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By RAY KELLY
Criterion Collection will release the restored version of Orson Welles’ Othello on Blu-ray and DVD in fall 2015.
Full details on extras will be announced in the coming months, though initial plans call for inclusion of the 1955 U.S. edit prepared by Welles, according to Julian Schlossberg, who handled distribution of the Michael Dawson-produced restoration for the Estate of Orson Welles back in 1992.
Othello won the Palme d´Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 1952.
Schlossberg told Wellesnet he was pleased that Othello would be a Criterion home video release. “The Criterion Collection is the most prestigious of all the DVD companies.”
The late filmmaker’s youngest daughter, Beatrice Welles, who oversees the estate, said she hoped the Criterion release would “bring Othello to audiences too young to appreciate our first restoration and for audiences who saw either the first release in the ’50s and the first restoration in the ’90s.”
Criterion’s catalog includes a DVD set of The Complete Mr. Arkadin and DVD and Blu-ray releases of F For Fake.
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 last spring.
Carlotta released Othello on Blu-ray in Europe last month. Among the extras on that home video release was Hilton Edwards’ Return to Glennascaul with Welles in a cameo role.
Beginning production in 1949, Othello was shot over three years in numerous locations, sometimes in the same scene. Othello received great praise in Europe upon its release, but respect in America was less forthcoming. The film languished through the 1970s and 80s, largely due to a lack of distribution.
When Othello was refurbished in 1992 it was hailed as a cinematic landmark, despite questions in some quarters as to liberties taken by the restoration team, notably the decision to re-record the music score in stereo.
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