Posted Mon Apr 15, 2024 at 09:56 AM PDT by Tom Landy
The Criterion Collection's July's wave of 4K UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray titles include Glauber Rocha's western Black God, White Devil on Blu-ray only; Wim Wenders' drama Perfect Days; Sam Peckinpah's western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid; Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine; and Paul Brickman's classic Risky Business starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca De Mornay - all arriving on both formats.
Not only that, there is a 4K upgrade of Jean-Pierre Melville's classic, Le samouraï.
First up on July 2 comes Sam Peckinpah's western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid - arriving on 4K UHD Blu-ray as well as Blu-ray.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
Sam Peckinpah’s cycle of genre-redefining westerns came to a close with this blood- and dust-caked elegy for the American West, which marries his renegade style with a fatalistic sense of finality. As newly minted lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) stalks the outlaw Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) across the plains, their old friendship is twisted into rivalry, and mythic ideals of freedom come up against an emerging ruling-class order—all to the strains of a haunting soundtrack by Bob Dylan (who also appears as the mercurial Alias). Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid—presented here for the first time in three separate versions—stands as perhaps the maverick auteur’s richest, most mature work, a world-weary ballad that bears the solemn weight of history passing into legend.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
The week after that on July 9, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le samouraï will be getting its long-awaited 4K UHD Blu-ray debut.
Le samouraï - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
In a career-defining performance, Alain Delon plays Jef Costello, a contract killer with samurai instincts. After carrying out a flawlessly planned hit, Jef finds himself caught between a persistent police investigator and a ruthless employer, and not even his armor of fedora and trench coat can protect him. An elegantly stylized masterpiece of cool by maverick director Jean?Pierre Melville, Le samouraï is a razor-sharp cocktail of 1940s American gangster cinema and 1960s French pop culture—with a liberal dose of Japanese lone-warrior mythology.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
Then a Blu-ray of Glauber Rocha's Black God, White Devil will be hitting stores on July 16.
Black God, White Devil - The Criterion Collection
Myth, mysticism, and revolution collide in a blistering existential western from Glauber Rocha, the father of Brazil’s socially committed Cinema Novo movement. After killing his swindling boss, ranch hand Manoel (Geraldo Del Rey) goes on the run with his wife, Rosa (Yona? Magalha?es). In the stark hinterlands, they join forces with armed bandits and pledge allegiance to a self-styled holy man who preaches revolt against rich landowners while perpetrating unspeakable acts of violence against the innocent. Suffused with antiauthoritarian fervor and the intensity of life in the desert, this landmark work of radical cinema is a scorched-earth allegory about mindless fanaticism and the allure of dead-end ideologies.
TWO-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
Also on July 16, Wim Wenders' Perfect Days will be available on 4K UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray.
Perfect Days - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
A perfect song that hits at just the right moment, the play of sunlight through leaves, a fleeting moment of human connection in a vast metropolis: the wonders of everyday life come into breathtaking focus in this profoundly moving film by Wim Wenders. In a radiant, Cannes-award-winning performance of few words but extraordinary expressiveness, Koji Yakusho plays a public-toilet cleaner in Tokyo whose rich inner world is gradually revealed through his small exchanges with those around him and with the city itself. Channeling his idol Yasujiro Ozu, Wenders crafts a serenely minimalist ode to the miracle that is the here and now.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine will be available on 4K UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray on July 23.
Farewell My Concubine - The Criterion Collection 4K UHD Ultra HD Blu-ray
A breathtakingly intimate romance unfolds against a sweeping backdrop of social upheaval in renowned director Chen Kaige’s sumptuous saga of passion, fate, and the transcendent possibilities of art. Spanning fifty years of twentieth-century Chinese history, Farewell My Concubine follows aspiring actors Dieyi (a heartbreaking Leslie Cheung) and Xiaolou (Zhang Fengyi) as they emerge from a childhood of brutal training to become Beijing-opera stars, with life mirroring art as Dieyi’s unrequited love for Xiaolou and the country’s changing political tides engulf them in their own personal tragedies of jealousy and betrayal. The first Chinese film to win the Palme d’Or is epic filmmaking of the highest order—visually and emotionally ravishing from frame to exquisite frame.
4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
And finally the film that launched Tom Cruise into super-stardom, Paul Brickman's Risky Business will hit stores on 4K UHD Blu-ray and Blu-ray on the same date.
Risky Business - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray
A sly piece of pop subversion, this irresistible satire of Reagan-era materialism features Tom Cruise in his star-is-born breakthrough as a Chicago suburban prepster whose college-bound life spirals out of control when his parents go out of town for the week and an enterprising call girl (Rebecca De Mornay) invites him to walk on the wild side. While Cruise boogying in his briefs yielded one of the most iconic pop-cultural moments of the 1980s, it is the film’s unexpected mix of tender romance (enhanced by a moody synth score by Tangerine Dream) and sharp-witted capitalist critique that remains fresh and daring.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
Pre-orders for The Criterion Collection's July releases should be available soon!
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