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The Complete Jean Vigo (À propos de Nice, Taris, Zéro de conduite, L’Atalante) (Criterion Collection)

admin — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 03:45:24 +0000

Even among cinema’s greatest legends, Jean Vigo stands alone. The son of a notorious anarchist, Vigo had a brief but brilliant career making poetic, lightly surrealist films before his life was cut tragically short by tuberculosis at age twenty-nine. Like the daring early works of his contemporaries Jean Cocteau and Luis Buñuel, Vigo’s films refused to play by the rules. This set includes all of Vigo’s titles: À propos de Nice, an absurdist, rhythmic slice of life from the bustling coastal city of the title; Taris, an inventive short portrait of a swimming champion; Zéro de conduite, a radical, delightful tale of boarding-school rebellion that has influenced countless filmmakers; and, of course, L’Atalante, widely regarded as one of cinema’s finest achievements, about newlyweds beginning their life together on a canal barge. These are the endlessly witty, visually adventurous works of a pivotal film artist.

À propos de Nice, 1930, 23 min, B&W, Silent, 1.33:1

Taris, 1931, 9 min, B&W, Mono, In French with English subtitles, 1.19:1

Zéro de conduite, 1933, 44 min, B&W, Mono, In French with English subtitles

L’Atalante, 1934, 85 min, B&W, Mono, In French with English subtitles, 1.33:1

List Price: $ 29.95

Price: $ 21.99

People on Sunday: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]

admin — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:47:55 +0000

People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag) represents an astonishing confluence of talent—an early collaboration by a group of German filmmakers who would all go on to become major Hollywood players, including eventual noir masters Robert Siodmak (The Killers, Criss Cross) and Edgar G. Ulmer (Detour, Bluebeard) and future Oscar winners Billy Wilder (Sunset Boulevard, Ace in the Hole) and Fred Zinneman (High Noon, A Man for All Seasons). This effervescent, sunlit silent film, about a handful of city dwellers enjoying a weekend outing (a charming cast of nonprofessionals), offers a rare glimpse of Weimar-era Berlin. A unique hybrid of documentary and fictional storytelling, People on Sunday was both an experiment and a mainstream hit that would influence generations of film artists around the world.

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 29.99

Life During Wartime: The Criterion Collection

admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 21:44:48 +0000

In Life During Wartime, independent filmmaker Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse) explores contemporary American existence and the nature of forgiveness with his customary dry humor and queasy precision. The film functions as a distorted mirror image of Solondz’s acclaimed 1998 dark comedy Happiness, its emotionally stunted characters now groping for the possibility of change in a post-9/11 world. Happiness’s grim New Jersey setting is transposed to sunny Florida, but the biggest twist is that new actors fill the roles originated in the earlier film–including Shirley Henderson (Topsy-Turvy), Allison Janney (The Ice Storm), and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) as alarmingly dissimilar sisters, and Ciaran Hinds (Persuasion) hauntingly embodying a reformed pedophile. Shot in expressionistic tones by cinematographer extraordinaire Ed Lachman (Far from Heaven), Solondz’s film finds the humor in the tragic and the tragic in the everyday.

List Price: $ 29.95

Price: $ 21.99

If . . . (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 15:46:34 +0000

If…., directed by Lindsay Anderson (This Sporting Life), is a daringly chaotic vision of British society, set in a boarding school in late-sixties England. Before Kubrick made his mischief iconic in A Clockwork Orange, Malcolm McDowell made a hell of an impression as the insouciant Mick Travis, who, along with his school chums, trumps authority at every turn, finally emerging as a violent savior against the vicious games of one-upmanship played by both students and masters. Mixing color and black and white as audaciously as it mixes fantasy and reality, If…. remains one of cinema’s most unforgettable rebel yells.

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 27.99

Life During Wartime: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]

admin — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 17:45:35 +0000

In Life During Wartime, independent filmmaker Todd Solondz (Welcome to the Dollhouse) explores contemporary American existence and the nature of forgiveness with his customary dry humor and queasy precision. The film functions as a distorted mirror image of Solondz’s acclaimed 1998 dark comedy Happiness, its emotionally stunted characters now groping for the possibility of change in a post-9/11 world. Happiness’s grim New Jersey setting is transposed to sunny Florida, but the biggest twist is that new actors fill the roles originated in the earlier film–including Shirley Henderson (Topsy-Turvy), Allison Janney (The Ice Storm), and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) as alarmingly dissimilar sisters, and Ciaran Hinds (Persuasion) hauntingly embodying a reformed pedophile. Shot in expressionistic tones by cinematographer extraordinaire Ed Lachman (Far from Heaven), Solondz’s film finds the humor in the tragic and the tragic in the everyday.

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 27.99

W.C. Fields: 6 Short Films – The Criterion Collection (The Golf Specialist / Pool Sharks / The Pharmacist / The Fatal Glass of Beer / The Barber Shop / The Dentist)

admin — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 04:47:55 +0000

W. C. Fields’ prolific career placed him at the forefront of slapstick comedy. Gathered here are six gems that feature the comic genius at his peak: The Golf Specialist, Pool Sharks (silent), The Pharmacist, The Fatal Glass of Beer, The Barber Shop, and, of course, the notorious The Dentist. This unique collection will delight new generations of viewers with Fields’ hilariously sardonic routines. Ten years elapsed between W.C. Fields’s debut in the 1915 short “The Pool Sharks” and his role in D.W. Griffith’s Sally of the Sawdust, but it didn’t take long for Fields to become one of the all-time great screen comedians. This essential collection–the silent “The Pool Sharks” plus the five “two-reeler” sound shorts that established Fields’s acerbic style–provides a comprehensive document of the comedian’s work in progress. “The Pool Sharks” develops a routine that Fields created in vaudeville and later perfected on film, with stop-motion animation used here to realize the comedian’s wacky luck at billiards. It’s a clever appetizer, but Fields was a verbal comic, so the two-reelers are the full-course meal.
Like the Marx brothers’ The Cocoanuts a year earlier, 1930′s “The Golf Specialist” mines humor from high jinks in sunny Florida, where Fields is nearly upstaged by a stone-faced golf caddy. The classic “The Dentist,” despite the later addition of strident musical cues, is presented in its entirety, including an oft-censored bit in which Fields tugs a molar from a woman who’s wrapped around him in a highly suggestive position. “The Pharmacist” and “The Barbershop” are variations on the theme, allowing Fields to toss off bons mots and scathing sarcasm, but it’s the anomalous “The Fatal Glass of Beer”–a hilarious send-up of Yukon gold-rush adventures–that proves an unlikely highlight. It’s typically sour-pussed in its agenda, with a running gag (involving the line “It ain’t a fit night out for man nor beast”) that just grows funnier with each repetition. Fields’s comedy wasn’t fully developed here–he became masterful in later features–but 6 Short Films is crucial in demonstrating his rapid refinement of the vintage Fields persona. –Jeff Shannon

List Price: $ 29.95

Price: $ 18.62

Eclipse Series 10: Silent Ozu – Three Family Comedies: The Criterion Collection (Tokyo Chorus / I Was Born But… / Passing Fancy)

admin — Sun, 29 May 2011 02:50:47 +0000

In the late twenties and early thirties, Yasujiro Ozu was working steadily for Shochiku studios, honing his craft on dozens of silent films in various genres, from romantic melodramas to college comedies to gangster pictures and, of course, movies about families. In these three droll domestic films Tokyo Chorus, I Am Born But…, Passing Fancy Ozu movingly and humorously depicts middle-class struggles and the resentments between children and parents, establishing the emotional and aesthetic delicacy with which he would transform the landscape of cinema. Tenth in the Eclipse Series, Criterion’s effort to reintroduce “lost, forgotten, and overshadowed classics,” Silent Ozu includes three early Yasujiro Ozu films that are incredibly entertaining with or without the piano scores offered by Donald Sosin. Ozu, the master of bittersweet family dramas, apparently based later films on these three–Tokyo Chorus (1931), I Was Born But… (1932), and Passing Fancy (1933)–though there is no lack of action, passion, or cinematic revelry in these prototypes. Crafted at Shochiku studios, each film reveals an everyman’s struggle to pay bills and raise children. Not only do these movies offer slice-of-life glimpses into 1930s Japan, but they also honor familial roles with humor and respect. It is Ozu’s ability to cut from emotional pain to comedy and back again that lends his films such deep humanity. In Tokyo Chorus, a family struggling through unemployment and illness bond during tribulations they face. Shinji Okajima’s (Tokihiko Okada) son (Hideo Sugawara) asks for a bike right before Okajima loses his position at an insurance office. Disparities between what is desired and what is provided grow from there. When daughter Miyoko (Hideko Takamine) needs hospitalization, Okajima and his wife stoop lower socially than they wish to make ends meet. The family’s determination undercuts their poverty. When Okajima tells his wife, “I feel I’m getting old, I’ve lost my spirit,” she offers to help him pass flyers out to drum up restaurant business where he works. Hilarious scenes, such as when the insurance office workers line up in the loo to secretly peek into cash bonus envelopes, make the most of silent physical comedy. Passing Fancy is similar, though the impoverished father, Kihachi (Takeshi Sakamoto), works to locate a wife to mother his hooligan son.
I Was Born But… is the funniest of the three, with its Little Rascals like attention to the child’s point of view. It opens with a shot of car wheels spinning in mud, since Mr. Yoshii (Tatsuo Saito) has just moved his family from suburban Azabu to Tokyo. As Yoshii slaves to improve his employment status, comedic scenes focus on his two sons, Ryoichi (Hideo Sugawara) and Keiji (Tomio Aoki), who continuously ward off local bullies while trying to please their dad. When the boys ditch class to avoid getting beat up, the younger remembers that he was “supposed to get an E in calligraphy today.” Lying in a meadow, he does his lesson and recruits a passerby to forge a good grade on his paper. Later, after classmates swallow raw sparrow eggs to impress each other, the two stars feed their eggs to the family dog, accidentally sickening him. Scenes become funnier as tensions build between the parents and their rebellious sons. It is amazing how much Ozu can achieve with so little dialogue, which crops up sparingly printed on cards. One may wonder if sound these days even improves our film viewing experience. In the least, Silent Ozu recalls quieter times, when perhaps just as much narrative was expressed. –Trinie Dalton

List Price: $ 44.95

Price: $ 31.94

Army of Shadows (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

admin — Fri, 13 May 2011 08:26:52 +0000

This masterpiece by Jean-Pierre Melville (Le doulos, Le cercle rouge) about the French Resistance went unreleased in the United States for thirty-seven years, until its triumphant theatrical debut in 2006. Atmospheric and gripping, Army of Shadows is Melville’s most personal film, featuring Lino Ventura (Le deuxième souffle), Paul Meurisse (Diabolique), Jean-Pierre Cassel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), and the incomparable Simone Signoret (Casque d’or, Diabolique) as intrepid underground fighters who must grapple with their conception of honor in their battle against Hitler’s regime.Who would’ve guessed that the best film of 2006 would be a 37-year-old thriller about the French Resistance during World War II? Hailed as a masterpiece by an overwhelming majority of reputable critics, Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows wasn’t officially released in America until 2006 (hence its appearance on many of that year’s top-ten lists), but its reputation as a French classic was already well-established throughout Europe. Fully restored in 2004 and released in the U.S. by Rialto Pictures, it represents the gold standard of films about the French Resistance, based upon Joseph Kessel’s 1943 novel and imbued with personal touches by Melville, an Alsatian Jew whose own involvement in the Resistance qualifies Army of Shadows as a semi-autobiographical exercise in somber nostalgia, as indicated by an opening quote echoing Melville’s ironic belief that memories of Nazi occupation needn’t always be traumatic.
Having lived through this history, Melville doesn’t treat it lightly; in Army of Shadows, the threat of death hangs over every scene like a shroud. Unfolding with flawless precision, the plot begins in 1942 and focuses on a small, secretive band of Resistance fighters led by Gerbier (Lino Ventura), whose intuitive sense of danger lends additional suspense to the film’s dark, atmospheric study of grace under pressure. While working in the classical tradition of the Hollywood films he admired, Melville breaks from convention with lengthy, deliberately paced scenes in which tension builds to a subtle yet almost unbearable intensity. With the possible exception of a brief and wryly humorous scene involving Resistance leader (and future Prime Minister) Gen. Charles de Gaulle, every scene in Army of Shadows supports Melville’s predominant themes of solitude and futility. Melville’s visually and thematically bleak outlook may prove challenging for some, but Army of Shadows is remarkably beautiful in its own way, and it gains power with each additional viewing through flawless development of memorable characters played by a first-rate cast. Especially memorable is Simone Signoret as Gerbier’s boldly pragmatic ally Mathilde, a woman in a war of men, with a tragic vulnerability that ultimately decides her fate. As intellectually stimulating as it is thrilling to experience, Army of Shadows represents the triumphant zenith of Melville’s posthumous recognition as a world-class auteur. Thanks to the Criterion Collection, this masterpiece can now be widely appreciated, along with Criterion’s previous DVD releases of Melville’s earlier classics Bob Le Flambeur, Le Samourai, and Le Cercle Rouge. –Jeff Shannon

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 17.49

Beauty and the Beast (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 16:29:52 +0000

The sublime adaptation by Jean Cocteau (Orpheus) of Mme. Leprince de Beaumont’s fairy-tale masterpiece–in which the true love of a beautiful girl melts the heart of a feral but gentle beast–is a landmark feat of motion picture fantasy, with unforgettably romantic performances by Jean Marais (Orpheus) and Josette Day (Les parents terribles). The spectacular visions of enchantment, desire, and death in Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete) have become timeless icons of cinematic wonder.This is definitely not the Disney version. While it remains faithful to the plot of the classic fairy tale by Leprince de Beaumont, Jean Cocteau’s 1946 French romantic fantasy is the product of a sophisticated, mature sensibility in its tones and textures and, above all, in its surprising emotional power. With sparkling black-and-white imagery that, for once, is actually dreamlike rather than cute or kitschy, and with a Beast (Jean Marais) who is almost as glamorous with his silky blonde facial hair as he is clean shaven, the movie casts a seductive spell. It might actually be a little too rich and unsettling for kids. Even the costumes and the draperies are entrancingly ornate. Viewers intoxicated by this enveloping vision should consider moving on to Cocteau’s even more aggressively other-worldly 1949 masterpiece Orpheus, in which Marais plays the doomed poet of ancient Greek legend, updated to a Parisian “punk” milieu of motorcycles and black leather. –David Chute

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 29.99

Yojimbo & Sanjuro (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

admin — Thu, 12 May 2011 05:27:17 +0000

Thanks to perhaps the most indelible character in Akira Kurosawa’s oeuvre, Yojimbo surpassed even Seven Samurai in popularity when it was released. The masterless samurai Sanjuro, who slyly manipulates two warring clans to his own advantage in a small, dusty village, was so entertainingly embodied by the brilliant Toshiro Mifune, that it was only a matter of time before he returned in a sequel. Made just one year later, Sanjuromatches Yojimbo’s storytelling dexterity, yet adds a layer of world-weary pragmatism that brings the duo to a thrilling and unforgettable conclusion.
Sanjuro: In Kurosawa’s sly companion piece to Yojimbo, the jaded samurai Sanjuro helps an idealistic group of young warriors weed out their clan’s evil influences, and in the process turns their image of a: proper, samurai on its ear.

Yojimbo: To rid a terror-stricken village of corruption, wily masterless samurai Sanjuro (Toshiro Mifune) turns a range war between two evil clans to his own advantage in Akira Kurosawa’s visually stunning and darkly comic Yojimbo.

Stills from Yojimbo

After Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo was released in 1961, the samurai film would never be the same. It’s difficult for latter-day Western audiences to fully appreciate just how revolutionary Kurosawa’s film was in its time; it had the same kind of popular impact that Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction had 33 years later, which is to say, it completely revolutionized its genre, and its influence continues to this day. With an emphasis on dark, delicious comedy, Kurosawa deliberately set out to overturn the conventions of chambara–or swordplay film–and he began by casting the great Toshiro Mifune in the role that would define his career. Unlike the samurai of previous films (including Kurosawa’s own masterpiece, Seven Samurai), Sanjuro was an unkempt, down-and-out drifter, a masterless ronin and with time on his hands and nowhere to go. When he chances upon a corrupt, terror-stricken village where clashing merchants are engaged in a ruthless range war, Sanjuro amuses himself by playing both ends against the middle, offering his services as yojimbo (bodyguard) to both sides, then standing back to watch all hell break loose. It’s a perfect game of wily deception, hugely popular with Japanese moviegoers as Mifune’s performance gained iconic status. Yojimbo‘s international success was no less impressive; it eventually inspired two noteworthy remakes (Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western A Fistful of Dollars in 1964, and Walter Hill’s mobster interpretation, Last Man Standing, in 1996), and remains one of Kurosawa’s most popular classics.
A sequel was inevitable, and Kurosawa responded to public demand as only a true artist would, with the equally impressive Sanjuro, quite different from Yojimbo while allowing Mifune to reprise his signature role with a lighter comedic touch. This time, Sanjuro is recruited by a group of young, idealistic samurai to eliminate corruption in their clan, and in the process he completely subverts their overly reverent notions of “proper” samurai behavior. And while both Yojimbo and Sanjuro were milestones in movie violence (featuring the spurting geysers of arterial blood that would become a staple of chambara from this point forward), the calmer, more comically subdued Sanjuro actually boasts a higher body count, and both films rank among the finest examples of Kurosawa’s peerless mastery of action.
The Criterion Collection’s double-disc set is a must-have for any serious cinephile. Both films (also available separately) are presented with all-new, fully restored high-definition digital transfers, representing (as in the case of Seven Samurai) a significant improvement over Criterion’s previous DVD releases. Both films feature full-length commentaries by Kurosawa scholar Stephen Prince (with eloquent emphasis on camera movement and composition) in addition to retrospective documentaries culled from the priceless Japanese Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, featuring illuminating interviews with many of Kurosawa’s closest collaborators. Theatrical trailers and behind-the-scenes photo galleries are also included, along with new-and-improved subtitles, insightful booklet essays by critics Michael Sragow and Alexander Sesonske, and rarely seen production notes by Kurosawa and members of his casts & crew. With this two-disc reissue, Criterion’s previous releases of Yojimbo and Sanjuro should now be considered officially obsolete. –Jeff Shannon

List Price: $ 69.95

Price: $ 46.95

Equinox (Criterion Collection)

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 22:39:37 +0000

Before he took you to a galaxy far, far away, before he brought you face-to-face with living, breathing prehistoric beasts, Dennis Muren, the future eight-time Oscar-winning visual effects artist (Star Wars, Jurassic Park), created an homage to the creature features of yore in the eerie monster mash Equinox. Deep within the woods and canyons of California, four teenagers happen upon an ancient book containing the secrets of a strange, malevolent world that coexists with that of mankind. This ,500-budget wonder was picked up for distribution by producer Jack H. Harris (The Blob), who shot new footage for the film with writer-director Jack Woods. Since its 1970 release, Equinox has gained a passionate cult following and inspired succeeding generations of horror/fantasy filmmakers.It is truly wondrous that Criterion selected the obscure sci-fi cult gem, Equinox, to bestow with classic status. Filmed in Bronson Canyon, Los Angeles, three teens used their college funds to make the 00 film about four kids who stumble upon a Satanic bible with tragic consequences. David (Edward Connell), Susan (Barbara Hewitt), Jim (Frank Bonner), and Vicki (Robin Christopher) see a medieval castle, find an old man living in a cave, enter an alternate universe, and fight several monsters, including the devil, all in the course of an afternoon. In the same demonic spirit as Rosemary’s Baby, released two years prior, Equinox’s occult thrill factor is amplified by Harryhausen-like special effects courtesy of Dennis Muren (Star Wars, Jurassic Park). Reminiscent of King Kong and the sci-fi greats of the 50s, Equinox would be ideally viewed in a drive-in. This Criterion box set contains both the original version, titled The Equinox, and the superior 1970 remake by Jack Woods, who stars as Asmodeus, a possessed Park Ranger. An introductory film stars Forrest J. Ackerman, discussing his influential magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland. A second disc includes test footage, silent takes, an interview with Dennis Muren, and the short film Zorgon: The H-Bomb Beast fron Hell. The booklet contains a critical essay about Equinox as well as introductions by George Lucas and Ray Harryhausen. This package sets Equinox in historical perspective, adding yet another dimension to a film that already takes place in several. –Trinie Dalton

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 27.49

Haxan (Witchcraft Through the Ages) – Criterion Collection

admin — Wed, 04 May 2011 22:32:19 +0000

Grave robbing, torture, possessed nuns, and a satanic Sabbath: Benjamin Christensen’s legendary film uses a series of dramatic vignettes to explore the scientific hypothesis that the witches of the middle ages suffered the same hysteria as turn-of-the-century psychiatric patients. But the film itself is far from serious-instead it’s a witches’ brew of the scary, gross, and darkly humorous. The Criterion Collection is proud to present two versions of this genre-defying “documentary,” for the first time ever on DVD. Witchcraft through the ages is explored with dark wit in this silent classic. Writer-director Benjamin Christensen uses a historical study of witchcraft as a jumping-off point for a fascinating film that is part science, part horror, and part social commentary. This Criterion edition uses a beautiful print, a rearrangement of music from the original Danish premiere, and the original Swedish intertitles (with subtitles). Goodies include commentary by Danish film scholar Casper Tybjerg, the option of watching a narrated version without intertitles, and test shots from the film. The test shots, in particular, give insight into the early filmmaking process, as when Christensen uses his own image to try out (and reject) a flying effect. This is a worthy edition to the collection of fans of horror films, silent films, and film in general. –Ali Davis

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 27.87

Black Moon (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

admin — Sun, 01 May 2011 16:26:50 +0000

Louis Malle (The Lovers, Au revoir les enfants) meets Lewis Carroll in this bizarre and bewitching trip down the rabbit hole. After skirting the horrors of an unidentified war being waged in an anonymous countryside, a beautiful young woman (Cathryn Harrison) takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic odyssey of a mysterious family. Evocatively shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist (Cries and Whispers, Fanny and Alexander), Black Moon is a Freudian tale of adolescent sexuality set in a postapocalyptic world of shifting identities and talking animals. It is one of Malle’s most experimental films and a cinematic daydream like no other.

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 29.99

Solaris: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]

admin — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:32:28 +0000

Ground control has been receiving strange transmissions from the remaining residents of the Solaris space station. When cosmonaut and psychologist Kris Kelvin is sent to investigate, he experiences the strange phenomena that afflict the Solaris crew, sending him on a voyage into the darkest recesses of his own consciousness. In Solaris, the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky (Ivan’s Childhood, Andrei Rublev) gives us a brilliantly original science-fiction epic that challenges our conceptions about love, truth, and humanity itself.The Russian answer to 2001, and very nearly as memorable a movie. The legendary Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky made this extremely deliberate science-fiction epic, an adaptation of a novel by Stanislaw Lem. The story follows a cosmonaut (Donatas Banionis) on an eerie trip to a planet where haunting memories can take physical form. Its bare outline makes it sound like a routine space-flight picture, an elongated Twilight Zone episode; but the further into its mysteries we travel, the less familiar anything seems. Even though Tarkovsky’s meanings and methods are sometimes mystifying, Solaris has a way of crawling inside your head, especially given the slow pace and general lack of forward momentum. By the time the final images cross the screen, Tarkovsky has gone way beyond SF conventions into a moving, unsettling vision of memory and home. Well worthy of cult status, Solaris is both challenging art-house fare and a whacked-out head trip. –Robert Horton

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 26.99

Monsters And Madmen (The Haunted Strangler / Corridors of Blood / The Atomic Submarine / First Man into Space) – Criterion Collection

admin — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 12:26:47 +0000

Launching us from a grave past to a space-age future, these two thrilling double features, from producers Richard and Alex Gordon, spin classic tales of hair-raising homicidal mania and intrepid, death-defying exploration. Featuring The Haunted Strangler, Corridors of Blood, The Atomic Submarine, and First Man Into Space.For sheer entertainment value, Monsters and Madmen is a more-than-welcome addition to the prestigious Criterion Collection. Proving that well-made exploitation films deserve as much scholarly appreciation as classics of world cinema, this four-disc set lives up to its name with four enjoyable features (two horror, two science fiction, all above average) that showcase the consistent quality achieved by British producers Richard and Alex Gordon. Taking their cue from American International Pictures (AIP, which Alex co-founded in the mid-1950s) and Roger Corman’s low-budget approach to profitable production, the Gordons were passionate film buffs who moved into filmmaking when Boris Karloff brought them a story property called “Stranglehold,” which was eventually produced as The Haunted Strangler (1958), giving 69-year-old Karloff a much-needed respite from the forgettable programmers that plagued his later career. Directed by Robert Day, it’s a superbly crafted thriller in which Karloff plays 19th-century English author James Rankin, determined to prove the innocence of a man wrongfully executed 20 years earlier. His quest turns horrifically tragic when Rankin is overtaken by the dead man’s spirit, and the killer’s strangulation spree continues. As part of a double-feature package, The Haunted Strangler was immediately followed by Corridors of Blood (1959), another fine vehicle for Karloff, who plays a doomed physician in 1840s London obsessed with pioneering experiments in anesthesia. It’s a grim graverobber’s tale, with an early role for Christopher Lee as a macabre character named “Resurrection Joe.”
Gaining momentum, the Gordons also produced First Man into Space and The Atomic Submarine (see previous DVD releases for detailed reviews), a pair of 1959 releases that took timely advantage of Cold War headlines, the space race, and advances in nuclear-sub exploration of the polar ice caps. The former involves a cocky test pilot’s ill-fated exposure to a strange alien substance which turns him into a blood-sucking predator; the latter is a sci-fi adventure that culminates in an encounter with an ill-tempered alien beneath the ice of the Arctic Circle. All four films guarantee a welcome trip down memory lane for long-time genre buffs, and DVD collectors of all ages will enjoy the enthusiastic expertise of Tom Weaver, whose delightfully reverent commentaries with Richard and Alex Gordon–along with video interviews with primary cast and crew members from all four films–serve as detailed testament (owing to Richard Gordon’s wonderfully vivid recollections) to the lasting appeal of these “B-movie” relics. Theatrical trailers, radio spots, and exploitative print advertising place the films in proper historical context, and accompanying booklets offer appreciative essays by producer John Croydon and critic/historians Maitland McDonagh, Bruce Eder, and Michael Lennick. Anyone with a passion for ’50s sci-fi and horror will quickly accept Monsters and Madmen as a crucial addition to their DVD collections, well in keeping with the expansive Criterion legacy. –Jeff Shannon

List Price: $ 79.95

Price: $ 58.13

The Night of the Hunter (Criterion Collection)

admin — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 06:27:22 +0000

The Night of the Hunter—incredibly, the only film the great actor Charles Laughton ever directed—is truly a standalone masterwork. A horror movie with qualities of a Grimm fairy tale, it stars a sublimely sinister Robert Mitchum (Cape Fear, The Friends of Eddie Coyle) as a traveling preacher named Harry Powell (he of the tattooed knuckles), whose nefarious motives for marrying a fragile widow, played by Shelley Winters (A Place in the Sun, The Diary of Anne Frank) are uncovered by her terrified young children. Graced by images of eerie beauty and a sneaky sense of humor, this ethereal, expressionistic American classic—also featuring the contributions of actress Lillian Gish (Intolerance, Duel in the Sun) and writer James Agee—is cinema’s quirkiest rendering of the battle between good and evil.In the entire history of American movies, The Night of the Hunter stands out as the rarest and most exotic of specimens. It is, to say the least, a masterpiece–and not just because it was the only movie directed by flamboyant actor Charles Laughton or the only produced solo screenplay by the legendary critic James Agee (who also cowrote The African Queen). The truth is, nobody has ever made anything approaching its phantasmagoric, overheated style in which German expressionism, religious hysteria, fairy-tale fantasy (of the Grimm-est variety), and stalker movie are brought together in a furious boil. Like a nightmarish premonition of stalker movies to come, Night of the Hunter tells the suspenseful tale of a demented preacher (Robert Mitchum, in a performance that prefigures his memorable villain in Cape Fear), who torments a boy and his little sister–even marries their mixed-up mother (Shelley Winters)–because he’s certain the kids know where their late bank-robber father hid a stash of stolen money. So dramatic, primal, and unforgettable are its images–the preacher’s shadow looming over the children in their bedroom, the magical boat ride down a river whose banks teem with fantastic wildlife, those tattoos of LOVE and HATE on the unholy man’s knuckles, the golden locks of a drowned woman waving in the current along with the indigenous plant life in her watery grave–that they’re still haunting audiences (and filmmakers) today. –Jim Emerson

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 27.47

Sid and Nancy: The Criterion Collection

admin — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 03:20:31 +0000

A lacerating love story, Sid & Nancy chronicles the brief, intense attachment of two of punk’s most notorious poster children, Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Director Alex Cox balances a bleak evocation of star-crossed love with surreal humor and genuine tenderness, creating a compelling portrait of the late ’70s punk scene. With brilliant performances by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, the film’s haunting imagery and black comedy resonate long after the final frames. After the cultish success of Repo Man, maverick director Alex Cox made the film that remains his masterpiece–a loud, brash, abrasive, painful, funny, and utterly brilliant screen biography of British punk rocker Sid Vicious and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen. As played to perfection by Gary Oldman and Chloe Webb, Sid and Nancy are made for each other, serving their mutual strengths and weaknesses and rising with the punk-rock fame of Sid’s group, the Sex Pistols, while falling into the ultimately lethal pit of drug abuse. Cox doesn’t pull any punches or compromise the unsavory aspects of this passionate love story, so the film presents a harsh mix of emotional and physical anguish tempered by the very poignant and genuine love shared by its tormented central characters. Through it all, the film emerges as an intimate and yet oddly epic chronicle of punk’s glory days of anarchic sex, drugs and rock & roll. It’s as dynamic and confidently directed as any screen biography before or since, no less fascinating for its unpleasant aspects as for the touching emotions at its very human core. –Jeff Shannon

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 74.00

Criterion Collection -”Cat People” laserdisc

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 22:27:04 +0000

Criterion Collection

laserdisc

Jacques Tourneur

audio commentary

Criterion Collection presents “Cat People” laserdisc. Spine number 233. Cult Classic from 1942 directed by Jacques Tourner. Commentary by Bruce Eder.

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This Is Spinal Tap – Criterion Collection

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:24:17 +0000

Rob Reiner’s directorial debut has developed into a cult phenomenon. The film that invented the “rockumentary” has now outlasted most of the bands it mocked. Following the ill-fated American comeback tour of an aging heavy metal group, this film has joined the ranks of the greatest comedies ever made. Director Marty DiBergi (Rob Reiner) solemnly alerts us to the glory that was Spinal Tap in his introduction to this “rockumentary” about the legendary British heavy-metal group, featuring lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest), lead singer David St. Hubbins (Michael McKean), bassist Derek Smalls (Harry Shearer), and a succession of drummers whose careers were cut short by spontaneously combusting on their stool, drowning in somebody else’s vomit, or otherwise perishing in untimely fashion. Under DiBergi’s studious interrogation, the band and their familiars retrace the band’s evolution from head-bopping Mersey Beat poseurs to head-banging metal poseurs, each change in musical direction or tonsorial chic having little effect on the surviving trio’s sublime idiocy. For, as St. Hubbins (he’s the “deep” one, relatively speaking) sagely observes, “It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”
Happily for us, director Reiner, who developed the underlying story line with Guest and former Credibility Gap pranksters McKean and Shearer, stays squarely on the right side of the line, even as his writer-actors remain hilariously trapped on the other side. In lieu of a formal shooting script, the quartet created an extensive and detailed band history ripe with the sort of dead-pan detail that hard-core rock historians and screwball aficionados will savor on countless replays; with the three Tap members also musicians themselves, the “band” developed its stage act under the unsuspecting noses of L.A. club denizens, who accepted them as just as loud, flashy, sexist, and obvious as any other mullet-tressed, leather-garbed brigade of guitar slingers, circa 1984. The resulting footage thus manages to lob its punch lines and build its characters (including some thinly veiled character assassinations of various industry folks) with a loose, tossed-away verve rooted in the improvisational approach. This Is Spinal Tap remains the funniest, and most truthful, look at rock culture ever filmed and a personal best for all involved. –Sam Sutherland

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Price: $ 274.99

Grey Gardens – Criterion Collection

admin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 03:22:05 +0000

Meet Big and Little Edie Beale-high society dropouts, mother and daughter, reclusive cousins of Jackie O.-thriving together amid the decay and disorder of their ramshackle East Hampton mansion. Five years after Gimme Shelter, the Maysles unveiled this impossibly intimate portrait of the unexpected, an eerie echo of the Kennedy Camelot, which has since become a cult classic and established Little Edie as fashion icon and philosopher queen. Grey Gardens is the name of a neglected, sprawling estate gone to seed. The crumbling mansion was home to Edith Bouvier Beale, often referred to as “Big Edie,” and her daughter, “Little Edie.” The East Hampton, Long Island, home became the center of quite a scandal when it was revealed in 1973 that the reclusive aunt and cousin to Jackie O. were living in a state of poverty and filth. That’s the background to this 1976 film portrait by cinéma vérité pioneers Albert and David Maysles, but it’s only incidental to the fascinating story they discover inside the estate walls.
The two Edies have lived in almost complete seclusion since the mid-1950s, ever since Big Edie’s husband abandoned her and Little Edie (then a young socialite on the verge of a dancing career, or so she claims) was called home to care for her depressed mother. Twenty years later they continue to live in their memories while camped out in a single bedroom of the 28-room mansion overrun with cats (who use the floor as their litter box). Rehashing mistakes and missed chances with an accusing banter that becomes more stinging and angry as the documentary progresses, they exist in a sad codependency brings new meaning to the term dysfunctional. Disturbing and discomforting, it comes off like a freak show at times, but for all their arguments and recriminations, the Maysles reveal two women abandoned by their families who are left to cling to each other, for better or worse. –Sean Axmaker

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Price: $ 16.89

Stranger Than Paradise – (The Criterion Collection)

admin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 19:21:06 +0000

Rootless Hungarian émigré Willie (John Lurie), his pal Eddie (Richard Edson), and visiting sixteen-year-old cousin Eva (Eszter Balint) always manage to make the least of any situation, whether aimlessly traversing the drab interiors and environs of New York City, Cleveland, or an anonymous Florida suburb. With its delicate humor and dramatic nonchalance, Jim Jarmusch’s one-of-a-kind minimalist masterpiece, Stranger Than Paradise, forever transformed the landscape of American independent cinema. Also included in this special-edition release is Jarmusch’s legendary debut feature, Permanent Vacation, a time capsule of late-seventies Manhattan, on DVD for the first time in the United StatesBack in the excess-is-best 1980s, the pared-down minimalism of 1984′s Stranger than Paradise played like the product of another time–or even another planet. It was so “off,” i.e. offbeat and off-kilter, it was (right) on. Now seen as a classic of American independent cinema, it compares favorably to other monochromatic first features, like Border Radio and Mala Noche (also lovingly restored by the movie mavens at the Criterion Collection). The acclaim was justified–except it wasn’t Jarmusch’s first film. That honor belongs to 1980′s Permanent Vacation, making its long-awaited digital debut on this two-disc set. Shot by Tom DiCillo, Jarmusch’s initial offering revolves around the name Parker: Chris Parker is Aloysious Parker, a ducktailed New Yorker with a jones for Charlie Parker. Allie’s a drifter and a dime-store philosopher. “That’s how thing work for me,” he drawls in voice-over, “I go from this place, this person, to that place or person.” And so he does. Fresh from NYU, where he assisted Nicholas Ray, Jarmusch displays an innate talent for framing and dialogue (Allie lives for “vibrating, bugged-out sound”). His touch with actors–Frankie Faison’s raconteur aside–is less assured, but he learned quickly. Lounge Lizard John Lurie cameos as a sax player. DiCillo returns for Stranger than Paradise, in which he and Jarmusch trade color for black and white stock (donated by Wim Wenders). In this “semi-neorealist black comedy,” as the filmmaker puts it in the production notes (included with this set), Hungarian teenager Eva (Eszter Balint) arrives in New York (“The New World”) to stay with her cousin, Willie (Lurie). A drifter, like Allie, she continues on to Cleveland (“One Year Later”) and Florida (“Paradise”). With nothing better to do, Willie and Eddie (Richard Edson) tag along. As opposed to the rapid-fire cutting of the day, Jarmusch uses static shots divided by black screen. He may have taken cues from Ozu and The Honeymooners–dig those porkpie hats–but the end product couldn’t be more idiosyncratic.
This director-approved double-feature comes complete with a German TV documentary (Kino ’84: Jim Jarmusch), behind-the-scenes footage, US and Japanese trailers, and a 44-page booklet with essays by J. Hoberman and Luc Sante. Just as Stranger than Paradise stands as one of the defining films of the 1980s, this special edition represents one of the most essential DVD releases of the 2000s. –Kathleen C. Fennessy

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 26.82

Robinson Crusoe on Mars – (Criterion Collection)

admin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 13:20:54 +0000

Special-effects wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy-film lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the unknown. When his spaceship crash-lands on the barren wastelands of Mars, U.S. astronaut Commander “Kit” Draper (Paul Mantee) must fight for survival, with a pet monkey seemingly his only companion. But is he alone? Shot in vast Techniscope and blazing Technicolor, Robinson Crusoe on Mars is an imaginative and beloved techni-marvel of classic science fiction.Although it is a thoughtful and surprisingly nonexploitative movie, the title Robinson Crusoe on Mars might conjure up unholy echoes of cross-pollinated genre movies such as Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter or Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Well, don’t worry. This 1964 space epic is in fact an adaptation of the classic Daniel Defoe novel, and it plays fair by logic and science. After his spaceship crash-lands on Mars, astronaut Paul Mantee must figure out how to survive on the hostile planet (shot mostly in Death Valley), aided only by a monkey from his ship. Director Byron (The War of the Worlds) Haskin’s sober approach brings a refreshing emphasis to issues of survival–how many space travel movies have you seen where the traveler tests the air of a distant planet and discovers that, by George, he can breathe just fine? Not this one. Mantee’s desperate methods of tracking his air flow and experimenting with methods of breathing are painstakingly explored, and seem like exactly the kind of problems a real planetary voyager would encounter. The second half of the picture cleverly blends Defoe’s plot with sci-fi conventions, and the movie never does “dumb down.”
The Criterion Collection’s DVD of Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a handsome treatment of a minor classic. A commentary track stitches together comments from a variety of participants, including Mantee, Haskin (in a 1979 interview), and original screenwriter Ib Melchior (disagreements between Haskin and Melchoir are included). A featurette, Destination–Mars gives some of the “science fact” behind the movie, and excerpts from Melchoir’s original treatment show suggest changes made. And a “music video” puts movie clips alongside a song written and performed by co-star Victor Lundin, a number he developed for his appearances at sci-fi conventions. –Robert Horton

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 17.49

Night on Earth – (The Criterion Collection)

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 09:20:35 +0000

Five cities. Five taxicabs. A multitude of strangers in the night. Jim Jarmusch assembled an extraordinary international cast of actors (including Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Béatrice Dalle, and Roberto Benigni) for this hilarious quintet of tales of urban displacement and existential angst, spanning time zones, continents, and languages. Jarmusch’s lovingly askew view of humanity from the passenger seat makes for one his most charming and beloved films.Jim Jarmusch’s 1991 ensemble comedy turns a gimmick into a revelation. The story begins in Los Angeles one evening at 7:07 p.m. A talent agent (Gena Rowlands) gets into the back of a taxi driven by a sullen, chain-smoking young woman (Winona Ryder), and over the course of their bumpy conversation, Rowlands’s character becomes convinced that the cabby would be perfect for a particular part in a movie. Meanwhile, at that very moment, taxi drivers in New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki are all having unique encounters with a variety of fares, breaking through that invisible social barrier between the front and back seats of their cars, often to absurd or touching effect. Among them are cabby Roberto Benigni’s ranting confessions to a priest, Armin Mueller-Stahl’s relinquishing of the wheel to a stunned Giancarlo Esposito, and Isaach De Bankolé’s relentless discussion of sight and sex with an angry, blind woman (Beatrice Dalle). What emerges is a chain of brief intimacies (not always welcomed by the characters), like a number of matches lit simultaneously across the globe, flickering brightly for a few short moments. This popular work by Jarmusch helped confirm his reputation as a fiercely independent filmmaker of rare perception, rigor, and classical sensibility matched with original thinking. –Tom Keogh

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 18.49

Three Films By Hiroshi Teshigahara (Pitfall / Woman In The Dunes / The Face Of Another) (The Criterion Collection)

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:20:39 +0000

THREE FILMS BY HIROSHI TESHIGAHARA – DVD Movie

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Price: $ 42.50

Schizopolis – Criterion Collection

admin — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:20:24 +0000

Fletcher Munson has a doppelgänger in dentist Dr. Jeffrey Korchek. In his only starring performance to date, acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh (Erin Brockovich, Traffic, Ocean’s Eleven) inhabits both roles: Munson, onanistic corporate drone and speechwriter for New Age guru T. Azimuth Schwitters, and the swinging Korchek, Muzak enthusiast and lover to Munson’s disenchanted wife. Meanwhile, mad exterminator and part-time celebrity prima donna Elmo Oxygen seduces local housewives in secret code and plots against Schwitters. Placing the onus squarely on the viewer (“If you don’t understand this film, it’s your fault and not ours”), writer/director/editor/cameraman Soderbergh presents a deranged comedy of confused identity, doublespeak, and white-knuckled corporate intrigue, confirming his status as one of America’s most daring and unpredictable filmmakers.Both a kind of home movie and a salute to the hip, pop-up sketch comedy of 1960s-early 1970s television–Laugh-In, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, that sort of thing–Schizopolis is a hit-and-miss series of dada gags with vaguely connecting threads of Kafkaesque paranoia. Soderbergh himself stars as two people–one an ineffective dentist, the other a speechwriter for a cult movement called Eventualism, which has set out to “question all answers”–connected by their romances with the same woman, played by Soderbergh’s real-life ex, Betsy Bramley. There isn’t so much a story as a series of bits in which these characters often (though not necessarily) turn up, from press conferences on the subject of horse urination to old footage of nudists to a scene of an Eventualist exchange between husband and wife: “Generic greeting!” “Generic greeting returned!” None of this leads to a literal point, but after a while an undercurrent of disease about making sense of the modern world becomes apparent beneath the jokes. Soderbergh (sex, lies, and videotape, Out of Sight) is certainly a filmmaker who goes his own way in life, always hitting his target in one spot or another and occasionally getting a bull’s-eye for his trouble. Schizopolis is no bull’s-eye, and it has just as many detractors as admirers, but it’s impossible not to appreciate Soderbergh’s conviction that making a film out on the fringes is a worthy endeavor. –Tom Keogh

List Price: $ 39.95

Price: $ 24.99