New York Times Reveals August Criterion Collection New Releases

We all know how secretive Criterion is when it comes to their new releases, with Apple like control of what they announce, and when it is unveiled. Whether they’re teasing at upcoming releases in their e-mail newsletter or sending out Twitpic’s with obscured images of what they’re watching, Criterion won’t usually let the cat out of the bag until they’re good and ready, and the release is well on it’s way to production.

Today, the New York Times dropped a small Criterion bomb of Gizomodo-like proportions, towards the end of their “Summer DVD” selections. We aren’t expecting the August 2010 new releases to be announced for a couple more weeks, but we now know what a couple of the titles are likely to be:

Criterion continues its season of releases on Aug. 10 with a collection of Josef von Sternberg silents, including ‘The Last Command’ and ‘Underworld.’

From the brief description, it reads as if this will most likely be an Eclipse box set of Josef von Sternberg‘s silent films. While they could be receiving standalone releases, the word “collection” leads me to think of Eclipse. If you’ve never seen it, you can already watch one of von Sternberg’s classics, The Scarlet Empress, in the Criterion Collection.

[Editor’s Update: The New York Times piece also included the long awaited release date of Hausu! Read here.]

Are you excited about new Josef von Sternberg in the Collection? What else do you predict we’ll see in two weeks when the rest of the August releases are announced?

The Last Command:

From Videohound:

Famous powerful silent film by Sternberg about an expatriate Czarist general forging out a pitiful living as a silent Hollywood extra, where he is hired by his former adversary to reenact the revolution he just left. Next to “The Last Laugh,” this is considered Jannings’ most acclaimed performance. Deeply ironic, visually compelling film with a new score by Gaylord Carter.

Underworld:

From Videohound:

Inspired gangster saga finds bank robber Bull Weed (Bancroft) befriending a genteel bum, known as Rolls Royce (Brook), and taking him into his gang. The bum has brains and soon makes Weed king of the underworld but there’s jealousy when Weed’s moll Feathers (Brent) falls for Royce. Climactic shootout set a standard for the genre.

7 comments

David Blakeslee says:

May 3, 2010 at 4:21 am

That article also mentions a Sept. 7 release of House, which we've already known would be released for awhile but now we have a date. I feel no particular urgent need to see the von Sternberg silents but it's nice to know they'll be restored and available. I enjoyed Scarlet Empress http://criterionreflections.blogspot.com/2009/0… and that “Devil's carnival” in the first clip has some interesting visual flair that would be fun to see in higher resolution.

As for future release predictions, I welcome a final resolution of that Crumb/Fritz the Cat debate, and I'd like to see Tokyo Story released on Bluray (a British release is pending for July 19.) And aren't they supposed to release some Chaplin films later this year?
Guest says:

May 6, 2010 at 10:07 am

Amazon are listing (for pre-order) “Antichrist” as a Criterion blu-ray release – no date specified. Pure specualtion or grounded in fact? Did Travis put them up to it?
Guest says:

May 6, 2010 at 5:07 pm

Amazon are listing (for pre-order) “Antichrist” as a Criterion blu-ray release – no date specified. Pure specualtion or grounded in fact? Did Travis put them up to it?