Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Criterion DVD of Pandora's Box


The Criterion Collection website has announced the following information regarding their forthcoming release of Pandora's Box. This version - the first ever on DVD in the United States - will run 133 minutes. Expectations are high. And I think this forthcoming release should satisfy. We shall see. Among the bonus material is the first ever DVD release of now hard-to-find documentary, Lulu in Berlin(No release date is given. The suggested retail price is $39.95)



SPECIAL FEATURES

-- New, restored high-definition digital transfer of the definitive Munich Film Museum restoration
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Four different musical scores, each with its own unique stylistic interpretation of the film
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Audio commentary by film scholars Thomas Elsaesser and Mary Ann Doane
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Louise Brooks: Looking for Lulu, a 1998 documentary
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Lulu in Berlin (48 minutes), a rare 1971 interview with Brooks by verite documentarian Richard Leacock
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A new video interview with Leacock
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A new interview with G. W. Pabst's son, Michael
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New and improved English subtitle translation
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PLUS: A book including Kenneth Tynan's famous essay "The Girl in the Black Helmet," a chapter from Louise Brooks's evocative memoir discussing her relationship with Pabst, and a new essay by film critic J. Hoberman

ABOUT THIS TRANSFER
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Pandora's Box is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This new high-definition digital transfer was created from a 35mm composite print provided by the Munich Film Museum. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 was encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of material included. The Gillian Anderson score is presented in both Dolby 5.1 surround and stereo mixes. The three other scores are presented in Dolby 2.0 stereo.

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