Criterion April Releases

 
For April, The Criterion Collection presents a lineup of provocative, surprising films from around the world. First, two of the most striking movies from Denmark’s greatest filmmakers, now and then: the epochal “Breaking the Waves,” from bad-boy Lars von Trier, whose latest provocation, “Nymphomaniac,” will be the talk of the town in theaters this spring; and the revelatory “Master of the House,” a rare silent film from the legendary Carl Theodor Dreyer, about a sad housewife who teaches her tyrant husband a lesson. Like Dreyer’s film, two other selections this month have never been on DVD or Blu-ray in the U.S.: “Riot in Cell Block 11,” a hard-hitting American prison drama from Don Siegel, the director of “Dirty Harry”; and Dino Risi’s “Il sorpasso,” one of the most beloved films of all time in Italy, a wild sixties road trip comedy starring Jean-Louis Trintignant and Vittorio Gassman, fresh from a theatrical rerelease. Finally, Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows,” the unforgettable coming-of-age drama that kicked off the French New Wave, will be available in a dual edition Blu-ray and DVD set.

April 8: “The 400 Blows”
April 15: “Breaking the Waves”
April 22: “Master of the House”
April 22: “Riot in Cell Block 11”
April 29: “Il sorpasso”