| Rob |
The
Apple [Iran 1998]
The first outing for teenage Iranian
sensation Samira Makhmalbaf, daughter of Mohsen
Makhmalbaf and grade A pupil of his very own Film
School, The Makhmalbaf Film House in Tehran. This
truly is an amazing piece of film making. The
Apple or Sib tells the
story of two twelve year old daughters of a sixty
five year old man who have been locked in a small
room since birth. This gripping part fact, part
fiction story is typical of Iranian humane cinema.
We were lucky enough to have Samira's other major
film Blackboards released by
Artificial Eye on region 2, please may we have
this heartwarming, eye-opening film also. |
| |
Released
on region 2 DVD on 23 August 2004 by Artificial
Eye with a 16:9 anamorphic transfer, a Dolby 2.0
soundtrack, a fine interview with director Samira
Makhmalbaf, a Behind-the-Scenes featurette, a biography
of the director and a trailer. |
Slarek
7
July 2005 |
If.... [UK 1968]
Lindsay Anderson's stunning, surrealistic
call to revolution, with Malcolm McDowell just superb
as Mick Travis, the public schoolboy whose disobedience
and rejection of the values of school and society
steadily grows into something more destructive.
Or does it? British 60s cinema at its finest. There
was a rumour of a DVD release a couple of years
back, but so far nothing has been forthcoming. |
| |
Talk about buses coming along all at once... no sooner had Criterion announced a US release than Paramount came along with a region 2 equivalent. As so often it's the Criterion release that wins, with a restored anamorphic transfer, a commentary by David Robinson and Malcolm McDowell, an episode from the Scottish TV series Cast and Crew about the film, Lindsay Anderson's breakthrough documentary Thurdsday's Children, and interview with Graham Crowden, treailers and a booklet. Wonderful. |
Rob |
The Incredible Shrinking Man [US 1957]
Let's face it, most of us have a
soft spot for 50's Sci-Fi. The Thing From
Another World, The Day The Earth
Stood Still, Forbidden Planet,
Invasion of The Body Snatchers,
Them!. All the above have at least
a half decent DVD release, so why oh why cannot
we have The Incredible Shrinking Man?
To my knowledge it has not even been on TV for many
years. This is also currently in production as a
remake by well known and respected director Keenan
Ivory Wayans. Who? Apparently he made Scary
Movie, so no problems there. |
| |
Finally
out on region 2 with no extras. We await news on
the picture quality. |
|
LG
|
La Balance [France 1982]
Bob Swaim's compelling police drama
set in the Algerian sector of Paris features a
string of fine performances - notably Philippe
Léotard and Nathalie Baye - and first-rate
direction from Chicago-born Swaim. Has had the
odd TV screening, but needs a DVD release!
|
| |
Released
on region 1 on July 27 2004 from Home Vision Entertainment,
it features an anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer and Dolby
2.0 sound, but naff all in the way of extras. |
LG |
La Ceremonie [France 1995]
Claude Chabrol's Hitchcockian psychological
drama has a killer cast - Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine
Bonnaire, Jean-Pierre Cassel and Jacqueline Bisset
and has been described by the director himself
as a Marxist film about class struggle but has
been seen by others as a more Freudian work. Above
all it's a compelling study of family and ceremony,
and is never predicatable.
|
| |
Released
on region 1 DVD on July 27 by Home Vision Entertainment,
the disk sports an anamorphic 1.66:1 transfer and
Dolby 2.0 sound, a 20 minute making-Of documentary,
trailer, Chabrol filmography and an essay on the
film by Jonathan Rosenbaum. |
Slarek
Feb
2004
|
Looking for Richard [US 1996]
Al pacino directs this energetic,
passionate look at the appeal of Shakespeare's
Richard III, with Pacino's investigations intercut
with extracts from the play (performed by the
likes of Pacino, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder, Alec
Baldwin and Kevin Conway) and sequences in which
the process of actually putting the film together
appears to be coming apart. A hugely entertaining,
intelligently done film, and a terrific introduction
to the Bard's work.
|
| |
Released
on region 2 release on 3 January 2005 by Fox. Word
on the picture quality and even sound sync is not
good, but we're aiming to track this down nonetheless. |
Slarek
11
March
2006 |
The Monolith Monsters [USA 1957]
Yeah, the title suggests a cheapo
horror film, but this is an underseen but highly
regarded entry into the 1950s invasion cycle, written
by genre master Jack Arnold and intelligently handled
by John Sherwood, who had previously directed The
Creature Walks Among Us for Arnold but
curiously never got to direct another film. |
| |
No stand-alone release, but the film has become avaialble in the US as part of Universal's clumsily titled Classic Sci-Fi Ultimate Collection, along with Tarantula, The Mole People, The Incredible Shrinking Man and Monster on the Campus. Mind you, availabilty is such that it could cost you over $200. Do I want it THAT much? |
Slarek
11
March
2006 |
Overlord [UK 1975]
Stuart Cooper's excellent look at
everyday life for an ordinary soldier in the weeks
leading up to the D-Day landings brilliantly mixes
archive footage with freshly shot drama, thanks
in no small part to the cinematography of later
Kubrick regular John Alcott. |
| |
Recently released by Criterion (are they reading this list or something?) with a new transfer, a commentary by director Stuart Cooper and actor Brian Stirner, Mining the Archive video, Capa Influences Cooper photo essay, Cameramen at War 1943 film, Cooper's 1969 short A Test fo Violence, a 1941 MoI film Germany Calling, journals from D-Day soldiers and a new essay. |
Slarek |
Performance [UK 1970]
Donald Cammell and Nic Roeg's extraordinary
collision of experimental cinema and London gangster
movie remains one of the greatest examples of mindfuck
cinema ever made, and is a rarity in that it is
also British. Out-of-control tough guy hides out
from the mob with drugged-up rock reclusive Mick
Jagger in a Notting Hill basement flat and the two
start to exchange identities. Gorgeous cinema. |
| |
Released almost simultaneously in the US and UK as part of Warner's Director's Showcase series, with a fine transfer and an excellent retrospective documentary. |
LG |
The Phantom of Liberty [France/Italy 1974]
Master surrealist Luis Buñuel's
brilliant series of barely linked and inconclusive
short stories, which include a bourgeois dinner
party in which the guests eat the meal seated
on toilets, a missing schoolgirl who isn't missing
at all (it's pointless trying to explain this
- you need to see it), monks who gamble and drink,
filthy postcards of historic landmarks; and a
man who calmly ascends a tower block and starts
shooting passers-by from the top floor, a scene
that shaped the opening of Larry Cohen's Demon.
Marvellous cinema.
|
| |
Released
on May 24 2005 on region 1 by Criterion, a little
light on extras but the anamorphic transfer looks
very nice indeed. Also available on region 2 as
part of the second Luis Buñuel Box Set from
Warner. |
Slarek/
LG |
Point Blank [US 1967]
Deliverance
is an acknowledged cinema classic, but it was
one of two films that John Boorman made in the
US that are so regarded. So I have one question
here: why the hell has there been no DVD of Point
Blank? This marvellous crime drama features
an brilliantly iconic performance from John Boorman
as Walker, a hard man determined to get back money
owed to him, no matter whose toes he has to step
on. Just gorgeous. A special edition would be
nice, and appropriate, given the film's status.
|
| |
Released
by Warner on region 1 with an anamorphic 2.35:1
transfer and a commentary by John Boorman and (why?)
Steven Soderbergh and featurettes The Rock Part
1 and The Rock Part 2. |
LG
Dec
2004 |
Raise the Red Lantern [China/Hong Kong/Taiwan 1991]
Despite the international success
of Hero and The House
of Flying Daggers, director Zhang Yimou's
early work remains his most mesmerising, none more
so than this beautifully filmed tale of nineteen-year-old
Songlian who, following the death of her father,
is forced to become the fourth wife of of the powerful
lord Chen Zuoqian and finds herself in constant
competition with the other wives for Chen's attention,
and the rewards that it carries. Fabulous set design,
costumes and photography, a hypnotically sedate
pace and the wonderful Gong Li in the lead.... gorgeous
cinema. This is alsoready available on a Taiwanese
region 0 disk but is non-anamorphic, has burnt-in
subtitles and a Dolby 2.0 soundtrack, and is a pig
to track down. A job for Criterion, perhaps? |
| |
Oh
if only. It finally appeared on region 1 from Razor
Digital with shabby picture quality and a letterboxed
rather than enhanced print. The wait goes on for
a region 2 improvement. |
Rob |
Shall We Dansu? [1996]
A wonderful Japanese comedy directed
by Masayuki Suo. The film is about a workaholic
who has a change of direction in his life when
he joins a ballroom dancing class. It's the way
it is all handled that is impressive. He gets
the train home from work every night and he sees
a beautiful lady in the window of the dance club,
and after a few nights he gets off the train at
that stop and ventures up to meet her. From there
it gets extremely funny, whilst establishing all
characters within the class that he joins, especially
his, hehee. You see him practicing his well taught
moves when waiting for the train - wow, we really
need to see this film again soon. His family (if
I remember correctly he had a wife and daughter)
begin to detect a significant change in his attitude
to life and suspect he maybe having an affair.
It was so so easy to get engrossed into the characters,
so much so you will want to be mates with all
of them. So please, please someone get hold of
this, distribute it and bring some happiness to
the many hard working people of this world, any
region will do as long as we can have English
subtitles please. We will need the disc to remember
it was actually a superb film when Hollywood finishes
making a mess of it! Thank you.
|
| |
Finally
available on DVD, but in the cut down, Mirimax version
show in US cinemas. See our article on the film
and the upocoming remake here
and the follow-up news item here. |
Slarek
30
September
2006 |
The
Silent Partner [Canada 1978]
One of the best crime thrillers
you'll never see, at least if DVD distributors
have anything to do with it. Elliot Gould stars
as a meek bank teller who realises in advance
that the guy posing as a charity Santa is planning
to rob his till. Does he tell the bosses? Does
he hell. Instead he puts the lion's share of the
loot aside for himself, knowing that all the missing
money will be put down to the robbery. One problem,
the robber (Christopher Plummer) is a psychotic,
and he doesn't take kindly to the deception. The
cat-and-mouse game between the two that follows
is an absolute delight, though not without its
moments of nastiness. Come on someone, get this
out! |
| |
Lion's Gate have responded, at least in the US, with a misleading cover and a widescreen transfer but no extras. |
LG
Dec
2004 |
Spanking the Monkey [USA 1994]
Given David O. Russell's success
with Three Kings and I
Heart Huckabees, isn't it about time someone
released his breakthrough indie film, a darkly and
outrageously comic exploration of the taboo subjects
of incest and masturbation, espcially given that
it scored at the Independent Spirit Awards and bagged
the audience award at Sundance. |
| |
Released
on region 1 from Image Entertainment wih OK picture
quality and a commentary track. Nice one. |
Slarek |
The Thin Blue Line [US 1988]
Errol Morris's groundbreaking documentary
exposed police corruption and led ultimate to
a wrongly convicted man named Randall Adams gaining
his freedom. Available on VHS from BFI, it's a
cropped 4:3 print and many of the key newspaper
headlines are missed the start and end of words.
A DVD release in the correct aspect ratio is a
must.
|
| |
At
last released by MGM with an anamorphic 1.85:1 transfer
on July 26 on region 1. No extras, but that will
do fine for now. Read our review here. |
Slarek |
Ugetsu Monogatari [Japan 1953]
Kenji Mizoguchi's beautifully realised
tale of two peasants who seek to make their fotunes
during 16th Century civil war in Japan must surely
be a prime candidate for the Criterion treatment
- I don't even need major extras here, just the
sort of restoration job they've been doing on key
Kurosawa films recently. |
| |
Good
grief, if actually happened, but better than I could
of hoped. The film got its DVD release, and from
Criterion, but as a 2-disk special edition that
includes a commentary by Asian cinema expert Tony
Rayns, a 14 minute appreciation of the film by Masahiro
Shinoda, a 20 minute interview with the film's first
assistant Tokuzo Tanaka, a 10 minute interview with
cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa, a 72 page book containing
an essay by critic PhilipLopate and, best of all,
Kaneto Shindo's 150 minute 1975 documentary Kenji
Mizoguchi: The Life of a Film Director. And
it's also gorgeously packaged. |
