Another month, another Criterion Collection announcement. But it’s not like we’re complaining, these notices are never boring. In fact, October’s an extra special month centered on Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. Criterion is releasing not only the chimeric filmmaker’s fantasy epic “Pan’s Labyrinth,” but a fabulist Spanish-language trilogy Blu-ray box-set that includes the aforementioned picture plus “The Devil’s Backbone” and “Cronos.” It’s a pretty sweet package for fans of del Toro’s early, fantastical and non-franchise works.
The set is available in both a DVD edition and a sumptuously designed Blu-ray box that includes a deluxe hardcover book-collecting the aforementioned titles. Also coming in October is Richard Linklater’s nearly three-hour childhood and adolescence indie, “Boyhood,” which will arrive in a special edition featuring exclusive new material. including an audio commentary track with nine members of the cast, a new doc chronicling the twelve-year production, video essays and more. Two lesser-seen European classics are also joining the collection: Ermanno Olmi‘s 1978 Palme d’Or-winning “The Tree of Wooden Clogs,” and Luis García Berlanga’s darkly comedic “The Executioner.” Venerable filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar has regarded Berlanga as “the true father of Spanish cinema.”
Finally a Blu-ray version of Robert Altman‘s interconnected adaptation of Raymond Carver stories and its star-studded cast, “Short Cuts” is entering the collection too.“Take all my money!” the cinephiles cried; a monthly exclamation that usually arrives whenever Criterion announces its titles. Save up now.
