DVDBeaver Newsletter - February 11th, 2008

Moino! - A super DVD week - 19 new reviews (4 comparisons, 3 multi-film boxsets, 2 Blu-rays) - Stanley Kramer, Xiaoshuai Wang, Bernardo Bertolucci, Michael Curtiz, George Cukor, Frank Borzage, Andrzej Zulawski, Paul Haggis, Jean-Luc Godard - we know no bounds. LOTS of new releases available from this week's Calendar, Contest with great prizes!, and more. Facebook-er?: join DVDBeaver-ite's Facebook group HERE. We can communicate video clips, film news etc.

CONTEST ACTIVITY:

WEEK OF FEBRUARY 11th, 2008 CONTEST

NOTE: To see quicker Clips join DVDBeaver-ite's Facebook group HERE (under 'Videos)

The CLIP to identify is HERE!

THIS WEEK's PRIZES: THREE PRIZES - A SEALED COPY OF Eclipse Series 8 - Lubitsch Musicals and two sealed copies of Joan Crawford Collection Volume 2! To enter the draw you must be subscribed to our Free Weekly Newsletter and email the correct answer to contest@DVDBeaver.com (the 3 winners will be drawn from all correct answers sent)

LAST WEEK's Winner (identifying clip of Alfonso Cuarón's 1998 Great Expectations) was A. Skelton. (Wins a sealed copy of Key Largo and The Train (opened)!) Congrats Andrew!)

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Easiest way to catch up is simply read the new Newsletter Archive HERE.

LATEST Additions to the Release Calendar (PRE-ORDER!).

Boarding Gate (Olivier Assayas, 2007) R2 UK - Revolver Entertainment

Rat Pack Ultimate Collector's Edition (Ocean's 11, Robin And The 7 Hoods, 4 For Texas and Sergeants 3) Warner

Fireworks Wednesday (Asghar Farhadi, 2006) Facets

Arranged (Diane Crespo, 2007) Film Movement

The Mist (Frank Darabont, 2007) Genius Products (Weinstein)

Flash Point (Wilson Yip, 2007) Genius Products (Weinstein)

The Fall of the Roman Empire 'Limited Edition'(Anthony Mann, 1964) Genius (Weinstein)

Zodiac - Director's Cut [Blu-ray] (David Fincher, 2007) - UK Warner Home Video

The Alain Delon Collection - The Widow Couderc (1971; Pierre Granier-Deferre), Diabolically Yours (1967; Julien Duvivier), La Piscine (1969; Jacques Deray), Le Gitan (1975; Jose Giovanni) and Notre Histoire (1984; Bertrand Blier) – Lionsgate

All My Good Countrymen (Vojtech Jasny, 1968) - Facets,

Starting Out in the Evening (Andrew Wagner, 2007) Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Sense & Sensibility Collector's Set (Sense & Sensibility 2008 / Miss Austen Regrets / Persuasion 2007) - BBC Warner

Batad (Benji Garcia, 2006) Cinequest

Control (Anton Corbijn, 2007) Weinstein

Lions for Lambs (Robert Redford, 2007) United Artists

A Passage to India (2-disc Collector's Edition) (David Lean, 1984) Sony

A Passage to India [Blu-ray] (David Lean, 1984) Sony

Steep (Mark Obenhaus, 2007) Sony Pictures

Conspiracy (Adam Marcus, 2008) Sony

Bobby Deerfield (Sydney Pollack, 1977) Sony

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [Blu-ray] (Andrew Adamson, 2005)

The Backwoods (Koldo Serra, 2006) Lionsgate

Sense & Sensibility Collector's Set (Sense & Sensibility 2008 / Miss Austen Regrets / Persuasion 2007) - BBC Warner
British Horror Collection Triple Feature (Frightmare, House of Whipcord, The Flesh and Blood Show, Die Screaming Marianne) Mediablasters

New Reviews:

A GREAT WEEK! with lots to recommend - Quick opinions:

STRONG VALUE: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, The Last Emperor, The Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 4, The Joan Crawford Collection, Vol. 2, Eclipse Series Eight: Lubitsch Musicals, In the Valley of Elah, Gone Baby Gone BR and The Jean-Luc Godard Box Set from Lionsgate

IMPERFECT DVD BUT ESSENTIAL FILM...: Mandy

HAVEN'T SEEN (BUT AM ENCOURAGED): Un Homme Qui Dort, The Devil and Shanghai Dreams

PASS: Shaolin Intruders, Becoming Jane BR and Green Rose

Gone Baby Gone BR - Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) is a small time private detective who works with his partner/girlfriend Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan) to find missing persons. He says, "I find people who started in the cracks – and then fell through." When her 4-year old niece goes missing, desperate Bea McCready (Amy Madigan), seeing no results from Captain Jack Doyle (Morgan Freeman), implores Kenzie to help on the investigation. Kenzie realizes from even before they start that he is way out of his league on this one, having no previous experience with kidnappings, though he knows the neighborhood and the "streets" and its low-life denizens. But the tug of this particular case compels him to try. He is told by Bea "at least you can do no harm." Kenzie & Angie team up with two detectives (Ed Harris & John Ashton) who take them deep into the uglies that test their sense of morality and justice. Blu-ray DVD Release Date: February 12th, 2008

Becoming Jane BR - The events depicted, loosely based on Jane Austen's early life, preceded publication of her novels. It offers two themes: that Jane was already a feminist snob (in the best sense, of course) and would refuse a suitor if it were only to satisfy the requirements of duty; and that she required a love affair to gain the necessary experience and understanding of love. Rejecting the declarations of Lady Gresham's protégé – a "booby," as Jane (Anne Hathaway) so unsympathetically describes him - and so is ripe for the opposite: the charms of a rogue. Tom Lefroy (James McAvoy), for his part, falls predictably for the headstrong Jane. However, he must first convince his uncle of Miss Austen's acceptability as a bride, for without his consent, Tom would be penniless and without prospects. As the lovers sort out their predicament, the threads of plot and theme for Austen's Pride and Prejudice emerge. Blu-ray DVD Release Date: February 12th, 2008

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is remembered today for two significant reasons: It was the first Hollywood film to portray an interracial romance that had an optimistic ending, and the film featured a dream cast that included Spencer Tracy's final screen performance. Although Tracy was seriously ill at the time, Hepburn knew that, with her help and a restricted shooting schedule, he would be able to work. According to Kramer, Tracy "had no physical energy for the shooting of this film, and so we had to film it only in the morning. DVD Release Date: February 12th, 2008

Shanghai Dreams - Winner of a Jury Prize at Cannes earlier this year, SHANGHAI DREAMS includes plenty of period cultural details. The grey landscapes are oppressively unappealing, hammering home the point that Lao Wu's dream of returning to his seaside hometown is well-motivated. Wang's insistence on the camera maintaining a physical distance from the actors results in several scenes that are startling for their subtlety, yet works against the possibility of truly connecting with the material. The result is a beautifully drawn, if drab, piece of art that one admires from a distance.

American Gangster - The new millennium has been rough on Scott: His epic-scale films—Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven—have been an honorable failure and a ridiculous mess, respectively, and his “smaller” pictures—Matchstick Men, A Good Year—have looked like leading-man showcases in which the leading men were annoying. With the true story of Harlem druglord Frank Lucas, Scott tries to balance the grandeur of his vision with a strong anchoring lead. Scott’s mastery of working big and Washington’s unstoppable screen charisma might make you want to overlook this huge, bold film’s flaws. DVD Release Date: February 19th, 2008

The Last Emperor - Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor won nine Academy Awards, unexpectedly sweeping every category in which it was nominated—quite a feat for a challenging, multilayered epic directed by an Italian and starring an international cast. Yet the power and scope of the film was, and remains, undeniable—the life of Emperor Pu Yi, who took the throne at age three, in 1908, before witnessing decades of cultural and political upheaval, within and without the walls of the Forbidden City. Recreating Ching dynasty China with astonishing detail and unparalleled craftsmanship by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and production designer Ferdinando Scarfiotti, The Last Emperor is also an intimate character study of one man reconciling personal responsibility and political legacy. DVD Release Date: February 26th, 2008

The Charlie Chan Collection, Vol. 4 - Fans of detective Charlie Chan's suspenseful mysteries and fortune cookie wisdom will find joy as they dodge bullets with some of the Chinese policeman's most thrilling and dangerous cases. A staple of 30s and 40s Hollywood, Charlie Chan's profound wit and lighthearted counsel in the face of the criminal element has made him a cinematic icon, transcending generations and stereotypes to become one of film's most beloved crime-solvers. Four of Charlie Chan's most-ingenious cases make their DVD debut in The Charlie Chan Collection “Volume Four“ starring the 'successor' Sidney Toler. DVD Release Date: February 12th, 2008

Un Homme Qui Dort - A hypnotic solo by its mute hero, a young man who decides to withdraw from the world and whose mental journal of his experience is confided to us by a girl's voice off-screen, "Un homme qui dort" is an astonishing tour de force. What distinguishes it from all those ventures in spiritual navel-gazing is that his decision to not-be is purely practical, and the parabola he traces from boredom to terror - as he gradually detaches himself to float free within an indefinable menace - is brilliantly conveyed by the other leading character in the film: the city of Paris. The influence of Franju is unmistakable, and wholly beneficial. DVD Release Date: Dec 4th, 2007

The Joan Crawford Collection, Vol. 2 - Starting as a dancer, Crawford was signed to a motion picture contract by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1925 and played in small parts. By the end of the '20s, as her popularity grew, she became famous as a youthful flapper. At the beginning of the 1930s, Crawford's fame rivaled that of fellow MGM colleagues Norma Shearer and Greta Garbo. She was often cast in movies in which she played hardworking young women who eventually found romance and financial success. These "rags to riches" stories were well-received by Depression-era audiences. Women, particularly, seemed to identify with her characters' struggles. By the end of the decade, Crawford remained one of Hollywood's most prominent movie stars, and one of the highest paid women in the U.S. The Vol. 2 boxset from Warner contains Sadie McKee (1934), Strange Cargo (1940), A Woman's Face (1941), Flamingo Road (1949) and Torch Song (1953). DVD Release Date: February 12th, 2008

The Devil - Formerly banned in Poland, Zulawski's second feature is set during the bloody Prussian invasion of Poland where a Satanic figure in black (Wojciech Pszoniak) frees a Jakub (Leszek Teleszynski), imprisoned for conspiracy to murder the king, in return for a list of his fellow conspirators. Traveling across a snowy, fiery, hellish war-torn landscape with a hostage nun, and this diabolic figure in tow, Jakub finds his family, friends, and loves either dead, insane, or political turncoats. A sprawling epic at just over two hours (film-speed), filled with blood, sex, and hysteria, this film is vintage Zulawski. The overstated performances aren't so much overacting as embodying emotional states (including some familiar shamanistic gyrating on the part of more then a few madwomen).

Green Rose - Just because a dramatic television series averages a 27% share over its 11 week, 22 episode run doesn't mean that I would not hold it to the same standard as a serious motion picture from the West or the East. Popularity is no guarantor of excellence, but neither is it a critical kiss of death. With Western audiences, the difficulty with some Korean television dramas is their often careless attitude about credibility. I don't mean that the plots aren't credible: I'm wiling to grant fiction its due. I don't care that someone comes back from the dead in the body of another person, or that siblings separated at birth meet romantically as adults. I do care when a situation plays out in a way that makes us question its credibility: When I find myself screaming, "No one would do that!" I know we're in trouble.

Sahara - "In June, 1942, a small detachment of American tanks with American crews, joined the British Eighth Army in North Africa to get experience in desert warfare under actual battle conditions...History has proved that they learned their lesson well --." This title card announces the recent history behind the 1943 Columbia Pictures release Sahara, an intelligent and intense action film, one of the first made by Humphrey Bogart following the enormous success of Casablanca (1942).

Eclipse Series Eight: Lubitsch Musicals - Renowned as a silent film pioneer and the man who refined Hollywood comedy with such masterpieces as Trouble in Paradise, The Shop Around the Corner, and To Be or Not to Be, Ernst Lubitsch also had another claim to fame: he helped invent the modern movie musical. With the advent of sound and audiences clamoring for "talkies," Lubitsch combined his love of European operettas and his mastery of film to create this entirely new genre. These elegant, bawdy films, made before strict enforcement of the Hays morality code, feature some of the greatest stars of early Hollywood (Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Claudette Colbert, Miriam Hopkins), as well as that elusive style of comedy that would thereafter be known as "the Lubitsch touch." DVD Release Date: February 12th, 2008

Mandy - Alexander Mackendrick was chiefly known for his wry comedies (The Man in the White Suit, Whisky Galore); this 1952 film was one of his rare forays into drama, and it shows him the master of an understated but highly charged style. What seems at first a typical problem drama of the period--a mother's attempts to secure some kind of education for her deaf daughter--is revealed as only the central image in a more general evocation of the failures of communication in the British family structure. The vivid performances Mackendrick elicits from his players (Phyllis Calvert, Mandy Miller) combine with a subjective camera style to create one of the few emotionally demanding experiences in the British cinema. DVD Release Date: January 28th, 2008

Detective - "Détective" is one of Godard's most engaging films, even though it has not been one of his most celebrated. Wheeler Winston Dixon described it as a “straightforward commercial venture,” the film Godard made “precisely in order to direct "Je vous salue, Marie" (1985).” But dismissing it in this way fails to recognize that, even in a film where Godard is forced to compromise, there is still much to be recommended. While "Détective" does tell a story of sorts, it is more than a mere narrative film. It still has many of the striking sound/image experiments and investigations into the forms, textures and affects of the plastic and temporal arts that we have come to expect from a Godard film. It also has a playful comic energy. In fact, as Dave Kehr notes, "Détective" has “all the lightness and zip of Godard's sixties features.” The Jean-Luc Godard Box Set from Lionsgate was released: February 5th, 2008

Michael Clayton - Tony Gilroy, co-author of the superb Jason Bourne film trilogy, makes a stunning directorial debut with "Michael Clayton," an out-of-courtroom drama that helps solidify George Clooney's acting bona fides. Gilroy's crafty original script is a legal thriller in the vein of Sidney Lumet's "The Verdict" and Sydney Pollack's "Absence of Malice." All three are about acts of malfeasance and the peeling away of their layered coverups, and with this performance, Clooney reminds me of no one so much as the star of those earlier films, Paul Newman. It's no coincidence that Pollack co-produced "Michael Clayton" and snatched a fine supporting role for himself. He plays Marty Bach, the head of a Manhattan law firm that is heavily infested in defending an agrichemical company in a $3 billion class action lawsuit. DVD Release Date: February 19th, 2008

Shaolin Intruders - After a series of ruthless and mysterious murders delivered by the rare Shaolin Palm Technique, three innocents - a stout-hearted monk, a beautiful maiden skilled in martial arts, and a rowdy gambler - are fingered for the crimes. As they journey to clear their names and question the temple behind the killings, they find their wits and fighting skills put to the ultimate test before discovering the startling truth. Boasting some of the most eye-popping stunts in the classic Shaw Brothers canon, this delightful blend of breathless action and brain-teasing mystery was directed by master fight choreographer Tang Chia. DVD Release Date: February 12th, 2008

In the Valley of Elah - Loosely adopting the format of the investigative thriller, and inspired by the true story of Lanny Davis and his murdered son as reported by co-scripter Mark Boal in Playboy, Paul Haggis’s second cinematic distress flare – following his race-orientated ‘Crash’ – follows the efforts of retired soldier and ex-military policeman Hank Deerfield (Tommy Lee Jones) to determine first the whereabouts then the fate of his missing son, recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. It’s a thoughtful, sincere and moving film, buttressed by a fine, central performance by an actor at the top of his form but one which depends on the viewer’s indulgence in Haggis’s play with genre commitments in favour of wider psychological or even political implications. DVD Release Date: February 19th, 2008

First Name: Carmen - "I'm the girl who shouldn't be called Carmen," says the voice of Maruschka Detmers following the title card. Godard's modern variation on Prosper Merimee's CARMEN (also done by Otto Preminger with CARMEN JONES [1954] and Radley Metzger with CARMEN, BABY [1967]) begins with Carmen asking her voluntarily institutionalized eccentric filmmaker uncle (Godard himself in a funny performance) for the use of his house by the beach to make a film (actually she plans to use it as a hideout after a heist). The ensuing heist leads to the meeting of Carmen and security guard Joseph (Jacques Bonnaffe) who fall in love. Joseph joins the gang in plans to abduct an industrialist and hold him for ransom but its Joseph's obsession and Carmen's faithlessness (here more of an alienated response) that brings about the tragic ending more so than the kidnapping - which Godard's character turns up to direct - gone wrong. The Jean-Luc Godard Box Set from Lionsgate was released: February 5th, 2008

Next 2 weeks on the Calendar:

Joan Crawford Collection Volume 2  (A Woman's Face / Flamingo Road / Sadie McKee / Strange Cargo / Torch Song) Warner

STAY TUNED FOR UPCOMING CLASSIC RELEASES: Forbidden Hollywood: Volume 2 (six films plus pre-Code documentary), Gangsters Collection, Vol. 2 (Bullets or Ballots / City for Conquest / Each Dawn I Die / G Men / San Quentin / A Slight Case of Murder) Warner, Gangsters Collection, Vol. 3 (Picture Snatcher, Lady Killer, Smart Money, Black Legion, Mayor of Hell and Brother Orchid.) Warner,, Joan Crawford Collection Volume 2 (Flamingo Road/Strange Cargo/Torch Song/others), The Lana Turner Collection, Lon Chaney Collection Volume 2 (The Unholy Three/The Unholy Three/Tell It to the Marines/He Who Gets Slapped/Tod Browning doc.), Night Nurse (Barbara Stanwyck), The Day the Earth Stood Still Special Edition (dir. Robert Wise, USA 1951), An Affair to Remember 50th Anniversary Edition (dir. Leo McCary, USA 1957), The Robe Special Edition (dir. Henry Koster, USA 1952), Daisy Kenyon (dir. Otto Preminger, USA 1947), Dangerous Crossing, (dir. Joseph Newman, USA 1953), Black Widow (dir. Nunnally Johnson, USA 1954), Boomerang! (dir. Elia Kazan, USA 1947), Charlie Chan Vol 4 (starring Sidney Toler), The Naked Prey (1966) Criterion. Bette Davis Centenary Celebration Collection (All About Eve / Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte / The Virgin Queen / Phone Call from a Stranger / The Nanny), Bette Davis Collections: Volume 3 (includes All This, And Heaven, Too/ Dangerous/In This Our Life/The Corn Is Green/Watch On The Rhine/more), David Lean Collection (Blithe Spirit/Brief Encounter/Great Expectations/In Which We Serve/Madeleine/Oliver Twist/Passionate Friends/This Happy Breed) and more...