Updated on July 17: Criterion Collection’s Othello release to include rare Filming Othello; set for October 10
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The wait for Othello on Blu-ray has just gotten longer.
Blu-ray.com and Digital Bits are reporting that the May 23 release has been delayed by the Criterion Collection.
A new street date has not yet been announced.
Although the May 23 release date still appears on the Criterion website, it has been removed from the Amazon listing.
No reason has been given for the delay.
While the double Blu-ray and DVD sets are full of extras, it is our fervent hope that the delay means the addition of a Welles rarity, rather than any legal or technical problems.
The sets will include newly restored 4K digital transfers of both the 1952 European and 1955 U.S. versions of Othello.
Begun in 1949, Othello was shot by Welles over three years in numerous locations. Othello won the Palme d´Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952, yet it languished through the 1970s and ’80s, largely due to a lack of distribution.
When Othello was refurbished in 1992, it was praised by critics, despite questions by noted film scholar Jonathan Rosenbaum and others about liberties taken by the restoration team, notably the decision to re-record the music score in stereo. (The Criterion release does not include the 1992 restoration.)
Features on the upcoming Criterion release include:
- Uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary featuring director Peter Bogdanovich and Welles scholar Myron Meisel
- Return to Glennascaul, a 1953 short film made by Micheal MacLiammóir and Hilton Edwards during a hiatus from shooting Othello
- New interview with Welles biographer Simon Callow
- New interview with Welles scholar François Thomas on the differences between the two versions
- New interview with Ayanna Thompson, author of Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America
- Interview from 2014 with Welles scholar Joseph McBride
- Souvenirs d’ Othello, a 1995 documentary about actress Suzanne Cloutier by François Girard
- Essay by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien
The Criterion Blu-ray carries a $49.95 list price with the DVD selling for $39.95.
Othello has never been released on Blu-ray in the U.S. before. There was a DVD release from Image Entertainment in 1999 and an Academy Home Entertainment videocassette in 1993.
Carlotta Films US distributed a 2K digital restoration of Othello theatrically in 2014.
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