Truth be told, besides my recent purchase of the Limited Edition of the Complete Harry Potter (I know I should have waited), I have not purchased too many video disks lately. Most of my home cinema viewing has been courtesy of Netflix and DVRed programming from cable.
But this week I decided to take a look and see what the Criterion Collection has on offer in the way of upcoming releases. Of this list, a couple of titles stood out as ‘possible’ purchases, including:
A Night to Remember (1958) directed by Roy Ward Baker. It is a ‘straight to the acts’ yet still dramatic retelling of the fateful maiden voyage of the Titanic. When I first saw this film I was taken with the fact that there is no real star; it attempts to tell the story in almost a documentary style. This makes sense, because the film is based on a book that documented the first hand accounts of passengers who were aboard the ship. Release Date: March 27 2012
Box Set: David Lean Directs Noël Coward. This set looks awesome. It contains four movies including: Brief Encounter (1945, a personal favorite of mine), In Which We Serve (1942), This Happy Breed (1944) and Blithe Spirit (1945). Of these titles the one film that I have not seen is This Happy Breed. I am strongly leaning towards making this purchase. Release Date: March 27 2012
An honorable mention goes to the Chris Marker double-bill of La Jetée/Sans Soleil (1963/1983). The noted work for me is the sci-fi film told via a series of stills, La Jetée. This film left such an impression with me when I first saw it in film class while at university; the time travel story was later adapted by Terry Gilliam in Twelve Monkeys. My main reservation when considering purchasing this disk is that the film that interests me most (La Jetée) is only 27 minutes long. That said, the travelogue Sans Soleil may be an interesting watch. Release Date: February 7 2012
As is standard, these titles have received the full ‘Criterion Treatment’ – they are chock-full of extras and supplemental materials.
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