By :Billy Gil | Posted: 17 Sep 2009
bgil@questex.com,

Title: AK 100: 25 Films By Akira Kurosawa
Street Date: 12/8
Prebook Date: 11/10
Studio: Criterion
Price/Format: DVD $399
Reserve for purchase

Criterion is pulling out the big guns in December, releasing an ambitious, 25-film set from Akira Kurosawa to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Japanese director. The linen-bound set includes an illustrated book with an introduction by Stephen Prince (The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa) and notes on each film and a remembrance by Donald Richie (Films of Akira Kurosawa). It includes restored digital transfers of the following films:

The Bad Sleep Well (1960)
Dodes’ka-den (1970)
Drunken Angel (1948)
The Hidden Fortress (1958)
High and Low (1963)
I Live in Fear (1955)
The Idiot (1951)
Ikiru (1952)
Kagemusha (1980)
The Lower Depths (1957)
Madadayo (1993)
The Men Who Tread on the Tiger’s Tail (1945)*
The Most Beautiful (1944)*
No Regrets for Our Youth (1946)
One Wonderful Sunday (1947)
Rashomon (1951)
Red Beard (1965)
Sanjuro (1962)
Sanshiro Sugata (1943)*
Sanshiro Sugata, Part II (1944)*
Scandal (1950)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Stray Dog (1949)
Throne of Blood (1957)
Yojimbo (1961)

*previously unreleased on DVD


Title: Gimme Shelter
Street Date: 12/1
Prebook Date: 11/3
Studio: Criterion
Price/Format: Blu-ray $39.95
Reserve for purchase

This new high-definition digital transfer of 30th anniversary version of the notorious 1969 Rolling Stones tour film is remastered and restored from the camera original and has a DTS-HD master audio soundtrack, exclusive Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 surround-sound mixes, commentary with directors Albert Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin and collaborator Stanley Goldstein, backstage outtakes and more. This edition also includes a booklet with essays by Mick Jagger’s former assistant Georgia Bergman, music writers Michael Lydon and Stanley Booth, and film critics Amy Taubin and Godfrey Cheshire.

Title: A Christmas Tale (DATE CHANGE)
Street Date: 12/1
Prebook Date: 11/3
Studio: Criterion
Price/Format: DVD or Blu-ray $39.95
Reserve for purchase (DVD)

Catherine Deneuve stars as the matriarch of a troubled family at Christmas.

Additionally, the release dates of Criterion’s October titles have been changed (see the releases and new dates here).