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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920)
BD - Based on the Robert
Louis Stevenson story: Doctor Henry Jekyll's enthusiasm for
science and his selfless acts of service have made him a
much-admired man. But as he visits Sir George Carew one evening,
his host criticizes him for his reluctance to experience the
more sensual side of life. Sir George goads Jekyll into visiting
a music hall, where he watches the alluring dancer Gina. Jekyll
becomes fascinated with the two contrasting sides of human
nature, and he becomes obsessed with the idea of separating
them. After extensive work in his laboratory, he devises a
formula that does indeed allow him to alternate between two
completely different personalities, his own and that of a
brutish, lascivious person whom he names Hyde. It is not long
before the personality of Hyde begins to dominate Jekyll's
affairs. Blu-ray Release date: January 28th, 2014
Nostalghia
BD - A Russian academic (Jankovsky) visits
Italy as part of his research on the life and work of a composer
who has committed suicide. He engages in an estranged
relationship with his translator (Giordano), and eventually
shares his existential agonies with a solitary person (Josephson)
labeled as mad by the community. Tarkovsky follows here the
Bergmanesque line of psychodrama as his main character,
profoundly influenced by these two encounters, is led towards
the ultimate struggle for individual catharsis.
Blu-ray
Release Date: January 21st, 2014
In the Heat of the Night
BD - In the Heat Of The
Night fit in well with the canons of screenwriter Stirling
Silliphant, director Jewison and cinematographer Haskell Wexler.
Silliphant went on to pen the poignant
Charly (1968) and another racially-tinged drama, The
Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970). Wexler brought a harsh,
realistic look to films like
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and
documentaries like No Nukes (1980), later working on such
socially-conscious fare as Matewan (1987) and Coming
Home (1978). With In The Heat of the Night's performances
and screenplay drawing so much of the viewer's attention,
Wexler's camera work almost takes a backseat, but his shot
compositions and angles complement the movie's mood perfectly.
Blu-ray Release Date: January 14th, 2014
Rendez-vous in Paris
BD - Two street musicians alert us
that a rendezvous can be surprising. In the first of the
triptych, Esther learns her boyfriend may be cheating on her, so
she arranges to meet a flirtatious stranger at a cafe. When she
goes, surprises abound. In "The Benches of Paris," a couple
meets in parks to stroll, kiss and talk. She already has a
boyfriend, so while he's away, they plan to spend two days in a
hotel, pretending to be tourists. Surprises alter their plans.
In part three, a painter arranges to meet a Swedish tourist at a
cafe. Then he sees a passing stranger, pursues her, and forgets
the Swede. Alas, she's married, but advises him about his love
life. Her advice gets mixed results. Blu-ray Release Date:
November 19th, 2013
The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981)
BD - Smells are
very important in the world of Cain, especially in ''Postman,''
in which the narrator, a drifter named Frank Chambers, finds
himself being led by the nose, first into an adulterous affair
with Cora, and then into a plot to murder the foul-smelling old
Nick, whose Saturday night baths are never enough. Vulgarity is
the essence of Cain's fiction, and vulgarity is what is so
lacking in the new screen adaptation directed by Bob Rafelson
(''Five Easy Pieces''), written by David Mamet, one of our most
talented and idiosyncratic young playwrights, and starring Jack
Nicholson as Frank Chambers and Jessica Lange as the portable
heater called Cora. Blu-ray Release date: January 21st, 2014
Computer Chess
BD - A boldly intelligent ensemble comedy
with a feel and atmosphere that surpass easy comparison,
Computer Chess takes place in the early-1980s over the
course of a weekend conference where a group of obsessive
software programmers have convened to pit their latest
refinements in machine-chess and the still-developing field of
artificial intelligence (AI) against an assembly of human chess
masters. Computer Chess is a portrait not only of the
crazy and surreal relationships that come to pass between the
abundance of characters who participate in the weekend event
(and among whose ranks include Wiley Wiggins, the revered indie-game
developer and star of Richard Linklater s classic
Dazed and Confused), but of the very era of early
computing itself - and of the first, rudimentary video games -
and (if that weren't enough) of the hopes and insecurities that
persisted through the film s "retro" digital age into the
present-day - that semi-virtual, hyper-social,
maybe-kind-of-dehumanised landscape that, let s face it, is our
very own era. If that still weren't enough: it s also one of the
wittiest, most shift-and-cringe-in-your-seat, and entirely
LOL-hilarious movies of recent times. Blu-ray Release Date:
January 20th, 2014
Jack the Ripper
BD - In 1888, a reign of murderous
terror struck East London. To this day, the case is unsolved.
And the killer is known only by his infamous nickname. But the
truth may at last have been found. Based on breakthrough
research at the time it was made, this gripping “what if”
suggests who wielded the surgically sharp blade of death – and
why his identity has been concealed. Michael Caine plays
Scotland Yard’s Frederick Abberline and heads a large, flawless
cast (including Armand Assante and Jane Seymour) in a movie
cloaked in mystery and wrapped in period detail. Was the killer
a noted doctor? A famed actor? A police commissioner,
clairvoyant or even the Crown Prince? Each raises Abberline’s
suspicions. Each merits investigation in this gripping whodunit.
Blu-ray Release Date: October 28th, 2011
My Night at Maud's
BD - Jean-Louis, a devout, unmarried
engineer, has a very specific profile in mind for his ideal
wife: attractive, blonde, intelligent, and above all, a
practicing Catholic. He believes that he has found his soul mate
when he spots a young student named Francoise in a crowded
church during Sunday mass, and resolves to make her his wife. He
attempts to catch up to Francoise, but loses sight of her behind
a slow moving vehicle. One evening, he encounters a childhood
friend at a restaurant, a philosophy professor named Vidal, and
the two begin to discuss the nature of religion and politics as
a logical consequence of Pascal's "wager": If a man bets on
God's existence, and God DOES NOT exist, then a man loses
nothing; but if a man bets on God's existence, and God DOES
exist, then his reward is infinite. Blu-ray Release Date:
November 19th, 2013
Die, Monster, Die
BD - A young man visits his fiancés
estate to discover that her wheelchair-bound scientist father
has discovered a meteorite that emits mutating radiation rays
that have turned the plants in his greenhouse to giants. When
his own wife falls victim to this mysterious power the old man
takes it upon himself to destroy the glowing object with
disastrous results. Based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, Karloff
stars as the wheelchaired master of a strange old house in
Arkham, England who acquires mysterious powers when he is zapped
by a radioactive meteorite.... Blu-ray Release Date: January
21st, 2014
Pauline at the Beach
BD - Rohmer, in the third of his
'Comedies and Proverbs', may still be tiptoeing delightfully
through the same verbose ground that he's covered for years, but
no other director so clearly reveals the distances between words
and meaning, thought and action. Here his 15-year-old heroine (Langlet)
goes on holiday, and instead of fun finds a perverse, sometimes
painful lesson in the emotional games of the adult world: as her
older cousin (Dombasle) rejects a boring old flame and lurches
into an affair with a sly advocate of freedom in relationships,
she witnesses the trio's discussions, double standards, and
deceit. Dispensing with heavy plotting as he coolly observes and
dissects well-meaning but frequently cruel human interaction,
Rohmer yet again proves his ability to merge poignancy and
humour by means of delicately nuanced performances and
naturalistic but pointed dialogue. Blu-ray Release Date:
November 19th, 2013
Philo Vance Murder Case Collection - The dilettante
detective stylishly sleuths his way through some of his most
famous cases in this 2-Disc, 6-Film Collection. And a veritable
rogue’s gallery of golden age “gentlemen actors” all take a
crack at Philo, including William Powell, Warren William and
Basil Rathbone. Classic cinephiles should keep their eyes on the
credits for contributions by luminaries the likes of Michael
Curtiz, Mary Astor, Rosalind Russell and more! Includes: The
Bishop Murder Case (1930), The Kennel Murder Case
(1933), The Dragon Murder Case (1934), The Casino
Murder Case (1935), The Garden Murder Case (1936),
Calling Philo Vance (1940). DVD Release Date: February
5th, 2013
Across the Bridge - Ken Annakin ("Trio"/"Value For
Money"/"Holiday Camp") directs this low-budget gem, an
overlooked black-and-white thriller that's based on a Graham
Greene novel. The psychological drama was superbly written by
Guy Elmes and Denis Freeman, and it was filmed in England and
Spain. Rod Steiger gives one of his greatest performances, as he
portrays a scheming arrogant man who suffers a downfall and
finds himself as an outcast in a foreign town and his only
friend is a cocker spaniel who he becomes attached to when he's
reduced to living like a homeless person and that his one act of
kindness (or showing his human side) will lead to his demise.
The film plays out as a gripping character study of a once
influential tycoon suffering from mental and physical decay but
trying to survive anyway he can as things unravel and he's
caught in a trap that he put himself in by outsmarting himself.
VCI DVD Release Date: August 6th, 2013
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