Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Bergman on Blu (and Resnais too!)

Sweet. The Seventh Seal is coming to Blu-Ray.

From blu-ray.com:
Criterion has announced that they will bring the 1957 classic film 'The Seventh Seal' to Blu-ray on June 16th, day-and-date with the DVD re-release. Additionally, they will bring Alain Resnais' 'Last Year at Marienbad' to Blu-ray a week later, on June 23rd, day-and-date with the DVD release. Both titles will be presented in 1080p video accompanied by PCM mono soundtracks.

Special features include:

The Seventh Seal
  • Introduction by Ingmar Bergman, recorded in 2003
  • Audio commentary by Bergman expert Peter Cowie
  • A new afterword to the commentary by Cowie
  • Bergman Island (2006), an 83-minute documentary on Bergman by Marie Nyreröd, featuring in-depth and revealing interviews with the director
  • Archival audio interview with Max von Sydow
  • A 1998 tribute to Bergman by filmmaker Woody Allen
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Bergman 101, a selected video filmography tracing Bergman's career, narrated by Cowie
  • Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • A booklet featuring an essay by critic Gary Giddins
Last Year at Marienbad
  • Director Approved Transfer
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Alain Resnais (with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition)
  • New audio interview with Resnais
  • New documentary on the making of Last Year at Marienbad, featuring interviews with many of Resnais' collaborators
  • New video interview with film scholar Ginette Vincendeau on the history of the film and its many mysteries
  • Two short documentaries by Resnais: Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) and Le chant du styrène (1958)
  • Theatrical trailer
  • Optional original, unrestored French soundtrack
  • New and improved subtitle translation
  • A booklet featuring essays by critic Mark Polizzotti and film scholar François Thomas, and Alain Robbe-Grillet's introduction to the published screenplay and comments on the film
Oh, my, my, oh, hell, yes.

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