The Criterion Collection’s slate of May releases spans the gamut from pre-Code melodrama to a 1940s noir to a classic 1980s comedy.
Hitting store shelves on May 4 will be Trances, director Ahmed El Maânouni’s 1981 documentary on the Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane, is a blu-ray re-release of the Criterion Collection’s previous 2007 box set Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project. May 11 will see Amy Heckerling’s iconic 1982 teen comedy Fast Times At Ridgemeont High (Criterion Spine #1075) and the pre-code melodrama Merrily We Got To Hell (Criterion Spine #1076). Director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s late-ninteenth century-set drama Flowers Of Shanghai (Criterion Spine #1077) will be released on May 18 with the 1947 film noir Nightmare Alley (Criterion Spine #1078) will be released the following week on May 25.
Four of the five films will be sporting new 4K digital transfers, while Trances‘s 2007 2K digital restoration is courtesy of The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna is from its original DVD release from Criterion. Fast Times At Ridgemont High has been a mainstay on home video for years, and the 1999 commentary track featuring director Amy Heckerling and screenwriter Cameron Crowe will be part oft he Criterion release’s extras. Similarly, the commentary track from the Fox Noir Classics line release of Nightmare Alley has also been moved over to join the special features on the upcoming Criterion release.
Special featfollows – ures for each release are as
Trances
- 2K digital restoration courtesy of The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project in collaboration with the Cineteca di Bologna, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Introduction from 2013 by The Film Foundation’s founder and chair, Martin Scorsese
- Interview program from 2013 featuring director Ahmed El Maanouni, producer Izza Génini, musician Omar Sayed, and Scorsese
- An essay by film scholar Sally Shafto
Fast Times At Ridgemont
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Amy Heckerling, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 1999 featuring Heckerling and screenwriter Cameron Crowe
- Television version of the film from the eighties, featuring deleted and alternate scenes
- New conversation with Heckerling and Crowe, moderated by filmmaker Olivia Wilde
- Reliving Our “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” a 1999 documentary featuring interviews with cast and crew
- Audio discussion from 1982 with Heckerling at the American Film Institute
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- An essay by film critic Dana Stevens and, for the Blu-ray edition, a new introduction by Crowe
Merrily We Go to Hell
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Dorothy Arzner: Longing for Women, a 1983 documentary by Katja Raganelli and Konrad Wickler
- New video essay by film historian Cari Beauchamp
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- An essay by film scholar Judith Mayne
Flowers of Shanghai
- New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Hou Hsiao-hsien and director of photography Mark Lee Ping-bing, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- New introduction by critic Tony Rayns
- Beautified Realism, a new documentary by Daniel Raim and Eugene Suen on the making of the film, featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with Lee, producer and editor Liao Ching-sung, production designer Huang Wen-ying, and sound recordist Tu Duu-chih
- Excerpts from a 2015 interview with Hou, recorded for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Oral History Project
- Trailer
- English subtitle translation by Rayns
- An essay by film scholar Jean Ma and a 2009 interview with Hou conducted by scholar Michael Berry
Nightmare Alley
- New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary from 2005 featuring film historians James Ursini and Alain Silver
- New interview with critic Imogen Sara Smith
- New interview with performer and historian Todd Robbins
- Interview from 2007 with actor Coleen Gray
- Audio excerpt of a 1971 interview with Henry King in which the filmmaker discusses actor Tyrone Power
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- An essay by film critic and screenwriter Kim Morgan
