By G. ALLEN JOHNSON, San Francisco Chronicle

The Criterion Collection has revamped two of its earliest titles -- Seijun Suzuki's delirious, excessive, self-conscious mid-1960s film noirs were first released on DVD in 1999 -- into gloriously restored high-definition transfers (available in both Blu-ray and DVD).

(CITIZEN KANE: 70TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION. 1941. RATED PG. WARNER HOME VIDEO. $64.99)

She was an Academy Award-nominated actress, the director was her boyfriend and the biggest star in the movie -- David Bowie -- was acting for the first time. Even if "The Man Who Fell to Earth" had turned out to be a terrible film, making it would have been one of Candy Clark's fondest memories.

You probably don't know the director Lone Scherfig. Her name wasn't even in the credits of her first box-office success in the United States. Her second big hit here was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Screenplay, but she wasn't nominated.

Since it was July 14, I wished Tatiana de Rosnay, the French best-selling author, a happy Bastille Day, even though she was on American soil, in her San Francisco publisher's office.

"Not so good for us aristocrats," de Rosnay said with a laugh, "but thank you."

"THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA" (1993. NOT RATED. KINO. $29.95 BLU-RAY; $24.95 DVD.)

Not only is Tran Anh Hung's Oscar-nominated film about the journey to womanhood of an orphaned servant and the travails of the family she works for in 1950s Saigon a visual masterpiece, but Kino's Blu-ray transfer is also simply one of the most astonishing I've ever seen.

Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg grew up in Sandefjord, a small town south of Oslo, and dreamed of making films. Now they're becoming the cinematic historians of Norway's biggest heroes.

"Space: 1999 -- Season 1" (1975-76. Not Rated. A&E Home Entertainment. $99.95. Blu-ray.)

Although a 30th-anniversary complete DVD set was released in 2005, "Space: 1999" really sparkles on Blu-ray.

It's kind of a damnation of Hollywood that there's no prominent place for Johnny Tri Nguyen. He was Spider-Man, after all, plus he spent most of his formative years in Los Angeles.

The Vietnamese immigrant even won a gold medal representing the United States with his martial-arts prowess in the 1998 Pan Am Games.

"THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI" (RATED PG. 1957. SONY/COLUMBIA PICTURES. $34.95.)

David Lean's first epic, written by blacklisted writers Michael Wilson and Carl Foreman and based on a Pierre Boulle novel, probably will never look better on home video than this gorgeous Blu-ray release (with a DVD copy thrown in as well).