Seems to be as a set only, from the details I am looking at, so I will do a straight copy from what seems to be Criterion's Press Release issued to mailing list subscribers and later posted at DVD Talk, in the forums.
Press Release, "The existential ghost story Pitfall, the shocking erotic fable Woman in the Dunes, and the sci-fi–tinged nightmare The Face of Another are three of cinema’s most enduring enigmas and rare treats, from one of its greatest artists. A man of many faces, Hiroshi Teshigahara was not just a Japanese new wave trailblazer, a Kafka of the moving image, but also a painter, sculptor, flower arranger, designer of gardens and tearooms, and director of operas and Noh plays. And these three atmospheric portraits remain the quintessential expressions of his lifelong fascination with the perils of identity and the horrors of isolation."
4-Disc set, Three films plus extras :
New, restored high-definition digital transfers.
Video essays on all three films by critic and festival programmer James Quandt
Four short films : Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958), and Ako/White Morning (1963).
A new documentary about the working relationship beween Teshigahara and Kobo Abe, including interviews with Japanese-film scholars Donald Richie and Tadao Sato.
A booklet featuring essays by James Quandt, Howard Hampton, Audie Bock, and Peter Grilli and Max Tessier’s 1964 interview with Teshigahara.
[Source : DVD Talk Forum].
Pitfall, "When a miner leaves his employers and treks out with his young son to become a migrant worker, he finds himself moving from one eerie landscape to another, intermittently followed (and photographed) by an enigmatic man in a clean, white suit, and eventually coming face to face with his inescapable destiny. Hiroshi Teshigahara’s debut feature and first collaboration with novelist Kôbô Abe, Pitfall is many things: a mysterious, unsettling ghost story, a portrait of human alienation, and a compellingly surreal critique of soulless industry, shot in elegant black-and-white." (Also released by Masters of Cinema on R2 UK DVD).
The Face of Another, "A staggering work of existential science fiction, The Face of Another dissects identity with the sure hand of a surgeon. Okuyama (Yojimbo’s Tatsuya Nakadai), after being burned and disfigured in an industrial accident and estranged from his family and friends, agrees to his psychiatrist’s radical new experiment: a face transplant, created from the mold of a stranger. As Okuyama is thus further alienated from the strange world around him, he finds himself giving in to his darker temptations. With unforgettable imagery, Teshigahara’s film explores both the limits and freedom in acquiring a newfound persona, and questions the notion of individuality itself." (Also released by Masters of Cinema on R2 UK DVD).
Woman of the Dunes, "One of the sixties' great international art-house sensations, Woman in the Dunes was for many the grand unveiling of the surreal, idiosyncratic worldview of Hiroshi Teshigahara. Eija Okada plays an entomologist who has left Tokyo to study an unclassified species of beetle that resides in a remote, vast desert; when he misses his bus back to civilization, he is persuaded by villagers to spend the night in the home of a young widow (Kiyoko Kishida) who lives in a hut at the bottom of a sand dune. What results is one of cinema’s most bristling, unnerving, and palpably erotic battles of the sexes, as well as a nightmarish depiction of everyday Sisyphean struggle, for which Teshigahara received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director." (Also released by BFI on R2 UK DVD).
Also out July 2007 from Criterion, Tarkovsky's 'Ivans Childhood', Billy Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole', Jean Cocteau's 'Les Enfant Terribles'.
Kickass. I wonder if these will end up being cheaper than the UK releases? The price of those (well, the conversion rate) has kept me away until now. But Criterion tends to be expensive as well. I guess if worse comes to worst I could always rent them.
Oh, man. "Woman in the Dunes" remains one of my favorite films. I knew it would get a Criterion release one day, I just didn't know when. I'll gladly pay what I must just for "Woman in the Dunes," and to see some of his other works is icing on the cake.
Thanks for the head's up!
seriously, considering how varied the old Criterion laserdiscs selection was I have to ask yet again: why so many Japanese and French films in the Criterion DVD release slate?
How many Chinese? In the Mood for Love and Yi Yi.
That's great news about the Teshigahara films, but Ivan's childhood?! Finally! Tarkovsky's debut film that won the golden lion in Venice. I urge everyone to check it out. I think I read somewhere that Imamura's Vengeance is mine is also set for a criterion release
I'm sort of with the above poster, at least in spirit - the Teshigahara set sounds cool, but of all the releases in the July batch, that's the only filmmaker I'm not familiar with. Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole"!!! 'Les Enfant Terribles' (actually directed by Melville, right?) and "Ivan's Childhood" - Now there's a solid batch! One day I'll hopefully be able to obtain all of these July releases. "Ace in the Hole" is my only immidiate must-buy, though.
It'll be interesting to see what they add to these films. All 3 were already available on the R2 Japan Asmik Ace Teshigahara box set (which also included some short films, Summer Soldiers, and Man Without a Map -- all with subs except MWaM).
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