NEW Article: Jonathan Rosenbaum tells us of Ten Overlooked Fantasy Films on DVD (and 2 that should be!)

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AMAZON SALE!

The Green Man (Robert Day + Basil Dearden1956) R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment

School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating! (Robert Hamer, 1960) R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment

L'Armee des Ombres (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) - R2 UK BFI

The Quay Brothers - The Short Films 1979-2003 - R2 UK BFI

The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1961) - R2 UK BFI

A Long Weekend In Pest And Buda (Károly Makk, 2003) Second Run

Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes (Avi Mograbi, 2005) Second Run

Will Rogers Collection Volume 2 - Ambassador Bill (1931), David Harum (1934), Mr. Skitch (1933) and To Busy To Work (1932) - 20th Century Fox

Lubitsch in Berlin: Sumurun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) - Kino Video

Lubitsch in Berlin: Oyster Princess & I Don't Want (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919) - Kino Video

Lubitsch in Berlin: Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) - Kino Video

Lubitsch in Berlin: The Wildcat (Ernst Lubitsch, 1921) - Kino Video

Death of a President (Gabriel Range, 2006) Optimum Home Entertainment

The Wim Wenders Collection, Vol. 2 - Room 666 (1984), The Scarlet Letter (1972), Tokyo-ga (1985), A Trick of the Light (1996), The Wrong Movement (1974) - Anchor Bay

Hammer Film Noir - Vol. 4 (Terror Street, Wings of Danger) VCI
Hammer Film Noir - Vol. 5 (The Glass Tomb, Paid to Kill) VCI

Things to Come (Special Edition) (William Cameron Menzies, 1936) Liberation Ent

Otomo (Frieder Schlaich, 1999) Facets

Presagio (Luis Alcoriza , 1975) Facets

Sara (Maciej Slesicki, 1997) Facets

Edi (Piotr Trzaskalski , 2002) Facets

20 centímetros (Ramón Salazar, 2005) Tla Releasing

George Reeves Double Feature (Thunder in the Pines & Jungle Goddess) VCI

Claude Chabrol's Tales of Deceit (Betty / The Color of Lies / Cop Au Vin / L'Enfer / Inspecteur Lavardin) Kino Video

Abbott & Costello in Hollywood / Lost in a Harem (S. Sylvan Simon, 1945) Warner Home Video

The Quiller Memorandum (Michael Anderson, 1966) 20th Century Fox

Lady in the Water (M. Night Shyamalan, 2006) Warner

The Chairman (J. Lee Thompson, 1969) 20th Century Fox

O Henry's Full House (Henry Hathaway, Howard Hawks, 1952) 20th Century Fox

Miracle on 34th Street (George Seaton, 1947) 20th Century Fox

Ultimate Flint Collection (3pc) (Our Man Flint / In Like Flint) (Daniel Mann, 1967) 20th Century Fox

A Fish Called Wanda (Deluxe Edition) (Charles Crichton, 1988) MGM

The Other - ...Mulligan none the less produces a genuinely unsettling atmosphere, undermining the idyllic veneer of his '30s pastoral setting by refusing to romanticise his characters and stressing the claustrophobic elements of living in a close-knit community. As so often with this director's work, the film is craftsmanlike rather than brilliant, but the performances, Robert Surtees' lush camerawork, and Mulligan's solid psychological insights make for thoughtful, sometimes even chilling, entertainment. DVD Release Date: October 17th, 2006

Martin & Lewis Collection - Vol. 1 - Eight early efforts of the wacky pairing of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis - My Friend Irma (1949), My Friend Irma Goes West (1950), That's My Boy (1951), Sailor Beware (1952), Jumping Jacks (1952), The Stooge (1953), Scared Stiff (1953) and The Caddy (1953). The excellent comedic timing is present even in these early films. DVD Release Date: October 31st, 2006

It's a Wonderful Life (Paramount (60th Anniversary) - This great American fable is buoyed by its unwavering faith in the wealth of the human spirit. Capra wanted to make a film to help shake America out of a post-Second World War funk, but ironically, the movie has only gained true popularity in these most cynical post-Vietnam times, when we just might need its humanity even more. DVD Release Date: October 31st, 2006

The Gary Cooper Signature Collection - 5 films spanning the mid-to-later career of the quintessential everyman - Sergeant York (1941), The Fountainhead (1948), Dallas (1950) , Springfield Rifle (1952) and The Wreck of the Mary Deare (1959). DVD Release Date: November 7th, 2006

Sergeant York - Oscar-winning Cooper is in engagingly relaxed form as the country boy who goes to war, in a fit of pique, after feeling cheated out of some farmland he wanted to buy, and Hawks manages to chart his transformation from pacifist to soldier with disarming ease. But, with serious issues and moral pieties at its heart, it lacks the subversive wit and depth of feeling for individuals that typifies his best work; too often it is picturesque (although the battle scenes, with the exception of the famous 'turkey-shoot' in which Germans are bumped off like birds, are shot with a strong feel for the pain and squalor of war)...  DVD Release Date: November 7th, 2006

The Fountainhead - Ironically the very core fundamentals of the The Fountainhead deny public conformist reaction; that which would determine its box-office success or failure. To have had financial success would have meant either it had succumbed to the will and desire of the masses that it staunchly opposed OR that it had achieved an impossibly idealistic goal of altering society's entrenched perceptions. Instead though it failed the studio financially thereby adhering to the principles of its premise. Ironic indeed, and a strange gamble for Warner Brothers to take especially if they thought Rand would allow her scintillating discourse to be "dumbed-down" to appeal to a larger slice of the box-office gate.  DVD Release Date: November 7th, 2006

Last Exit to Brooklyn - A violent, harrowing, but oddly tender adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr's novel about life in a working class Brooklyn neighbourhood in the '50s. In this harsh, poverty stricken environment, human feeling is sacrificed to expediency as prostitute Tralala (Leigh), union leader Harry Black (Lang), and assorted workers, hustlers, wives, pimps and homosexuals struggle to survive. DVD Release Date: October 2, 2006

The Red Desert - Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1964 Red Desert has invited an array of critical reactions, such as its classification as an exhibition in the boring and the bleak, as well as its estimation as a thoughtful mood piece, and also its recognition on the level of masterpiece. As a rich, multi-layered work, the film readily accommodates a wide categorical continuum. Upon objective examination of Red Desert on an operational level—the story and the film technique that conveys it—the formal cues for addressing the functional level become apparent. In fact, meta-narrative cues will be found to emerge from inside the narrative as well, as Giuliana discusses the effects of color and sound. DVD Release Date: October 11th, 2006

The Deer Hunter - Following the funeral of Nick, the intimate group of friends sit together around a table at their bar and sing “God bless America”. Their voices are raised just enough to be heard, their minds elsewhere. They do not become one in mind until they raises their glasses to Nick. A stunning scene in every sense, from the positioning of the players around the table, to its intertextual qualities, the ending of “Deer Hunter” not only invokes allusions of Ford and Visconti, it also allows the viewer to dwell upon the story by stressing its main theme: Friendship. DVD Release Date: October 23, 2006

The King - On the surface, “The King” suggests its motifs quiet openly, thru its title and the ambiguity of it thru Elvis, the king of rock’n’roll, Christ, the king of kings, and the nature of the pastor, the king of his castle, which as the story progresses for my taste is a bit too smart and without enough substance. The entire Christian motif of sin, here not only the sins of the father, but sin in general, especially killing and incest, are not real attached to the narrative. DVD Release Date: September 25, 2006

Lonsboda Fox - In the spring of 2002 the village Lönsboda started a campaign with the goal of making the small community "South Swedens' Rock Metropole". Then came an incident that made headlines all over the world - the famous singer Samantha Fox was reported for physical assault. A fan had touched her breast and she reportedly answered by hitting him in the head with her microphone. This documentary tries to find out what really happened...

Next 2 weeks on the Calendar:

Week of October 30th, 2006

The Complete Buster Keaton Short Films - R2 - UK - Eureka MoC

Death of a President (Gabriel Range, 2006) Optimum Home Entertainment

It's a Wonderful Life (Special Collector's Edition) (Frank Capra, 1947) Paramount Home Video

Films of James Broughton (3-disc) - Facets

The Green Man (Robert Day + Basil Dearden1956) R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment

Martin & Lewis: Vol 1 (My Friend Irma / My Friend Irma Goes West / The Caddy / Scared Stiff) - Paramount Home Video

Most Beautiful Wife (Damiano Damiani, 1970) No Shame

The Quay Brothers - The Short Films 1979-2003 - R2 UK BFI

R. W. Paul - The Complete Surviving Films 1895-1908 - R2 UK - BFI

School for Scoundrels or How to Win Without Actually Cheating! (Robert Hamer, 1960) R2 UK - Optimum Home Entertainment

The Tarzan Collection Starring Johnny Weissmuller, Vol. 2 (Tarzan Triumphs / Tarzan's Desert Mystery / Tarzan and the Amazons / and the Leopard Woman / and the Huntress / and the Mermaids) Warner Home Video

Shi gan aka Time (Ki-duk Kim, 2006) KD MEDIA

Woman on the Beach (Sang-soo Hong, 2006) R3 - NTSC - Bitwin

Week of November 6th, 2006

Affair In Trinidad (Vincent Sherman, 1952) R2 UK Sony Pictures

Cars (Widescreen Edition) (2006) Walt Disney Video

Carousel Anniversary Ed. (Henry King, 1956) 20th Century Fox

The Chairman (J. Lee Thompson, 1969) 20th Century Fox

Un Coeur en Hiver ( A Heart in Winter ) (Claude Sautet, 1993) Koch Lorber Films

Coffret Michael Powell (Oh... Rosalinda!! 1955, A Matter of Life and Death 1946) Warner Fr R2

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger - Coffret 4X2 DVD (Red Shoes, Colonel Blimp, Black Narcissus, 49th Parallel) - Warner Fr R2

The Fallen Idol (Carol Reed, 1948) Criterion Collection

Flower Drum Song (Henry Koster, 1961) Universal

The Fountainhead (King Vidor, 1949) Warner

Gary Cooper: Signature Collection (5-disc) - Sergeant York Two-Disc Special Edition (1941), The Fountainhead (1949), Springfield Rifle (1952), The Wreck of Mary Deare (1959), Dallas (1950) - Warner

The King and I Anniversary Ed. (Walter Lang, 1956) 20th Century Fox

James Bond Ultimate Collection, Vol. 1 - Diamonds Are Forever, The Man with the Golden Gun, The Living Daylights, The World Is Not Enough - MGM

James Bond Ultimate Collection, Vol. 2 - The Spy Who Loved Me, A View to a Kill, License to Kill, Die Another Day - MGM

John Wayne Western 3-pack (The Big Stampede / Ride Him Cowboy / Haunted Gold) - Warner

John Wayne Western 3-pack (The Telegraph Trail / Somewhere in Sonora / The Man from Monterey) - Warner

The Kremlin Letter (John Huston, 1970) Tcfhe

Marlon Brando Collection (5-disc) Mutiny on the Bounty Two-Disc Special Edition (1962), Julius Caesar (1953), The Formula (1980), Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967), The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) - Warner

The Quiller Memorandum (Michael Anderson, 1966) 20th Century Fox

Randolph Scott - Triple Bill - Colt .45 / Tall Man Riding / Fort Worth - Warner Home Video

Randolph Scott Triple Bill - The Man Behind the Gun / Thunder Over the Plains / Riding - Warner Home Video

Rodgers and Hammerstein Box Set Collection (The Sound of Music, South Pacific , The King and I , Oklahoma! , Carousel , State Fair) 20th Century Fox

South Pacific (Collector's Edition) (Joshua Logan, 1958) 20th Century Fox

Ultimate Flint Collection (3pc) (Our Man Flint / In Like Flint) (Daniel Mann, 1967) 20th Century Fox

Oh! What a Lovely War (Richard Attenborough, 1969) Paramount Home Video

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Loach, Ken, 2006) R2 UK - Fox

WWII Three-pack - Objective, Burma!/Never So Few/Go for Broke - Warner

Check out Beaver's ESSENTIAL FILM NOIR STORE - many more (with more listing) coming soon..

Celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of this world-renowned distribution company with Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films, an expansive collectors’ box set featuring fifty classic films on DVD. FILMS LISTED HERE   AVAILABLE HERE

For less than $600 you get 46 existing, or upcoming, Criterion DVDs at less than $12 per DVD, plus 4 new discs (3 films) - :

Marcel Carné's Le Jour se lčve (1939) aka Daybreak
Alf Sjöberg's Fröken Julie (1951) aka Miss Julie and

Kon Ichikawa's Nobi (1959) aka Fires on the Plain
plus THREE DOCUMENTARIES by Saul J. Turell

Happy viewing,

Gary