{"id":26859,"date":"2019-11-15T18:56:24","date_gmt":"2019-11-15T22:56:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/?p=26859"},"modified":"2019-11-15T18:56:24","modified_gmt":"2019-11-15T22:56:24","slug":"the-criterion-collection-announces-february-2020-releases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/2019\/11\/15\/the-criterion-collection-announces-february-2020-releases\/","title":{"rendered":"The Criterion Collection Announces February 2020 Releases"},"content":{"rendered":"

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding_top=”” padding_right=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_imageframe image_id=”20947″ style_type=”none” stylecolor=”” hover_type=”none” bordersize=”” bordercolor=”” borderradius=”” align=”none” lightbox=”no” gallery_id=”” lightbox_image=”” alt=”” link=”http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews” linktarget=”_self” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”left” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_offset=””]http:\/\/mookseandgripes.com\/reviews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/Header-2-1-e1493098728843.jpg[\/fusion_imageframe][fusion_text columns=”” column_min_width=”” column_spacing=”” rule_style=”default” rule_size=”” rule_color=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=””]<\/p>\n

With today’s announcements of their February releases, Criterion has changed the game a bit. They are going to be releasing Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n’s Roma<\/em>, which is significant because that film was produced by Netflix. We didn’t know if any Netflix titles would come out on physical media, and this opens the door to speculate what else might come out from Criterion! The Coen Brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Skruggs<\/em>? Orson Welles’s\u00a0The Other Side of the Wind<\/em>? Maybe even Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman<\/em> someday? Or maybe nothing more . . . I don’t know! Interestingly, as well, those of us who ponder over these things thought there were good indications\u00a0Roma<\/em> was coming to Criterion, but we wondered if it might be their first UHD release. After all, you can watch it on Netflix in 4K. But with this release, Criterion did not venture there. This will be a Blu-ray and DVD release, and I’m okay with that.<\/p>\n

Of course, that is not the only film they are releasing in February . . . just look at that Karel Zeman set!<\/p>\n

As always, I hope you find something you’ll enjoy!<\/p>\n

The blurbs are from The Criterion Collection\u2019s website (so are the links)\u00a0\u2014 go there to see the details on the supplements.<\/p>\n

\n

February 11, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\" Roma<\/i><\/b> (2018)
\n<\/i><\/b>d. Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n<\/p>\n

From The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

With his eighth and most personal film, Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n recreated the early-1970s Mexico City of his childhood, narrating a tumultuous period in the life of a middle-class family through the experiences of Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio, in a revelatory screen debut), the indigenous domestic worker who keeps the household running. Charged with the care of four small children abandoned by their father, Cleo tends to the family even as her own life is shaken by personal and political upheavals. Written, directed, shot, and coedited by Cuar\u00f3n,\u00a0Roma<\/em>\u00a0is a labor of love with few parallels in the history of cinema, deploying monumental black-and-white cinematography, an immersive soundtrack, and a mixture of professional and nonprofessional performances to shape its author\u2019s memories into a world of enveloping texture, and to pay tribute to the woman who nurtured him.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

February 18, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Teorema <\/i><\/b>(1969)
\n<\/em>d. Pier Paolo Pasolini<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the iconoclastic Pier Paolo Pasolini\u2019s most radical provocations,\u00a0Teorema<\/em>\u00a0finds the auteur moving beyond the poetic, proletarian earthiness that first won him renown and notoriety with a coolly cryptic exploration of bourgeois spiritual emptiness. Terence Stamp stars as the mysterious stranger\u2014perhaps an angel, perhaps a devil\u2014who, one by one, seduces the members of a wealthy Milanese family (including European cinema icons Silvana Mangano, Massimo Girotti, Laura Betti, and Anne Wiazemsky), precipitating an existential crisis in each of their lives. Unfolding nearly wordlessly in a procession of sacred and profane images, this tantalizing metaphysical riddle\u2014blocked from exhibition by the Catholic Church for degeneracy\u2014is at once a blistering Marxist treatise on sex, religion, and art and a primal scream into the void.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

February 18, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Antonio Gaud\u00ed <\/i><\/b>(1984)
\n<\/em>d. Hiroshi Teshigahara<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

Catalan architect Antoni Gaud\u00ed (1852\u20131926) designed some of the world\u2019s most astonishing buildings, interiors, and parks; Japanese director Hiroshi Teshigahara constructed some of the most aesthetically audacious films ever made. In\u00a0Antonio Gaud\u00ed,<\/em>\u00a0their artistry melds in a unique, enthralling cinematic experience. Less a documentary than a visual poem, Teshigahara\u2019s film takes viewers on a tour of Gaud\u00ed\u2019s truly spectacular architecture, including his massive, still-unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Fam\u00edlia basilica in Barcelona. With camera work as bold and sensual as the curves of his subject\u2019s organic structures, Teshigahara immortalizes Gaud\u00ed on film.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

February 25, 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman<\/b>
\n<\/em>–Journey to the Beginning of Time<\/em> (1955)
\n–Invention for Destruction<\/em> (1958)
\n–The Fabulous Baron Munchausen<\/em> (1962)<\/p>\n

From\u00a0The Criterion Collection<\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

A one-of-a-kind silver-screen illusionist, Czechoslovak filmmaker Karel Zeman devoted his career to transporting viewers to realms beyond their wildest imagining. The deft, breathtaking combinations of live-action and animation techniques that he pioneered in the postwar years earned him comparisons to legends such as Georges M\u00e9li\u00e8s, and an array of followers that includes Jan \u0160vankmajer, Terry Gilliam, and Wes Anderson. Presented here are three of Zeman\u2019s most enchanting fantasies\u2014a boys\u2019 adventure into the mists of prehistory, a Jules Verne\u2013derived flight of fancy, and an exotic eighteenth-century tall tale\u2014all of them treasure chests of wondrous sights, tactile textures, and headlong yarn-spinning that helped put Czechoslovak cinema on the international map.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n