Can’t-Miss Classics to Buy in The Criterion Collection Sale

The Complete Jacques Tati
This six-film collection includes every film Jacques Tati ever made. Each of the French actor/director’s works is a jewel, including all four visually intoxicating entries in which Tati plays the put-upon Monsieur Hulot (Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Mon Oncle, Playtime, and Trafic). Bookending the set are Jour De Fête, an early work about a wine-loving postman who tries to improve the Parisian mail delivery service, and Parade, his last film, a made-for-Swedish-television tale about a pair of young children getting up close and personal with a circus. As you’d expect from a Criterion set, the supplements are expansive and enriching. In this case, they include an introduction to each film by Monty Python’s Terry Jones.

Eraserhead
One of the most anticipated Criterion releases of 2014, David Lynch’s surreal 1977 feature debut is far from mainstream, but the hallucinatory impact of its pure art house weirdness remains as potent today as it was four decades ago—if not more so, thanks to an immaculate new Lynch-supervised 4K digital restoration. Plot? Well, this is the story of big-haired Henry Spencer, the spasmodic Mary X, a freaky baby, an awkward dinner, and the mutton-chopped crooning of the Lady in the Radiator. In short, it’s a masterwork of the bizarre, and ranks with Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive as one of Lynch’s crowning achievements.

Roman Polanski’s Macbeth
It seems strangely fitting that a polarizing figure like Polanski should tackle Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Released in 1971, this bold interpretation is properly cold and dark, and chock full of ambition, murder, and a wee bit of nudity. Polanski stages the toil and trouble among the cragginess of the British Isles, only adding to the authentic medieval vibe. In addition to the copious bonus materials, something wicked(ly wonderful) this way comes: a new, Polanski-approved 4K digital restoration.

La Dolce Vita
Federico Fellini hit the big time in 1960 with this trendy examination of the “sweet life” of a gossip rag journalist who spends a week (or is it?) trying to find love and happiness in 1960s Rome.  The trippy structure and loose visual style are trademark Fellini, and he elicits great performances from Marcello Mastroianni, Anita Ekberg, Anouk Aimee, and Yvonne Furneaux. That’s a whole lot of 1960s sex appeal in one film, which might help explain why Fellini drew the ire of the Vatican, who labeled the movie sacrilegious. Supplemental interviews with Fellini and Mastroianni offer nice perspective on the production, as does a new interview with filmmaker Lina Wertmüller (Swept Away), who began her career as Fellini’s assistant director.

It Happened One Night
This 1934 Frank Capra film may just be the definitive screwball comedy of Hollywood’s Golden Age. It’s a textbook romantic comedy made before the textbook was even written. Clark Gable’s cocky unemployed newspaper reporter and Claudette Colbert’s spoiled-rich-kid heiress bicker and snipe constantly on their way to true love amidst a wacky plot involving an exclusive interview, a big reward, and a wedding. This was the first film to sweep all five major Oscar categories (picking up statues for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay). Bonus materials include Frank Capra’s American Dream, a feature-length documentary about the famed director, and a new digital transfer of his 1921 silent short film debut.
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