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March 4
The Agony and the Ecstasy
(1965) Dir.: Carol Reed; Charlton Heston, Rex Harrison, Diane Cilento, Harry Andrews. Extras: Teaser, theatrical trailer. (Fox
Boiler Room
(2000) Giovanni Ribisi, Vin Diesel, Nia Long, Nicky Katt, Scott Caan, Ron Rifkin, Jamie Kennedy.(Warner).
Hairspray
(1988) Dir.: John Waters; Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Deborah Harry, Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller, Mink Stole, Pia Zadora. (Warner).
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March 11
El Dorado
(1966) Dir.: Howard Hawks; John Wayne, Robert Mitchum , James Caan, R.G. Armstrong, Edward Asner. (Warner).
George Washington
(2000) Over the course of one hot summer, a group of children in the decaying rural South must confront a tangle of difficult choices. An ambitiously constructed, elegantly photographed meditation on adolescence, the first full-length film by director David Gordon Green ("Pineapple Express") features remarkable performances from an award-winning ensemble cast. Restored high-definition digital transfer. Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition. Extras: Commentary by director David Gordon Green, cinematographer Tim Orr, and actor Paul Schneider; deleted scene; two student shorts by Green: "Pleasant Grove" (1997) and "Physical Pinball" (1998); Charlie Rose interview with Green from 2001; interviews with cast members; booklet featuring an essay by critic Armoond White and a director's statement. (The Criterion Collection).
Hatari!
(1962) Dir.: Howard Hawks; John Wayne, Hardy Kruger, Elsa Martinelli, Red Buttons. (Warner).
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
(1957) Dir.: John Sturges; Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Fleming, Jo Van Fleet, John Ireland, Lyle Bettger, Frank Faylen, Earl Holliman, Ted de Corsia, Dennis Hopper, Whit Bissell. (Warner).
Samson and Delilah
(1949) Victor Mature, Hedy Lamarr, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Henry Wilcoxon. Legendary director Cecil B. DeMille's classic film that tells the story of the Bible's fabled strongman and the woman who seduces and betrays him. Scanned in 4K and restored to its original Technicolor vibrancy. (Paramount).
March 18
A Brief History of Time
(1991) Errol Morris turns his camera on one of the most fascinating men in the world: the pioneering astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, afflicted by a debilitating motor neuron disease that has left him without a voice or the use of his limbs. An adroitly crafted tale of personal adversity, professional triumph, and cosmological inquiry, Morris's documentary examines the way the collapse of Hawkin's body has been accompanied by the untrammeled broadening of his imagination. Telling the man's incredible story through the voices of his colleagues and loved ones, while making dynamically accessible some of the theories in Hawkin's best-selling book of the same name, "A Brief History of Time" is at once as small as a single life and as big as the ever-expanding universe. Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition. Extras: New interview with Morris, new interview with Bailey, booklet featuring an essay by critic David Sterritt, a chapter from Stephen Hawking's 2013 memoir "My Brief History," and a short excerpt from Hawking's 1988 "A Brief History of Time." (The Criterion Collection).
The Hidden Fortress
(1958) A grand-scale adventure as only Akira Kurosawa could make one, "The Hidden Fortress" stars the inimitable Toshiro Mifune as a general charged with guarding his defeated clan's princess (a fierce Misa Uehara) as the two smuggle royal treasure across hostile territory. Accompanying them are a pair of bumbling, conniving peasants who may or may not be their friends. This rip-roaring ride is among the director's most beloved films and was a primary influence on George Lucas' "Star Wars." "The Hidden Fortress" delivers Kurosawa's trademark deft blend of wry humor, breathtaking action, and compassionate humanity. Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition. Extras: Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack preserving the original Perspecta simulated stereo effects, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio; commentary by film historian Stephen Prince, author of "The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa"; documentary from 2003 on the making of the film, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create"; interview from 2001 with filmmaker George Lucas about Kurosawa; trailer; booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Catherine Russell. (The Criterion Collection).
The Jungle Book 2
(2003) John Goodman, Haley Joel Osment, Mae Whitman, Connor Funk, Bob Joles, Tony Jay, Phil Collins. Extras: Deleted scenes, "Music and More," "Backstage Disney" with "Synopsis of the Original Movie -- The Jungle Book (a short recap of the first story) and "The Legacy of The Jungle Book" (how the original animated film influenced the look, feel and story of the new movie). Available in a Blu-ray/DVD combo and on DVD. (Disney).
Mysterious Skin
(2004) Dir.: Gregg Araki; Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brady Corbet, Michelle Trachtenberg, Elisabeth Shue. At the age of eight, Kansas youngsters Neil and Brian played on the same little league baseball team. Now, 10 years later, the two boys couldn't be more different. Neil is a charismatic but emotionally aloof male hustler while Brian is a nervous introvert obsessed with the idea that he has been abducted by a UFO. When the boys parallel lives inevitably intersect, the pair unearth dark, repressed secrets on a harrowing and unforgettable journey of self discovery. Adapted from Scott Heim's acclaimed novel. Extras: Conversation between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Brady Corbet; director introduction; novelist Scott Heim reflects 10 years later, script/sketches gallery, photo gallery, commentary track, deleted scenes, book reading, audition tape, theatrical trailer. (Strand Releasing).
March 25
Best of Bogart
Four-disc set with "Casablanca," "The Maltese Falcon," "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" and "The African Queen," $49.99. Extras: Special features TBA, collectible art cards. (Warner).
The Freshman
(1925) Harold Lloyd's biggest box office hit was this silent comedy gem, featuring the befuddled everyman at his eager best as a new college student. Though he dreams of being a big man on campus, the freshman's careful plans inevitably go hilariously awry, be it on the football field or at the Fall Frolic. But he gets a climactic chance to prove his mettle -- and impress the sweet girl he loves -- in one of the most famous sports sequences ever filmed. This crowd-pleaser is a gleeful showcase for Lloyd's slapstick brilliance and incandescent charm, and it's accompanied here by a new orchestral score by Carl Davis, presented in uncompressed stereo New 4K digital transfer from a restoration by the UCLA Film and Television Archive.
Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition. Extras: Commentary featuring director and Harold Lloyd archivist Richard Correll, film historian Richard Bann, and film critic and historian Leonard Maltin; Lloyd's prologue to the film, created for the 1966 rerelease; three newly restored Lloyd shorts: "Thee Marathon" (1919), with a new score by Gabriel Thibaudeau, and "An Eastern Westerner" and "High and Dizzy" (both 1920), with new scores composed and conducted by Davis; "Big Man on Campus," a new visual essay on the film's locations by silent-film historian John Bengtson; conversation between Corrrell and film historian Kevin Brownlow; footage from a 1963 Delta Kappa Alpha tribute to Lloyd, featuring comedian Steve Allen, director Delmer Daves, and actor Jack Lemmon; Lloyd's 1953 appearance on the television show "What's My Line?" booklet featuring an essay by critic Stephen Winer. (The Criterion Collection).
The King of Comedy, The 30th Anniversary
(1982) Dir.: Martin Scorsese; Robert De Niro, Jerry Lewis, Diahnne Abbott, Sandra Bernhard. Extras: Tribeca Film Festival: A Conversation with Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, and Jerry Lewis; "A Shot to the Top: The Making of The King of Comedy"; deleted and extended scenes; theatrical trailer and TV spot. (Fox).
Persona
(1966) By the mid-sixties, Ingmar Bergman had already conjured many of the cinema's most
unforgettable images. But with the radical "Persona," this supreme artist attained new levels of visual poetry. In the first of a series of legendary performances for Bergman, Liv Ullmann plays an actress who has inexplicably gone mute; an equally mesmerizing Bibi Andersson is the garrulous young nurse caring for her in a remote island cottage. While isolated together there, the women perform a mysterious spiritual and emotional transference that would prove to be one of cinema's most influential ideas. Acted with astonishing nuance and shot in stark shadows and soft light by the great Sven Nykvist, "Persona" is a penetrating, dreamlike work of profound psychological depth. New, 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack. Formats: Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition. Extras: New visual essay on the film's prologue by Ingmar Bergman scholar Peter Cowie; interviews with Ullmann and filmmaker Paul Schrader; excerpted archival interviews with Bergman and Andersson and Ullmann; on-set footage, with audio commentary by Bergman historian Birgitta Steene; "Liv & Ingmar," a 2012 feature documentary directed by Dheeraj Akolkar; trailer; booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Thomas Elsaesser, an excerpted 1969 interview with Bergman, and an excerpted 1977 conversation with Andersson. (The Criterion Collection).
This Month's BR
