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Allan Dwan Boxset - Vintage
cinema fans are treated with Carlotta's new boxset of stalwart
Allan Dwan - who, unbelievably directed over 400 films in his
long career. This has seven consecutive efforts from 1954-56.
Born Joseph Aloysius Dwan in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, his
family moved to the United States when he was 11 years old. At
the University of Notre Dame, he trained as an engineer and
began working for a lighting company in Chicago. However, he had
a strong interest in the fledgling motion picture industry and
when Essanay Studios offered him the opportunity to become a
scriptwriter, he took the job. DVD Release Date: November
19th, 2009
Jerichow - Nothing in this
movie may be that simple. Petzold, who also wrote the script,
doesn’t make level one thrillers, and his characters may be
smarter than us, or dumber. It’s never just about the plot,
anyway. It has to do with random accidents, dangerous
coincidences, miscalculations, simple mistakes. And the motives
are never simple. DVD Release Date: October 27th, 2009
Ghosts - The middle film in
Christian Petzold’s Gespenster Trilogy (buffered by Die Inner Sicherheit /
The State I am In from 2000, and Yella from 2007)
is another intimate drama about lost souls living emotionally
numb lives, although what’s unique in Gespenster are the two
unrelated stories that gradually converge and affect each other,
as well as a nihilistic tone that ensures whatever hope for a
resolution is undone by characters that are too trapped in their
own narrow pathways to look clearly, and see the opportunities
that lie ahead.... DVD Release Date: November 3rd, 2009
3 Extremes - 1+2 Twin pack
- The follow-up to the grisly THREE EXTREMES presents
three more short films directed by three members of the New
Asian Horror movement. In MEMORIES Kim Jee-Woon (A TALE OF TWO
SISTERS) tells a story of a woman with amnesia wandering the
streets while her husband tries to find her--but instead
discovers a mutilated corpse. In Nonzee Nimibutr's THE WHEEL
antique wooden puppets carry an ancient curse that results in
fire, pain, death, and the demonic possession of a little girl.
Dumplings (2004), Box (2004), Cut (2004), Memories (2002), The
Wheel (2002) and Coming Home (2002) DVD Release Date:
October 12th, 2009
36
BR - Director Olivier Marchal has roots in law
enforcement but I sincerely hope the muddled extremes examined
in the plot between power hungry cops and unconscionable
criminals is pure fiction. Totally dissimilar to Henri-Georges
Clouzot's 1947 classic called simply Quai des orfevres, 36
(as it became marketed as) still gives a very entertaining ride
based, in great part, to Daniel Auteuil's commanding
performance. He resembles Robert DeNiro in this film to quite a
strong degree and is the fair cop essentially foiled by the
letter of the law turning against him. This is conveniently
set-up by unfair and disliked cop Gerard Depardieu, who I might
add, has the biggest nose I have ever seen (in close-ups it
barely looks real). This film is topped to the brim with well
choreographed action and unexpected suspense. For violent
extreme cop movies - this ranks as one of the best in recent
years. Blu-ray Release Date:
November 2nd, 2009
The Black Book
BR - On a subsequent
undercover mission, Rachel crosses paths with a smitten German
general named Ludwig Muntze (Sebastian Koch), with whom Rachel
begins a relationship in order to feed vital information back to
her colleagues in the resistance. But as the action and
bloodshed escalate, Rachel realises that she has genuine
feelings for Muntze, and soon she is in enormous danger.
Verhoeven's film is wildly ambitious and takes many intriguing
twists and turns during its 146 minutes.
Blu-ray Release Date: November 2nd,
2009
Blood Rain - On a remote
island that derives its wealth from its fine quality paper, the
spirit of the executed Commissioner Kang speaks through a medium
and swears vengeance on those responsible for his grisly death.
The suspicious fire which destroys the paper intended for a
royal tribute brings investigators to the island as the paper
mill's owners work their laborers endlessly to replace the
destroyed paper. When the body of a paper mill worker impaled on
spear is discovered and another mill representative is
discovered boiled alive, inspector Lee discovers that Kang was
accused of being a Catholic traitor by five unknown informants
and that the inquisitor executed Kang without trial along with
four of his family members and that the informants are being
killed in the same five ways. As the islanders become afraid of
the ghost's vengeance and the family controlling the mill fear
punishment for not delivering their tribute, inspector Lee tries
to prove that the crimes are being committed by a human who knew
that Kang and his family were innocent and not a bloodthirsty
ghost. But will personal revelations about his family past cloud
his deduction? DVD Release Date: September 8th, 2009
Slightly Scarlet - Made
when the prolific Dwan was 70, this complicated adaptation of
Cain's Love's Lovely Counterfeit was slightly unusual for RKO
and for the director in being a noir movie which is shot in wide
screen and in colour. But it is still an enjoyable
crime-romance, boasting remarkable credits, including a perfect
B-list cast headed by Payne as a hoodlum who meets his match
when two sisters react to his attempts to smear a would-be
Mayor. His secretary (Fleming) falls for the hood, while the
boozy sister (Dahl) adopts a less orthodox response. DVD
Release Date: November 19th, 2009
Complete Lone Wolf & Cub Boxset
- In 14 volumes, the Manga tells the story of Ogami Ito, the
former Keishakunin of the Shogun, who was framed by Yagyu clan
for treason against the Shogun, and subsequently became an
assassin for hire, in order to get one million Ryo to bribe
officials, so that he could be allowed to bring his charges in
front of the shogun and get his revenge. Together with his son,
Daigoro, he now walks thru Japan, and the road between heaven
and hell. Eureka DVD Release Date: Nov 21st, 2009
In the Electric Mist
BR - As one of the narrative
themes from In the Heat of the Night dances in our head,
Robicheaux sets out on an investigation of a series of grisly
murders of young women. In Tavernier's hands, the whodunit
aspect of the mystery is not as important as the characters
(played by John Goodman, Ned Beatty, Peter Skarsgaard, Buddy Guy
and James Gammon, among others) our detective runs across. They
may or may not be suspects but I think the idea is that these
conversations are supposed to shed light on Robicheaux's initial
question. It's all a bit murky and we are surprised by the
extent to which he ignores the obvious during his investigation.
But, then, this was also Detective Tibb's flaw as well. TF1
Blu-ray Release date: March 3rd,
2009
Antichrist
BR - 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.
Blu-ray Release date: November 4th,
2009
Inglourious Basterds
BR - With Inglourious
Basterds, Quentin Tarantino has made his best movie since Pulp
Fiction. He has also made what could arguably be considered the
most audacious World War II movie of all-time. If you think
there are rules for this sort of motion picture, guess again.
And it's not just that Tarantino is using the spaghetti western
as his template; it's that the sheer unpredictability of where
all this is going makes it compelling from beginning to end.
Even the film's occasional artistic flourishes (such as chapter
titles and out-of-period music pieces) work within the context
of what Tarantino is trying to accomplish. This is clearly an
attempt by the director to expand his range and step outside of
the comfort zone in which he has worked for the majority of his
career. Blu-ray Release date:
December 15th, 2009
World's Greatest Dad
BR - Robin Williams plays
Lance Clayton, a high school poetry teacher whose lifeless
classroom is a sea of empty desks, save for a poet wannabe who
routinely plagiarizes bad rap lyrics. Clayton is a single dad, a
decent, hardworking provider struggling to make the best of an
often-dreadful situation. Son Kyle, whose mother is as absent as
his manners, puts the "L" in loathsome. World's Greatest Dad
does a terrific job of puncturing clichés, one being that all
children are inherently adorable. Kyle is not adorable.
Blu-ray Release date: December 8th,
2009
Crossing Over
BR - The U.S. offers
hope--but that often comes at a price. Many can earn citizenship
legally through a lengthy bureaucratic process, but others find
themselves out of luck in a country where virtually anything can
be bought. Sex, violence and betrayal become their currency.
Some wait in line for permission to enter the U.S. while others
take matters into their own hands. Working for Immigration and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Los Angeles, Max Brogan is an agent
sworn to protect our borders, he deals with the thousands that
try to cross over into the U.S. in search of a better life.
Blu-ray Release date: November
23rd, 2009
Man Bites Dog - MAN BITES
DOG is a fictional documentary following the exploits of serial
killer Ben (co-writer/director Benoît Poelvoorde) at home with
his dotty family, accompanying his flutist girlfriend on the
piano, transacting with an aged hooker, killing a postman at the
beginning of every month, waxing poetically (once while dancing
nude on the beach), shooting or strangling random passersby,
disposing of their bodies, and prowling suburbia. The
captivated/greedy/predatory filmmakers cross the line from
observing to assisting Ben to eventually participating in the
sadistic rape and murder of a couple while dealing with rival
killers, rival documentary film crews, and the law when one of
Ben’s victims gets away (which simply provides the documentary
with another interesting angle). DVD Release Date: 5 October
2009
Paper Heart
BR - Charlyne Yi doesn’t
believe in love. But it’s not because of past heartbreak. It’s
because she’s never felt it before. So she embarks on a project
with her best friend, Nick, to meet real couples and hear their
stories - all in an attempt to define love and determine whether
or not it truly exists or if some people are doomed to remain
unloved. Part documentary, part improvisational narrative,
“Paper Heart” is an atypical yet authentic romantic comedy for
people who normally find such things insufferable. For the
record, I am one of those people. And “Paper Heart” charmed the
jaded pants off of me. Blu-ray
Release date: December 1st, 2009
TCM Presents - Esther Williams Vol. 2
- No doubt about it: this TCM boxed set is all wet. As a
collection of movies featuring Esther Williams, MGM's swimming
superstar, how could it not be? Six titles, in splashy
Technicolor, comprise this daffy musical smorgasbord, all drawn
from Williams' glory years as an unlikely box-office draw.
Thrill of a Romance, from 1945, is the earliest film of the
bunch, a top-drawer production with a coy plot and location
shooting in Yosemite Park. Esther's newly wedded to drippy
businessman Carleton Young, but when hubby is called away from
their honeymoon resort, war hero Van Johnson is nearby--and he
needs swimming lessons. Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra breeze
through, and (in on of MGM's amusing attempts to add class to
the room) Wagnerian tenor Lauritz Melchoir is on hand to play
Cupid and sing an aria or two. Or three. (Melchoir has a
pleasant screen personality, actually, even if his presence here
is absurd.) DVD Release Date: October 6th, 2009
Euro Killers Essential Collection
- Just released from prison after serving a long sentence for
the murder of his girlfriend, forty-ish Antonio Frau (Fernando
Acaso) inherits the former brothel of his aunt and marries
forty-ish penpal Francisca (María José Bausá) a spinster nurse
who saw him as a way of getting away from her domineering
parents. In a twisted variation on MY NAME IS EARL, Frau sees
his inheritance as a sign that he should be doing the lord’s
work and sets up the brothel’s Room 6 as his personal
dungeon/torture chamber where he lures a series of prostitutes
to starve, torture, rape, and brutally murder once he has gotten
them to tell him what brought them to their hopeless lifestyle.
H6: Diary of a Serial Killer (2004), Tattoo (2002) and
Man Bites
Dog (1991) DVD Release Date: 5 October 2009
Affliction - "Affliction"
is adapted, as "The Sweet Hereafter" was, from a penetratingly
astute, grief-tinged novel by Russell Banks, whose stirring
voice is much in evidence here. But its story is also well
suited to Mr. Schrader, who finds in Wade's suffering a workaday
"Taxi Driver" in the snow. Mr. Schrader coaxes forth the
oppressive forces around Wade until they achieve microcosmic
fullness, ranging from childhood beatings by his father to the
covert economic rape of a working-class town. Though ponderous
literary voice-overs (from Willem Dafoe as Wade's brother)
provide armchair psychology, the film is about much subtler
signposts on the road to destruction. DVD Release Date:
February 19th, 2001
Korean Horror Essential Collection
- The Korean horror film that inspired Alexandre Aja's MIRROR,
INTO THE MIRROR tells the story of bizarre deaths occurring
around the re-opening of a giant shopping mall following a
mysterious fire. The first involves a shoplifting General
Affairs division accountant whose reflection slashes its throat
causing a similar wound on her. Her death is thought to be a
suicide until it is discovered that she was left handed and the
wound was inflicted from the right. Video of a second death
shows no culprit and the victim was right handed while the wound
was inflicted from the left. Into the Mirror (2003), Acacia
(2003) and The Wig (2005). DVD Release Date: October 26th,
2009
Divine Intervention -
"Divine Intervention" is a mordant and bleak comedy, almost
without dialogue, about Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Its characters live their daily lives in ways that are
fundamentally defined by the divisions between them, and the
scene with the most tension simply involves two drivers, one
Israeli, one Palestinian, who lock eyes at a traffic light.
Neither will look away. In their paralysis, while the light
turns green and motorists behind them start to honk, the film
sums up the situation in a nutshell. DVD Release Date: May
26th, 2003
Public Enemies
BR - Here is a film that
shrugs off the way we depend on myth to sentimentalize our
outlaws. There is no interest here about John Dillinger's
childhood, his psychology, his sexuality, his famous charm, his
Robin Hood legend. He liked sex, but not as much as robbing
banks. "He robbed the bankers but let the customers keep their
own money." But whose money was in the banks? He kids around
with reporters and lawmen, but that was business. He doesn't kid
around with the members of his gang. He might have made a very
good military leader. Blu-ray
Release date: December 8th, 2009
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