Hedwig and the Angry Inch - The Criterion Collection (Blu-ray)

With this trailblazing musical, writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask brought their signature creation from stage to screen for a movie as unclassifiable as its protagonist. Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig (Mitchell) undergoes a traumatic personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an “internationally ignored” but divinely talented rock diva, characterized by Mitchell as inhabiting a “beautiful gender of one.” The film tells Hedwig’s story through her music, an eclectic assortment of original punk anthems and power ballads by Trask, matching them with a freewheeling cinematic mosaic of music-video fantasies, animated interludes, and moments of bracing emotional realism. A hard-charging song cycle and a tender character study, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a tribute to the transcendent power of rock and roll.

United States
2001
91 minutes
Color
1.85:1
982
English

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

- New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director John Cameron Mitchell and cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Mitchell and DeMarco
- New conversation among members of the cast and crew
- New conversation between composer and lyricist Stephen Trask and rock critic David Fricke about the soundtrack
- Documentary from 2003 tracing the development of the project
- Close look at the film’s Adam and Eve sequence
- New programs exploring Hedwig's creation, look, and legacy through its memorabilia
- Deleted scenes with commentary by Mitchell and DeMarco
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: An essay by critic Stephanie Zacharek, and portraits of Hedwig by photog­rapher Mick Rock, illustrations by animator Emily Hubley, and excerpts from two texts that inspired the film: Plato’s Symposium and The Gospel of Thomas

*Cover by Eric Skillman, based on a photo by Miguel Villalobos