The Times Of India with a few more details and guesses, regarding the upcoming Satyajit Ray releases from the Criterion Collection

While this reads like a re-hash of their previous article, there are a few more details that are worth keeping an eye on. They expect 10 films to be digitally restored by August, which if true would mean a Satyajit Ray box set could be announced in a couple of weeks for the August line-up.

I’m a little skeptical.

‘Charulata’ could be the next one to be ready. It will be followed by ‘Mahanagar’, ‘Nayak’, ‘Joy Baba Felunath’, ‘Ashani Sanket’ and the Apu Trilogy.

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According to Sandip, Criterion is now looking for “supplements” to go with the restored films. “They are searching for rare footage, film clips, documentaries and interviews. While they have done quite a few interviews in India, they are planning to do more,” he said. Veteran actors like Soumitra Chattopadhyay and Sharmila Tagore have been interviewed by the Criterion team. These are likely to be part of the restored DVD versions.

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At least 10 of Satyajit Ray’s classics will be digitally restored by August this year.

Sam Smith's Process: RICHARD III

For Criterion’s release of Laurence Olivier’s RICHARD III, I designed the package around an incredible Janus Films poster originally designed by Lee Reedy. In these DVD menus, as well as throughout the package, I tried to respectfully adapt Reedy’s illustrations and supplement some of my own to create a visual theme for the release.

Matteo Garrone interviewed by Little White Lies

“I think the relationship between people and television in Italy is very strong. It’s universal but in my country it’s stronger. For many, the desire to be on television is connected with a kind of narcissism. It’s this idea that what you see on television is more real than what you see in your life. Our great poet and writer [Pier Paolo] Pasolini, who died in 1975, said that a society of consumerism is going to destroy the culture of our society. That was just the beginning. Everything is for sale. There’s no privacy. This is also the theme of the movie, reality, the line between private and public dimension. We are all observed and documented in every moment of our lives.”

Manohla Dargis on Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate

Decades later that condemnation is largely a memory (as are some of those forests) and it is possible to see “Heaven’s Gate” for what it is: a film with greatness in it but also longueurs, a fascinating artifact and a monument to Mr. Cimino’s towering ambitions, as much for himself as for his art. He sought to recreate the Old West in the film, but the greater marvel is how he tried to replicate Old Hollywood and a dream world that once was — a world that these days is often made in computers.

Order on Amazon.

Over on his Criterion Reflections blog, David Blakeslee reviews This Sporting Life

But deeper than the surface attractions noted above, I find this film quite affecting and lastingly memorable for the risks it takes in breaking away from the usual formula that has afflicted “sports movies” for quite a few decades now. Much of the plot of This Sporting Life revolves around Frank Machin’s experiences of becoming somewhat of a celebrity in the local rugby scene - his first flush of fame, of money, of notoriety; his encounters with women as eager to throw themselves at him for the sake of experiencing his raw physical/sexual power as for the erotic validation that his attention to them delivers; his realization that, whatever pleasures his athletic success may open up to him, he remains a handsomely-compensated “great ape” on the string of his owners.

Check out Kogonada's latest video: The world according to Hirokazu Koreeda

“The cinema of Koreeda Hirokazu is defined by moments of everyday life. Whatever potential there is for heightened drama – the suicide of a husband, a cult massacre, abandoned children – it is diffused by the familiar rhythms of everydayness. This attention to the everyday must be understood within the context of death, which plays a significant role in all of Koreeda’s films. It is death that deepens our sense of life and makes even the most mundane moment seem profound.”

Terrence Malick's To The Wonder is met with jeers at the Venice Film Festival

Dennis Lim:

Twenty-four hours later, the lines were as long and the anticipation seemingly as high for Terrence Malick’s “To the Wonder,” about an American man and a French woman caught in an impossible romance, but this time, jeers drowned out applause. (The film was also booed at its public screening on Sunday evening — apparently a rare occurrence here.)

Dennis Lim's report on the screening of Heaven's Gate at the Venice Film Festival.

But there was nothing resembling rejection here: the rapt audience greeted the film with a sustained standing ovation. (This 216-minute version is essentially the same as the original release — Mr. Cimino removed a 2-minute intermission and made several minor tweaks.) Time has been kind to “Heaven’s Gate,” which may well strike viewers who don’t know the back story, as a grand, eccentric yet elegiac rethinking of the myths of the West (and the western), with an uncommonly blunt take on class in America.

The 4th Annual Criterion Challenge On The DVDTalk Forum Begins September 1st

Think of this as an un-Challenge. The only goal is to watch Criterion content and share your experience with the rest of us. There is no specific number goal, no winners, no losers, no prizes.

This is not about bulk watching. Just watch however much you would normally watch in a month, but concentrate it on Criterion content as much as you can/want. In fact, bulk watching is discouraged, as that will limit your time for discussion and for immersing yourself in a film. Fully exploring a film is highly encouraged. Instead of racing through films and watching three or more in one day, why not fully experience each Criterion disc? Watch the film a second time with the audio commentary. Watch all of the special features on the disc. Read the insert booklet. Go on Criterion’s website and read some of the essays for that film.