A Pure Formality (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1994)

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents A Pure Formality.

After the success of Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore abandoned the sweetly sentimental in a favor of this darkly tense mind-game starring two icons of European cinema.  Gérard Depardieu claims to be Onoff, a reclusive writer who is apprehended by local police after he is caught running through the woods during a torrential storm.  The author is questioned as a suspect in a murder investigation by the police station’s chief inspector (Roman Polanski) who is unconvinced by Onoff’s semi-amnesiac state.  What results is a cat-and-mouse battle of wits that gradually assumes metaphysical consequences, making A Pure Formality an underrated thriller that anticipates the mind-bending films made popular by Hollywood in the years that followed.

Disc Features:

• New 4K digital restoration approved by director Giuseppe Tornatore, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary by Tornatore
• Commercials for Dolce & Gabbana
• Extended interview with Tornatore
• Theatrical trailer
• PLUS:  New essays by theological scholar David S. Cunningham and film scholar William Hope

The Tenant (Roman Polanski, 1976)

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents The Tenant.

An apartment with an unhappy past, in a building filled with faintly sinister residents, sets the stage for Roman Polanksi’s riveting thriller The Tenant.  Polanski plays Trelkovsky, a quiet, timid file clerk whose unremarkable life becomes increasingly overshadowed with dread and fear after he moves into his new home.  Adding to his paranoia are the building’s other occupants, who do nothing to alleviate his growing obsession with the untimely, tragic fate of the apartment’s previous tenant.  Is Trelkovsky’s dread truly justified – or is it simply the result of his seemingly disintegrating mental state?  A brilliant international cast and Polanski’s own penchant for packaging and delivering unprecedented suspense make The Tenant a haunting, riveting conclusion to his Apartment Trilogy.

Disc Features:

• New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Audio commentary by Polanski
• A 2000 episode of Mark Cousins’ Scene by Scene discussing with Polanski various sequences from his films, including The Tenant
• Theatrical trailers
• A collection of rare publicity and production stills
• PLUS: A booklet featuring Penelope Gilliatt’s review for The New Yorker, an essay by film critic Jake Euker and new essays by film theorists Aaron Smuts and Robert Niemi and critics Tom McCormack, J. Hoberman, Jonathan McCalmont, Stanka Radovic, and Ed Gonzalez.