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CRITERION: King of Jazz Debuts and More in March -- 3 Day Special Price
Criterion has announced a March 28th street date for the debut of the long thought incomplete musical The King of Jazz (1930) on DVD and Blu.
Alo arriving on that same date is the 1927 silent epic The Passion of Joan of Arc (1927). Originally released via Criterion back in 1999 the film is receiving an updated 2-disc DVD as well as premiering on Blu.
And on January 30th Criterion premieres two silent features from acclaimed director G.W. Pabst: 1930's Westfront 1918 and Kameradschaft (1931).
Retail for the Blu-rays are $39.95, but they are available at ClassicFlix.com for only $31.99. For 3 days only (until December 23rd), we'll be offering King of Jazz for the special pre-order price of $26.98. The individual DVDs will retail for $29.95.
The Passion of Joan of Arc (1927)
Spiritual rapture and institutional hypocrisy come to stark, vivid life in one of the most transcendent masterpieces of the silent era. Chronicling the trial of Joan of Arc in the days leading up to her execution, Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer depicts her torment with startling immediacy, employing an array of techniques—including expressionistic lighting, interconnected sets, and painfully intimate close-ups—to immerse viewers in her subjective experience. Anchoring Dreyer’s audacious formal experimentation is a legendary performance by Renée Falconetti, whose haunted face channels both the agony and the ecstasy of martyrdom.
BONUS FEATURES:
- New high-definition digital restoration of the film by Gaumont, presented at 24 frames per second
- Alternate presentation of the film at 20 frames per second with original Danish intertitles
- Three scores: Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, a choral and orchestral work performed by vocal group Anonymous 4, soloist Susan Narucki, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Choir; another by Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory and Portishead’s Adrian Utley; and the third composed and performed by pianist Mie Yanashita
- Audio commentary from 1999 by film scholar Casper Tybjerg
- New interview with Einhorn
- New conversation between Gregory and Utley
- New video essay by Tybjerg exploring the debate over the film’s frame rate
- Interview from 1995 with actor Renée Falconetti’s daughter and biographer, Hélène Falconetti
- Version history
- Production design archive
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by critic Mark Le Fanu, a 1929 director’s statement by Carl Theodor Dreyer, and the full libretto for Voices of Light
Kameradschaft (1931)
When a coal mine collapses on the frontier between Germany and France and traps a team of French miners, workers on both sides of the border spring into action, putting aside national prejudices and wartime grudges to launch a dangerous rescue operation.
Director G. W. Pabst brings a vivid sense of claustrophobia to this ticking-clock scenario, using realistic sets and sound design to create the maze of soot-choked shafts where the miners struggle for survival. Inspired by a real-life mine collapse, Kameradschaft (Comradeship) is an arresting disaster film and a stirring plea for international cooperation, and it cemented Pabst’s status as one of the most morally engaged and formally dexterous filmmakers of his time.
BONUS FEATURES:
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New interview with film scholar Hermann Barth on the film’s production
- Interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser, featuring footage from the French version of the film
- Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak on the historical context of the film
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author and critic Luc Sante and the 1930 text by Karl Otten that the film was based on
Digging into the trenches with four infantrymen stationed in France in the final months of World War I, Pabst illustrates the harrowing ordeals of battle with unprecedented naturalism, as the men are worn away in body and spirit by firefights, shelling, and the disillusion that greets them on the home front.
BONUS FEATURES:
- 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Hour-long French television broadcast of World War I veterans reacting to the film in 1969
- Interview from 2016 with film scholar Jan-Christopher Horak
- New restoration demonstration featuring Martin Koerber and Julia Wallmüller of the Deutsche Kinemathek
- Brief audio interview from 1988 with editor Jean Oser
- New English subtitle translation
- PLUS: An essay by author and critic Luc Sante