Posted Tue Jul 19, 2011 at 08:00 AM PDT by Tom Landy
Pasolini and Kobayashi get the Criterion Blu-ray treatment this October.
In an early announcement to retailers, Criterion has revealed the controversial 1975 film 'Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom' for Blu-ray on October 4.
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notorious transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s eighteenth-century opus of torture and degradation to Fascist Italy in 1944 remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time.
The Blu-ray will feature a 1080p transfer and supplements include: “Salò”: Yesterday and Today, a thirty-three-minute 2002 documentary featuring interviews with director Pier Paolo Pasolini, actor-filmmaker Jean-Claude Biette, and Pasolini friend Nineto Davoli; Fade to Black, a twenty-three-minute 2001 documentary featuring directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Catherine Breillat, and John Maybury, as well as scholar David Forgacs; The End of “Salò”, a forty-minute documentary about the film’s production; Video interviews with set designer Dante Ferretti and director and film scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin; Theatrical trailer; and a booklet featuring essays by Neil Bartlett, Breillat, Naomi Greene, Sam Rohdie, Roberto Chiesi, and Gary Indiana, and excerpts from Gideon Bachmann’s on-set diary.
Criterion will also be bringing 'Harakiri' to Blu-ray on the same date.
Following the collapse of his clan, unemployed samurai Hanshiro Tsugumo (Tatsuya Nakadai) arrives at the manor of Lord Iyi, begging to commit ritual suicide on his property in Masaki Kobayashi’s fierce evocation of individual agency in the face of a corrupt and hypocritical system.
The Blu-ray will feature 1080p video, a Japanese soundtrack, and supplements will include: Video introduction by Japanese-film historian Donald Richie; Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, moderated by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda; Video interviews with star Tatsuya Nakadai and screenwriter Shinobu Hashimoto; Original theatrical trailer; and a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Joan Mellen and a reprint of a 1972 interview by Mellen with Kobayashi.
Suggested list price for each Blu-ray is $39.95.
You can find the latest specs for 'Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom' and 'Harakiri' linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they are indexed under October 4.
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