Coming this November: Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar, a six-film, early-career celebration of the Hong Kong martial-arts phenom; Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese’s electrifying vision of sin and redemption; and La cérémonie, Claude Chabrol’s riveting study of class dynamics and the psychology of crime. Plus: Days of Heaven, Terrence Malick’s dreamlike turn-of-the-century idyll, and The Last Picture Show, Peter Bogdanovich’s aching portrait of a dying American West—now on 4K UHD
Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar (#1197) out Nov 7
Originally tapped as a potential successor to Bruce Lee, Hong Kong martial-arts phenom Jackie Chan soon established his own unique screen persona, blending goofball slapstick and bone-crunching kung fu into intricate feats of supercharged athleticism. Tracing his rise from breakout star to full-fledged auteur, these six unabashedly silly, unstoppably entertaining early-career highlights find Chan refining the lovably mischievous image that would make him a global icon, while also assuming greater creative control over his projects—first as his own martial-arts choreographer, and later as a writer-director who set a thrilling new standard for daredevil action comedy. The Special Edition Features are:
- 2K digital restorations of Spiritual Kung Fu,The Fearless Hyena,Fearless Hyena II, The Young Master, and My Lucky Stars and high-definition digital restoration of Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
- Alternate stereo and 5.1 surround Cantonese soundtracks
- Classic English-dubbed tracks for Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, Spiritual Kung Fu,The Fearless Hyena, and Fearless Hyena II, plus an English-dubbed alternate track for Fearless Hyena II, and contemporary English-dubbed tracks for The Young Master and My Lucky Stars
- New audio commentaries for The Fearless Hyena and The Young Master featuring Hong Kong cinema expert and producer Frank Djeng (Enter the Clones of Bruce)
- Interview with author Grady Hendrix (These Fists Break Bricks) about actor-director Jackie Chan
- Archival interviews with Chan, actor-director Sammo Hung, actors Michiko Nishiwaki and Hwang In-shik, and more
- The Young Master promo reel from the 1980 Cannes Film Festival and deleted scenes from the film
- Interview from 2005 with Hong Kong cinema critic Paul Fonoroff about producer-director Lo Wei
- NG shots from The Young Master and My Lucky Stars
- Trailers
- New English subtitle translations
- PLUS: An essay by critic Alex Pappademas
The Last Picture Show (#549) out Nov 14
One of the key films of the American seventies cinema renaissance, The Last Picture Show is set in the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen. This aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and desperate-to-be-adored rich girl Jacy (Cybill Shepherd)—and the aging lost souls who bump up against them in the night like drifting tumbleweeds, including Cloris Leachman’s lonely housewife and Ben Johnson’s grizzled movie-house proprietor. Featuring evocative black-and-white imagery and profoundly felt performances, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains the pivotal work in the career of invaluable film historian and director Peter Bogdanovich. The Special Edition Features are:
- 4K digital restoration of the director’s cut, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features
- Texasville (1990), the sequel to The Last Picture Show, presented in both the original theatrical version and a black-and-white version of Peter Bogdanovich’s director’s cut, produced in collaboration with cinematographer Nicholas von Sternberg
- Two audio commentaries, featuring Bogdanovich and actors Cybill Shepherd, Randy Quaid, Cloris Leachman, and Frank Marshall
- Three documentaries about the making of the film
- Q&A with Bogdanovich from 2009
- Screen tests and location footage
- Introduction to Texasville featuring Bogdanovich, Shepherd, and actor Jeff Bridges
- Excerpts from a 1972 television interview with filmmaker François Truffaut about the New Hollywood
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by film critic Graham Fuller and excerpts from an interview with Bogdanovich about Texasville, with a new introduction by Bogdanovich biographer Peter Tonguette
Days of Heaven (#409) out Nov 14
One-of-a-kind filmmaker-philosopher Terrence Malick has created some of the most visually arresting films of the twentieth century, and his glorious period tragedy Days of Heaven, featuring Oscar-winning cinematography by Nestor Almendros, stands out among them. In 1910, a Chicago steelworker (Richard Gere) accidentally kills his supervisor, and flees with his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) and his little sister (Linda Manz) to the Texas panhandle, where they find work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer (Sam Shepard). A love triangle, a swarm of locusts, a hellish fire—Malick captures it all with dreamlike authenticity, creating a timeless American idyll that is also a gritty evocation of turn-of-the-century labor. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Terrence Malick, 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
- Audio commentary featuring editor Billy Weber, art director Jack Fisk, costume designer Patricia Norris, and casting director Dianne Crittenden
- Audio interview with actor Richard Gere
- Interviews with camera operator John Bailey, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and actor Sam Shepard
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Adrian Martin and a chapter from director of photography Nestor Almendros’s autobiography
Mean Streets (#1198) out Nov 21
Martin Scorsese emerged as a generation-defining filmmaker with this gritty portrait of 1970s New York City, one of the most influential works of American independent cinema. Set in the insular Little Italy neighborhood of Scorsese’s youth, Mean Streets follows guilt-ridden small-time ringleader Charlie (Harvey Keitel) as he deals with the debts owed by his dangerously volatile best pal, Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), and pressure from his headstrong girlfriend, Teresa (Amy Robinson). As their intertwined lives spiral out of control, Scorsese showcases his precocious mastery of film style—evident in everything from his propulsive editing rhythms to the lovingly curated soundtrack—to create an electrifying vision of sin and redemption. The Director-Approved Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Martin Scorsese and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features
- Excerpted conversation between Scorsese and filmmaker Richard Linklater from a 2011 Directors Guild of America event
- Selected-scene audio commentary featuring Scorsese and actor Amy Robinson
- New video essay by author Imogen Sara Smith about the film’s physicality and portrayal of brotherhood
- Interview with director of photography Kent Wakeford
- Excerpt from the documentary Mardik: Baghdad to Hollywood (2008) featuring Mean Streets cowriter Mardik Martin as well as Scorsese, journalist Peter Biskind, and filmmaker Amy Heckerling
- Martin Scorsese: Back on the Block (1973), a promotional video featuring Scorsese on the streets of New York City’s Little Italy neighborhood
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Lucy Sante
La cérémonie (#1199) out Nov 21
Claude Chabrol’s forty-ninth feature stands as the crowning achievement of his prolific career—a coolly riveting study of class dynamics, the psychology of crime, and the sordid secrets lurking beneath the veneer of everyday life. A fascinatingly enigmatic, César Award–winning Isabelle Huppert is the chaotic yin to Sandrine Bonnaire’s tightly coiled yang. They are, respectively, a small-town postal worker and a maid to a wealthy family, a pair of outsiders who form a mysterious alliance that gradually, almost imperceptibly, goes haywire. With a master’s control of sound, editing, and suspense, Chabrol constructs a tour de force of sustained tension that delivers each brilliant shock with ice-pick precision. The Special Edition Features are:
- New 4K digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Selected-scene commentary featuring Claude Chabrol
- New introduction by filmmaker Bong Joon Ho
- Making-of program
- Archival interviews with Chabrol, actor Sandrine Bonnaire, and cowriter Caroline Eliacheff
- Episode of the Criterion Channel series Observations on Film Art about the use of offscreen sound
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by crime-fiction and true-crime authority Sarah Weinman
