DVD News

Last Days on Region 2 in January [19 November]

Gus Van Sant follows up his audience-deviding but for my money mesmerising Elephant with Last Days, a similarly styled and equally opinion-provoking study of the final days of Blake, a rock icon who is crumbling under the pressure of fame and those around him. It is purely co-incidental, of course, that Blake bears a striking physical and situational resemblance to one Kurt Cobain... Arriving, allegedly, with a 4:3 transfer, which should closely match the film's original ratio of 1.37:1, the region 2 DVD should also sport the following features:

A deleted scene;
A music video;
The Long Dolly Shot - On The Set Of Last Days featurette;
An interview with actor Michael Pitt, who plays Blake;
Trailer.

Release date is pencilled in for 9 January on UK region 2 at the retail price of £19.99.

Wheels on Meals in January [19 November]

Jackie Chan's 1984 Wheels on Meals/Kwai tsan tsehb may be one of his less loudly championed works, but it's still a hugely enjoyable blending of comedy, kung fu and insane stunt work, set not on the streets of Hong Kong but in Barcelona, where Thomas (Chan) and his cousin David (Yuen Biao) run a mobile restaurant and team up with hapless private detective Moby (Sammo Hung) to catch beautiful pickpocket Sylvia. In January Hong Kong Legends are to release the film as a two-disk Platinum Edition, with the following features:

A new, anamorphic, high definition transfer and 5.1 sound;
An audio commentary by our old friend Bey Logan;
On Giants' Shoulders, an interview with director/co-star Sammo Hung;
Rare outtakes;
Interview with Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 director Brett Ratner;
The Inside Track featurette with regular Jackie Chan & Sammo Hung collaborator Stanley Tong;
Born to Fight - a featurette on action star Yuen Biao;
King of the Ring - featurette with karate champion Keith Vitali;
Jet Fighter - an interviews and teaching seminar with martial arts champions Benny "The Jet" Urquidez and Keith Vitali;
Trailers.

Release date is set for 30 January on UK region 2 at the retail price of £19.99.

Dear Wendy in January [11 November]

The Dogme 95 movement prodiuced and inspired some inpiring cinema, but the concencus here is that the best official Dogme film remains Thomas Vinterberg's superb Festen, despite sterling work by Outsider favourite Lars von Trier. Recently the two Dogme brothers combined their considerable talents on a single English language film in Dear Wendy, which was written by von Trier and directed by Vinterberg. As with von Trier's extraordinary Dogville, the setting is a poor American mining town, where a story unfolds that explores the American obsession with guns. On 9th January metrodome are to release the film on region 2 DVD, with the following extras yet to be confirmed:

Audio commentary from director Thomas Vinterberg and cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle
Selected scene commentary: 9 letter to Wendy by the cast
Letters to Dear Wendy: making of documentary
Deleted scenes
The director & screenwriter: an interview with Thomas Vinterberg and Lars Von Trier
UK / US trailers
Poster artwork

The Devil's Rejects for Christmas [8 November]

Rock monster turned horror director Rob Zombie's directoral debut House of a 1000 Corpses has already carved itself a place in cult and zombie movie history, and his follow-up The Devil's Rejects looks all set to follow in its footsteps, combining the living dead splatter of Lucio Fulci with the gore fests of Herschell Gordon Lewis, laced with a dash of Romero's wit and savvy. Just a dash, mind you. Not seen it? Well here's your chance, as on 26th December 2005 Mumentum will be releasing it as a limited 2 disk special edition, with will feature a special, 106 minute cut of the film, 5.1 and 6.1 soundtracks, plus the following special features:

Audio Commentary by director Rob Zombie;
Second audio commentary by stars Bill Moseley, Sid Craig and Sheri Moon Zombie;
'30 Days In Hell: The Making of The Devil's Rejects' (2 hours 25 mins);
Blooper Reel (5:40);
Deleted Scenes (14:40);
'The Morris Green Show' (8:23);
Buck Owens' video: 'Satan's Got To Get Along Without Me' (2:10);
Captain Spaulding's Xmas Commercial (1:30) (nice timing);
Otis' Home Movie (1:10);
Make-up Test (13:30);
Matthew McGrory Tribute (2:20);
'Mary The Monkey Girl' Commercial (1:30);
'Bloody Stand-Up' Video (2:40);
Stills Gallery;
Theatrical Trailer.

Retailing at £19.99 for the 2-disk edition or £15.99 for a single disk, movie only version (£19.99 for a UMD disk for your PSP - why do these cost more?), it should be just the thing to help wash down all that day-old turkey.

Criterion in February [6 November]

And yes, there's more. Criterion's February 2006 line-up is as delicious as ever, and includes some genuine Outsider favourites, a couple of which are more than a little unexpected.

First up is Luis Buñuel's 1961 Palme d'Or winner Viridiana, one of the master's finest works that observes life as a beggar's banquet and takes some rather lovely pokes at religion, including a memorable take on the Last Supper. The Criterion disk will feature a new digital transfer and mono sound and the following extras:

A new video interview with Cineaste editor and author Richard Porton;
A new essay by author and film historian Michael Wood;
Original U.S. release trailer, and more.

Jean Renoir's 1938 La Bête humaine stars the gorgeous Simone Simon as Séverine Rouband who joins with her husband to kill their former employee. The deed is witnessed by rail worker Jacques Lantier (Jean Gabin), who does not tell the police because he is in love with Séverine. But events will take a darker turn yet. The expected new transfer and improved subtitle translation is joined by:

An introduction to the film by Jean Renoir;
A new interview with director Peter Bogdanovich;
Archival interviews with Renoir discussing his adaptation of Emile Zola’s novels, his process with actors, and directing actress Simone Simon;
A gallery of on-set photographs and theatrical posters;
Theatrical trailer;
A booklet featuring writings by film critic Geoffrey O’Brien, historian Ginette Vincendeau, and production designer Eugène Lourié.

Probably the biggest surprise is Robert Hamer's glorious black comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, one of the finest of Ealing films, starring Dennis Price as the son of a shunned member of the titled D'Ascoyn family who determines to rise to the position of Duke by killing all of the family members (all played by a marvellous Alec Guinness) who stand in his way. A new print of this certainly whets the appetite, and will be joined by these features:

As-yet unnamed BBC programs on Alec Guinness and the history of Ealing Studios;
A gallery of archival production and publicity photographs;
The original theatrical trailer;
A new essay by film critic and historian Philip Kemp.

Finally, we have one of Criterion's occasional but always welcome celebrations of American independent film-making in the shape of Whit Sillman's 1990 Metropolitan, a film that on paper should not be as engaging and enjoyable as it is, revolving as it does around a group of New York's young and privelaged upper class. But it works a treat, and launched the film careers of Stillman and several of his actors, though where Whit has been since 1998's The Last days of Disco will hopefully be a question asked by this disk's supplementary features. Featuring a new, high definition anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer and the original Dolby mono soundtrack, it will also include:

An audio commentary by director Whit Stillman, editor Christopher Tellefsen, and actors Chris Eigeman and Taylor Nichols;
Rare outtakes and deleted scenes;
A new essay by author and film scholar Luc Sante, and more.

Criterion in January [5 November]

Criterion releases do tend to feature frequently in our news section, but given the nature and quality of their releases it's hardly surprising, and January 2006 is shaping up to be another corking month, with the following titles set for release.

The Bad Sleep Well - Akira Kurosawa's 1960 film noir stars Toshiro Mifune as a young executive huntindown his father's killer and is already available on region 2 courtesy of BFI. the Criterion disk features a newly restored high definition anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer and mono sound, plus:

A 36-minute documentary on the making of The Bad Sleep Well, created as part of the Toho Masterworks series;
Original theatrical trailer;
New essays by film scholar Richard Combs and screenwriter-director Michael Almereyda (Deadwood, Hamlet).

Young Mr. Lincoln - John Ford's 1939 biographical drama features perenial good guy (with one very notable exception) Henry Fonda as young Abe, marking the first collaboration between this actor and director. Arriving in a double disk set, the film is presented in restored high definition transfer with mono sound, and the following special features:

A 1992 BBC profile of John Ford, written and presented by filmmaker Lindsay Anderson;
A 1975 episode of the BBC talk show Parkinson, featuring Henry Fonda;
Archival audio interviews with Ford and Fonda, conducted by the filmmaker’s grandson Dan Ford;
Academy Award Theater radio dramatization of Young Mr. Lincoln, downloadable as an MP3 file;
Gallery of production documents;
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing;
A 32-page booklet featuring critic Geoffrey O’Brien and Sergei Eisenstein’s homage to Ford.

The Virgin Spring - Ingmar Bergman's 1961 Academy Award winner, a harrowing medieval tale of faith and revenge starring Bergman fave Max von Sydow has the expected new, restored transfer and mono sound, improbed subtitle translations, plus:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer;
Audio commentary by Ingmar Bergman scholar Birgitta Steene;
New video interviews with actresses Gunnel Linblom and Birgitta Petersson;
New essay by film historian and Bergman scholar Peter Cowie;
And, we are promised, more!

Finally, there is Vittorio De Sica's 1944 The Children Are Watching Us (I Bambini ci guardano), a touching look at the effects of parental separation on the child caught in the middle and was the director's first collaboration with longtime partner Cesare Zavattini. One of Criterion's more extras-light disks, it features a new transfer, improved subtitle translation and the following features:

New video interviews with star Luciano de Ambrosis and De Sica scholar Callisto Cosulich
A booklet featuring film scholar Robert Cardullo and Stuart Klawans on screenwriter Cesare Zavattini

Nightmare Alley in November [3 November]

Rarely seen but passionately discussed, Edmund Goulding's 1947 Nightmare Alley was once described as the darkest of all film noirs, a trophy that it must have had some serious competition to claim. Its reputation was considerably enhanced by its unavailability on home video for years, thanks to a long-standing dispute between the film's producer George Jessel and the Fox studio, a dispute that has finally been settled, allowing the film to finally be more widely seen. Featuring Tyrone Power in what many regard as his finest performance, cast against type as an ambitious carny and con man with eyes on the big time, but things are destined to run anything but smoothly. Well come on, this IS film noir. Already available on region 1, the region 2 release is now set for a 14th November release from Eureka! on their prestigious Masters of Cinema label. Featuring a newly restored, high definition transfer, the disk will also sport the following extras:

A 10 minute video introduction by celebrated noir historian Woody Haut;
Woody Haut on Nightmare Alley (25 minutes);
A commentary by Alain Silver and James Ursini;
Original theatrical trailer;
A PDF of the original 157 page script and the 17 page musical cue sheet;
A 32 page booklet with a new essay and rare production stills.

We'll be reviewing the disk in the next couple of weeks. After we emerge from the shadows.