I feel as if this Mystery Science Theater 3000 review is the toughest one I’ve ever had to do. Not because the films themselves are hard to review. I’m one in the belief that MST3K works on so many levels and am always in the mood to watch the gang rip into [...]]]>

I feel as if this Mystery Science Theater 3000 review is the toughest one I’ve ever had to do. Not because the films themselves are hard to review. I’m one in the belief that MST3K works on so many levels and am always in the mood to watch the gang rip into some of the shittiest films in the history of filmdom. To review the films would be benign, mainly because do you review the films themselves or do you review the content of the comedy? And how can one review comedy in general?

Mystery Science Theater 3000 Volume XVIII has some of the best episodes, one of which I had forgotten existed up until watching it again. Shame on me, I know. The films are Lost Continent, Crash of the Moons, The Beast of Yucca Flats and Jack Frost (no, it’s not the Michael Keaton film or the horror film). A lot of people who love the show have been complaining that some of the more popular fan favorites haven’t reached DVD yet, but to them I say, “Just wait and enjoy what’s out now.”

Shout! Factory has once again put out an amazing collection of 4 films with tons of extras that we’ve grown accustomed to, so thank Shout! Factory for that. We get a trailer for Lost Continent and an introduction from TV’s Frank Conniff, a collection of the wrap-around segments on Crash of the Moons, a half hour documentary about the making of The Beast of Yucca Flats called “No Dialogue Necessary: Making an ‘Off-Camera Masterpiece’”, a trailer for Yucca Flats, a still gallery and an 8 minute interview with cameraman Lee Strosnider speaking about Coleman Francis and finally an introduction to Jack Frost by Kevin Murphy.

We sadly can never have season sets because of all the issues pertaining to rights, but for now these are the best thing to making a time machine, going back to the 90′s, watching the show on Comedy Central and Sci Fi Channel and being the nerds we all were. Nostalgia is only a good thing when the show or film we’re nostalgic about is as good or better than we remember. And luckily Mystery Science Theater 3000 is still a brilliant snapshot of comedic gold.

My brother used to tell everyone they were brother and sister…

Terrence Malick. The man, the myth, the legend? In some circles he is considered a filmmaking god. In others, they wonder why it takes him so very long to make another film. To those latter people, I remind them of Stanley [...]]]>

My brother used to tell everyone they were brother and sister…

Terrence Malick. The man, the myth, the legend? In some circles he is considered a filmmaking god. In others, they wonder why it takes him so very long to make another film. To those latter people, I remind them of Stanley Kubrick. A perfectionist artist will always take a long time, and in the case of Days of Heaven, it only took him 5 years after the wonderfully grim Badlands. They didn’t know how good they had it back then, because it took another 20 years until he made The Thin Red Line (coming soon to the Criterion Collection).

They land jobs at a rich yet shy rancher (Sam Shepard) and pretend to be brother and sister because the farmer has taken a shine to Abby. The farmer is young yet is dying of an undisclosed condition and doesn’t want to die alone. He wants to marry her and Bill convinces Abby to go along with it and when he dies they can collect on the inheritance. But of course things don’t always go to plan, the farmer doesn’t die in the fast fashion that Bill wishes, Abby starts to fall in love with the farmer, a farmhand (Robert Wilke) suspects something is not what it seems and it’s all boiling down to a confrontation we know is coming but are afraid to know what the consequences will be when it does come about.

The film is told in a different sort of way, because from a viewer’s standpoint the main character would either be Bill or Abby. But amongst all the scenes played between them, between even the farmer and Abby (their love growing) and Bill (the hatred and suspicion building), we have a central voice coming from young Linda, who hauntingly recalls all that has occurred via a narration that I can’t get out of my head. It’s almost as if she’s telling someone this tale many years later, a therapist perhaps? But we get the idea that she has seen horrible things in her life up until that point and that nothing probably would surprise her, so all the events that take place within this film are just a snapshot of the usual fare for her.

Malick takes his time with his films, making only four feature length films in four decades. It’s only fitting his newest, Tree of Life, is in the start of the fifth decade (sixth if you count his first short film) but an artist can’t be rushed. You can tell from this film that Malick isn’t doing a usual dramatic film. The pieces are all there, of course, but he’s telling a story of ultimate loss and showcases it in such beautiful shots of the Texas prairie. The film is also accompanied by a wonderful score by Ennio Morricone. No surprise there, but the lush sounds and the scope of which they are presented makes it a sought after score that most people when hearing it just soak it up and experience it rather than just listening to it.

The Criterion Collection puts out an amazing Blu-ray edition of Days of Heaven, deservedly so and places it in its rightful place in film history as an important part of 70′s filmmaking, further proving why the 70′s were the most diverse and risk taking decade for film. We get a stunning transfer approved by Malick himself, as well as editor Billy Weber and camera operator John Bailey. A very detailed commentary featuring Weber, art director Jack Fisk, costume designer Patricia Norris and casting director Dianne Crittenden. We also get an audio interview with Richard Gere, video interviews with Bailey, cinematographer Haskell Wexler, and actor Sam Shepard, as well as a booklet with an essay by critic Adrian Martin and a chapter from the autobiography of Nestor Almendros, the director of photography.

It’s a great starting point for anyone looking to get into Terrence Malick and it’s frightening to know that you only have to find three more films to complete his filmography. In a few weeks we’ll have The Thin Red Line within the Criterion Collection and hopefully this paves the way for his fictional retelling of the Starkweather murder spree in Badlands in the coming years. I tend to be a completist with certain filmmakers and Malick is one filmmaker that anyone who lives and breathes films needs to have on their shelves and in their Blu-ray players.

Buy the Days of Heaven DVD from Amazon

Buy the Days of Heaven Blu-ray from Amazon

“You ask what you should watch. I ask how I should live. It’s the same thing.“

Sometimes the best duos in film are lovers. It worked so well with Jean-Luc Godard and his muse Anna Karina. And roughly at the same time in Italy, we had Michelangelo Antonioni and his lover Monica [...]]]>

“You ask what you should watch. I ask how I should live. It’s the same thing.“

Sometimes the best duos in film are lovers. It worked so well with Jean-Luc Godard and his muse Anna Karina. And roughly at the same time in Italy, we had Michelangelo Antonioni and his lover Monica Vitti, a breathtaking woman who shined so bright in his films, and for good reason. And in 1964 she made the film Red Desert, a stunning look at the industrialization that was occurring in Italy at the time and is Antonioni’s first color film, which he takes glorious advantage of.

Giuliana (Monica Vitti) is a young mother and wife who is recovering from a monthlong hospital stay due to an attempted suicide, which she somehow concealed from her husband Ugo (Carlo Chionetti), who is a hotshot engineer at the power plant. He doesn’t really care for her emotional turmoil and would rather go through his day without that burden, so Giuliana falls for her husband’s co-worker, Corrado Zeller (Richard Harris), a globe trotting charmer. Sadly she stays withdrawn from Corrado as well, even though he is empathetic to her pain and doesn’t take to physical pleasure, even though she might truly yearn for it.

Monica Vitti was the perfect actress for Antonioni, first in 1960′s L’avventura and 1962′s L’eclisse (both available from Criterion) and this is no exception. The pain, the turmoil, the anguish throughout this film that she is suffering is as intense, especially with the cold backdrop of the power plant and the smoke stacks, with flames bursting through, is something to behold. Vitti is almost a piece of the scenery, with her bright clothing and her hip hairstyle, while the commercial and sterile look of the surrounding area and even their apartment itself, makes for a dizzying display of muted colors. The grays and blacks are as much a part of this film as the actual players, and seeing him use the character of Giuliana as a central point, we follow her through this film, wondering if she’ll ever open up or just continue this pattern of depression.

Again, I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but the term ‘artist’ comes up again in this review, but how could I not use that comparison when speaking of Antonioni and his use of color for the first time? He would go as far as painting the backgrounds to his choosing, even coloring trees and grass different colors to fit the scene and the feeling that he was alluding to. The pipes are another element of this film, with their sharp reds showcasing the anxiety Giuliana feels, even though she has a man in her life that truly understands what she’s going through and wants to help her through it while her own marriage is falling apart.

Many think the backgrounds are too harsh, alienating the viewer, but one has to look at it a bit further. Antonioni is showing his appreciation and the beauty of the industrial environment and a person’s attempt to adapt to this world. He’s gone on to say that it was about someone adjusting to the world around them, and Giuliana is continously trying to adjust to her own environment and to the relationships she’s formed with two men that love her. Her disconnection is something many have felt before, and we stay with her throughout, hoping she’ll find her own identity. It being set in and around a power plant is irrelevent, but Antonioni uses it to its full affect to keep the story going forward.

Criterion once again brings out all the big guns for their Blu-ray release of Red Desert. With their usual pristine transfer and updated English subtitle translation, they also have a great commentary by Italian film scholar David Forgacs, archival interviews with Antonioni and Vitti, two short documentaries by Antonioni (Gente del Po and N.U.), dailies from the original production, the film’s trailer and a booklet featuring an essay by film writer Mark Le Fanu, Antonioni writings on Gente del Po and N.U. and a fitting reprinting of an interview of Antonioni by Jean-Luc Godard himself.

Red Desert is one of many films that if it wasn’t for the Criterion Collection, I might not have had the urge to seek out to watch. But seeing this film and knowing of Antonioni’s other films, I have yet to be disappointed by his work. One of, if not the greatest Italian modernist directors, I wonder if films such as The Passenger and Blow-Up might be entering the collection down the line? If so, they will be a perfect fit within the collection by a director whose films get better with age.

Buy the Red Desert DVD from Amazon

Buy the Red Desert Blu-ray from Amazon

Who lit the fuse that tore Harold’s world apart?

When sitting down to write a review on a new DVD or Blu-ray release, one has to look at the movie and review it accordingly. If the film is an older one and has been well received, then one can reiterate this fact [...]]]>

Who lit the fuse that tore Harold’s world apart?

When sitting down to write a review on a new DVD or Blu-ray release, one has to look at the movie and review it accordingly. If the film is an older one and has been well received, then one can reiterate this fact but then delve into the actual home video release of sorts. This has been my problem with the new release of The Long Good Friday from Handmade Films.

Usually a film like this would be all about the revenge, but instead director John Mackenzie uses the film instead to show Harold (Bob Hoskins) trying to figure out where this attack is coming from in the first place. Being the undisputed leader of the London underworld, he’s more or less killed every potential enemy in the years he’s been in charge, so whoever is trying to topple his empire must be working from within. So the movie is a path of carnage, with Harold at he forefront, going through supposed friends who might or might not know anything pertaining to the world shattering events that occurred on what was going to be the most important day of his life.

This is the third time The Long Good Friday has been released on DVD in the States and it’s definitely not a charm. I’m not sure what improvements were made, if any, to the print from previous versions of the film. Criterion put out the first version here, which was a perfectly fine version of the film (that and Mona Lisa, another Hoskins’ gangster flick from that time) and then a couple of years back Anchor Bay also released a slightly prettier print and had a good amount of special features with Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren, as well as a great commentary track with the Mackenzie.

Handmade Films dropped the ball with a subpar transfer to a fantastic film and no special features whatsoever. It is very affordable, as well as the other Handmade Films they acquired, but we as cinephiles as for more from our home releases. Especially when a former release on DVD looks head and shoulders above this release. If you haven’t seen the film before, check out this Blu-ray because it’s affordable. If you want superior versions with extras, spend the extra cash on the Criterion or Anchor Bay versions. Or be like me and own all 3 so you can compulsively compare.

Order the Long Good Friday from Amazon for $12.99

The battle to get a film from the United States Postal Service shouldn’t be a battle at all. It should be simple and easy; a package, being sent from one individual to another individual. So when the Criterion edition of Crumb came in the mail, it looked as if a 300 pound [...]]]>

The battle to get a film from the United States Postal Service shouldn’t be a battle at all. It should be simple and easy; a package, being sent from one individual to another individual. So when the Criterion edition of Crumb came in the mail, it looked as if a 300 pound muscle bound wrestler decided to sit on the package, totally destroying the case and ripping the wonderful Robert Crumb artwork that accompanies the cover now. It’s a shame but one that which makes one appreciate the fact that the disc was somehow unscathed. Is it because Criterion discs are more powerful? Could be.

Crumb tells the story of Robert Crumb, famed cartoonist, whose most popular character, Fritz the Cat, was made into a movie by Ralph Bakshi (a favorite here at Criterion Cast), was so loathed by Crumb himself that he killed off Fritz in an issue of the comic with an icepick. Talk about some strong feelings. And in Terry Zwigoff’s documentary, there’s plenty of strong feelings throughout the film itself.

The concept of this documentary is a simple one. It’s to show Crumb working, while interviewing friends and critics to show what relevance his art has, showcasing his family to give him a proper background and ultimately has him moving from America to his new home in France with his wife and daughter. The film follows his life so closely, we sometimes forget that this is a documentary and not some perfectly constructed fictional account of Crumb himself.

It traces Crumb‘s life from his childhood, when he was obsessed and sexually attraction to Bugs Bunny and obsession with female legs. His brother Charles was the one who got him into comic books and they drew extensively throughout their childhoods. While Robert went on to become a comic artist, Charles just kept deteriorating and believing that comics were the be all and end all of life. Crumb also believed this was the way to get girls to see his sensitive side but instead realized that girls only wanted tough guys who would always bully self confessed nerds like him. But luckily this was the channel he needed to let out any internal frustrations he was growing up with.

Criterion releases two Terry Zwigoff films into their collection and they are definitely most deserving of the treatment (The other is Louie Bluie). It comes with the usual amazing supplements we’ve come to know and love from Criterion. It’s newly restored, with supervision from Terry Zwigoff himself. This time there are two commentary tracks, one with Zwigoff and Roger Ebert from 2006 (which is from the older release) and a new 2010 version with Zwigoff himself. We also get 50 minutes of unused footage and a stills gallery. The coolest part though is the inserts, one with an essay by critic Jonathan Rosenbaum and artwork by Charles, Jesse, Maxon and Robert Crumb. It’s definitely worth seeing to believe.

Crumb was and still is a cult favorite, an indie darling from the early to mid 90′s that has grown in popularity over the years as much as Crumb‘s own popularity as well. It was an intimate look to a man whose own artwork was sexually, racially and mentally out there. He broke down barriers and brought in a new generation of liberated comic artists who couldn’t get a job before. This film is a window into a family’s life, be it a very dysfunctional family, with some ups and many downs and that’s what makes for entertaining cinema.

It’s weird to know in retrospect that Crumb also hates this film, this document of his life. Zwigoff was involved in his day to day life for years, videotaping every facet. And it was the rough financial years too, who ultimately became like the phoenix and was again in popular culture. And since this movie was released in 1994 and has been seen by many, Crumb has a grander career almost like a grandfather in the arts. That creepy grandfather who will give you candy and let you watch the sex scenes in the films when your parents aren’t around.

Buy the Crumb DVD from Amazon

Buy the Crumb Blu-ray from Amazon

When I was a kid and I saw Gamera Vs. Barugon for the first time, I was a bit confused. Not by the film itself, but I had to ask my uncle if this Barugon was the same as the Baragon that battled rival Godzilla. My uncle looked at me, smiled and [...]]]>

When I was a kid and I saw Gamera Vs. Barugon for the first time, I was a bit confused. Not by the film itself, but I had to ask my uncle if this Barugon was the same as the Baragon that battled rival Godzilla. My uncle looked at me, smiled and said some words that still stick with me to this day. He said, “You know way too much about films. You’ve learned well and will probably surpass me soon enough.” Cut to 20 some odd years later and I’m giving my uncle tips on which films he needs to check out. So when I told him I was reviewing Gamera Vs. Barugon, the second film in the classic Gamera series, he patted me on the shoulder and said he couldn’t wait to read it.

Koji Fujiyama is the human star, Onodera, who is a ruthless bastard in search of a prized opal in New Guinea. He’ll get it at any cost, letting one of his colleagues die from a scorpion sting, punches women without any remorse, tries to kill another ‘friend’ with grenades, burns a crippled man alive (which beforhand he crushed him with steel lockers and unleashes Barugon on the public. Yes, the opal he was searching for is Barugon’s egg and he doesn’t even care. He even tries to steal the diamond which lures Barugon into what could be a watery grave for him.

Onodera doesn’t have any qualms with being one of the most loathsome people on screen and that’s what sets this film apart from other Japanese monster movies. Usually you just care about the monster battles, but in this film you just can’t wait to see what this guy is going to do next, and that’s mainly due to Fujiyama’s portrayal and the script by Nisan Takahashi (who would continue on as writer of all of Showa’s Gamera films).

It also works due to the use of color photography, used to great detail when the battles are occuring on screen. They went through all the stops, with a widescreen display that should be seen by anyone deciding on doing a kaiju film of any sort. This is the first time since theaters (showing the film as War of the Monsters in the U.S.), Shout! Factory has done an amazing job with this presentation of the film. They’ve cleaned up the film as much as they possibly could, making this the prettiest Gamera I’ve ever seen. And seeing the film with the proper language and translated subtitles might seem miniscule to some, but to a kaiju purist like myself and lover of foreign films, I like to see a film in its original intended format.

They also include an informative commentary track with August Ragone, who did the first Gamera release as well and is now joined by fellow fan and translator Jason Varney. It tends to be more straight forward, showcasing each of the actors and various other crew throughout the film, which is all you can really ask with a commentary track like this. You also get some behind the scenes photos, promotional materials, a Japanese movie program and a great little booklet with thoughts from fellow co-star Kojiro Hongo, from a previous Gamera picture book.

If anyone has known me for many years, they’ll know that I’m an avid Joe Dante lover. And who can deny that love? From Gremlins to Matinee, to The Howling and The ‘Burbs, nobody has done a better job in contemporary Hollywood genre films and also had a critical following as well. [...]]]>

If anyone has known me for many years, they’ll know that I’m an avid Joe Dante lover. And who can deny that love? From Gremlins to Matinee, to The Howling and The ‘Burbs, nobody has done a better job in contemporary Hollywood genre films and also had a critical following as well. Shout Factory! Has just released his first breakthrough hit, a Roger Corman produced horror comedy that many have passed over as a Jaws ripoff. The film is Piranha.

Heather Menzies stars as the good natured but bumbling insurance investigator Maggie McKeown, who is looking for two missing teenagers who vanished near Lost River Lake. She meets drunkard Paul Grogan, played wonderfully by Bradford Dillman, who serves as her guide in the area. They come across an abandoned compound, which served for a time as a fish hatchery which the military used at one time.

While seeing some crazy experiments in jars, they realize somebody is still on the premises. Cautiously they search some more and Maggie realizes they need to search the bottom of the pool so she proceeds to drain it. A frantic man attacks the both of them, trying to stop them from draining the pool but they battle him off and the pool is drained. Unknown to them, there were killer piranha in that pool and now they’ve been let loose to the surrounding area. With a nearby camp, where Grogan’s own daughter is at, and a newly functioning amusement park and beach (ran by Dante and Corman mainstay Dick Miller), all hell is about to break loose.

I don’t want to give much away, because it wouldn’t do it justice in the text alone. It’s a film that needs to be watched, especially with friends, and to experience the joy in the piranha attacking people, even children, is something to behold. The special effects are of course outdated, but that’s part of the fun, and watching the disc and seeing the special features on how they overcame the budget in order to make the best rampaging piranha movie ever is awesome.

Shout! Factory again has not let the viewer down with their presentation of Piranha. They bring over the great and informative commentary track from Joe Dante and producer Jon Davidson from the old DVD release. But with a new anamorphic trailer, a great documentary with new interviews from Dante, Corman, Miller and many more, a blooper and outtake reel, a stills gallery showing behind the scenes stuff from Phil Tippett’s personal collection and the Piranha trailer itself with commentary by Jon Davidson from Joe Dante’s own glorious website Trailers From Hell, you really can’t go wrong with this release. Roger Corman’s films are being given the proper treatment they deserve, and this is one of the best ones he was ever a part of. Go check it out but be warned: you won’t want to go in a lake with an inner tube anytime soon. Especially if Paul Bartel is your camp counselor.

‘The Vanished Empire‘ came out of left field to this viewer, especially when it comes to a part of youth that I never thought about in the first place. Soviet youth sounds like it would be about war torn Russia, at least to a close-minded individual, but watching the new film by [...]]]>

‘The Vanished Empire‘ came out of left field to this viewer, especially when it comes to a part of youth that I never thought about in the first place. Soviet youth sounds like it would be about war torn Russia, at least to a close-minded individual, but watching the new film by Karen Shakhnazarov, it shows us that no matter what time and country it might be set in, a film about teenagers tends to be about the same thing: friends, girls, betrayal, school, banned rock music and the collapse of a society around them.

Shakhnazarov is a talented director who deserves some recognition here in this part of the world. ‘The Vanished Empire‘ works perfectly as a coming of age story, but as opposed to most of those films, this one deals more with Russian youth culture and how they are going forward toward a future that isn’t certain. A society that bans rock music, such as The Rolling Stones, The Beatles… hell, even The Archies “Sugar, Sugar” is a call to arms to these kids who have to secretly listen to these songs in order to ‘fight the power’, so to speak.

The screenplay, by Sergey Rokotov and Evgeny Nikishov, shows a city that is much more dilapidated than 70′s London or New York City, and the relationships between not only Sergey’s friends but also his family as well, especially his grandfather (Armen Djigarkhanyan), who is a well respected archaeologist who did the major excavation of the ancient Khorezm civilization in present day Uzbekistan. Which then has some great surreal moments, such as Sergey’s first use of marijuana, which takes him to a the City of the Wind, which his grandfather has named in Khorezm.

The film has this sense of loss and disconnect, which happens to many of us when we are in our teens. We gain friends, we lose them. We fall in love with people and they break our hearts. We think we are lost and blame our youth for it all, but when looking around us, we see that the adults aren’t much better than us anyway. The youth in this film have moved on from their elders, who no longer have any hold on them.

A film that luckily has not been ignored by Kino Lorber Films, we get to see a film that might have not been seen for years here. Karen Shakhnazarov is a filmmaker that is now on my radar, which has me looking for his films “Jazzman”, “City Zero” and “The Rider Named Death”. He perfectly captures and shows us Brezhnev-era Moscow, and with a wonderful performance by Alexander Lyapin, you can’t help but want to know about this time in the Soviet Union’s history and how it affected the people then and ultimately the people still living there today.

“Sorrow will pass, believe me.

Life is so unimportant.

And from now onwards, you will dance like nobody ever before.”

When sitting down to watch a film that you not only love to death but call one of your top 10 films of all time is a hard one to [...]]]>

“Sorrow will pass, believe me.

Life is so unimportant.

And from now onwards, you will dance like nobody ever before.”

When sitting down to watch a film that you not only love to death but call one of your top 10 films of all time is a hard one to review. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1948 film ‘The Red Shoes‘ is a much beloved film by countless critics and filmmakers, the most prominent one being Martin Scorsese, who helped with the restoration process for this film. So how does one give this film the credit it so rightly deserves?

[Warning: This review contains spoilers for The Red Shoes.]

We also follow Julian Craster (Marius Goring), a brilliant up-and-coming composer who is to write the next ballet, The Red Shoes, for Lermontov and it is to feature Vicky as the star of the show. When the show is being worked on and practiced with the whole company, Julian and Vicky constantly butt heads with one another which then shows them that true love awaits the two of them. The show is a rousing success and Boris is happy about this. He is not happy about the affair between the two lovers, especially being furious at Julian for distracting his leading dancer.

Julian is fired and Vicky leaves the dance troupe to marry Julian and live with him in London. Boris allows Vicky to dance wherever and whenever she wants, with the only exception being The Red Shoes, which he vows to never show again unless she is the star. Ultimately Vicky has to choose between her love for Julian and her love for the dance. Julian realizes her choice is the dance, she runs off with an irresistible urge to go to the theater with the red shoes on and jumps in front of an oncoming train. As she lays dying on the stretcher, she asks Julian to take the shoes off, which mimics the ending to The Red Shoes ballet. The film ends with the ballet still being performed without Vicky, a spotlight on the spot where she would have been.

A beautiful, poignant, breathtaking and wonderful film, ‘The Red Shoes’ is a masterpiece in cinema and art itself. To think this film was almost lost due to wear and tear and severe mold issues is saddening, to say the least. Thankfully, Martin Scorsese and many others came in with their love and admiration for the film and painstakingly restored this film to near perfection, with Scorsese even saying that it truly has never looked this good before, even when it was out in theaters. The way the film uses the Technicolor process is amazing, with astounding choreography by Jack Cardiff and the music by Brian Easdale brings you right into the dance itself, making you a part of it.

The Criterion Collection, yet again, does not disappoint with this release. The supplements are in no short supply, with a great commentary track with film historian Ian Christie, featuring interviews with stars Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale, and Scorsese himself. Martin Scorsese also shot a 5 minute restoration demonstration where he shows how they had three times the work when it came to restoring this film digitally. Profile of “The Red Shoes,” is a 25 minute documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with members of the production team. A 15 minute interview during the 2009 Cannes Film Festival with Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, discussing the film, her husband and the restoration process itself.

Jeremy Irons makes two appearances, reading excerpts from the Powell and Pressburger novelization of ‘The Red Shoes’ and also reading the original Andersen fairy-tale which is accompanied by an animated film of Hein Heckroth’s painted storyboards, with ‘The Red Shoes’ ballet as an alternate angle. We also get rare behind the scenes photos, rare publicity stills and a gallery of Scorsese’s own personal collection of ‘Red Shoes‘ memorabilia. Finally, as is usual with the Criterion Collection, we get the theatrical trailer and a booklet featuring an essay by critic David Ehrenstein and a description of the restoration by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt.

Ultimately, the one constant theme everyone takes from ‘The Red Shoes‘ is the whole question of “would you die for your art?” And within this film, we see that the art is so important that it is worth dying for because how else could you truly live?

A film that came out in 2005 to rave reviews during the Berlin Film Festival and is finally out on DVD here in the U.S. 5 years later sounds like an adventure all its own, but this is what happened to Aleksandr Sokurov’s ‘The Sun’. Add to that already ardent fact is [...]]]>

A film that came out in 2005 to rave reviews during the Berlin Film Festival and is finally out on DVD here in the U.S. 5 years later sounds like an adventure all its own, but this is what happened to Aleksandr Sokurov’s ‘The Sun’. Add to that already ardent fact is it is a film about the Japanese dictator Emperor Hirohito and his last days in power before Japan surrendered to the Allies in World War II, mostly set in the basement bunker of the Imperial Palace.

We leave the Imperial Palace at one point for an encounter between Hirohito and the American general Douglas MacArthur (Robert Dawson), who invites him to dinner so they can discuss, like civilized men, how Japan will surrender to the Allies. But it’s staged almost like a horrible first date, awkward and unnerving, with Hirohito running off but ultimately coming back and just talking nonstop about random things, which has MacArthur excusing himself, only to call his “girlfriend” the President as a way to complain about the meeting itself. It’s almost comedic but really is a sad display of someone, up until recently, was shown as a peacemaker and stoic, not a neurotic mess the way Sokurov shows him.

Not only is Sokurov’s direction and framing of the film a wonderful eye-opening experience (which makes myself and everyone else have to seek out the other two films in his ‘dictator trilogy’, ‘Moloch’ which is about Hitler and the Lenin centric ‘Taurus’) but so is the tour-de-force performance by Issey Ogata. He somehow finds different ways to play neurotic and strange, giving Woody Allen a run for his money. He usually says more with his body than with words, his body being the dialogue of his character.

The script by Jeremy Noble and Yuri Arabov has a great sense of humor but a sense of humility, showing this once proud man who led Japan into WWII and now is almost giddy when he hears the American forces marching in Tokyo. His obsession with crabs and their beauty is a constant theme, which some people have said have a place in showing mental illness, especially in Japan. Was this what Sokurov going for in his Hirohito ‘revisionist’ history lesson? It’s a film that Kino Lorber Films thankfully have given us cinephiles a chance to sit back, watch this film with our colleagues and have rather intricate discussions about. Which is always what a good filmmaker wants their film to do.