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December 24, 2005
[MoC DVD OF THE YEAR AWARD 2005, RESULTS] 
The results of the 3rd annual Masters of Cinema DVD of the Year Awards are here. Thanks to all who voted. The MoC crew wish all our readers a happy and healthy holidays!
- N.W.
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December 15, 2005
[TOM MILNE, 1926-2005]One of Britain's best critics — the author, film-brain, and all-round lovely chap, Tom Milne — sadly passed away yesterday in Scotland. Tom wrote for Sight & Sound from the early 60s; edited the Time Out Film Guide for a number of years; translated numerous foreign films into English (with a care and subtlety rarely found today); wrote warm and insightful books on Dreyer and Mamoulian; translated Godard's criticism ( Godard on Godard), Gomes's Jean Vigo biography and Bernard Eisenschitz's Nicholas Ray biography; and he also interviewed Joseph Losey at length (for Losey on Losey). He was a much-loved friend of MoC and will be sorely missed. We plan to publish a page of memories of Tom, so if you have any memories you'd like to share, please send them in. - N.W.
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December 14, 2005
[MoC DVD OF THE YEAR AWARD 2005]
The 3rd annual Masters of Cinema DVD of the Year Award will be announced here on Xmas Eve. As usual, it is voted for by our readers. The voting period is from now until December 23.
We'd like our readers to vote for just *one title* — their favourite DVD released in 2005 — so here are some simple guidelines that may help you decide: 1.) The DVD can be from anywhere in the world and must have been released sometime in 2005; 2.) You can vote for box sets; 3.) Choose your personal favourite release; 4.) Please don't vote for MoC DVDs, the vote will give us a warm glow but won't be counted. Thanks.
Like last year, if you could also please give a sentence or two explaining why you've picked it, we'll publish a selection of your replies with the results.
Simply send your ONE title (and the name of the company who issued the disc) here. This is the only way to vote. If you're reading this - please vote! Thankyou! - NB. only one vote per reader please. Three lucky voters will be picked out of a hat to receive copies of the latest MoC Series releases. Good luck! and thanks for reading!
After last year's ridiculous glut of Master and Commander votes, we're really good at spotting organised voting rings — so please just vote once because your favourite film may be banned from the results otherwise. Thanks!
If you want to see what happened last year, click here.
- N.W.
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December 13, 2005
[BRATTLE THEATRE]
The Brattle Theatre, Cambridge, MA, one of the older repertory cinemas started by the same people who founded Janus Films, need to raise $300,000 by the end of the year in order to remain in business. Unless said amount is raised, this excellent art house movie theater will cease the repertory programming which has made it a Harvard Square landmark for the past 53 years. With 3000 people donating, say, an amount equivalent to a mere 4 DVDs, it might be possible to avert this disaster. More information here.
- T.T.
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December 12, 2005
[AGNES VARDA - updated]
December 8, 2005 saw the fourth DVD release by the French production company Ciné Tamaris founded by Agnès Varda and Jacques Demy. (Already released in the last two months are Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse [The Gleaners and I] (Agnès Varda, 2000), Sans toit ni loi [Vagabond] (Agnès Varda, 1985), and Peau d'âne [Donkey Skin] (Jacques Demy, 1970)). The two-disc boxset containing Varda's New Wave classic Cléo de 5 á 7 (1961) and Daguerréotypes (1975) features over two hours of extras, containing short films (including Varda's Le Lion volatil from 2003), documentaries, trailers and production galleries. The set also includes two booklets; one on the film and the other a series of original illustrations by Jean-Jacques Sempé. Both films and extras have been confirmed to have optional English and German subtitles. We sincerely wish Ciné Tamaris every success and eagerly anticipate further releases.
- Jon Lomax
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November 23, 2005
[KAZUO KUROKI / SADAO YAMANAKA] The October 11 Evening Ed. of the Asahi Shimbun newspaper reported that Japanese director Kazuo Kuroki is currently working on a screenplay for a film based on Sadao Yamanaka's biography. The screenplay is being co-written by Masataka Matsuda, with whom Kuroki recently collaborated on the poetic Utsukushii natsu kirishima (2002). Kuroki was apparently first touched by Yamanaka when he saw his three extant films in 1979. Says Kuroki, "I am ashamed as a film person, because I did know his name but I had never seen his films. Every film he made wonderfully depicted human purity and chastity with a tender, delicate gaze. I was astonished that a young man in his twenties accomplished such perfection. Especially in Kochiyama soshun (1936) and Humanity and Paper Balloons (1937), where the main role dies a tragic death. It shows that Yamanaka had a pessimistic feeling about the times in which he lived. He had a great insight into the dawn of a dark age in which free spirit was to be gradually but steadily oppressed. [...] I wish to portray his last years, mainly in the context of life in the cinema profession during wartime. And I want to make sure that the film is complete by the 2006 anniversary of his death."
- T.T.
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October 27, 2005
[OSKAR REIF] Czech director Oskar Reif's directorial debut, Postel ( The Bed, 1998), has been released on DVD. This offbeat arthouse black comedy, featuring the spectacular CinemaScope b&w photography of D.P. Igor Luther ( The Tin Drum (1979), The Handmaid's Tale (1990)), screened at some thirty-five international film festivals – including the 1998 Cannes Film Festival – received excellent reviews, and won numerous awards. It was, in spite of this, never able to attract distributor attention. Yes, it's the same old story. The film has been meticulously restored for this DVD release, all done under the supervision of the original film team. There are Czech and English menus, as well as Czech, English, French, German and Spanish subtitles. Also included is an interesting documentary, Postel Remastered, directed by the film's editor (also the DVD's producer), Ludek Hudec, delving into the film and its often turbulent history through recent interviews with members of the crew. Read more about the film and the new DVD production, here. Some of Igor Luther's Hawk lens cinematography can be admired in this handful of DVD screengrabs [ 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7 ].
- T.T.
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October 8, 2005
[JEAN-CLAUDE GUIGUET, 1948-2005]
On September 18th, Jean-Claude Guiguet, one of the most undersung French auteurs of his generation, died from complications relating to cancer. Guiguet began his career by making films with the Diagonale collective — founded in the post-Nouvelle Vague era by the great Paul Vecchiali — which also counted among its ranks the recently deceased Jean-Claude Biette (himself a critic and filmmaker of enormous powers despite, like Guiguet and Vecchiali, giving birth to a body of work little known outside of France). Jean-Luc Godard, who cast Bruno Putzulu in his 2001 Eloge de l'amour after admiring the actor's performance in Guiguet's Les Passagers (1999) (and who initially intended to conclude Eloge de l'amour with Putzulu intoning, "Hold on to this — for here Guiguet passes through"), said of this final feature by the late director: "One of the most magnificent of films. A streetcar named desire for cinema, and for happiness set free."
Upon Guiguet's passing the American critic David Ehrenstein reflects, "Guiguet made compact films about particular people and circumstances. The best of them is Les Passagers, which deals with the lives of people who ride the streetcar every day from 'la Défense' to downtown Paris. He freely mixed gay and straight characters and gay and straight concerns with a sense of wit and insight that leaves a mere poseur like Ozon far, far behind. ... It's almost as if I've lost a personal friend." Bill Krohn, film critic and American correspondent for Cahiers du cinéma, adds the following: " Le Mirage (1992) is Sirk taken in the direction of Dreyer. ... [Guiguet's films will] make you wonder, as they did me, why we waste our time looking at the vulgar commercial art cinema of France — when there are directors like Guiguet, Vecchiali, Biette and [Jean-Claude] Rousseau there who follow the sovereign genius of their imaginations — simply because the others get distributed, and they don't."
The complete works of Jean-Claude Guiguet (minus his final film, the short 2003 work Métamorphose) are currently available on all-region NTSC DVD from Absolut Medien, and include both English and German subtitles.
- Craig Keller
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October 1, 2005
[INGMAR BERGMAN]
The long-awaited Ingmar Bergman Face to Face web site has just been launched, at ingmarbergman.se. The site is written mainly in Swedish, with an English incarnation to follow in January of 2006. An extensive research database is also under construction. The creation of the web site followed on the heels of Ingmar Bergman donating to the Swedish Film Institute forty-five cases containing manuscripts, notebooks, plot summaries, sketches, photographs and behind-the-scenes footage relating to eighteen of his films. We wish Editor Jan Holmberg and his dedicated crew all the best, as they continue to build this invaluable electronic resource.
- T.T.
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September 23, 2005
[SECOND RUN]
Second Run's second wave of releases are now being rolled out: Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, 1967); The Ear [Ucho] (Karel Kachyna, 1970); Interrogation [Przesluchanie] (Ryszard Bugajski, 1982); and Another Way [Egymasra nezve] (Károly Makk, 1982). Second Run's discs come with booklets, specially written essays (Tony Rayns on Portrait of Jason), director interviews and other extras where possible, and the discs can be had for less than a tenner online if you're in the UK. Long may they pump out films which — through no fault of their own — have unfairly fallen through the cracks! (Károly Makk's Love is a strong contender for film/disc of the year so far)
- N. W.
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September 20, 2005
[NORMAN McLAREN] Good news from National Film Board of Canada: release date for the eagerly awaited Norman McLaren: Master's Edition boxed DVD set has been tentatively set for the end of October. The exact date is yet to be announced, it depends on the distributor's timetable.
This master set will contain all of McLaren's films archived at the NFB plus his unfinished projects and film tests — in all-new video transfers.
- J.B.
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September 19, 2005
[MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI]
September 15th marked the world re-release premiere of Antonioni's preferred cut of The Passenger [Professione: Reporter] (1975). The screening took place at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles, and was preceded by a panel consisting of Antonioni (in a rare public appearance, and looking quite healthy), his wife Enrica Fico Antonioni, and Jack Nicholson, with USC's Marsha Kinder moderating. (Click the pictures for larger ones)
 As many have been aware, the rights to Antonioni's film had been held for over two decades by Nicholson, who only recently reached an agreement with Sony Pictures Classics to re-release and distribute the picture. The details behind the film's different running-lengths, and Antonioni's no-longer-extant ideal cut of the film — which ran twenty-seven minutes longer than the re-release — can be found in an excellent piece by Robert Koehler in the latest issue of Cinema Scope, viewable here.
 The evening also saw the presentation of a four-minute excerpt of Antonioni's 2004 film, Lo sguardo di Michelangelo [Michelangelo's Gaze], whose complete running time clocks in at 15 minutes. The bafflement of many in attendance did not stop, however, at the latest film's eleven-minute truncation. According to several attendees, a freewheeling Nicholson trod a fine line between paying homage to the 93-year-old master throughout the onstage discussion, and mocking his idiosyncratic directorial approach — before taking a verbal swipe at director Victor Erice for good measure. Despite possessing the clout to greenlight any production to which he attaches his name, the star of Anger Management book-ended his remarks earlier in the panel with the lament that "nobody even knows what an intellectual cinema means anymore."
- Craig Keller
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September 14, 2005
[OLD JAPANESE FILMS / MISHIMA - update] This is an update to our February 11, 2005 news item "50,000 Old Asian Films Found". The Asahi Shimbun newspaper carried a followup article on September 8. The article suggests that the Abe collection appears to fall short of initial expectations. The collection ranges from stamps to old documents, as well as films. The Agency of Cultural Affairs are now in charge of his film collection. Pre-war 35mm films have to be treated carefully as they are highly flammable, and so Mr Akira Tochigi of the National Film Center, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo removed old film projectors and about two thousand cans of films from Abe's house, which was about to collapse, in April 2005. The courts decided that these materials belong to the Film Center. However, most of the films are in awful condition. Before they can be examined and identified, dust, mold and other debris must be painstakingly removed. Mr Tochigi informs us that a cursory glance at the labels on the film cans suggests that most of them are Japanese documentaries, and that "it is unlikely that we will discover any legendary masterpieces heretofore unknown to us." He does however expect to find several lost films, or at least fragments. Today, no more than 10% of Japanese pre-war films have survived, as prints were often deliberately destroyed in order to avoid piracy. The Film Center urges collectors to make every effort to carefully preserve their materials, and to give their collections to the Center before they die, the article says.
- T.T.
There is also an update regarding Mishima's Yukoku (1966), reported on in our previous news update.
This is an image from the front page of yesterday's evening edition of Mainichi Shimbun, and the fairly long article continues on page 2. The article says that Hiroyuki Fujii (78) discovered the negative reels inside a tea box, which Yoko had carried when she married Mishima, deep within the darkness of a storehouse at the Mishima mansion in 1996. This was after Yoko died. Preserved negatives are about thirty rolls, including Japanese, English, French and German versions. They are in good condition, free from scratches and mold. Recently, Fujii, who was the film's producer, stated that "Awful bootlegs are being widely circulated. To help people fully appreciate the film, we need to screen it in a new print. This year falls on the 80th anniversary of Mishima's birth, and we find it to be a good opportunity." The film is being made into a DVD as an Appendix to The Complete Mishima (2006) from Shinchosha, to be published next spring. As for the English negative (also recovered, according to yesterday's article) we have been told by other sources that the "calligraphic intertitles for the English version were painted by Mishima himself. One striking aspect of these intertitles are the occasional misspellings, which Mishima simply smudged out with a finger. The imperfection left an auratic mark on the textual interruptions, amplifying the powerful experience of watching the real author/director rehearsing reality." Let us therefore hope that no-one decides to "restore" these English intertitles...
- T.T.
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August 21, 2005
[YUKIO MISHIMA / TOSHIO MATSUMOTO] Earlier this week, the original film negatives of Yukio Mishima's Yukoku (1966) were "discovered" at the late author's residence in Ota Ward, Tokyo. Shortly after his death, it was publicly announced that all copies of the film had been destroyed at the behest of Mishima's widow Yoko. About 40 reels have now been found in what Japanese media refer to as an "airtight tea box". According to Hiroaki Fujii (78), the movie's producer (who at the time apparently urged Yoko to keep the original intact), the recovered elements are in "pristine condition". The film will be released on DVD by Shinchosha early next year.
In other news, Toshio Matsumoto's "lost" English-language documentary film Ginrin (1955), featuring the music of Toru Takemitsu, has been found. Ginrin was Matsumoto's first film, according to his filmography. The film was screened during the National Film Center's Lost and Found 2005 event. A future DVD release is planned. In the meantime, we are thoroughly enjoying the recently released 3xDVD box set Toshio Matsumoto: Experimental Film Works 1961-1987.
 And, finally, Japan's earliest known anime has reportedly been uncovered in Kyoto. The (circa 1907) 35mm celluloid animation film consists of 50 frames stuck together with paste. It depicts a boy in a sailor suit who writes Chinese characters, "katsudo shashin" (moving picture), takes off his hat and gives a salute. Read the story, e.g., here and here.
- T.T
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August 2, 2005 [HOME VISION / IMAGE] As of yesterday afternoon, Home Vision Entertainment — co-distributor of the
Criterion Collection — was consolidated by Image Entertainment and no longer exists as a DVD imprint or distributor. 40 of their 45 staff are
to be laid off. Given the radically different standards of quality control between Image and HVE, we are alarmed at this development, which is
apparently the latest panic move by an industry facing the Blu-Ray/HD-DVD transition. The Criterion Collection is an independent company and sources
say the merger formalizes a 100% distribution deal between Image and Criterion lasting through the end of 2010. MoC extends our condolences to the many unemployed cinephiles formerly working for Home Vision and we
salute the company's exemplary track record. - D.C.
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July 27, 2005 [SECOND RUN] It's not every day
that a bright, exciting new DVD label comes on the scene — so there is great excitement here at MoC for the August 1, 2005 launch of the new
UK-based label Second Run. We have been fortunate enough to sample their first disc, Nicolas
Philibert's In the Land of the Deaf (1992), and it's clear from this debut
release that Second Run have done their homework and know what they're doing. It features a
fine, anamorphic transfer; deft and subtle subtitling; a director's video interview; and a booklet with a new essay by Jonathan Rosenbaum. Second Run discs are extremely
competitively priced (list GBP12.99, available at most online etailers for GBP9.99) and their future releases look stellar: Love [Szerelem] (Karoly Makk, 1971), Mother Joan of the Angels [Matka Joanna od Aniolow] (Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 1961),
and Portrait of Jason (Shirley Clarke, 1967) are just a few of the films among
a slate of 12 already-announced titles here. We look forward to many a gem from
their stable! - N.W.
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July 26, 2005 [ALEXANDRE ALEXEĎEFF] The fine people over at Cinedoc &ndash Paris Films Coop have brought us a
spectacular DVD containing no less than 27 of the films of Alexandre Alexeïeff. The DVD includes the astonishingly beautiful and critically acclaimed Night on Bald Mountain (1933), based on the music of
Mussorgsky. Alexandre Alexeïeff, one of the best-known early animators, was the developer of the pinscreen technique, in which each image is
formed by the manipulation of a million or more obliquely lit pins. The National Film Board of Canada eventually acquired Alexeïeff's
pinscreen, later put to good use by Jacques Drouin. Drouin's Mindscape (1976), a beautiful but haunting story of an artist who wanders
three-dimensionally through his two-dimensional world, is included among the bonus materials on this DVD. - T.T.
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July 4, 2005 [KENJI MIZOGUCHI] The British Film Institute (bfi) have just published Mark Le Fanu's long-awaited
full-length study of Kenji Mizoguchi. Entitled Mizoguchi and Japan, this accessible and sagely written book is an enjoyable and
thought-provoking read, elegantly placing Mizoguchi as one of the most important directors of the 20th century. Unfortunately, with so many subtitled
Mizoguchi films unreleased in the West, we're going to have to wait until the 50th anniversary of Mizoguchi's death in 2006 for a flurry of DVDs to
be released around the world. In further bfi news, they have announced the August 29, 2005 release of Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers a collection of fifty-nine
films from pre-1910. Highlights are from Lumière, Pathé, Méliès, G. A. Smith ( Mary Jane’s Mishap) and the Hepworth
Manufacturing Company ( Rescued by Rover) plus a newly restored and tinted version of Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery.
The bfi release Fellini's Il Bidone (1955) the same day. -
N.W.
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June 27, 2005 [FRANTIŠEK VLÁCIL] On the morning of June 21, Petr Gajdošík
(nostalghia.cz) and Petr Soukup (zona.bloudil.cz) published a petition for the release on DVD of the Czech medieval epic Markéta Lazarová (František Vlácil,
1967), a film which has repeatedly been voted best Czech film of all time by critics. The same evening, they were approached by a representative of a
major Czech DVD company who are interested in exploring the possibilities of releasing this title on DVD by the end of 2005. When asked to advise,
Petr and Petr issued the following recommendation: a 2xDVD set, anamorphic widescreen 2.35:1 restored and mastered from original negatives, original
mono soundtrack (featuring the haunting music of Zdenek Liška). As well, they submitted three pages of suggested "bonus materials." However,
the financing of this project is still very much up in the air; what is needed now is a demonstration of genuine interest, world-wide, in seeing
Markéta Lazarová brought to DVD with multi-language subtitles and a rich set of bonus materials. Please consider supporting this
effort by signing the petition, here. We note in passing that Mark
Le Fanu, who listed this film in our 2003 Unavailable? article, is
signature #316, with the accompanying comment "...as remarkable in its own way as Tarkovsky's Andrei Roublev. In short: long overdue on DVD".
- T.T.
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June 23, 2005 [TERENCE DAVIES] In the flurry of recent Cannes news, a major disappointment was quietly announced:
Terence Davies' long-planned adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song has been canceled due to a "complete lack of interest" by the BBC, Channel 4
and the UK Film Council. This, despite the fact that Davies was recently voted as the best living director in the UK by the Guardian. The mediocre aspirations of film financing continue to
marginalize this talented filmmaker (many of whose works have not yet appeared on DVD) and increase our cynicism about the rift between art and
commerce.
- D.C.
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June 22, 2005 [CAHIERS DU CINEMA] After five years of fits, starts, and editorial shifts, Les Cahiers du
cinéma have finally launched a comprehensive web-extension of the influential French revue. The new site continues to establish the Cahiers of
the new millennium as a kind of all-encompassing cinema-critical franchise, whose range now extends beyond the print edition and into periodic
film-series (coming soon to New York and elsewhere), a DVD line (the excellent "Deux films de..." collection), and a wide-ranging print library of
critical texts, scenarios, and literary fiction. Visitors to the site will be able to view Jean-Michel Frodon's monthly editorial, along with a
selection of essays from the latest issue; participate in discussion forums; read new English translations of essays that had previously appeared in
the revue in French; explore a site-exclusive curated "photothèque"; and browse a calendar of upcoming film-related events held across the
globe. Perhaps the most valuable feature of cahiersducinema.com will be the eventual
online archival of the print revue's entire contents (at 70,000+ pages) from 1951 to the present day. While the exact pricing for use of this
service remains unclear at the present moment, PDF facsimiles of issues 1, 100, 200, 300 (guest-edited by Godard), 400 (Wenders), and 500 (Scorsese)
are currently available for free download from the site.
- Craig Keller
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June 21, 2005 [GEOFFREY JONES 1931-2005] UPDATE: Sadly, Geoffrey Jones passed away after a battle with
cancer a few days ago. This beautiful new DVD release of his work stands as a fitting tribute. See the DVDBeaver review. JUNE 9: The bfi (UK) release a labour of
love on June 27, 2005, Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm of Film. The films of Geoffrey R. Llewellyn Jones are often regarded as being like nothing
else — his marriage of visual and sonic rhythms rank alongside the work of Norman McLaren and Len Lye. In a career which saw him direct
industrial shorts and seminal British Transport Films such as the Oscar-nominated Snow (1963), Rail (1967), and Locomotion
(1975); a memorable Martini commercial; and more personal works such as the Seasons Project and Chair-a-plane films, Jones now finally
gets a dedicated collection all his own. The bfi release also contains a specially filmed 31-minute interview with Jones at home in Wales in 2004.
A related release, finally seeing the light of day, is the bfi's wonderful On and Off the Rails collection — a fascinating
document of propaganda or "information films" produced to promote British Transport in the 20th century. Also released June 27, 2005.
- N.W.
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May 12, 2005 [EARLY AMERICAN AVANT-GARDE FILM] David Shepard and Bruce Posner have just completed work on a
seven DVD, twenty-hour box set called Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Film (to be released towards the end of 2005 in the USA and in
2006 by the British Film Institute). It is a collection of short films made in America or by Americans abroad from the beginnings of cinema until
1941. According to the makers it is considerably refined from the touring program of films which has been going around the world under the
sponsorship of Anthology Film Archives. The set contains over 150 films and is
drawn from 60 major collections including Anthology Film Archives, BFI, Eastman House, LoC, MoMA, Gosfilmofond, and the Nederlands Filmmuseum. Each
of the seven DVD programs runs around 150 minutes and is organised thematically: 1: THE MECHANIZED EYE: Experiments in Technique and Form; 2: THE
DEVIL'S PLAYGROUND: American Surrealism; 3: LIGHT RHYTHMS: Music and Abstraction; 4: INVERTED NARRATIVES: New Directions in Storytelling; 5:
PICTURING A METROPOLIS: New York City Unveiled; 6: THE AMATEUR AS AUTEUR: Discovering Paradise in Pictures; 7: VIVA LA DANCE: The Beginnings of
Cine-Dance.
- N.W.
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May 11, 2005 [FILM PRESERVATION]The National Film Preservation Foundation of the US Library of Congress announced today they
have received grants extending through 2009 that will enable 36 libraries, museums, and archives to save 70 films, including: urban shorts by Melvin
Van Peebles, Ernie Gehr's Serene Velocity (1970), Edward S. Curtis' Land of the War Canoes (1914), depression-era public health shorts,
pioneering time-motion studies by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, and much more. - D.C.
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May 10, 2005 [PIER PAOLO PASOLINI] Investigators in Rome have reopened the inquiry into the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini in 1975, say reports on Italian radio. It
follows statements about the director's death made by the man imprisoned for nine years for his murder and by a close former aide. Full story at the
BBC. - N. W.
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May 3, 2005 [HUMPHREY JENNINGS] A renowned figure of Britain's wartime GPO film unit, Humphrey Jennings crafted
poetic documentaries with observational, human qualities. This month, Film First/ MovieMail (UK) will release a DVD containing the 2004 restorations of Listen to Britain (1942) and Diary for Timothy
(1945), as well as I Was a Fireman (1943), Kevin Macdonald's 2000 documentary on the filmmaker, and an accompanying booklet.
- D.C.
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April 30, 2005 [OUSMANE SEMBENE] One of the masters of world cinema, Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, is finally
getting his first English-subtitled exposure on DVD from New Yorker (USA). Mandabi (1968) and Xala (1975) have both been announced for
May 31, 2005. Thanks to reader Eric Levy for this excellent news. - D.C.
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April 28, 2005 [OTAR IOSSELIANI] All those who really
fancied last year's Otar Iosseliani boxset but were disappointed that there were only English subtitles on two of the more recent films, will be
happy to know that Blaq Out (France) have listened and are releasing a four film set of
Iosseliani's early Georgian films on May 12, 2005 with English subtitles and as region-free NTSC DVDs! The double-disc set features a new interview
with Moscow Museum Cinema Director Naum Kleiman, and the films: April (1962), Falling Leaves (1968), There Once was a Singing
Blackbird (1970), and Pastorale (1975). The entire set is bi-lingual
(French and English), it is region zero, NTSC, and will be available on May 12, 2005 direct from Blaq Out's new online shop, which will launch at www.blaqout.com on the same day. –N.W.
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April 19, 2005
[CANNES 2005] The 2005 Cannes film festival has announced its line-up today. In competition are: Bashing (Kobayashi Masahiro), Batalla En El Cielo (Carlos Reygadas), The Best of Our Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien), Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch), The Child (Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne), Election (Johnny To), Don't Come Knockin' (Wim Wenders), Free Zone (Amos Gitai), Hidden (Michael Haneke), The History of Violence (David Cronenberg), Kilometre Zero (Hiner Saleem), Lemming (Dominik Moll), Last Days (Gus Van Sant), Manderlay (Lars von Trier), Once You’re Born You Can No Longer Hide (Marco Tullio Giordana), Peindre Or Faire L’Amour (Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu), Shanghai Dreams (Wang Xiaoshuai), Sin City (Roberto Rodriguez and Frank Miller), The Three Burials Of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones), and Where The Truth Lies (Atom Egoyan).
- D.C.
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April 18, 2005
[SIODMAK / ULMER / WILDER / BUNUEL] The British Film Institute's fearless History of the Avant-Garde series of DVDs sees the release of People on Sunday (1929) next week. Made by a talented group of young filmmakers — including Billy Wilder, Edgar Ulmer, Robert & Curt Siodmak, Eugene Schüfftan, and Fred Zinneman — this highly influential film of five young Berliners sharing an idyllic relaxing Sunday is one of the major works of the German Avant-garde of the 1920s, and was a huge influence on the seeds of the French New Wave (30s Renoir) and the Italian Neorealist movement. Replete with a similarly-themed 25-minute 1951 film from the UK, and a 12-page booklet with Philip Kemp notes, this is a release that may pass many by. We hope not! The same day, 25 April 2005, the bfi release Luis Buñuel's Tristana (1970) on a DVD which contains two versions of the film (Spanish and French) each with English subtitles and a booklet with notes by Isabel Santaolalla (co-editor of Luis Buñuel: New Readings (bfi, 2004)). –N.W.
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April 16, 2005
[MASAHIRO SHINODA] A number of Masahiro Shinoda films are slated for DVD release by Toho in Japan this Spring. The first batch, released on April 28, consists of Takeshi: Childhood Days (1990), Punishment Island (1966), Double Suicide (1969), and Silence (1971). The second batch follows on May 27: Outlaws (1970), The Petrified Forest (1973), Under the Cherry Blossoms (1975), and Banished (1977). The titles are Region 2/NTSC and all of them carry English subtitles with the exception of Double Suicide (which is already available in an excellent edition from Criterion in Region 1). Furthermore, our Masters of Cinema Series, in conjunction with Eureka (UK), will release Shinoda's Assassination (1964) in late Summer 2005 as part of our A Japanese Summer season, with a new essay by Joan Mellen and a video introduction by Alex Cox.
- T.T.
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April 9, 2005
[YOSHITARO NOMURA] Prolific Japanese director Yoshitaro Nomura died of pneumonia at a Tokyo hospital yesterday. He was 85. Nomura, born to a film director, served in World War II and entered the cinema world in 1946, becoming an assistant director working under Akira Kurosawa and others. He was chief assistant director on Kurosawa's The Idiot ( soon to be released in the MoC Series). Nomura made his debut as director in 1952 with Pigeon. His 1974 suspense thriller Castle of Sand was widely praised and won the special prize from juries at the Moscow International Film festival the following year. He directed 88 films in all. His disciples included Yoji Yamada, who directed the beloved Tora-san movie series that starred late Japanese comedian Kiyoshi Atsumi as a bumbling hawker. Japanese media quoted Yamada as saying, "I deeply feel that the death of [Nomura] has marked an end to the great era of the Japanese films". –T.T.
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April 8, 2005
[JORIS IVENS] The European Foundation Joris Ivens is still hard at work on what sounds like an exemplary DVD box set for late 2005. In a newsletter published on their website, they write that 15 Ivens classics have been digitized, as well as interviews, photos, and several alternate versions of films. The Foundation is working in collaboration with A-film (Amsterdam), Digital Film Centre (DFC, Arnhem), ARTE (Paris) and Facets (Chicago) and attempting to gather the best source materials possible. We eagerly await the results.
- D.C.
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April 3, 2005
[JEAN-LUC GODARD] AV Channel (Australia, R4) have announced their upcoming DVD release of Godard's La Chinoise will impressively include Godard's 52-minute British Sounds (1969) and 62-minute JLG/JLG (1994).
- D.C.
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April 1, 2005
[EXCLUSIVE MoC HAUTE COUTURE]
This beautiful new leather Masters of Cinema trenchcoat is only for the most ardent cinephile. The poor strength of the dollar pushes up the price a bit for our American friends, but we feel that true quality will always sell. We have earmarked a herd of cows ready for when the orders flood in... so please, if you haven't clicked already, click here to see the coat in more detail, and click here if you would like to order one. Thanks!
- N.W.
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March 24, 2005
[CAHIERS DU CINEMA] The ever-relevant French journal Cahiers du cinéma celebrates its 600th issue this April by taking the form of a "ciné-manga" edited by Takeshi Kitano. The special issue will give one hundred personalities from the realm of world cinema a chance "to imagine a story in four panels". Among the filmmakers who have accepted to play Kitano's game are Olivier Assayas, Arnaud des Palličres, Hong Sang-soo, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Claude Lanzmann, Rithy Panh, Gus van Sant, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Readers of the ciné-manga will also be treated to a lengthy interview with Kitano, conducted by Japanese film critic Shigehiko Hasumi. Finally, the celebration will spill out of the manga-panels and into Paris's Cinéma Max Linder, for a special series of films programmed and presented by members of the revue's editorial board, slated to run from the 13th to the 19th of April. Happy 600, Cahiers, and thanks to reader Craig Keller for the heads-up!
- N.W.
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March 13, 2005
[HIROKAZU KORE-EDA]
Auteur director Hirokazu Kore-eda's fourth fiction feature, Nobody Knows (2004), is now shipping from Amazon Japan (JPY 3,192) and CDJapan (JPY 3,800). This R2/NTSC DVD carries English subtitles. The DVD A Making of Nobody Knows (41 minutes) has been available for quite a while. While a fascinating disc, it unfortunately does not include English subtitles. Nobody Knows delivers a heartbreaking and humorous account of the daily lives of a makeshift family of children left to survive in an urban jungle. Yuya Yagira won the Best Actor Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for his portrayal of Akira, and the film was the official Japanese entry for the 2004 Academy Awards. Kore-eda's first feature film, Maboroshi (1995), won the Golden Osella at the 1995 Venice Film Festival. The successful follow-up, After Life (1998) is currently being adapted into an American film by 20th Century Fox. His third film, Distance (2001) was presented in competition at the 2001 Cannes Festival.
- T.T.
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March 12, 2005
[AKIRA KUROSAWA] Kurosawa hasn't exactly been ignored on DVD, but 2005 looks like being his year (again). This week, Criterion (USA) release Kagemusha (1980), replete with the Suntory Whiskey commercials made on the set of the film.
In a fortnight, the bfi (UK) release High and Low (1963), and I Live in Fear (1955); and over Summer the MoC Series (UK) will release Scandal (1950) and The Idiot (1951), for the first time on DVD in the West.
The bfi will be releasing Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well, Drunken Angel, and The Lower Depths later in 2005. Hopefully, DVD companies will soon be able to lavish attention on Mikio Naruse (his centenary is *this* year) and Kenji Mizoguchi (who died 50 years ago next year).
-N.W.
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February 23, 2005
[SIMONE SIMON, 1910-2005]
The French actress Simone Simon passed away yesterday in Paris. In the 1930s, Darryl Zanuck whisked her to the USA, amid much hoopla, where she starred in a number of Fox films before becoming disenchanted with Hollywood. Among those American films were Henry King's sound remake of the Borzage silent classic, Seventh Heaven (1937), in which Simon starred opposite James Stewart.
Simon also starred in Jean Renoir's La Bête humaine (1938); William Dieterle's The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941); Jacques Tourneur's Cat People (1942); and Max Ophüls' La Ronde (1950) and Le Plaisir (1952).
- N.W.
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February 22, 2005
[WARNERS USA]Warners (USA) continue to astound with the quality and frequency of their DVD releases. On May 10, 2005, Warners (USA) release the Controversial Classics Collection, containing: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervin LeRoy, 1932); Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936); Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955); Blackboard Jungle (Richard Brooks, 1955); A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957); Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger, 1962); and The Americanization of Emily (Arthur Hiller, 1964). It remains to be seen whether Warners have licensed the Criterion Laserdisc John Sturges commentary for Bad Day at Black Rock.
(It pains us that Warners UK don't mirror their parent company's standards. The UK has to put up with expensive, half-hearted, Warners UK NTSC-to-PAL conversions of Godard, Renoir, and Bunuel films, with Americanized subtitles that are ingrained into the image, and have absolutely zero extras. Meow.)
-N.W.
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February 20, 2005
[KIHACHI OKAMOTO, 1923-2005]
Kihachi Okamoto died yesterday at his home in Kawasaki, Japan, after battling esophagus cancer. He was 81. Okamoto survived WWII, after being drafted in 1943 at a time when many university graduates were being sacrificed in the South Pacific. He spent much of his career making anti-war and gangster films for Toho. The Criterion Collection (USA) release Okamoto's 1966 classic The Sword of Doom on DVD in a few weeks.
- N.W.
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February 11, 2005
[50,000 OLD ASIAN FILMS FOUND]Mainichi Shimbun newspaper today reports the death of a legendary Japanese film collector, Yoshishige Abe, aged 81. His father was a police doctor who worked for the Korean Consulate, and together they both collected fifty-thousand films both pre and post war at their storehouse. They had previously refused all investigations by scholars, and it is not clear just how many of the films are still viewable.
The article focuses mostly on Na Unkyu's debut Arirang (1926), one of the most influential films of early Korean cinema, and long thought lost. North and South Korea apparently each sent representatives to reclaim the film but Abe refused. Thinking of it as an anti-Japan movie he said he would be willing to give the film rolls to both nations only if Korea united.
Abe has no heir, so after the lawful procedures, National Film Center [Tokyo] will investigate the films. The catalogue contains Daichi wa Hohoemu [The Earth Smiles] (Mizoguchi, 1925) amongst its many treasures. Thanks to Kimitoshi Sato for sending us this incredible news.
-N.W.
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February 9, 2005
[STANLEY KUBRICK]
The first book to explore Stanley Kubrick's archives is released by Taschen in March 2005. It was made with the cooperation of the Kubrick Estate and comes in English, French, German, and Spanish editions retailing for Ł100 GBP/$200 US/150 EUR. The book comes with an audio CD featuring a 70-minute 1966 interview with Stanley Kubrick by Jeremy Bernstein.
- N.W.
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February 1, 2005
[ALEXANDER SOKUROV] Facets Video (USA) have announced they will release Sokurov's war documentaries, Spiritual Voices: From the Military Diaries (1995) and Confession: From the Commander's Diary (1998) in March as two-disc DVD sets produced by Ideale Audience in Paris.
- D.C.
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January 10, 2005
[CARL TH. DREYER]
Now available from the Danish Film Institute (DFI) bookshop is a new DVD of Carl Th. Dreyer's first feature film The President (1919). The source of this restoration, supervised by film historian Marguerite Engberg in 1999, is the original nitrate negative. The transfer is from a new tinted 35mm print produced from the restored duplicate negative. The DVD has combined Danish and English intertitles and runs 89 minutes (17fps).
This release is sixth in a range of fascinating DFI DVDs which also features Dreyer's Der var engang [Once Upon A Time] (1922) and the films of Benjamin Christensen. All are available from the DFI bookshop, they accept credit cards, and ship worldwide. If you experience difficulty ordering, email Søren for help. I have forwarded grabs and a short review to DVDBeaver.
- N.W.
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January 4, 2005
[CRITERION IN MARCH]
Fresh from winning the top five places in the MoC DVD OF THE YEAR 2004 Readers' Poll (and well over half of all votes) the estimable Criterion Collection from New York, USA, are not resting. Their March 2005 slate is one of their biggest ever, containing:
L'eclisse (Antonioni, 1962); Jules and Jim (Truffaut, 1962); The River (Renoir, 1951); The Sword of Doom (Okamoto, 1966); Three War Films containing Ashes and Diamonds, Kanal, and A Generation (Wajda, 1955-58); and Young Törless (Schlöndorff, 1966).
Adding to March's heavily laden bough is Kagemusha(Kurosawa, 1980) which has been delayed from January to March 2005. What would we do without them?
- N.W.
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December, 2005
As Tears Go By
(Wong, 1988) Tartan R2 UK
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
(Straub/Huillet, 1968) New Yorker R1 USA
L'Intrus
(Denis, 2004) Tartan R2 UK
Slow Motion
(Godard, 1980) Artificial Eye R2 UK
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November, 2005
Burn!
(Pontecorvo, 1969) apparently a botched release, wrong AR, not the full-length version MGM R1 USA
The Fallen Idol
(Reed, 1948) Optimum R2 UK
Histoire(s) du cinéma
(Godard, 1988-98) Gaumont R2 France (Gaumont are saying it will have Eng subs)
House By the River
(Lang, 1950) Kino R1 USA
The Idiot [Hakuchi]
(Kurosawa, 1951) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Kings and Queen
(Desplechin, 2004) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Landscape in the Mist
(Angelopoulos, 1988) New Yorker R1 USA
Moolaadé
(Sembene, 2004) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Newsfront
(Noyce, 1978) Blue Underground R1 USA
Nightmare Alley
(Goulding, 1947) - 24-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Punishment Park
(Watkins, 1971) New Yorker R1 USA
UK
Scandal
(Kurosawa, 1950) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Scarlet Street
(Lang, 1945) Kino R1 USA
Ugetsu monogatari
(Mizoguchi, 1954) Criterion R1 USA
Unknown Chaplin
(Chaplin) A&E Home Video R1 USA
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October, 2005
Black Girl/Borom Sarret
(Sembene, 1966) New Yorker R1 USA
Donkey Skin
(Demy, 1970) Optimum R2 UK
The Ear [Ucho]
(Karel Kachyna, 1970) Second Run R2 UK
Interrogation [Przesluchanie]
(Ryszard Bugajski, 1982) Second Run R2 UK
Portrait of Jason
(Shirley Clarke, 1967) Second Run R2 UK
Punishment Park
(Watkins, 1971) - 32-page booklet, Professor Joseph A. Gomez commentary, director introduction, etc - Eureka/MoC R0
UK
A Slightly Pregnant Man
(Demy, 1973) Optimum R2 UK
Sunrise
(Murnau, 1927) - MoC Series #1 - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Teorema
(Pasolini, 1968) Koch Lorber R1 USA
Tropical Malady
(Weerasethakul, 2004) Strand R1 USA
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(Demy, 1964) Optimum R2 UK
Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde (1894-1941)
(Various) Image R1 USA
Val Lewton Horror Collection
Warner R1 USA
Vengeance is Mine
(Imamura, 1979) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
The Wages of Fear
(Clouzot, 1953) Criterion R1 USA
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September, 2005
Almodovar Collection
(Dark Habits, Matador, Law of Desire, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Brekadown, Kika, The Flower of My Secret) Optimum R2 UK
Cafe Lumiere
(Hou, 2004) ICA Projects R2 UK
Cassavetes Collection - 6 x DVD
(Shadows, Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Killing of a Chinese Bookie 1976/1978, Opening Night) - with commentaries not on the Criterion box set - Optimum R2 UK
The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach
(Straub/Huillet, 1968) New Yorker R1 USA
Four Films of Otar Iosselliani
(April, Falling leaves, There Once was a Singing Blackbird, Pastorale) Facets R1 USA
The Holy Girl [La Nina Santa]
(Martel, 2004) HBO R1 USA
In the Year of the Pig
(Emile de Antonio, 1968) Home Vision R1 USA
The Keys to the House
(Amelio, 2004) Lions Gate R1 USA
The Magnificent Ambersons - see under "W" for Welles
Masculin Feminin
(Godard, 1966) Criterion R1 USA
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
(Sturges, 1944) Paramount R1 USA
Naked
(Leigh, 1993) Criterion R1 USA
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
(Miyazaki, 1980) Optimum R2 UK
PASOLINI box set - Accatone, RoGoPag, Hawks and Sparrows
(Pasolini, 1961-66) Tartan R2 UK
Tale of Springtime
(Rohmer, 1990) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Turtles Can Fly
(Ghobadi, 2004) ICA Projects R2 UK
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August, 2005
Anne of the Indies
(Jacques Tourneur, 1951) Carlotta R2 France
Another Way
(Makk, 1981) Second Run R2 UK
Bigger Than Life
(Nicholas Ray, 1956) Carlotta R2 France
Borsalino & Co
(Jacques Deray, 1974) Kino R1 USA
Boudu Saved From Drowning
(Renoir, 1932) Criterion R1 USA
Chekhovian Motifs
(Kira Muratova, 2002) Image R1 USA
Early Cinema: Primitives and Pioneers
(Various, pre-1910) bfi R2 UK
El Cid
(Mann, 1961) Universal R2 UK
Figures in a Landscape
(Joseph Losey, 1970) Paramount R2 UK
Flic Story
(Jacques Deray, 1975) Kino R1 USA
Funny Ha Ha
(Bujalski, 2003) Wellspring R1 USA
Gloria
(Cassavetes, 1980) Sony R2 UK
In the Land of the Deaf
(Philibert, 1992) Second Run R2 UK
Interrogation
(Bugajski, 1982) Second Run R2 UK
Kuroneko
(Shindo, 1968) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Landscape in the Mist
(Angelopoulos, 1988) New Yorker R1 USA
The Lady with the Little Dog [Dama s sobachkoy]
(Iosif Kheifits, 1960) Image R1 USA
Life is a Miracle
(Kusturica, 2004) Art Eye R2 UK
Love
(Makk, 1971) Second Run R2 UK
Major Dundee
(Peckinpah, 1965) Columbia R1 USA
Mother Joan of the Angels
(Kawalerowicz, 1961) Second Run R2 UK
My Neighbor the Yamadas
(Takahata, 1999) Disney R1 USA
Onibaba
(Shindo, 1964) - with director's commentary - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
OZU boxset 3: Tokyo Twilight, Equinox Flower, Good Morning
Tartan R2 UK
Preston STURGES Collection
(Sullivan's Travels, The Lady Eve, Hail the Conquering Hero, The Great McGinty, Christmas in July, The Palm
Beach Story) (1940-44) Universal R2 UK
Twenty-nine Palms
(Dumont, 2004) Tartan R2 UK
Two Men in Town
(José Giovanni, 1973) Kino R1 USA
A Wedding
(Altman, 1978) Second Sight R2 UK
A Winter's Tale
(Rohmer, 1992) Artificial Eye R2 UK
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July, 2005
ABC Africa
(Kiarostami, 2001) MK2 R2 France
Ae Fond Kiss...
(Loach, 2004) Warner R2 UK
Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema of the 1920s and 1930s
(Various) Kino R1 USA
The Bad Sleep Well
(Kurosawa, 1960) bfi R2 UK
Bedazzled
(Stanley Donen, 1967) Second Sight R2 UK
Bleak Moments
(Mike Leigh, 1971) Connoisseur R2 UK
Demain on déménage - see under "T" for Tomorrow We Move
The Devil, Probably
(Bresson, 1977) Artificial Eye R2 UK - DELAYED A FEW TIMES ALREADY
The Dragon Painter (Worthington, 1919) - new score by composer Mark Izu. Extras include Thomas Ince's The Wrath of the Gods (1914),
also starring Hayakawa and Aoki. Both films are from the tinted 35mm restorations done at George Eastman House - Milestone R1 USA
Drunken Angel
(Kurosawa, 1948) bfi R2 UK
Gate of Flesh
(Suzuki, 1964) Criterion R1 USA
The Getaway
(Peckinpah, 1972) Warner R2 UK
Humanity and Paper
Balloons
(Yamanaka, 1937) - with 24-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Konkurs [Audition/Talent Show]
(Forman, 1963) Second Run R2 UK
Lancelot du Lac
(Bresson, 1974) Artificial Eye R2 UK - DELAYED A FEW TIMES ALREADY
A Man Escaped
(Bresson, 1956) Artificial Eye R2 UK - DELAYED A FEW TIMES ALREADY
My Neighbour Totoro
(Miyazaki, 1988) Disney R1 USA
The Naked Island
(Shindo, 1960) - with Kaneto Shindo and
Hikaru Hayashi commentary and 24-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Never on Sunday
(Dassin, 1960) MGM R2 UK
Le notti bianche
(Visconti, 1957) Criterion R1 USA
Rancho Notorious
(Lang, 1952) Optimum R2 UK
OZU Box Set 2
(Record of a Tenement Gentleman, The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice) (Ozu, 1947/1952) Tartan R2 UK
Rancho Notorious
(Lang, 1952) Optimum R2 UK
Story of a Prostitute
(Suzuki, 1965) Criterion R1 USA
A Summer's Tale
(Rohmer, 1996) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Tomorrow We Move [Demain on déménage]
(Akerman, 2004) Kino/Simstim R1 USA
Unfaithfully Yours
(Sturges, 1948) Criterion R1 USA
Wim WENDERS Collection (vol. 2)
American Friend, Lightning over Water, Aufzeichnungen zu Kleidern und Städten, The Scarlet Letter,
Tokyo-Ga, The Wrong Move, Die Gebrüder Skladanowsky, Room 666 (1973-95) Anchor Bay R1 USA
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June, 2005
An Autumn Tale
(Rohmer, 1998) Art Eye R2 UK
Au hasard Balthazar
(Bresson, 1966) Criterion R1 USA
Bend of the River
(Mann, 1952) Universal R2 UK
Coogan's Bluff
(Siegel, 1969) Universal R2 UK
Crazed Fruit
(Kô Nakahira, 1956) Criterion R1 USA
Geoffrey Jones: The Rhythm of Film
(Jones, 1955-2004) bfi R2 UK
Gran Casino
(Bunuel, 1947) Vanguard R1 USA
Hail the Conquering Hero
(Preston Sturges, 1944) Universal R2 UK
Heaven Can Wait
(Lubitsch, 1943) Criterion R1 USA
Geoffrey JONES - see under "G"
My Brilliant Career
(Armstrong, 1979) Blue Underground R1 USA
Signs of Life
(Herzog, 1968) New Yorker R1 USA
Thieves Like Us
(Altman, 1974) Universal R1 USA
Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow
(Angelopoulos, 2004) Art Eye R2 UK
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May, 2005
L'Argent
(Bresson, 1983) Artificial Eye R2 UK
The Band Wagon
(Minnelli, 1953) Warner UK R2
The Big Red One: The Reconstruction
(Fuller/Schickel, 1980/2004) Warner USA R1
Broken Lance
(Dmytryk, 1954) - Fox R1 USA
Buffalo Bill
(Wellman, 1944) - Fox R1 USA
La Chinoise
(Godard, 1967) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
CONTROVERSIAL CLASSICS box set - see under "W" for "Warners"
Dersu Uzala
(Kurosawa, 1975) Arrow R2 UK
Détective
(Godard, 1985) Optimum R2 UK
Donkey Skin
(Demy, 1970) Koch Lorber R1 USA
Drums Along the Mohawk
(Ford, 1939) - Fox R1 USA
Forty Guns
(Fuller, 1957) Fox R1 USA
Francesco giullare di Dio [Francis, God's Jester] (Rossellini, 1950) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Gun Fury
(Walsh, 1953) Columbia R1 USA
In Old Arizona
(Cummings/Walsh, 1928) Fox R1 USA
Otar IOSSELIANI's Georgian Films box set April, Falling Leaves, There Once was a Singing Blackbird, and Pastorale - with English subtitles and a new interview with Naum Kleiman - (Iosseliani, 1962-75) Blaq Out NTSC R0 (confirmed!) France
Jules and Jim [Jules et Jim]
(Truffaut, 1962) Criterion R1 USA
Last Year at Marienbad
(Resnais, 1961) Optimum R2 UK
Leningrad Cowboys
(Kaurismaki, 1998) Facets R1 USA
Notre musique
(Godard, 2004) Wellspring R1 USA
The Phantom of Liberty
(Bunuel, 1974) Criterion R1 USA
Rebel Without a Cause - two-disc special edition
(Ray, 1955) Warner R1 USA
The Trial of Joan of Arc
(Bresson, 1962) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Warlock
(Dmytryk, 1959) - Fox R1 USA
WARNERS Controversial Classics Collection, containing: I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (Mervin LeRoy, 1932); Fury (Fritz Lang, 1936); Bad Day at Black Rock (John Sturges, 1955); Blackboard Jungle (Richard Brooks, 1955); A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957); Advise and Consent (Otto Preminger, 1962); and The Americanization of Emily (Arthur Hiller, 1964) - Warners USA R1
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April, 2005
Asphalt
(May, 1929) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
The Big Trail
(Walsh, 1930) Fox R2 UK
Carla's Song
(Loach, 1996) Universal R2 UK
Cross of Iron
(Peckinpah, 1977) Warner R2 UK
F for Fake
(Welles, 1975) Criterion R1 USA
Geneologies of a Crime
(Ruiz, 1997) Strand Releasing R1 USA
Jean-Luc Godard Collection (Vol. 2)
Pierrot le Fou, Made in USA, Prenom Carmen (Godard, 1965-83) Warner R2 UK
Johnny Guitar
(Ray, 1954) Universal R2 UK
Hamlet
(Grigori Kozintsev, 1964) Ruscico R0 Russia
Alfred HITCHCOCK box sets - #1: The Ring (1927), Champagne (1928), The Farmer's Wife (1928), Manxman (1929); box set #2: Blackmail (1929), Murder! (1930), The Skin Game (1931); box set #3: Rich and Strange (1931), Number Seventeen (1932), Foreign Correspondent (1940) - Studio Canal R2 France
Mirror
(Panahi, 1998) Kino R1 USA
People on Sunday
(Ulmer, Siodmak, 1929) bfi R2 UK
Pickpocket
(Bresson, 1959) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Ride in the Whirlwind
(Monte Hellmann, 1965) Orbit R2 UK
Spione [Spies]
(Lang, 1928) Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Tristana
(Bunuel, 1970) bfi R2 UK
Andrzej Wajda: Three War Films
(Wajda, 1955-1958) Criterion R1 USA
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March, 2005
The Band Wagon
(Minnelli, 1953) - 2 x DVD special edition - Fox R1 USA
Robert BRESSON box set - Pickpocket
(1959), Trial of Joan of Arc [Procès de Jeanne d'Arc] (1962), L'Argent (1983) - English, German, Spanish, and Italian subtitles, with copious extras, all subtitled - MK2 R2 France
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
(Peckinpah, 1974) MGM R1 USA
Bringing Up Baby
(Hawks, 1938) - 2 x disc special edition - Warners R1 USA
Call Northside 777
(Hathaway, 1948) - Film Noir series - Fox R1 USA
Dinner at Eight
(Cukor, 1933) Warners R1 USA
L'eclisse
(Antonioni, 1962) Criterion R1 USA
Electraglide in Blue
(Guercio, 1973) MGM R1 USA
The Face of Another
(Teshigahara, 1966) - with full length Tony Rayns commentary - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
He who hits first, hits twice: The Urgent Cinema of Santiago Alvarez
(Alvarez, 1965-73) E. L. F. (Extreme Low Frequency Films) R1 USA
High and Low
(Kurosawa, 1963) bfi R2 UK
I Live In Fear
(Kurosawa, 1955) bfi R2 UK
Jules and Jim
(Truffaut, 1962) Criterion R1 USA
Kagemusha
(Kurosawa, 1980) Criterion R1 USA
Laura
(Preminger, 1944) - Fox R1 USA
Libeled Lady
(Conway, 1936) Warners R1 USA
Not on the Lips [Pas sur la bouche]
(Resnais, 2003) Wellspring R1 USA
Panic in the Streets
(Kazan, 1950) Fox R1 USA
The Philadelphia Story
(Cukor, 1940) Warners R1 USA
Pitfall
(Teshigahara, 1962) - with full length Tony Rayns commentary - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
The River
(Renoir, 1951) Criterion R1 USA
Ryan: The Special Edition
(Chris Landreth, 2004) NFB R1 Canada
Stage Door
(La Cava, 1937) Warners R1 USA
The Sword of Doom
(Okamoto, 1966) Criterion R1 USA
Three War Films
containing Ashes and Diamonds, Kanal, and A Generation (Wajda, 1955-58) Criterion R1 USA
To Be Or Not To Be
(Lubitsch, 1942) Warners R1 USA
Young Törless
(Schlöndorff, 1966) Criterion R1 USA
Andrzej WAJDA see under "T" for THREE WAR FILMS
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February, 2005
Bitter Victory
(Nicholas Ray, 1957) - long 102 minute version - Columbia R1 USA
Luis BUÑUEL Box Set 2
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, That Obscure Object of Desire, The Phantom of Liberty - Warner R2 UK
La Ciénaga
(Lucrecia Martel, 2001) Home Vision R1 USA
Jean COCTEAU Collection
Blood of a Poet, Testament of Orpheus - Warner R2 UK
Dragonwyck
(Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1946) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Jean-Luc GODARD Box Set 2
Pierrot Le Fou, Made in USA , Prenom Carmen -
Warner R2 UK
Goodbye, Dragon Inn
(Tsai, 2003) Wellspring R1 USA
Hindle Wakes
(Elvey, 1927) Milestone R1 USA
Histoire de Marie et Julien
(Jacques Rivette, 2003) Artificial Eye R2 UK
The House is Black
(Forough Farrokhzad, 1962) - Includes essays by Chris Marker and Jonathan Rosenbaum, video interview with poet Pooran Farrokhzad (sister of Forough Farrokhzad) from PBS series Adventure Divas, and two short films by Mohsen Makhmalbaf: The School That Was Blown Away (1996) and Images From the Qajar Dynasty (1992) - Facets R1 USA
Land and Freedom
(Ken Loach, 1995) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Leave Her to Heaven
(Stahl, 1945) Fox R1 USA
A Letter to Three Wives
(Mankiewicz, 1949) Fox R1 USA
Masculin Feminin
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1966) Nouveaux Pictures R2 UK
Jean-Pierre MELVILLE Collection
Bob Le Flambeur, Un Flic - Warner R2 UK
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
(Miyazaki, 1984) Disney R1 USA
On A Clear Day You Can See Forever
(Vincente Minnelli, 1970) Paramount R1 USA
Yasujiro OZU - Record of a Tenement Gentleman/The Flavour of Green Tea Over Rice
(Ozu, 1947/52) Tartan R2 UK
The Palm Beach Story
(Sturges, 1942) Universal R1 USA
Paris nous appartient
(Rivette, 1960) MK2 R2 France
Porco Rosso
(Miyazaki, 1992) Disney R1 USA
Twentieth Century
(Howard Hawks, 1934) Columbia R1 USA
Two or Three Things I Know About Her
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1966) Nouveaux Pictures R2 UK
Vivre sa vie
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1962) Nouveaux Pictures R2 UK
We Were Strangers
(John Huston, 1949) Columbia R1 USA
Weekend
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1967) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Werckmeister Harmonies
(Tarr, 1999) - different (Tarr-supervised) transfer to the AE version, but no English subs - Blaq Out R2 France
Western Union
(Fritz Lang, 1941) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Young Mister Lincoln
(John Ford, 1939) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
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January, 2005
Casque d'or
(Becker, 1952) Criterion R1 USA
Dossier 51
(Michel Deville, 1978) C'est La Vie R2 UK
Fighting Elegy
(Suzuki, 1966) Criterion R1 USA
Hiroshima mon amour
(Alain Resnais, 1959) Nouveaux Pictures R2 UK
Metropolis
(Lang, 1928) - reissue, German intertitles, 28-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Night and Fog
(Alain Resnais, 1955) Nouveaux Pictures R2 UK
The President
(Carl Th. Dreyer, 1919) DFI R0 Denmark (PAL)
Tartuffe
(Murnau, 1926) - 37 minute documentary, 16-page booklet - Eureka/MoC R2 UK
Touchez pas au grisbi
(Becker, 1954) Criterion R1 USA
Warners GANGSTER Collection
Angels with Dirty Faces (Curtiz, 1938), Little Caesar (LeRoy, 1931), The Petrified Forest (Mayo, 1936), The Public Enemy (Wellman, 1931), The Roaring Twenties (Walsh, 1939), and White Heat (Walsh, 1949) - Warner Bros (USA) are "on fire", with glorious new transfers, commentaries, and respectful, original poster art on the covers. Incredible - Warners R1 USA
Youth of the Beast
(Suzuki, 1963) Criterion R1 USA
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