Repulsion and Smooth Talk get Criterion Collection releases in May
The Criterion Collection and Sony Pictures Home Entertainment are delighted to confirm Repulsion & Smooth Talk to be released on Blu-ray in May 2023.
On 22 May the first of the two Criterion Collection releases comes REPULSION, Roman Polanski’s controversial, chilling tale of psychosis starring Catherine Deneuve. The film is a surreal, mind-bending odyssey into personal horror, and it remains one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers.
Following on 29 May is SMOOTH TALK. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’s celebrated short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the narrative debut from Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance by Laura Dern.
REPULSION (22nd May)
Roman Polanski followed up his international breakthrough Knife in the Water with this controversial, chilling tale of psychosis. Catherine Deneuve is Carol, a fragile, frigid young beauty cracking up in her London flat when left alone by her vacationing sister. She is soon haunted by spectres real and imagined, and her insanity grows to a violent, hysterical pitch. Thanks to its disturbing detail and Polanski’s adeptness at turning claustrophobic space into an emotional minefield, Repulsion is a surreal, mind-bending odyssey into personal horror, and it remains one of cinema’s most shocking psychological thrillers.
UK | 1965 | 105 MINUTES | BLACK & WHITE | 1.85:1 | ENGLISH
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Roman Polanski, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- Audio commentary featuring Polanski and actress Catherine Deneuve
- A British Horror Film (2003), a documentary on the making of Repulsion, featuring interviews with Polanski, producer Gene Gutowski, and cinematographer Gil Taylor, among others
- A 1964 television documentary filmed on the set of Repulsion, with rare footage of Polanski and Deneuve at work
- Original theatrical trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar and curator Bill Horrigan
SMOOTH TALK (29th May)
Suspended between carefree youth and the harsh realities of the adult world, a teenage girl experiences an unsettling awakening in this haunting vision of innocence lost. Based on Joyce Carol Oates’s celebrated short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” the narrative debut from Joyce Chopra features a revelatory breakout performance by Laura Dern as Connie, the fifteen-year-old black sheep of her family, whose summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts, and innocent flirtations is shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger (a memorably menacing Treat Williams). Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, Smooth Talk captures the thrill and terror of adolescent sexual exploration, and it transforms the conventions of a coming-of-age story into something altogether more troubling and profound.
USA | 1985 | 91 MINUTES | COLOUR | 1.85:1 | ENGLISH
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
- Restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Joyce Chopra, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Conversation among Chopra, author Joyce Carol Oates, and actor Laura Dern from the 2020 New York Film Festival, moderated by Turner Classic Movies host Alicia Malone
- New interview with Chopra
- New conversations between Chopra and actors Treat Williams and Mary Kay Place, moderated by Malone
- New interview with production designer David Wasco
- KPFK Pacifica Radio interview with Chopra from 1985
- Joyce at 34 (1972), Girls at 12 (1975), and Clorae and Albie (1975), three short films by Chopra
- Audio reading of the 1966 Life magazine article “The Pied Piper of Tucson,” which inspired the short story by Oates
- Trailers
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by poet and memoirist Honor Moore, a 1986 New York Times article by Oates about the adaptation, and Oates’s 1966 short story “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”