Every year is an anniversary of sorts, but 2009 has proved to be a memorable one for two pretty different headliners: Alfred Hitchcock and Charles Darwin. Into espionage? Among new DVD releases this month is a special 50th-anniversary edition of Hitchcock s masterpiece, "North by Northwest." If evolution is more your style, check out an illuminating documentary that marks Darwin s 200th birthday and the publication of his seminal treatise on evolution in 1859. There s also a new edition of Wim Wenders lyrical tale of a modern-day angel, an exploration of daily life among ancient pyramid builders and, for animation enthusiasts, the DVD release of one of the year s biggest hits, the unlikely and uplifting "Up."

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

This 50th-anniversary edition of the great Hitchcock thriller allows us to revisit one of the most entertaining movies ever. Working with a witty and inventive screenplay, Hitchcock gives us a look at American life that is constantly in motion. Its very title (lifted from a line in Hamlet) is directional nonsense but oh, the places it goes.

The plot riffs on a Hitchcock specialty a man who is confused with someone else, and who must outwit his pursuers while piecing together the truth. The peerless Cary Grant plays the ad man who is mistaken for an undercover agent. After he escapes his kidnapers, he becomes a moving target against a changing backdrop of iconic American images.

Here is the late- 50s bustle of New York streets, the swirling drama of the United Nations, the sophistication of a cross-country train trip and, in a justly famous sequence set on a cornfield in the middle of nowhere, the desolation of the Midwest plains where Grant s character tries to outrun an assassinating crop-duster. There s also a grand finale atop Mount Rushmore over the passive stone faces of dead presidents.

The newly re-mastered DVD (also available in Blu-ray) allows us to see afresh this topnotch entertainment in a decade that provided at least three very different and enduring works that explored Americans need to keep moving: "On the Road," "Lolita" and "North by Northwest."

Wings of Desire

Directed by Wim Wenders

We re approaching that time of year when images of angels will be everywhere. But "Wings of Desire" offers a different sort of unearthly creature. Here a very human-looking angel, Damiel, surveys Berlin from above and on the ground, listening to and recording the hopes and fears of everyone around him: He s a celestial eavesdropper on a mission to preserve reality by capturing human thoughts.

Like many an eternal creature before him, Damiel is willing to give up his wings and embrace morality because he falls in love here with a beautiful trapeze artist.

Wenders, filming in black-and-white (with color at choice moments, such as when the angels look away or are not present), provides haunting images of Berlin just before the end of the Cold War. The movie is a reverie about the fragility of the human condition; Wenders has said he was inspired by the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke in conceiving it.

This Criterion edition features audio commentary with Wenders and with Peter Falk who plays himself a documentary about the film, interviews with the director and actors, plus deleted scenes and outtakes. And it could make a lovely companion piece to that most famous seasonal classic featuring angels, It s a Wonderful Life, which has just been released in Blu-ray.

Presented by Richard Dawkins

Darwin s seminal "On the Origin of Species" was published 150 years ago this month. Groundbreaking in its examination of human evolution and natural selection, it remains controversial still. This three-episode documentary explains how Darwin developed his theory and why it remains relevant.

Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins takes viewers through the byways of evolutionary theory, on how species evolve, and even what natural selection means including how the term is used variously in biology, politics, sociology and philosophy.

He interviews geneticists, paleoanthropologists, religious leaders, all of whom weigh in on the lasting import of Darwin s breakthroughs and theories. It s a fitting tribute to the centennial of Darwin s birth in 1809, his findings in evolutionary thought and to his own breakthrough discoveries.

This set features a bonus disc with four hours of additional interviews with scientists, a viewer s guide to Darwin and specials about the Galapagos Islands (where Darwin spent must time doing research).

Ancient Lives

Presented by John Romer

In every age, we know more about the rulers than the people they ruled. Ancient Egypt, with magnificent edifices to its pharaohs and the afterlife, still yields new discoveries about the great but also about the humble. Among the more intriguing recent findings: Slaves didn t build the pyramids. Paid workers did. While exploring the generosity of the pharaohs, this fascinating documentary really delves into the lives of the everyday people who dwelled in workers villages and built monuments to their rulers.

Archeologist John Romer guides us through the daily doings of these mainly unnamed workers information we have thanks to what several scribes. There are even family correspondences from some of them, so we can get a glimpse into the minds of the craftsmen who were among the world s very first public-works employees.

Of course, we also want to peer inside these tombs to see how the pharaohs were arrayed for their voyages to the great beyond, and these four episodes include archaeologist s-eye views of excavations, recreations of what the tombs looked like way back when, and even the ways in which architects tried to thwart tomb robbers (thieves didn t care about the afterlife of the kings: They wanted what they wanted when they wanted it).

For those who want to taste rather than see, a bonus feature here includes a look at the quest to recreate ancient Egyptian beer.

Up

Directed by Bob Peterson and Pete Docter

Hard to believe now, considering what a hit the movie "Up" became, but back in the spring Hollywood insiders were questioning the sense of releasing a children s movie that featured an old man, sequences with little dialogue, and an emphasis on fleeting youth and the nature of friendship.

Conventional wisdom was wrong, and the movie proved to be a smash, grossing $293 million domestically since its release in May. Apparently, audiences (for a time) wanted more than gross-out comedies and cartoon lessons in empowerment.

The plot of Up is whimsical enough, though: A 78-year-old balloon salesman goes on a long-awaited adventure after tying many of those balloons to his house, which lifts him to South America along with, to his chagrin, a chubby 8-year-old boy who s stowed away. They encounter a crazy explorer, an exotic bird, a hilarious dog and, more important, they find each other. It s not sappy but poignant and rewarding.

The movie is being released, of course, with all of the hoopla a hit can generate, meaning Blu-ray, multipacks, extras. Those might appeal more to animation-centric cinephiles than to the parents who will actually enjoy sitting down to watch a children s cartoon with their kids. That s because it s actually better than most movies made for adults.