It seems this summer is a good time to be a Guillermo Del Toro fan. Not only is the filmmaker dropping his new monster movie “Pacific Rim,” but fans will now get to dip into one of his breakout films courtesy of Criterion…
The boutique home video label has revealed its July slate, and leading the way is “The Devil’s Backbone.” Newly restored and mixed, it will feature a sure to be fascinating commentary by Del Toro, a video introduction from the 2010 DVD release, sketches to storyboard comparison, an interactive look into Del Toro’s notebooks, a featurette on the historical backdrop of the movie, numerous interviews, deleted scenes and more. This one has been given the works, so there’s plenty for Del Toro heads to dive into.
Not quite as extensive, but perhaps just as essential, Kenji Mizoguchi‘s “The Life Of Oharu” arrives as well. The drama tells the story of a lady-in-waiting who experiences a gradual fall from grace until she winds up as a prostitute. Featuring a commentary, visual essay and more, this one will make cinephiles and foreign film enthusiasts quite happy.
Meanwhile, one of the ultimate food movies of all time — Gabriel Axel‘s “Babette’s Feast” — makes a long awaited to return to DVD and Blu-ray (it has been out of print for a while). The film, about the feast prepared by the titular character, a French woman taken in by a Danish family in the 19th century, wowed critics and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1988. The set will feature interviews and, perhaps most intriguingly, a documentary on the author who penned the story that inspired the film.
Lastly, two Criterion catalog titles are getting reboots: Peter Brook‘s “The Lord Of The Flies” got cleaned up and boosted by a wealth of new extras, while Ang Lee‘s “The Ice Storm” goes Blu.