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The Satyajit Ray Collection Vol. 3
- Satyajit Ray is internationally acknowledged as one of the
great masters of world cinema. This new collection features
three more accomplished works. The Public Enemy (1990) An
adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's 'An Enemy of the People' The
Home and the World (1984) A Journey of a woman who recalls
the events that moulded her perspective on the world.
Deliverance (1981) An interesting look at the differences in
the Indian caste system. DVD Release Date: August 23rd, 2010
The Locket - There are
certainly any number of labyrinthianly complicated noirs, but
nothing can quite prepare the viewer for the experience of
watching John Brahm’s The Locket (1946), famous for its
“flashback within a flashback within a flashback” structure,
perhaps the most convoluted narrative in the history of noir.
The plot itself is relatively simple: Nancy (Laraine Day) is a
kleptomaniac, driven to steal anything that strikes her fancy
(the original title of the film was “What Nancy Wanted”).
DVD Release Date: August 3rd, 2010
Lou Reed's Berlin
BD - Staging Berlin
has been discussed for over 30 years and in December of 2006 it
became a reality. Berlin was said to be one of the most
depressing albums ever made and as it was brought to life it was
far from dismal. Using the divided city of Berlin as its
backdrop the story of Caroline and her lovers is told through
the emotive and provocative words of Lou Reed. With performers
like Fernando Saunders, Antony, Steve Hunter, Rob Wassermann,
Rupert Christie and Sharon Jones, a seven piece orchestra and
the Brooklyn Youth Chorus all working to create a captivating
and enveloping world, Lou Reed is able to take the audience with
him as he bares witness to Caroline's self-destruction.
Blu-ray Release date: October 27th,
2008
Birdwatchers - It takes a
director who has worked with Jorge Luis Borges to appreciate and
depict the absurdities of life for indigenous people in the
Amazon basin. Marco Bechis’ unsentimental and fiercely
intelligent feature BirdWatchers reflects not only his
own political expulsion from Argentina in the 1970s but also
Chip, the film he planned with the great Argentine writer.
BirdWatchers, set in Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil, may not
recall the radical mode of Third Cinema, but its tonal
complexity, compelling performances and precise evocations of
the spirit world are a far cry from the liberal campaigning film
a viewer might expect on hearing that it is produced by Survival
International. DVD Release Date: January 25th, 2010
The Burmese Harp
BD - At the close of World
War II, a Japanese army regiment in Burma surrenders to the
British. Private Mizushima is sent on a lone mission to persuade
a trapped Japanese battalion to surrender also. When the outcome
is a failure, he disguises himself in the robes of a Buddhist
monk in hope of temporary anonymity as he journeys across the
landscape – but he underestimates the power of his assumed role.
A visually extraordinary and deeply moving vision of horror,
necessity, and redemption in the aftermath of war, Ichikawa’s
breakthrough film is one of the great humanitarian affirmations
of the cinema. Nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar
and honoured at the Venice Film Festival...
Blu-ray Release Date: August 30th,
2010
Anti Christ
BD - Lars von Trier's
controversial exploration of depression, guilt and sexuality
stars Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg as a couple grieving
the death of their young son. The mother is initially admitted
to hospital following the incident, but her husband - a
therapist - insists on taking her to their remote forest cabin,
'Eden', and looking after her himself. Presented in four
chapters with a prologue and epilogue, the film charts the often
violent and disturbing course of the couple's anguish as they
immerse themselves in nature and act out their deep suffering in
a sequence of increasingly bizarre and brutal rituals.
Artificial Eye Blu-ray Release
date: January 11th, 2010
Inferno - In New York,
poetess Rose (Irene Miracle, THE NIGHT TRAIN MURDERS)
discovers the alchemist-authored tome THE THREE MOTHERS
in a nearby antique shop and learns that her apartment building
is one of the houses of the damned belonging to Mater Tenebrarum
(the mother of darkness) one of a trio of witches (the other two
houses being in Frieberg, Germany - the setting of Dario
Argento's SUSPIRIA - and the other being in Rome). An
underwater subterranean lair complete with floating rotting
corpses suggests to Rose that the book is a work of fact and she
writes to her brother Mark (Leigh McCloskey), a music student in
Rome. The appearance of Mater Lachrymarum (Ania Pieroni of
Argento's TENEBRE) in his music class distracts Mark from
reading his sister's letter which is discovered by classmate
Sara (Eleonora Giorgi, THE STORY OF A CLOISTERED NUN) who
seeks out the book and is herself menaced by a supernatural
slasher. After Rose disappears, Mark goes to New York and learns
more about her sister's interest in The Three Mothers from
neighbor Elise (Daria Nicolodi, Argento's OPERA) and
bookseller Kazanian (Sacha Pitoeff, LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD)
who also mysteriously disappear while Mark follows clues that
lead him to an eventual encounter with The Mother of Darkness.
Alida Valli (SUSPIRIA) and Feodor Chaliapan (THE
CHURCH) also star. DVD Release Date: September 13th, 2010
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
BD - Prepare to be dazzled
as all the wonder, excitement, triumph, and treachery of the
Arabian Nights come vibrantly to life in Ali Baba and the Forty
Thieves! Orphaned as a young child and adopted by a band of
notorious thieves, now-grown Ali Baba (Jon Hall) sets out to
avenge his father’s murder, reclaim the royal throne, and rescue
his beloved Amara (Maria Montez) from the iron fist of his
treacherous enemy. Lushly shot in glorious Technicolor® and
featuring a cast of thousands, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
is a cinematic feast for the senses to be enjoyed time and
again. Blu-ray Release Date:
August 30th, 2010
A Call Girl - Having grown
up in small-town Slovenia, 23-year-old Alexandra embraces the
excitement and anonymity of big city life when she moves to the
capital. She styles herself as a call girl, planning to take
advantage of everything the city has to offer. But her isolated
existence English studies and mortgage payments by day, call
girl lifestyle by night is shattered when one of her clients, a
visiting politician, dies of a heart attack on her watch.
Alexandra must suddenly confront fear, guilt, and desperation as
she finds herself pursued by a band of local pimps, as well as
the cops, hot on her trail. The old village life she had escaped
from might now become her only refuge. DVD Release Date:
September 7th, 2010
Serpico
BD - Serpico was one
of those fortunate circumstances in filmmaking where a
compelling true story hit home with the mood of the country and
the times. It all came together with an enthusiastic producer
seeking to make his mark in the industry, an emerging young
actor at the height of his talents backed by a strong supporting
cast, and an experienced director with a feel for authentic
locations and a sure hand at guiding performers to their best
performance. Blu-ray Release
Date: May 11th, 2010
Shirin - What Shirin
shows us - and indeed all it shows us - is an audience of more
than 100 women who are deeply absorbed in watching a film we
never see. We observe instead how the drama plays out on the
faces of the audience, seen in close up, mostly one at a time -
a mesmerising series of portraits of women, young and old, their
expressions variously wistful, quizzical, amused, enraptured and
distraught. DVD Release Date: August 24h, 2010
The Kim Novak Collection -
One of the most beautiful and talented stars to emerge from the
studio era in the 1950s, Kim Novak has made an indelible mark on
the cinema, and in the hearts of film fans all over the world.
On August 3, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) unveils The
Kim Novak Collection, featuring five of Novak's best-known
films, fully restored and remastered, including two new to DVD.
The must-have collection includes Jeanne Eagels with Jeff
Chandler and Middle of the Night with Fredric March (each
making their DVD debuts), as well as the Novak classics
Picnic with William Holden and Rosalind Russell; Pal Joey
with Frank Sinatra and Rita Hayworth; and Bell Book and Candle
with James Stewart and Jack Lemmon. The Kim Novak Collection
also features rare archival photographs of Kim Novak on set and
at work on her most popular films as she shares her personal
stories in newly recorded intimate conversations with author
Stephen Rebello. DVD Release Date: August 3rd, 2010
Don't Look Up - Film
director Marcus Reed (Reshad Strik, THE HILLS HAVE EYES PART
II [the remake sequel]) is prone to supernatural visions
which guided him to make his first horror hit but disastrously
pull out of his sophomore effort. Inspired by a production still
from an unfinished Hungarian horror film (the director was
killed and the cast and crew vanished) based on a gypsy folktale
about a gypsy woman who makes a deal with the devil to land a
powerful husband in exchange for providing her first-born
daughter to give birth to his spawn, Reed pens a script inspired
by both the legend and what supposedly happened behind the
scenes of the film. Leaving behind his cancer-stricken ex Claire
(Alyssa Sutherland), Reed heads to Romania to shoot the film in
the abandoned Transylvanian studio where the original film was
shot. DVD Release Date: July 27th, 2010
Eden Lake
BD - This fierce,
thought-provoking ‘survival horror’ movie from ‘My Little Eye’
co-writer James Watkins sounds like a tabloid headline: Lovers’
Lakeside Hoody Horror. The romantic peace of Kelly Reilly and
Michael Fassbender’s remote idyll is shattered by a gang of kids
with a loud beat-box and a boisterous Rottweiler. Verbal
confrontations escalate into knife-wielding violence, then the
couple are hunted and tortured in the surrounding woods.
Blu-ray Release date: January 19th,
2009
The Queen
BD - One of the better films
of 2006, The Queen gives us only a glimpse into the
complex private and public lives of the Royal Family (one
wisecrack about the estranged Princess Margaret by Elizabeth is
about all we get.) Watching this Blu-ray edition in the privacy
and sharp focus of my high definition theatre, I found myself
appreciating even more the subtleties of the performances by
Helen Mirren (who took home the Oscar) as Elizabeth II and
Michael Sheen (underrated, I thought, then and now) as Tony
Blair, especially with the help of historian Robert Lacey's
commentary. Blu-ray Release
date: April 24th, 2007
Hearts and Minds - A
courageous and startling film, Peter Davis’s landmark
documentary Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronts the United
States’ involvement in Vietnam. Using a wealth of sources—from
interviews to newsreels to documentary footage of the conflict
at home and abroad—Davis constructs a powerfully affecting
portrait of the disastrous effects of war. Explosive,
persuasive, and shocking, Hearts and Minds is an overwhelming
emotional experience and the controversial winner of the 1974
Academy Award for Best Documentary. DVD Release Date: June
25th, 2002
Hopscotch - Miles Kendig
knows too much. One of the CIA’s top international operatives,
he suddenly finds himself relegated to a desk job in an agency
power play. Unwilling to go quietly, Kendig, with the aid of a
chic Viennese widow, puts himself back in the game by writing a
memoir exposing the innermost secrets of every major
intelligence agency in the world. The CIA wants Kendig dead, but
he refuses to cooperate—he’s having too much fun. Based on Brian
Garfield’s best-selling novel, and starring the inimitable comic
team of Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, Ronald Neame’s
Hopscotch is a smart and stylish tale of international
intrigue and a cat-and-mouse comedy. DVD Release Date: August
20th, 2002
Secret Honor - Sequestered
in his home, a disgraced President Richard Milhous Nixon arms
himself with a bottle of scotch and a gun to record memoirs that
no one will hear. He is surrounded by the silent portraits of
Lincoln, Eisenhower, Kissinger, and his mother, as he resurrects
his past in a passionate attempt to defend himself and his
political legacy. Based on the original play by Donald Freed and
Arnold M. Stone, and starring Philip Baker Hall in a tour de
force solo performance, Robert Altman’s Secret Honor is a
searing interrogation of the Nixon mystique and an audacious
depiction of unchecked paranoia. DVD Release Date: October
19th, 2004
The Firemen's Ball - A
milestone of the Czech New Wave, Milos Forman’s first color film
The Firemen’s Ball (Horí, má panenko) is both a dazzling
comedy and a provocative political satire. A hilarious saga of
good intentions confounded, the story chronicles a firemen’s
ball where nothing goes right—from a beauty pageant whose
reluctant participants embarrass the organizers to a lottery
from which nearly all the prizes are pilfered. Presumed to be a
commentary on the floundering Czech leadership, the film was
“banned forever” in Czechoslovakia following the Russian
invasion and prompted Forman’s move to America. DVD Release
Date: February 12th, 2002
The Honeymoon Killers -
Martha Beck (Shirley Stoler) is sullen, overweight and
heartbreakingly alone. Desperate for affection, she joins Aunt
Carrie’s Friendship Club and strikes up a correspondence with
Ray Fernandez (Tony Lo Bianco), a suave, charismatic smooth
talker who could be the man of her dreams—or a wicked con artist
bound for trouble. Based on a true story and filmed in
documentary-style black and white, The Honeymoon Killers
is a stark portrayal of the desperate lengths to which a lonely
heart will go to find true love, from brutally immoral killings
to a passion that transcends all bounds. DVD Release Date:
July 22nd, 2003
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