Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF May 20th, 2019

Podcast interview with Gary Tooze of DVDBeaver HERE.

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Zdrastvujte!! Another solid week of reviewed Blu-rays by Criterion, Shout! Factory, Arrow, Masters of Cinema, Kino, Eureka, 20th Century Fox, Studio Canal, Film Movement, Bluebell Films... of films directed by Fritz Lang, Sergei Bondarchuk, Max Ophuls, Luis Buñuel, George Stevens, Ridley Scott, Teruo Ishii, Shunji Iwai, John Cameron Mitchell, Anatole Litvak, Bruno Dumont, Roger Corman, Frank Tuttle, Alberto De Martino and others. Our Calendar has new updates of films-to-Blu-ray, including August Criterions and other work by Douglas Sirk, Yasujirô Ozu, Abbas Kiarostami, Jane Campion, Francis Ford Coppola, Jimmy Sangster, Mark Robson, John Cameron Mitchell, Charley Bowers, John Schlesinger, Vadim Perelman, Joseph Losey, Guy Green, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Robert Hamer, Basil Dearden, Charles Crichton, Alberto Cavalcanti, Mitchell Leisen, Georges Lautner, Claude Chabrol, Bob Fosse, Derek Jarman, Norman Jewison, Lucio Fulci, James Ivory, Roger Corman, Claire Denis and more. We also have our Feature Blu-ray posted for MAY Enjoy!!

LISTING PAGES:

Cinema of Japan, Discs of the Year for 2018, The TOP 100 DISCS, Ingmar Bergman's Cinema, HAGSPloitation, BLAXPloitation, OZPloitation, 'WOMEN IN PRISON' CINEMA, CREATURE-FEATURES (on Blu-ray!), PRE-CODE FILMs (on Blu-ray!), SILENT ERA FILMs (on Blu-ray!), HAMMER Studios (on Blu-ray!) The 100 BEST Neo-Noirs (on Blu-ray!), The GREATEST 100 Westerns (on Blu-ray!), Giallo on Blu-ray!, ESSENTIAL NOIR on Blu-ray!, Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.FR (France), Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.DE (Germany) and our LATEST ARTICLES: Movies From... the End of the World,  The Beauties of Star Trek (TOS)

Feature Blu-ray chosen for the Month of MAY!

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ONE VOICE (not Ellsworth Monkton Toohey): Number one spot this week is Sergei Bondarchuk's 7-hour epic War and Peace. For its time, and well beyond, it was the most expensive European film ever made and Bondarchuk spending seven years filming the project. Given the Criterion Blu-ray treatment - it is waiting for its place in cinephile digital libraries. Two favorite Noirs were covered this week; Shout! Factory have brought This Gun For Hire to Blu-ray where the Ladd/Lake chemistry is palpable and the BD has a wonderful new commentary. Fate is a key theme in Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window where a classic femme fatale leads a mild-mannered gent to... murder. Now on an improved Blu-ray from The Masters of Cinema (with a sumptuous cover). Luis Buñuel's The Diary of a Chambermaid filled with deviance, sexual bents and sardonic wit - it has come on a stand-alone Blu-ray from Studio Canal. Ridley Scott's Alien is a heightened ride in 4K UHD looking outstanding and offered very reasonably at present. Buy, even if you don't have the set-up yet. Fans of the legendary dancing duo Astaire / Rogers should be ecstatic the Criterion have picked-up Swing Time in a wonderful Blu-ray edition. Bruno Dumont's probing cinema is celebrated with his first two films on Criterion Blu-ray releases. The philosophically rich La vie de Jésus and provocative L'humanite both advance immensely over the old inferior DVDs. Shunji Iwai captures a deep feeling with All About Lily Chou-Chou through maturation and the escape from an alienating, violent and insensitive society. On Blu-ray and a must-see film. John Cameron Mitchell's miraculous Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a unique blend of irreverence, mockumentary, powerful musical, Cabaret, burlesque, humor... and the human condition. No wonder Criterion has brought it to Blu-ray. Anatole Litvak directs The Night of the Generals, an unusual World War II crime thriller about a Nazi investigation into the murder of a prostitute. It's a fascinating film in a new Blu-ray edition from Eureka in the UK. Teruo Ishii's J-sploitation, Yakuza Law is a gruelling anthology of torture, spanning three distinct periods of Japanese history - on Blu-ray from Arrow. The Chosen is a surprising blend of apocalyptic prophecy and Italian occult films of the 1970s. It stars Kirk Douglas and is a heap of fun on Blu-ray from Shout! Factory. Max Ophuls' delightful La Ronde gets another ineffectual UK Blu-ray transfer. Cinephiles demand better. Kino's Von Ricthofen and Brown is a biographical action-adventure and is another Roger Corman film to make it to Blu-ray - thanks to Kino.

"The landscape is a reflection of the inner life. Since I can't shoot the inner life, all I can shoot is the exterior but I know that when I'm filming outside, I'm filming inside. I can only really touch the inside through the mise-en-scene. So through the mise-en-scene of the outside we can explore the inside." Bruno Dumont

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Alien 4K UHD - On the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo's crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship's Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas's (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane's stomach and escapes. 4K Ultra HD Release Date: April 23rd, 2019

Hedwig and the Angry Inch BD - With this trailblazing musical, writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask brought their signature creation from stage to screen for a movie as unclassifiable as its protagonist. Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig (Mitchell) undergoes a traumatic personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an “internationally ignored” but divinely talented rock diva, characterized by Mitchell as inhabiting a “beautiful gender of one.” The film tells Hedwig’s story through her music, an eclectic assortment of original punk anthems and power ballads by Trask, matching them with a freewheeling cinematic mosaic of music-video fantasies, animated interludes, and moments of bracing emotional realism. A hard-charging song cycle and a tender character study, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a tribute to the transcendent power of rock and roll. Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th, 2019

The Chosen BD - The world will be destroyed ... It is written. Kirk Douglas stars as industrialist Robert Caine, who with his son Angel (Simon Ward) is finally about to realize his biggest dream: a massive nuclear power plant in the Holy Land. But soon, Caine's dream becomes a horrific nightmare as person after person associated with the project meets a violent, gruesome death. When clues to this inexplicable turn of events point to the devil, Caine comes to the terrible realization that he might be linked to the Antichrist ... perhaps even through his unborn child. Also known as Holocaust 2000 and Rain Of Fire, this riveting thriller in the vein of The Omen "is probably the best made and best budgeted of the Italian occult films of the 1970s. Blu-ray Release Date: May 14th, 2019

La vie de Jésus BD - With his stunning debut feature, the risk-taking auteur Bruno Dumont immediately established his reputation as an uncompromising iconoclast on the cutting edge of French cinema. Blending unflinching realism with moments of startling, light-filled beauty, La vie de Jésus finds unexpected philosophical richness in the quotidian, small-town existence of Freddy (nonprofessional David Douche in a revelatory, one-off performance), an aimless young man with epilepsy who, in his childlike simplicity, embodies both great tenderness and terrifying brutality. Leaving the film’s cryptic title tantalizingly open to interpretation, Dumont dares viewers to see the divine in a seemingly dead-end world. Blu-ray Release Date: June 18th, 2019

Woman in the Window BD - A classic noir thriller with Robinson in top form as the likeable professor of criminal psychology who finds his most vivid fantasies and fears fulfilled when his wife and kids take a vacation and leave him alone to cope with the evils of the big city. Meeting up (innocently, it seems) with the woman of his dreams - the subject of a painting in a gallery window he passes regularly - he becomes involved first in the violent killing of a man, then in blackmail. Meanwhile his DA pal (Massey) keeps him in touch with the police's search for the killer. With Bennett and Duryea superb as the eponymous heroine and the blackmailer, and atmospheric camerawork by Milton Krasner, it's not merely a dazzling piece of suspense, but also a characteristically stark demonstration of Lang's belief in the inevitability of fate: Robinson, basically a good man, makes one small slip in a moment of relaxation, and he's doomed. Masters of Cinema Blu-ray Release Date: May 20th, 2018

L'humanite BD - The transcendent second feature by Bruno Dumont probes the wonder and horror of the human condition through the story of a profoundly alienated police detective (the indelibly sad-eyed Emmanuel Schotté, winner of an upset best actor prize at Cannes for his first film performance) who, while investigating the murder of a young girl, experiences jolting, epiphanous moments of emotional and physical connection. Demonstrating Dumont’s deftness with nonactors and relentlessly frank depiction of bodies and sexuality, L’humanité is at once an idiosyncratic police procedural and a provocative exploration of the tension between humankind’s capacity for compassion and our base, sometimes barbarous animal instincts. Blu-ray Release Date: June 18th, 2019

War and Peace (Bondarchuk) BD - At the height of the Cold War, the Soviet film industry set out to prove it could outdo Hollywood with a production that would dazzle the world: a titanic, awe-inspiring adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic tome in which the fates of three souls—the blundering, good-hearted Pierre; the heroically tragic Prince Andrei; and the radiant, tempestuous Natasha—collide amid the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars. Employing a cast of thousands and an array of innovative camera techniques, director Sergei Bondarchuk conjures a sweeping vision of grand balls that glitter with rococo beauty and breathtaking battles that overwhelm with their expressionistic power. As a statement of Soviet cinema’s might, War and Peace succeeded wildly, garnering the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and setting a new standard for epic moviemaking. Blu-ray Release Date: June 25th, 2019

Swing Time BD - In this irresistible musical, the legendary dancing duo Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are at the pinnacle of their art as a feckless gambler and the shrewd dancing instructor in whom he more than meets his match. Director George Stevens laces their romance with humor and clears the floor for the movie’s showstopping dance scenes, in which Astaire and Rogers take seemingly effortless flight in a virtuosic fusion of ballroom and tap styles. Buoyed by beloved songs by Dorothy Fields and Jerome Kern—including the Oscar-winning classic “The Way You Look Tonight”—Swing Time is an exuberant celebration of its stars’ chemistry, grace, and sheer joy in the act of performance. Blu-ray Release Date: June 11th, 2019

Yakuza Law BD - In this deep dive into the world of the Yakuza, meet the violent men who rule the Japanese underworld and the cruel punishments inflicted on those who transgress them. The carnage begins in the Edo Period with a violent tale of samurai vengeance starring Bunta Sugawara, before shifting to the Meiji Period as the exiled Ogata (Minoru Oki) returns to face punishment for his past transgressions... and, ultimately, to take his revenge. Finally, the action is brought right up to date with a tale of gang warfare set in then-present-day 60s Japan and headlined by Teruo Yoshida, as a powerful crime syndicate seeks bloody vengeance for the theft of one hundred thousand yen. Blu-ray Release Date: May 13th, 2019

Night of the Generals BD - Anatole Litvak directs and Sam Spiegel produces The Night of the Generals (1967), an unusual World War II crime thriller about a Nazi investigation into the murder of a prostitute. Major Grau (Omar Sharif) finds himself focusing on three suspects: the Generals Tanz (Peter O’Toole), Kahlenberg (Donald Pleasence) and Seydlitz-Gabler (Charles Gray) – all three of whom, it seems, are also involved in a plot to kill Hitler. Also starring Tom Courtenay, Joanna Pettet and Philippe Noiret, shot by the great Henri Decaë and featuring a score by Maurice Jarre. The Eureka Blu-ray Release date: May 13th, 2019

La Ronde BD - Simone Signoret, Anton Walbrook, and Simone Simon lead a roundelay of French stars in Max Ophuls's delightful, acerbic adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's controversial turn-of-the-century play Reigen. Soldiers, chambermaids, poets, prostitutes, aristocrats—all are on equal footing in this multicharacter merry-go-round of love and infidelity, directed with a sweeping gaiety as knowingly frivolous as it is enchanting, and shot with Ophuls's trademark mellifluous cinematography. Blu-ray Release Date: May 27th, 2019

This Gun For Hire BD - Adapted from a novel by Graham Greene, This Gun For Hire is the edgy story of love, power and betrayal set in the seamy underworld of the 1940s. Philip Raven (Ladd) is a cold-blooded professional killer who's been double-crossed by his client. Ellen (Lake) is a beautiful nightclub singer who's spying on her corrupt boss. Lt. Michael Crane (Robert Preston) is a dedicated cop who wants Ellen's love and Raven's capture. The tension mounts steadily ... and before the case is wrapped up, someone will pay with his life. Blu-ray Release Date: May 14th, 2019

Von Ricthofen and Brown BD - The sky’s the limit for adventure! Two of history’s most fabled flyboys square off in daring, acrobatic duels of death in Von Richthofen and Brown, a high-flying tale of famous battles and infamous daredevils. Baron Manfred von Richthofen (John Phillip Law, Death Rides a Horse), Germany’s legendary Red Baron, is an aristocratic knight of the skies. But his chivalrous sense of honor doesn’t mean he’s merciful—some eighty pilots have lost their lives to this steel-willed ace of aces. Blu-ray Release Date: May 21st, 2019

All About Lily Chou-Chou BD - Wildly popular filmmaker Shunji Iwai breaks a three-year hiatus following his less than successful April Story with this elliptical drama about teenaged alienation, violence, and celebrity. The film centers on Yuichi Hasumi (Hayato Ichihara), an eighth grader who lives in a sleepy town in rural Japan with his mother, her boyfriend, and the boyfriend's son. At school he is beaten up and harassed by his former friend Hoshino. In order to scrape up the cash to meet Hoshino's daily extortion demand, Yuichi resorts to petty theft and shoplifting. At home he finds sanctuary with his favorite singer Lily Chou-Chou, for whom he has devoted a website called "Liliphilia." One day, he encounters on the net a fellow Lily-phile who goes by the handle "blue cat." As Hoshino's power grows, he demands that Yuichi tail fellow classmate Shiori Tsuda (Yu Aoi), who he is pimping out to older men. Yuichi's suffocating situation at school leads him to consider suicide, something he confesses to "blue cat" -- his only confidant. Things come to a head tragically at a long awaited Lily Chou-Chou concert. Blu-ray Release Date: May 7th, 2019

Diary of a Chambermaid (Buñuel) BD - This wicked adaptation of the Octave Mirbeau novel is classic Luis Buñuel. Jeanne Moreau is Celestine, a beautiful Parisian domestic who, upon arrival at her new job at an estate in provincial 1930s France, entrenches herself in sexual hypocrisy and scandal with her philandering employer (Buñuel regular Michel Piccoli). Filmed in luxurious black-and-white Franscope, Diary of a Chambermaid is a raw-edged tangle of fetishism and murder—and a scathing look at the burgeoning French fascism of the era. Blu-ray Release Date: May 3rd, 2018
 

Next 2 weeks on the Calendar