The Criterion Collection’s March slate is basically a syllabus on how cinema thinks about sin, devotion, and the end of the world. Headlining the month is Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” arriving in a director-approved 4K edition that turns his three-hour-plus Osage Nation epic into a full-blown archival event. Alongside it, Criterion is rolling out new restorations of Luis Buñuel’s “Viridiana,” Claude Sautet’s “Classe Tous Risques,” Lynne Littman’s “Testament,” Claude Lelouch’s “A Man And A Woman,” and Tsui Hark’s “The Blade”—a lineup that runs from beggar’s-banquet blasphemy to existential crime and one-armed wuxia fury.
“Viridiana” (1961) returns in a new 4K digital restoration, complete with uncompressed mono and a fresh UHD/Blu-ray combo. Criterion leans into its infamy—banned in Spain, condemned by the Vatican, Palme d’Or winner at Cannes—while centering Silvia Pinal’s novice nun and Fernando Rey’s predatory uncle in Buñuel’s vision of charity curdling into chaos. Extras provide historical context: interviews with Pinal and scholar Richard Porton, a 1964 Cinéastes de notre temps excerpt on Buñuel’s early career, and an essay by Michael Wood, alongside a Buñuel interview.
The label’s French crime slot this month is “Classe tous risques” (1960), restored in 4K and described as a hard-boiled, end-of-the-line portrait of gangster Abel Davos, played by Lino Ventura, who drags his kids back to Paris with a death sentence on his head. A young Jean-Paul Belmondo, just off “Breathless,” turns up as the ally who may or may not be trustworthy. Supplements include documentary excerpts on Claude Sautet, an interview with novelist/coscreenwriter José Giovanni, archival Ventura footage, trailers, and essays by Bertrand Tavernier and N. T. Binh, as well as a reprinted Sautet interview and a 1962 tribute by Jean-Pierre Melville.
Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” (2023) gets the prestige treatment: a new 4K digital master approved by the director, Dolby Atmos sound, and a 4K UHD set paired with two Blu-rays for the film and extras, alongside standalone Blu-ray and DVD editions. The supplements lean hard into process and collaboration—new documentaries featuring Scorsese, stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone, author David Grann, Osage Nation Principal Chief Geoffrey Standing Bear, Osage cultural consultant John Williams, and editor Thelma Schoonmaker, plus a dedicated piece on the final shot (“WahZhaZhe: A Song for the Osage”), Cannes press conference excerpts, and an essay pairing by Vinson Cunningham and Adam Piron.
On the apocalyptic side, “Testament” (1983) is available in a director-approved Blu-ray edition, restored in 4K under the supervision of filmmaker Lynne Littman. The small-town nuclear aftermath drama, anchored by Jane Alexander’s Oscar-nominated turn as a mother trying to keep her family together as radiation slowly erodes their world, gets a major contextual package: a new conversation with Sam Wasson, Littman’s documentaries “Number Our Days” and “In Her Own Time,” archival programs on the film’s legacy and nuclear anxiety, and Alexander’s audio reading of “The Last Testament,” the original short story.
Romance and action get their own showcases. “A Man and a Woman” (1966) returns in a 2K restoration supervised by Claude Lelouch, featuring a new interview, a making-of documentary, archival Cannes footage, the cult short “C’était un rendez-vous,” and an essay by Carrie Rickey. “The Blade” (1995) arrives as a full-on reclamation of Tsui Hark’s once-maligned one-armed-swordsman riff: 4K restoration, Dolby Vision HDR in the UHD, a new commentary by Frank Djeng, the documentary “Action et vérité,” a new video essay from Taylor Ramos and Tony Zhou, a NYAFF Q&A, alternate dub and credits, and a new essay by Lisa Morton—all wrapped around Vincent Zhao’s arc from maimed sword-maker to feral avenger.
For a single month, it’s a pretty vivid snapshot of Criterion’s current priorities: canon maintenance, late-career vindication, and the ongoing project of making even the bleakest visions look pristine in 4K.
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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