Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF January 16th, 2017

Rimaykullayki! A modest week with Blu-ray reviews from Criterion, BFI, Arrow, Twilight Time of films by Charlie Chaplin, Pedro Almodóvar, Stanley Donen, Michael Curtiz, Richard Kelly and more. Our Calendar has an update including films by Alfred Hitchcock, Richard Fleischer, Kenneth Lonergan, Denis Villeneuve, Leos Carax, Lewis Gilbert, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Freddie Francis, Terence Fisher, Mike Nichols, Joseph H. Lewis and more. Feature Blu-ray and DVD is posted for JANUARY. We have a new article posted and a CONTEST with a Criterion Blu-ray prize. Enjoy!!

NEW ARTICLE: The Movies from The End of the World - Identifying the Sub-Genres of Apocalypse Films!

DVDBeaver has their own store at Movie Zyng - check it out! Many have $1 shipping - even overseas!

Feature Blu-ray and DVD chosen for the Month of JANUARY!

FOLLOW US on TWITTER! (where we post important reviews, contests - prizes, polls, calendar updates - plus much more...)

(Week of) January 16th CONTEST  identify the clip HERE to win a Brand New prize of a Criterion Blu-ray of His Girl Friday Best of luck!

If there are DVD or Blu-ray titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend!

Gary at 2ze dot com

Two For the Road BD - After winning an Oscar for Darling in 1965, screenwriter Frederic Raphael took a similarly sardonic look at marriage with Two For The Road, a witty and tightly plotted marital drama that earned him another Academy nomination. Based on his own experiences of motoring around France with his wife every summer, the film explores various junctures in the relationship of husband and wife Mark (Finney) and Joanna (Hepburn). Twilight Time Blu-ray Release Date: January, 2017

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown BD - Melding melodrama with screwball farce, this Academy Award–nominated black comedy was Pedro Almodóvar’s international breakthrough and secured his place at the vanguard of modern Spanish cinema. Continuing the auteur’s exploration of the female psyche, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown tells the story of Pepa—played by the director’s frequent collaborator Carmen Maura—who resolves to kill herself with a batch of sleeping-pill-laced gazpacho after her lover leaves her. Fortunately, she is interrupted by a deliciously chaotic series of events. The filmmaker channeled Hollywood inspiration into his own unique vision, arriving at the irreverent humor and vibrant visual sense that define his work today. With an exceptional ensemble cast that also includes Antonio Banderas and Rossy de Palma, this film shows an artist in total control of his craft. Blu-ray Release Date: February 21st, 2017

Mildred Pierce BD - Melodrama casts noirish shadows in this portrait of maternal sacrifice from Hollywood master Michael Curtiz. Its iconic performance by Joan Crawford as Mildred, a single mother hell-bent on freeing her children from the stigma of economic hardship, solidified Crawford’s career comeback and gave the actor her only Oscar. But as Mildred pulls herself up by the bootstraps, first as an unflappable waitress and eventually as the well-heeled owner of a successful restaurant chain, the ingratitude of her materialistic firstborn (a diabolical Ann Blyth) becomes a venomous serpent’s tooth, setting in motion an endless cycle of desperate overtures and heartless recriminations. Recasting James M. Cain’s rich psychological novel as a murder mystery, this bitter cocktail of blind parental love and all-American ambition is both unremittingly hard-boiled and sumptuously emotional. Blu-ray Release Date: February 21st, 2017

Donnie Darko BD - Donnie is a troubled high school student: in therapy, prone to sleepwalking and in possession of an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit named Frank, who tells him the world is going to end in 28 days 06 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds. During that time he will navigate teenage life, narrowly avoid death in the form of a falling jet engine, follow Frank s maladjusted instructions and try to maintain the space-time continuum. Arrow Blu-ray Release Date: December 12th, 2016

Charlie Chaplin: The Essanay Comedies BD - In late 1914, Charlie Chaplin was paid the then-unprecedented salary of $1,250 per week (with a bonus of $10,000) in exchange for signing a one-year contract with the Essanay Film Manufacturing Company. The resulting 14 films he created for Essanay find Chaplin further experimenting with new cinematic techniques, while continuing to add complexities and pathos into his celebrated Little Tramp character, soon to become immortalized as the face, hat, and mustache of modern screen comedy. BFI Blu-ray Release Date: January 23rd, 2017

An Act of Murder - An Act of Murder stars Fredric March as a husband faced with an impossible predicament in this controversial drama that was well ahead of its time. Calvin Cooke (March), a no-nonsense judge in a small Pennsylvania town, finds his thoughts turning to end the life of his beloved wife Cathy (Florence Eldridge) when he learns that she has an incurable disease and is suffering from unbearable pain. He decides to move forward with his plan and then surrenders himself to the police. Defended by a brilliant attorney (Edmund O’Brien), Cooke goes on trial for his life in a case that will decide if he’s legally guilty of murder or morally innocent of killing his wife. DVD Release Date: November 15th, 2015

Girls Lost - Friends since birth, tomboy Kim (Tuva Jagell), mousey Bella (Wilma Holmén), and creative Momo (Louise Nyvall) have also been outcasts, perceived as lesbians, and bullied by their piers to the indifference of the teaching staff who tell them to toughen up. While Bella and Momo can only ponder why everyone hates them, Kim confesses to Momo that she feels as if she is a boy born in the wrong body. Having an interest in gardening nurtured by Bella's late mother, the three discover a strange root and plant it to see what it grows. Miraculously, the plant sprouts overnight a large black flower with vanilla-scented buds that seems to be attended by a swarm of black butterflies. DVD Release Date: December 13th, 2016

Land and Shade - Seventeen years after abandoning his family, Alfonso (Haimer Leal) returns to the family farm to find his son Geraldo (Edison Raigosa) bedridden and dying while his ex-wife Alicia (Hilda Ruiz) and daughter-in-law Esperanza (Marleyda Soto) work in his place cutting sugar cane. Alicia wants nothing from Alfonso but to take care of Geraldo, watch her grandson Manuel (José Felipe Cárdenas) when he gets home from school, and take care of the housekeeping; however, Alfonso makes an effort to bond with his son and grandson and get the farm working again. DVD Release Date: December 13th, 2016

Spa Night - The atmospheric SPA NIGHT is a portrait of forbidden sexual awakening set in the nocturnal world of spas and karaoke bars in Los Angeles' Koreatown. David Cho (Joe Seo in a breakthrough performance), a timid 18-year-old living with his financially-struggling immigrant parents, chances upon a secret cruising spot when he takes a job at an all-male spa. There he begins to realize hidden desires that threaten his life as a dutiful son and student. DVD Release Date: December 6th, 2016

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