Fellini's '8 1/2', Wenders' 'Paris, Texas' and Soderbergh's 'Che' Coming to Criterion Blu-ray

Also Criterion's spine #500 debuts

By: Brad Brevet
Published: Friday, October 16th 2009 at 2:41 AM

Anyone that reads this site even on a semi-regular basis probably knows I absolutely love Federico Fellini's 8½ and that is one of the major reasons I am so looking forward to Rob Marshall's musical adaptation Nine. So, to learn Criterion is bringing the Fellini classic to Blu-ray with a brand new 52-minute documentary on Fellini's lost alternate ending for 8½ is almost too much for me to handle and is certainly too long to wait.

Along with the upcoming arrival of 8½, Criterion has also announced Blu-ray and DVD releases for Steven Soderbergh's Che and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. Details on these three titles are detailed below, but don't go yet there is a little more…

8½ (January 12, 2010)

• Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam
• Audio commentary featuring film critic and Fellini friend Gideon Bachmann and NYU film professor Antonio Monda
• Fellini: A Director's Notebook, a 52-minute film by Federico Fellini, newly-restored and in high definition
• The Last Sequence, a new 52-minute documentary on Fellini's lost alternate ending for 8 1/2 (Blu-ray Exclusive)
• Nino Rota: Between Cinema and Concert, a compelling 48-minute documentary about Fellini's longtime composer
• Interviews with actress Sandra Milo, director Lina Wertmüller, and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro
• Rare photographs from Bachmann's collection
• Gallery of behind-the-scenes and production photos
• US theatrical trailer
• A booklet featuring writings by Fellini and essays by critics Tullio Kezich and Alexander Sesonske

Che (January 19, 2010)

• Audio commentaries on both films, featuring Jon Lee Anderson, author of "Che Guevara: A Revolutionary Life"
• Making Che, a new documentary about the film's production
• New interviews with Cuban historians as well as participants in the 1958 Cuban Revolution and Che's 1967 Bolivian campaign
• Deleted scenes
• Theatrical trailers
• A booklet featuring an essay by critic Amy Taubin

Paris, Texas (January 26, 2010)

• Audio commentary featuring Wim Wenders
• Interview with Wenders by German journalist Roger Willemsen
• Excerpts from the 1990 film Motion and Emotion: The Road to Paris, Texas
• New interviews with filmmakers Allison Anders and Claire Denis
• Cinéma cinémas: "Wim Wenders Hollywood April '84"
• Deleted scenes and Super 8 home movies
• Gallery of Wenders's location-scouting photos, from his book Written in the West
• Behind-the-scenes photos by Robin Holland
• Theatrical trailer
• A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Nick Roddick and interviews with Stanton, writer Sam Shepard, and actors Nastassja Kinski and Dean Stockwell

Finally, January will bring spine number 500 to the Criterion Collection and with it they are releasing the restored Roberto Rossellini War Trilogy on January 26 featuring the landmark Rome Open City, Paisan and Germany Year Zero. You can get more on this title and artwork right here.

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