Criterion Collection Unveils June Releases Led by ‘Blue Velvet’ and ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ 4K Restorations
Christian Zilko
The Criterion Collection has announced its slate of releases for June 2024, which is headlined by 4K restorations of two of the boutique label’s most popular Blu-rays and four new high profile additions to the collection.
David Lynch’s landmark 1986 neo-noir horror film, which marked his first collaboration with Laura Dern alongside her future “Twin Peaks: The Return” co-star Kyle McLachlan, will be re-released by Criterion with a new 4K transfer. It joins Lynch’s “Eraserhead,” “Mulholland Drive,” “Lost Highway,” “Inland Empire,” “The Elephant Man,” and “Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me” in the Criterion 4K library.
Also getting the 4K treatment is Terry Gilliam’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” which sees Johnny Depp playing Hunter S. Thompson stand-in Raoul Duke in a psychedelic adaptation of the landmark countercultural novel.
New additions to the collection include Lana and Lilly Wachowski’s “Bound,” Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s “Querelle,” Emilio Fernández’s “Victims of Sin,” and Barry Jenkins’ “The Underground Railroad.”
Released three years before they took pop culture by storm with “The Matrix,” the Wachowskis’ directorial debut “Bound” is a neo-noir that follows a lesbian affair between a mobster’s girlfriend (Jennifer Tilly) and a femme fatale (Gina Gershon) who conspire to steal millions of dollars from the mafia while exploring their forbidden desires together.
“Querelle,” Fassbinder’s final film, saw the titan of New German Cinema take his signature blend of melodrama and homoeroticism to new heights in a story about a lust-filled sailor (Brad Davis) setting foot in a sex-obsessed town comprised of phallic buildings and horny villagers. The dreamlike production design helped adapt the controversial novel by Jean Genet into a fitting send-up of the imagery that defined the latter part of Fassbinder’s career.
“Victims of Sin,” 1951 film from director Emilio Fernández, stars Ninón Sevilla in a career-best role as a nightclub dancer who leaves her career behind to protect a young boy from his gangster father.
The addition of “The Underground Railroad marks a rare foray into television for the arthouse film distributor. Barry Jenkins’ 2021 Prime Video miniseries reimagines the famous underground network of abolitionists as a literal railroad that helped transport slaves to freedom in the American South during the 1800s. Jenkins directed all ten episodes of the acclaimed series, which was adapted from Colson Whitehead’s 2016 novel of the same name.
