Scenes from a Marriage chronicles the many years of love and turmoil that bind Marianne (Liv Ullmann) and Johan (Erland Josephson) through matrimony, infidelity, divorce, and subsequent partners. Shot in intense, intimate close-ups by master cinematographer Sven Nykvist and featuring flawless performances, Ingmar Bergman’s emotional x-ray reveals the intense joys and pains of a complex relationship. The Criterion Collection is proud to present both the three-hour U.S. theatrical cut of Scenes from a Marriage and Bergman’s original five-hour, six-part television version.
The Cat Returns (猫の恩返し, Neko no ongaeshi?, lit. The Cat's Repayment of Favors) is a Japanese animated film directed by Hiroyuki Morita, produced by Studio Ghibli and released to Japanese cinemas in 2002.The story follows a girl called Haru, a quiet, shy, and unassuming high school student who has a long-suppressed ability to talk to cats. One day she saves a darkly colored, odd-eyed cat from being hit by a truck on a busy road. The cat turns out to be Lune, Prince of the Cat Kingdom. In return, the cats shower her with gifts of catnip and mice - and then she is offered the Prince's hand in marriage. Her mixed reply is taken as a yes……
It received an Excellence Prize at the 2002 Japan Media Arts Festival.
Ayako Wakao plays good-natured Yuko, the illegitimate daughter of a well-off executive, raised in the country by relatives. Journeying to Tokyo she finds Father's Western-style house to be a nest of vipers straight out of There's Always Tomorrow, replete with Terrible Children, a housekeeper who sees all, and a dog named Cal with his own doghouse. But Yuko meets it all with aplomb; she's interested in one thing only, finding her real, cast off mother.
America The Story of the US is an epic 12-hour television event that tells the extraordinary story of how America was invented. With highly realistic CGI animation, dramatic recreations and thoughtful insights from some of America's most respected artists, business leaders, academics and intellectuals, it is the first television event in nearly 40 years to present a comprehensive telling of America's history.