Criterion has announced their November slate of releases and among them is Frank Capra‘s romantic-comedy classic It Happened One Night and Blu-ray upgrade of Michelangelo Antonioni‘s L’avventura and Sydney Pollack‘s Tootsie starring Dustin Hoffman.
First off, and most exciting as far as I’m concerned, is Capra’s It Happened One Night, which I speculated previously would be added to the collection sooner rather than later. Starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, this is an all-timer in terms of romantic comedies and Criterion is delivering it with an all new 4K digital restoration, new conversation between critics Molly Haskell and Phillip Lopate, the 1997 feature-length documentary Frank Capra’s American Dream, Capra’s first film, the 1922 silent short The Ballad of Fisher’s Boarding House, the American Film Institute’s tribute to Capra from 1982 and the film’s trailer. The release arrives on November 18.
The other title I’m excited about is Antonioni’s L’avventura, the first film in the director’s unofficial trilogy, which continued with La Notte (1961) and L’Eclisse (1962), both of which have already received the Blu-ray treatment from Criterion. To my knowledge nothing is new on this release that wasn’t on the previous DVD edition outside of the new 4K digital restoration and new English subtitle translation, but I will say that new cover art featuring star Monica Vitti is damn sexy.
Personally I can’t say I’m too excited for Pollack’s Tootsie, not because I don’t like it, but it’s not really a film I feel a pressing need to revisit.
Of the two new releases that I haven’t seen, I’m intrigued by the Monte Hellman double feature release of The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind. Produced by Roger Corman and both starring Jack Nicholson, who also wrote the screenplay for Whirlwind, Hellman is a director whose work I haven’t explored too deeply, but I loved Two-Lane Blacktop and would love to dig into his filmography a little deeper.
And finally, on November 25, comes Les Blank: Always for Pleasure, a collection of films from the legendary documentarian including The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins (1968); God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance (1968); Spend It All (1971); A Well Spent Life (1971); Dry Wood (1973); Hot Pepper (1973); Always for Pleasure(1978); Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980); Sprout Wings and Fly (1983); In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984); Gap-Toothed Women (1987); Yum, Yum, Yum (1990); The Maestro: King of the Cowboy Artists (1994); and Sworn to the Drum (1995).
For more on each release click here.
