Criterion Collection Announces March Titles

My favorite distributors The Criterion Collection have announced three new titles for Blu-ray/DVD release this coming March! On March 22, the Oscar-winning documentary The Times of Harvey Milk (Robert Epstein, 1984) will come out. Then on March 29, Criterion will release Topsy-Turvy (Mike Leigh, 1999) and The Mikado (Victor Schertzinger, 1939).

The Times of Harvey Milk
Extras include:

• Audio commentary featuring director Robert Epstein, coeditor Deborah Hoffmann, and photographer Daniel Nicoletta
• New interview with documentary filmmaker and UC Berkeley professor Jon Else
• New program about The Times of Harvey Milk and Gus Van Sant's Milk, featuring Epstein, Van Sant, actor James Franco, and friends Cleve Jones, Anne Kronenberg, and Nicoletta
• Postscript containing interview clips not used in the film
• Rare collection of audio and video recordings of Harvey Milk
• Interview excerpts from Epstein's research tapes
• Footage from the film's Castro Theatre premiere and the 1984 Academy Awards ceremony
• Panel discussion on Supervisor Dan White's controversial trial
• Excerpts from the twenty-fifth anniversary commemoration of Milk's and Mayor George Moscone's assassinations
• Original theatrical trailer
• A booklet featuring an essay by film critic B. Ruby Rich, a tribute by Milk's nephew Stuart Milk, and a piece on the film's restoration by the UCLA Film and Television Archive's Ross Lipman

 

Topsy-Turvy

Extras include:

• Audio commentary featuring director Mike Leigh
• New video conversation between Leigh and the film's musical director, Gary Yershon
• A Sense of History - Leigh's 1992 short film written by and starring actor Jim Broadbent
• Deleted Scenes
• Featurette from 1999 including interviews with Leigh, stars Broadbent and Allan Corduner, and other cast members
• Theatrical trailer and TV spots

 

The Mikado
Extras include:

• New video interview with director Mike Leigh on The Mikado and its adaptation for the screen
• New video interview with The Mikado scholars Josephine Lee and Ralph MacPhail Jr., tracing the 1939 filmed version of the opera back to its 1885 stage debut
• Short silent film promoting the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company's 1926 stage performance of The Mikado
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'BrienPLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Amy Taubin

The pics of the titles are linked to Amazon, where if you decide to buy, your order goes to help the efforts of this column.