HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH Film To Get Blu-Ray Criterion Collection Release

This June, John Cameron Mitchell's film adaptation of the hit musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, will get a special edition Blu-ray release as part of the Criterion Collection,

The new edition of the film is currently available for pre-order and will officially drop June 25, 2019. The blu-ray will include a slew of new special features including:

New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director John Cameron Mitchell and cinematographer Frank DeMarco, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray

Audio commentary from 2001 featuring Mitchell and DeMarco

New conversation between members of the cast and crew, including Mitchell, DeMarco, composer and lyricist Stephen Trask, hairstylist and makeup artist Michael Potter, animator Emily Hubley, actor Miriam Shor, and visual consultant Miguel Villalobos

Whether You Like It or Not: The Story of Hedwig (2003), an eighty-five-minute documentary tracing the development of the project from its beginnings in a New York club to its theatrical premiere at the Sundance Film Festival

New conversation between Trask and rock critic David Fricke about the film's soundtrack

From the Archives, a new program exploring Hedwig's production and legacy through its memorabilia

Deleted scenes with commentary by Mitchell and DeMarco

Trailer

PLUS: An essay by Stephanie Zacharek, along with, for the Blu-ray edition, production photos by Potter and costume designer Arianne Phillips, illustrations by Hubley, and excerpts from two of the films inspirations, Plato's Symposium and The Gospel of Thomas

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the landmark musical by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. This genre-bending, fourth-wall-smashing musical sensation, with a pulsing score and electrifying performances, tells the story of one of the most unique characters to ever hit the stage. Hedwig and the Angry Inch played to record-breaking sell- out crowds on Broadway and took North America by storm.

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 a "beautiful gender of one."

The film tells Hedwig's life story through her music, an eclectic collection 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.

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