crew and behind-the-scenes footage
- Memories of “Trainspotting,” a documentary from 2008 featuring the filmmakers and actors McGregor, Kelly Macdonald, Ewen Bremner, and Robert Carlyle
- Reflections from soundtrack artists Iggy Pop, Jarvis Cocker, Bobby Gillespie, Damon Albarn, Leftfield, Underworld, and more
- Theatrical teaser and trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- More!
- PLUS: Essays by critic Graham Fuller and author Irvine Welsh, Welsh’s glossary of terms from the film and book, and glow-in-the-dark packaging
Mudbound (#1205) out Jan 30
In the Mississippi Delta of the 1940s, two farming families—one of white landholders, one of Black tenant farmers—are bound by the unforgiving soil they share as they struggle to survive amid the upheavals of World War II and the poisonous hatred of the Jim Crow South. Each family sends a young man off to battle; when they return home, scarred, and find a common bond, the community is ripped apart. Writer-director Dee Rees, with cowriter Virgil Williams, crafts a uniquely American tragedy, imbuing bitter historical realities with a timeless weight. Featuring bone-deep performances from her ensemble cast—including Carey Mulligan, Mary J. Blige, Jason Mitchell, Rob Morgan, Garrett Hedlund, Jason Clarke, and Jonathan Banks—and backed by Rachel Morrison’s darkly burnished cinematography, Mudbound is a searing humanist study of inheritance based upon Hillary Jordan’s novel. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 2K digital master, supervised by director Dee Rees and director of photography Rachel Morrison, with Dolby Atmos soundtrack
- New audio commentary featuring Rees
- New documentary featuring Rees, composer Tamar-kali, editor Mako Kamitsuna, and makeup artist Angie Wells
- New documentary made on set, featuring members of the cast and crew
- Interview with Morrison
- New interview with production designer David J. Bomba
- Trailer and teaser
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio
- PLUS: An essay by critic Danielle Amir Jackson
