DVDBeaver Newsletter - March 12th, 2007

Hello to you - 10 new reviews this week and some additions to the release calendar - much time was spent creating the Desert Island DVD page, so please give your $0.02 worth.

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

RECOMMENDATIONS: It doesn't matter what my opinion is - I doubt I'll deter any Bond fans from avoiding Casino Royale. Just have a martini or two first and don't get expectations too high. 

HIDDEN GEM: Muriel appears to be an important Resnais film hiding in the bushes. Shame the digital quality is weaker than we would appreciate.

SURPRISE: A strong DVD effort from HK with the cult-giant Peking Opera Blues.

ABSTRUSE: Talk about a film you are not likely to ever see anywhere else - Romeo, Juliet and Darkness is a unique and memorable film experience that we can recommend.

DEAL: Possibly the cheapest you will see the 2-disc SE of Lost Highway. 60% off!

EROTIC MYSTERY FANTASY ?: Look no further than Alain Robbe-Grillet’s La Belle Captive.

New Reviews:

Docteur M. - Berlin, the early 1990s. Strange fatal accidents are happening in the city, on both sides of the wall. Lt. Hartmann investigates and discovers that they are suicides induced by enigmatic Doctor Marsfeldt. The man heads a criminal organization disguised as a vacation club that intends to carry out a crazy eugenics project through subliminal messages sent by images of a beautiful woman, Sonja.

Dr. Popaul - Docteur Popaul, or Scoundrel in White is a black comedy by Claude Chabrol. It tells of the life and proper comeuppance of Dr. Paul Simay (Jean Paul Belmondo), an unusual sort of ladies' man. At his hospital, there is a bet to see who can seduce the most ugly women. Paul is confident he can win, because he already woos ugly women exclusively. He says he gets much better results from them. When he woos and finally marries Christine (Mia Farrow), buck-teeth, leg-braces and all, he eventually discovers that he has more than met his match.

Peking Opera Blues - A virtual pinata of Hong Kong Cinema themes and signifiers, Peking Opera Blues is a dazzling spectacle and a multi-layered movie wonder on more subjects than you could possibly imagine! History, drama, action, romance, comedy, gender roles, loyalty, honor, and just plain entertainment value combine to maximum cinematic effect - and that's just the tip of the iceberg. Peking Opera Blues is must-see Hong Kong Cinema, and quite possibly the defining work of director Tsui Hark. DVD Release Date: January 29th, 2007

Muriel - “Muriel” is a portrait of trauma as moving as any since, well, “Hiroshima, Mon Amour.” Lonelyache exudes from every frame of the film, in each precise gesture, each exacting detail. The film is so densely packed with that even after four viewings I feel like I have barely scratched its surface. In fact, I find it more difficult to write about than even “Marienbad.” DVD Release Date: March 13th, 2007

Kissed - The subject of Lynn Stopkewich’s featuring debut Kissed is necrophilia, a subject rarely addressed, as it by nature is on the disturbing side of perverseness, both due to the pathology of the subject and the graphic nature of sexual encounters with corpses. But rather than provoking by grotesque dark comedy like Jürg Buttgereit did with Nekromatik, Stopkewich transforms necrophilia into an act of sexual spirituality; thus by the end, we are not disgusted by the acts of Sandra, but rather sympathetic. Tartan DVD Release Date: March 12th, 2007

Lost Highway - David Lynch's take on multiple-personality disorder in Lost Highway is decidedly nonhumanistic and relatively pessimistic--especially in relation to character development, this being a movie fatalistically constructed like a Mobius strip. Properly speaking, this isn't a movie with characters but with figures, each of them as overblown as a plastic inner tube.

Romeo, Juliet and Darkness - Romeo, Juliet and Darkness came in 1969 and enhanced his reputation even further, winning the Grand Prix at both the San Sebastian and Taormina Film Festivals that year. A study of frustration and denial, the film is distinguished by Weiss’ distinctive cinematic language. DVD Release Date: February 19th, 2007

Casino Royale - Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his license to kill. But Bond is no less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, he is elevated to '00' status. Bond's first 007 mission takes him to Uganda where he is to spy on a terrorist, Mollaka. Not everything goes to plan and Bond decides to investigate, independently of MI6, in order to track down the rest of the terrorist cell. DVD Release Date: March 13th, 2007

La Belle Captive - In contemporary parlance, Alain Robbe-Grillet’s “La Belle Captive” (1983) might best be understood as a mashup or perhaps a proto-mashup. Based on a “collaborative” novel by Robbe-Grillet and René Magritte (even though Magritte was already dead), the story employs Magritte’s art work as the inspiration for a noir-ish detective story that also relies heavily on classical music and borrows liberally from the tradition of the vampire film: mysterious leather-clad boss-lady Sara Zeitgeist (Cyrielle Claire) appears to be an homage to the infamous Irma Vep. DVD Release Date: March 13th, 2007

Sabrina the Teenage Witch - Still, Sabrina got off to a good start with a well-cast core. Melissa Joan Hart always conveyed frustration and annoyance with a hint of cuteness, so she never played Sabrina as a spoiled, over-privileged brat. Beth Broderick and Caroline Rhea are hilarious as Sabrina’s zany aunts. In many ways, though, one could say that the show belonged to Nick Bakay, the voice of Salem Saberhagen the cat. DVD Release Date: March 6th, 2007
 

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