Criterion in December 2016: THE EXTERMINATING ANGEL, THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, ROMA and HEART OF A DOG

What do cinephiles dream about during the holiday season?

According to the Criteiron Collection, it's all about classic films, such as John Huston's galvanic The Asphalt Jungle and Luis Buñuel's eye-raising comedy The Exterminating Angel. And contemporary titles, like Heart of a Dog, the first feature by Laurie Anderson in some 30 years. Plus, Fellini's Roma!

Read on for all the details, provided by the fine folks at Criterion.

The Exterminating Angel

A group of high-society friends are invited to a mansion for dinner and inexplicably find themselves unable to leave in The Exterminating Angel (El ángel exterminador), a daring masterpiece from Luis Buñuel (Belle de jour, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie). Made just one year after his international sensationViridiana, this film, full of eerie, comic absurdity, furthers Buñuel's wicked takedown of the rituals and dependencies of the frivolous upper classes.

1962 * 94 minutes * Black & White * Monaural * In Spanish with English subtitles * 1.33:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
Restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
The Last Script: Remembering Luis Buñuel, a 2008 documentary featuring writer Jean-Claude Carrière and filmmaker Juan Luis Buñuel
Interviews with actor Silvia Pinal and filmmaker Arturo Ripstein from 2006
Trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Marsha Kinder and an interview with director Luis Buñuel from the 1970s

BLU-RAY EDITION / SRP $39.95 / STREET 12/6/16

Heart of a Dog

Heart of a Dog marks the first feature film by multimedia artist Laurie Anderson in over thirty years. A cinematic tone poem that flows from a sustained meditation on death and other forms of absence, the film seamlessly weaves together thoughts on Tibetan Buddhism, reincarnation, the modern surveillance state, and the artistic lives of dogs, with an elegy for the filmmaker's beloved rat terrier, Lolabelle, at its heart. Narrated by Anderson with her characteristic wry wit, and featuring a plaintive, free-form score by the filmmaker, the tender and provocative Heart of a Dog continues Anderson's five-decade career of imbuing the everyday with a sense of dreamlike wonder.

2015 * 75 minutes * Color * 5.1 surround * 1.78:1 aspect ratio

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
High-definition digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
New conversation between director Laurie Anderson and coproducer Jake Perlin
Footage of Anderson's 2016 Concert for Dogs
Trailer
PLUS: An essay by film critic Glenn Kenny

BLU-RAY EDITION / SRP $39.95 / STREET 12/6/16
DVD EDITION / SRP $29.95 / STREET 12/6/16

The Asphalt Jungle

In a smog-choked city somewhere in the American Midwest, an aging criminal mastermind, newly released from prison, hatches a plan for a million-dollar jewel heist and draws a wealthy lawyer and a cherry-picked trio of outlaws into his carefully devised but inevitably doomed scheme. Anchored by an abundance of nuanced performances from a gifted ensemble-including a tight-jawed Sterling Hayden (Dr. Strangelove) and a sultry Marilyn Monroe (Some Like It Hot) in her breakout role-this gritty crime classic by John Huston (The Maltese Falcon) climaxes in a meticulously detailed anatomy of a robbery that has reverberated through the genre ever since. An uncommonly naturalistic view of a seamy underworld, The Asphalt Jungle painstakingly depicts the calm professionalism and toughness of its gangster heroes while evincing a remarkable depth of compassion for their all-too-human fragility, and it showcases a master filmmaker at the height of his powers.

1950 * 112 minutes * Black & White * Monaural * 1.37:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary from 2004 by film historian Drew Casper, featuring recordings of actor James Whitmore
New interviews with film noir historian Eddie Muller and cinematographer John Bailey
Archival footage of writer-director John Huston discussing the film
Pharos of Chaos, a 1983 documentary about actor Sterling Hayden
Episode of the television program City Lights from 1979 featuring John Huston
Audio excerpts of archival interviews with Huston
Excerpts from footage of the 1983 AFI Lifetime Achievement Award ceremony honoring Huston, featuring actor Sam Jaffe and the filmmaker
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien
More!

BLU-RAY EDITION / SRP $39.95 / STREET 12/13/16
2-DVD EDITION / SRP $29.95 / STREET 12/13/16

Roma

Travelogue, memoir, and outrageous cinematic spectacle converge in this kaleidoscopic valentine to the Eternal City, composed by one of its most iconic inhabitants. Leisurely one moment and breathless the next, this urban fantasia by Federico Fellini (8 1/2, La dolce vita) interweaves recollections of the director's young adulthood in the era of Mussolini with an impressionistic portrait of contemporary Rome, where he and his film crew are gathering footage of the bustling cityscape. The material delights of sex, food, nightlife, and one hallucinatory ecclesiastical fashion show are shot through with glimmers of a monumental past: the Colosseum encircled by traffic, ancient frescoes unearthed in a subway tunnel, a pigeon-befouled statue of Caesar. With a head-spinning mix of documentary immediacy and extravagant artifice, Roma penetrates the myth and mystique of Italy's storied capital, a city Fellini called "the most wonderful movie set in the world."

1972 * 120 minutes * Color * Monaural * In Italian with English subtitles * 1.85:1 aspect ratio

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
Audio commentary featuring Frank Burke, author of Fellini's Films
Deleted scenes
New interview with filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino on the lasting influence of director Federico Fellini
New interview with Italian poet and Fellini friend Valerio Magrelli
Images from the Felliniana archive of collector Don Young
Trailer
New English subtitle translation
PLUS: An essay by film scholar David Forgacs

BLU-RAY EDITION / SRP $39.95 / STREET 12/13/16
DVD EDITION / SRP $29.95 / STREET 12/13/16