DVDBeaver Newsletter - November 12th, 2007

Moin Moin! - This might be considered 'Animation Week' here at DVDBeaver with a whopping 9 of our 27 new reviews this newsletter covering animation features (including stuff from Pixar, some Japanese anime and René Laloux!). Beyond that we have some of the work of Capra, Scorsese, Hitchcock, Bergman, Kalatozov, Buñuel... Criterion(s) and Masters of Cinema discs reviewed. A new contests, another still running, sales, 39 calendar updates, recommendations... Oh Happy Days!

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LAST WEEK: Winner identifying the clip from the week from Nov 5th (it was Fail-Safe) was P. Sattler of Sheboygan (wins a sealed Warner DVD 5-disc boxset of The Barbara Stanwyck Signature Collection) Congrats Peter!

CONTEST STILL RUNNING!! (Great prize - $90 value!): Identify the ten caps (from films - kitchen/eating references!) at the bottom of Leonard's Dae Jang Geum review HERE!

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Easiest way to catch up is simply read the new Newsletter Archive HERE.

LATEST Additions to the Release Calendar (PRE-ORDER!) Well, I'm keen on a couple and quasi-keen on others. I've enjoyed them all so far so lets continue (even without Warner Oland) - Charlie Chan Volume 4 and I look forward to revisiting an old childhood TV favorite with Underdog - Ultimate Collection.  It's solely the original version that is selling me on the new 3:10 to Yuma, but on another note: Are there NO NEW ideas in Hollywood? - I see they are doing a new movie of Get Mart too - would you believe that Chief? I think Cronenberg is always improving so I'll be giving Eastern Promises a chance. Zhou Enlai seems to be begging me to give it a spin although I know very little about it. In the Shadow of the Moon sounds like a great documentary. Per-Olaf's review of the R2 may push me to get Dans Paris - and compare. I'll be like many - enjoying Walt Disney Treasures - The Chronological Donald, Volume Three. Speaking of comparing we will review two MoC's - Der letzte Mann and Frau im Mond - adding to our existing comparisons. I just can't seem to stay awake for the Bourne or the Harry Potter stuff - my loss I guess. Lastly I gotta give Ruiz's Klimt a viewing . . . . The rest:

New Reviews:.

From what I reviewed - I enjoyed Buñuel's El Bruto (albeit criminally weak DVD) Bergman's Sawdust and Tinsel (stellar DVD), Kalatozov’s - I Am Cuba (a complete package). If you want a decent film but reference quality image - check out my caps from The Wild - WOW! I also liked Sandy Dennis performance in Up the Down Staircase but I think the film I enjoyed most this week was The Secret Life of Words (LOVED IT!). Don't throw eggs at me because I say I kinda got a kick out of seeing It's a Wonderful Life in color.

Stuff I didn't see but am tempted by reviews: Ratatouille BR, I was so smitten with The Aviator that I watched the SD again last night and may upgrade to hi-def. Luiz is selling me on Japanese anime so I may indulge with Jin-Roh.

Finally, I'll strongly encourage many to buy the R2 PAL of Innocence. It's  film that is still haunting me still.

Troy (Theatrical Cut) HD-DVD vs. Troy (Director's Cut) HD-DVD - The theatrical cut was released on HD DVD on 12 September 2006. A year later, on 18 September 2007, Warner has released the Director’s Cut. The major additions include a bit more nudity and quite a bit more gore, though character moments involving Hector and Odysseus enhance their personalities. There are also grace-note elements (such as a new opening with a dog trying to wake his dead master on the battlefield).

Ratatouille BR - Ratatouille – a word which I am getting really good at typing – is directed by Brad Bird, whose first work for Pixar was the very incredible, The Incredibles. Bird entered the world of animated feature films fully grown with The Iron Giant, which he did for Warner Bros Animation in 1999. In terms of pacing, Ratatouille is somewhere in between, but in terms of density of color and texture, it clearly shows what the environment at Pixar can do for a fellow. There isn't a single frame of Ratatouille with dead air, anywhere. Blu-ray DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2007

The Aviator BR - The Aviator was, in my opinion, Martin Scorsese's first decent film since The Age of Innocence (not counting Kundun, which didn't get much distribution.) Scorsese, as you probably know, had never won an Oscar, not for Best Film nor for Directing. I think the Academy was primed for Gangs of New York, but the film was such a mess, not even good intentions could redeem it. You may recall that it was Million Dollar Baby that took home the big one in the year of The Aviator. Scorsese finally received his due only last year for The Departed, a movie I felt was not nearly as good in any respect as The Aviator. Blu-ray DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2007

The Aviator HD - Cate Blanchett won an Oscar for playing Katherine Hepburn opposite Leonardo DiCaprio’s tackling of the title role, but to me, it seemed like Blanchett was playing the Hepburn that we see in screwball comedies rather than playing Hepburn as a real person. I had the same problem with the other Kate in this movie, Kate Beckinsale. Was Ava Gardner really such a tough cookie, or was Beckinsale playing Gardner based on what we remember from her movies? HD-DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2007

That Most Important Thing: Love - Sure it comes across as an arthouse melodrama but Zulawski's L'IMPORTANT C'EST D'AIMER is one of the most moving and agonizingly emotional statements of a theme that runs through much of Zulawski's work (up to his most recent LA FIDELITE) that, as the title states, the most important thing is to love.

Jin-Roh BR (combo) - To me this is one of the TOP 5 animes of all time (I am not a big fan of Miyazaki) mostly due to Mamuro Oshii's script. The story is an amazing tale about the human dark side and the metamorphosis of empath to sociopath through continuous-training (reinforcement), and can easily be considered a top crime-psychology thriller. Very clever use of the original "Little Riding Hood" story, gives you an idea what the tale is about. What actually looks innocent, like the Grimm's version of the fairy tale, is in truth a very sinister story. Combo DVD Release Date: September 25th, 2007

The Wild BR - I wasn't overly keen on this film plot the first two times it was pushed into the Blu-ray player (I just wasn't in the mood for another Madagascar, I think), but I was surprised at how attentive my children were during viewing. What happens with The Wild is that it grows on you - immensely. NY zoo lion Samson (with the un-expectantly effective deep voice of Kiefer Sutherland) is a father and he has a secret. He is not from the wild although all the other zoo inhabitants believe he is... including his son Ryan. With support voices of James Belushi, Eddie Izzard, Janeane Garofalo and William Shatner as giraffe's, a smitten squirrel, a python and a gregarious koala we are taken on an adventure of self-discovery and parental bonding - going back to The Wild (akin to Madagascar but much better in my eyes).

Polar Express BR - I think myself lucky that I continue to enjoy books and movies made originally for children. I read at least one children's book every couple of years. Most recently it was "Anne of Green Gables." A real page-turner I felt. Honest. I'm sure I don't see things quite the way a child does, and certainly not a young girl; but I appreciate the opportunity to climb into a world I wouldn't have a clue about if it weren't for the likes of "The Secret Garden," "The Wind in the Willows" and "Treasure Island." Blu-ray Release Date: November 6th, 2007

Cars BR - Imagine, if you will, a world inhabited by automobiles, trucks and buses instead of people. I don't know if they would be any less careless about the environment, but if given eyes that peer out from the windshield; mouths for radiator grilles; wheels, tie rods and control arms in place of hands, and voiced by human actors, you can get a fair idea of the potential in an animated world. The story is simple enough. Rookie racecar, Lightning McQueen, who gives narcissism a bad name, is anxious to win the coveted Piston Cup, and he is just full of himself enough to think he can do it on his own: without a pit team and, once within striking distance, even without a sponsor. Blu-ray Release Date: November 6th, 2007

Pixar Short Films, Vol. 1 BR - What we have here is a short history of Pixar animation, beginning with John Lasseter's first experiments as part of Lucasfilm in 1984. Pixar's original interest was in computer imaging tools, rather than the end product that we know so well; but the dedicated group of animators and computer imaging software designers found a symbiotic relationship that would support the rather costly short films venture. Blu-ray Release Date: November 6th, 2007

Hearts of Darkness - Hearts of Darkness is a documentary with footage shot during the production of Apocalypse Now. Much of the footage was shot by Eleanor Coppola, Francis Ford Coppola’s wife. Hearing and reading about the production’s travails pales in comparison to seeing the chaotic shoot with our own eyes. I think the true value of Hearts of Darkness lies in its demystification of Coppola. DVD Release Date: November 20th, 2007

Fantastic Planet - René Laloux's mesmerising psychedelic sci-fi animated feature won the Grand Prix at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and is a landmark of European animation. Based on Stefan Wul's novel Oms en série [Oms by the dozen], Laloux's breathtaking vision was released in France as La Planète sauvage [The Savage Planet]; in the USA as Fantastic Planet; and immediately drew comparisons to Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Planet of the Apes (both the 1968 film and Boule's 1963 novel). Today, the film can be seen to prefigure much of the work of Hayao Miyazaki at Studio Ghibli (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away) due to its palpable political and social concerns, cultivated imagination, and memorable animation techniques. Accent Edition DVD Release Date: October 23rd, 2007

Sawdust and Tinsel - A major early feature by Ingmar Bergman, also known as The Naked Night (though the Swedish title apparently means "The Clown's Night"). This 1953 film is perhaps the most German expressionist of Bergman's 50s works, as redolent of sexual cruelty and angst as Variety and The Blue Angel, but no less impressive for all that. The aging owner of a small traveling circus who left his wife for a young performer in his troupe tries to regain his lost family. Visually splendid, but you may find the masochistic plot pretty unpleasant. DVD Release Date: November 20th, 2007

Ghost in the Shell BR - The skillful blending of drawn animation and computer-generated imagery excited anime fans when this science fiction mystery was released in 1995: many enthusiasts believe Ghost suggests what the future of anime will be, at least in the short term. The film is set in the not-too-distant future, when an unnamed government uses lifelike cyborgs or "enhanced" humans for undercover work. One of the key cyborgs is The Major, Motoko Kusanagi, who resembles a cross between The Terminator and a Playboy centerfold. She finds herself caught up in a tangled web of espionage and counterespionage as she searches for the mysterious superhacker known as "The Puppet Master." Blu-ray DVD Released: August 24th, 2007

The Lady Vanishes - In Alfred Hitchcock's most quick-witted and devilish comic thriller, the beautiful Margaret Lockwood, traveling across Europe by train, meets Dame May Whitty’s charming old spinster, who seemingly disappears into thin air. The young woman then turns investigator and finds herself drawn into a complex web of mystery and high adventure. Criterion Re-Mastered DVD Release Date: November 20th, 2007

I Am Cuba - Few new print re-releases are as welcome as Mikhail Kalatozov’s deliriously impressive 1964 polemical poem of a society on the cusp of transformation. The product of a distinctively Soviet take on the island’s history and aspirations, ‘I Am Cuba’ saw Kalatozov, fresh from Palme d’Or success for ‘The Cranes are Flying’, joined by that film’s cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky and poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko as co-writer. The result is a sensual four-chaptered epic of injustices exposed in Batista’s dictatorial Cuba, elevated by suitably revolutionary camerawork, its confidence a formal expression of faith in the island’s uprising. DVD Release Date: November 20th, 2007

The Secret Life of Words - The film is nothing short of a masterpiece infusing symbols involving emotional distancing (the oil rig is essentially barren of employees after the fire). Communication is limited between all characters and correspondingly Hanna is totally deaf without the use of her hearing aid. Even the most gregarious persona, the oil rig chef, played by Javier Cámara, is relegated to minor character status. The effective cinematography bears witness to the intensity of Hanna and Josef's inner demons with constant close-up and frequent hand-held modulations. Even the dim lit room of her soul-purging to him. The film is a beautiful dissertation on being human - surviving, coping, opening up, reaching out and moving forward. This is one of the better films I have seen this year.

Tekkonkinkreet BR - A brutal elegy for our changing times as well as a tour-de-force of visual artistry, Tekkon Kinkreet is a deeply resonant story with a heart. The title Tekkon Kinkreet is a play on the Japanese words for ‘concrete,’ ‘iron,’ and ‘muscle,’ and it suggests the warring images of steel and concrete cities amassing against the powers of the imagination. Until now, at least in imports abroad, anime style has almost entirely been characterized by wide-eyed heroes, big robots, and uninspired plotting. Blu-ray DVD Released: September 25th, 2007

Innocence - Based on the same source as John Irvin's "The Fine Art of Love: Mine Ha-Ha", German author Frank Wedekind's Mine Haha, aka The Corporeal Education Of Young Girls, director Lucille Hadzihalilovic has created a poetic illustration of the transformation of young girls. DVD Release Date: November 13th, 2007

Golden Boy - William Holden in his first starring role as a ghetto boy who turns in his violin for a pair of boxing gloves. Columbia was attacked for softening Clifford Odets's famous stage play, though at worst it's an exchange of naive Broadway cynicism for naive Hollywood optimism--a fair trade, I'd say. The film is actually one of Rouben Mamoulian's more restrained and responsible jobs of direction--he hasn't overloaded Odets's rhetorical flourishes with his own customary explosions of style. Sony DVD Release Date: November 13th, 2007

Beowulf and Grendel BR - Out of allegiance to the King Hrothgar, the much respected Lord of the Danes, Beowulf leads a troop of warriors across the sea to rid a village of the marauding monster. The monster, Grendel, is not a creature of mythic powers, but one of flesh and blood - immense flesh and raging blood, driven by a vengeance from being wronged, while Beowulf, a victorious soldier in his own right, has become increasingly troubled by the hero-myth rising up around his exploits. Beowulf's willingness to kill on behalf of Hrothgar wavers when it becomes clear that the King is more responsible for the troll's rampages than was first apparent. Blu-ray Release Date: November 6th, 2007

Oldboy BR - Park has always created extremely fascinating visuals, and here, as the book is based upon a comic book, he goes over the edge, literary adapts comic compositions to the screen in terms of mise-en-scene, and creating his to date most visual film, which has to be seen on the big screen to be experienced at full force. Blu-ray Release Date: November 6th, 2007

I'll Cry Tomorrow - Every female star in Hollywood wanted to play Roth in MGM's film version of I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) -- among those in the running were Jane Russell, Jane Wyman, Janet Leigh, Jean Simmons, Piper Laurie, and Grace Kelly. June Allyson seemed to have the inside track, until another actress took matters into her own hands. DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2007

Up the Down Staircase - As the teacher, Sandy Dennis is perfectly cast. She doesn't know how to teach, what to teach or, in the end, even why she wants to teach. Her first lesson comes in the first two minutes of her first class, when she quotes Emily Dickinson ("There is no frigate like a book") and the students hoot with laughter. A veteran teacher suggests maybe she should have substituted "steamship." These are the things you have to think about if you propose to reach real kids. DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2007

The Brute (El Bruto) - It is what it is. I don't know if I did or did not want to make a melodrama," said Luis Buñuel of El Bruto (The Brute). If the similarities between Fassbinder's Martha and Buñuel's El are unavoidable, there are also striking similarities between El Bruto and Fassbinder's The Stationmaster's Wife: butcher shops, misogynistic men, domineering women and their hen-pecked husbands. DVD Release Date: October 23rd, 2007

It's a Wonderful Life - 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: November 13th, 2007

Next 2 weeks on the Calendar:

What to get?: Briefly (for this week only) - you MUST own Berlin Alexanderplatz in one of the two available editions. I'll be watching Amazing Grace tonight (highly rated). I'll be reviewing Close Encounters of the Third Kind 30th Anni/Ult Edition [Blu-ray] early in the week. Killer of Sheep is essential. Ditto for Marketa Lazarová. It's A Wonderful Life has the best black and white version of the film... and the best colorized as well. I've heard Pride & Prejudice [HD DVD] looks marvelous (review forthcoming). I'm about 80% thru Perry Mason: The Second Season Vol 2 and I totally recommend (it has such an 'air' of Noir). I'm giving Legends of the Poisonous Seductress #1: Female Demon Ohyaku a shot - I'll report back. I own La Vie en Rose and can't wait to watch it.

Holidays are coming (think I'll make it easy on myself and just give everyone Berlin Alexanderplatz - my nieces should love that ;),