This March, Criterion is presenting an arresting variety of essential cinema. First, prepare to be shocked all over again by John Frankenheimer’s iconic Cold War paranoia thriller “The Manchurian Candidate,” starring Frank Sinatra and Angela Lansbury. Then, get to know a trio of important classics finally being brought out of the shadows after years of unavailability: Edward Yang’s “A Brighter Summer Day,” an intimate Taiwanese epic from the director of “Yi Yi” that stands as one of Criterion’s most requested titles of all time, finally coming to home video in a beautiful new restoration; “Paris Belongs to Us,” the mysterious and marvelous debut by the important French New Wave director Jacques Rivette; and “A Poem Is a Naked Person,” an exhilarating, free-form documentary by the great Les Blank about legendary Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Leon Russell, which had its theatrical premiere in 2014 after being kept out of circulation for 40 years. Finally, “Bicycle Thieves,” Italian director Vittorio De Sica’s medium-changing landmark, comes to Blu-ray for the first time.
March 8: Paris Belongs to Us
March 15: The Manchurian Candidate
March 22: A Brighter Summer Day
March 29: A Poem Is A Naked Person
March 29: Bicycle Thieves
