The Criterion Collection has announced six titles for Blu-ray release in July. On July 12th, the independent studio will release Naked (Mike Leigh, 1993). A week later, it will release The Music Room (Satyajit Ray, 1958) and Beauty and the Beast (Jean Cocteau, 1946). And finally, on July 26th it will release High and Low (Akira Kurosawa, 1963), Léon Morin, Priest (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1961), and Life During Wartime (Todd Solondz, 2010).
Technical specs and special features include:
Naked:
Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Mike Leigh, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
Audio commentary by Leigh and actors David Thewlis and Katrin Cartlidge
Exclusive video interview with director Neil LaBute
An episode of the BBC program The Art Zone in which author Will Self interviews Leigh
The Short and Curlies, a short comedy from 1982 directed by Leigh and starring Thewlis, with audio commentary by Leigh
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critics Derek Malcolm and Amy Taubin
Beauty and the Beast:
High-definition digital transfer from restored film elements, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Composer Philip Glass's opera La Belle et la Bête, presented in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio as an alternate soundtrack
Two commentaries: one by film historian Arthur Knight and one by writer and cultural historian Sir Christopher Frayling
Screening at the Majestic, a 1995 documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
Interview with cinematographer Henri Alekan
Rare behind-the-scenes photos and publicity stills
Film restoration demonstration
Original trailer, directed and narrated by director Jean Cocteau, plus restoration trailer from 1995
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Geoffrey O'Brien, a piece on the film by Cocteau, excerpts from Francis Steegmuller's 1970 book Cocteau: A Biography, and an introduction to Glass's opera by the composer
The Music Room:
New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Satyajit Ray (1984), a feature documentary by Shyam Benegal that chronicles Ray's career and includes interviews with the filmmaker, family photographs, and extensive clips from his films
New interview with filmmaker Mira Nair
New interview in which Ray biographer Andrew Robinson discusses the making of The Music Room and the film's cultural significance
Excerpt from a 1981 French roundtable discussion with Ray, film critic Michel Ciment, and filmmaker Claude Sautet
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp as well as reprints of a 1963 essay by Ray and a 1986 interview with the director about the film's music
High and Low:
High-definition digital restoration, with original four-track surround sound presented in DTS-HD Master Audio
Audio commentary by Akira Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince
Documentary on the making of High and Low, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
Rare video interview with actor Toshiro Mifune
Video interview with actor Tsutomu Yamazaki, who plays the kidnapper
Theatrical trailers from Japan and the U.S.
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien and a reprinted on- set account by Japanese film scholar Donald Richie
Léon Morin, Priest:
New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Archival interview with director Jean-Pierre Melville and actor Jean-Paul Belmondo
Visual essay by French film scholar Ginette Vincendeau
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic and novelist Gary Indiana
Life During Wartime:
New digital transfer, supervised and approved by director of photography Ed Lachman, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
Ask Todd, an audio Q&A with director Todd Solondz
Making "Life During Wartime," a new documentary featuring interviews with actors Shirley Henderson, Allison Janney, Michael Lerner, Paul Reubens, Ally Sheedy, and Michael Kenneth Williams, and on-set footage of the actors and crew
New video piece in which Lachman discusses his work on the film
Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Sterritt
