The Cinema Ritrovato Awards for 2014 have just been announced, including:
BEST SPECIAL FEATURES ON BLU-RAY: LATE MIZOGUCHI – EIGHT FILMS, 1951-1956
(Kenji Mizoguchi, Japan) – Eureka Entertainment
The publication of eight indisputable masterpieces in stellar transfers on Blu-Ray is a cause for celebration. If Eureka is not exclusive in offering these individual titles, what makes this collection especially praiseworthy and indispensable is the scholarship, imagination and care that went into the accompanying 344-page booklet. Over 60 rare production stills are included, many featuring Mizoguchi at work. Striking essays by Keiko I. McDonald, Mark Le Fanu, Mori Ogai, and Nakagawa Masako are anthologized along with extensively annotated translations of some of the key sources of Japanese literature that inspired some of Mizoguchi’s late films. The volume closes with tributes to the great director written by Tarkovsky, Rivette, Godard, Straub, Angelopoullos, Shinoda, and others. Tony Rayns provides spoken essays and some full-length commentaries.
(Full press release and other winners
here)