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CRITERION: Riot in Cell Block 11, Dreyer's Master of the House in April
Criterion has scheduled an April 22nd street date for their Blu-Ray / DVD Combo's of Don Siegel's Riot in Cell Block 11 (1954) and Carl Theodor Dreyer's Master of the House (1925).
Each will be a 2-disc set with all bonus features (below) contained on both formats.
Early in his career, Don Siegel made his mark with this sensational and high-octane but economically constructed drama set in a maximum-security penitentiary. Riot in Cell Block 11, the brainchild of producer extraordinaire Walter Wanger, is a ripped-from-the-headlines social-problem picture about prisoners' rights that was inspired by a recent spate of uprisings in American prisons.
In Siegel's hands, the film is at once brash and humane, showcasing the hard-boiled visual flair and bold storytelling for which the director would become known and shot on location at Folsom State Prison, with real inmates and guards as extras.
BONUS FEATURES:
Before he got up close and personal with Joan of Arc, the Danish cinema genius Carl Theodor Dreyer fashioned this finely detailed, ahead-of-its-time examination of domestic life. In this heartfelt story of a housewife who, with the help of a wily nanny, turns the tables on her tyrannical husband, Dreyer finds lightness and humor; it's a deft comedy of revenge that was an enormous box-office success.
Constructed with the director's customary meticulousness and stirring sense of justice, Master of the House is a jewel of silent cinema.
BONUS FEATURES:
Each will be a 2-disc set with all bonus features (below) contained on both formats.
Early in his career, Don Siegel made his mark with this sensational and high-octane but economically constructed drama set in a maximum-security penitentiary. Riot in Cell Block 11, the brainchild of producer extraordinaire Walter Wanger, is a ripped-from-the-headlines social-problem picture about prisoners' rights that was inspired by a recent spate of uprisings in American prisons.
In Siegel's hands, the film is at once brash and humane, showcasing the hard-boiled visual flair and bold storytelling for which the director would become known and shot on location at Folsom State Prison, with real inmates and guards as extras.
BONUS FEATURES:
- New audio commentary by film scholar Matthew Bernstein
- Excerpts from the director's 1993 autobiography, A Siegel Film, read by his son Kristoffer Tabori
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Chris Fujiwara, a 1954 article by coproducer Walter Wanger, and a 1974 tribute to Siegel by filmmaker Sam Peckinpah
Before he got up close and personal with Joan of Arc, the Danish cinema genius Carl Theodor Dreyer fashioned this finely detailed, ahead-of-its-time examination of domestic life. In this heartfelt story of a housewife who, with the help of a wily nanny, turns the tables on her tyrannical husband, Dreyer finds lightness and humor; it's a deft comedy of revenge that was an enormous box-office success.
Constructed with the director's customary meticulousness and stirring sense of justice, Master of the House is a jewel of silent cinema.
BONUS FEATURES:
- New interview with Dreyer historian Casper Tybjerg
- New visual essay on Dreyer's camera work and editing by film historian David Bordwell
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Mark Le Fanu