‘The Worst Person in the World,’ ‘Pink Flamingos’ and ‘Shaft’ highlight June additions to the Criterion Collection

For film fans, and avid physical media collectors, the Criterion Collection has symbolized the important, excellent cinema from around the world. From restoring old classics to giving a home to recent groundbreaking work, their collection is full of films for everyone. Towards the middle of every month, new films are added to the collection, widening the collections scope and taste with each of the newest selection. For June 2022, the Criterion Collection added the 2021 Academy Award nominated hit The Worst Person in the World, the groundbreaking Blaxploitation action blockbuster Shaft on 4K Blu-ray, as well as Powell and Pressburger’s The Tale of the Hoffman, Ekwa Msangi’s debut Farewell Amor, Stanley Kwan’s Rouge, and the John Water’s cult classic Pink Flamingoes.

From its premiere at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World became one of the best films of the year. It follows Julie (Renate Reinsve), a young woman about to enter her thirties, still trying to figure out who she is and what she wants to do with her life. With the world at her figure tips, she struggles to find a path professionally, as well as in her personal life, as she is balancing the prospect of staying with Aksel, her comic-book artisit boyfriend (Anders Danielsen Lie) or Eivind, a barista that Julie meets at a party and finds a connection with. With a screenplay that earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, Trier contracts a passionate, fresh take on the coming of age, romantic comedy genre and deleiverd something truly one of a kind. Presented within a stunning 4K restoration, now it is time to fall in love agagin with the film we called “a superbly acted, meticulously written and wonderfully directed film.”

Next up is a movie that defined an era in Gordon Park’s Shaft, which is debuting on 4K Blu-ray for the first time. At a time where our country was changing for the better, Parks brought audiences an iconic character in John Shaft (Richard Roundtree in the role of a lifetime), a rough and tough private eye in New York City with a soft spot for the ladies. Once he takes on the case of finding a local mob bosses daughter, Shaft gets dragged into a crime war that only he can end by dispatching each villain one at a time, in his own unique, ingenious way. Featuring one of the greatest theme songs in film history, Shaft is a must own for any fan of the Criterion Collection, and if you buy the 4K, you will get the sequel, Shaft’s Big Score!. Two movies, one hell of a time.

Speaking of a good time, one of the wildest films ever made enters the collection in John Waters Pink Flamingos. With an all-time diva performance by Divine, Waters creates an indie crime dark comedy centered around the “Filthiest Person Alive.” When two sociopaths try to take her crown, Divine must do whatever she can to reclaim her title, in the grossest fashion imaginable. Waters left no stone unturned with this one, and is a hilarious gross out comedy that you shouldn’t watch on a full stomach, but should watch with an open mind.

The other selections include Rouge, which is the elegant melodrama from director Stanley Kwan, that is about the tragic relationship that two lovers from different tiers of class. Using both the past and the present to forge it’s emotional connection, Kwan crafted an underrated, heartbreaking tale of lost love within the sands of time and regret. There is also The Tales of Hoffman, which is the latest film of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger to enter the collection. Based on the Jacques Offenbach opera of the same name, the dynamic British directing duo deliver a towering achievement about a poet and his dreams of three different women. It is a bright, beautiful feat of visual storytelling, and a perfect companion to their other masterpiece, The Red Shoes.

The last is Farewell Amor, another recent release that is a tender examination of a disconnected family’s journey to become whole again after they are reunited in the United States after they were separated by a civil war in Agola. Ekwa Msangi’s debut is elevated by her compassionate direction and its three outstanding performances by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, and Jayme Lawson, who are able to bring authentic humanity and forgiveness to a family trying to heal and grow. It was one of the best debuts of 2020 and a showcase for the exciting, promising talents of Msangi.

All of these are available to purchase right now, and just in time for annual Barnes and Noble Criterion Summer Sale in July, where all Criterion discs are fifty percent off. Below are all the special features contained within the June 2022 releases.

THE TALES OF HOFFMANN Special Edition Features:

• 4K digital restoration by The Film Foundation and the BFI National Archive, in association with STUDIOCANAL, featuring newly rediscovered footage and with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• Audio commentary from 1992 by filmmaker Martin Scorsese and critic Bruce Eder, newly updated by Eder

• Interview with filmmaker George A. Romero from 2005

• The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (1956), a short musical film based on the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe story and directed by Michael Powell 

• Collection of production designer Hein Heckroth’s design sketches and paintings

• Gallery of production and publicity photographs

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Plus: An essay by film historian Ian Christie

FAREWELL AMOR Director-Approved Special Edition Features:

• New 2K master, approved by director Ekwa Msangi, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray

• New audio commentary featuring Msangi and cinematographer Bruce Francis Cole

• Three short films by Msangi: Suspense (2011); The Market King (2014); and Farewell Meu Amor (2016), a prequel to Farewell Amor 

• New interviews with actors Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Zainab Jah, and Jayme Lawson

• Deleted scenes

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by scholar Tiana Reid

ROUGE Director-Approved Special Edition Features:

• New 4K digital restoration, approved by director Stanley Kwan, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

• Alternate 5.1 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio on the Blu-ray

• New conversation between Kwan and filmmaker Sasha Chuk

• Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema, a 1997 documentary by Kwan exploring the representation of queerness and LGBT identity in Chinese film

• Still Love You After All These, a 1997 memoir film by Kwan about his Hong Kong identity

• Trailer

• New English subtitle translation 

• PLUS: An essay by film programmer and critic Dennis Lim 

SHAFT Special Edition Features:

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack

• Alternate uncompressed stereo soundtrack remastered with creative input from Isaac Hayes III

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

• Shaft’s Big Score!, the 1972 follow-up to Shaft by director Gordon Parks

• New documentary on the making of Shaft featuring curator Rhea L. Combs, film scholar Racquel J. Gates, filmmaker Nelson George, and music scholar Shana L. Redmond

• Behind-the-scenes program featuring Parks, actor Richard Roundtree, and musician Isaac Hayes

• Archival interviews with Hayes, Parks, and Roundtree

• New interview with costume designer Joseph G. Aulisi

• New program on the Black detective and the legacy of John Shaft, featuring scholar Kinohi Nishikawa and novelist Walter Mosley

• A Complicated Man: The “Shaft” Legacy (2019)

• Behind-the-scenes footage from Shaft’s Big Score!

• Trailers

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• PLUS: An essay by film scholar Amy Abugo Ongiri

PINK FLAMINGOS Director-Approved Special Edition Features:

• New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director John Waters, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack 

• Two audio commentaries featuring Waters, from the 1997 Criterion laserdisc and the 2001 DVD release

• New conversation between Waters and filmmaker Jim Jarmusch

• Tour of the film’s Baltimore locations, led by Waters

• Deleted scenes, alternate takes, and on-set footage

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• And more!

• PLUS: An essay by critic Howard Hampton and a piece by actor and author Cookie Mueller about the making of the film, from her 1990 book Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Director-Approved Special Edition Features:

• New 2K digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray

• New interviews with director Joachim Trier; co-screenwriter Eskil Vogt; actors Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, and Herbert Nordrum; cinematographer Kasper Tuxen; and sound designer Gisle Tveito 

• On-set footage from the creation of the film’s time-freezing sequence 

• Deleted scenes 

• PLUS: An essay by critic Sheila O’Malley

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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.

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