SOME DEALS FROM UK:

FEATURE DVD OF THE MONTH (NOVEMBER)! - King Vidor's The Fountainhead focuses on the uncompromising and dogmatic philosophical stance of the protagonist, architect Howard Roark - played by a strong, impassive and abruptly stoic Gary Cooper. He, in defense of artistic integrity and individualism, blows up a partially constructed building site, called Cortlandt Homes, manipulated from his own original design. With large office towers representative of phallic metaphors with a stunning 22-year-old Patricia Neal playing ice princess Dominque Francon we are left with a grand, surprising and unique achievement from the 1949 Hollywood system. REVIEWED HERE  PURCHASE HERE

The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet, 1966) R2 UK - Sony

Fighting Elergy (Seijun Suzuki, 1966) R2 UK - Yume Picture

Tokyo Drifter (Seijun Suzuki, 1966) R2 UK - Yume Pictures

Bob le flambeur (Melville, Jean-Pierre, 1955) R2 UK - Optimum

12:01 (Jack Sholder, 1993) Image Entertainment

La collection George Méličs (4 discs)(Méličs, George) R2 France - Warner

Robert Mitchum: The Signature Collection - (Angel Face, Macao, Home From The Hill, The Sundowners and The Yakuza) - Warner Home Video

Rediscover Jacques Feyder - Until now, Jacques Feyder has been unjustly reduced almost to a footnote in film history, but these beautifully-restored editions with stunning tints and new orchestral scores reveal him as one of the finest silent film directors in Europe. Following these accomplishments, Feyder was invited to Hollywood in 1929 to direct two outstanding films with Greta Garbo, The Kiss and the German version of Anna Christie, and to London for Marlene Dietrich in Knight without Armour.

Julius Caesar - Although it lacks the excitement of Macbeth or Othello as imagined by Welles, a remarkably successful stab at Shakespeare. Mankiewicz, as one might expect, respects the words and films without tricks, letting the camera concentrate on performance and on preserving the rhythms of the text. Discreetly pruned, this emerges boldly and lucidly as (in producer John Houseman's words) 'a political thriller', with the motley cast pulling together surprisingly well.

Dragnet Girl - This silent gangster picture by Yasujiro Ozu (1933), about a typist determined to make her criminal boyfriend go straight, is one of the most striking of Ozu's American-style silents. It stars the great Kinuyo Tanaka, who later played the title role in Mizoguchi's The Life of Oharu and subsequently became a director herself (the first Japanese woman to do so).

The Fallen Idol - Continuing his coming of age theme from “Odd Man Out”, where Reed suggests, that man only can achieve self-control and maturity thru overcoming life’s challenges, and dealing with motifs their later stories also would touch upon, as believed perception versus actual perception, the voyeur element of spying and most importantly the hypocrisy of our leaders / idols / society, “The Fallen Idol” is, while small and simple, as potent a masterpiece as their later films. One of the great films of British Cinema.

Thunderball - The fourth Bond, marking the point at which spectacular hardware began to dominate the series. Sleek and quite fun all the same, with SPECTRE holding the world to ransom after stealing a couple of nuclear bombs, Bond almost getting his in the villain's shark-infested swimming pool, and a cleverly choreographed underwater battle to provide the icing on the mix.

They Filmed the War in Color: France Is Free - Koch Vision has released several interesting collections of war-time footage in the past few months. First was “Embedded ’45: Shooting War in Germany,” black and white film by embedded war photographers during the Allied invasion of Germany. Now come two compilations under the umbrella title of “They Filmed the War in Color”; “France is Free” and “The Pacific War.”

They Filmed the War in Color: The Pacific War - As with “France is Free,” the footage is linked together with a narration that provides historical context and just enough of a story-line to keep the viewer hooked. Film buffs will be amused to see John Ford’s recreation of Pearl Harbor. Filmed days after the actual attack, it was commissioned as a propaganda film, but rejected by the government because it looked to fake. Ford managed to recover from the box-office failure.

Next 2 weeks on the Calendar:

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

The Deadly Affair (Sidney Lumet, 1966) R2 UK - Sony

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

La collection George Méličs (4 discs)(Méličs, George) R2 France - 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

Week of November 13th, 2006

49 Up (Michael Apted, 2006) First Run Features

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

Bing Crosby: Screen Legend Collection (Waikiki Wedding/Double or Nothing/East Side of Heaven/If I Had My Way/Here Come the Waves) - Universal Studios

Bob le flambeur (Melville, Jean-Pierre, 1955) R2 UK - Optimum

Cary Grant: Screen Legend Collection - (Thirty Day Princess/Kiss and Make Up/Wings in the Dark/Big Brown Eyes/Wedding Present) Universal Studios

Columbo: Complete Sixth & Seventh Seasons (3-discs) Universal Studios

The Eric Rohmer Collection ('La Boulangere De Monceau', 'La Carriere De Suzanne' and 'Le Signe Du Lion') R2 UK Artificial Eye

Family Guy, Vol. 4 (Season 5) - 20th Century Fox

Forbidden Planet (Ultimate Collector's Edition) (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) Warner Home Video
Forbidden Planet (Two-Disc 50th Anniversary Special Edition) (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) Warner Home Video

La Grande Illusion - Special Edition (Jean Renoir, 1937) R2 UK Optimum Home Entertainment

The Green Mile (Two-Disc Special Edition) (Frank Darabont, 1999) Warner Home Video

The Ingmar Bergman Collection (30 Films!) - 1. After the Rehearsal, 2. All These Women, 3. Autumn Sonata, 4. Cries and Whispers, 5. Crisis, 6. Dreams, 7. Farodokument 79, 8. From The Life of the Marionettes, 9. A Lesson in Love, 10. The Magician, 11. Music in Darkness, 12. Persona, 13. Port of Call, 14. Prison, 15. The Rite, 16. Saraband, 17. Scenes From a Marriage, 18. The Seventh Seal, 19. The Silence, 20. Smiles of a Summer Night, 21. Summer Interlude, 22. Summer With Monika, 23. Three Strange Loves, 24. Through a Glass Darkly, 25. Torment, 26. To Joy, 27. The Virgin Spring, 28. Waiting Women, 29. Wild Strawberries, 30. Winter Light) - R2 UK Tartan

The Jim Jarmusch Collection 1: Permanent Vacation/Stranger Than Paradise/Down By Law - R2 UK Tartan

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

Oldboy (Three-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition) (Chan-wook Park, 2004) Tartan Video

Paul Newman Collection (6-disc) Harper (1966), Drowning Pool (1975), The Left Handed Gun (1958), The Mackintosh Man (1973), Pocket Money (1972), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), The Young Philadelphians (1959) - Warner

Rock Hudson: Screen Legend Collection - (Has Anybody Seen My Gal?/A Very Special Favor/The Golden Blade/The Last Sunset/The Spiral Road) - Universal Studios

Russ Meyer Box Set (12 films) - R2 UK - Arrow

Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, 1994) R2 UK Artificial Eye

St Trinian's Box Set (The Belles Of St. Trinian's, Blue Murder At St. Trinian's, The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery And The Pure Hell Of St. Trinian's.) R2 UK Optimum

Three Times (Hsiao-hsien Hou, 2005) R2 UK Artificial Eye

The Wild Blue Yonder (Herzog, Werner, 2005) Subversive Cinema

The Wong Kar-Wai Collection: As Tears Go By/Days of Being Wild/In the Mood for Love - R2 UK -Tartan

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

Stay safe,

Gary