ANTIGONE: RITES OF PASSION (Winstar Home Video) is a 1998 version of the classic Greek tragedy, starring Bertram Ross. No format information is available. THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGEOISIE (Criterion/Home Vision Cinema) is a two-disc set that contains both director Luis Bunuel’s 1972 surreal comedy about a strange house party, starring Fernando Rey and Delphine Seyrig, and a 105-minute documentary based on Bunuel’s autobiography. Aspect ratio is 1.66:1; sound format is French Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, with English subtitles. Extras include a 1970 25-minute documentary on Bunuel by Arturo Ripstein and Rafael Castenedo. JAZZ (PBS Home Video/Warner Home Video) is the multi-disc home video version, with additional material, of the 18-hour Ken Burns documentary on jazz music, currently airing throughout the month of January on PBS stations throughout the U.S.

AUTUMN IN NEW YORK (MGM/UA), released theatrically earlier this year, is a romantic drama about a middle-aged man involved with a younger woman. Richard Gere and Winona Ryder star under Joan Chen’s direction. Aspect ratio is widescreen anamorphic (exact ratio not specified); sound formats are English Dolby Digital 2.0, French Dolby Digital 2.0 and Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0. English, Spanish and French subtitles are available.

SoundScan, the music industry standard for calculating album sales has just released their year-end music report for the year 2000. In the era of Napster, MP3 and downloadable music, music sales were up a total of 4% from the year 1999. For the 2000 holiday season (Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve) music sales were up 2.4% from 1999. These statistics do not seem to support the theory that free music file swapping hurts the sales of albums. Notably absent from this year’s top sales list was Napster critic and metal group turned pop rock band Metallica.

Warner Brothers Records confirm that a new Van Halen record is in the works but deny the March 2001 release date. Warner Brothers Records will not confirm that David Lee Roth is back in Van Halen yet radio reports in Los Angeles and AudioRevolution.com inside sources say Diamond Dave is the going to be back for the new release.

THE ART OF WAR (Warner Home Video), released theatrically earlier this year, stars Wesley Snipes as a covert operative working for the U.N. who finds himself left out in the cold when he’s suspected of murder. Anne Archer, Donald Sutherland and Michael Biehn also star; Christian Duguay directs. Aspect ratio is 2.35:1; sound format is English Dolby Digital 5.1.