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Le Beau Mariage
BD -
Headstrong Sabine (Beatrice Romand), who is working on her
thesis in Art History, has tired of affairs with married men,
such as Simon (Feodor Atkine). Playing cupid, her best friend
Clarisse (Arielle Dombasle) introduces her lawyer cousin Edmond
(Andre Dusollier) to Sabine. Encouraged by Clarisse, Sabine
impetuously decides that she will marry Edmond and tells her
mother (Thamila Megrah) and sister Lise (Sophie Renoir). When
confronted by Sabine, Edmond is forced to explain why he is not
ready for matrimony! Blu-ray Release Date: November 19th, 2013
The Aviator's Wife
BD - La Femme de l'aviateur was the first in
Eric Rohmer's celebrated Comedies and Proverbs series. Francois
(Philippe Marlaud) loves Anne (Marie Rivière). However, his
nightshift job at the post office means they rarely get to spend
much time together. One day, he sees her leaving home with her
ex, Christian (Mathieu Carrière), who had come to break up with
her for good. Reeling from the news, Anne lets Francois fall
prey to his jealous imagination. Obsessed with the idea that she
may have cheated on him, Francois decides to stay up all night.
As he wanders, desolate, through the streets of Paris, he comes
across his rival sitting in a cafe with a blonde-haired woman.
Intrigued, he follows them. A young woman catches on to what
he's up to and accosts him in an alley off the
Buttes-Chaumont... Blu-ray Release Date: November 19th, 2013
Il Bidone
BD - Classic drama directed by Federico Fellini. A
trio of crooks and con men, Augusto (Broderick Crawford),
Picasso (Richard Basehart) and Roberto (Franco Fabrizi), make a
living from playing elaborate tricks on the poor and the
credulous. Their hard-hearted lifestyle is challenged however,
when Augusto is unexpectedly reunited with his estranged
daughter, and when Picasso is faced with his loving wife's
impatience. Blu-ray Release Date: December 30th, 2013
Kiss Me Deadly
BD - Kiss Me Deadly (1955), Robert Aldrich's
hard-edged, stylistically innovative adaptation of the Mickey
Spillane novel, features what may be the most violent and
unsympathetic private eye in the history of cinema. As Mike
Hammer, Ralph Meeker is like a bull in a china shop, lurching
haphazardly from one deadly encounter to the next, often
employing the same brutal tactics of the criminals he's
pursuing. But as the plot of Kiss Me Deadly unfolds, Hammer goes
from being just a cheap hood who specializes in divorce cases to
serving as an unwitting accomplice in the retrieval of a
mysterious box that holds "the great whatsit." Carlotta
Blu-ray
Release Date: November 20th, 2013
Boyfriends and Girlfriends
BD - The characters in Boyfriends and
Girlfriends are all self-centered and shallow. They rarely speak
or think about anything deeper than their feelings, and never
seek anything more substantial than transitory satisfaction.
They are four young yuppies - twenty-somethings who have
embraced the age of materialism and self-gratification that
characterized the '80s. They live in a new, sleek Parisian
suburb that has none of the old world charm of the ancient city.
It's modern and sterile, and the closest it gets to Paris is a
distant view of the Eiffel Tower peeking up over the horizon.
Blu-ray Release Date: November 19th, 2013
Throne of Blood
BD - A vivid, visceral Macbeth adaptation,
Throne of Blood, directed by Akira Kurosawa, sets Shakespeare’s
definitive tale of ambition and duplicity in a ghostly,
fog-enshrouded landscape in feudal Japan. As a hardened warrior
who rises savagely to power, Toshiro Mifune gives a remarkable,
animalistic performance, as does Isuzu Yamada as his ruthless
wife. Throne of Blood fuses classical Western tragedy with
formal elements taken from Noh theater to create an
unforgettable cinematic experience. Blu-ray Release Date:
January 7th, 2014
Gun Crazy
BD - While 1940s cinema was packed with devious dames,
few can match Peggy Cummins’s hellcat sharpshooter Laurie Starr
for sheer manipulative allure. Meeting Laurie at a small-town carny, clean-cut gun nut Bart (a perplexed John Dall) is
transfixed by her charms and prowess with a pistol. The two cut
a swathe through the Southern states, holding up banks and
evading a tightening police dragnet. ‘Gun Crazy’ is a
magnificently enjoyable film, distinguished by Joseph H. Lewis’s
restless, catch-all directorial style; visually, the film ranges
from classic gritty noir to hyperstylised modern gothic, to a
startling single-take hold-up sequence shot on crowded streets.
The filmmakers never miss a chance for a sly Freudian aside:
from Bart’s little problem with guns (he can point, but he can’t
shoot) to Laurie’s zealous lust for control, ‘Gun Crazy’ is
awash with hysterical symbolism. A genuine treat.
Blu-ray
Release date: December 4th, 2013
The Magician (1926) - The heart blood of a virgin. That’s what
deranged medical student Oliver Haddo needs for his malevolent
scheme to create life. He finds it in a lovely sculptor he
hypnotizes and spirits off preparing to rip her heart from her
living body. DVD Release Date: September 21st, 2010
The Circle (1925) - Based on a play by Somerset Maugham,
THE
CIRCLE is a handsome film directed by Frank Borzage. The film
opens in the 1890s as Lady Catherine is about to leave her
husband (and son) and run off with her lover. The scene
dissolves to 30 years later where young Elizabeth (pretty
Eleanor Boardman) is facing the same decision: dull husband
(Creighton Hale) or dashing lover (Malcolm McGregor). To make
matters worse, Lady Catherine has been invited (along with
husband) to visit! DVD Release Date: November 6th, 2012
Intruder in the Dust - A brilliantly accomplished "racial bias"
cycle film of the 1940s. The earnest "social justice" melodrama
is one of the best of that genre. It's adapted by writer Ben Maddow from a book by William Faulkner. It's set in a rural
southern city (most of it shot in Faulkner's hometown of Oxford,
Mississippi). This amazingly uncanny early reaction to southern
racism is told in a lucid and straightforward manner; it avoids
clichés in its subtle presentation of its miscarriage of justice
theme. Under the steadying helm of Clarence Brown, a southerner,
the familiar narrative is given a fresh face. Brown's low-key
direction tastefully covers a series of ugly events that pits a
white mob incited to lynch an innocent black man. DVD Release
Date: February 1st, 2011
The Beast With Five Fingers - Film icon Peter Lorre turns in yet
another memorable performance in this eerie classic set in a
small town in Italy. Hilary Cummins (Lorre), the devoted
secretary to wheelchair-bound piano virtuoso Francis Ingram
(Victor Francen), has a passion for the occult. Poring through
every book on the supernatural he can find in Ingram's vast
library, Hilary begins to imagine strange and terrifying things.
But after Ingram's tragic death, the line between reality and
unimaginable terror is blurred as the severed hand from Ingram's
corpse begins killing everyone in the villa! Also starring
Robert Alda and Andrea King, The Beast with Five Fingers is
filled with wit, thrills and shocking plot twists! DVD Release
Date: October 1st, 2013
Women in Bondage - With her husband ordered to the Russian
front, Margot Bracken (Gail Patrick) returns to Hitler's Germany
for the first time in 10 years. Appointed section leader of the
local youth movement, she finds herself responsible for the Nazification of a group of teenaged girls. Bearing witness to
mercy killings, suicides, torture and pagan baptisms, Margot
seeks to stop the atrocities before the SS puts an end to both
her and her plans. A lurid exposé of the Reich's subjugation of
women, Women in Bondage was one of Monogram's more elaborate
productions, featuring inventive direction by Steve Sekely
(Hollow Triumph) and a stellar cast that included Patrick (My
Favorite Wife), Nancy Kelly (The Bad Seed) and H.B. Warner (Lost
Horizon). Retiring from the screen in 1948, Patrick would later
gain fame as the executive producer of
Perry Mason, one of the
most successful and longest-running courtroom mystery series in
television history. DVD Release Date: June 11th, 2013
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