Landmark Russian, Nicholas Ray Noir Make Up Criterion Collection April UK Slate
Landmark Russian film, Nicholas Rey Noir and Barbara Striesland drama headline The Criterion Collection titles to be released on Blu-ray in April.
On 13 April comes THE CRANES ARE FLYING, a landmark film by the virtuosic MIKHAIL KALATOZOV. A superbly crafted drama with impassioned performances, viscerally emotional and gravity defying cinematography by SERGEI URUSEVSKY.
Following on 20 April, Legendary director NICHOLAS RAY‘s THEY LIVE BY NIGHT. Ray uses revolutionary camera techniques and naturalistic performances to craft a profoundly romantic crime drama that paved the way for decades of lovers-on-the-run thrillers to come.
On 27 April THE PRINCE OF TIDES arrives. For her second feature as a director, BARBRA STREISAND crafted a sumptuous, emotionally wrenching adaptation of PAT CONROY’s best-selling novel—which she also produced and starred in.
THE CRANES ARE FLYING 13 MARCH
This landmark film by the virtuosic MIKHAIL KALATOZOV (Letter Never Sent) was heralded as a revelation in the post-Stalin Soviet Union and the international cinema community alike. It tells the story of Veronica and Boris, a couple who are blissfully in love until the eruption of World War II tears them apart. With Boris at the front, Veronica must try to ward off spiritual numbness and defend herself from the increasingly forceful advances of her beau’s draft-dodging cousin. Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival, The Cranes Are Flying 
is a superbly crafted drama with impassioned performances and viscerally emotional, gravity defying cinematography by Kalatozov’s regular collaborator SERGEI URUSEVSKY (I Am Cuba).
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New interview with scholar Ian Christie on why the film is a landmark of Soviet cinema
Audio interview from 1961 with director Mikhail Kalatozov
Hurricane Kalatozov, a documentary from 2009 on the Georgian director’s complex relationship with the Soviet government
Segment from a 2008 program about the film’s cinematography, featuring original storyboards and an interview with actor Alexei Batalov
Interview from 2001 with filmmaker Claude Lelouch on the film’s French premiere at the 1958 Cannes Film Festival
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara
RUSSIA | 1957 | 96 MINUTES | BLACK & WHITE | 1.33:1 | IN RUSSIAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
THEY LIVE BY NIGHT 20 APRIL
Legendary director NICHOLAS RAY (In a Lonely Place, Rebel Without a Cause) began his career with this lyrical film noir, the first in a series of existential genre films overflowing with sympathy for America’s outcasts and underdogs. When the wide-eyed fugitive Bowie (Rope’s FARLEY GRANGER), having broken out of prison with some bank robbers, meets the innocent Keechie (Ben-Hur’s CATHY O’DONNELL), each recognizes something in the other that no one else ever has. The young lovers envision a new, decent life together, but as they flee the cops and 
contend with Bowie’s fellow outlaws, who aren’t about to let him go straight, they realize there’s nowhere left to run. Ray brought an outsider’s sensibility honed in the theatre to this debut, using revolutionary camera techniques and naturalistic performances to craft a profoundly romantic crime drama that paved the way for decades of lovers-on-the-run thrillers to come.
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary featuring film historian Eddie Muller and actor Farley Granger
New video interview with film critic Imogen Sara Smith
Short piece from 2007 with film critic Molly Haskell, filmmakers Christopher Coppola and Oliver Stone, and film noir specialists Alain Silver and James Ursini
Illustrated audio interview excerpts from 1956 with producer John Houseman
PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Bernard Eisenschitz
UNITED STATES | 1948 | 95 MINUTES | BLACK & WHITE | 1.37:1 | ENGLISH
THE PRINCE OF TIDES 27 APRIL
For her acclaimed second feature as a director, BARBRA STREISAND (Yentl) crafted a sumptuous, emotionally wrenching adaptation of PAT CONROY’s best-selling novel—which she also produced and starred in. Summoned to New York after his sister attempts suicide, Tom Wingo (Cape Fear’s NICK NOLTE) must serve as her memory, reckoning with the traumas of their southern childhood so that her psychiatrist, Dr. Susan Lowenstein (Streisand), can help her recover. But Tom’s sessions with Lowenstein will plunge him into the depths of his own long-repressed pain—and reawaken the possibility of love within him. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, including best picture and best actor for Nolte’s soulful performance, The Prince of Tides is a life-affirming tale of healing and 
renewal from a triple-threat filmmaker with a keen and humane insight into her characters’ sorrows, joys, and yearnings.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Barbra Streisand, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary featuring Streisand, recorded in 1991 and updated in 2019
Making-of featurette from 1991
Excerpt from a 2018 interview with Streisand, conducted by filmmaker Robert Rodriguez on El Rey Network’s The Director’s Chair
Audition and rehearsal footage
Deleted scenes and alternate takes
Costume and makeup tests
Alternate end credits with vocal performance by Streisand
Behind-the-scenes footage
Gag reel
Production-stills gallery and other archival materials
Interview with author Pat Conroy from a 1992 episode of Cinema Showcase with Jim Whaley
Interview with Streisand from a 1992 episode of the British television show Aspel & Company with Michael Aspel
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by film historian Bruce Eder
UNITED STATES | 1991 | 132 MINUTES | COLOUR | 1.85:1 | ENGLISH
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