So, it’s the middle of the month, and cinephiles know what that means. Criterion’s monthly announcement, this time, for the month of February 2012, and what a month it will be.

First, getting it out of the way, there will be one Blu-ray upgrade hitting on February 7th, and it’s a monster.  The combination of Chris Marker films, La Jetee and Sans Soleil will be hitting in wonderfully beautiful HD for the first time.  The release itself had been hinted at recently with an image posted to Criterion’s Facebook page, and will feature interviews with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Gorin (himself a subject of an upcoming Eclipse release), and a video piece on Marker from Chris Darke, along with two bits of a French TV series, looking at the inspiration for the features. 

Personally, these are two of the greatest films I’ve ever seen, particularly the former, itself the inspiration for 12 Monkeys and one of the all-time great sci-fi films.

Two other releases that had been hinted at for some time now are both Lena Dunham’s Tiny Furniture and the sci-fi masterpiece World On A Wire, both hitting in February (14th and 21st, respectively).  Furniture has been something of a controversy sparker since it was announced as a potential Criterion release a few months back, but is one of this writer’s favorite films of the past few years.  Making it into my top 10 last year, it’s a really great little indie in the vein of Whit Stillman.  Wire is an entirely different beast, a 212-minute epic from Rainer Werner Fassbinder, which itself draws heavily from the philosophy of Plato, and is often compared to films like The Matrix, just with far less action.  It’s a very dense bit of sci-fi, but is also one of the most thought provoking films the genre has to offer (you can read my thoughts on the film from an editorial I wrote here, following the film’s addition to Criterion’s Hulu Plus page).

Boy, am I good at interludes. Speaking of the Hulu Plus page, one film that’s featured there that is finally getting a Blu-ray/DVD release is Hideo Gosha’s Three Outlaw Samurai.  I have yet to see this film, the debut of Gosha which hits on February 14, but it’s easily one of the most interesting looking samurai films around, and is one that will look gorgeous in HD. A bare bones release, this film falls along with releases like Criterion’s Identification Of A Woman release, where the price is cut a full $10, but there are no features to speak of.  That said, the transfer will look wonderful, so it’s well worth the money.

Finally, two more huge releases for February, as both Otto Preminger’s Anatomy Of A Murder and Louis Malle’s Vanya On 42nd Street, will be hitting at the end of the month.  I’m personally most excited for Vanya as its Malles doing an adaptation of the famous Chekov play, but through the eyes of Andre Gregory, who in the ’90s, did a series of performances with the likes of Wallace Shawn, Julianne Moore, and George Gaynes.  Malle’s final film, it’s also one of his best, and will look stunning in HD.  What is there to say about Anatomy? The month’s most dense release, it is also one of the best films from Preminger, a filmmaker who is reviled like an auteur, yet has one of the most interestingly transferable senses of style of any filmmaker.  A must-own release.

For a full rundown of each release, head over to Criterion.com.