Fans of renowned filmmaker Martin Scorsese will soon be able to watch five of his early short films that have been restored from 4k masters for release on Blu-ray and DVD. The collection from Criterion includes Italianamerican (1974), American Boy (1978), What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963) and It’s Not Just You, Murray! (1964).
Scorsese, who recently got a shout-out from Parasite director Bong Joon Ho while accepting his award for Best Director, has remarkably only won 1 Oscar himself, and that is for the 2006 drama The Departed starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson.
The director-approved Scorsese Shorts editions on BD and DVD feature 4k digital restorations with uncompressed monaural soundtracks, as well as new extras including a conversation between director Martin Scorsese and film critic Farran Smith Nehme, discussion among filmmakers Ari Aster and Josh and Benny Safdie, and essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri among other material.
The films, although digitally mastered in 4k, will not be presented on Ultra HD Blu-ray. The Criterion Collection has yet to release a title to 4k Blu-ray even as other niche distributors such as Cinedigm and Shout! Factory have packaged UHD BDs. (See a full list of 4k Blu-ray titles and distributors.)
Scorsese Shorts arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on May 26, 2020. The collection is priced $29.49 (List: $39.95) and $27.46 (List: $29.95), respectively. Buy on Amazon
Special Features
- New 4K digital restorations of all five films
- uncompressed monaural soundtracks
- New conversation between director Martin Scorsese and film critic Farran Smith Nehme
- New discussion among filmmakers Ari Aster and Josh and Benny Safdie
- An essay by film critic Bilge Ebiri and various materials from Scorsese’s archive
