True Stories (Criterion Collection) (Blu ray) [USA]

C.C. 95

The Snarky Assassin
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Sep 10, 2014
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The Land, OHIO - U.S.A.
Release Date: November 20, 2018
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Criterion - $39.96
Amazon - N/A
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Director
: David Byrne
Writers: David Byrne, Stephen Tobolowsky
Starring: David Byrne, John Goodman, Annie McEnroe, Spalding Gray, Jo Harvey Allen
  • United States
  • 1986
  • 89 minutes
  • 1.85:1
  • English
  • Spine #951
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Music icon David Byrne was inspired by tabloid headlines to make this sole foray into feature film directing, an ode to the extraordinariness of ordinary American life and a distillation of what was in his own idiosyncratic mind. Byrne plays a visitor to Virgil, Texas, who introduces us to the citizens of the town during preparations for its Celebration of Specialness. As shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman, Texas becomes a hyperrealistic late-capitalist landscape of endless vistas, shopping malls, and prefab metal buildings. In True Stories, Byrne uses his songs to stitch together pop iconography, voodoo rituals, and a singular variety show—all in the service of uncovering the rich mysteries that lurk under the surface of everyday experience.

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SPECIAL FEATURES
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
  • New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director David Byrne and cinematographer Ed Lachman, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, supervised by Byrne, on the Blu-ray
  • New documentary about the film’s production, featuring Byrne, Lachman, writer Stephen Tobolowsky, executive producer Ed Pressman, coproducer Karen Murphy, fashion-show costume designer Adelle Lutz, consultant Christina Patoski, actor Jo Harvey Allen, and musician Terry Allen
  • CD with 23 songs, containing the film’s complete soundtrack, compiled here for the first time (Blu-ray only)
  • Real Life (1986), a short documentary by Pamela Yates and Newton Thomas Sigel made on the set of the film
  • No Time to Look Back, a new homage to Virgil, Texas, the fictional town where True Stories is set
  • New program about designer Tibor Kalman and his influence on Byrne and role in the film, featuring Byrne and Kalman’s wife, artist Maira Kalman
  • Deleted scenes
  • Trailer
  • PLUS: An essay by critic Rebecca Bengal, along with, for the Blu-ray edition, new pieces by journalist and author Joe Nick Patoski and Byrne, a 1986 piece by actor Spalding Gray on the film’s production, some of the tabloid stories that inspired the film, and a selection of Byrne’s preproduction photography and writing about the film’s visual motifs