Physical media collectors, take note. The Criterion Collection has announced six new Blu-ray releases coming in February 2025, including titles from some of today’s most beloved auteurs and one famously elusive late-career work from a French New Wave legend.
The slate is headlined by Jean-Luc Godard‘s “King Lear,” an essential work from the “Breathless” director’s experimental period that has long been unavailable to own or stream. The film uses William Shakespeare’s tragedy as a jumping off point for a postmodern riff on art in a world decimated by the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown. While it shares little DNA with the actual play that shares its name, “King Lear” contains some of the most striking imagery of Godard’s filmography, including the director himself donning a Rastafarian wig made entirely of electrical cables. The nonlinear film is a pastiche of influences, references, and ideas that stands out to many Godard scholars as evidence that the auteur’s obsession with redefining cinema lasted long after the French New Wave’s heyday.
“King Lear” stars Molly Ringwald as Godard’s version of Cordelia. The “Pretty in Pink” star reflected on the unique experience of staging unrecognizable Shakespeare with Godard in a 2022 essay published in The New Yorker.
“When I watch ‘King Lear’ now, I’m struck by how extremely still and vigilant I seem,” Ringwald wrote. “My back is straight and at times it almost looks as though I’m in a photograph — until I speak or move. Godard was exacting about every single gesture, and I found that it was easier to do precisely as he liked.”
Those looking to upgrade their copies of classic independent films will also have plenty of opportunities this month, as Criterion is rolling out 4K restorations of Paul Thomas Anderson‘s “Punch Drunk Love,” Gus Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy,” and Guillermo del Toro’s directorial debut “Cronos.” Also coming to the collection in February are Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg’s Mick Jagger-led film “Performance” and Joan Micklin Silver’s beloved New York rom-com “Crossing Delancey.”
For more information and opportunities to pre-order the releases, visit the Criterion website.
