Blu-ray, DVD Release: The Confession and State of Siege

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 26, 2015
Price: DVD $29.95 each, Blu-ray $39.95 each
Studio: Criterion

The master of the political thriller, Costa-Gavras, became an instant phenomenon after the mammoth success of 1969’s Z, and he followed it with two more riveting works: 1970’s The Confession and 1972’s State of Siege.

Yves Montand in The Confession.

Based on a harrowing true story, The Confession stars Yves Montand (La Joli Mai) as an influential Czechoslovak dignitary who, in the early fifties, was abducted, imprisoned, and interrogated by fellow members of his country’s Communist ruling party—their intentions vague, their methods terrifying.

Also starring Simone Signoret (Diabolique) and Gabriele Ferzetti (L’avventura), The Confession is an unflinching depiction of a troubled historical period and the miasma of twentieth-century politics.

Costa-Gavras puts the United States’ involvement in South American politics under the microscope in State of Siege. An urban guerilla group, outraged at the counterinsurgency and torture-training clandestinely organized by the CIA in their country (unnamed in the film), abducts a U.S. official (Montand) to bargain for the release of political prisoners; soon the kidnapping becomes a media sensation, leading to violence.

State of Siege

Co-written by Franco Solinas (The Battle of Algiers), the electrifying movie piercingly critiques the American government for helping institute foreign dictatorships while also asking difficult questions about the efficacy of radical violent acts to oppose such regimes.

Here’s a breakdown of the features included on Criterion’s Blu-ray and DVD editions of the films, which are presented in French with English subtitles.

The Confession features:

• New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
  • You Speak of Prague: The Second Trial of Artur London(1971), a twenty-one-minute documentary by Chris Marker shot on the set ofThe Confession
  • New interview with the film’s editor, Françoise Bonnot
  • Conversation between director Costa-Gavras and programmer and scholar Peter von Bagh about the director’s life and career, from the 1988 Midnight Sun Film Festival
  • Portrait London, a 1981 interview with Artur and Lise London, the real-life figures on whose story the film is based
  • Interview with actor Yves Montand from 1970
  • New interview with John Michalczyk, author of Costa-Gavras: The Political Fiction Film
  • New English subtitle translation
  • An essay by film scholar Dina Iordanova

State of Siege features:

•  New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• • New conversation between director Costa-Gavras and film scholar Peter Cowie
  • NBC News excerpts from 1970 on the kidnapping of Dan Mitrione, on which the film is based
  • New English subtitle translation
  • An essay by journalist Mark Danner

Buy or Rent The Confession
DVD | Blu-ray

Buy or Rent State of Siege
DVD | Blu-ray