The Criterion Collection Announces November 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray Line-Up

The titles include Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show, Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven, and Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets each on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray. Plus Claude Chabrol's La cérémonie as well as the boxed set Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar on Blu-ray.

Leading the charge on November 7 is Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar - a boxed set of six of martial arts legend Jackie Chan's films.

Jackie Chan: Emergence of a Superstar - The Criterion Collection 

Originally tapped as a potential successor to Bruce Lee, Hong Kong martial-arts phenom Jackie Chan soon established his own unique screen persona, blending goofball slapstick and bone-crunching kung fu into intricate feats of supercharged athleticism. Tracing his rise from breakout star to full-fledged auteur, these six unabashedly silly, unstoppably entertaining early-career highlights find Chan refining the lovably mischievous image that would make him a global icon, while also assuming greater creative control over his projects—first as his own martial-arts choreographer, and later as a writer-director who set a thrilling new standard for daredevil action comedy.

The films included are Half a Loaf of Kung Fu (1978), Spiritual Kung Fu (1978), The Fearless Hyena (1979), Fearless Hyena II (1983), The Young Master (1980), and My Lucky Stars (1985).

FOUR-BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• 2K digital restorations of Spiritual Kung Fu, The Fearless Hyena, Fearless Hyena II, The Young Master, and My Lucky Stars and high-definition digital restoration of Half a Loaf of Kung Fu, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks 
• Alternate stereo and 5.1 surround Cantonese soundtracks
• New audio commentaries for The Fearless Hyena and The Young Master featuring Hong Kong cinema expert and producer Frank Djeng (Enter the Clones of Bruce)
• Interview with author Grady Hendrix (These Fists Break Bricks) about actor-director Jackie Chan
• Archival interviews with Chan, actor-director Sammo Hung, actors Michiko Nishiwaki and Hwang In-shik, and more
• The Young Master promo reel from the 1980 Cannes Film Festival and deleted scenes from the film 
• Interview from 2005 with Hong Kong cinema critic Paul Fonoroff about producer-director Lo Wei
• NG shots from The Young Master and My Lucky Stars 
• Trailers
• New English subtitle translations
• PLUS: An essay by critic Alex Pappademas

Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show will arrive on 4K UHD Blu-ray as well as Blu-ray on November 14.

The Last Picture Show - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 

One of the key films of the American seventies cinema renaissance, The Last Picture Show is set in the early fifties, in the loneliest Texas nowheresville to ever dust up a movie screen. This aching portrait of a dying West, adapted from Larry McMurtry’s novel, focuses on the daily shuffles of three futureless teens—enigmatic Sonny (Timothy Bottoms), wayward jock Duane (Jeff Bridges), and desperate-to-be-adored rich girl Jacy (Cybill Shepherd)—and the aging lost souls who bump up against them in the night like drifting tumbleweeds, including Cloris Leachman’s lonely housewife and Ben Johnson’s grizzled movie-house proprietor. Featuring evocative black-and-white imagery and profoundly felt performances, this hushed depiction of crumbling American values remains the pivotal work in the career of invaluable film historian and director Peter Bogdanovich.

4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

Also on November 14 comes Terrence Malick's Days of Heaven on 4K UHD Blu-ray with what looks like a new Blu-ray version, too.

Days of Heaven - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 

One-of-a-kind filmmaker-philosopher Terrence Malick has created some of the most visually arresting films of the twentieth century, and his glorious period tragedy Days of Heaven, featuring Oscar-winning cinematography by Nestor Almendros, stands out among them. In 1910, a Chicago steelworker (Richard Gere) accidentally kills his supervisor, and flees with his girlfriend (Brooke Adams) and his little sister (Linda Manz) to the Texas panhandle, where they find work harvesting wheat in the fields of a stoic farmer (Sam Shepard). A love triangle, a swarm of locusts, a hellish fire—Malick captures it all with dreamlike authenticity, creating a timeless American idyll that is also a gritty evocation of turn-of-the-century labor.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

On November 21, Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets will hit 4K UHD Blu-ray. The release will also be available on Blu-ray.

Mean Streets - The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 

Martin Scorsese emerged as a generation-defining filmmaker with this gritty portrait of 1970s New York City, one of the most influential works of American independent cinema. Set in the insular Little Italy neighborhood of Scorsese’s youth, Mean Streets follows guilt-ridden small-time ringleader Charlie (Harvey Keitel) as he deals with the debts owed by his dangerously volatile best pal, Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), and pressure from his headstrong girlfriend, Teresa (Amy Robinson). As their intertwined lives spiral out of control, Scorsese showcases his precocious mastery of film style—evident in everything from his propulsive editing rhythms to the lovingly curated soundtrack—to create an electrifying vision of sin and redemption.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

And lastly also on November 21 is Claude Chabrol's La cérémonie on Blu-ray.

La cérémonie - The Criterion Collection 

Claude Chabrol’s forty-ninth feature stands as the crowning achievement of his prolific career—a coolly riveting study of class dynamics, the psychology of crime, and the sordid secrets lurking beneath the veneer of everyday life. A fascinatingly enigmatic, César Award–winning Isabelle Huppert is the chaotic yin to Sandrine Bonnaire’s tightly coiled yang. They are, respectively, a small-town postal worker and a maid to a wealthy family, a pair of outsiders who form a mysterious alliance that gradually, almost imperceptibly, goes haywire. With a master’s control of sound, editing, and suspense, Chabrol constructs a tour de force of sustained tension that delivers each brilliant shock with ice-pick precision.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

Pre-orders should be available sometime in the next week or two and we'll be sure to update the website as soon as they are.