DVD and Blu-Ray Archives - Page 2 of 2

Come As You Are (Hasta La Vista)**** Out on DVD

[youtube id=”ez5SwIGYBu8″ width=”600″ height=”350″]

Director: Geoffrey Enthoven

Script: Pierre De Clercq, Asta Philpot, Mariano Vanhoof

Producer: Mariano Vanhoof

Cast: Robrecht Vanden Thoren, Gilles De Schrijver, Tom Audenaert, Karel Vingerhoets, Katelijne Verbeke, Karlijn Sileghem, Marilou Mermans, Johan Heldenbergh, Isabelle de Hertogh

Belgium 149mins 2011 Drama

A road movie with a difference. Three Flemish guys in their Twenties- Philip, Lars and Jozef, with a taste for fine wine, a good time and hot women, decide they want to go to Spain for some sun, sea and sex.

The problem is, they all live at home, cared for their whole lives by their parents. Philip is paralysed from the neck down, Jozef is blind and Lars is wheelchair bound due to a brain tumour. And all of them are virgins. It’s one thing to want to rebel and fly the coup, but if you’ve never travelled and your life actually depends on the coup, it becomes another thing entirely.

Running similar territory to Midnight Cowboy, Intouchables, Rain Man even Scent of a Woman, this is a very honest film about real people, not those you would normally expect to see in a ‘movie’. People who are otherwise like you and me: just unable to survive without unconditional friendship: and therein lies the poignancy, drama and even humour, particularly appealing here.

It’s by turns a hugely enjoyable and affecting romp and for anyone not so afflicted, an eye opening insight into the other worldliness that confronts people with disability, making the day-to-day mundane that most of us would never think twice about, into insurmountable obstacles; reaching objects from a top shelf. Steps. Dropping something on the floor. Pushing a button.

But the humour is also perfectly pitched, the interplay between the three main protagonists just right, as their characters come to the fore under duress and the negotiation that is any friendship is played out with a ring of truth to it. What makes this film is the commitment of the leads and strength of the supporting cast.

Taking its time to reach our screens due to a thorough stint on the festival circuit, it is no surprise that Come As You Are won the Audience Award at both Karlovy Vary and the European Film Awards. It also won Most Popular Film of the Festival and Special Jury Mention at Montreal in 2012. It’s a real feel-good crowd pleaser that will go down particularly well with arthouse festival-goers the world over. Come As You Are: funny, moving, affording insight and examining wider issues. Andrew Tomlinson

COME AS YOU ARE IS OUT ON DVD AND BLU-RAY FROM 7 OCTOBER 2013

Van Gogh (1991)

Dir. Maurce Pialat | Cast: Jacques Dutronc, Alexandra London,Gerard Sety, Bernhard Le Coq, Corinne Bourdon, Elizabeth Zylberstein. | France 1991, 158 min. Drama

French director Maurice Pialat (1925-2003) was a maverick: a late starter in film-making – he directed his first feature L’Enfance Nue (Naked childhood – in 1968 at the age of 44. An antagonistic person, he thrived on controversy, on and off the set. His relationship with the French film critics was poisonous: when he received the Palme D’Or in 1987 for Sous le soleil de Satan (Under the sun of Satan) he was roundly booed and retaliated by sticking out his tongue.

Sharing his lack of aesthetic compromise with Bresson (it’s no accident that Under the sun of Satan is based on a novel by Georges Bernanos, whose Mouchette and Diary of a Country Priest were filmed by Bresson). And Pialat was a painter – albeit with little success.

Dialogue-driven and aesthetically rather underwhelming, Van Gogh is well-crafted with a strong central performance from Jacques Dutronc who portrays the last three months of the artist’s life.

In May 1890 Vincent van Gogh arrives at the station of Auvers-sur-Oise, a little village 40 miles away from Paris, where is met by his friend Dr Gachet (Gerard Sety), an amateur collector of works by Cezanne, Renoir and other contemporary French painters. Van Gogh has just left the hospital in Saint Remy, after treatment for physical and mental illness. Even though Gachet wants to look after Van Gogh and admires his works he is wary of him; with good reason as it turns out. Van Gogh stays in a cheap inn, but sees Gachet regularly, meeting and painting his teenage daughter Marguerite (Alexandra London), with whom he forms a romantic bond. Brother Theo, an art dealer, also visits with wife Jo (Corinne Bourdon) at the Gachet place, where they have fun in the garden. Van Gogh works tirelessly, only interrupting his work when friends from Paris arrive, one of them is the Cathy (Elizabeth Zylberstein), who is supposed to be the love of his life. After a night out in Paris with Theo and Marguerite, Van Gogh sinks again into a deep depression and meets a tragic end.

Pialat mistrusted all forms of psychological interpretation. His long shots show what is happening, nothing else. He demystifies Van Gogh and argues, that if the painter had really been that ill, he could not have created so many masterpieces in the last two month of his life. In common with Eustache and Cassavetes, Pialat welcomed confrontation on many levels: On set, he drove the actors mad and even came to blows with many of them.

Pialat resolves many scenes with conflict, particularly those between couples (here Van Gogh/Marguerite and Theo/Jo are arguing constantly and violently. Like all Pialat’s films, Van Gogh is rigorously structured, nothing is left to interpretation. Unsentimental it may be, but the director is not interested in romantisicing the artist: his Van Gogh is a lonely, cantankerous man, unable to express himself in words, only knowing how to confront. Whilst he is not a misogynist, his relationships with women are mainly exploitative, at home in chaos and catastrophe – not unlike the director, whose films all have an underlying autobiographical tone. AS

VAN GOGH IS OUT ON DVD/BLU and a selection of his films are now on MUBI | COURTESY OF MASTERS OF CINEMA.

Dracula (1958) *** On DVD and Blu-Ray

Director: Terence Fisher

Script: Jimmy Sangster (Bram Stoker)

Cast: Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Melissa Stribling, Carol Marsh, John Van Eyssen, Valerie Gaunt

UK 84mins 1958 Horror

Terence Fisher came to filmmaking extraordinarily late, directing his first feature at the grand old age of 43, through the J Arthur Rank Studios. And he helmed a fair few films with some notable stars such as Jean Simmons, Dirk Bogarde and Herbert Lom.

However, his big break came when in 1957, Hammer Studios asked him to direct a remake of Frankenstein, aged 52. The Curse of Frankenstein was a box office smash, sealing his fate as the horror go-to guy for the rest of his career. This Hammer debut also created bankable careers of Cushing and Lee, who reunited for Dracula the same year, made also basically for peanuts.

John Van Eyssen plays Jonathan Harker, the man on a mission to kill Dracula under the pretence of being a librarian employed by Lee’s Count Dracula to catalogue his extensive library. When the cavalry fails, it’s Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing who goes in to clear up the mess.

The film has definitely aged, in terms of style and content. The acting style is more theatrical than today’s tastes will allow for without parody and, by today’s standards, the content is staid, the effects naïve, but the power and commitment of the performances, particularly Cushing and Lee are undeniable. At the time of its release, this kind of horror with attendant bloodletting was revolutionary and caused quite a stir. Something almost unthinkable now, when one considers the gallons of blood used in Chainsaw Massacre 3D, or the Saw franchise.

It is however heartening to see that it has been singled out for restorative treatment for many more generations to enjoy. I’ve no idea what sort of condition the original was in and there are still a few places at which one can tell the film must have been in a parlous state, but in the main, it feels very fresh and clean. The two disk DVD has an armoury of extras, including alternative versions of the full film. I suspect in the end this may be one for the interested and the collector, but a fine piece of work nevertheless by filmmakers, cast and restorers alike.

A classic then, but a classic ‘B’ horror, not on a par with a Lawrence Of Arabia say, so not without interest, but it was never made to look classy. This is Hammer House of Horror’s Dracula, after all, for Satan’s Sake. AT

DRACULA IS OUT ON DVD AND BLU-RAY

FOUR BRAND NEW FEATURETTES.

DRACULA REBORN. New 30 min. featurette about the film’s creation and history, featuring, among others: Jimmy Sangster, Kim Newman, Mark Gatiss, Jonathan Rigby and Janina Faye (Tania in the film).

RESURRECTING DRACULA; New 20 min. featurette about the film’s restoration, from the BFI’s 2007 restoration through to the integration of “lost” footage, featuring interviews with key staff at the BFI, Molinare and Deluxe142. Also covers the February 2012 world premiere of Hammer’s interim restored version including “vox pop” interviews with fans after the event.

THE DEMON LOVER: CHRISTOPHER FRAYLING ON DRACULA New 30 min. featurette.

CENSORING DRACULA; New 10 min. featurette on the original cuts to the film ordered by the British Board of Film Censors.

From Up On Poppy Hill (2011) DVD BLU

Director: Goro Miyazaki Writer: Tetsuro Sayama and others

91mins Studio Ghibli Animation

Though famed for their fantastical creations, Japanese animators Studio Ghibli have also displayed a unique ability across their 28 year history, for placing the viewer in a particular time and place in modern history within their productions. Be that World War One in Porco Rosso, or the end of the Second World War in Grave of the Fireflies, they depict a world we know so well, yet enriching it with fantasy elements and the enchantment for which they have become so well renowned. Their latest picture From Up On Poppy Hill is no different, this time taking us back to Japan in 1964, ahead of the forthcoming Tokyo Olympic Games.

In director Goro Miyazaki’s (son of co-founder Hayao) sophomore Ghibli endeavour, we begin in Yokohama, following student Umi (Sarah Bolger) as she cares for her family while her mother is away. Struggling to overcome the untimely death of her father in the Korean War, she soon starts to rediscover some meaning to her life, when she meets the anarchic and enigmatic Shun (Anton Yelchin). Focusing primarily on saving the latter’s clubhouse from the wrecking ball, the pair develop feelings for one another – although the situation grows somewhat untenable when some unexpected information is brought to light.

With a voice cast also consisting of the likes of Christina Hendricks, Jamie Lee Curtis and Bruce Dern, From Up On Poppy Hill provides a rich, political and social context to proceedings, and though the core of this story is a romantic tale, the setting adds more poignancy and substance to the narrative. Such context enhances the realism of the piece, as although this is as magical as one may expect, by placing this tale in real circumstances, it makes it seem all the more naturalistic. Such a sentiment only heightens the emotional aspects of the picture too, because the more we believe in this tale, the more invested we are. It’s certainly an easy backdrop to associate with, what with a big city gearing itself up for such a prestigious sporting occasion, and the political implications such an event can arouse. Somewhat familiar, isn’t it?

In the meantime, the animation is about as good as Ghibli have been able to boast, with beautiful scenery complementing the story. The varying, picturesque images of the clouds and vibrantly colourful skies form an alluring backdrop, adding to the romanticism of the piece. In a typical Ghibli manner, every single mundane task appears magical and bewitching, as even the scene where the family sit down to eat breakfast has an air of enchantment around it. Such scenes are embellished with a typically witty script, as a feature that carries several dryly humorous one-liners.

Though not quite reaching the heights of some of the classic Ghibli productions, this remains an improvement on their most recent title Arrietty, in that this has more originality to the story as a bewitching piece that tells a touching and heartfelt tale, and one that is masterfully dealt with. With a plethora of twists and turns, at one point Shun remarks, “this is like a cheap melodrama”: and though the narrative may indicate such a notion, Miyazaki does an almighty job to ensure this not be the case, as the themes are dealt with delicately and triumphantly. But then again, it’s Studio Ghibli: could we really have expected anything less? SP

FROM UP ON POPPY HILL IS ON DVD/BLU AND WILL BE POPULAR WITH THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF DIRECTOR AND ANIMATION LEGEND HAYAO MIYAZAKI.

Call Girl (2012) *** DVD/BLU

Director: Mikael Marcimain

Writer: Marietta von Hausswolff von Baumgarten

Cast: Sofia Karemyr, Simon J Berger, Josefin Asplund, Pernilla August, David Dencik

140mins Thriller Sweden with subtitles

This intelligent Swedish art house feature joins the recent influx of Scandinavian films to flood our cinema screens. Along with The Killing and The Bridge, Call Girl makes challenging viewing not least for its subject-matter: the grooming of young girls to work as prostitutes for top politicians in seventies Stockholm. The city emerges as a bedrock of misogynist culture and child abuse emerges in the run-up to a scandal-ridden general election.

Shifting between two plot lines, the story focuses on how Iris (Sofia Karemyr) and Sonja (Josefin Asplund) gradually find themselves the victim of Pernilla August’s shrewd business woman, Dagmar, who operates a call girl agency with clients drawn from the top echelons of the local political and police elite.

John Sandberg (Simon J Berger) is hired to look into Dagmar’s activities but gradually his operation burgeons into a full-blown criminal investigation encompassing members of his own bureau, and in so doing casts a pall over other shady aspects of society which are inexorably drawn into the proceedings. It’s a tightly-scripted and skillful piece of filmmaking underpinned by a well-put-together seventies aesthetic and some truly excellent performances particularly from the two leads.

Told in a way that’s devoid of drama or sensationalism, it cleverly portrays a society where victims from the bottoms rungs of society are left without voice or proper recourse to justice; this absorbing drama is as chilling, dark and long as January in Stockholm. MT

CALL GIRL IS OUT ON DVD/BLU FROM 28 SEPTEMBER 2013 PRICE: £15.99 courtesy of Artificial Eye.

Breathe In (2013) DVD/BLU

Director: Drake Doremus Writers: Drake Doremus, Ben Yorke Jones

Cast: Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Kyle MacLachlan, Amy Ryan, Ben Shenkman

98mins US Drama

Much like his preceding feature Like Crazy, director Drake Doremus returns with yet another well-executed romantic drama featuring a young English girl finding love in the States. However where Breathe In differs, in that it focuses in on a more sophisticated and civilised coming together of two lost souls, rather than an idealistic, naïve first love between mere youngsters. It plays out almost as a reflection of Doremus’s natural progression as a filmmaker in what is a richer and more refined piece of filmmaking than his previous endeavour.

Felicity Jones plays Sophie, a foreign exchange student hailing from England, who is stationed in an upstate New York home with her music teacher Keith (Guy Pearce), his wife (Amy Ryan) and teenage daughter Lauren (Mackenzie Davis). While the timid and somewhat precocious Sophie first catches Keith’s eye with her exceptional piano playing ability, the pair soon develop feelings for each other in a potential romance that could break up this family dynamic and change the lives of those within it forever.

Once again Doremus has managed to draw incredibly naturalistic performances from his cast, whilst a maturing Jones is as alluring as always, further enhancing her reputation as one of the more beguiling screen presences in contemporary cinema. She brings a fragility that is sincere and endearing. Pearce also impresses, as one of few actors who is efficient at moving between genres effortlessly, adapting to a low-budget romance flick as he does to the science fiction blockbusters where he has made his name.

The realism is richly enhanced by the organically implemented score, where our characters’ own musical performances dictate the tempo and atmosphere of the picture, and complements what plays out on screen. The musical vibe here is classical, and this is reflected in the contemplative ambiance that echoes the narrative. What starts as pensive, slowly gets more intense and dramatic, as in many classical pieces.

The build-up to Sophie and Keith’s romance is subtle, yet we see more than enough to believe in it, and though not much actually occurs, it’s the potential repercussions of what may happen that maintains the compelling edge. The theme of romance between a foreigner and a local is effectively portrayed, as it provides a loneliness to proceedings. Sophie is missing her family and friends and feels isolated and lost in another culture, which breeds a vulnerability to her. However it also works in reverse adding an intensity to the romance with a prevalent ‘nothing to lose’ aspect: often typical in a holiday romance that succeeds from its exhilarating spontaneity.

There is a determinable ending in sight however, and though the relationship is extremely realistic and has you drawn in completely, you hold little hope for its longevity, as a foreboding feeling sweeps over the entire picture. Though it would be intriguing to see Doremus tackle a different genre next and explore relatively new avenues, if he was to simply make another picture much like Breathe In and Like Crazy, it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the world. STEFAN PAPE

BREATHE IN IS OUT ON DVD AND BLU-RAY ON 0CTOBER 7TH 2013

Kings of Summer (2012) **** DVD/BLU out 30 September 2013

A refreshingly funny rites of passage tale and first feature for Jordan Vogt-Roberts who takes a simple teenage male-bonding outing in the woods and gives it universal appeal. Anyone can remember a time when parents seemed totally ‘uncool’ and the desire to break free from their clutches was the most natural and grown-up thing to do, especially if it involved leaving home for a camping expedition in a hidden location with a group of friends, in a bid to exert some authority and independence.

Here the friends are a motley threesome and well-played by: Joe (Nick Robinson) and Patrick (Gabriel Basso) joined by hanger-on and all-round weirdo Biaggio (Moises Arias). What starts as a breezy summer experience soons turns wintry as the dynamic shifts dramatically between the trio due to a unexpected turn of events. Cracks starts appear not only in their relationship but also in the cabin they excitedly build together.

Chris Galletta’s hilarious script and Vogt-Roberts’ skillful direction make this feelgood summer outing, shot through with touches of angst, a winner for all audiences. MT

Plein Soleil (1960)

Dir: René Clément | Cast: Alain Delon, Maurice Ronet, Marie Leforêt, Erno Crisa | 118mins | France, Thriller

Writer: Patricia Highsmith

When it comes to style, no one does it better than the French and Italians. PLEIN SOLEIL, René Clément’s adaptation of ‘The Talented Mr Ripley’, perfectly epitomises the laid-back sixties summer of a group of friends holidaying on the Italian riviera and slipping easily from French to Italian to English.

While retaining the sinister edginess of Highsmith’s novel, Clément floods the screen with a sunny Mediterranean vibe, skilfully directing his largely debut cast to produce a thriller embued with the insouciant glamour of the era and superbly performed by these three beautiful young French actors.

Alain Delon stars as a rather feline Ripley, moving sinuously across the screen-his physique honed from an early career as a paratrooper in the Marines, he’s a French version of Dirk Bogarde (or American, James Dean) both in style and background and, like Bogarde, fell into acting in the late fifties after a series of odd jobs, eventually becoming a star in Plein Soleil. Delon went on to find international success in Visconti’s ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (1960), he came to represent the ideal young male of the Nouvelle Vague: energetic, good-looking and rakish. He was perfect for the role of Ripley; a charming sociopath with murderous intent.

Marie Laforêt plays Marge Duval, in a sultry turn that exudes nonchalent sex appeal and Maurice Ronet, who had already made his name in LIFT TO THE SCAFFOLD, is another genius piece of casting as her suave boyfriend Philippe Greenleaf.

The ending is a shocking departure from that of the original novel and displeased Highsmith on the grounds of its “indictment of public morality”. But although the more recent Anthony Minghella version starring Matt Damon clings more faithfully to her storyline, this by far exceeds the latter in style and execution and was to set the tone for the likes of Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut to usher in the French New Wave. MT

ON NETFLIX AND PRIME VIDEO

Student Services (2010) Mes Cheres Etudes Out on DVD

Student Services joins the recent slew of dramas surrounding student prostitution along with François Ozon’s Jeune et Jolie and Malgorzata Szumowska’s Elles.

Student Services

Probably the least glamorous and certainly the most sexually graphic of the three, it is also the most disturbingly real thanks to a convincing turn from Belgian actress Déborah François (Populaire) who plays 19-year-old Laura.

Dating fellow student Manu (Benjamin Siksou) but desperately strapped for cash, she hooks up with an online site offering cash for bedroom services, and soon she’s earning good money from a variety of pervy men.

Although Student Services is slightly underwritten in character development, what makes it ultimately so appealing is the fabulous chemistry François develops with one of the punters, Mathieu Demy (as Benjamin) who gives a performance of considerable depth and allure as the two fall in love.

Student Services reveals the unexpected side of student prostitution and the fragility and vulnerability of teenage prostitutes is subtlely evoked here by François as she gradually becomes submerged in a low-life existence so distant from the one she hoped for. With an atmospheric soundtrack from artists The Walkmen and Soap&Skin, Student Services is a moving and engaging drama.

The Director Emmanuelle Bercot originally came to fame when her directorial debut Clément, in which she also starred, was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2001. Her most recent film Elle S’En Va, starring Cathérine Deneuve premiered at Berlin 2013. MT

STUDENT SERVICES IS OUT ON DVD ON THE 8TH JULY 2013 COURTESY OF AXIOM FILMS complete with interviews and casting sessions.

Broken (2012) DVD/BLU-RAY

NOW OUT ON DVD/BLU-RAY FROM 8TH JULY 2013 including INTERVIEWS WITH CAST AND CREW

Director: Rufus Norris Script: Mark O’Rowe Novel: Daniel Clay,

Prod: Dixie Linder

90mins Drama UK

Cast: Tim Roth, Roy Kinnear, Cillian Murphy, Zana Marjanovic, Bill Milner, Robert Emms, Clare Burt, Denis Lawson.

“Thoughtlessness and unnecessary cruelty always catch my mind” Daniel Clay, author, Broken

Broken is a contemporary tale of class warfare set in North London. But is it only a London story?. Once you scratch beneath the surface of our ‘Great Britain’ with its recent Olympic success and ‘caring’ society, repercussions of the 2011 riots and social turmoil seep through. And it’s from this stark reality that Broken emerges.

In the shires and suburbs you’ll come up against the characters of this smart debut from theatre director Rufus Norris. It has Mark O’Rowe’s sparkling script adapted from the original novel and presents the lives of three neighbouring families seen through the eyes of a diabetic 11 year-old called Skunk. She’s quite an old-fashioned little girl and played endearingly here by Eloise Laurence. With an upbeat soundtrack and touches of wit that lift it out of its gloomy premise, Broken kicks around themes of single parenting, the class system, teenage pregnancy, care in the community and bullying.

Skunk and her brother Stephen are the products of a middle class family. Their dad Archie is a local family solicitor and Kasia (Zana Marjanovic) is their Polish nanny. Although Norris had originally intended Roth for another character, once Tim read the script he was determined to play Archie and has really made the part his own. As Archie, he represents the positive attributes of decent citizen, ideal parent and loving partner all rolled into one, and does so sensitively and with humanity.

Neighbours Mr and Mrs Oswald are sadly in denial of their mentally disturbed son Rick (Robert Emms). The Buckleys also inhabit the J B Priestley-esque cup-de-sac. As Mr Buckley, Rory Kinnear gives a perfectly pitched performance as a foul-mouthed but misunderstood father of three horrible girls, one of whom accuses Rick of rape. In a dynamite opening sequence Shunk witnesses Mr Buckley giving Rick a thorough drubbing and this violence seems to take away her childhood innocence setting the scene for a story that’s authentic and newsworthy.

Cillian Murphy is convincing in an amusing side plot as Skunk’s teacher and Kasia’s sometime boyfriend. But Skunk’s budding love interest although cute, doesn’t quite ring true..

Despite tonal differences which shift from social realism to raging melodrama by the end, Broken is a gripping piece of social satire not be missed. Ingenious, unexpected and absolutely on the button of Britain today. MT

The Brood (1979) DVD Release

David Cronenberg made this iconic psychological thriller with its well-crafted characters and plot-line at the height of his career.

Oliver Reed plays Hal Raglan, a secretively sinister psychiatrist experimenting with a new kind of therapy that unleashes violent reactions in his patients, one of whom is Samantha Eggar as Nola, who is locked in a bitter custody battle for her little girl Candy with husband Frank (Art Hindle) who desperate to rumble Raglan and his unorthodox methods.

But that’s not all – a group of little red-coated people, who are supposedly mutants bred inside Raglan’s dodgy clinic – are bludgeoning Nola’s relatives to death before you can say “Don’t Look Now”.

Deeply seventies from the wall-papered interiors to the dated fashion statements (Reed sports the classic waist-coated suit and sheepskin car-coat straight out of ‘High n Mighty’), displays the classic Cronenberg visuals; the screeching violin score presaging doom and desolate snowscapes of Toronto.

THE BROOD is out on BLU-RAY and DVD in July 2013 on SECOND SIGHT FILMS

Tabu A Story of the South Seas (1931) DVD Blu-Ray

Director/Writer: F W Murnau and Robert Flaherty

Cast: Matahi, Matahi Hitu, Jules, Kong Ah, Anna Chevalier, Jean Jules

80min German Adventure Drama

[youtube id=”BmHQjE_YCGw” width=”600″ height=”350″]
The south sea Island paradise of Bora Bora is the setting for this picturesque lyrical love story of a Polynesian legend. F.W. Murnau invited leading documentarist Robert Flaherty (Man of Aran) to collaborate on an experiment featuring a cast of island natives (“and a few half-castes and Chinese”!!!). It won an Oscar for Best Cinematography thanks to the efforts of Floyd Crosby who delicately captures the exotic and untouched feel of this untainted territory in black and white. It turned out to be a labour of love for the director as well as those depicted in the film. In a weird twist of fate, F W Murnau was killed in a car accident before the film premiered having financed it himself and fallen out with Flaherty over script issues.

Bathed in sunshine under the sheltering palms, TABU plays like an exotic thirties travelogue with its lilting Hollywood soundtrack composed by Hugo Riesenfeld. A sultry native girl, Reri, (Chevalier) is declared ‘tabu’ and untouchable by her fellow tribespeople and promised to the local deity. But a pearl fisherman, Matahi, falls for her charms and they escape to a nearby French colony where they are forced to adapt to Western life with tragic consequences. ‘Tapu’ is a Polynesian word from which we get the English ‘Taboo”.

In 1994 The film was declared “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant” by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. Scenes of nudity that had been previously banned by Paramount were reinstated in the DVD transfer which includes:

– Commentary with R Dixon Smith and Brad Stevens;

– 15-minute Germany documentary about TABU by Luciano Berriatua;

– Newly presented outtakes from the original shoot;

– An interview with Floyd Crosby;

The original story treatments written by Murnau and Flaherty for TABU

RELEASED ON DVD AND BLU-RAY FROM 24TH JUNE 2013 AT MASTERS OF CINEMA

Bakumatsu Taiyo-Den (1957)

The Sun Legend Of The End Of The Tokugawa Era

Dir: Yuzo Kawashima | Script: Shohei Imamura | Cast: Frankie Sakai, Sachiko Hidari, Yoko minamida, Yujiro Ishihara, Izumi Ashikawa, Toshiyuki Ichimura, Nobuo Kaneko, Hisano Yamaoka | Comedy, Japan, 110mins

A prestigious Blue Ribbon for star comedian Frankie Sakai, a Japanese award set up in 1950 by the critics, little-known internationally, but very highly prized at home. It’s worth remarking that it also won top prizes at two other prestigious Japanese awards, the Kinema Junpo (Sakai-Best Actor) and Best Score for Toshiro Mayazumi at the Mainichi Film Concours.

Black and White, with English subtitles, Bakumatsu Taiyo-Den combines a variety of straight all the way through to broad slapstick comedy, almost in the ‘Carry On’ vein, with genuine drama, so to Western sensibilities it can feel quite uneven in tone. This said, in 1999, it was voted fifth greatest Japanese film of all time in Japan.

Japanese comedy is without doubt an acquired taste, but if you are self-assured in your points of reference within the Japanese milieu, then there is alot to be gained from this complex, layered, confident piece from director, Kawashima.

To offer a little of the homework necessary to frame this film, it is set mainly within the confines of a brothel in the Shinagawa District of Tokyo in 1862, six years before the fall of the (Tokugawa) Shogun Era; Japan lay under quasi-British occupation, to the understandable chagrin of the Japanese people.

At this time, prostitution was still legal and huge districts of brothels servicing the Samurai had existed for centuries. Bakumatsu Taiyo-Den is set at a time just before the fall of the Samurai, when the future of the country was uncertain and a steady living hard to come by, especially those in the service industries.

So, this red light district attracts all sorts; soldiers find themselves rubbing shoulders with superiors, relatives and even sworn enemies whilst hoping to snatch a little RnR from their hectic lives… hence providing the comedy and the drama, as the geisha’s swap rooms as fast as affections in a sometime successful attempt to keep several suitors sweet and thus scrape a living to pay the rent.

Into this cutthroat every-man-for-himself world of greedy landlords, resistance fighters and treacherous affections steps Sakai, ‘the Grifter’, a man who lives entirely on his wits, dancing on quicksand. He understands need and knows there’s a profit to be made in times of upheaval.

For me, it’s a question of taste. I’m happier to watch Ozu, Kurosawa, Koreeda, Kitano, Kobayashi, Mizoguchi… the broader comedy elements here left me unengaged and yet I marvelled at the accomplished depth and breadth of the film, as well as the performances of most of the cast. Without doubt, the inclusion of real drama is one of the reasons it has endured so well with audiences for so long. It refuses to be dismissed simply as a forgettable, nebulous Japanese comedy and the film will without doubt resonate with me for some time to come. If you like your pathos served with bathos, there’s certainly plenty here to enjoy. AT

The Masters of Cinema series on DVD and Blu-ray

The Company You Keep (2013)

Director: Robert Redford

Script: Neil Gordon, Lem Dobbs

Producers: Nicholas Chartier, Bill Holderman, Robert Redford

Cast: Robert Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Susan Sarandon, Terrence Howard, Anna Kendrick, Julie Christie, Chris Cooper, Nick Nolte, Richard Jenkins, Stanley Tucci, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Elliott US

125mins 2012 political thriller

With the shock of the Boston bombings still reverberating, a piece on activism or terrorism, depending on your point of view, by and starring Robert Redford, based on Neil Gordon’s 2003 political thriller concerning the activities of the Weather Underground, a political movement that used violence to push home an anti-Vietnam War message in the late 60’s early 70’s. Cast-wise, Redford is one of those directors who will always be spoilt for choice and he certainly pulled out all the stops. Working for peanuts, they all jumped at the chance, except the semi-reclusive Christie, who, it seems, fought it all the way. A deeply political piece, with echoes of All The Presidents Men, The Company You Keep again concerns journalists digging a cold case. Redford’s interest actually stems from Les Miserables and the similarities this story has. He also recalls an interest in the Weather Underground at the time. Believing peaceful demonstration is having no impact, they resort to more extreme measures, managing to place a bomb in the Pentagon.

This time it’s LaBeouf playing the dogged newshound, as a National story breaks in his sleepy backwater, concerning the identification and arrest of one of the Weather Underground’s key players, thirty years after the fact. Sarandon’s ‘Solarz’ is now a middle-aged mother of two, haunted but not bowed by her past, whose arrest threatens to uncover the whole team. Now a father and respected civil right attorney, Redford elects to run, before he too is captured by the pursuing FBI. Playing Redford’s young daughter, this is Jackie Evancho, in her first role since winning ‘America’s Got Talent’ and she acquits herself very well in the face of such big guns. In fact the whole cast acquit themselves very well and the script has some really lovely, sparkling dialogue that lifts it above the workaday, but the thing that lets the film down is the predictability of the plot, making it less of a thriller than it could have been, the audience one step ahead of the plot. Nevertheless it addresses that salient dialogue concerning activism and terrorism and the crucial difference between the two; activism is both empowering and uplifting and terrorism, which strikes fear and loathing. AT

Planet Ocean (2012)

[youtube id=”7vYMUV2_das” width=”600″ height=”350″]

Director: Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Michael Pitiot
Script: Michael Pitiot, Lucy Allwood
Producers: Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Nicolas Coppermann, Jean-Yves Robin
Cast: Josh Duhamel

US 100mins 2012 Doc

It’s important to remember that this film is made for and aimed at a school audience and American heartthrob Josh Duhamel, famous for The Transformers franchise The Picture of Dorian Gray and New Years Eve will no doubt give this film the requisite boost it needs to reach the attention of kids, although it must be said, his voice sounds far older than his years, giving the film a gravitas it may have lacked otherwise.

Although it is telling us a story or indeed stories we may already know, I terms of ice caps, global warming, over fishing, etc., Planet Ocean manages to tie a great many of these huge and perhaps disparate seeming ideologies together into a cohesive and digestible whole.

The content is also quite splendid, with stunning underwater footage shot by Denis Lagrange, in some of the most inhospitable environs on Earth; so sumptuous it feels almost Computer Generated, inter-spliced with some terrific and carefully considered aerial photography by Nel Boshoff.

This combination keeps the eye-candy coming and allows Duhamel’s sonorous voice to do its work, feeding us stats and info in quantities that, if left to the classroom, would have children soon wondering whether they’d had any texts.

So, facts like ‘fishing has depleted 90% of the worlds fish biomass in the past 50 years’ and ‘50% of the worlds fishing is executed by just 1% of the worlds trawlers’ still make an impact 80 minutes into the film. Did you also know that the oceans algae creates 50% of the oxygen we breathe?

By exploring our connection to the sea, our continuing dependence upon it, its overwhelming impact upon our lives, the extraordinary diversity and beauty therein and then highlighting our own escalating abuse and lack of management, the film makes its point.

And this is its central concept; that although we regard ourselves as Planet Earth, we are covered far more by oceans than dry land and the forces at work across and within the oceans have a far greater and immediate impact upon us than we are aware of.

Yet, although these oceans are vast beyond the capability of the mind to properly grasp, they are of course still finite and if we continue to plunder, pollute and ignore them, not only do we alter them irrevocably, we inevitably impact most drastically upon ourselves.

Finally, it attempts to answer the ‘well, what can we do?’ question on everybody’s lips; the overwhelming sense of inevitability, the monumental, all-encompassing size of the problem and the feeling as an individual of total helplessness in the face of far flung continents, corporate machinations and market forces.

But we also know that public opinion has the ability to move mountains and to stop big business in its tracks. That is what this film asks us all to do now… for the sake of all of us. AR

www.protectplanetocean.org #saveourplanetocean

The Servant (1963)

Dir: Joseph Losey | Wri: Harold Pinter | UK Drama

Although generally attributed to Joseph Losey it should always be borne in mind that there were three intellects behind this film.

It makes much more sense if one is aware that it originated with a novella by Robin Maugham, who admitted that it was based on an episode when he was a young man when a butler introduced a good-looking young ‘nephew’ into the household and the book is a speculation on what might have happened had he risen to the bait; and certainly makes one view the ‘fiancé’ played by Sarah Miles in a new light.

Also with a claim to authorship was Harold Pinter who supplied the sly humour (such as the venomous arguments of the two bachelors forced to cohabit); while Maugam derisively sneered upon viewing (SLIGHT SPOILER COMING:) the climactic orgy that the script was plainly the work of a simple working class lad “who’d never been to an orgy in his life!”

Finally the element of serendipity dictated the considerable visual impact supplied by a London shrouded in snow by the great winter of 1963 that the film of ‘The Caretaker’ had also recently benefitted from.

Losey arrived in England in 1951 at the onset of MacCarthyism, realising that his career was over, to all intents and purposes, in the States.

The Servant is a classic film and groundbreaking for several reasons. Losey brought with him a completely different approach, doing away the rather staid practices over here and bringing something new and fresh to the table. He is also responsible for discovering both Edward and James Fox.

With music by John Dankworth and his cinematographer of choice Douglas Slocombe, Losey got hold of Robin Maugham’s novel, which Pinter had previously made into a play, and then adapted further into a screenplay. They almost came to blows over the finished script, but Losey persisted and it proved time well-spent; The Servant is a remarkable film.

Good timing too for Dirk Bogarde, who had long since tired of stock ‘leading man’ roles and wanted something a bit more interesting and dirtier to get his teeth into. Great turns also by a host of household names, Sarah Miles, Patrick Magee, Wendy Craig, Annie Firbank and even Pinter himself.

The Servant centres on an aristocrat (Fox) not long back in the country, who has bought a London townpad and feels the need for a manservant; an already outdated notion in the early Sixties. The film opens with potential, Bogarde, approaching the house for his interview. What follows is a brilliant concoction of Pinter’s dialogue, Losey’s direction and two very handsome actors at the top of their game.

Exploring myriad themes of the day: the class divide; the bankruptcy of the aristocracy; the moral bankruptcy of the working classes; the sexual revolution; homosexuality and a general shaking off of the value system of the day, principally, this is a film about power. Heady stuff, the impact of which cannot be underestimated, in terms of both content and style, on work to come thereafter.

Losey is quoted thus: ‘Films can illustrate our existence…they can distress, disturb and provoke people into thinking about themselves and certain problems. But not give the answers’. It’s a complex piece with many characters, none of whom escape untarnished and is all the better for it. Gone are the stock stereotypes of yore, where it was easy to know.

NOW ON TALKING PICTURES TV

Evil Dead (2012)

Director: Fede Alvarez
Script: Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues
Producer: Rob Tapert, Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell
Cast: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Lou Taylor Pucci, Jessica Lucas, Elizabeth Blackmore

90min US Horror

A reboot of the Sam Raimi classic of 1981 and I find myself having the same conversation with myself as I did when I saw Texas Chainsaw 3D.

These reboots have all the bells and whistles, all the blood, the unflinching shots of dismemberment or stabbings, with clinical, graphic digital detail and thunderous, all-piercing 5.1 Surround Sound, but for all of this, they remain a mere shadow of their original forebears, for all of the 16mm footage with mono sound, shot on a shoestring.

So what is it? I think perhaps the current concept of ‘Horror’ needs to be reclassified. It is no longer Horror. It has become ‘Shock and Gore’, with surprisingly little horror; the shock and constant unease coming almost entirely from the unremitting soundtrack, rather than the visual narrative. And there is a festival of blood.

The skill of Horror has been lost, rather as in action films too, lost to the ability of highly skilled Digital Special Effects wizards, capable, for the right budget, of providing anything a writer or director can dream up. Plus. And this is great, so long as it is tempered by and married with a really strong idea of suspenseful storytelling and what is left out.

To give it it’s due, there are some good, unexpected plot turns, but these in the main serve only to increase the ‘jump’ factor. The dialogue, especially early on, is also particularly contrived, not helped by lines like ‘is that ..blood?’

Director Fede Alvarez was selected for his youthful take on the genre and the fact that he made a low-budget online Short called Panic Attack that went viral, taking more than 7 million hits. That’s impressive and all power to him. He shot the film well.

So what is it about? Mirroring the original, five youngsters head out to a log cabin in the woods to help one of their number quit the shit and go cold turkey, free of any distractions or the possibility of relapse, only to discover their cabin has had a break in and there’s a really putrid smell emanating from the basement. I don’t think I need to say any more.

What I take away from this film, as well as any number of other similar is, when faced with the decision about where to go for a short trip/weekend/holiday in America, just don’t choose the camping/log cabin in the woods miles from anywhere option. Go Disney. Or Hawaii. Or even Vegas. Especially if the girls are fit and one of your number is an ethnic minority. AT

EVIL DEAD is released in UK cinemas on April 19th

Scanners (1981)

Director/Script: David Cronenberg

Producer: Claude Heroux

Cast: Jennifer O’Neill, Patrick McGoohan, Michael Ironside, Stephen Lack, Robert Silverman, Lawrence Dane

103mins Canada 1981 Sci-Fi/Horror/Thriller

Sci-Fi has had a bad rap in recent times, due in the main to a plethora of massively-budgeted juggernauts thundering forwards in the total absence of a good story, dependent solely on the style of ever more outrageous Special Effects.

There remains however, a few standout titles which have weathered this storm of mediocrity, a list including (among others) Alien, Blade Runner, Terminator and Cronenberg’s Scanners, where an original storyline was enhanced by a Sci-Fi setting and some choice Special Effects.

Second Sight are releasing Scanners on Blu-Ray on April 8^th, with extras that include interviews with David Lack, Cinematographer Mark Irwin, Exec Producer Pierre David, actor Lawrence Dane and Make Up/Effects man Stephen Dupuis, in the days when effects were still created in latex…

Arguably Cronenberg’s most memorable film, although he is well known for quite a body-count of gruesome flicks such as The Dead Zone, The Fly, Naked Lunch and Crash. Scanners is all the more remarkable because it was shot on a very tight budget and schedule to the point where Cronenberg was actually writing and filming on the fly. All the more extraordinary then that the complex story hangs together so well in the execution.

Michael Ironside’s Darryl Revok is the villainous darkside to the ‘telepathically enabled’, named ‘scanners’ after their ability to remotely ‘read’ peoples brains. Stephen Lack the young scanner enlisted by McGoohan’s Dr Ruth to combat the threat of Revok simply taking over the world (hmm. Have we been here before?).

And it’s the attention to detail that’s so good here; any Sci-Fi film needs to adhere strictly to a set of given rules and to make logical sense at all times. So often this is where Sci-Fi falls down, where the story hasn’t been properly thought through and crucial elements are either glossed over, or conveniently forgotten. But Scanners remains reassuringly solid throughout. Even if the basic premise is somewhat… silly.

The thing that also finally lets it down is some indifferent acting in a few key scenes, but the effort and thought that has gone into the story construct is to be hugely admired and the reason it has stood the test of time.

This said, great turns also by Silverman, McGoohan and of course, the peerless Ironside in particular. A well-above par addition to anyone’s Blu-Ray Sci-Fi Horror collection. AT

SCANNERS IS OUT ON BLU-RAY

I Confess (1953) blu-ray

Dir: Alfred Hitchcock | Wri: George Tabori, William Archibald | Cast: Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden, Brian Aherne, O E Hasse, Roger Dann, Dolly Haas, Charles Andre | US 92mins 1953 Noir/Drama

By 1953, Hitchcock was over 20 years into his career and Montgomery Clift was arguably the biggest up-and-coming star in the Hollywood firmament, hot off the back of A Place In The Sun. Clift was also one of the original ‘method actors’, something that at times drove Hitch up the wall; when he would ask Clift to look in a certain direction for the camera, Clift might resist, claiming his character wouldn’t have any motivation to do so. Hitch never really understood that as an option.

But Hitch knew he was onto a good thing with Clift. A troubled closet homosexual who battled severe drug and alcohol addiction until his untimely death, aged just 46, he was also beautiful, and every inch a star.

Regarded by many as one of Hitchcock’s most underrated films, I Confess is a simple yet brilliant conceit; a man admits to murder to a priest during confession, in the knowledge that the priest is thereby silenced and cannot turn him in to the Police.

The wonderful Karl Malden plays the logical, dogged policeman trying his best to unravel the riddle, with a priest unwilling to help and evidently hiding something. Clift who, it must be said, is the most unfeasibly handsome priest you are ever likely to see, a man of the cloth, unimpeachable, predating all the scandals that have rocked the church since, with his faith utterly in God.

The cast is superb throughout, with Anne Baxter, Brian Aherne and O E Hasse, but also a bonafide German star in Dolly Haas, who gave up her life and career in Germany when she married an American caricaturist, here playing the relatively minor but nevertheless key role of Alma Keller, a role named incidentally, after Hitch’s own wife.

He was by this time at the height of his powers; I Confess is wedged into the canon between Stage Fright, Strangers On A Train and Rear Window and To Catch A Thief. ‘It’s a dark film, with the exteriors shot in Quebec, where Hitch made the most of the architecture as an atmospheric additional character in the film.

Hitch himself grew up in a very strict Roman Catholic family, so was exploring territory very familiar to him and it’s also widely accepted that this film was a forerunner to his much more famous 1956 The Wrong Man, starring Henry Fonda.

But it’s Clift’s superb central performance which makes this movie; the depth and conviction that he brings to the role. Clift was already a deeply troubled alcoholic by 1953 and, just three years later, he smashed his face up in a terrible car crash. He survived with extensive reconstructive surgery, but lost his looks. By 1966, he was dead. The famous acting teacher, Robert Lewis, called his death ‘the longest suicide in history’. Everyone could see it coming, but no one seemed to be able to do anything to prevent it.

So many Hollywood stars are pretty, but very few have the acting chops too. Both Marlon Brando and James Dean looked up to Clift; that’s how influential he was and ‘I Confess’ is a superb opportunity to celebrate him at the height of his looks and lose yourself in his undoubted charismatic ability. Enjoy. AT

The brilliant talent of Montgomery Clift, with us for such a short time, blossoms here at its brightest in Hitchcock’s I Confess.

Gervaise (1956) DVD

Director: Rene Clement:

Script: Jean Aurenche, Pierre Bost

Cast: Maria Schell, Francois Perier, Jany Holt.

120mins Drama French with subtitles

Fans of Emile Zola will appreciate Rene Clement’s penultimate outing Gervaise (1956) based on the novelist’s 1877 masterpiece ‘L’Assommoir’. Much of Zola’s work focussed on the influences of violence, alcohol and prostitution which became more prevalent during the second wave of the Industrial Revolution in France. Clement’s film is set against this traumatic period in French history and tells the story of a crippled working class woman’s struggle with an alcoholic husband. Very much a social realism piece but with a compelling grimness to it that is a worthwhile testament to the era.

It won a BAFTA for Best Film and Best Foreign Actor, two awards at Venice including best actress.

NOW OUT ON DVD COURTESY OF STUDIOCANAL.COM £15.99 IN CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENARY OF RENE CLEMENT

Partners in Crime DVD

Director: Pascal Thomas

Cast: André Dussollier, Catherine Frot

104mins. French with subtitles Comedy Drama

Prudence and Belisaire Beresford fetch up in a dodgy French health retreat to investigate the disappearance of a wealthy Russian heiress in this well-made and watchable Agatha Christie crime romp directed by Pascal Thomas. It stars André Dussollier (Amélie) and Catherine Frot (The Page Turner) as a sophisticated couple of sleuths who bite off more than they bargained for but never make a meal of things when it comes to solving crime. MT

OUT ON DVD ON 7TH JANUARY COURTESY OF STUDIOCANAL
1972. A young Jean-louis Trintignant (amour) and Aldo Ray are the standouts of this dark kidnap drama by frances answer to Hitchcock Rene Clement. Based on the david goodis novel Black Friday

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)

Dir: Frank Capra | Script: Francis Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra | Cast: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Beulah Bondi, Frank Faylen, Ward Bond, Gloria Grahame, H.B. Warner, Frank Albertson | USA 1946 130mins Comedy Drama

History might argue this was not his finest film, as Capra bestrode the 1930’s like a colossus, previously winning Best Director at the Academy Awards no less than three times, but going away empty handed from this one, despite five nominations. Indeed, it was perceived as something of a flop upon its release, making a loss at the box office and marking the end of an extraordinary run of hit films and indeed an era, for Frank Capra. What however cannot be argued now, is the nascent and evergreen popularity of It’s A Wonderful Life for filmgoers now.

Now an Christmas chestnut, it is only since the early Seventies, when Wonderful Life fell into the public domain, that Capra’s unerring ability to portray emotional truth coupled with his absolute mastery of filmmaking as a craft enabled it at last to finally find its audience.

Quite aside from it being a staple Christmas movie and epitomising all that America stands for, what underlies is a Capra standard through and through containing surprisingly dark undertones for the day: A man George Bailey decides his life isn’t worth living seriously and contemplates suicide but his guardian angel then leads him through what life in his home town of Bedford Falls would have been like if he hadn’t existed. Tying this story in with the concept that any one person can effect change for the better in the face of overwhelming odds, and you have both a Capra classic and the recipe for some serious ‘feelgood’.

In interview, Capra stated that he was against: “mass entertainment, mass production, mass education, mass everything. Especially mass man. I was fighting for, in a sense, the preservation of the liberty of the individual person against the mass.”

Capra was born in Sicily in 1897 and came over to America penniless, in the stinking bowels of a ship at the tender age of six. He worked very hard, under terrible privation for many years; his father dying in a dreadful factory accident when he was just 15. But he also studied hard against the wishes of his parents, it must be said, but made good and then worked as writer, as an editor and even as an extra on many films, before finally getting a go at directing. He described filmmaking as akin to drug addiction; once it was in your bloodstream…that was it.

And a brilliant filmmaker he was. He made some extraordinary documentaries during the war and a string of feature hits, working with the biggest actors of the day, from Frank Sinatra to Clarke Gable, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck and of course the great Jimmy Stewart. But he was also directly responsible for dragging the medium of film forward; just as the silent era was ending, he was changing the way films were conceived and shot, jumping characters in and out of scenes instead of waiting for them to walk in and out of rooms. Of overlapping dialogue to make it feel both more natural, but also picking up the pace of storytelling and again, moving away from the staged play. The Directors Guild of America voted him a lifetime membership in 1941 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1959.

Capra will always have his detractors; those that saw his brand of filmmaking too saccharine, but as he saw it, life was tough and cinema was the perfect place for escaping, if only for a short while. And it was by his focusing on the emotional and moral issues his protagonists faced; conflict between cynicism and the protagonist’s faith or idealism, that has made this film in particular endure for so long with audiences. Well, that and Jimmy Stewart.

In short, be unmoved by this film and there has to be something wrong with you. AT

NOW ON

Forbidden Games (1952) Les Jeux Interdits DVD/Blu

Director: Réné Clément Screenplay/Dialogue: Jean Aurenche

Cast: Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Amedee, Laurence Badie

96mins War Drama

Réné Clément first developed his creativity studying architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in the 1930s. It was there that he discovered filmmaking and his first short featured the famous Jacques Tati. A decade of documentary-making later his first feature arrived in 1946.

Described as the French answer to Hitchcock, he went on to become one of France’s most successful and lauded filmmakers winning the Golden Lion at Venice in 1952 and a BAFTA for this war drama Jeux Interdits (Forbidden Games) based on the eponymous novel by Francois Boyer. It was described as a work of great lyrical purity in depicting the innocence of childhood set against the tragedy and devastation of war without attempting to sensationalise the emotions or events it portrayed.

Fleeing from a country village during the WW2, a little girl is orphaned by enemy gunfire that also fatally wounds her puppy and scatters the escaping farming community. Further traumatised and bewildered after the dog is thrown into the river, she meets 10-year-old Michel Dollé whose family take her in and the children bond closely, burying her little dog and other animals in a secret cemetery, marking the graves with crosses stolen from a nearby graveyard.

Crisply shot in black and white, and featuring convincingly natural and touching performances from Brigitte Fossey (who went on to be a successful actress) as Paulette and Georges Poujouly as Michel, it tenderly evokes the fantasy world of children, reflecting how they process trauma and the reality of death by escaping into their imagination.

But it’s by no means a film for children and was heavily criticised at the time for attempting to trivialize its subject matter. Clément got round the tragic scenes with the child actors by filming them around the character of Paulette so she didn’t have to witness the awfulness of them. In this way, the film is testament to an entire generation who suffered extreme emotional stress during wartime and attempts to show how they internalised their grief without really coming to terms with it. MT

Now out on DVD courtesy of STUDIO CANAL to commemorate the centenary of Rene Clement’s birth with alternative ending and opening sequences.

Margin Call (2012) DVD/Blu

Director/Script: J C Chandor

Cast: Jeremy Irons, Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Zachary Quinto, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, Simon Baker, Penn Badgley

107mins US Thriller

In the wake of the 2008 financial melt-down, Margin Call takes a saturnine view of banking when a derivatives trader discovers a fatal turn of events exposing the bank to losses greater than its worth. Senior management and compliance are called in to manage the fall-out but this well-made elegant thriller lacks the vital cut and thrust needed to drive the action forward into the real world of high octane nano-second trading not just the back office. Worth a watch though for its dynamite leads: a reflective Kevin Spacey, a suave Jeremy Irons and a mouthy Paul Bettany. The Oscar-Nominated screenplay is bang on the money. MT

OUT ON DVD/BLU-RAY

Elena (2011)

Dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev | Cast: Nadezhda Markina, Andrey Smimov, Elena Lyadova, Alexey Rozin | 109′ Russia | Russian with subtitles

The mystery is…why has it taken so long for this to be released in the UK? Elena won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section in 2011. With a magnificent central performance and excellent cinematography this somewhat slow film holds the attention of its audience from start to finish.

Elena (Nadezhda Markina) is married to her former patient Vladimir (Andrey Smimov) who she met 10 years previously. He is extremely wealthy and the couple, who are in their sixties, live together in harmony in his well-equipped Moscow apartment. Although they do not share a bedroom, he is still keen to invite her to bed after breakfast before he makes his way to the gym in his own car. During the day they pursue different activities.

Both have children from their previous marriages. Elena’s son, Sergey (Alexey Rozin) is lazy. He has no job and sits around at home with his wife, Tanya, and their children. His teenage son runs with a gang, but also enjoys sitting around at home playing videogames. Elena travels by bus to her son’s dilapidated flat, taking him food and money. Sergey keeps asking his mother to get money from her husband in order to pay his son’s University fees. The lad wants to go to College not because he is so keen to study, but to avoid military service. Vladimir has become estranged from his only daughter, Katerina. While not an easy man, he seems genuinely keen on Elena. He considers her son a scrounger, who does nothing to support his own family. In turn Elena believes Vladimir’s daughter has been given everything she needs, but shows no affection towards her father. When Vladimir suffers a heart attack, Elena faces a difficult decision regarding her own future and that of her son.

Everything is understated in the film, helped by the cinematography ((Michail Krichman), who manages to reveal the luxurious world Elena inhabits contrasting with the run-down block of flats where her son lives. Writer director, Andrey Zvyagintsev has complete command of the film from the casting of a look-alike son and father to the atmospheric slow, almost lyrical depiction of Elena’s emotions as she looks at herself in the mirror. Above all his choice of actors is absolutely right and the uptight Vladimir and useless Sergey are portrayed with consummate skill by Andrey Smirnov and Alexey Rozin respectively. Elena Lyadova’s interpretation of the egotistical Katerina is spot-on and the development of a kind of love between her and her father in hospital is handled with sensitivity. Nadezhda Markina gives us a luminous portrait of the plain Russian woman, Elena. Her conflicts become apparent without over dramatisation. Carlie Newman.

[youtube id=”97klJTzSGwE” width=”600″ height=”350″]

ELENA IS AVAILABLE ON DVD AT AMAZON.COM

13 (2010) | DVD release

Writer/Director Gela Babluani

Cast Sam Riley, Jason Statham, Ray Winstone, 50 Cent, Mickey Rourke, Ben Gazzara

87 mins 2012 US remake Suspense thriller

13 Tzameti was originally made by Georgian filmmaker Gela Babluani in 2005, starring his brother and located in his native Georgia. It went on to win World Cinema Jury Prize the following year at Sundance and also won two awards at Venice. Despite not having seen this original, one cannot but help think that it must have been far better, retaining a raw edge and energy that this poor remake lacks, to have propelled it so far, earning the attention of Hollywood.

Despite a very good performance by Sam Riley, this so-called suspense thriller lacks much suspense and is less than thrilling. The movie is chock full of testosterone, but lacks cold logic; a requisite ingredient, if one is to believe the story as it unfolds.

It also fails to divest enough of its low-budget predecessor in terms of making it big screen and not small screen; it comes across rather as a late night schlock TV movie, rather than a big screen outing.

One is constantly aware of the star turns and therefore never really enter into the world the film is trying to create, as these stars just get in the way. So one finds oneself just looking at Mickey Rourke or Ray Winstone, rather than the characters they are meant to be portraying. This of course would not have been the case with the original, where one also feels a syndicated game of Russian Roulette might also be more plausible in the first place in a desperate, twilit, Mafia-run Georgian underground.

I sincerely hope for his sake that the filmmaker Babluani hit paydirt when he got the greenlight to do this all-star remake but, as with so many remakes these days, it simply falls far short of majestic and rather begs the question ‘why?’

There was far too much showboating and a reliance on assumed ‘cool’, but in the cold light of day, I didn’t buy into the game; it was meant to be the ultimate in super-organised, high-end bet-chic, but was demonstrably wide open to sleight of hand, to cheating. Critical detail was lazy- they dish out the same type of bullet to at least five different gun types and none of the character stories really ever rang true. If you’re going to do it, at least do it properly. All of this fakery exemplified by the gun hammers clearly not having firing pins either. No wonder it failed to go off. Andrew Rajan.

NOW ON DVD and Blu-ray 8th October

Searching for Sugarman (2012) Tribute to Sixto Rodriquez

Dir: Malik Bendjelloul | Starring: Rodriquez, Malik Bendjelloul | 87mins Music documentary UK/SWEDEN

Searching for Sugarman is the true story of little-known Mexican-American pop singer, Sexto Rodriguez, who sadly died on August 8th, 2023, aged 81.

Unfurling languorously, like the artist himself, this slow-burning and intriguing story from Malik Bendjelloul, tells how his music was likened to Bob Dylan and worked alongside some of Tamla Motown’s best known session musicians. His first album flopped when released in the early ’70s and he disappeared in a mystery suicide story. So what made Bendjelloul take this story further? Well, thousands of miles away in South Africa, Rodriquez’s sexually implicit lyrics had captured the imagination of two men living under the ultra repressive aparteid regime. Inflamed by curiosity, Stephen Segerman and his journalist friend Craig Bartholomew decided to track down the elusive troubadour whose salacious tracks were being corrupted by the censors further making him the stuff of legend. By the mid nineties Rodriquez had sold more records over there than Elvis. So Malik Bendjelloul set out to discover the real facts behind the white noise and find out what really happened to this elusive man.

Part-biopic part-detective story Benjelloul’s search smoulders with tension from the opening titles as some questions are answered and some hang in the air. It pieces together alluring visuals, archive footage and interviews with family and former Motown chairman Clarence Avant whose lips remained sealed on the question of royalties received from Rodriguez’ slimline success. But there’s little coverage of the elusive man himself. What was the secret behind his spirituality and self-effacing nature? The story is skilfully told and painstakingly documented offering an appealing insight into the nature of fame. It also features a magical soundtrack that will strike a cord with fans and music lovers of James Taylor, Neil Young, Simon and Garfunkel and anyone with a yen for singer-songwriters. According to his Times Obit Rodriquez claimed “My story wasn’t rags to riches, it was rags to rags and I’m glad about that. “Where other people have lived in an artificial world, I feel I’ve lived in the real world. And nothing beats reality”.MT ©

SEARCHING FOR SUGARMAN was awarded a BAFTA for Best Documentary 2013, a Dragon Award at GIFF 2013 for Best Documentary, The Special Jury and the Audience Award at SUNDANCE 2013 among many others. Now on PRIME | Sixto Rodriquez 1943-2023

Bluebeard (2009)

Director: Catherine Breillat | Starring Dominique Thomas, Lola Creton, Daphne Baiwar | France 2009/80mins

Catherine Breillat’s latest film isn’t for everyone. Some may see this over-stylized and stagey costume drama of medieval misogyny as a poke in the eye for female supremacy in the boudoir. Others will find it about as exciting as an evening out with the man himself. Either way it’s certainly not the spine-chilling tale that springs to mind when Bluebeard is mentioned. You could even call it weird.

The story comes in two layers. The first features two little sisters and is set in an attic. The youngest and funniest one (Marilou Lopes-Benites) loves frightening the older by reading the story of Bluebeard with her own cheeky interpretations of marriage and love thrown in. This is actually very appealing. As she does so a series of set pieces filmed in 16-century garb plays out featuring Lola Creton as Marie-Christine, better known as Bluebeard’s last wife, or the one that got away and her recently bereaved mother and older sister. This strand is not dissimilar in setting to one of those medieval banquets with sixteen removes you may have once attended where your mother run you up an outfit in green chintz brocade, and a ‘town cryer’ kept saying Oye Oye and everyone looked slightly ridiculous.

Here Marie-Christine skilfully deals with the death of her father, impending family poverty and the realization that local bore and wife-killer Bluebeard might not be such a bad catch after all while she thinks about Plan B and saves the family from financial ruin.

After becoming his chatelaine, she niftily manages to avoid his bedchamber by claiming to be far too young for that that sort of thing but eventually has to call for backup to avoid the evil man’s dagger and her demise. BLUEBEARD is hardly scary, but it’s delicately-performed by Lola Creton and beautifully captured in a stylistic classical aesthetic. According to Breillat, we absolve ourselves of all the fears of real life by confronting them head-on in fiction. ©

NOW AVAILABLE ON DVD AT AMAZON.CO.UK

Archive for the ‘DVD and Blu-Ray’ Category