Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF November 30th, 2009

This Week's Highlights

Mysh bzi! - 16 new reviews and/or comparisons this week. Visconti, Godard and Bunuel on Blu-ray (have to get used to saying that - it made me a little dizzy), a massive Kurosawa package from Criterion, TV boxsets, vintage star collections and more...... 2 satisfying new Calendar Updates, some choice picks for Cyber Monday sales, another contest (with a great prize), Feature DVD and Blu-ray of the Month of December and more...

The DVDBeaver was interviewed on Movie Miser HERE (fame has always eluded me till now)

NEW HOMEPAGE - you may have noticed a leaner, less-cluttered look to the DVDBeaver Hompage. Current reviews are listed in the left table and Calendar information on the right. It loads MUCH faster and is easier to update. Other may prefer the 'What's New' page.

FEATURE DVD and Blu-ray chosen for DECEMBER 2009 HERE

November 30th CONTEST - identify the clip on the CONTEST PAGE to win a brand NEW Blu-ray of North By Northwest - Best of luck all!

If there are DVD titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend!

Gary at 2ze dot com

Amazon Blu-ray Blowout HERE

• The Movies & TV Boxed Set Sale (up to 60% OFF!)

Blu-rays half price at Amazon UK HERE

• WORLD CINEMA SALE STILL ON - UP To 70% OFF HERE

• SALES: US Blu-ray up to 53% OFF        

•  Amazon France Blu-ray SALE (BUY 1 get 1 FREE!)

LATEST ADDITIONS to the Calendar: (PRE-ORDER & save!):

AK 100 - 25 Films By Akira Kurosawa - The creator of such timeless masterpieces as Rashomon, Ikiru, Seven Samurai, Yojimbo, and High and Low, Akira Kurosawa is one of the most influential and beloved filmmakers who ever lived—and for many the greatest artist the medium has known. Now, on the occasion of the centenary of his birth, the Criterion Collection is proud to present this deluxe box set celebrating his astonishing career. Featuring twenty-five of the films he made over the course of his fifty years in movies—from samurai epics to postwar noirs to Shakespeare adaptations—AK 100 is the most complete set of his works ever released. DVD Release Date: December 8th, 2009

Rome - The Complete Series BR - Four hundred years after the founding of the Republic, Rome is the wealthiest city in the world, a cosmopolitan metropolis of one million people, epicenter of a sprawling empire. But now, the city's foundations are crumbling, eaten away by corruption and excess...And two soldiers unwittingly become entwined in historical events, their fates inexorably tied to the fate of Rome itself. The entire award-winning, critically-acclaimed series will be available as a Blu-ray gift set, just in time for the holiday season. Blu-ray Release date: November 17th, 2009

The Leopard BR - Italian director Luchino Visconti delivers one of his most ambitious works with this sprawling historical drama. Based on the acclaimed novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, THE LEOPARD is set in Sicily during the 1800s, as the aristocracy found itself being suffocated by a newly democratic fervor. Prince Don Fabrizio Salina (Burt Lancaster) tries to hold on to the past, but it appears that his glory days are waning. This is perfectly exemplified by his nephew Tancredi Falconeri (Alain Delon) and his gorgeous wife-to-be Angelica (Claudia Cardinale). As the revolt gathers steam and begins to affect a real change, the aging prince must come to terms with the new world that surrounds him. With THE LEOPARD, Visconti confirms his status as one of Europe's most masterful directors, particularly with the 45 minute ballroom scene. Blu-ray Release Date: February 15th, 2010

Belle De Jour BR - If the shock value of Belle de Jour has been mitigated, director Luis Buñuel's artistry has not. Indeed, since we are no longer shocked by the film, or see its subject matter as the novelty it once was, we are better able to evaluate it in its own terms. Buñuel tells the story of an upper middle class housewife, in a loving but sexually frigid marriage, who acts out her fantasies by becoming a prostitute in a brothel. The film moves back and forth between current reality, flashback, and our heroine's fantasies, often leaving it to the viewer to determine which mode is operational. The heroine, played with smooth finesse by Catherine Deneuve, has a particularly strong affinity for bondage, domination, and submission. Blu-ray Release Date: November 3rd, 2009

Lost Season Five BR - The show that revolutionized primetime proves once again why it is television's most addictive and creative series, as the epic story of "LOST" twists, turns and spirals through time in its brilliant fifth season. Destiny sends the Oceanic 6 back to the Island and into the heart of the enigmatic Dharma Initiative. The reason they had to return and the fate of all those who were left behind is revealed as the momentum builds toward the much anticipated series finale in 2010. Some of "LOST's" most pressing questions are finally answered in a spectacular 5-disc collection, packed with deleted scenes, exclusive interviews, as well as Blu-ray exclusive content like LOST University. Blu-ray Release date: December 8th, 2009

The Claudette Colbert Collection - The Claudette Colbert Collection celebrates the career of one of the most popular screen legends of all-time. Equally comfortable in epics (Cleopatra), dramas (Imitation of Life) and screwball comedies (such as It Happened One Night in which she won an Academy Award), Claudette's versatility and striking beauty set her apart from other actresses of the 1930's and 1940's. As part of the new “Universal Backlot Series”, this collection of 6 rare films showcases her talent and beauty in Three-Cornered Moon, Maid of Salem, I Met Him in Paris, Bluebeard's Eighth Wife, No Time for Love and The Egg and I. DVD Release Date: November 3rd, 2009

Park Chan-Wook Double Bill - A double bill from one of Korea's most commercially successful directors Park Chan-Wook (THIRST). This set includes the comic romantic drama about a delusional young mental patient who believes herself to be a cyborg - I'M A CYBORG, BUT THAT'S OK (2006); and J.S.A.: JOINT SECURITY AREA (2000) a murder mystery thriller about death on the DMZ separating North and South Korea. DVD Release Date: October 19th, 2009

The Headless Woman - A bourgeois woman is driving alone on a dirt road, becomes distracted, and runs over something. In the days following this jarring incident, she is dazed and emotionally disconnected from the people and events in her life. She becomes obsessed with the possibility that she may have killed someone. The police confirm that there were no accidents reported in the area and everything returns to normal until a gruesome discovery is made. Lucrecia Martel's third feature after the acclaimed La Cienaga and The Holy Girl examines the intricacies of class status and the role of women in a male-dominated society. DVD Release Date: December 15th, 2009

While She Was Out BR - Maybe it was the agoraphobic in Kim Basinger that sparked this empty husk of a survival thriller about a woman forced to leave her upscale suburban home for the mall on Christmas Eve as a means of escaping an abusive husband, only to run afoul of parking lot toughs. An early, lengthy scene of Basinger's Della wandering in visible distress around the crowded mall and stumbling through easy social tests like a coffee-shop order and a stop-and-chat with a college chum effectively conveys battered wife fatigue and was presumably aided by the actress's ability to draw on the habitual skittishness of a lifelong anxiety sufferer. But the movie goes downhill from there, as Della returns to the lot where she's accosted by one of the most implausible street gangs ever seen in a non-comedy. Blu-ray Release date: December 8th, 2009

The Girl in the Park - Sixteen years after her daughter Maggie disappeared in Central Park, Julia (Sigourney Weaver) has never recovered from the loss, and pursues a solitary existence based on rigid routine. Her son Chris (Alessandro Nivola) is trying to reconnect with his mother in anticipation of his marriage to Celeste (Keri Russell). One day, Julia encounters a troubled, alluring young woman, Louise (Kate Bosworth), who reminds her powerfully of her vanished child. The two begin a series of tense encounters, and eventually Julia takes Louise in. As their bond deepens, Julia begins to reawaken to the pleasures of life -- all the while seeing everywhere clues that Louise could actually be the long-lost Maggie. DVD Release Date: December 1st, 2009

The Man and the Monster - While several other Mexican horror films of the sixties have an thematic debt to the concurrent string of Italian gothic horror films and a stylistic debt to old Hollywood, THE MAN AND THE MONSTER does feel more like a forties Hollywood horror film (big studio not poverty row) German Expressionistic touches and its concert finale full of screaming extras. Like other Mexican horror pictures of this era, it is beautifully shot on gorgeously gothic studio sets but the plotting (not just the dubbing) offers unintentional laughs as do the special effects (Magno's transformation is performed through a series of mis-aligned lap dissolves and the end result looks like a Halloween monster mask and inspires hilarity rather than horror when he pulls off a Lon Chaney PHANTOM OF THE OPERA-esque turn into close-up. Magno's soul-selling flashback is replete with Expressionistic set design and angles but the expression worn by his present tense self in the overlapping still frame undercuts the drama and the film is not as lurid or grisly as some of the other entries of the time. DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009

Asian Horror Essential Collection - Three classics to remind you why the new wave of Asian horror has been ripped off by Hollywood so often! A single man looking for a good time finds terror instead in the notorious Audition, directed by cult auteur Takashi Miike (Ichi The Killer, Visitor Q). The man who kicked off the J-horror wave with Ring, Hideo Nakata, increases the tension, realism and unease in the urban nightmare Dark Water , since remade by Hollywood. Finally, Pan-asian auteurs The Pang Bros. bring their famed editing skills to bear on the horror genre in the tense, terrifying, The Eye. DVD Release Date: 26 October 2009

Une Femme Mariee BR - Macha Méril (later of Pialat’s Nous ne vieillirons pas ensemble, and Varda’s Sans toit ni loi) plays Charlotte — the title character. She’s married to aviator Pierre (Philippe Leroy, of Becker’s Le Trou). She sleeps with thespian Robert (Bernard Noël). She talks “intelligence” with renowned critic-filmmaker Roger Leenhardt, and takes part in a fashion-shoot at a public pool. The “fragments” of the film’s subtitle are chapters, episodes, vignettes, tableaux; Une femme mariée is a pile of magazines made into a film, and a film turned into a magazine — the table of contents reading: Alfred Hitchcock. Jean Racine. La Peau douce. A Peruvian serum. Nuit et brouillard. The “Eloquence” bra. The quartets of Beethoven. Madame Céline. Fantômas. Robert Bresson. A Volkswagen making a right turn. — A film shot in 1964, and in black and white. Blu-ray Release Date: January 25th, 2010

My Brilliant Career BR - "My Brilliant Career" marks the beginning of exactly that for both the film's daring, assured, high-spirited Australian director, Gillian Armstrong, and its rambunctious young star. Adapted from a semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, it offers a turn-of-the-century heroine who seems to have wandered from the pages of a Louisa May Alcott novel into the Australian Outback, where her buoyant sense of mischief takes on the same grand dimensions as the exotic, perpetually surprising terrain. Blu-ray Release date: November 23rd, 2009

Portrait of a Miner - It’s a tour-de-force collection of unusual and recently archived documentaries about the industry filmed by the National Coal Board from the 1940s to its demise in 1984. Some are well- scripted propaganda dramas or bizarre educational films, some imaginative spin-offs into animation, fantasy and frolic. All the films in this five-hour collection are so good that they ache for repeated viewings. DVD Release Date: September 28th, 2009

The Witch's Mirror - THE WITCH'S MIRROR starts out as a gothic "husband doing the wife in and the new wife is haunted" story but switches gears at the half-way point to the surgical horror trend following EYES WITHOUT A FACE as well as the transplant possession themes of MAD LOVE and THE HANDS OR ORLAC (which draw from the same source novel). In the audio commentary, Frank Coleman points out that the film is listed as being a 1960 production but other sources cite a 1962 date and the film does indeed seem to have taken inspiration from certain other 1962 productions such as Jess Franco's THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF and Riccardo Freda's HORRIBLE DR. HICHCOCK. Strangely though, THE WITCH'S MIRROR does not go to the exploitation extremes of the former productions (as well as EYES WITHOUT A FACE) as it eschews the objectification and pursuit of live nubile victims in favor of already dead donors (although it lacks the necrophiliac twist of HICHCOCK). DVD Release Date: September 29, 2009

 Next 2 weeks on the Calendar