‘Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio,’ ‘The Red Balloon,’ ‘Days of Heaven,’ ‘Blast of Silence’ Close Final Criterion Collection Entries for 2023

Ryan McQuade December 15, 2023

As we are getting closer to the holiday season, new additions to the Criterion Collection are a perfect gift for the cinephile in your life. Of the December releases making their way into the collection, the biggest title is the latest film from Oscar-winning director Guillermo Del Toro, as he takes on a magic reimagining of the beloved fairy tale, Pinocchio. Co-directed alongside Mark Gustafson, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio is set in fascist Italy, where we find the wooden boy and his beloved maker Geppetto at odds with one another, till Pinocchio sets off into the human world, looking to explore what it means to be a real human. In doing this, Geppetto sets off after him, to save his son from the dangers of the outside world. Featuring the voices of Ewan McGregor, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton, and Christoph Waltz, Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio was the crown jewel of animation from 2022, the winner of the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, and per our review from last year, is “a rare piece of cinematic magic.”

Also entering the collection this month is the American neo-noir classic Blast of Silence, as well as a collection of five films by director Albert Lamorisse that includes the revered The Red Balloon. When it was released, Blast of Silence was considered awkward and pretentious. But as we’ve seen time, the perceptive and opinions of an audience over time, this stripped down, yet brutal depiction of a hit man on assignment in Manhattan during Christmastime is a lean, mean thriller with enough visual flare and poetic narrative to get you to check it out. The Lamorisse collection of films includes not just The Red Balloon, but also Bim, The Little Donkey, White Mane, Stowaway in the Sky, and Circus Angel. Each one of these stories are dazzling, wonderful fables that the whole family will enjoy, dealing with Lamorisse’s fascination with nature, whimsy, love, children and animals, and so much more. The Red Balloon, is the crown jewel of this collection, not just because of its Oscar win for Best Original Screenplay, but it is a profound piece of cinema at just 34 minutes.

In another addition to Criterion’s 4K upgrading of their previously released films within the collection, this month sees Terrence Malik’s Days of Heaven get that special treatment. In only his second feature, Malik created one of the most visually compelling films of the twentieth century. Taking place in the early 1900s, we follow a steelworker on the run from the law for murder with his girlfriend and his little sister, as they make their way to the Texas panhandle, where they find work harvesting wheat in the fields for a stoic farmer. Led by an incredible performance from Richard Gere, and featuring Oscar-winning cinematography by Nestor Almendros, Days of Heaven is one of Terrence Malik’s best films and is well worth the upgrade to see it in off all of its 4K glory.

This month’s Criterion additions do what all other additions from this year did, which is give film lovers a taste of familiar, recent films we’ve grown to love, as well as older titles for us to discover. And as we take time off, and spend time with our loved ones or time to ourselves to decompress from the stress of 2023, we go into 2024 with what is always reliable, good cinema. Below are the special features for each other films from the December Criterion Collection releases.

BLAST OF SILENCE Director-Approved Special Edition Features

• New 4K digital restoration presented in two aspect ratios, 1.85:1 (widescreen) and 1.33:1 (full-screen), with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• Requiem for a Killer: The Making of “Blast of Silence”

• Rare on-set Polaroids

• Photos of locations from the film in 2008

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by film critic Terrence Rafferty and a graphic-novel adaptation of the film by acclaimed artist Sean Phillips (Criminal, Reckless, Fatale)

THE RED BALLOON AND OTHER STORIES: FIVE FILMS BY ALBERT LAMORISSE Special Edition Features

• New 4K digital restorations of The Red Balloon and White Mane and new 2K digital restorations of Bim, the Little Donkey; Stowaway in the Sky; and Circus Angel, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-rays

• U.S. English-language version of Bim, the Little Donkey

• New interview with actor Pascal Lamorisse, director Albert Lamorisse’s son

• My Father Was a Red Balloon, a 2008 documentary featuring Pascal Lamorisse and his daughter Lysa

• French television interviews with Albert Lamorisse from 1957 and 1959

• English narrations for White Mane, by Peter Strauss, and Stowaway in the Sky, by Jack Lemmon

• English-dubbed track for Circus Angel

• New English subtitle translation and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by critic David Cairns

DAYS OF HEAVEN Director-Approved Special Edition Features

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Terrence Malick, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

• Audio commentary featuring editor Billy Weber, art director Jack Fisk, costume designer Patricia Norris, and casting director Dianne Crittenden

• Audio interview with actor Richard Gere

• Interviews with camera operator John Bailey, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and actor Sam Shepard

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by critic Adrian Martin and a chapter from director of photography Nestor Almendros’s autobiography

GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO Director-Approved Special Edition Features

• 4K digital master, supervised by directors Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson, with Dolby Atmos on the 4K UHD disc and the Blu-ray

• In the 4K UHD edition: One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features

• Handcarved Cinema, a new documentary featuring del Toro, Gustafson, and cast and crew, including the film’s puppet creators, production designers, and animation supervisor

• Directing Stop-Motion, a new program featuring del Toro and Gustafson

• New conversation between del Toro and film critic Farran Smith Nehme

• New interview with curator Ron Magliozzi on The Museum of Modern Art’s 2022 exhibition devoted to the film

• New program on the eight rules of animation that informed the film’s production

• Panel discussion featuring del Toro, Gustafson, production designer Guy Davis, composer Alexandre Desplat, and sound designer Scott Martin Gershin, moderated by filmmaker James Cameron

• Conversation among del Toro, Gustafson, and author Neil Gaiman

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing and English descriptive audio

• PLUS: Essays by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz and author Cornelia Funke

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Ryan McQuade

Ryan McQuade is the AwardsWatch Executive Editor and a film-obsessed writer in San Antonio, Texas. Raised on musicals, westerns, and James Bond, his taste in cinema is extremely versatile. He’s extremely fond of independent releases and director’s passion projects. Engrossed with all things Oscars, he hosts the AwardsWatch Podcast. He also is co-host of the Director Watch podcast. When he’s not watching movies, he’s rooting on all his favorite sports teams, including his beloved Texas Longhorns. You can follow him on Twitter at @ryanmcquade77.