Classic Brando, Davis And Iconic Time Travel Criterion Collection December Slate

What do classic Marlon Brando, Bette Davis and influential sci-fi all got in common? They are all the title to be released on Blu-ray in December, by The Criterion Collection and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

On 2 December comes , ON THE WATERFRONT, the masterpiece of urban poetry starring MARLON BRANDO who gives the performance of his career. Driven by the vivid, naturalistic direction of ELIA KAZAN and savory, streetwise dialogue by BUDD SCHULBERG, ON THE WATERFRONT was an instant sensation, winning eight Oscars, including Best Picture.

On 9 December NOW, VOYAGER arrives. Starring Bette Davis and made at the height of her career, the film is a melodrama for the ages, both a rapturous Hollywood romance and a poignant saga of self-discovery.

16 December brings LA JETÉE and SANS SOLEIL made by the unparalleled and uncompromising CHRIS MARKER. These two films—a tale of time travel told in still images and a journey to Africa and Japan — remain his best-loved and most widely seen.

ON THE WATERFRONT | 2nd December

MARLON BRANDO (The Godfather) gives the performance of his career as the tough prizefighter-turnedlongshoreman Terry Malloy in this masterpiece of urban poetry, a raggedly emotional tale of individual failure and institutional corruption. On the Waterfront charts Terry’s deepening moral crisis as he must choose whether to remain loyal to the mob-connected union boss Johnny Friendly (12 Angry Men’s LEE J. COBB) and Johnny’s right-hand man, Terry’s brother, Charley (In the Heat of the Night’s ROD STEIGER), as the authorities close in on them. Driven by the vivid, naturalistic direction of ELIA KAZAN (Gentlemen’s Agreement) and savory, streetwise dialogue by BUDD SCHULBERG (A Face in the Crowd), On the Waterfront was an instant sensation, winning eight Oscars, including for best picture, director, actor, supporting actress (North by Northwest’s EVA MARIE SAINT), and screenplay.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
Alternate presentations of the feature restoration in two additional aspect ratios: 1.85:1 (widescreen) and 1.33:1 (full-screen)
Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS -HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray edition
Commentary featuring authors Richard Schickel and Jeff Young
New conversation between filmmaker Martin Scorsese and critic Kent Jones
Elia Kazan: Outsider (1982), an hour-long documentary
New documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with scholar Leo Braudy, critic David Thomson, and others
New interview with actress Eva Marie Saint
Interview with director Elia Kazan from 2001
Contender, a 2001 documentary on the film’s most famous scene
New interview with longshoreman Thomas Hanley, an actor in the film
New interview with author James T. Fisher (On the Irish Waterfront) about the real-life people and places behind the film
Visual essay on Leonard Bernstein’s score
Trailer
PLUS : A booklet featuring an essay by critic Michael Almereyda and reprints of Kazan’s 1952 ad in the New York Times defending his testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, one of the 1948 New York Sun articles by Malcolm Johnson on which the film was based, and a 1953 Commonweal piece by screenwriter Budd Schulberg

USA | 1954 | 108 MINUTES | BLACK & WHITE | 1.66:1 | ENGLISH

NOW, VOYAGER | 9th December

Nervous spinster Charlotte Vale (All About Eve’s BETTE DAVIS) is stunted from growing up under the heel of her puritanical Boston Brahmin mother (My Fair Lady’s GLADYS COOPER), and remains convinced of her own unworthiness until a kindly psychiatrist (Notorious’s CLAUDE RAINS) gives her the confidence to venture out into the world on a South American cruise. Onboard, she finds her footing with the help of an unhappily married man (Casablanca’s PAUL HENREID). Their thwarted love affair may help Charlotte break free of her mother’s grip—but will she find fulfilment as well as independence? Made at the height of Davis’s reign as the queen of the women’s picture and bolstered by an Oscar-winning score by MAX STEINER (Gone with the Wind), Now, Voyager is a melodrama for the ages, both a rapturous Hollywood romance and a poignant saga of self-discovery.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Episode of The Dick Cavett Show from 1971 with actor Bette Davis
Interview with Paul Henreid from 1980
Selected-scene commentary on the film’s score by professor Jeff Smith
New interview with film critic Farran Smith Nehme on the making of the film
New interview with costume historian Larry McQueen
Two radio adaptations from 1943 and 1946

PLUS: An essay by scholar Patricia White and a 1937 reflection on acting by Davis

USA | 1942 | 118 MINUTES | BLACK & WHITE | 1.37:1 | ENGLISH

LA JETÉE / SANS SOLEIL | 16 December

One of the most influential, radical science-fiction films ever made and a mind-bending free-form travelogue: La Jetée and Sans Soleil couldn’t seem more different—but they’re the twin pillars of an unparalleled and uncompromising career in cinema. A filmmaker, poet, novelist, photographer, editor, and now videographer and digital multimedia artist, CHRIS MARKER (A Grin Without a Cat) has been challenging moviegoers, philosophers, and himself for years with his investigations of time, memory, and the rapid advancement of life on this planet.
These two films—a tale of time travel told in still images and a journey to Africa and Japan — remain his best-loved and most widely seen.

GUILLAUME-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
Restored high-definition digital transfers, approved by director Chris Marker, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks
Two interviews with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin
Chris on Chris, a video piece on Marker by filmmaker and critic Chris Darke
Two excerpts from the French television series Court-circuit (le magazine): a look at David Bowie’s music video for the song “Jump They Say,” inspired by La Jetée, and an analysis of Hitchcock’s Vertigo and its influence on Marker
Junkopia, a six-minute film by Marker about the Emeryville Mudflats
A booklet featuring an essay by Marker scholar Catherine Lupton, an interview with Marker, notes on the films and filmmaking by Marker, and more

LA JETÉE: FRANCE | 1963 | 27 MINUTES | BLACK & WHITE | 1.66:1 |
PRESENTED IN ENGLISH AND IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES

SANS SOLEIL: FRANCE | 1983 | 103 MINUTES | COLOUR | 1.66:1 |
PRESENTED IN ENGLISH AND IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES