In February Dept.

It wouldn't be a complete month without some new Criterion announcements, would it?

• Oh happy day! Luis Buñuel's The Exterminating Angel, long unavailable on video in the U.S. (you lucky PAL folks have had copies for a while now), is getting the Crit treatment. It's a 2-disc set with goodies galore.
• And also from Buñuel, Simon of the Desert, a lesser-known short subject that Criterion's packaging with a 1995 documentary about the film to make it worth the full price. (I would personally have preferred this to just be packed with Angel.)
• Godfather of America indie / improv cinema, John Cassavetes, has long been served well by Criterion. Now we get single-disc issues of Faces and Shadows, which are about as essential as it gets from him. (Also be sure to check out the box set.)
• Before David Lean became synonymous with epic (shilling for ponderous) filmmaking, he directed ten other movies between 1942 and 1955. Hobson's Choice, from 1954, stars none other than Charles Laughton — he who once went behind the camera himself to create Night of the Hunter, his one and only film. As Danny Peary put it, he was in the same league as Leonard (Honeymoon Killers) Kastle: a director whose batting average for masterpieces was 1.000.