Sometime in the late ’90s, I watched the then-recently-restored The Godfather on VHS, on one of those old-fashioned “standard definition” TVs and I was blown away by how good it looked. Gordon Willis’s cinematography looked particularly gorgeous and dark and the film just looked much richer than any other version I’d ever seen. So when the films were re-released on DVD some years later, I was shocked by how grainy and poor the transfers were. On an HDTV, they’re practically unwatchable—and I’ve never quite figured out whether the DVD transfers were taken from the same elements as the VHS versions.

All that’s for moot now that a brand spankin’ new restoration is hitting the stores this week. Digitally restored by legendary film preservation dude Robert A. Harris, as well as Willis and Francis Ford Coppola himself, the new version might annoy you if you already shelled out for the inferior old ones, but hey, that’s how the home video industry works, unfortunately. The new discs are available on both DVD and Blu-Ray, the latter of which should really show off the fanciness. Now that’s, as Don Corleone would say, an opportunity you can’t deny.

Another exciting release this month comes courtesy of the always-reliable Criterion Collection, who are releasing a trio of Max Ophuls pics previously unavailable here in Region 1 (you could always order the BFI versions from England, but you’d need a special or hacked player to actually watch them. Stupid region-coding).

All are exquisite, but I especially like the formally playful La Ronde, based on the Arthur Schnitzler play and starring Simone Signoret and Anton Walbrook, and which features a host of commentaries and interviews. Gotta love The Earrings of Madame de… as well as La Plaisir, which is an adaptation of three stories by Guy de Maupassant. All three are examples of rich, elegant filmmaking from a true idiosyncratic master, and it’s high time they’re available here.