The Criterion Collection has long been a favorite among DVD fans for its near-flawless presentations of acclaimed classics, fine foreign films and noteworthy contemporary fare. Criterion pioneered the idea of the all-out special edition with director’s commentary and more, going back to laserdiscs. In the early years of the DVD format, there were few better releases than its editions of films such as The Silence of the Lambs, This Is Spinal Tap, Robocop , The 400 Blows and The Lady Vanishes. And now, the venerable label has finally gone Blu-ray.

Tuesday marks the release of four Criterion-licensed films in the high-def disc format. As is typical for the label, the debut releases reflect an eclectic sampling: Carol Reed’s great 1949 film noir The Third Man, Wes Anderson’s 1996 charmer Bottle Rocket, Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 arty sci-fi flick The Man Who Fell to Earth and Wong Kar-Wai’s 1994 film Chunking Express.

I wrote about The Third Man on Sunday (click to read). Besides the many extras I noted, a few interesting ones I didn’t have room to include are an alternate voice-over for the opening sequence, a montage of the film’s untranslated foreign-language scenes with subtitles and a 16-page booklet that includes an essay by scholar Luc Sante.

Bottle Rocket — in a director-approved edition — includes commentary by Anderson and co-writer/star Owen Wilson, the 13-minute short that inspired the film, a making-0f documentary, 11 deleted scenes and an appreciation by director Martin Scorsese (in the booklet).  The Man Who Fell to Earth — another director-approved Blu-ray — features commentary by Roeg, star David Bowie and Buck Henry, various archival interviews with other cast members and writers, and loads of image galleries. Chungking Express — the lightest disc of the bunch — includes commentary by Asian film scholar Tony Rayns and a 1996 British TV interview with Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle.

 Of course, Criterion releases are known for their stunning transfers, and these releases are no different. Seeing them in high-def makes for an eye-opening experience — very film-like. The high quality extends to the soundtracks, too: The two ’90s films have DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, while the other two feature uncompressed audio — mono for The Third Man and stereo for the other Man.

I have to reiterate how cool the elegant fly-out menus are. These are standard fare for many Blu-ray presentations, but they are extra handy for Criterion releases, which always feature layered menus that can grow tedious on standard DVD with all of the back-and-forth switching. With the fly-out design, you can easily see everything at once, which is much easier for exploring. 

Really the only negative is the packaging. Instead of the typical Blu-ray blue-plastic case, these four releases come in cardboard cases. Non-standard packaging always raises the hackles of DVD collectors, and these are especially bothersome because sliding the inner case in and out of the tight-fitting outer slipcase invariably bends the corners of the inner sleeve. But that’s a nit.

Criterion has Blu-rays of El Norte and The Last Emperor coming Jan. 20 and Jan. 6, respectively. Check out its redesigned website to keep tabs on what else is in the works.

While Criterion has lost the rights to many of the early DVD hits mentioned above, it is reportedly working on other catalog favorites for Blu-ray: The 400 Blows, Gimme Shelter, The Complete Monterey Pop, Contempt, Walkabout, For All Mankind and The Wages of Fear. Here’s hoping that my favorites, such as The Naked Prey, Thief of Bagdad and Akira Kurosawa’s films, join them.

What Criterion DVDs do you want to see on Blu-ray?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 15th, 2008 at 9:41 am and is filed under DVDs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.