Coming in January: The Mother and the Whore, the long-unavailable 1970s magnum opus from Jean Eustache; Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling, a lacerating self-portrait by legendary comedian Richard Pryor; The Grifters, Stephen Frears’s pulpy, dark-hearted neonoir; and Winchester ’73, Anthony Mann’s landmark, genre-redefining western. Plus: Yojimbo/Sanjuro, two of the most iconic and influential samurai films, by Akira Kurosawa, now on 4K UHD.
Yojimbo / Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa (#52 / #53) out Jan 7
Thanks to perhaps the most indelible character in Akira Kurosawa’s oeuvre, Yojimbo surpassed even Seven Samurai in popularity when it was released. The masterless samurai Sanjuro, who slyly manipulates two warring clans to his own advantage in a small, dusty village, was so entertainingly embodied by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune that it was only a matter of time before he returned in a sequel. Made just one year later, Sanjuro matches Yojimbo’s storytelling dexterity yet adds a layer of world-weary pragmatism that brings the two films to a thrilling and unforgettable conclusion. The Special Edition Features are:
Buy Yojimbo / Sanjuro: Two Samurai Films by Akira Kurosawa- 4K digital restorations, presented in the aspect ratio of 2.39:1, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks (4K UHD); restored high-definition digital transfers, presented in the aspect ratio of 2.35:1, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks (Blu-ray)
- In the 4K UHD edition: Two 4K UHD discs of the films and two Blu-rays with the films and special features
- Optional DTS-HD Master Audio Perspecta 3.0 soundtracks, preserving the original simulated stereo effects
- Audio commentaries by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
- Documentaries on the making of Yojimbo and Sanjuro, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
- Teasers and trailers
- Stills galleries of behind-the-scenes photos
- PLUS: Essays by film writers Alexander Sesonske and Michael Sragow and comments from Kurosawa and members of his casts and crews
The Mother and the Whore (#1245) out Jan 14
After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and the upheavals of May 1968 came the near religiously revered magnum opus by Jean Eustache. In his long-unavailable body of work, ranging from documentaries about his native village to closely autobiographical narrative films, Eustache pioneered a forthright and fearless brand of realism. The pinnacle of this innovative style, The Mother and the Whore follows Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a Parisian pseudo-intellectual who lives with his tempestuous girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), even as he begins a dalliance with the sexually liberated Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), leading the three into an emotionally turbulent love triangle. Through daringly sustained long takes and confessional dialogue, Eustache captures a generation navigating the disillusionment of the 1970s, and in the process achieves an intimacy so deep it cuts. The Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- New interview with actor Françoise Lebrun
- New conversation with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin and writer Rachel Kushner
- Program on the film’s restoration
- Segment from the French television series Pour le cinéma featuring Lebrun, director Jean Eustache, and actors Bernadette Lafont and Jean-Pierre Léaud
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Lucy Sante and an introduction to the film by Eustache
Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling (#1247) out Jan 21
One of the greatest comedians of all time, Richard Pryor gets raw and real in this brutally funny and lacerating self-portrait. Following the notorious incident in which he caught on fire while high on cocaine, nearly losing his life, Pryor exorcised his inner demons by writing, producing, directing, and starring in this dizzying hall-of-mirrors biopic and backstage drama, which traces a young comedian’s rise to fame, from his childhood growing up in a brothel to the colorful experiences that shaped his edgy comic voice to the addiction struggles that brought him to the brink of death. As he did in his legendary stand-up sets, here Pryor fearlessly turns his soul inside out, revealing the deep vulnerability that made his art so compelling. The Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, 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 interview on the film with filmmaker Robert Townsend
- Interview with director Richard Pryor from a 1985 episode of The Dick Cavett Show
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An appreciation by critic Hilton Als
The Grifters (#1246) out Jan 21
A dark-hearted neonoir comes to a boil under the bright Los Angeles sun, in British director Stephen Frears’s rousing adaptation of the novel by dime-store bard Jim Thompson, a film that raises pulp to the realm of existential tragedy. A possessive mother (Anjelica Huston), her cynical son (John Cusack), and his scheming, seductive girlfriend (Annette Bening) are career swindlers circling one another in an elaborate emotional confidence game that grows increasingly perverse as love and trust turn to betrayal and Oedipal undercurrents rise to the surface. In Frears’s first Hollywood film, the ever-assured director and his trifecta of magnetic actors conjure a moody, unstuck-in-time vision of toxic Americana. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director of photography Oliver Stapleton, 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
- Audio commentary featuring director Stephen Frears, actors John Cusack and Anjelica Huston, and screenwriter Donald E. Westlake
- New interview with actor Annette Bening
- Short making-of documentary featuring Cusack, Frears, Huston, Westlake, and production designer Dennis Gassner
- Seduction, Betrayal, Murder: The Making of “The Grifters,” featuring interviews with Frears, Stapleton, editor Mick Audsley, executive producer Barbara De Fina, and coproducer Peggy Rajski
- The Jim Thompson Story, featuring Westlake and Robert Polito, biographer of The Grifters novelist Jim Thompson
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien
Winchester ’73 (#1248) out Jan 28
Noirish shadows spread across the frontier in this landmark western, the first of the celebrated collaborations between director Anthony Mann and actor James Stewart that redefined the genre with their moral and psychological intensity. Beginning his midcareer transition into increasingly edgy roles, Stewart portrays an avenging sharpshooter whose stolen rifle becomes a harbinger of death as it is passed from one doomed hand to the next. Featuring a stellar cast that includes a touching Shelley Winters, a sensationally sleazy Dan Duryea, and a pre-stardom Rock Hudson, this elemental tale of violence begetting violence broke new ground with its evocation of the West as a no-man’s-land of antiheroes and villains. The Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, undertaken by Universal Pictures in collaboration with The Film Foundation, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Audio commentary featuring actor James Stewart and film historian Paul Lindenschmidt
- New interview with film programmer Adam Piron on the portrayal of Native Americans in the western genre
- Lux Radio Theatre adaptation of the film from 1951
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Imogen Sara Smith
