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Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
BD - Restored under the
auspices of Martin Scorsese, Pandora and the Flying Dutchman
stars Ava Gardner as the siren of a small Spanish town, the type
of woman men kill and die for. She s never fallen for anyone
until the arrival of the mysterious James Mason, the actual
Flying Dutchman condemned to sail the seas until he finds a
woman who would die for him. Featuring stunning color
cinematography by Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, The Red Shoes).
Blu-ray Release date: August
3rd, 2010
Home
BD - Switzerland's official entry for Best Foreign
Language Film at the 82nd Academy Awards, HOME is a mesmerizing
fable of modern family life starring internationally renowned
actress Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teacher). Huppert plays Marthe, a happy-go-lucky mother whose family enjoys an idyllic
existence in their isolated, ramshackle home, which edges onto
an abandoned highway. Almost entirely cut off from society at
large, they forge their own utopia. Everything changes when city
trucks roll in to complete the road's construction, allowing
rush hour traffic to start rumbling by.
Blu-ray Release date: July 27th,
2010
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
BD - Hellboy is yet another
comic book-to-movie character – this one created by Mike Mignola
for Dark Horse Comics. What's most interesting about the
character is that he is sent here from the other side of
existence to destroy the world, but has been "tamed" from
infancy by the mankind's possible representative and mentor.
While this dichotomy is addressed in both movies, it is a
weakness in common to both that the split is never clearly
manifest. Hellboy is one of the good guys, even if the public at
large can't quite make up its mind about him. In any case
Hellboy, while he works for Bureau of Paranormal Research &
Defense, is clearly his own man with a wild streak who enjoys
chewing up the scenery. Blu-ray
Release date: November 11th, 2008
The Prowler
BD - In 1945, a G.I. returns
from the war and receives a "Dear John" letter from his
sweetheart. On the night of the Avalon Bay graduation dance, she
and her boyfriend are brutally murdered and the dance canceled
from then on. 35 years later, the school decides to resurrect
the dance so you know there's going to be trouble (especially if
you've already seen the original MY BLOODY VALENTINE). After
all, Sheriff Fraser (Farley Granger, ROPE) is going off on his
fishing trip so the only cop on duty will be Mark (Christopher Goutman) who has his hands full with "final girl"/love interest
Pam (Vicky Dawson) and a handful of other would-be co-ed victims
that catch his eye. Blu-ray
Release Date: July 27th, 2010
Secrets of Nature - The
natural world has always inspired fascination. Secrets of
Nature, a pioneering series exploring animal, plant and insect
life, made wondrous worlds and natural processes visible for the
first time: sweet peas unfurl in the sunlight, white owls swoop
in on their prey, sea life lurks on the ocean floor and moths
patiently spin their cocoons. DVD Release Date: July 19th, 2010
They Stand Ready - The
third volume in the COI Collection, They Stand Ready, looks at
Britain's armed forces. To help paint a positive picture of life
in the Services the COI produced morale-boosting documentaries,
propaganda items and numerous recruitment films, which placed
emphasis on escaping the humdrum of daily life. Join the
Services, we are told, and a world of opportunity awaits you.
DVD Release Date: July 19th, 2010
Eclipse Series 22: Presenting Sacha Guitry
- Sacha Guitry was once a household name. Something of a Gallic
counterpart to Nöel Coward, this disarming, multitalented artist
served up some of 1930s French cinema’s tastiest dishes. The son
of a beloved theater actor, Guitry was devoted to the
footlights, first turning to the silver screen as a way of
bringing his plays to a wider audience. His films were anything
but stage-bound, however: often the director, writer, and star
of his popular movies, Guitry brought a witty inventiveness to
the cinema and deployed radical tactics with such aplomb and
control that he’s considered one of the medium’s first “complete
auteurs.” With these four films, American audiences can finally
sample Guitry’s creative, comic confections. DVD Release
Date: July 27th, 2010
Etoile - Claire Hamilton
(Jennifer Connelly, PHENOMENA) has come to Budapest to audition
for a ballet school run by the mysterious Marius Balakin
(Laurent Terzieff, THE LAST METRO). Claire meets cute with
fellow American Jason (Gary McCleery, TAPS) who retrieves her
dropped slipper. Jason is in Budapest with his Uncle Joshua (an
overacting Charles Durning) to buy up some antique clocks at
auction but is quickly distracted by Claire. Claire goes to the
audition but loses her nerve (although she is spotted by Balakin
dancing on an empty stage). Back at her hotel receives flowers
addressed to long dead ballerina Natalie Horvath. Claire plans
to go back to New York but instead answers to a loudspeaker
request for a car waiting for Natalie Horvath and gets into a
Rolls Royce which spirits her away into the past. Later, Jason
sees her in a park and is delighted that she has stayed but she
appears not to know him. Jason is mystified and grows suspicious
when it appears that outside forces are trying to keep him away
from her (including his uncle suddenly turning into a murderous
lunatic).
Old Enough - A pre-WHO'S
THE BOSS Alyssa Milano appears in her first role as Lonnie's kid
sister. Produced for $650,000, OLD ENOUGH is the old fashioned
"coming of age" tale about sexual awareness (couched within a
story about stepping outside of your boundaries) rather than
losing virginity. While it starts out like a well-budgeted
eighties TV movie, it becomes interesting and moving.
Award-winning cinematographer Michael Ballhaus' slick
cinematography lacks a certain grittiness but there is some
gorgeous low-key lighting that recalls Ballhaus' work on some of
Fassbinder's films. DVD Release Date: April 27th, 2010
The Secret of the Grain
BD - The winner of four
César awards, including best picture and director, Abdellatif
Kechiche’s The Secret of the Grain is a stirring drama about the
daily joys and struggles of a bustling French-Arab family. It
has the texture of a documentary but a classic, almost
Shakespearean structure: when patriarch Slimane acts on his wish
to open a portside restaurant specializing in his ex-wife’s
couscous and fish, the extended clan’s passions and problems
explode, leading to an engrossing, suspenseful climax. With
sensitivity and grit, The Secret of the Grain celebrates the
role food plays in family life and gets to the core of
contemporary immigrant experience.
Blu-ray Release date: July 27th, 2010
Say Hello to Yesterday - An
unemployed young man only identified as The Boy (Leonard
Whiting, ROMEO AND JULIET) has just turned twenty-two the day he
meets The Woman (Jean Simmons, BLACK NARCISSUS), an unhappy
forty-something well-to-do housewife who has come to London to
do some shopping after having quarreled with her husband. She
resists his overtures (he describes her as “Mata-Hari, Barbarella and Candy all rolled into one”) as he follows her
through London and she tries to lose him. He even follows her to
her mother's (Evelyn Laye) house (and she is shocked when her
mother is less than scandalized at the situation). DVD
Release Date: June 29th, 2010
Follow Me - The Surf Corp.
(Claude Codgen, Bob Purvey, and Mary Lou McGinnis), having
surfed all the spots on the American coast has to offer, hop on
a plane to surf the world's hot spots starting with Portugal
before moving to Morocco, Ceylon, India, Hong Kong, Japan and
Hawaii (all thoughtfully labeled and contextualized with stock
footage). If you hope to learn anything about surfing, you've
come to the wrong place - other than where to look photogenic
while surfing - and there's only so many times the upside down,
slow motion, and aerial shots can be used before it becomes
monotonous. Still, FOLLOW ME is a goofy but painless 75 minute
globe trot. DVD Release Date: June 29th, 2010
Skateboard - Schlub Manny
(Allen Garfield) is unemployed and in trouble with his bookie.
In desperation, he decides to start a skateboard team using the
punks who annoy him daily by jumping over his stalled car. As in
any "sports" film with such a protagonist, he gets into it just
to make money but must take a stand when his bookie tells him to
instruct his team to take a dive. Theatrically released through
Universal Pictures, SKATEBOARD: THE MOVIE is apparently a cult
film for skateboarders but for the rest of us it's painless fun.
DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010
Clash of the Titans
BD - In Clash of the Titans,
the ultimate struggle for power pits men against kings and kings
against gods. But the war between the gods themselves could
destroy the world. Born of a god but raised as a man, Perseus
(Sam Worthington) is helpless to save his family from Hades
(Ralph Fiennes), vengeful god of the underworld. With nothing to
lose, Perseus volunteers to lead a dangerous mission to defeat
Hades before he can seize power from Zeus (Liam Neeson) and
unleash hell on earth. Battling unholy demons and fearsome
beasts, Perseus and his warriors will only survive if Perseus
accepts his power as a god, defies fate and creates his own
destiny. Blu-ray Release date:
June 27th, 2010
The Girl in Blue - Montreal
lawyer Scott (David Selby) has a loving relationship with
schoolteacher Bonnie (Gay Rowan) but is haunted by the what-if
of his brief chance meeting with a beautiful and beguiling woman
in blue (Maud Adams, in a dual role). Although he has searched
for her intermittently (whenever he catches sight of the model
sports car she was driving), it is not until Bonnie starts
pushing him to marry her that he starts out a more aggressive
search for the woman which further alienates Bonnie. The
Canadian entry for the 1973 Berlin Film Festival, THE GIRL IN
BLUE achieves a wonderfully dreamy atmosphere thanks to its
score, the overcast views of new and old Montreal, the
surrounding countryside and islands, and the lovely
cinematography. Some humor and a naturalistic performances from
Selby and Rowan (in contrast to the ambiguous one of Adams and
the caricatured but colorful supporting cast) keep this one from
getting too pretentious and the script isn't as predictable as
one would expect (although the last scene seems like a cop-out).
DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010
Blue Beard - Two adolescent
sisters explore their house's attic and stumble across a copy of
Charles Perrault's "Bluebeard" and read it as it is enacted
onscreen in Catherine Breillat's latest. In the story itself,
sisters Anne (Daphne Baiwir) and Marie-Catherine (Lola Creton)
are turned out of school when their father dies and cannot pay
tuition (in a nod to the Marquise de Sade's JUSTINE). Local
aristocrat Bluebeard (Dominique Thomas) is looking for a bride
and does not require a dowry which suits Marie-Catherine just
fine despite the fact that Bluebeard's previous wives have
vanished into thin air. DVD Release Date: June 22nd, 2010
Eureka - It seems all too
commonplace to overlook the later works of Nicolas Roeg: the
accepted practice seems to be to laud praise on his first five
films as director, but to consider his works after 'Bad Timing'
1980, to be less than the great works that cineastes had come to
expect from Roeg. Part of the problem may simply be that Roeg's
first five films were all absolute masterpieces from a great
visionary. Indeed, Roeg's vision was so strong that many
consider John Schlesinger's 'Far From the Madding Crowd', 1967,
to be a Nicolas Roeg film (it was one of Roeg's last films as
cinematographer, made three years before 'Performance', 1970),
this is due in no small part to the fact that Roeg's vision as
cinematographer almost completely eclipsed Schlesinger's vision
as director. DVD Release Date: September 1st, 2008
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