The Criterion Collection announced today it will not only release Orson Welles’ Chimes at Midnight on Blu-ray and DVD on August 30, but The Immortal Story too.
It is the first time either title has been released on home video in the U.S.
With the theatrical run of Janus Films’ acclaimed restoration of Chimes at Midnight winding down this summer, the Criterion release was expected by year’s end. But The Immortal Story comes as a bit of a surprise. Although there have been rumors that Criterion was working on its release, there had been little reason to believe it would arrive this year.
The Immortal Story was filmed for French television in 1968, three years after Chimes at Midnight. Jeanne Moreau co-stars with Welles in both films.
The single disc Blu-ray of Chimes at Midnight carries a $39.95 suggested list price and the 2-DVD set is priced at $23.96. The list prices for The Immortal Story are the same. Both can be pre-ordered at a discount through Criterion.com
It is worth noting that Chimes at Midnight is not described as a 4K transfer, as it was in an earlier email release. Criterion president Peter Becker told Wellesnet in December 2015 that this restoration was just the beginning. “We will continue to collaborate with Filmoteca, the Piedra family and archivists and restorers around the world to bring about the full preservation and 4K restoration the film deserves, but that process may take years to complete. At this moment, at the culmination of Welles’ centenary, we feel that what the film needs most is an audience, and thanks to this restoration we feel confident that the film will reach that audience looking the best it ever has.”
Chimes at Midnight features:
- New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Audio commentary featuring film scholar James Naremore, author of The Magic World of Orson Welles
- New interview with actor Keith Baxter
- New interview with director Orson Welles’s daughter Beatrice Welles, who appeared in the film at age nine
- New interview with actor and Welles biographer Simon Callow
- New interview with film historian Joseph McBride, author of What Ever Happened to Orson Welles?
- Interview with Welles while at work editing the film, from a 1965 episode of The Merv Griffin Show
- Trailer
The Immortal Story set boasts:
- New, restored 4K digital transfer of the English-language version of the film, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Alternate French-language version of the film
- Audio commentary from 2005 featuring film scholar Adrian Martin
- Portrait: Orson Welles, a 1968 documentary directed by François Reichenbach and Frédéric Rossif
- New interview with actor Norman Eshley
- Interview from 2004 with cinematographer Willy Kurant
- New interview with Welles scholar François Thomas
- An essay by film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum
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