New Release: Naked Blu-ray

Naked movie scene

David Thewliss gives the world a piece of his mind in Naked.

Naked, the controversial 1993 drama film by writer-director Mike Leigh (Another Year) received a release on Blu-ray disc from The Criterion Collection on July 12, 2011. The film was first issued on DVD by Criterion back in 2005.

In the British movie, David Thewlis (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) stars as Johnny, a charming and eloquent but relentlessly vicious drifter. Rejecting anyone who might care for him, the volcanic Johnny hurls himself through a nocturnal odyssey around London, colliding with a succession of other desperate and dispossessed people, and scorching everyone in his path.

Co-starring alongside Thewliss (who delivers a raging, raw performance) are the late Katrin Cartlidge (Before the Rain) and Lesley Sharp (The Full Monty).

Leigh’s picture of England’s underbelly is an amalgam of black comedy and doomsday prophecy that took the Best Director and Best Actor prizes at the 1993 Cannes International Film Festival.

The Blu-ray features a restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by Leigh, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. It carries a list price of $39.95. The DVD, which is still available, also lists for $39.95.

Here are the special features included on the Blur-ray:

  • audio commentary by Leigh and actors David Thewlis and Katrin Cartlidge
  • exclusive video interview with director Neil LaBute
  • an episode of the BBC program The Art Zone in which author Will Self interviews Leigh
  • The Short and Curlies, a short comedy from 1982 directed by Leigh and starring Thewlis, with audio commentary by Leigh
  • original theatrical trailer
  • booklet featuring essays by film critics Derek Malcolm and Amy Taubin

Here’s the movie’s trailer:

 

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About Laurence

Founder and editor Laurence Lerman saw Alfred Hitchcock’s North by Northwest when he was 13 years old and that’s all it took. He has been writing about film and video for more than a quarter of a century for magazines, anthologies, websites and most recently, Video Business magazine, where he served as the Reviews Editor for 15 years.