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THE WAR GAME d: Peter Watkins

The War Game (1965)
Direction and Screenplay: Peter Watkins
Narration: Michael Aspel and Peter Graham
 

 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
For anyone who thinks that those 50-pack mega-DVD sets of public domain films put out by several different video companies are worthless, I would argue that the amount of films you get for the money is worth it, even if all were mediocre, and that the truth is: each DVD package will come with at least 8-10 enjoyable films, a few true classics like Carnival of Souls or Night of the Living Dead, and every so often a great little film will pop up that makes the package a total steal.
One such 50-pack I [...]

A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR d: Anthony Asquith

A Cottage on Dartmoor (1929)
Direction: Anthony Asquith
Screenplay: Anthony Asquith; from a story by Herbert Price
Cast: Norah Baring, Uno Henning, Hans Schlettow
 

Uno Henning in A Cottage on Dartmoor
 

Very little in a career overview of filmmaker Anthony Asquith prepares a viewer for the brilliant thriller A Cottage on Dartmoor, released by Kino, which he both wrote (from a story by Herbert Price) and directed. Asquith’s wonderful but straightforward adaptations of Pygmalion (1938) and The Browning Version (1951) — and, to a lesser extent, The Importance of Being Earnest (1952) and Libel (1959) — do not really speak to the dynamics of this 1929 film.
The director fully embraces the tale of obsessive love in terms of silent [...]

Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics: Bela Lugosi Disc

Darby Jones, Bela Lugosi in Zombies on Broadway

Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics: Boris Karloff Disc
Matters do not improve much over on Bela Lugosi’s disc.  Horror enthusiasts will likely experience a gargantuan case of buyer’s remorse during the first scenes of You’ll Find Out (1940).  What they’ll find out is that this movie is a vehicle not for Bela Lugosi, but for comedian/bandleader Kay Kyser and his Kollege of Musical Knowledge band, featuring Ginny Simms, Sully Mason and Ish Kabibble (who appears to have been the visual inspiration for Jim Carrey’s Lloyd character in Dumb and Dumber). 
Kyser and company’s style of comedy has, shall we say, not aged well, but this is [...]

Karloff & Lugosi Horror Classics DVD

"With a few exceptions," wrote Andrew Sarris in You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet, "The Bride of Frankenstein represented the last gasp of the horror film as a serious genre.  The creeping disease of facetiousness crippled the genre even more distressingly than it had the gangster film.  The dilution of creativity proceeded apace in both genres with anachronistic wise-cracking, farcical reactions, low-brow skepticism, and ‘darky’ caricatures.  Warners even promoted the miscegenation of genres with gangsters and ghouls, electric chairs, and haunted graveyards…" 
If those lines rouse your curiosity as to just what those films from the horror genre’s declining years might have been like, let me direct your attention [...]

FAMILIAR STRANGERS on DVD

Phase 4 Films will be releasing the comedy Familiar Strangers on DVD on November 10, 2009.
Written by John Bell and directed by Zackary Adler, Familiar Strangers, about changing relationships between parents and their growing children, features Nikki Reed (Twilight, Lords of Dog Town), Shawn Hatosy (Public Enemies), DJ Qualls (All About Steve) and Cameron Richardson (Alvin and the Chipmunks). The film won Best Ensemble Cast at Method Fest 2008.
Here’s the synopsis from the press release:
Brian Worthington (Shawn Hatosy) reluctantly returns home for the Thanksgiving holiday after a long estrangement, carrying the baggage of unresolved conflict with his father Frank (Tom Bower).  Frank has replaced his maturing children with his [...]

THE HUMAN CONDITION Review II

THE HUMAN CONDITION Review: Part I
The Human Condition is often referred to short-handily as an anti-war or anti-military film. That’s a fair characterization as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go far enough. What Kobayashi’s film does is deflate any and all of the ideologies bequeathed to us by the modern world, showing them up as pernicious myths. Kaji’s belief that labor can be managed humanely and rationally is swept away by his time in the work camps; his patriotism, by the conduct of the Japanese military; his sympathy for socialism, by his encounter with the tender mercies of the Red Army. Even his [...]

THE HUMAN CONDITION d: Masaki Kobayashi

The Human Condition Trilogy
No Greater Love (1959), The Road to Eternity (1959), A Soldier’s Prayer (1961)
Direction: Masaki Kobayashi
Screenplay: Zenzo Matsuyama and Masaki Kobayashi; from Jumpei Gomikawa’s novel
Cast: Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama
 

Michiyo Aratama, Tatsuya Nakadai in The Human Condition
 

Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition, based on Jumpei Gomikawa’s novel, is probably as well known for its scope and scale as for any other reason.  Originally released as three films — No Greater Love (1959), The Road to Eternity (1959), and A Soldier’s Prayer (1961) — Criterion has packaged everything together as one massive, nine-and-a-half-hour opus chronicling the adventures of Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a young Japanese unwillingly participating in the Imperial Army in World War II.  The film’s [...]

THE SWEET HEREAFTER d: Atom Egoyan

THE SWEET HEREAFTER Review: Part I
Nichole is also hamhandedly used as a symbol when she recites Robert Browning’s poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin. The idea of lost children is so obvious in The Sweet Hereafter that the reason Egoyan adds this touch is bewildering, save that he — bizarrely — felt the loss wasn’t evident enough. That begs the question of just how confident Egoyan was in Banks’ original work, for the poem is only one of many elements in the film that are supposed to be significantly different from the book.
Another side story focuses — of course — on the lone man in town, Billy Ansell, who, [...]

MADE IN U.S.A / 2 OR 3 THINGS I KNOW ABOUT HER d: Jean-Luc Godard

Made in U.S.A. (1966)
Direction: Jean-Luc Godard
Screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard; from Donald E. Westlake’s novel
Cast: Anna Karina, László Szabó, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Marianne Faithfull, Yves Afonso
 
2 ou 3 choses que je sais d’elle / 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her (1967)
Direction and screenplay: Jean-Luc Godard
Cast: Marina Vlady, Joseph Gehrard, Anny Duperey, Roger Montsoret, Raoul Lévy, Jean Narboni
 

 

When the young cinephiles who would later spawn the French New Wave attended screenings of Hollywood films at the Cinémathèque Française, they often found themselves watching prints lacking French subtitles.  Not all of these men understood English, but they stuck it out anyway.  After all, you can still learn from a film even if you can’t quite follow the dialogue; [...]

THE MAN FROM LONDON d: Béla Tarr

A londoni férfi / The Man from London (2007)
Direction: Béla Tarr
Screenplay: Béla Tarr and László Krasznahorkai; from Georges Simenon’s novel
Cast: Miroslav Krobot, Tilda Swinton, Ági Szirtes, János Derzsi, Erika Bók, István Lénárt
 

 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Style over substance.
That is the plaint of many a critic when they come across a film or book or any work of art they do not like, but which has undeniable merit, at least technically, if not in a few other measures as well. But the fact is that my opening words have little to do with most of the gripes labeled as such. While there are artworks for which the opening plaint is valid, far more often the correct plaint is [...]

THE MAN FROM LONDON Review II

THE MAN FROM LONDON: Part I
From Satantango, Tarr does the almost inverse of what he did with the Damnation sequence, taking several great scenes of people at a bar, and invoking a similar scene in a pool hall in The Man from London. But unlike a similar single scene in Werckmeister Harmonies, which illuminates the lead character’s inner self, the sequence in The Man from London plays as a sort of grotesque bit, tossed in just for shock value.
In Satantango, the bar scenes play out much longer; one scene, in particular, is shown from two different perspectives at two different points in the film. This causes a parallax that is absent in the pool hall scene, which also fails [...]

THE MAN FROM LONDON Review III

THE MAN FROM LONDON: Part I
THE MAN FROM LONDON: Part II
We then follow Maloin to his home, where Tarr offers some great scenes of him trying to sleep and dreaming of the prior night. We also see his protectiveness toward his daughter, Henriette (Erika Bok), and his arguments with his nameless wife (played by Swinton), who comes off as a typical harridan. All of these scenes, no matter how well filmed, feel tired and repetitive. By contrast, in Tarr’s earlier Satantango, Erika Bok plays a small girl who violently wrestles with and kills her cat. Despite the ugly nature of that sequence, it elucidates both Bok’s character and one of that film’s major plot points and themes. No such corresponding [...]

THE LIMEY d: Steven Soderbergh

The Limey (1999)
Direction: Steven Soderbergh
Screenplay: Lem Dobbs
Cast: Terence Stamp, Lesley Ann Warren, Luis Guzman, Peter Fonda, Barry Newman, Joe Dallesandro, Nicky Katt, Amelia Heinle, Melissa George

 

 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Director Steven Soderbergh’s 1999 so-called crime drama The Limey is easily the best Soderbergh effort I’ve seen. That’s partly due to the innovative narrative structure, which makes all but the last few minutes of this great film a flashback. The rest is due to an excellent script by Lem Dobbs, whose other great success came a year earlier, in Alex Proyas’ sci-fi thriller Dark City. Both films, despite their apparent differences, are acutely focused on human memory and [...]

THE LIMEY II – Terence Stamp

THE LIMEY – Part I
Aside from memory, there are superbly rendered details that distill the characters: Wilson radiates affection for Eduardo’s help in tracking down Valentine by fondly calling him Sancho (as in Panza). All of these things — along with Eduardo’s and Elaine’s motivations, and the portrayal of the relationship between the hitmen — work well. In fact, they work so well precisely because there are no specifics, but generalities sharply etched so that the viewer ‘feels,’ as well as understands, the motivations and relationships. That allows the viewer to feel what goes on inside Wilson, thus creating a stronger identification with him than would be gotten were all things laid [...]

Under Full Sail – Silent Cinema on the High Seas

Flicker Alley in association with the Blackhawk Film Collection has announced the release of "Under Full Sail – Silent Cinema on the High Seas," a new DVD release featuring, as per its press release, "five breathtaking films that preserve the romance, grandeur and allure of windjammers sailing open waters, exquisitely photographed in the style of the time."
The following information is from the Flicker Alley release:
The Yankee Clipper (1927), produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by Rupert Julian, restored to the most complete version available since the film’s release, is a feature-length melodrama recreating the real-life race from Foo Chow to Boston for the China tea trade. The gorgeous production filmed at sea for six weeks aboard the 1856 [...]

MY KID COULD PAINT THAT d: Amir Bar-Lev

My Kid Could Paint That (2007)
Direction: Amir Bar-Lev
 

 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
In a real sense, the 83-minute documentary My Kid Could Paint That is one of the most disgusting films of all time. It disgusts because

a) it so vividly displays the utter nonsense and stupidity of the modern art scamming that has gone on for the last half century or more (especially in Abstract Expressionism) — and that’s a good thing; and
b) it so vividly displays the exploitation of an innocent child, Marla Olmstead, to meet the personal and psychological demands and needs of her Mark and Laura — and that’s a bad thing.

Basically, the film, [...]

DEBAUCHED DESIRES: Four Erotic Masterpieces by Masaru Konuma

PRESS RELEASE
Kino International and KimStim are proud to release the four-DVD set Debauched Desires: Four Erotic Masterpieces by Masaru Konuma.
Directed by the master of Japanese erotic cinema Masaru Konuma, CLOISTERED NUN: RUNA’S CONFESSION (1976), TATTOOED FLOWER VASE (1976), EROTIC DIARY OF AN OFFICE LADY (1977) and a re-mastered version of WIFE TO BE SACRIFICED (1975) are now available in one four-DVD set at the reduced price of $49.95. Previously, each of these films was available at $29.95.
The street date for Debauched Desires: Four Erotic Masterpieces by Masaru Konuma is May 19, 2009.
"Stylishly directed and singularly harrowing" (Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia), these four films are classic examples of pink cinema, a style of Japanese, softcore theatrical films which was common in the [...]

DAYS OF ‘36 d: Theo Angelopoulos

Meres tou ‘36 / Days of ‘36 (1972)
Direction: Theo Angelopoulos
Screenplay: Theo Angelopoulos, Petros Markaris, Thanassis Valtinos and Stratis Karras
Cast: Giorgos Kiritsis, Christoforos Chimaras, Takis Doukakos, Kostas Pavlou, Petros Zarkadis, Christophoros Nezer
 

 
By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Greek film director Theo Angelopoulos‘ 1972 effort Meres Tou ‘36 / Days of ‘36, winner of the International Film Critics Association award at the Berlin Film Festival, is the least of the several films of his that I’ve seen. It is also, by over a decade and a half, the earliest one I’ve seen so far, and at one hour and 45 minutes it is by a good margin the shortest as well. [...]

BLADE RUNNER – Harrison Ford – d: Ridley Scott

Blade Runner (1982)
Direction: Ridley Scott
Screenplay: Hampton Fancher and David Peoples; from Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy, Brion James
 

 

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:
Director Ridley Scott’s dystopian 1982 sci-fi drama Blade Runner is one of those Hollywood productions whose initially mixed reviews were actually closer to the mark than the decades of hagiography that followed. That’s not to say that Blade Runner is a bad film; it’s only a much-ballyhooed mediocrity — due mostly to its sluggish screenplay — rather than a great film.
Adapted by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples [...]

CASABLANCA V d: Michael Curtiz

CASABLANCA IV – Ingrid Bergman
Casablanca is part of a two-disc DVD package, put out by Warner Bros. Disc one has the film in a transfer (1.33:1 aspect ratio) stunningly free of blemishes. The disc also has two theatrical trailers (the original and re-release trailers); an introduction by Bogart’s widow, Lauren Bacall; and two commentaries. The lesser one is by film historian Rudy Behlmer. It’s loaded with information on the making of the film, but Behlmer is just reading from a script of Warner Bros. inter-office memos about the film, and few of the facts are scene-specific. Behlmer’s monotone is also rather off-putting, and he rarely ventures an idea or [...]

Griffith Masterworks 2: SALLY OF THE SAWDUST

W. C. Fields, Carol Dempster in Sally of the Sawdust

Griffith Masterworks 2: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE STRUGGLE
The final disc of the set contains Sally of the Sawdust (1925), a rare comedy feature starring Griffith protegee Carol Dempster and W. C. Fields. The Sally of the title (played by Dempster) performs in the circus with her "pop," Professor McGargle (Fields). Little does she know that McGargle came to be her guardian through an unlikely set of circumstances, and is not in fact her real father. As Sally nears adulthood, McGargle decides to bring her to her old hometown so that she might know the truth about her family; wacky hijinks ensue.
Sally of the Sawdust is a [...]

Griffith Masterworks 2: ABRAHAM LINCOLN, THE STRUGGLE

Walter Huston in Abraham Lincoln

Griffith Masterworks 2: WAY DOWN EAST, THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE
The most anticipated (by me anyway) part of this set is the twofer disc of Abraham Lincoln and The Struggle. Long overshadowed by Griffith’s earlier work, these have the distinction of being his final two films (from 1930 and 1931, respectively), and his only attempts at talkies. By this point, Griffith’s career had been in decline for several years, as newer and, frankly, greater talents eclipsed his trailblazing innovations of a decade earlier. These two films were his last shots at securing a place in the emerging film industry.
For the son of a Confederate soldier, Griffith was surprisingly [...]

Griffith Masterworks 2: WAY DOWN EAST, THE AVENGING CONSCIENCE

It may not have been terribly original of Kino to include in their 2005 Griffith Masterworks boxed set the only four D. W. Griffith features that most people could name (let alone claim to have seen), but it would have been downright perverse to pass over The Birth of a Nation, Intolerance, Broken Blossoms, and Orphans of the Storm (the fifth and sixth discs were made up of several Biograph shorts).
With their second set, Griffith Masterworks 2, released this month, Kino has selected some genuine curiosities; each of the five films on offer here has novelty value in addition to being the work of cinema’s first genius.
Way Down East (1920), the first film [...]

William Friedkin Remembers THE BOYS IN THE BAND

In the Chicago Sun-Times, Thomas Conner interviews William Friedkin upon the DVD release of the 1970 drama The Boys in the Band, which was adapted by Mart Crowley from his own 1968 off-Broadway play about a group of some very sad and very bitter gay men — and one token (self-proclaimed) straight guy — who get together for a birthday celebration. "I knew a lot of people like those people," Crowley later said of his whiny characters. "The self-deprecating humor was born out of a low self-esteem, from a sense of what the times told you about yourself."
I saw the film years ago and I actually liked it. Not sure if I’d [...]

Buster Keaton’s THE GENERAL – Ultimate 2 Disc Edition

Considered by many Buster Keaton’s masterpiece and one of the greatest movies ever made, the 1927 silent comedy The General — co-directed by Keaton and Clyde Bruckman — has received a classy DVD treatment courtesy of Kino International: "The General – Ultimate 2 Disc Edition." Whether or not you’re a Keaton admirer — and I’m no fan of gag-based comedies — I find it impossible not to be thrilled that this cinematic landmark is now available on DVD in a version newly mastered in HD from a 35mm archive print struck from the original camera negative.
As with just about every Buster Keaton vehicle, The General doesn’t offer much in terms of plot. After being rejected by the [...]

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