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Way of the Dragon
BD - The Way of the
Dragon co-stars popular starlet Nora Miao, and is a true
tour-de-force for Bruce Lee. Not only did he star in the film,
but he also wrote, produced, and directed - and this is in
addition to his expected action choreography duties. The results
of his labor are a wildly entertaining martial arts film that's
sure to make kung-fu fans of all ages grin from ear-to-ear. Most
famously, The Way of the Dragon features a dramatic showdown
between Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris in the confines of Rome's
ancient Coliseum! Blu-ray
Release Date: October 15th, 2009
Bronson
BD - Paul Snider's rage is
carefully kept under wraps until it consumes him. Bronson's rage
is what he's all about. Though in his case, I rather see it as a
"war face," an act that furthers his ambition, for Bronson
is the story of a performance artist of a unique kind (though I
suppose that's how Charles Manson sees himself.) One thing,
though: I hated Snider. He's everything I fear about mankind,
for fear of impotence and loss of control is at the core of what
makes men violent. I liked Bronson. I wouldn't want to be in the
same room with him, but I enjoyed my time with him, even if from
the safety of a separate reality. Blu-ray
Release date: February 9th, 2010
Goodfellas (20th Anniversary)
BD - When Martin Scorsese,
one of the world's most skillful and respected directors,
reunited with two-time Oscar-winner Robert De Niro in GoodFellas,
the result was one of the most powerful films of the year. Based
on the true-life best seller Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi and
backed by a dynamic pop/rock oldies soundtrack, critics and
filmgoers alike declared GoodFellas great. It was named 1990's
best film by the New York, Los Angeles and National Society of
Film Critics. Blu-ray Release
Date: February 16th, 2010
Pink Narcissus - Pink
Narcissus is reminiscent of Genet’s Un Chant d’amour in its
obsession with flowers, rough sexuality, and extraordinary male
beauty, but it is more like a drag queen’s opium-soaked dream
version or a Disney adaptation of Genet’s work than it is a
direct descendant. (The film is aptly described by J. Hoberman
as “a gay Fantasia…one part underground extravaganza, one part
romantic porn.”) DVD Release Date: March 26th, 2007
The Lost World of Friese-Greene
- In the mid-1920s, pioneering film-maker Claude Friese-Greene
made a series of films during an intrepid drive from Land's End
to John O'Groats in the early days of the motor car. Claude's
remarkable films were shot in pioneering early colour using a
process he'd invented himself at a time when the world was
filmed in black & white. DVD Release Date: May 3rd, 2006
If War Should Come - This,
the final of three volumes, covers 1939-1941, the last years of
the GPO Film Unit before it evolved into Crown Film Unit, and
sees it at its most technically sophisticated, with directors,
such as Humphrey Jennings, Harry Watt and Alberto Cavalcanti
leading the way in the use of documentary cinema in support of
the war effort. DVD Release Date: July 6th, 2009
Before the Nickelodeon -
Before the Nickelodeon, an award-winning and intricately
detailed documentary on the genesis of early cinema, focuses on
one of the craft's most ingenious pioneers: Edwin S Porter. The
film is based on the research of the leading scholar of early
American film, Charles Musser, who also co-wrote and directed
it. DVD Release Date: August 28th, 2006
Anchoress - Withdrawing
from the medieval world to devote herself to the Virgin Mary, a
young woman named Christine happily chooses to be forever walled
into a tiny room adjoining the church. As the last stone is put
in place, "Anchoress" creates a chilling sense of entrapment
while making the young woman's sense of relief and escape clear.
Now she won't have to marry the reeve, the belligerent overseer
of the manor where Christine, her sister and their parents sleep
in a single bed in their thatched cottage. At times "Anchoress,"
an eccentric, beautifully photographed black-and-white film,
offers an eerie immersion in a distant world. DVD Release
Date: June 22nd, 2009
Privilege - Peter Watkins
is the supreme master and very nearly the inventor of the
pseudo-documentary, which he uses as an unorthodox way of
recounting history or projecting contemporary trends into the
near-future. This dystopian New Yorker release is about the
fascist takeover of Great Britain, with a duped and manipulated
messianic rock singer (Paul Jones, lead singer of Manfred Mann
in his first film role) used as a political as well as marketing
tool. BFI DVD Release Date: January 25th, 2010
New York, I Love You
BD - It's been some thirty
years since Woody Allen's beautiful love poem to the city he
loved. Producer Emmanuel Benbihy's movie begins in something
like the same way with fleeting images of New York. But
Benbihy's relatively uninspired, uninspiring images speed by
without lingering or, for that matter, nostalgia or emotional
power. His opening montage (in color rather than Gordon Willis's
powerful black and white, which tells us a lot about how these
two think of their city) ends not with a blazing cheer of
fireworks to the music of one of the giants of American music,
but with a simultaneous entry into a taxi by opposing wills and
intentions. Blu-ray release
date: February 2nd, 2010
The Last King of Scotland
BD - If ever there was a
film that lives and dies with its lead actor, it’s this one.
Forest Whitaker gives a terrific, ambiguous performance as Idi
Amin, the army commander in post-colonial Uganda who seized
power from President Milton Obote in a military coup in 1971 and
who spent the next eight years amusing the world with his
bullish and bizarre rhetoric, from awarding himself a CBE to
claiming kingship rights to Scotland. But with Amin’s
headline-grabbing, near-comic banter came a rule of terror,
expulsion and murder that was peculiarly coloured by the many
years Amin served in the British imperial army.
Blu-ray release Date: February 2nd,
2010
Spiral
BD - There’s something weird
about the lead character in Spiral. Played by Joel David Moore,
“Mason”comes across as one of the creepiest movie characters
since Norman Bates in Psycho. Still, it’s easy to feel sorry for
him. He lives alone, works in a dull job as a telemarketer,
seems very shy, and has only one friend -- his boss, who went to
high school with him. This lonely man is also a talented artist.
He sketches women and paints them, but all in the same poses.
Blu-ray release Date: February 2nd,
2010
The Toolbox Murders
BD - A secured Los Angeles
apartment building is beset by a series of grisly murders by a
toolbox-carrying ski-masked killer. In between drilling,
claw-hammering, and nail-gunning "sinful" women, he also takes
time to stalk good girl Laurie (Pamela Ferdin). When he abducts
her, her brother Joey (Nicholas Beauvy) and the building super's
nephew Kent (Wesley Eure) play detectives. Little do they
realize that Kent's uncle Vance (Cameron Mitchell) is holding
Laurie and pretending she's his dead daughter (though the
audience will have been several steps ahead of them from frame
1). Blu-ray Release Date:
January 26th, 2010
Black Dynamite
BD - Blaxploitation! The
term conjures up a picture of big gestures: loud clothes with
louder colors, big hair, big guns, big shoes, big boobs and, by
extension, big cocks. The movies that were a part of that
mid-1970s phenomenon were made on the cheap and, thanks to a
largely black audience who went to see these movies again and
again, helped resuscitate a flagging industry – so we're told in
the extra features. (Before I forgot to mention it, the Blu-ray
exclusive bonus feature "The 70s: Back in Action" is required
viewing for anyone who thinks of themselves as a film buff, and
is a pretty good idea to watch before the feature film – gets
you right in the mood.) Blu-ray
Release date: February 16th, 2010
A Serious Man
BD - Masters of audacity,
the Coen Brothers continue to amaze with their versatility and,
unlike many who have achieved success, they have shown no
inclination to slip into a comfortable groove. When one scans
their joint resumes, it becomes apparent that, while Joel and
Ethan have not always hit pay dirt, their efforts have always
been at least interesting. Their latest, A Serious Man,
represents another change in course for the brothers, and it
will reside in the upper echelon of their titles, although a
little below the top. Blu-rayy
Release date: February 9th, 2010
Triangle
BD - Christopher Smith’s new
movie Triangle owes a great deal to Dead of Night and adds an
explanatory layer to the nightmare: we relive an action or
inaction in order to affect a different outcome. It’s always
risky to explain things in a horror movie. I don’t think we feel
kindly to Dr. Richmond for explaining Norman Bates’ mother
fixation at the end of Psycho. Blu-ray
Release date: February 2nd, 2010
Tales From the Golden Age -
Conceived and scripted by Palme d Or winner Cristian Mungiu (4
months, 3 weeks & 2 days), Tales From The Golden Age is a funny,
poignant and surreal portrait of 1980 s Romania. Shot with
tremendous style and spirit, Tales From The Golden Age
brilliantly re-captures the mood of an era where undertones of
fear, corruption and imprisonment where never far away and where
the humour of ordinary citizens played a vital role in facing up
to the idiotic logic of the dictatorship. To warm and often
hilarious effect, Mungiu combines several urban legends to
portray a time during which food was more important than money,
freedom more important than love and survival more important
than principles. As he does so, he subtly and comically unseats
the propagandist myth that Ceausescu's Romania was the golden
age of communism. DVD Release Date: February 8th, 2010
The Time Traveler's Wife
BD - The Time Traveler's
Wife is a conventional adaptation of an unconventional novel.
That's not necessarily a bad thing - screenwriter Bruce Joel
Rubin and director Robert Schwentke (Flightplan) impose
structure on a story that, in Audrey Niffenegger's long and
complex book, cartwheels freely through time. The film version
plays like a "best hits" compilation, shoehorning in most of the
key events while glossing over subplots and subtleties that are
explored in depth on the written page. But that's the way it is
with motion picture adaptations and, although this is not the
best one, it's more than respectable and provides the romance,
humor, and pathos demanded by fans of the genre.
Blu-ray Release date: February 9th,
2010
Good Night, and Good Luck
BD - George Clooney made his
film in black & white so as to maintain our focus and not be
distracted by pretty sets or too much verisimilitude, not only
because TV in the fifties was in black & white. [cf. notes on
Image, below.] There is a deliberate documentary feel to the
film: Dialog seems to actually emanate from the actors instead
of looped and dubbed later. Dianne Reeves is actually singing,
and what we hear is the recorded track of what we see. That's
novel. The projected images of McCarthy and others is archival
footage from the time. Lions Gate
Blu-ray release date: August 3rd, 2009
The Man From Earth
BD - Jerome Bixby's Man From
Earth directed by Richard Schenkman quietly restores dignity to
science fiction of the mind. Accomplished on a shoestring budget
under two weeks time, the film transcends its production
limitations to deliver a thought-provoking meditation on
immortality. Recently experiencing its "world premiere" at San
Francisco's 4th Annual Another Hole in the Head Film Festival, I
could only wonder what Schenkman might have achieved with more
time and more money? On its own merits, however, the film picks
itself up by its bootstraps to seduce audiences into a solid
mindbender. Blu-ray Release
date: February 2nd, 2010
Kim Newman's Guide to the Flipside of
British Cinema - In an all-new 40-minute
documentary, produced exclusively for the BFI, the UK's most
knowledgeable and well-respected cult film critic, Kim Newman,
explores such questions as how the director of Help! and
Superman II came to make one of the world's greatest, but
little-known, black comedies, and lifts the lid on which
previously unseen British film features Helen Mirren in her
debut role. Along with a selection of original trailers and
short films - including one that is exclusive to this release -
this is your passport to the exciting and surprising world of
The Flipside. All titles can now be seen on DVD and Blu-ray for
the first time ever, in the BFI Flipside collection. DVD
Release Date: January 25th, 2010
Amelia
BD - Hilary Swank uncannily
embodies my ideas about Earhart in Mira Nair's "Amelia." She
looks like her, smiles like here, evokes her. Swank is an
actress who doesn't fit in many roles, but when she's right,
she's right. The tousled hair, the freckles, the slim figure,
the fitness, the physical carriage that says, "I know precisely
who I am and I like it -- and if you don't, bail out." Not only
was she the first person after Lindbergh to fly solo across the
Atlantic, she even looked like him.
Blu-ray Release date: February 2nd, 2010
Gaea Girls / Shinjuku Boys
- Kim Longinotto is renowned for creating extraordinarily
intimate portraits of women on the fringes of society, tackling
controversial topics with sensitivity and compassion. These two
films are gripping explorations of the perceptions and
complexities of female sexuality in modern Japan. Gaea Girls
follows the gruelling training regime of a group of Japanese
professional women wrestlers. Featuring the legendary Chigusa
Nagayo, it is a fascinating account of a closely-guarded
universe in a country where women are considered docile and
subservient. The Shinjuku Boys are three 'onnabe' - Japanese
women who live as men - working as hosts at a Tokyo nightclub
for women clients. Filmed at home and at work, they speak
frankly about their lives, their hopes and their sexuality.
DVD Release Date: January 25th, 2010
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
BD - “We were somewhere
around Barstow when the drugs began to take hold.” It is 1971,
and journalist Raoul Duke barrels towards Las Vegas to cover a
motorcycle race, accompanied by a trunkful of contraband and his
slightly unhinged Samoan attorney, Dr. Gonzo. But what is
ostensibly a cut-and-dried journalistic endeavor quickly
descends into a feverish psychedelic odyssey and an excoriating
dissection of the American way of life. Director Terry Gilliam
and an all-star cast (headlined by Johnny Depp and Benicio Del
Toro) show no mercy in bringing Dr. Hunter S, Thompson’s
legendary Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas to the screen, creating
a film both hilarious and savage.
Blu-ray Release Date: February 2nd, 2010
He Was a Quiet Man
BD - Bob Maconel (Christian
Slater) endures another eight hours in a dull grey cubicle.
Ignored by his co-workers, Bob feels completely invisible and
out of sync with the world. On one strange day he crosses the
line from potential killer to inadvertent hero when he saves
beautiful Venessa (Elisha Cuthbert). His Boss (William H. Macy)
transforms Bob into a new man but his good fortune is short
lived when the Object of his Desire asks him to end her life.
Blu-ray Release Date: February 2nd,
2010
Permissive
BD - When Suzy arrives in
London to visit an old school friend, she is unwittingly plunged
into the ruthless world of the 'groupie'. Fuelled by sex, drugs
and jealousy, her new lifestyle fosters in her a cold cynical
instinct for survival. But tragedy is never faraway. With its
effective blend of gritty location work, brooding flash-forward
devices, and a soundtrack by cult acid folk and prog rock
legends Comus, Forever More - who also star - and Titus Groan,
Permissive is a dark British countercultural artefact that is
shot through with grim authenticity.
Blu-ray Release date: January 25th, 2010
That Kind of Girl
BD - In 1960s London, a
beautiful continental au pair finds herself wrestling with the
affections of an earnest peace-protester, a dashing young toff
and a roguish older man. But fun and freedom turn to shame and
despair when she finds that her naivety has put her lovers, and
their partners - including the well-meaning Janet (played by Big
Zapper's Linda Marlowe, in her first role) - at risk. Stylishly
shot in crisp black and white, and set against a backdrop of
smoky jazz clubs, 'Ban the Bomb' marches, and evocative London
locations, this finely tuned cautionary tale was the directorial
debut of Gerry O'Hara (All the Right Noises, The Brute), and is
presented in a new High Definition transfer.
Blu-ray Release date: January 25th,
2010
Confessions of a Nazi Spy -
In the wake of a trial that convicted four Nazi agents of spying
against the U.S., Warner Bros. became the first Hollywood studio
to fire a salvo at Hitler’s Germany. Months before World War II
erupted it released this thriller based on revelations that
emerged from the trial and other real-life sources. The story is
a brisk connect-the-dots tale that ties German-American Bund
operatives (Francis Lederer, George Sanders and Paul Lukas among
others) to Berlin. Chief among those connecting the dots: FBI
Agent Edward Renard (Edward G. Robinson). The drama wasn’t
limited to the screen. Production personnel received threats and
violence erupted at some screenings. Directed with hard-hitting
verve by Anatole Litvak, Confessions of a Nazi Spy struck a
nerve in its era. It remains a milestone of filmmaking
commitment today. DVD Release Date: October, 2009
Vase de Noces - Although
called A MAN AND HIS PIG in the US (and known in cult circles
under a more reductive title which appears as a subtitle on the
disc's cover), the official English title is THE WEDDING TROUGH.
The French title's meaning is more open with VASE meaning vase
or container as well as mud (in addition to being an antiquated
euphemism for both the front and rear orifices open to sexual
penetration) and NOCES or "wedding" is both a masculine and
feminine noun. VASE DE NOCES is not a silent film but it
features absolutely no dialogue because there is only one human
character in the entire film (co-scenarist Dominique Garny) who
lives amongst swine and fowl and collects soil and plant
specimens (in the documentary, Zéno identifies him as an
autistic). He eventually does mate with the sow and she
conceives three piglets which he tries to raise as children.
DVD Release Date: May 22, 2009
The Woman on Pier 13 - A
future of happiness awaits San Francisco shipping executive Brad
Collins (Robert Ryan) and his new bride (Laraine Day).Yet Brad’s
past could undo everything. Back in his days as a dockworker, he
was an activist member of the Communist Party. Now the Party has
resurfaced like a bad dream in Brad’s life, putting the screws
on and threatening to spill his past if he doesn’t play ball and
stir up a labor strike. In an era when some officials sought to
weed out Communists real and imagined, Hollywood made numerous
films that exploited the times. Among them: Big Jim McLain,
Invasion USA,
I Was a Communist for the FBI and this film –
arguably the most hyperbolic of all – originally titled I
Married a Communist." DVD Release Date: December, 2009
We Live in Two Worlds -
Created in 1933 out of the ashes of the Empire Marketing Board
Film Unit, the GPO Film Unit was one of the most remarkable
creative institutions that Britain has produced. A hotbed of
creative energy and talent, it provided a spring board to many
of the best-known and critically acclaimed figures in the
British Documentary Movement, including John Grierson, Alberto
Cavalcanti, Humphrey Jennings, Basil Wright, Harry Watt, Edgar
Anstey and Arthur Elton, alongside innovators and
experimentalists such as Len Lye and Norman McLaren. Their work
embraced, public information drama-documentary, social
reportage, animation, advertising and many points in between.
The BFI National Archive, in partnership with the British Postal
Heritage Museum, Royal Mail and British Telecom, has preserved
and curated the legendary output of short films produced by the
GPO Film Unit. DVD Release Date: February 23rd, 2009
The Black Book - Anthony
Mann’s The Black Book (1949). One of the great unacknowledged
forms of noir is costume drama. I can’t think of a better
example than this campy, hugely enjoyable thriller about the
French Revolution—-also known as Reign of Terror, with Robert
Cummings, Richard Basehart, and Arlene Dahl--brilliantly shot by
John Alton, the greatest noir cinematographer. I even prefer it
to Mann’s more conventional noirs in contemporary settings, many
of them also shot by Alton. Punto Zero DVD Release Date:
April 9, 2008
Import / Export - Olga and
Paul. Both are looking for work, a new beginning, an existence,
life: Olga, who comes from the Eastern part of Europe, where
unremitting poverty is the order of the day. Paul, who comes
from the Western part, where unemployment means not hunger, but
a crisis of meaning and sense of uselessness. Both are
struggling to believe in themselves, to find a meaning in life.
In both the West and East. Both travel to a new country, and
thus into its depths. IMPORT EXPORT deals with sex and death,
living and dying, winners and losers, power and helplessness,
and how to give the teeth of a stuffed fox a professional
cleaning job. Palisades DVD Release Date: January 26th, 2010
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