DVDBeaver Newsletter - July 14th, 2005

 

G'day!,
Fully Loaded DVDs      Used Art House and International DVDs HERE        Amazon's DVD Bargain page
 
Let's see... reviews of films/DVDs directed by Godard, Boorman, Hitchcock, Mann, Hou, Tsai, Ozu, Bergman, Wilder, Bunuel, Ray, Iosseliani, Angelopoulos and more...

A favorite Director of the Week coming up on Sunday...

Pre-order notables:
Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s & 1930s (various) Kino, The Man Who Fell to Earth(Nicolas Roeg, including commentary with Nicolas Roeg, Bowie, and Buck Henry!), Bad Timing(Nicolas Roeg), An Angel at My Table(Jane Campion, with commentary by Campion), Gate of Flesh (Seijun Suzuki, 1964) - Criterion, The Story of a Prostitute (Seijun Suzuki, 1965) - Criterion, The Complete Thin Man Collection (The Thin Man / After the Thin Man / Another Thin Man / Shadow of the Thin Man / The Thin Man Goes Home / Song of the Thin Man) Warner
R2
The Bad Sleep Well
(Akira Kurosawa, 1960) bfi [R2-UK], Drunken Angel (Akira Kurosawa, 1948) bfi [R2-UK], Humanity and Paper Balloons (Sadao Yamanaka, 1937) Eureka/MoC [R2-UK], A Summer's Tale (Eric Rohmer, 1996) Artificial Eye [R2-UK], Tale of Winter (Eric Rohmer, 1992) Artificial Eye [R2-UK]

Recent reviews

Notre Musique - Too touchy-feely for some hardcore Godardians, this is the most lucid of the master's recent films.
Tarnation - plays like a feverish dream, where images come and go without any logic.
Point Blank - Lee Marvin is the unstoppable Walker, cheated out of $40,000 and left for dead! Possible DVD of the Year!
55 Days at Peking - Samuel Bronston Blockbuster - the finale of Nicholas Ray's career
Circus World - more Bronston super-production - with John Wayne , Rita Hayworth and Claudia Cardinale. Running a Circus 101!
El Cid - Moorish for "one who is both compassionate and a great warrior" - Anthony Mann epic with Heston + Sophie Loren!
The Fall of the Roman Empire - In an era when "Spartacus", "Cleopatra" or "Ben-Hur" were blossoming on the big screen, Anthony Mann's swan song epic seems sadly forgotten.
Bend of the River - One of the best of the Anthony Mann / James Stewart western team-ups!
A Dirty Shame - It will shock you, it will teach you new ways of play spin the bottle and it may make you feel normal again.
The Puppetmaster - Hou Hsiao-hsien's masterpiece about the childhood and early adulthood of octogenarian Taiwanese puppet master and actor Li Tien-lu!
The Wayward Cloud - The most audacious film to date from visionary director Tsai Ming-liang!
The Milky Way - Jonathan Rosenbaum described as "dangerously close to being all notations and no text"
4 Films by Otar Iosseliani - Multi award-winner at the Cannes, Venice and Berlin Film Festivals!
Birth - More than just a film about love, this is a film about memory, about emotions, and with an ending that will haunt you. A masterpiece.
Double Indemnity (PAL) - Regarded by many as the epitome of the film-noir genre. the new DVD is better, but not perfect.
There Was a Father - is an extremely quiet, subtle and peaceful film - Ozu's most touching!
Blackmail - first sound film to be produced in Britain, making it also Hitchcock's first sound film (The Silent version is added as an extra!)
Captive's Island - a contemplative Japanese film of revenge and haunting memories....
The Rite - Ingmar Bergman most erotic explicit film...
Monster - Theron's career performance...
Heimat - but nothing ever expressed, so deeply, the soul and feelings of a people.

NEW Comparison:

Sandrews - Region 2 - PAL "The Weeping Meadow" vs. Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL

Fox Lorber - Region 0 - NTSC "Goodbye South, Goodbye" vs. MK2 - Region 2 - PAL

Warner (Bunuel box 1) - Region 2 - PAL "Belle De Jour" vs. Miramax - Region 1 - NTSC vs. RusCiCo. - Region 0 - PAL

Criterion (Criterion Collection) - Region 1 - NTSC "Diary of a Chambermaid" vs. Warner (Bunuel Box 1) - Region 2 - PAL.

On Friday I'm picking up 10 more Malata 393a Region Free Players at bargain-basement price! So far - 100 sold! - 3 defective! Best selling Region-Free player ever made! If you haven't made the plunge yet see HERE and then start shopping HERE and HERE!

Take care,
Gary