The Criterion Collection in March

From "Defending Your Life" (Albert Brooks, 1991)

I skipped my first month's worth of Criterion releases since restarting the blog last month. Why, you may ask? Well, I may reply, there wasn't a single title that met my high standards of making up some bullshit. It happens. They can't all be winners. There's always one month every year that I don't preorder anything. This year, it was February. March, however, has one bona fide must have in it, as well as a quartet of titles worth discussing. So let's do the damn thing.

March 9

Djibril Diop Mambéty's 1973 post-colonial classic, "Touki bouki" ("The Journey Of The Hyena"), gets its first Blu-ray release after a 2013 DVD-only edition. When Mrs. Ape and I discussed this month's lineup (as is the custom in our house), this was the title she was most excited about. She doesn't currently own a copy, but she regaled me with tales of going to San Francisco to see it, and how taken she was by the film's movement and pacing, as well as the filmmaker's take on French New Wave. Who am I to argue with the missus? It's the tale of two Senegalese 20-somethings, an iconic motorbike, and a trip to Paris and the promise of a new life. Sounds pretty cool to me. The 2K transfer came from a 2008 restoration, but it's the first time that the film has been available on video with an uncompressed soundtrack. Mambéty's 1968 short film, "Contras' City" has also been added here, along with an introduction by Martin Scorsese, interviews with Mambéty's family and collaborators, and an essay from Ashley Clark, the current curatorial director at the Criterion Collection. This is one I'm looking forward to seeing for the first time.

March 16

The first new release in March comes via "Céline and Julie Go Boating" ("Céline et Julie vont en bateau"), a 1974 French film from Jacques Rivette. I don't know a lot about Rivette, other than many of his films are incredibly long and that I've heard he stands along the same line of strangeness in filmmaking as Lynch, Jonze, and Gondry. The Criterion page for "Céline and Julie" calls this "both one of the all-time-great hangout comedies and a totally unique, enveloping cinematic dream space". I've not taken the opportunity to dive into his worlds of mystery until now (I've been watching a lot of film noir and Marvel Cinematic Universe sorry not sorry), so this stands as a good opportunity to jump in. The film itself has received a 2K restoration along with a commentary track from Australian critic Adrian Martin, whose insights always add something to film watching for me. Claire Denis, whose work I've really gotten into in recent years, also contributes her 1994 documentary mini-series on Rivette. There are interviews with Rivette's cast on the film and producer Barbet Schroder (!), and an essay from all-around badass writer Beatrice Loayza. I expect I'll be carving out 4-5 hours to watch this one; after all, the dog loves to take walks in the midst of enthralling movies.

March 23

Are you tired of paying top dollar for out-of-print Criterion titles? Worried you might end up with a shoddy bootleg? Have you beat that Kino DVD snapcase to death? Well, Criterion finally takes care of you with "World Of Wong Kar Wai", their first box set of the year. And, much like their previous Bruce Lee and Godzilla sets, this is a Day One must have for me. Collecting seven of the first eight films of WKW's career (only "Ashes Of Time" is missing), and offering them with 4K restorations, in time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "In The Mood For Love". His movies are poetry given form; his collaborators, typically stars on their own, become supernovas when they work together. It's awesome to see these films collected together.

So, what does $200 get you? The gatefold case, designed by Nessim Higson, appears to be of the same dimensions as the Bruce Lee set; a bit oversized to fit with the rest of my collection, but c'est la vie. As I mentioned above, each film has received a 4K restoration. "As Tears Go By" and "Days Of Being Wild" both receive uncompressed audio, while the rest get a really sharp DTS-HD 5.1 audio mix. There's also an alternate edit of "Days", never before released on video. The bonus materials offer a ton of archival material, but the big get here is the Q&A between WKW and the likes of Sofia Coppola, Rian Johnson, Lisa Joy, Chloé Zhao, André Aciman and Jonathan Lethem. That's a murderer's row of creatives, asking questions and getting answers from one of their influences. John Powers, whose spots on "Fresh Air With Terry Gross" always make me stop and listen, also provides an essay as part of a perfect bound booklet. It's the cherry on top of a very tasty cake.

March 30

Damn, dude, we getting old. It's been 25 years since I sat in the Rotunda Theatre in Hampden and watched Mike Leigh's "Secrets & Lies". Real talk: I don't recall enjoying it. I think I was trying to impress a girl who had no interest in me. Good call, right: take a girl to a British drama about an adoptee searching for her birth mother. Christ, I'm dumb. The French knew what's up, though. They gave it the Palme d'Or at Cannes that year. I've learned better, too, having really enjoyed diving into Leigh's ouevre over the past several years. Leigh, along with his DP Dick Pope, put together a 2K restoration for this new release of "Secrets & Lies", as well as sat down with composer Gary Yershon to discuss the role of music in the film. Ashley Clark returns with a second essay this month, and star Marianne Jean-Baptiste speaks with Corrrina Antrobus (Bechdel Test Fest).

It really bums me out that Albert Brooks' directing career petered out the way it did, because, even as a kid, I really enjoyed his sense of satire and his directing style. Seeing "Defending Your Life" in 1991 came at a pretty key point in my life: a year out of Christian school and out of the Deep South for the first time in my life, asking questions of religion that hadn't come up before. To encounter this movie addressing some of these same questions within the framework of a rom-com was pretty revelatory. That's a good-ass cast! But that's Brooks' thing, innit? He addresses these huge existential issues within these innocuous packages. Plus, it has Meryl Streep, Rip Torn, Lee Grant, and Buck Henry in it. Brooks oversaw the 4K restoration on this print, and sat down with long-time "Curb Your Enthusiasm" director Robert Weide for an interview. I'm also pretty excited to read Ari Aster's essay in this release.

And there you have it: another month's worth of Criterion releases on the page. It's pretty likely I end up adding "Defending Your Life" to my preorder for the WKW box set. I'll end up getting the other three as time and money allow. I'm back in 30 (more or less) for a lineup that I can sum up in three words: motherfuckin' "Irma Vep". Be there...aloha!