tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19109618674082357912024-03-12T20:12:43.156-07:00Dvd ColumnAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910961867408235791.post-21719372581529693872013-05-04T15:13:00.000-07:002013-05-04T15:13:40.254-07:00DVD Column Seven<br />
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DVD Pick:<o:p></o:p></h2>
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Elena [Blu-ray] (Zvyagintsev, 2011) RB UK New Wave Films<img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Nt0XOH-Lu8/UYVxsy9C6-I/AAAAAAAAAZ4/zxtLzebw_-k/s320/Elena.jpg" width="252" /></h3>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Elena</i> is a film
that pays attention to details and its gesture of crucial action are tied up
with that attention to detail. It is a presentation of an older Russian women married,
for the second time, to a retired high-up in the Soviet army. He has money, she
has him, his daughter is seen to (despite her resentment), her son and his
family are not (despite their apparent need, a need connected to their laziness
about their own plight and their proclivity to reproduction). This causes
tension between the married couple, a tension that delicately comes to be
central in their lives and with profound but not conclusive results. It is a
film about loyalty and very little in it exclusively understands loyalty as
essentially virtuous. The movie is slow but when it moves it does so with a
palpable degree of tension. In this way, it echoes not real life but our terror
about real life that we find in apprehension of possible expectations. A young
man (the grandson of Elena) goes off with his gang of friends for fun and the
frolic of violence and we, impotently watching, dread what we can conceive of
as the only possible outcome. This is the essence of the viewer’s experience,
edge of your seat dread as to what might and should (although there is no
definite logic to this demand) happen. What is Elena doing, what has she done?
Does she know what she is doing, what has she set in motion? All of it is the
drama of ordinary lives with some of the mystery of what certain members of a
family do behind the scenes. No one else knows what anyone else is doing and
yet there are acts being committed that would make us blanche while we
delightedly accept them. Not a character in the film is without tremendous
interest and I only wish that I could have seen all of them in private as we do
Elena. This is a gentle and ruthless film.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QEgXHW92lo8/UYVxzwuOGWI/AAAAAAAAAaA/UvoANmoC1h4/s1600/elena+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-QEgXHW92lo8/UYVxzwuOGWI/AAAAAAAAAaA/UvoANmoC1h4/s320/elena+poster.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
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The Kid With a Bike [Blu-ray] (Dardenne, 2011) Criterion</h3>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mroTH2Ga2go/UYVy3nt0X2I/AAAAAAAAAaM/nqDw9jdVcEI/s1600/the+kid+with+a+bike.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mroTH2Ga2go/UYVy3nt0X2I/AAAAAAAAAaM/nqDw9jdVcEI/s320/the+kid+with+a+bike.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Kid With A Bike</i>
represents a break from previous Dardenne brother films (the use of a
steadi-cam, soundtrack music) but not a radical one. It is another film about
how adults manage to coexist with and give to a child in trouble. The trouble,
this time, is twelve year old Cyril and his rage against the world due, in
part, to being completely rejected by his beloved and apathetic father. He ends
up in the home, for his own strategic reasons, of hairdresser Samantha, for no
apparent reason at all. It is the lack of Samantha’s reason to care for this hellion
of a boy that gives the film its enormous power and importance. That is all
there is, an extremely and justifiably angry young boy acting out, trying to
find a male figure in his life to look up to and instead he finds a woman who
cares for him unconditionally, irrationally and responsibly. In order for the
moral joy of the film to work the boy has to be terrible and unbearable. This
is accomplished in ways that are believable and disturbing. What is less
believable but undeniably truthful is Samantha’s perpetual willingness to give
with nothing in return. Undergraduates like to trot out the notion that there
is no such thing as pure altruism, that everyone does good for the good that
they eventually receive. The film outrages this notion by giving us a woman who
is more punished than placated or pleasured by what she gives. She is good, for
no reason at all and this, the alarming suggestion is, is the only way to be
good. It also follows that it is the only way to parent and to befriend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I0P1N78Lde8/UYVzC7EFNHI/AAAAAAAAAaU/-PtSL1OhrLQ/s1600/the+kid+with+a+bike+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I0P1N78Lde8/UYVzC7EFNHI/AAAAAAAAAaU/-PtSL1OhrLQ/s320/the+kid+with+a+bike+poster.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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The Man With The Iron Fists [Blu-ray] (RZA, 2012) Universal</h3>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-02iHY1Kppng/UYV0YR-ilGI/AAAAAAAAAak/Y8TrwMGQMqs/s1600/iron+fists.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-02iHY1Kppng/UYV0YR-ilGI/AAAAAAAAAak/Y8TrwMGQMqs/s320/iron+fists.jpg" width="268" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is cartoonish and it is fun. It is an update of the Shaw
Brothers films in every way except that the Wu-Tang Clan is on the soundtrack
(a welcome addition). I am not going to bother with plot points or discussions
of possible moral connection. The commendable moral of the film is that it is
startlingly discrete in its treatment of women and that it is non-stop action.
It is fun. </span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CEoWXAKknEY/UYV0lfwh2QI/AAAAAAAAAas/UzjI-mcl3Po/s1600/The-Man-with-the-Iron-Fists-2012-Movie-Poster-600x949.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CEoWXAKknEY/UYV0lfwh2QI/AAAAAAAAAas/UzjI-mcl3Po/s320/The-Man-with-the-Iron-Fists-2012-Movie-Poster-600x949.jpg" width="202" /></a></div>
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The Right to Live (Keighley, 1935) Warner Archive Classics</h3>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I5lHY_oFk5E/UYV2BV5SpEI/AAAAAAAAAa8/HCRYhWyiCiE/s1600/the+right+to+live.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I5lHY_oFk5E/UYV2BV5SpEI/AAAAAAAAAa8/HCRYhWyiCiE/s320/the+right+to+live.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">On paper this film sounds trite: injured man sets up fiancée
with his brother in order that she can experience life. This is also the
premise of Von Trier’s classic: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Breaking
the Waves </i>and this film like that one has much to recommend it. The method
by which this romantic melodrama turns into a mystery is compelling and so
necessary that the viewer feels validated by its happening. It is a film that
sets itself out to be a debate on moral rights to life and to die but like any
good morality tale this becomes the setting and not the event. The questions
you ask yourself are not the questions that correspond to the title but become
personal ones: what was he thinking, how does she feel, and so on. The dialogue
is sharp enough to let you into something other than speechmaking.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UkI3Bf2M8kk/UYV2I8C0LiI/AAAAAAAAAbE/VikAWjZu4e0/s1600/the+right+to+live+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UkI3Bf2M8kk/UYV2I8C0LiI/AAAAAAAAAbE/VikAWjZu4e0/s320/the+right+to+live+poster.jpg" width="122" /></a></div>
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The Silk Express (Enright, 1933) Warner Archive Classics<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JCdHR7qQKdc/UYV3KVrSn1I/AAAAAAAAAbU/ZYy6dz9Nxkw/s1600/the+silk+express+blu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JCdHR7qQKdc/UYV3KVrSn1I/AAAAAAAAAbU/ZYy6dz9Nxkw/s320/the+silk+express+blu.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">New York needs silk and the main distributer has a monopoly
and with that all the abuses of price gouging predictably occur. A leader of
the silk merchants orders from Japan, the silk arrives in Seattle and is put on
a train for New York, it has forty eight hours to get there. The monopoly has a
vested interest in preventing this and thus we have a film that is exciting and
smart. It is not clear to me why the time constraint is so tight but I did not
care when faced with a smart hero and a smart villain battling it out on the
train rails. The suspense was genuine and I felt like a child again watching an
exciting and meaningless movie. But I am not a child and I no longer am nearly
as able at forgiving or suspending the aspects of a movie that seem poorly
conceived or heavy handed. This was the source of my pleasure here, I did not
have to pretend to be someone younger and dumber than I am. I was returned to
boyish enthusiasms without leaving myself. When that happens you love movies.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FIGmhP6Cf04/UYV3RTL_ImI/AAAAAAAAAbc/2N09Fh71Hqg/s1600/the+silk+express.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FIGmhP6Cf04/UYV3RTL_ImI/AAAAAAAAAbc/2N09Fh71Hqg/s320/the+silk+express.jpg" width="131" /></a></div>
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Sweepings (Cromwell, 1933) Warner Archive Classics<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RRF1FNsKYSM/UYV4cJr6ZhI/AAAAAAAAAbs/MQwBP1_XC98/s1600/sweepings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RRF1FNsKYSM/UYV4cJr6ZhI/AAAAAAAAAbs/MQwBP1_XC98/s320/sweepings.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ters7_WvV9I/UYV4fz-Ul0I/AAAAAAAAAb0/Efymrfnekcs/s1600/sweepings+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was the best of the Warner Archive batch for this week.
Yes, it is old fashioned and you have to accept, if this is foreign to your
movie watching experience, a grainy black and white picture and a style of
acting and filming that does not dispel any of your thoughts of what movies
were like in decades past. It is the content that demands your attention. The
great Chicago fire provides opportunity for Daniel Pardway who opens a store,
selling anything that people want or need, finds immediate success. He is
attentive to expenses and enjoys the hard work necessary for the type of
success that he is lucky enough to have fallen into. In the title scene he
discovers that even good things can be found in the garbage that one does the
labor to sweep up. It is this metaphor that bears heavily on the rest of the
film. The Pardway’s have four children, each cherished and adored, the last
killing the mother and provoking in the father the usual cinematic promises of
loving care. The film is devoted to the relationship that this father has to
his increasingly disappointing children or sweepings. It is on these points
that the film is particularly striking. The failure of the children to aspire
to the heights of the father is presented both as an ethical lacking and an
inheritance from a father devoted to capitalist principles. No one is unmarked,
the father is disreputable in his way, blind to the natures of his children
with his vision of them as his children; negligent of the actuality of a work
ethic and its tremendous costs in those around him, devoted but not blood. His
children are spoiled rotten but are also just rotten and spoiled by alcoholism,
sexual impropriety (and the film is unusually frank in that regard) and by not
having anything to do with their own lives. One son survives the devastating
disappointment of his father by being, unstated, gay and he is accepted for not
being like the rest who are just failures without the excuses, as far as a
blind father can see, of their own private turmoil of identity. The film tries
to end with the appearance of hope but only the most naïve of viewers would
accept that the hope will be borne out in actuality. The film is cynical and dark
but only so in relation to the false truths and light that are there to be
sold.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ters7_WvV9I/UYV4fz-Ul0I/AAAAAAAAAb4/blnAGC_RO2M/s1600/sweepings+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ters7_WvV9I/UYV4fz-Ul0I/AAAAAAAAAb4/blnAGC_RO2M/s320/sweepings+poster.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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Skyfall [Blu-ray] (Mendes, 2012) Twentieth Century Fox<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XLS4Rl16yjo/UYV5WVVXaLI/AAAAAAAAAcE/l3YjnYjYIiM/s1600/skyfall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XLS4Rl16yjo/UYV5WVVXaLI/AAAAAAAAAcE/l3YjnYjYIiM/s320/skyfall.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There are twenty-three official James Bond films. I, and
many others, own all of them on DVD. I, and many others, have a tendency
towards curiosity whenever a new one comes out. I want to see it. Of the
twenty-three I consider two of the films to be very good (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Goldfinger, Casino Royale</i>), about the same amount to be okay and
the rest to be not very good at all. Right now, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Skyfall</i> is okay, ten years from now or even less it will likely
fall in with the rest of them. Let me be clearer because I don’t think you and
I are all that far apart on this: we love the idea of these films but they are
not very good. Each of the junk ones has a moment or two you remember but to
commend a film on that basis would be likely watching up to the opening
credits, declaring your universal affection, and then turning it off. Actually,
that is exactly what I do.<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pa3wyBveCmA/UYV5eHDOArI/AAAAAAAAAcM/RpRn-Ettxek/s1600/skyfall-first-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Pa3wyBveCmA/UYV5eHDOArI/AAAAAAAAAcM/RpRn-Ettxek/s320/skyfall-first-poster.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
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Ginger & Rosa [Blu-ray] (Potter, 2012) RB UK Artificial
Eye</h3>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kym26ZLKI6Y/UYV6R6wllCI/AAAAAAAAAcY/jhNXvfmH0u8/s1600/ginger+and+rosa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kym26ZLKI6Y/UYV6R6wllCI/AAAAAAAAAcY/jhNXvfmH0u8/s320/ginger+and+rosa.jpg" width="266" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first two thirds of this film are pretty ordinary. Two
young girlfriends become caught up in issues of identity development at a
moment of history that is dealing with the fearful rhetoric of nuclear
annihilation by the presence of nuclear warheads on British soil. The two
moments, of course, clash and comingle, identity becomes conflated with death
and the usual good and poor behaviors, as reaction and reflection, occur. This
is a lot for a film to capture and it is only in the last third where the
psychological effects of all the fear and all the righteousness of rebelling
against sources of fear without come to a head that the film soars. It is not
enough to recommend because the glories of the conclusion are still touched by
the inadequacies of the set up (and by Elle Fanning’s constant face pulling).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--oZkMWXr_34/UYV6ZNll9VI/AAAAAAAAAcg/fCRnIs60Cpc/s1600/ginger-and-rosa-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--oZkMWXr_34/UYV6ZNll9VI/AAAAAAAAAcg/fCRnIs60Cpc/s320/ginger-and-rosa-poster.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The Thieves [Blu-ray] (Dong-hoon, 2012) Well Go
Entertainment<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D3qt3HZI3Sw/UYV7Q-hYbqI/AAAAAAAAAcw/ywZAud4hPbs/s1600/the+thieves.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-D3qt3HZI3Sw/UYV7Q-hYbqI/AAAAAAAAAcw/ywZAud4hPbs/s320/the+thieves.jpg" width="255" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I enjoyed all the Ocean films (11 to whatever) that I saw.
This is the South Korean version of those films except without the traces of
all those Hollywood stars. It has style, miles of it, so much that one could
say it is wasted. It is wasted on a film that is more complex than it is
enjoyable. Double crosses and surprises happen so frequently that they are no
longer surprising and when that happens you are the only one who is being double
crossed.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DU4lljqVB74/UYV7Z9C_wkI/AAAAAAAAAc4/OFQtnJrkvaU/s1600/the+thieves+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DU4lljqVB74/UYV7Z9C_wkI/AAAAAAAAAc4/OFQtnJrkvaU/s320/the+thieves+poster.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
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House of Whipcord [Blu-ray] (Walker, 1974) Redemption<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QrYLGUhygwY/UYV79BTPvzI/AAAAAAAAAdA/24SQmx8YYVU/s1600/house+of+whipcord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QrYLGUhygwY/UYV79BTPvzI/AAAAAAAAAdA/24SQmx8YYVU/s320/house+of+whipcord.jpg" width="264" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can make no claims about Pete Walker’s finesse as a
director of actors or of his ability to accentuate his meagre plots but he does
know a thing or two about hiring repulsive male villains. Like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Die Screaming, Marianne</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">House of Whipcord </i>(both have titles more
salacious than their content) offers the figure of a lipless elitist with high
cheekbones who reeks of untrustworthiness. Despite this he is a charmer with
women and here he uses the success of that charm to demonstrate the moral
weakness and corruption of said woman. The story about moral superiority and
the sexual status of women is an important one; more important than
exploitation of both, as presented in the film, can bring to justice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gWiSSPpIfns/UYV8Dfk-kHI/AAAAAAAAAdI/_yQ22jnvyWU/s1600/house+of+whipcord+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gWiSSPpIfns/UYV8Dfk-kHI/AAAAAAAAAdI/_yQ22jnvyWU/s320/house+of+whipcord+poster.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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Silent Hill Revelation [Blu-ray] (Bassett, 2012) Universal
Studios<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rGxOHrtCdQ0/UYV9PVYXBpI/AAAAAAAAAdY/_ahLPm6GnB4/s1600/silent+hill+revelation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rGxOHrtCdQ0/UYV9PVYXBpI/AAAAAAAAAdY/_ahLPm6GnB4/s320/silent+hill+revelation.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I have not played the PS3 game nor have I seen the first
film and I think it matters with this sequel which I am guessing is not a movie
on its own but a continuation. All I have to recommend is an appreciation for
some startling special effects (my favorite being a spider made from living
mannequin parts that has a human head at the end of each limb). More human
elements, such as the actors, are less appealing and I am not drawn, mistaken
as this may be, to catch up on the back story.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KrZO6PO5NNw/UYV9Wjdm15I/AAAAAAAAAdg/UBXDD_JAGqw/s1600/silent-hill-revelation-3d-poster-pyramid-head.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KrZO6PO5NNw/UYV9Wjdm15I/AAAAAAAAAdg/UBXDD_JAGqw/s320/silent-hill-revelation-3d-poster-pyramid-head.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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The Sessions [Blu-ray] (Levin, 2012) Fox Searchlight<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r_ZTPgKau70/UYV-VIrzBmI/AAAAAAAAAdw/browDBqKhAM/s1600/the+sessions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r_ZTPgKau70/UYV-VIrzBmI/AAAAAAAAAdw/browDBqKhAM/s320/the+sessions.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is yet another cinematic example of a noble premise
that traps its viewer into an affection or sympathy that the film does not
earn. Sure, I am all for the lives of the disabled being improved in any way
that they can. But does this mean I have to be moved by a film on this topic
that lacks any complexity of character and that dehumanizes their challenged
lead characters by making them saints? The film is stupid because everyone in
the film is so noble you feel the profound need to be the only jerk in the room
if only for the sake of human balance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-djurd2tAnoc/UYV-iiVRanI/AAAAAAAAAd4/G72yXrfgq0A/s1600/sessions_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-djurd2tAnoc/UYV-iiVRanI/AAAAAAAAAd4/G72yXrfgq0A/s320/sessions_poster.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
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Ruby Sparks [Blu-ray] (Dayton and Faris, 2012) Fox
Searchlight<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7XXb_rJhd-8/UYV_PtoCJCI/AAAAAAAAAeE/upDYnRpyyvs/s1600/ruby+sparks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7XXb_rJhd-8/UYV_PtoCJCI/AAAAAAAAAeE/upDYnRpyyvs/s320/ruby+sparks.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A squirrely famous writer invents a female character that
comes to life and becomes his love. The film is supposed to be interesting in
how it comments on the ways that we try to write each other, especially in issues
of romance, but if it is not. It is a film about a bad writer and his badly
written girlfriend and that is all.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oTUm773zkmA/UYV_WxLBEdI/AAAAAAAAAeM/TB1nTlPINNQ/s1600/ruby+sparks+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="243" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oTUm773zkmA/UYV_WxLBEdI/AAAAAAAAAeM/TB1nTlPINNQ/s320/ruby+sparks+poster.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Midnight Son (Leberecht, 2011) Image Entertainment<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y_AUCL-Z1hQ/UYV__Sip46I/AAAAAAAAAeU/vMMbe3G5Xcs/s1600/midnight+son.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y_AUCL-Z1hQ/UYV__Sip46I/AAAAAAAAAeU/vMMbe3G5Xcs/s320/midnight+son.jpg" width="226" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My sense of well-wishing goes out to this film about a young
security guard who develops a fixation for the taste of blood and who ropes a
young woman into his world. The acting is good, the writing is okay, and the
cinematography is passable. But it is too terse, too serious all the time, and
as such is too dark for the viewer to see their way in. It is a failure but not
a complete one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vm4pBm9lNVA/UYWAHiSf4bI/AAAAAAAAAec/otZar3NSCMk/s1600/MidnightSonPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vm4pBm9lNVA/UYWAHiSf4bI/AAAAAAAAAec/otZar3NSCMk/s320/MidnightSonPoster.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Perks of Being a Wallflower [Blu-ray] (Chbosky, 2012) Summit
Entertainment<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kMCnmXr-sNI/UYWAxLDLMwI/AAAAAAAAAek/YV0-gtZ-eUk/s1600/the+perks+of+being+a+wallflower.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kMCnmXr-sNI/UYWAxLDLMwI/AAAAAAAAAek/YV0-gtZ-eUk/s320/the+perks+of+being+a+wallflower.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I accept that I am not the target demographic for this one.
I am also happy that my children are not of this demographic and hopefully never
will be. The teenagers in this film are affluent and all too cool to be
believed; even their problems are cool ones heavy with drama and the enticement
for a self- involvement for which this age group is already fertile soil. It is
a film about being included with somebody who accepts you and that this is all
that is really necessary for a healthy life. It is childish.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YjAnwFSkEcU/UYWA5UGAqtI/AAAAAAAAAes/DDpoLXZL_j0/s1600/perks+of+being+a+wall+flower+poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YjAnwFSkEcU/UYWA5UGAqtI/AAAAAAAAAes/DDpoLXZL_j0/s320/perks+of+being+a+wall+flower+poster.png" width="226" /></a></div>
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Bully [Blu-ray] (Hirsch, 2011) Weinstein<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hh-AuFym8G4/UYWB0NtBkxI/AAAAAAAAAe4/5F3MxcV2w_4/s1600/bully.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hh-AuFym8G4/UYWB0NtBkxI/AAAAAAAAAe4/5F3MxcV2w_4/s320/bully.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A film about children devastated and destroyed at the hands
and mouths of bullies is not a social issue with apparent nuance. Who can help
but take the side of these battered kids? Of course we should but all social
issues have nuance and films about them if they are to be more than propaganda
are about demonstrating this nuance. This film is allowed to beat you about the
head because it knows you surrendered in advanced. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-veOYm_M98os/UYWB5OhUahI/AAAAAAAAAfA/_ZuDVXwvmY0/s1600/220px-Bully_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-veOYm_M98os/UYWB5OhUahI/AAAAAAAAAfA/_ZuDVXwvmY0/s320/220px-Bully_poster.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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Die Screaming, Marianne [Blu-ray] (Walker, 1971) Redemption<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c6wdPIf8Rbw/UYWC1VkploI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/jUauTBBwBhM/s1600/die+screaming+marrianne.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-c6wdPIf8Rbw/UYWC1VkploI/AAAAAAAAAfQ/jUauTBBwBhM/s320/die+screaming+marrianne.jpg" width="264" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The betraying villain is also presented as a lothario of
some reputation. Only one of these aspects is remotely believable and it sets
the tone for the film. Half of it is ridiculous and the other half is
disturbing in an uncomfortable way. It is startlingly casual about incest and
other debaucheries.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iVfAfbZFqKY/UYWC8HplLgI/AAAAAAAAAfY/X4vVcvWxz3E/s1600/diescreamingmarianne1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-iVfAfbZFqKY/UYWC8HplLgI/AAAAAAAAAfY/X4vVcvWxz3E/s320/diescreamingmarianne1.jpg" width="264" /></a></div>
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Score [Blu-ray] (Metzger, 1974) RB UK Arrow Films<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-br-0uK90KzQ/UYWEJT6VfYI/AAAAAAAAAfo/KjKP-Xp2ZMI/s1600/score.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-br-0uK90KzQ/UYWEJT6VfYI/AAAAAAAAAfo/KjKP-Xp2ZMI/s320/score.jpg" width="251" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Lickerish Quartet</i>
this is soft-core porn advertised as an art exposure of human sexuality. A
swinging couple seeks to convert another more innocent, but oh so tempted,
younger couple into their liberated ways. The general view is that sex is
everything needed for a good life and the wilder the sex the wilder the life.
It is a stupid idea smugly presented. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Film
Comment</i> made this release a feature recommendation.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KrQlqlxdpTA/UYWEPpyVZKI/AAAAAAAAAfw/DQcGkFI36hk/s1600/score+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KrQlqlxdpTA/UYWEPpyVZKI/AAAAAAAAAfw/DQcGkFI36hk/s320/score+poster.jpg" width="236" /></a></div>
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Mimesis [Blu-ray] (Shultze, 2012) Anchor Bay<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hh0prOTpyQk/UYWFin-YQoI/AAAAAAAAAf8/GB_vGT1sMLo/s1600/mimesis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Hh0prOTpyQk/UYWFin-YQoI/AAAAAAAAAf8/GB_vGT1sMLo/s320/mimesis.jpg" width="248" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paranormal Activity </i>cost
$15,000. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mimesis</i> cost $500,000. It
was in watching <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mimesis</i> that this
fact infuriated me. All this money and there is nothing to show for it, not a
thrill or a moment of suspense. The fault is entirely in the vision of the
film-makers; everything else involved with the project is fine. It is they who
have blown it because of their lack of interest or ability in doing something
with their opportunity. I know that I, and others, could have made a film with
this cast and with this director of photography that actually provided some
moments of intrigue and interest but we do not have the money. This film is a
“clever” remake of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Night of the Living
Dead</i> but the irony of that film being made cheaply but effectively is lost
on its makers but annoyingly not on me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-50E1lr58Zuc/UYWFpEezHXI/AAAAAAAAAgE/X4z76-fwKIA/s1600/mimesis+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-50E1lr58Zuc/UYWFpEezHXI/AAAAAAAAAgE/X4z76-fwKIA/s320/mimesis+poster.jpg" width="223" /></a></div>
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The Lickerish Quarter [Blu-ray] (Metzger, 1970) RB UK Arrow
Films<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b7GJgTTMIYQ/UYWGZf_6sTI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/KKBnWADbfns/s1600/the+lickerish+quartette.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-b7GJgTTMIYQ/UYWGZf_6sTI/AAAAAAAAAgQ/KKBnWADbfns/s320/the+lickerish+quartette.jpg" width="261" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dvdbeaver.com is a valuable website. It provides good
information about release schedules that I, for one, find useful. They are by
no means complete and I have found that to develop a list I need to look around
at least four or five different sources to get a sense of a week’s releases. I
can count on dvdbeaver to provide the release dates for older rereleases of
films that are basically softcore porn with an artistic pretense. This is not a
vice of just dvdbeaver it is present throughout much of the film criticism
world, older smutty (to use an older word) movies are largely guaranteed a
moment of recognition in the splashy press of your mainstream film journals.
Metzger is a hack who knows where the safe money is but like any pervert he
also wants to believe that his voyeuristic impulses are satisfied and
sanctioned by a larger and grander impulse. It may be but I cannot make the
same case or justification for my own watching. This film about a family of
three finding the star of a pornographic star and then falling into her sexual
web may be making a comment about the negative power of pornography but the
point is vague and only clever. It is clever not smart and so it still falls
into the range of the stupid.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gblwxfsGqK8/UYWGiVl_5pI/AAAAAAAAAgY/4OSy4Y5_k0E/s1600/the-lickerish-quartet-movie-poster-1970-1020670835.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gblwxfsGqK8/UYWGiVl_5pI/AAAAAAAAAgY/4OSy4Y5_k0E/s320/the-lickerish-quartet-movie-poster-1970-1020670835.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910961867408235791.post-88676577364181364392013-04-06T08:42:00.000-07:002013-04-06T08:53:16.385-07:00DVD Column Six<br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This one took a long time because of the inclusion of three
television series making for approximately forty-five extra hours of viewing.
As for the films not recommended, I am still honing my approach. I am thinking
that negative comments about films may still be celebratory. I also suspect I
am wrong.</span></div>
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Best Bet:<o:p></o:p></h3>
<h4>
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The Pool (Smith,
2007) Kino Lorber</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My enthusiasm for this film may be inflated due to its
exhibiting everything I like about movies: low key characters played by people
I have never seen before thus making them seem like they are exactly who they
appear to be; long shots of these characters performing their jobs; avoidance
of clichés – the introduction of the main female character does not lead to
romance as it likely wouldn’t in their lives; tensions that seem both mundane
and serious like the ones in my life; and a conclusion that shocks but also
seems not only appropriate but beautiful. I concede that these virtues are not
shared by everyone and they are not central to what passes for great film in
this day and age (not one of the Oscar nominees satisfied one of these
criteria). But if you can find this film and watch it by yourself with a
patience that is not often requested by modern cinema I feel confident that it
will have a stirring impact on you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Venkatesh works in a one star hotel neighbored by a wealthy
home with a luxurious pool. His aspiration in life is to swim in this pool not
as an intruder but as someone who is welcome and belongs. Through his own
persistence he wins gardening work from the house owner and by the time his
dream becomes possible it is no longer his dream. What is interesting is that
he no longer dreams about anything much at all, his pursuit has become a life,
he works, he has friends and life is in its living. The wealthy home-owner
becomes fond of Venkatesh and seeks to improve his future without perhaps
recognizing that the motion has already been completed although the gesture
still proves useful. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a telling scene the wealthy daughter is reading literature
designed as she puts it “to mess up your head.” She asks Venkatesh if he wants
his head messed with. Going against teenage type, Venkatesh answers as only a
person whose life is built on actual daily living could: he says no. However
Venkatesh also tells numerous stories of his own past that certainly messed
with my head, ranging from being possessed from six months to fights with gangs
and problems with wild animals. I did not know if he was to be believed or
whether he was the sort who found his validation in his own imagination. By
film’s end all the stories and these questions drift away, replaced by a simple
evocation of a moral young man whose depths resist temptation. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Also recommended:</h3>
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The Ballad of
Narayama [Blu-ray] (Kinoshita, 1958) Criterion</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The traditional presentation of the Japanese folk ballad
with its grating presentation, to Western ears, of notes both sung and plucked
is off-putting and does run the risk of imposing itself on the ways that the
delicately painted backdrops and characters are perceived. The whole thing
begins with the smell of the grandiosely false, characters fitting into the
simplicity of a narrative that could be expressed in song form. But it does not
stay there and the basic story of an elderly woman’s inclination to go to her
winter death on the barren mountain of Narayama is disturbing especially to
those of us who do not know how, and are not inclined to learn, to sing this
song of yesterday. The film is lush, the colours from a painter’s vision and it
is these affectations that makes the brutality, mainly symbolized by a shocking
smashing of pristine teeth, all the more shocking. It is this sense of shock
that then translates into an apprehension of the future of our faithful or
deluded matriarch preparing for her own death. Family is skewed in all
directions, the elderly in their witness and acceptance of inevitable weakening
encourage anticipation of that weakness, and the young knowing the traditions
and rituals of religious euthanasia have no sense of obligation, concern or
care. The majority result is the rewarding of self-indulgence in the young, the
minority view being a sense of dread and guilt. The basic theme, casually and
comfortably presented, is the relation between eschatological confidence and
the social order of affection and responsibility. The implication of the film
is that the whole structure is dubious and dark but that, I concede, may have
to do with my disbelief in the arrival of the Gods on Mount Narayama. In any
case, the film while suggesting that the presence of the transcendent into the
temporal mucks up the temporal does not convey that the rejection of this
intrusion would be in itself a remedy. How would you feel about your parents if
you had been raised in a belief that when they entered the age of being a
potential burden or drain of resources from the more youthful that they were to
be carried on your back, in one last gesture of bearing, to the wilderness to
meet their God? Would your acceptance of the religious base of the tradition be
built on your young appetite for more? Are you anticipating an inheritance?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Borgen Series 1 and 2
(Price, 2011-2) Arrow</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Political dramas seem to be making a splash, despite the
cancelling of the entertaining Starz show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Boss</i>.
The problem, if this is a problem, of such shows is that in order to be
entertaining either the optimism or evil of the politicians involved becomes
unrealistic and thus irrelevant as social commentary. I prefer the accounts of
evil to ones of optimism not because I have a cynicism that I love to have
nurtured but because false optimism is the worst sort of deluding lie (if only
in the realm of the political). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Borgen</i>,
in light of my concerns, is clearly and obviously the best political drama ever
made. Yes, it is set in Denmark and the political system being considered is
moderately or mildly foreign to both the Canadian and, especially, the American
system but this is not the main point. The main point, as it uncomfortably must
be, is the weight of power on persons who believe themselves immune to its
corrosive properties. Birgitte Nyborg, leader of the Moderate party, as a
result of refreshingly honest comments at an election debate, and the hubristic
collapse of the front-runner, finds herself as prime minister of Denmark. From
the granting of power the episodes follow dealing with issues that in of
themselves would strike most viewers as intrinsically dull but the momentum of
the show deals with the ways that power slides into the crevices of one’s being
without being noticed. Nyborg is a good woman with popular reformist ideas and
ideals. As the show progresses she continues to measure her status in relation
not to the actualities of these principles but as to whether she still echoes
the image of a woman of principle. Do I appear to the people as a truthful
woman, even if I do not or cannot act for actual truth? She balances herself
with a spin doctor who denies the value of civic principle in order to both
benefit from his expertise and to feel superior to his moral vulgarity. The media
is bracingly presented as either manipulated and beholden, or manipulating and
tabloidish. The characters are endlessly intriguing but their level of
fascination is so connected to how they serve the intrigues of a political
system that the nature of what we appreciate in human beings is also drawn into
question. Articulate intelligence trumps uninformed kindness on the show as in
your society. The former is praised in relation to how supports and evaluates
(same thing) the system that has all scrambling. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Borgen</i> more than any other show identifies our systemic troubles
and our troubles having to do with the systems we live under, systems that
imagine themselves as connected to images of care and affection for those less
privileged or victimized by the very constructs we use to define success.
Nyborg and her growing need to hold on to power runs in tandem with her growing
belief that she is not in need of power but that power is in need of her. How
you feel about her movement, and the slow arcing movements of everyone else,
will be defined by where you see yourself on that same arc. Accused or
encouraged, the show implicates all of us in the ways we think we need to be
presented and represented. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Borgen</i>,
like us, is smart and less than kind in its observations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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House of Cards
Trilogy BBC Warner<o:p></o:p></h4>
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House of Cards
(Fincher, 2013) Netflix</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The original British drama and the recent American remake
invite and resist comparison. They invite it because they are built on the same
premise; they resist it because they are radically different. The key point of
comparison, the main character played by Ian Richardson for the British and
Kevin Spacy for the Americans, is also a point of departure. Richardson
communicates the vicious gravitas of the English statesman, Spacey, a South
Carolina congressman adds a dash of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">All
the King’s Men </i>sleaze and grit to the BBC’s intonations of Richard III. The
premise of both shows is the machinations of political power and the diabolical
grip that those it possesses demand of it. Richardson is only charming when he
is being vile, a Thatcherite conservative principled to be out of touch with
the needs of a modern society. Spacey is a Southern democrat with no principles
at all except admiration and respect for the political game. The one with
principles is by far the more devious and disturbing of the two and in fact by
the end of season one of the American version there was little about Spacey’s
character that I found terminally objectionable. In fact I think I like him or
at least genuinely find him interesting – what other response is possible to a
man who blows out all the prayer candles at a Catholic church? One does not
dare to think the same of his British counterpart. Richardson’s Urquhart when
not in control of his manipulative scheming is a wimp; without power he is a
nobody. One might be tempted to consider that the merit of either show, the
typically theatrical BBC production and “the this is how it is” of the
American, is in how well it conveys the actualities of political life. In this
regard I would suggest that both shows fail and the notion that such central
figures could actually exist as singular entities strikes me as preposterous.
What is unbelievable is not the ruthless coldness of the desire for power but
the startling intelligence and luck, that seems to serve intelligent planning
that both men enjoy. Both men hatch such elaborate and brilliant plots of
revenge the whole rest of their world only has the task of beings chips that
must inevitably fall into place. Luckily, believability is not the central
merit of either show. What recommends them is their unswerving desire to
explore a system that gives birth and nurtures the worst of human traits and
then charms us with their exploits. I have wavered on which of the two I think
is superior but have decided it is a false question. First of all one is an
apple and the other an orange. One is contextually connected to our own time,
the other is of a time past and this distant only defends or hides whatever
inadequacies the show may have in terms of its social understandings of the
political class. But the main reason not to choose is that you should and can
watch both without fear of problematic redundancies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Laura [Blu-ray]
(Preminger, 1944) 20th Century Fox</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A nice noir about the shotgun to
the face murder of a woman that is mostly fascinating in its portrayal of all
its male characters as controlling and smug swine. Even the title character of
Laura is barely tolerable, recommended only by her loveliness, a fact that you
can be sure she is well aware of. Nothing gets in the way of the movement of
the entertaining plot, the camera work is inviting, zooming in and away with a
proper sense of rhythm, setting in darkness the faces that you did not come to
see. The film invites questions of moral doubt about the sanctity of ambition
and success and how it can only lead to possessiveness and abuse of those who
share it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y7a3jBAVW2E/UWA3YU6-cgI/AAAAAAAAAXg/kKBYtJet5cs/s1600/wild+river.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="251" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y7a3jBAVW2E/UWA3YU6-cgI/AAAAAAAAAXg/kKBYtJet5cs/s320/wild+river.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Wild River [Blu-ray]
(Kazan, 1960) 20th Century Fox</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Montgomery Clift is a hero of mine. His eyes are always
workings and his mannerisms and gestures appear to be identical to ones he
might make even after the director shouts. He is a classic reacting actor and
the beauty of such an approach is that you always feel that he is listening to
the others around him and that what he others, be it a words or a gesture of
the eyes (a 50/50 mix) are in response to what he has been given. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wild River</i> Clift plays a government
employee set to remove an elderly woman from the path of a river damning
project that has been killing citizens with every spring flood. She does not
want to go and it is his task to convince her. He believes in the necessity of
progress, of bringing electricity to homes that do not have it. She likes the
wildness of river and what it correspondingly says about life. He understands
her point of view more than she does his and while I certainly find her
approach attractive, the film and I know that he has some right on his side. What
fascinates is the conflict between Clift’s representation of the white male government
against the matriarchy of Tennessee culture. But the film is clear that
matriarchal appreciation for wildness is culturally over and that the
grand-daughter really just wants to connect with the man. Add to this a
seemingly honest depiction of the horrors of race relations in early 1930s and
the wonders of a film where every actor is enjoyable to watch and you have a
film that is varied, deep, and honest about a time when political tensions were
about human beings in danger and not the flow of currency.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Also seen (in order of appreciation):<o:p></o:p></h3>
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Yelling to the Sky
[Blu-ray] (Mahoney, 2011) MPI Home Video</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is nothing really wrong with this film except that it
is strives to be so in your face with its realism about abused teenagers that
it is relentlessly dreary. It may be a mistake to define all of your central
characters as victims because while we can presume something is obviously being
destroyed in them it is too vague. In order to connect and perhaps, sadly, to
care we need to have a sense of what is at stake beyond the broad strokes of
the collapse of the human form. It is possible that there would be a time,
either past or future, where this film would intrigue me deeply. For now I am
content to lose it in the cracks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Peter Pan [Blu-ray]
Walt Disney Home Entertainment</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It looks great and the animation is charming, I am
especially delighted by the swaying of Wendy’s dress. As a telling of the Peter
Pan story it is limp and lacking. I am not prone to compare films with their
literary sources but the original text is so edgy and transgressive,
celebratory and mistrustful of children, that it seems a profound shame to
dilute it as folksy entertainment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9vo_uhZOWd4/UWA6loXyYNI/AAAAAAAAAX4/TT1GZdy-eJs/s1600/flight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9vo_uhZOWd4/UWA6loXyYNI/AAAAAAAAAX4/TT1GZdy-eJs/s1600/flight.jpg" /></a></div>
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<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Flight [Blu-ray]
(Zemeckis, 2012) Paramount</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first half hour is exciting and cumulates in a wondrous
and ridiculous action sequence. The rest is a made for television movie about
recovery, relapse, guilt and redemption. After extensive character development
the female lead is subsumed into Denzel Washington’s wake and we never see her
again. This is the case for all the details of the film; they are there to be
swallowed by the star.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-499Q589TbIQ/UWA69SA57HI/AAAAAAAAAYA/jwBLwFnLYPE/s1600/deadfall.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-499Q589TbIQ/UWA69SA57HI/AAAAAAAAAYA/jwBLwFnLYPE/s320/deadfall.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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Deadfall [Blu-ray]
(Ruzowitsky, 2012) Magnolia</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The film has much promise in an interesting central villain.
It is damaged by have boring heroes and a conclusion that denies the promise of
any of the many build-ups.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TzAHbNERdSU/UWA7OJVqI5I/AAAAAAAAAYI/VrNz8Em4gEQ/s1600/21-days.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TzAHbNERdSU/UWA7OJVqI5I/AAAAAAAAAYI/VrNz8Em4gEQ/s1600/21-days.jpg" /></a></div>
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<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
21 Days: The Heineken
Kidnapping [Blu-ray] (Treurniet, 2011) RB UK Spirit Entertainment</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I suspect that the crew who made this film watched Assayas <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Carlos </i>with an eye on how to capture
period details. What they did not do is recognize that in comparison their film
is not about anything or anybody.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aoba1G0DsV8/UWA7sGfHJpI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/Fjxe7SMTlkA/s1600/cabaret.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aoba1G0DsV8/UWA7sGfHJpI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/Fjxe7SMTlkA/s320/cabaret.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
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<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Cabaret [Blu-ray]
(Fosse, 1972) Warner</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first two musical numbers are wonderful, and then there
is nothing like it for ninety minutes. The connection between decadence and pre-Nazi
Germany fascism is too loosely made, a prop instead of a context.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L9H3K2xJj5s/UWA79X8lIeI/AAAAAAAAAYY/cm-9BMsIWFA/s1600/Anna-Karenina-Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L9H3K2xJj5s/UWA79X8lIeI/AAAAAAAAAYY/cm-9BMsIWFA/s320/Anna-Karenina-Poster.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
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<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Anna Karenina
[Blu-ray] (Wright, 2012) Universal Studios</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Unlike many of my friends I like stylistic films with lush
cinematography and the suspension of reality into the flourishing of image.
This said, I am not convinced that the raw and also nuanced emotions of Tolstoy
drama are the place for this sort of thing. The film is pretty and stupid and
therefore conveys no sense of tragedy, sorrow or anything powerful beyond a
ticklish aesthetic quality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3w_K95vakkw/UWA8RwwOn0I/AAAAAAAAAYg/LJKaMpFkTLI/s1600/celeste+and+jesse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3w_K95vakkw/UWA8RwwOn0I/AAAAAAAAAYg/LJKaMpFkTLI/s320/celeste+and+jesse.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Celeste and Jesse
Forever [Blu-ray] (Krieger, 2012) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As a couple Celeste and Jesse are one part amusing and two
parts annoying. As a film about a divorced couple who are also best friends
there are some interesting comments to be made about modern relationships but
mostly they appear horrifying on the basis of the constant defining measure of sexual
acceptance and insecurity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OzR7YF8uVG0/UWA8kyrecPI/AAAAAAAAAYo/6vOjk1Rm2Ic/s1600/1_chained-poster-060412+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OzR7YF8uVG0/UWA8kyrecPI/AAAAAAAAAYo/6vOjk1Rm2Ic/s320/1_chained-poster-060412+(1).jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Chained [Blu-ray] (Lynch, 2012) Anchor Bay</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">An intriguing and disturbing central performance by Vincent
D’Onofrio almost makes this watchable. What prevents that from happening is
voyeuristic violence of a misogynistic sort and unnecessary plot twists.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zchz8DLinPA/UWA9IULz9mI/AAAAAAAAAYw/2v1FDtPOngA/s1600/black+sunday.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zchz8DLinPA/UWA9IULz9mI/AAAAAAAAAYw/2v1FDtPOngA/s320/black+sunday.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Black Sunday
[Blu-ray] (Bava, 1960) RB UK Arrow Film<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-29MBcK4RCmI/UWA9aj4lQAI/AAAAAAAAAY4/vZIyvxRgt_s/s1600/lisa+and+the+devil.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-29MBcK4RCmI/UWA9aj4lQAI/AAAAAAAAAY4/vZIyvxRgt_s/s320/lisa+and+the+devil.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Lisa and the Devil
[Blu-ray] (Bava, 1974) RB UK Arrow Film</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">These two films are the lead and rave DVD review in the most
recent edition of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sight and Sound</i>. I
am suspicious not merely because the reviews are largely plot summations and
complimentary adjectives in the place of critical comment. My suspicions have
to do with having seen the films and my sense that we live in a film culture
that expresses a continual desire to uncover auteur treasures previously
neglected by mass hysteria. These films are nicely filmed and the directors of
photography are worthy of praise for their understanding of light and shadow,
the acting and writing are poor to the point where one feels the director was
not working in a medium particularly suited to his possible gifts. His milieu
is the symbolic, from doorways appearing as keyholes, and clocks without hands,
but none of this is echoed in actual human behavior and so human beings become
symbols as well. But for what and for who? Participation in humanity as a
symbol of something else makes the participant an actor in symbols and not in
life; it is all, no matter how clever, an objectification. The appropriate, but
disturbing, way to praise such objectification is to fetishize it. This is
especially uncomfortable if it is done at the expense of actually undiscovered
joys in the history of film and when our trusted critics come to be seen as
carving out their own niches rather than mapping neglected regions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wOUWjgMjyfQ/UWA9smqbdOI/AAAAAAAAAZA/mThedCqWbUE/s1600/here+comes+the+boom.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wOUWjgMjyfQ/UWA9smqbdOI/AAAAAAAAAZA/mThedCqWbUE/s1600/here+comes+the+boom.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Here Comes the Boom
[Blu-ray] (Coraci, 2012) Sony Pictures Home Entertainment</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The fun thing here is the big man with all the lithe comedic
gestures. It is all cute but in my world cute is a negative term denoting the
sentimental sold as desirable.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sfPoSEh975w/UWA98S_0psI/AAAAAAAAAZI/pVQbc7Kn9zI/s1600/a+late+quartet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sfPoSEh975w/UWA98S_0psI/AAAAAAAAAZI/pVQbc7Kn9zI/s320/a+late+quartet.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
A Late Quartet
[Blu-ray] (Zilberman, 2012) 20th Century Fox</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My long standing dismissal of “classical” music is based on
my verdict that it lacks subtlety. The music is stylistically unable to
communicate small gestures, everything is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sturm
und drang</i> or heartbreakingly delicate. It is sorrow instead of worry, grief
instead of doubt, tragedy instead of insecurity. Because it has no real sense
of rhythm it has no sense of the vulgar and thus it has no sense of life as it
is lived and not just dramatized. I like the premise of this film about four
members of a string quartet playing Beethoven’s late quartet, a piece of music
so long that the instruments go out of tune before it is down and the musicians
have to struggle to keep the whole thing from turning into a cacophony. But as
a film it is the same music, all four people defined by the grandiose and the
dull. Musically speaking, I like cacophonies. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rj54lLSDryE/UWA-K6bmLjI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/0Gl4e_9ET6Q/s1600/a+star+is+born.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rj54lLSDryE/UWA-K6bmLjI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/0Gl4e_9ET6Q/s1600/a+star+is+born.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
A Star is Born
[Blu-ray] (Pierson, 1976) Warner </h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">You might think Kris Kristofferson is the worst pop star
ever but then along comes Barbra Streisand. It is almost impossible not to hate
this cinematic representation of the flattest aspects of seventies culture. If
you like it, I predict that I hate you too. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-czBpvdDCrOs/UWA-Zzeg1xI/AAAAAAAAAZY/NC6Cd8yqj7Q/s1600/AlexCross2012Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-czBpvdDCrOs/UWA-Zzeg1xI/AAAAAAAAAZY/NC6Cd8yqj7Q/s320/AlexCross2012Poster.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Alex Cross [Blu-ray]
(Cohen, 2012) Summit Entertainment</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The problem is that the spectacle of logical demonstrations
familiar from recent Sherlock Holmes television is both more distant from
possible viewer recognition (his conclusions are based on evidences we are not
shown) and, more importantly, does not contribute to making Cross a remotely
interesting figure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zUhb4QqkATs/UWA-395J8mI/AAAAAAAAAZg/fz5rYrk4HPc/s1600/the+coalition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zUhb4QqkATs/UWA-395J8mI/AAAAAAAAAZg/fz5rYrk4HPc/s320/the+coalition.jpg" width="279" /></a></div>
</h4>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
The Coalition [Blu-ray] (Mingo, 2012) Magnolia
Home Entertainment</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is scary to me if this film in anyway mimics actual human
behavior. The people are not monsters just shallow and self-indulgent to what
seems to be a recommended degree.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910961867408235791.post-32436009467905665792013-03-10T07:53:00.001-07:002013-04-06T08:42:54.338-07:00DVD Column Five<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am changing my format slightly. I still plan to cover all
DVD releases (up to a point) but will only write about the titles that I would
recommend. This decision is necessary because, first of all, I cannot keep up.
I am far behind and catching up seems unimaginable. I do not want to skip a
week (or weeks) because I would then miss a lot of treasures and it is likely
that I would still fall behind again. Second of all, I am put off by film
reviewing that is after its own point of view above and beyond the film
actually being considered. Recently I read two reviews by legendary critics
that rattled me. The first was from forty years ago and was by Manny Farber on
the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nashville</i>. The second is the
recent review of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lincoln </i>by Jonathan
Rosenbaum. My problem with these two reviews is that they exhibited a
disinterest in the actual film in order for the writer to express their own
ethical or political agenda. Farber`s review was harsh and he takes Altman to
task for mocking the citizens of Nashville as a symbol of American wanton
noise. The troubling thing about the review was that Farber’s concerns about
Altman’s tone of derision and mockery was in many cases an example of Farber’s
derision and mockery. It is an uncomfortable irony to be smug about someone
else’s supposed smugness. In fact it makes the reader, as it did me, if whether
all the smugness is stemming from the reviewer and not the film. There is not a
single person in the twenty-four person cast of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nashville </i>(except for Jeff Goldblum’s pretend character) who does
not have some depth as a human being and as such is touching and moving. Even
abrasively annoying Opal, the soul of Farber’s review, is enjoyably dumb in her
pretentiousness. While not prone to such identifications I would be hard
pressed to deny a spiritual connection to her inadequacies and her lack of
interest in them. Farber accuses Altman’s film of being uncharitable to a whole
range of Southern Americans while being uncharitable to those same characters.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">But that is still a viewing of the film albeit one that
confuses your own disdain as something that you are inheriting rather than
contributing. Rosenbaum’s review of Steven Spielberg’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lincoln </i>only bothers with the film as an example of failed
documentarian scholarship. Rosenbaum’s main concern is that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lincoln </i>is bad history. I am reminded of
Tom Waits stage patter about being at a terrible movie and the person behind
him leans over and whispers ‘this is based on a true story.’ Waits’ punchline
is to ask if that makes the movie better? It doesn’t and if you can agree with
that you probably have to agree with the alternative: that a good movie is not
ruined by not being true. Of course, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lincoln
</i>is presuming a connection to a historical record but that is a contextual
foothold and not a source of responsibility. Perhaps if he had been inventive
and had Lincoln kill Hitler the lie would be so bold as to pass into the realm
of cinema. But he did not, and because the errors are more subtle they seem
more devious, more manipulative, changing the historical record for the sake of
making a movie more salable. You might think that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lincoln</i> does not properly address the importance of African
Americans in their own liberation and you would be right. But does this impact
the way you feel about the movie? And if it does do you think that is right? I
fear that writers like Rosenbaum fear for the rest of us that we are going to
be suckered into believing the things that he knows are not true. I don’t think
this is a danger because most of us do not confuse movies with scholarship. And
if we do I am not sure, and I realize that this is a contentious point for
which in many ways I am wrong, why it is so bad to get things wrong. I was at a
public lecture once<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>where the speaker
devoted his time to explaining how a major work on the topic was completely
wrong about the time that Lutherans first came or developed in a certain South
American region. I asked why it mattered that this other author was wrong and
was told that people get killed when the truth is not told. This was a pompous
response for this topic and an insult to the issues where this is actually a
reasonable answer but the truth is that people also get killed when the truth
is told. Setting the record straight has its place but Rosenbaum is perpetually
ignoring the movement and momentum of a film by his own concern about
straightness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I want to write about DVDs that have come out and tell you
why I think they are good, great or even just compelling failures. To do this I
want to watch the films and respond to them. I don’t want to pretend that I
don’t exist or that I don’t have a morality but I also want to admit that moral
agreement is not a prerequisite to affection. As you will see below Downton
Abbey strikes me as having many charms, all of which may be despicable, but
none of it can be stated simply or definitively and I rob myself of experiencing
affection by settling into simple definitions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
DVD Pick<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GHDBlPdJrv8/UTyTQlCpYtI/AAAAAAAAASs/nkLAChiOd9c/s1600/paris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GHDBlPdJrv8/UTyTQlCpYtI/AAAAAAAAASs/nkLAChiOd9c/s320/paris.jpg" width="257" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Paris, Texas [Blu-ray] (Wim Wenders, 1984) RB UK Axiom Films<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Travis Henderson walks in the desert wilderness towards
nothing. He has been walking away, for five years now, from a wife he abused
and the son that was a by-product of their marriage. He also wants to create
distance between himself and the person that he is, a person who did not trust
his father and the way he was with his mother; a father that he also sees in
himself. The walk is interrupted and he is returned, first to his brother, then
to his son, and finally to his wife. His love for all three and his recognition
of their need for him require that he make an effort to give and to nurture that
are also tormented by a desperate ache for love that makes him eventually
incapable of accepting it. The film is the daunting story of a man who accepts
the tragic in order to do good for the ones he loves. In a simple way it is a
film about a man who knows that his son needs his mother and that the father
must be the conduit for this renewing connection that he cannot participate in
it. He needs to forgive the wife who has not sinned and he needs to forget the
burden of the self that will be lost in this forgiving gesture. It is also a
film about the undesirability of freedom. He was free, he found his freedom in
that wilderness of self-purging emptiness but this freedom had costs that only
he could pay. He is connected to others while alone. Like many of us Travis
wishes that life could be much simpler but realizes that the major complexities
are not systemic and not personal and he is the one who complicates more than
he resolves. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He is haunted by the image of the place Paris, Texas, where
he bought some land upon which he never built. It is the place, also, where his
father met his mother and in two wildly different anecdotes we learn that it is
also the place where Travis was conceived, literally, and, metaphorically,
born. The first anecdote explains the joke his father perpetually made about
his wife that she was born in Paris… Texas. The pause provides the joke in that
expectations are altered, the spectacular made mundane. In the telling of this
Travis seems to remember the joke with a gentle, fond amusement. But in a
drunken second telling he informs his son that his mother, a simple woman, was
mocked by the joke and that his father would not stop telling it suggesting that
his father had invented an image of his wife that was not true or real, or
desirable to both parties. Travis sadly knows that he is the same way, he
cannot divide the persons he loves from the person he wants or needs them to be
and in so doing is unable to actually support or love that person as they are.
It is the importance of this that Travis temporarily suspends; it is the
recognition that he is unable to avoid his disappointment in the actualities of
human relationships that makes it temporary. The film does not shrink from this
doubling and presents us with vivid accounts of a giving love and a tearing
spirit in ways that are haunting and hopeful.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Also recommended:<o:p></o:p></h2>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-95GiSnILVfM/UTyTsxIKJZI/AAAAAAAAAS0/V3RVWzcWY1s/s1600/blue+angel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-95GiSnILVfM/UTyTsxIKJZI/AAAAAAAAAS0/V3RVWzcWY1s/s320/blue+angel.jpg" width="272" /></a></div>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
The Blue Angel [Blu-ray] (Josef Von Sternberg, 1930) RB UK
Masters of Cinema<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Blue Angel</i> is
an astonishingly sad and beautiful movie. Immanuel Rath, a noted and stern
professor, becomes outraged at the influence on his students of sexual
attraction being advertised by the local night club The Blue Angel. He finds
that he is not quite up to the task of returning his students to the moral fold
and instead finds himself infatuated by lead dancer Lola and her sexual
promise. Because of his belief in his own moral and intellectual stature he is
less able to confront his own ability to be tempted in the ways that do not actually
challenge his younger charges. They know that the thrill is intoxicating and cheap;
he becomes more implicated because of his conviction that his experiences must
be as elevated and true as he is. He is destroyed as a professor but he becomes
a human being though in clown form. The questions that the film raises are many
and deep. Is Immanuel an example of the failure of moral superiority to
actually consider the carnal and base natures of human beings? Does the influence
of carnality, and its allegiance to the capricious, necessitate personal
destruction? Is personal destruction something to be avoided? Is Immanuel a
reluctant participant in the purging of the vanity of his dignity or is the
surrender of this dignity the source of devastation? The film is decadent and
recognizes the centrality of decadence to many of our impulses or, in other
words, that we define ourselves in reaction to apprehensions about decadence.
The movie is never obscure but is constantly complicated. A flighty dancer,
with her own desperations, fears and need to acknowledge a nature plays with
the heart of a man who freed from the dark side of self-righteousness finds
himself with no mooring at all except in the rhythms of collapse – the measure of
being able to live is found in the ability to accept the sordid nature of life.
It is an attractive theme but the thing about the delights of all things sordid
is that they are also sordid and we exhaust before they do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S3nW0U340jg/UTyU9gPNB1I/AAAAAAAAAS8/Rq5rJ_B4R2Y/s1600/the+confrontation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S3nW0U340jg/UTyU9gPNB1I/AAAAAAAAAS8/Rq5rJ_B4R2Y/s320/the+confrontation.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
The Confrontation (Miklos Jancso, 1969) R2 UK Second Run<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The perpetual singing of Marxist songs paired with Hungarian
folk dances along with pontificating dialogue about the importance of the
dialogical did threaten this viewer with apprehension about what this was film
was up to and what he was going to have sit through. Luckily, the singing does
not last and the speech-making is quickly shown as ironic. The film is about
the subtle flow of power and how its presence infiltrates even good natured
meaning and expression. The premise is of young communists storming a religious
academy to debate the place of Christianity in the new history writing of
socialism. The vanguard youth are likely not without ideas but they are so
annoyingly self-compelled you feel like you are being beaten about the eyes and
ears with bad propaganda. The interesting thing is the slow way the film shows
that their best ideas have collapsed into their own sense of righteousness and
authority. They praise the necessity of argument but the victory of their power
in society has already convinced them that they have won all arguments.
Listening, then, becomes a condescending tolerance and when that is not
received as a gift from above they become solidly totalitarian, reduced to the
threats already implicit and implied in their professed desire to communicate. The
meek and confused become the ones we identify, we do not know how to respond
because our responses are being measured and deemed to be gestures of political
intent when they are mostly honest bafflement or frustration. The question here
is about the impact of context on political discourse, in other words, the
impossibility of rhetoric of political tension. Perhaps it is telling that it
is a movie that well shows the futility of the chat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wp6akJdbb1I/UTyVNOThMwI/AAAAAAAAATE/N8VjtuGr024/s1600/detachment.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-wp6akJdbb1I/UTyVNOThMwI/AAAAAAAAATE/N8VjtuGr024/s1600/detachment.jpg" /></a></div>
<h3>
</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Detachment (Tony Kaye, 2011) New Video Group<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To call this film the best in the genre of ‘teachers making
a difference in a tough school’ is, to quote the words of our main character
Henry Barthes, “a dubious endorsement.” All too often films set in rough and
tumble high schools offer only a stark range of human personality, the high and
the low with nothing ordinary and believable in between. The good moves the
bad, who are only really the bored, and a belief in the inherent goodness of
all is propounded and observed. The problem of teenagers in other films is that
no one cares about them until that one plucky teacher shows up, her heart on
her sleeve, and gets down to the tough love. The beauty in this picture,
besides the believable acting, is that the message is a lack of care is what is
needed. Barthes notes to a rude student that there is nothing he or anyone can
do to hurt his feelings because he does not care in that personable way. He is
detached from a sense of personal validation based on his empathy or sympathy.
He does not care. And he also does not care about his lack of care. It is this
that is crucial. He is defined by his detachment, it is not a pose or a persona
and it is this that allows him to actually give to his students. He helps
people but he is unmoved by it. He does it not because it is his duty or he
because it is his desire to give back but because it is something that can be
done. By the end of the film this Eckhartian scheme is botched in a failure for
which there was no apparent institutional solution but until then the film is
superb in its presentation of the bland terror that is youthful nihilism. The
film addresses that yes, there may not be anything in this world to really be
devoted to that is not going to burn you, but it also understands that to make this
truth your sense is to fall into the abyss.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Downton Abbey Season 3 [Blu-ray] (Julian Fellowes, 2012) –
PBS<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is a soap opera. It is a soap opera because it
exaggerates and accelerates the moments of a life all into one compact bubble
of a family through whom we suffer through more trials and broken romances than
see most communities in a generation. It is also very watchable and will move
you in ways that you are too smart and sensitive to usually be moved. You are
certainly being played but it feels nice to be played with by people who know
what they are doing. The predominant theme of this season is the tension
between tradition and change but given that the time period is 1920 that which
they are considering to be change is already our tradition. The theme then is a
bit of a trick to show us where our sympathies lie (patriarch Robert Crawley
standing in defense of tradition at one point enthusiastically describes the
returns offered by investment in Charles Ponzi) and there is not much matter of
complicated allegiances. The fact that this false theme is played against the
backdrop of a class system to which none of us belong does complicate things.
Do we really care about the Crawley sprawl and the maintenance of Downton Abbey
beyond our inclination to watch the show? Do the perils and problems of the
landed rich, largely due to their wealth, actually concern us? If they do it is
because I suspect we seek to identify with them. The basement bunch excepting
the elders of Hughes and Carson who act with so much dignity and observance of
decorum that they may as well be rich are the only employees who are not either
slightly stupid or too vain to accept their place. The folks downstairs are children;
those upstairs are actual human beings. It may be our own vanity that places
our own sympathies on the upper floors along with a patronizing affection for
those whose lot it is, or should be, to take care of us. But it is none of it
real and I watch it like a child. When I was a boy the CBC broadcast a similar
television show called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Gift to Last</i>
riveted and astonished me. My feelings for such entertainment have diminished
over the years but they do nostalgically remain as a childish treat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h3>
</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
The Duellists [Blu-ray] (Ridley Scott, 1977) Shout! Factory<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Gabriel Feraud, a soldier in Napoleon’s army, is prone to
being offended by just about anything and his favorite recourse to justice is
to insist upon a duel. Armand d’Hubert, a fellow soldier in a different regiment,
attracts Feraud’s wrath in delivering a message. For the next twenty years,
Feraud continues to demand further duels with d’Hubert, with mixed but non
definitive results. What makes this all fascinating viewing is Feraud’s
ferocity and d’Hubert’s anxiety in the name of an account of honour that
resists articulation. In this way it is an existential tale of the way that the
idea of death stalks a person (we are only shown the life of the anxious
d’Hubert) and that the measure of a man is the very reluctant acceptance of
this battle when it is brought to the fore. His fear and exhaustion over the
fear fill him and permeate through the screen into the viewer. Wherever he
goes, whatever he does, the possibility of running into Feraud and into the
call of self-defending or defeating violence is present. He longs for the
conclusion, for a peace, between them but this is perpetually denied; there is
no peace that can be made with this demand. d’Hubert manages a life in the grip
of this haunting spectre and while one might think, as the clichés have it,
that he even more deeply cherishes the movements of his life because of the
perpetual threat. It is not the case, he manages, but his life always feels
fragile and himself a cowardly gentleman. It is this recognition that teaches
him about himself and about this dubious and glorious thing called honour which
he knows that he does not understand but that he is devoted to, willingly or
not. The cinematography is beautiful and appropriate to a tale of perpetual nervousness
where the eye sees more detail in its paranoid glances than it wants to bear
but is moved by the sight all the same.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h3>
</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Holy Motors [Blu-ray] (Leos Carax, 2012) RB UK Artificial
Eye<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It does not take long to realize that the set-up of the
film, an actor prepares for a role, is the film. Once confusion subsides what
is left to do is enjoy the vignettes as they rush or dawdle by. The film does
though carry a momentum of exhaustion, with each progressive character the
amount of work spent investing in the artifice of the role genuinely feels
taxing and draining. This is not only for the fantastic work of lead actor
Dennis Levant but for the viewer as well. Even though some of the stories in
their mellow tone may pretend to be a reprieve from all the constant effort
they are not, all moments lead to more moments, moments connected only by the
singularity of the person pretending to play the role, and this feels endless.
The film is vague but not really very subtle. It appears to be about the
influence of film on our modern lives and about the content of the human being
as contextualized roles. It is vague enough to almost persuade you that such understandings
are over simplistic tropes. And without them you will have nothing and that
would be fine as well. The film is its own excuse and nothing more. If this is
your idea of the pretentious there is nothing here to dissuade you. If you
don’t care and you like actors acting and you like absolutely meaningless
suspense (what innocuous thing is going to happen next!?), you will enjoy
yourself. For myself, I did not think I was engaged at all but a week later I
have not tired of re-watching many of the scenes, foremost among them the
accordion interlude.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
How Green Was My Valley [Blu-ray] (John Ford, 1941) RB UK 20th
Century<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is a scene about two thirds of the way through <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How Green Was My Valley</i> that speaks to
the films power and to John Ford’s brilliance. Two brothers of a fairly large
Welsh family have discovered that their charming town has no work for them due
to labor cuts at the local and murderous coal mines. The brothers with much
personal and family sadness are to travel to America in order to find
employment. Their town has nothing for them. At the same time another brother
receives notice that his men’s choir has been granted the honour of performing
before the British queen. We then have a scene of the choir performing God Save
the Queen on the streets of the town and I was thinking this is the most
sentimental treacle ever committed to film. But just as I am thinking this less
than charitable thought the camera pans away from the choir to show the two
brothers, bound for America, collecting their few belongings and exiting,
walking in quiet shadows the opposite way down the cobbled street. The juxtaposition
is not only a visual one it implants itself in your critical imagination. At
the same moment you are reeling from the mawkishness of the town as they devote
themselves to their queen you are also presented with the victims of her
majesty’s inability to keep jobs in the United Kingdom for the young men. It is
both at once, as it always is: the sentimental patriotism that also runs us
aground. The whole film, the antithesis to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Quiet Man</i>, is about a town coming closer to the coal slag that is developing
around the mine covering everyone in the dust of yesterday and death. It is
about ache and near collapse, failures in hopes and failures for no dreams at
all; it is about sons going to America to fight for their lives. And yet the
tone is cheery and the people’s spirits are bright and whatever acrimony is
there is accepted. And that makes it all seem so much sadder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h3>
</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Jack Irish: Bad Debts/Black Tide<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">These two made for television films demonstrate that HBO is
available in some form in Australia. The show mixes a bit of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wire</i>, a bit of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Luck</i> and something else that while not fresh does not have a brand.
It is smartly written, the plot is dense, and the characters are believable as
television characters (which is to say that I am less convinced that such
people actually exist). The enjoyment of these two films is not in the
resolution of a complicated mystery but as it is with HBO at their best it is
in the opening of complicated webs of social institutions and city planning.
Jack Irish, lawyer and amateur drunk, discovers with surprise but not shock
that the simple presumptions of an organized life are pre-arranged by others
whom he does not know. He is tenacious in his pursuits but his tenacity stems
both from a sense of self-defeat and discouragement that he lives in a system
that is so cavalier in its manipulations of him. It takes a man who does not
care for his eventual success within that system to actually confront it and
thus it is this activism through decrepitude that allows Jack a bit of movement.
This is just good television, a step above from the usual American procedurals,
and nothing more. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Paranormal Activity 4 [Blu-ray] (Aaron Schulman and Henry
Joost, 2012), Paramount<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paranormal
Activity </i>franchise provides its viewer with an education in attention. The
films depend on our awareness of the usual jolt and jump clichés of horror
viewing and slow them down requiring the viewer to watch the whole screen
looking in advance for the thing that is going to grab them. The visual
strength of the movies is that they continue to succeed in startling us despite
our expectations; it is these expectations that give the scenes their power.
Often nothing happens, like in the closing scene of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sopranos</i>, but we fill the screen with the content of our apprehensions.
As such the films, and number four is no exception, are about the delicate
pacing of tension. Cinematically this is their central merit; thematically it
does not make sense why the demons in charge need to be so patient. This
complaint is completely irrelevant to one`s enjoyment, any lover knows you need
to slow down if you want it to last. What is also irrelevant but less
problematic is the thematic thrust of the films as metaphors for various social
mores of the modern American life. Casual wealth, distant parenting, platitudes
as the basis of communication except among the young who are free from the
arrangements of how to be but are headed there through technology, all of these
it proves are conducive to possession by demons and once the families involve
start to shout get behind me Satan, it is too late. The trick this time is
using the cameras that surround our homes through Skype and most effectively
through the xbox Kinect gaming system. These devices connect and liberate the
younger generation, giving them not distance from each other but intimacy and a
neighborhood where they do not have to behave under the eyes of apathetic
adults. But the new technology is not immune to disgrace and its ability to map
the movement of that which cannot be seen but only felt is both beautiful in
its way and also no protection. The earlier films began with the possession of
the adults and now are making the move to the children, the adults are already
fodder and the kids are next. There is nothing in the film that suggests that
they can be protected from the change in the community. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X2q1LUqi6ik/UTyX2p1SogI/AAAAAAAAAT8/O7Z2LxQiSo4/s1600/scene+of+the+crime.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X2q1LUqi6ik/UTyX2p1SogI/AAAAAAAAAT8/O7Z2LxQiSo4/s320/scene+of+the+crime.jpg" width="242" /></a></div>
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Scene of the Crime (Roy Rowland, 1952) Warner Archive
Classics<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">What separates this movie from the others in the recent
Warner Archive film noir offerings (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Code
Two</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Death in Small </i>Doses, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Murder is My Beat</i>) is writing and
acting. It has a semi-intricate plot with characters who seem to be speaking
their mind rather than their lines. This adds up to an enjoyable ninety minutes
of living among people a little more desperate, a little colder, and a little
grimier than you or me. Someone making this film must have argued that the
difference between ordinary and interesting can be orchestrated by giving the audience
characters with idiosyncrasies that they will remember even if the character is
not on the screen very long. This works, although on further reflection the
ticks do not seem like personalities but affectations, and it also helps you
lament them if they disappear. The film humanizes its characters, all of them,
from the romantic to the rotten. The marriage is believable and informative,
the friendships are real and their banter not forced, the villains actually
seem to live in a different world both chosen by and forced on them and as a
result one can understand and empathise with their wicked ways. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<h3>
</h3>
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
That Obscure Object of Desire [Blu-ray] (Luis Bunuel, 1977)
LionsGate<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am finding that watching a lot of movies provides a pull
towards disappointment towards that which you are watching. You become used to
things, you become used to things that once might have grabbed you. You watch <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Resident Evil: Retribution</i> and you are
not awed by the special effects and action sequences, you are annoyed by the
flimsiness of the film’s basics. If you did not watch everything you would
likely be more impressed but you have seen these same rhythms before and they
are not as enticing the nineteenth go around. And on the other side you can be
confronted by films that offer alternative rhythms. These alternatives can be
attractive but they can also be alienating. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Confrontation</i> was alienating, off-putting in the ways that it was unaware
of what was expected from film-makers and what grammars they were expected to
respect. Films that have their own rhythms, that require a different sort of
attention than that which is normally requested, are life changing when they
reward. You feel validated for choosing the dangerous option of leaving your
home. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">That Obscure Object of Desire</i> plays
with your sense of rhythm, and like a film by Eric Rohmer, is something unique
in movie watching. I am referring not only to the fact that the female lead is
played by two different women and that the logic of which one might appear is
not obvious (but does tend to raise symbolic questions which I have ignored in
respect for the obscure). The film is a love terror story about what attracts.
The usual suspect of sex is entertained but Conchita’s steadfast refusal to
perform, despite perpetual agreements to do so, and her eventual manipulations
of Mathieu’s tendency to possession and jealousy, split the couple but never
irrevocably. It turns out that the obscure object of desire is the threat
itself, the threat to one’s sanity and to one’s safety. Love is a terrorist act
and we like it like that although we are not prone to admit. We seek
self-destruction in another, traditionally this has been the metaphor of the
sexual act, that in coupling the self is lost with the other. But this is just
the printing of a larger text, what we seek is the display of our own
apprehension, our own darkest denials brought to light to accuse us of our
inadequacy. We love to hate and our hate is no match for our love. The films is
smart in the ways it makes its movement, our sympathies do not ever totally
belong to one or the other and at alternating moments we feel sympathy for the
aggression and plight of both. By the film’s end we cannot imagine them apart
or content.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Weirdly, the vase that is smashed by accident in this film
is later saved in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Resident Evil:
Retribution</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j5nKkCZogJQ/UTyYcyyCM8I/AAAAAAAAAUM/mvw9qB1E1bU/s1600/this+land+is+mine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j5nKkCZogJQ/UTyYcyyCM8I/AAAAAAAAAUM/mvw9qB1E1bU/s320/this+land+is+mine.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
This Land is Mine (Jean Renoir, 1943), Warner Archive
Collection<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Before it comes to completely rely on speech-making, the
film does a fine job of presenting its ideas in visual form. Charles Laughton’s
portrayal of Albert Lory as a coward, on the outside, that is also internally
brave is perfect. The presentation of a community overtaken by occupying Nazi
forces is also compelling drawn. The viewer is thrown into the complexity of
the arrangement and the morality of acquiescence versus resistance to these
external authorities is properly complex. I recognized that I, too, am a
coward, basically critical of rebellion when the forces of oppression seem so
general and innocuous. This is the state of Albert Lory, why fight that which
is not so bad? Why fight on principle when fighting makes life tenuous and
dangerous? Why do something when doing nothing is really so much easier? Those
who do something are destroyed, those who play along are rewarded. Is the choice
really so hard? The film and its date of release are obvious propaganda
designed to support partisans and freedom fighters throughout Europe but the
meaning of the film for today is more potent and powerful. There is a system
that we live under, it is a system of our own making and of our own acceptance
but we do not actually know what it is and its power over us. And as a system
it seeks to destroy us. This system is the organizing structure of life: get
educated, get a good job, make more and more money and buy more and more
things. The system does not support you, you support it. It is your job in life
to discover where you fit and what it is you can give or surrender; any other
notion of life that you may have is to be lived on the margins of this main
pursuit. It is, as every single one of us knows, a devastating system that
nurtures us with constant anxiety and fear of failure. To refuse its call, to
live in some way, is to fail, to invite mockery, to be ostracized and outcast.
The final speech of the film is a praise of the American Declaration of Rights
and Freedoms. I suspect that the film intends to be sincere in its praise of
the American way but I am knocked out by the irony. The rights and freedoms are
only words and our belief in them as a guiding principle continues to keep us
from being ever free. We do not fight for our children, our friends, or
ourselves, we watch them diminish daily and we fight for the rights to keep
dying. Albert Lory is some kind of anti-hero for our times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
<br />
<h3 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
White Zombie [Blu-ray] (Victor Halperin, 1932) Kino<o:p></o:p></h3>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is the first zombie movie in the history of film. These
zombies are not flesh eaters and nor, it should be noted, are they all white.
To be a zombie in the parlance in the film is to be enslaved, without any recourse
to a will of one’s own. I am guessing that by calling the film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">White Zombie</i> we are to imply that white
people can be slaves too. I am not sure if this is just weird language or if it
is racist. To be sure, the souls we want returned to their bodies are the white
people although the only actor in the film that seems to have any actual life
in him is the black stage driver. The acting is terrible, the metaphor of
living a dead life unclear (although there is a profound suggestion that the
zombie life for the lead female character begins the night of her marriage and
is the result of the general male desire to possess her), and much of the sets
look like obvious matte painting, so why recommend it? I am not convinced that
I should be but I am basically drawn to the small creepy moments of lighting
and shadow, and of some genuinely horrifying imagery of the drudgery of zombie
life. And for that alone I found it worth the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
<br />
<h2 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Also Seen:<o:p></o:p></h2>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UaNILVHo7vg/UTyZNeOvzgI/AAAAAAAAAUc/x3cxAfuLuyY/s1600/the+awakening.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UaNILVHo7vg/UTyZNeOvzgI/AAAAAAAAAUc/x3cxAfuLuyY/s1600/the+awakening.jpg" /></a></div>
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The Awakening [Blu-ray] (Nick Murphy, 2012) Universal</h4>
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</h4>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8NifrAzzqdQ/UTyZc9GuhrI/AAAAAAAAAUk/iN8YoQgOCZk/s1600/cast+a+long+shadow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8NifrAzzqdQ/UTyZc9GuhrI/AAAAAAAAAUk/iN8YoQgOCZk/s1600/cast+a+long+shadow.jpg" /></a></div>
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Cast A Long Shadow (Thomas Carr, 1959) Shout! Factory</h4>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D43pyPs-vlg/UTyZrk7EqRI/AAAAAAAAAUs/n07iNCbL8B4/s1600/citadel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-D43pyPs-vlg/UTyZrk7EqRI/AAAAAAAAAUs/n07iNCbL8B4/s1600/citadel.jpg" /></a></div>
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Citadel [Blu-ray] (Ciaran Foy, 2012) New Video Group<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u2jK-cDCBa4/UTyaAfPsFYI/AAAAAAAAAU0/vKNVZuUTiac/s1600/code_two_1953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-u2jK-cDCBa4/UTyaAfPsFYI/AAAAAAAAAU0/vKNVZuUTiac/s320/code_two_1953.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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Code Two (Fred Wilcox, 1953) Warner Archive Classics<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zg3dQzQXu9g/UTyaPsjuWyI/AAAAAAAAAU8/su5H24AakaY/s1600/cold+light+of+day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Zg3dQzQXu9g/UTyaPsjuWyI/AAAAAAAAAU8/su5H24AakaY/s1600/cold+light+of+day.jpg" /></a></div>
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Cold Light of Day [Blu-ray] (Mabrouk El Mechri, 2012) Summit<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t-1iavnXbNI/UTyagr_8aJI/AAAAAAAAAVE/dO6vv8L1cfs/s1600/death-in-small-doses-movie-poster-1957-1020197288.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t-1iavnXbNI/UTyagr_8aJI/AAAAAAAAAVE/dO6vv8L1cfs/s320/death-in-small-doses-movie-poster-1957-1020197288.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
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Death in Small Doses (Joseph Newman, 1957) Warner Archive
Classics<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tP9SqEZ_Jlk/UTya9IQSuBI/AAAAAAAAAVM/o6dVivuA3-M/s1600/the-double-blu-ray-cover-55.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tP9SqEZ_Jlk/UTya9IQSuBI/AAAAAAAAAVM/o6dVivuA3-M/s320/the-double-blu-ray-cover-55.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
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The Double [Blu-ray] (Michael Brandt, 2011) RB UK High
Fliers Films<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dPgYsSTqN8A/UTybZibc3AI/AAAAAAAAAVU/SI1q4D2jzq8/s1600/stanley_kubrick_fear_desire.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dPgYsSTqN8A/UTybZibc3AI/AAAAAAAAAVU/SI1q4D2jzq8/s320/stanley_kubrick_fear_desire.jpg" width="239" /></a></div>
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Fear and Desire [Blu-ray] (Stanley Kubrick, 1953) RB UK
Masters of Cinema<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nMrOD-XMqFo/UTybyl9x5vI/AAAAAAAAAVc/nzhCjCXxoFw/s1600/hotel+transylvannia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nMrOD-XMqFo/UTybyl9x5vI/AAAAAAAAAVc/nzhCjCXxoFw/s1600/hotel+transylvannia.jpg" /></a></div>
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Hotel Transylvania [Blu-ray] (Genndy Tartakovsky, 2012) Sony
Pictures<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l7bRdbZKUvA/UTycDal4krI/AAAAAAAAAVk/VFXTkPtGytM/s1600/kit+carson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-l7bRdbZKUvA/UTycDal4krI/AAAAAAAAAVk/VFXTkPtGytM/s1600/kit+carson.jpg" /></a></div>
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Kit Carson (George Seitz, 1940) Henstooth<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tia9mf2vFJk/UTycNdYe3_I/AAAAAAAAAVs/nbI4MRNcNDs/s1600/looper.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Tia9mf2vFJk/UTycNdYe3_I/AAAAAAAAAVs/nbI4MRNcNDs/s1600/looper.jpg" /></a></div>
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Looper [Blu-ray] (Rian Johnson, 2012) Sony<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pl2bq9gVgh0/UTycYh21eII/AAAAAAAAAV0/7N9g2D2QznE/s1600/murder_is_my_beat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pl2bq9gVgh0/UTycYh21eII/AAAAAAAAAV0/7N9g2D2QznE/s320/murder_is_my_beat.jpg" width="209" /></a></div>
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Murder is My Beat (Edgar Ulmer, 1955) Warner Archive
Classics<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CtRld6Oddzs/UTycmnLN9BI/AAAAAAAAAV8/te0_3kQYWiM/s1600/paranorman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CtRld6Oddzs/UTycmnLN9BI/AAAAAAAAAV8/te0_3kQYWiM/s320/paranorman.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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Paranorman [Blu-ray] (Sam Fell, 2012) Universal <o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sOVP9Rz8OKc/UTycyPcXgCI/AAAAAAAAAWE/_LwuHPeZl78/s1600/Resident_evil_retribution_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sOVP9Rz8OKc/UTycyPcXgCI/AAAAAAAAAWE/_LwuHPeZl78/s320/Resident_evil_retribution_poster.jpg" width="215" /></a></div>
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Resident Evil: Retribution [Blu-ray] (Paul W.S. Anderson,
2012) Sony<o:p></o:p></h4>
<h4>
</h4>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NSmCECmW6Uk/UTyc_fw4T0I/AAAAAAAAAWM/Vy3iR2VPSmg/s1600/seven+psychopaths.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-NSmCECmW6Uk/UTyc_fw4T0I/AAAAAAAAAWM/Vy3iR2VPSmg/s1600/seven+psychopaths.jpg" /></a></div>
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Seven Psychopaths [Blu-ray] (Martin McDonagh, 2012) Sony
Pictures<o:p></o:p></h4>
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</h4>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bkf78fehALM/UTydQKONyHI/AAAAAAAAAWY/eLnzNuyjvEk/s1600/the+woodsman+and+the+rain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bkf78fehALM/UTydQKONyHI/AAAAAAAAAWY/eLnzNuyjvEk/s1600/the+woodsman+and+the+rain.jpg" /></a></div>
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The Woodsman and the Rain [Blu-ray] (Shuichi Okita, 2011) RB
UK Third Window Films<o:p></o:p></h4>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910961867408235791.post-6820368235316744252013-02-16T11:23:00.000-08:002013-04-06T08:43:27.731-07:00DVD Column Four<br />
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Pick of the Week</h3>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O3Xic-Z_LCM/UR7MezizhFI/AAAAAAAAAMM/C5R0COP77wQ/s1600/pinamovie_poster_1020675162.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-O3Xic-Z_LCM/UR7MezizhFI/AAAAAAAAAMM/C5R0COP77wQ/s320/pinamovie_poster_1020675162.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Pina [Blu-ray] (Wim Wenders, 2011) Criterion Collection</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I know that most do not want to see this movie even though
they think they probably should. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pina</i>
is wonderful but because it shouts high art it is going to come across the
shelf to you as smug and lifeless. You are not going to enjoy this edification,
you tell yourself. I am not convinced that there is such a thing as high art
but if there is it is something that speaks to you and for you in ways that are
fundamentally powerful and evocative. In your experience of high art you are
written and you write a view of yourself and how you relate to the various
aspects of social and more abstract truths in such a way that is pertinent and
necessary. High art is not boring, it is crucial and its voice, once accessed,
becomes commanding and liberating.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is the power of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pina</i>.
I am aware that my descriptions of what it is are going to tend any reader in a
direction opposite to the one intended but these series of modern dance, both
on a stage and on the streets of a small German city refers to something that I
believe is inside of you, not universally, but idiosyncratically. The dancers
are outrageously gifted and their movements are suggestive of that winning
human combination of angry aggression and soothing grace. There are four main
pieces, all originally choreographed by Pina Bausch, presented here and they
have as their main source of expression the outrage of what it is to be trapped
in a life and the corresponding knowledge that awareness of this morass is in
itself a freedom. Bodies fly, eyes often shut or wide eyed open, women are
caught by men, perpetually seek embrace, the loving lead the blind, and the
truth of our hopes and failures are grounded in the physicality of the body and
the space within which it can move. And the dancers because of their spiritual
knowledge of their bodies are able to draft visions of enactments in space that
open the environment for all the viewers. They mock their limitations while
demonstrating them. The film is endlessly deep and will be different each time
you watch it. Ideally, you should have it on all the time. It is exciting,
visceral and participates in a type of thought given its absence of
declarations that I would silently call poetry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4SNRuwhB3Uk/UR7M2hQeaqI/AAAAAAAAAMU/BxW85qL65vI/s1600/pina+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4SNRuwhB3Uk/UR7M2hQeaqI/AAAAAAAAAMU/BxW85qL65vI/s320/pina+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
SRP: $44.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Pina-DVD-Blu-ray-Combo-Pack/dp/B007RAS35K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1360972943&sr=8-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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Also released:<o:p></o:p></h3>
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<a href="http://j.static-locatetv.com/images/content/large/88/215615_and_now_tomorrow__11_x_17_movie_poster__style_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://j.static-locatetv.com/images/content/large/88/215615_and_now_tomorrow__11_x_17_movie_poster__style_a.jpg" /></a></div>
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And Now Tomorrow (Irving Pichel, 1944) R2 UK Simply Media</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Emily Blair, the eldest daughter of a family rich enough to
live in Blairtown, has contracted meningitis and is now deaf. The immediate
result of this, of course, is that she feels obligated to postpone her
engagement to Jeff who deals with the pain by falling in love with her sister
Janice. It is not clear why Emily has come to this decision given her startling
ability to read lips and the fact that despite not hearing herself talk she
still speaks in a consistently measured and appropriately inflected cadence.
Truth be told the only appearance of her deafness is the claim that she is. It
is the lack of actual ramifications to her affliction that clues us in to the
bigger impairment that her deafness is only a metaphor for. Emily is a snob and
it takes the once poor hearing specialist Dr. Vance to cure her of both her
failings, the physical one she cannot help and the mental one she accepts. The
main problem with this problem and solution as it is presented in the film is
that Emily seems kind and lovely and Dr. Vance comes across as the epitome of
class <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">resentiment</i>. Offering her an
appointment in his working class Pittsburgh clinic which he pungently describes
as dirty and overly crowded she demurs, as you or I would if we could, and we
are still to be left with the image that she is spoiled to the core. The person
in the film who seems most governed by class stereotypes and disdain is Dr.
Lance and perhaps this is the more intriguing point: it is a problem if you are
so rich that you don’t hate others for who they are as it means the natures of
other people are not really hindrances to your life. Dr. Vance represents the
lowly at their lowest, gifted but blind to their own snobbery. The film has no
time for details, save Janice’s suggestion of being romantically stymied by a
guilty suitor in terms of sexual frustration, it cuts right to its moral points
and stays at them. As a strategy it fails if only because our dislike for Dr.
Vance prevents us from seeing his presumably correct agenda. We can all see why
he loves her, why she loves him is not as clear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gpBvBzXETjQ/UR_Gen9AJRI/AAAAAAAAAMs/vu_4hWoovqo/s1600/and+now+tomorrow+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gpBvBzXETjQ/UR_Gen9AJRI/AAAAAAAAAMs/vu_4hWoovqo/s320/and+now+tomorrow+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
SRP: 10.00 pounds<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/And-Now-Tomorrow-Alan-Ladd/dp/B009D50954/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360973144&sr=8-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7ZK2O-hIEhk/UR_HGJoJQWI/AAAAAAAAAM0/H46yAfBMyQg/s1600/cujo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7ZK2O-hIEhk/UR_HGJoJQWI/AAAAAAAAAM0/H46yAfBMyQg/s320/cujo.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
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Cujo [Blu-ray] (Lewis Teague, 1983) Olive Films</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is something about movies from the eighties, and not
exclusively Hollywood movies, that are terrible. I don’t like thinking this and
it is my deep hope that it is not true but if one was to do the research I
suspect you would find that the eighties were a period of odd transition. The
standards of what could be shown to a mainstream audience along with the
primacy of story over character make these dramas, along with too much flat
colour, tired and boring, family movies that have hints of darkness that no family
is looking for. Characters are types and decadence is not shown in actual
behaviour but through facial hair for the men (if you have it you are trouble)
and by extra weight for the women (unless you are jolly, serious and overweight
means evil). The good people are clean, part of their experience in awfulness
is how dirty they become, and well mannered, closer to mannequins than to our
neighbours. And the children are ideas of children, almost always outdoorsy and
drawn to the values of the 1950s even if their parents are not. The films in
total seek sentimental outcomes – instead of trying to inspire optimism against
odds (which I am for) they instead present the notion that good (clean) living
will win out because it is right (which I am against). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Cujo</i> is two films in one: the first is a lame presentation of a
suburban community in the throes of the usual cinematic issues of infidelity
and business trouble; the second is the gripping tension between a mother and
her son stalled in a car in the country pitted against a rabid Saint Bernard.
The thing that connects the two tales is the argument about the existence of
monsters and it is here that the film tries to make a strong point. Unless the
mother is out there in the country with her son as cosmic punishment for her
marital lapse the existence of the rabid dog is there to show that, yes, even
though your existence is managed there are still gentle things out there that
can turn into ferocious beasts and your survival is not based on merit but on
luck. The film is right to devote its second half to a confrontation as it
erases the icky weirdness of the first half and re-contextualizes it: none of
that fake crap matters now that we are aware of the monster in our midst. The
film has all the tendencies of the trite but these do are erased in the actual
grip of a real terror. The film has the sense to end when it should without any
pontification about meaning when obviously there is none to be found because
that is a part of the monster.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R89Q-glZmpk/UR_HbBCVQdI/AAAAAAAAAM8/1rOEFk0yyOU/s1600/cujo+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-R89Q-glZmpk/UR_HbBCVQdI/AAAAAAAAAM8/1rOEFk0yyOU/s320/cujo+blu+ray.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
SRP: $24.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Cujo-Anniversary-Blu-ray-Dee-Wallace/dp/B00A1AU702/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361037100&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JhXjHw2dSWg/UR_H7L7XerI/AAAAAAAAANE/bJC2bhU1oOk/s1600/deadly-blessing-movie-poster-1sh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JhXjHw2dSWg/UR_H7L7XerI/AAAAAAAAANE/bJC2bhU1oOk/s320/deadly-blessing-movie-poster-1sh.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Deadly Blessing [Blu-ray] (Wes Craven, 1981) Shout! Factory</h4>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In a community of “Hittites” (which I think is a cross
between Hutterites and Mennonites and has nothing to do with the Anatolian
Hittities) a man, Jim, marries a woman, Martha, from outside the flock and is
ostracized for doing so. Oddly enough he sets up his farm next door to his
family which predictably exacerbates the tensions between them. Even though he
has been excommunicated this does not mean that he is not entitled to some
land. Martha is not given any such perks because she is deemed by the community
the less than neighbourly title of incubus. The label is inappropriate for a
number of reasons beyond the fact that the term is designated for males where a
succubus is the female equivalent. Martha is shown to us to be not overtly
sexually tempting as much as she is martially interested in her husband.
Confusions abound, tragedies strike, friends from California arrive without any
sense of how to deal with the stranger in their strange land. The film is an
awkward one with set and dream pieces working as examples of film-making
expertise that are then awkwardly fit into the picture as a whole. The whole
thing works its way to a conclusion that is surprising and disappointing given
that it resolves little and only adds an excusing plot twist in order to judge
no one as failing anything. The film is terrible with the only signs of life
coming from the elder Hittites. Compared to the California crowd I know who I
would rather spend the day with.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TOCaB831OCI/UR_IJyazdZI/AAAAAAAAANM/cEqNsGQuSd8/s1600/deadly+blessing+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TOCaB831OCI/UR_IJyazdZI/AAAAAAAAANM/cEqNsGQuSd8/s320/deadly+blessing+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
SRP: $29.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Deadly-Blessing-Blu-ray/dp/B009INADRA/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361037248&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tP8K2jQeCQ4/UR_IqIBQjWI/AAAAAAAAANU/vlGtJuf-080/s1600/death+race+3+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tP8K2jQeCQ4/UR_IqIBQjWI/AAAAAAAAANU/vlGtJuf-080/s320/death+race+3+poster.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Death Race 3: Inferno [Blu-ray] (Roel Reine, 2013) Universal
Studios</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Life sentenced convicts race against each other, free to
murder other drivers, in order to win the death race. Five victories and you
are freed from your sentence. It sounds like a great sport and fun but, predictably,
market forces are trying to commercialize the game in ways that are
compromising the spirit of the match. The film acts as an expose of how a group
of convicts seek to confront the inadequacies of the new corporate agenda. I
saw Death Race, the first, and while it did not end up on my year end best of
list it was a moderately enjoyable film that was horribly violent but not
without its guilty pleasure. I missed the second film and perhaps this has
impacted my ability to enjoy the third offering. However, I don’t think the
problem is that the plot was too complicated or that I was missing essential
pieces of who these people were and why they were there but instead any
momentum that the film developed was crushed by an exposition style that
deflated any forward movement. The film ends, after a confusing closing piece
that I was not paying much attention to anyhow, with a Keyser Soze revelation
sequence that does not drop your jaw but has you asking why are you doing this,
why are you showing me the dull ending twice? It was all silly played out with
no irony.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
SRP: $37.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Death-Race-Inferno-Blu-ray-UltraViolet/dp/B009WTX2K0/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361037503&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_WyMgjtF98Y/UR_Jd9ugbsI/AAAAAAAAANk/Hl196ruBsSI/s1600/django1966-poster2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_WyMgjtF98Y/UR_Jd9ugbsI/AAAAAAAAANk/Hl196ruBsSI/s320/django1966-poster2.jpg" width="176" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Django [Blu-ray] (Sergio Corbucci, 1966) RB UK Argent Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The opening shots are of the title character dragging a
coffin through the wilderness. The coffin looks heavy and the terrain is not
smooth, any viewer who has ever performed a camping trip portage will
immediately sympathize. I was immediately grabbed and as long as you are
passive in your attention the film will continue to enchant. We learn that
Django is after Major Jackson who murdered Django’s wife though there is no
reason to care. We know that Django quietly stands for something that we
support and we know that he is bound to run into something that is going to
challenge his righteousness. It does not matter what but to be fair Major Jackson
is a wonderful slice of awful; the sort of man who uses human beings as clay
pigeons. The film provides all the usual Western escapades, there are plenty of
gunfights in saloons and the not so great outdoors, a heist and a betrayal and
everything is punctuated with brutality. The most brutal aspect of the film is
the most powerful: the weather and the terrain shout of the dark cold wetness
and outside of Swedish dramas by Berman and August I have never felt so chilly
while watching a film. I mean this as high praise, the art direction is
wonderful, the mud is wet and impenetrable, the devastation of the landscape
believable and disturbing. The closing scenes of Django, hands smashed beyond
possible use, trying to find a way to pull his trigger while braced on the
irons of a cemetery cross are arresting and delightful. There is no shortage of
Christian imagery throughout the film but it is my sense that it just there to
add to the gothic pathos. He certainly does suffer and he exhibits a
respectable sexual propriety but he does not have anything resembling a
forgiving nature, as the coffin eventually attests.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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SRP: $24.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Django-Blu-ray/dp/B0036R92V2/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361037720&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H3krvfW9fus/UR_KW8MowEI/AAAAAAAAAN0/FSX21fX291g/s1600/end-of-watch-poster-389x600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-H3krvfW9fus/UR_KW8MowEI/AAAAAAAAAN0/FSX21fX291g/s320/end-of-watch-poster-389x600.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
End of Watch [Blu-ray] (David Ayer, 2012) Universal</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The pleasures here are found in the camaraderie of the two
central characters who are also LAPD officers. Their conversations have an
easy-going rhythm and their wit seems natural and tied to the actual domestic
and dull situations that they are in. They are the sort of people you may work
with or just simply know who are at ease with themselves and with others and
while you know they have some problems you also know they are not going to
burden you with them. You envy them their casual and comfortable way of making
a joke in whatever social situation and you want to resent them but their
likability resists even the possibility of developing anger towards them. This
is the key to their appeal and to why they semi-annoy. They are socially doing
fine, even when awkward they manage it well and it seems natural and not
learned. A film that only puts us into the company of two guys who are at ease
with one another and their world needs to give us something else to keep us
tuned in. If this is true it is too bad because it is this type of thinking
that gets movies into trouble. The police work that our officers are committed
to is unbelievable, the high level of aggression that they face from the
criminal element, the lack of knowledge they have about the context that they
are working in, the persistent ache of poverty and violence in the city. All of
this is believable. What is not is that if it is as persistent and as ugly as
it seems in the film that these two could manage to maintain their perpetually
jokey attitudes. I know that tough situations bring out the jokester in some of
us but the situation of the film is beyond tough and I would insist that it
must produce a psychic debt. In this sense, and only in this sense, the film
perturbs me as it seems a brochure advertising police careers that is going to
potentially or likely destroy that easy going nature of yours. It is propaganda
but it is very good propaganda.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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SRP: $30.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/End-Watch-Blu-ray-Jake-Gyllenhaal/dp/B0093DCPS0/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361037871&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucivwoUmN80/UR_LVbIu4VI/AAAAAAAAAOE/oLz6i5gFCNs/s1600/frontier+horizon+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ucivwoUmN80/UR_LVbIu4VI/AAAAAAAAAOE/oLz6i5gFCNs/s1600/frontier+horizon+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Frontier Horizon [Blu-ray] (George Sherman, 1939) Olive
Films<span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;">Frontier Horizon [Blu-ray] (George
Sherman, 1939) Olive Film</span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="display: none; mso-hide: all;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The three Mesquiters, one of which is Stoney Brooke (played
by John Wayne and thus the only reason that this film persists), are horse
riders for the Pony Express; for reasons unclear this provides them with being
a source of moral guidance to their community. The community is New Hope Valley
and it is being threatened with devastation, largely because of the bad advice
given by the three Mesquiters. Guilt results and the three, led by Stoney`s
sense of wise responsibility fight for what is right. The villains want money
and don’t care about people, the good townsfolk care seemingly only for
themselves but not money and so we are to be on their side. The film is short
and the plot is long so much is shown without the complications of being
believable (the film also has startling problems with anachronisms – elaborate
power lines loom in the backdrops and the creation of a damn is performed with
equipment from the 1930s though the film is set in the early 20<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
century). And yet the film is constantly being padded with repetitive scenes of
horseback riding and vistas that do not further or deepen an overly simplified
story. It is great to have scenes that do nothing for the story that show us
more about the people involved but this is not accomplished by watching men and
women ride horses. It is impossible to care about what is happening because it
is clear that what is happening is following its own movie logic and has no
need of our interest or involvement. Really, this is the rare film that offers
the viewer nothing. If it was the only film in town you would ask why do we
need films.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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SRP: $24.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Frontier-Horizon-Blu-ray-John-Wayne/dp/B00A196MZC/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361038127&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x0R31LBKDM4/UR_MDXqyQcI/AAAAAAAAAOU/UPVgzaiGsNE/s1600/hold+your+breath+movie+poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x0R31LBKDM4/UR_MDXqyQcI/AAAAAAAAAOU/UPVgzaiGsNE/s1600/hold+your+breath+movie+poster.png" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Hold Your Breath [Blu-ray] (Jared Cohn, 2012) Asylum Home
Ent.</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some years ago I watched a stack of films in the After Dark
Horrorfest series. The films were not very good and I had learned my lesson
about the relationship between marketing and actuality. Then I watched <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mulberry Street</i> and I loved it. It was
gritty, the writing and the acting were compelling and it was about rat people.
The rat people angle was understandably what originally enticed me but I kept
with it because I was genuinely tickled by all of its aspects. I wish this had
not happened because I now have a precedent for surprise and so I keep watching
all sorts of dreck under the pretense of the big maybe, maybe this will be
great. And it still sometimes happens. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hold
Your Breath </i>is an argument in the other direction – poorly made in every
way and unforgivingly dull. The idea is if you don’t hold your breath when you
pass a graveyard you run the risk of imbibing the spirit of an evil lost soul
that resides there and obviously seeks escape. It sounds promising but it is
not. The graveyard is a big one and as you might predict not everyone in a car
full of late adolescents (average age I put at about 25) is able to do what is
needed in terms of breath control despite the startling insistence of one of
the characters (who later shows herself to be clueless about every other sort
of danger except this one superstition). Menace takes over; the seeds of
mistrust boil over into relationships that seem to already be based on a lack
of trust. They are all idiots and they are all quickly outraged and prone to
tantrums that do not create tension but make the viewer feel like they need to
be the calm person in order to get through all this cheapness. There is no
metaphor here just a very loose idea that has me wondering whether the director
took the title’s advice when preparing the film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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SRP: $19.98 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Hold-Breath-Blu-ray-Katrina-Bowden/dp/B009T43QC2/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361038268&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jHH_GMpCIyQ/UR_MrvtMXEI/AAAAAAAAAOk/0w2alGFtPC0/s1600/indiscreet+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jHH_GMpCIyQ/UR_MrvtMXEI/AAAAAAAAAOk/0w2alGFtPC0/s320/indiscreet+movie+poster.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Indiscreet [Blu-ray] (Stanley Donen, 1958) Olive Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In writing this column I have not set myself any rules but I
have a few guidelines. I avoid referring to actors and directors because my
critical interest is in the film itself and not in placing it within a context
of history of auteurism. I have no great prejudice against this sort of
criticism except that many of its purveyors tend to ignore the film itself or
reduce it to a line or two of plot summation. Reading someone like Jonathan
Rosenbaum can be maddening because much of what you are given is information
about the film, predominantly its supposed maker and how it relates to the
other films in the genre or the career of that director. As one of our most
praised living critics I am struck by how little his work creates enthusiasm
for the magic of particular films. I aim to celebrate and to comment (and given
the first may need to do some serious thinking about my obsessive vice of
wanting to cover as much as possible. Prior to doing this I believed I actually
liked most everything I saw) and I am very happily in no position to educate.
This brings us to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indiscreet</i> and the
only reason to watch the film which is to witness Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman
working off of each other. Unlike you I have never been fond of Cary Grant. I
find him wooden and so filled with the affectation of charm to be charmless. He
is redeemed, constantly, by finding a way to challenge his own debonair image
with goofy gestures or some inspired silliness. This is Cary Grant at his best
but I am problematized by the lesson that sleaze tempered with awkwardness is
an ideal. In the film under consideration he plays another smoothie matched
with the equally cool and erudite Ingrid Bergman. They fall in love and work
out some issues mostly in ways that are disturbingly stupid. The main trick of
the film, which is also one of its premises (which I will not mention as it is
supposed to be a surprise) is lame and thankfully irrelevant. The joy of the
film is the snappiness of these two actors, mostly Bergman, as they work
through confusions of social fear, insecurity in personas governed by their
confidence, and the frustrating fear that maybe a person cannot be
self-defined. The banter is accurate and attaches itself to situations where
the viewer is impressed by how that is the smart and funny thing to say and can
believe that someone would say such a thing. They are wits, and they are smart,
and they deliver their carefully written dialogue as if it is occurring to them
in the moment. They play well with their scenery and this is all for the fun.
Like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">End of Watch</i> (to which this film
is similar) we are being sold an image of splendour and sophistication that is
either paired with loneliness and pain to make it palatable or because it is
only honest to show that this is a part of the package. I don’t care if these
two get married except that increases the odds of them being seen together and
after two hours plus of them playing through a far-fetched plot it would be
pleasurably relaxing to hang out with them and listen to them riff.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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SRP: $29.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Indiscreet-Blu-ray-Carey-Grant/dp/B00A1AU752/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361038471&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bj1qO-8iC8g/UR_NQ6S9bFI/AAAAAAAAAO0/UJu7EV992so/s1600/its+in+the+bag+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bj1qO-8iC8g/UR_NQ6S9bFI/AAAAAAAAAO0/UJu7EV992so/s1600/its+in+the+bag+movie+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
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</div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
It’s In the Bag [Blu-ray] (Richard Wallace, 1945) Olive
Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">My expectations were low given that madcap film of the
1940s, which I correctly predicted this to be, tend to demonstrations of the
chaotic that exhaust more than they entertain me. This story of a poor
conniving family managing a bit of an inheritance that they are sure to abuse
was inexplicably entertaining. I attribute the merriment to the personality of
the head of the family (the Floggles, who I concede would do anything to make
money off of a dead horse) and his relentless desire to serve himself along
with the assistance of his exhausted and blandly encouraging spouse. Rarely has
the neglect of children been so funny and the absolute lack of moral teaching
is refreshing. There is not a hint of redemption in anything that they
accomplish or fail so singularly directed is their intention to make a fortune
without effort. The two Floggle children have nothing in common with their
parents and so are of no interest except in where they are of use. Floggle does
not care, he knows he is dubious, he knows that no one can guess how dubious he
actually is and he uses the gap between perception and belief to do what he can
get away with. Their greed would not be nearly as charming if they were smart.
Their beauty is in their stupid desire to grab at everything, they please like
the monkey who already eating a banana works to possess the one belonging to
his brother. They will capture you unaware, unless you are too smart for them,
then, they will just annoy you. If this is the case I bet that is an annoying thing
about you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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SRP: $29.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Its-Bag-Blu-ray-Fred-Allen/dp/B00A1AU72U/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361038620&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ev5QzDA8mHc/UR_N4qzso5I/AAAAAAAAAPE/T4IOC20OBE8/s1600/ivans-childhood-movie-poster-1962-1020549801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ev5QzDA8mHc/UR_N4qzso5I/AAAAAAAAAPE/T4IOC20OBE8/s320/ivans-childhood-movie-poster-1962-1020549801.jpg" width="197" /></a></div>
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</div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Ivan’s Childhood [Blu-ray] (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1962)
Criterion Collection</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ivan is a twelve year old scout for the Russian army. Prior
to his acceptance to those ranks he had been a Partisan, undercutting the
regime whenever possible. He is an orphan who has also lost a sister. He is
hardened and has no interest in doing anything but keeping at the game of
retaliation. For him it must speak of a vague justice but this justice serves
mostly to compensate for that which has been lost. He is without mooring and so
he attaches himself to a series of parents, all military, to whom he seeks to
impress with his prowess and his bravery. He is not scared in the terrors of
the day because his sense of life is not present to him. He is only afraid when
he dreams. He is also only happy when he dreams. His dreams are beautiful and
suggest and show a world of harmonious and bountiful nature within which he is
a happy participant. These idyllic nature dreams have no bearing on his present
life and I suspect do not belong to the realm of actual memory either. They are
idealized visions of what was there before it was all taken away. Before it was
taken away, I am confident, his life was perceived and received as not much of
anything. But now that it is gone, it is now the symbol of everything and
symbols are only idols if they are not the icons of a truthful belief so his
dreams must be real and they must be the thing to protect even though their
existence can never be. His world is vicious and the imagery of everything
constantly pointing at him with a violence that has no anger is dark and
believable. Outside of the world of fantasy there is not a cheerful thought or
image in the movie. But the threat against life and hope is so powerfully
evoked you recognize that the honest portrayal of the worst is in itself a
source of cheer given that the alternative, that the dead and dying do not even
wound us, would be the end of all of us.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x8POiGRan2Q/UR_OAxT53EI/AAAAAAAAAPM/smMvFz8eAhM/s1600/ivans+childhood+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-x8POiGRan2Q/UR_OAxT53EI/AAAAAAAAAPM/smMvFz8eAhM/s320/ivans+childhood+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
SRP: $54.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Ivans-Childhood-Blu-ray/dp/B009RWRIMA/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361038776&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OTsYahc-AOo/UR_OjVscH5I/AAAAAAAAAPU/sk5MC5wgmu0/s1600/1-king-of-the-pecos-movie-poster-1936-1020143472.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OTsYahc-AOo/UR_OjVscH5I/AAAAAAAAAPU/sk5MC5wgmu0/s320/1-king-of-the-pecos-movie-poster-1936-1020143472.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
King of the Pecos [Blu-ray] (Joseph Kane, 1936) Olive Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Where the brevity of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frontier
Horizon</i> is a flaw that demonstrates the ineptitude of that film in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King of the Pecos</i> it aids in creating
suspense. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">King of the Pecos</i>, also an
early John Wayne, is a vastly superior film. Again, the rich are overwhelming
the poor, this time by bullying ranchers (the very soon to be rich) through
false legal claims to all the water in the vast region. John Clayborn, whose
father was killed at the beginning of the film, has come back to town to
prosecute Alexander Stiles, the man behind his father’s death. It is a run of
the mill Western theme but Stiles is so despicable and full of himself (you can
just guess where he sits on the weight scale) that the film transcends its
basics. Stiles sense of entitlement is so total that you cannot imagine him
being moved by anything except threats to his practical sense of desire. I am
smarter than these people and there is no way<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>that I am going to exist in tandem or cooperation with a land full of
rubes and boobs. And the ranchers except for the useless outsider Eli Jackson
and his more effective daughter Belle, are boobs and rubes. You can understand
Stiles disdain, they are toothless and deaf unable to see past their own
stupidity to know that they are being ripped off. The film is crisp, the scenes
are sharp, and it is over before you are done with it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XrTlPiUc98w/UR_OqFmQc6I/AAAAAAAAAPc/XYZFSHvtAGg/s1600/king+of+the+pecos+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XrTlPiUc98w/UR_OqFmQc6I/AAAAAAAAAPc/XYZFSHvtAGg/s320/king+of+the+pecos+blu+ray.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
SRP: $24.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/King-Pecos-Blu-ray-John-Wayne/dp/B00A196MCU/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361038901&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--xWs1NbL7Vs/UR_PF876piI/AAAAAAAAAPk/wuSPuqXX0Lo/s1600/nature+calls+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/--xWs1NbL7Vs/UR_PF876piI/AAAAAAAAAPk/wuSPuqXX0Lo/s1600/nature+calls+movie+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Nature Calls [Blu-ray] (Todd Rohal, 2012) Magnolia Home Ent.</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To be overly generous this movie was so morally confusing
that I think that its aims may be ironic or to mock itself. It is about two
brothers, one devoted to the boy scouts and nature, the other beholden to his
ATM business and to a lifestyle celebrating the joys of having twenty
televisions in one room. Besides knowing exactly with which of these two
brothers my loyalties basically lie there is eventually not much to choose
between them. Everyone makes terrible decisions which they seek to deny and no
one can be said to do the right thing or to even have given it much thought.
The red flag, for me, was the way that the media based family cursed constantly
in front of groups of children only to find that this shorthand warning of
decadence was repeated by the scout leaders in front of the same children.
Everyone is clueless to what they are doing was the point and being clueless
for some clueless reason is better outdoors. If the film is ironic it does not
take adequate care to be anything more than stupid. And if you are given a
choice of critical distinction between ironic and stupid, stupid will always be
the trump.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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SRP: $24.95 <br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tD8ZNKEsY7E/UR_PwxX8AkI/AAAAAAAAAP0/AtGU5Wgk5uY/s1600/nobody+walks+movie+poster.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tD8ZNKEsY7E/UR_PwxX8AkI/AAAAAAAAAP0/AtGU5Wgk5uY/s1600/nobody+walks+movie+poster.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Nobody Walks [Blu-ray] (Ry Russo-Young, 2012) Magnolia Home
Ent.</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Martine is looking for a sound editor for her art project. Peter,
who is in that business, takes her into his home where she lives with Peter’s
wife Caroline and their daughter Kolt. Peter and Martine hook up, Peter becomes
jealous of Martine’s interest in other people and eventually Martine, at
Caroline’s insistence, is asked to live. It is a slice of life if your life is
casually and carefully out of control, that is, if you live in a house with
people who have no actual affection for anyone. The movie is boring but it is
because I don’t like a single one of the people in it. The problem is that the
movie does not like them either. The art film within the film appears to be
about how insects are scavenging the dead but in the actual film the insects
only buzz around each other. Watching the film is like being invited to
someone’s house that is doing so well financially in a field that has a touch
of culture that they think that makes them interesting. I like my nihilism with
a bit more punch.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Axax5MG4Y_o/UR_P5E74ifI/AAAAAAAAAP8/RCQeXxGGXjo/s1600/nobody+walks+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Axax5MG4Y_o/UR_P5E74ifI/AAAAAAAAAP8/RCQeXxGGXjo/s320/nobody+walks+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
SRP: $29.79 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Nobody-Walks-Blu-ray/dp/B009OCR26U/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361039213&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PMq9pI7nTiY/UR_QTaH3ezI/AAAAAAAAAQE/b4tM-_KCCOA/s1600/Officer+Down+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PMq9pI7nTiY/UR_QTaH3ezI/AAAAAAAAAQE/b4tM-_KCCOA/s320/Officer+Down+1.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Officer Down [Blu-ray] (Brian Miller, 2012) Anchor Bay</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Officer Down</i> is
not nearly as much fun as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">End of Watch</i>
but it is a bit more honest in its theme that immersion in systems of
perversity will have an effect on you. Formerly corrupt cop David Callahan,
however, was never a particularly winning personality. His interests are all
vices and when it comes to “normal” life his response is perfunctory; there is
no way that the day to day could compete with a life of willed and playful
oblivion. He is an empty man who is only partially interesting when filled with
bourbon and cocaine. Given a chance to remedy and redeem his existence he finds
that the whole cart of apples is rotten and that his desire for justice and
truth mark him as the same sort of outsider that he has been to others in his
life. He finds that what he was is what there is to be and that the systemic
supports to be something more stable and affirming only pay attention to these
virtues in terms of sophistical rhetoric. Again, and again and again, this
would be more powerfully presented if we had any sense that Callahan was more
than a shell of a man and that there was something human to him beside his
ability to collapse. He has no convictions, his defense of the good and true
are exactly what an exhausted person would do when they have grown tired, and
thus unable, to play the usual game. The point is that inspiration is not even
on the table, the reason to stop a life corrupted is only because it seems like
a work to keep going. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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SRP: $36.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Officer-Down-Blu-ray-Stephen-Dorff/dp/B009YQMMWK/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361039379&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QrMfUIy3EZA/UR_RGoNOCZI/AAAAAAAAAQU/yytbkahiRLA/s1600/the+quiet+man+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QrMfUIy3EZA/UR_RGoNOCZI/AAAAAAAAAQU/yytbkahiRLA/s320/the+quiet+man+poster.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Quiet Man
[Blu-ray] (John Ford, 1952) Olive Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">A nice film with finely realized characters all the more
impressive for also representing entire types from the red-haired firebrand,
the drunken matchmaker, the belligerent oaf, the overly educated young man, the
independent widow to cool for love but obviously desirous of it, to the American
arrival with his enlightened views and his respect for the ways that these
views are irrelevant. It is the American that the film is about and he is a
metaphor for us. Burdened by the violence of American not demanded of you but
tacitly expected and quickly forgiven, he has fled back to his Irish birthplace
in the hope of a tranquil, natural life where beating up your fellow man is not
part and parcel of what it is to life. The film is not so sentimental that he
is able to return to the idylls of innocence so thoroughly. He finds that you
have to fight here to, against the belief that traditions he does not live by
are arcane, and in order to show that life is worth fighting for. The measure
of what it is to fight are different and it is in this lesson that peace does
eventually come to him, a peace earned in the aggressive defense of something
that one loves and not merely something one feels that they have to do. The
film is masterful in all ways, from the setting of each individual shot to the
developments of each character. To be watched alone with a drink. I guarantee
that if you are over thirty you will hear its call and you will not be tricked
by its promise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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SRP: $23.25 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Quiet-Man-Blu-ray-John-Wayne/dp/B009YX8LO6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361039558&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase LInk</a><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BY-cAMyskTc/UR_UmC5etlI/AAAAAAAAAQo/pTyXP5Umr-g/s1600/Poster_of_the_movie_Red_Ball_Express.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BY-cAMyskTc/UR_UmC5etlI/AAAAAAAAAQo/pTyXP5Umr-g/s320/Poster_of_the_movie_Red_Ball_Express.jpg" width="206" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Red Ball Express (Budd Boetticher, 1952) R2 UK Simply Media</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">When I write that this is a good movie I do not mean to
imply that it is going to knock you out or even leave you with much to think or
say. It is not the sort of film that you should highlight on family night at
the movies – not because it is vulgar but because its pleasures are small and
its methods so repeated that it cannot bear the weight of having a
responsibility in your entertainment life. This is the place of many a good
film. Marx was right that in a capitalist society leisure time becomes a
responsibility that cannot be squandered. If you watch two or three movies a
month you are going to miss a lot of films that will be good for you and to you
because they do not have the weight to justify their use of your time. This is
why, (although a download culture contributes to this) the most damning
criticism of a film today is that it was a waste of time. Money is not the
criteria, time is. And our time has become so scarce we need to make sure that
it is filled with exactly what we want it to be filled with. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Ball Express</i> is a World War II film
about Patton’s supply line and the ordinary and disgruntled soldiers who drive
the trucks filled with gasoline and ammunition. It has its usual adventure
elements and a love story between an American and a young French woman that
while thoroughly clichéd was handled in such a way that I felt actual
nervousness about their ability to unite. But the main plot point is the
relationship between a soldier and his superior, the soldier holding the
officer responsible for the death of his brother back in the States and bearing
a grudge that refuses any respect. It is fascinating how the tied of this
relationship shifts and we are slowly shown that the insubordinate soldier who
is commendable in all other ways is actually a fool in this regard. The social
dynamics, also neatly demonstrated in a racial question, are subtle and allow
for argument and rebuttal from the viewer given that they are content to be
only examples of how people are and not pronouncements of what they should be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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SRP: $55.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/gp/offer-listing/6304021623/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new&qid=1361039742&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B-wcO0itRS0/UR_VylQheSI/AAAAAAAAARI/Rf5U-0K0hAk/s1600/searching+for+sugar+man+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B-wcO0itRS0/UR_VylQheSI/AAAAAAAAARI/Rf5U-0K0hAk/s1600/searching+for+sugar+man+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Searching for Sugar Man [Blu-ray] (Malik Bendjelloul, 2012)
Sony</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am a collector of albums from across the 20<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
Century and I have no discretion in what I collect. I spend a lot of time
listening to music that I don’t much like because of an innate fascination
about the fact that it was ever made. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Searching
for Sugar Man</i> is the true story of how an American singer-songwriter by the
name of Rodriguez who made no name for himself in America was received as a
superstar bigger than Elvis in South Africa. None of this news made it back to
Rodriguez who toils in poverty in Detroit constantly trying to make ends meet.
The film itself is interesting and moving but I am equally drawn to this notion
of persons or a people making a totem out of a musical act who is, I am sorry
to say, a very ordinary talent at his very best. I am fascinated by the idea
that for every trivial and inspired recording there is someone or even a group
of people on this planet for whom this sound is everything. I don’t have any
conclusions to reach from my own fascination except to note and recognize that
I admire obsessives, those who are driven and drawn to a cultural force that
they fill with themselves and their own articulations as to what that thing
means. I find this stirring and dare say that those of us who are obsessed with
something/anything are less lonely and insecure than those who are not, for
those who find that living fills their days. All of these thoughts, and the
film itself, are furthered by the demonstration, once he enters the picture half
way through, that Rodriquez is a gem of a person. Actually humble, and both
shocked and non-plussed by the sudden attention, he does not let anything in
his life actually change. They may worship him but he is not about to begin to
worship his worshippers. This is, I concede, a good type of person to
innocently or ignorantly revere.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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SRP: $38.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Searching-Sugar-Man-Blu-ray-Rodriguez/dp/B008JFUTUY/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361040688&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yuWpuSKCja8/UR_WhA5vjBI/AAAAAAAAARY/gMIl1RRQ5D8/s1600/the-seven-percent-solution-movie-poster-1976-1020212269.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yuWpuSKCja8/UR_WhA5vjBI/AAAAAAAAARY/gMIl1RRQ5D8/s320/the-seven-percent-solution-movie-poster-1976-1020212269.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
The Seven-Per-Cent Solution [Blu-ray] (Herbert Ross, 1976)
Shout! Factory</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The idea that a perfect cinematic marriage is the minds of
Sherlock Holmes and Sigmund Freud, under the pretense of curing Holmes’ cocaine
addiction is not one that most modern viewers would gravitate towards.
Thankfully the film is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>more than just a
movie about a cure and involves some nice scenes and a style of acting that you
do not see much of these days – actors committed to roles that are obviously
roles and not the illusion of actual people. These are people who you would
only find in a movie and there is something very rewarding about a person who
knows and recognizes their place. As a movie it is intriguing enough and some
of the visuals are memorable (a speeding and dismantled train) and shocking (a
team of white horses). The whole thing plays out exactly as it should – an
adventure matinee for precocious children. I am just now, at middle age entering
such a stage. The key to membership to this demographic is knowing when not to
make too much out of nothing.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--m6IpZn7yR0/UR_WpfGV-lI/AAAAAAAAARg/1FGoBpgPkJo/s1600/the+seven+percent+solution+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--m6IpZn7yR0/UR_WpfGV-lI/AAAAAAAAARg/1FGoBpgPkJo/s320/the+seven+percent+solution+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
SRP: $26.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Seven-Per-Cent-Solution-Blu-ray/dp/B009INAE3I/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361040958&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4lqQS5IiUPI/UR_XH2B-B_I/AAAAAAAAARo/LcqfEk-TzGM/s1600/a+thousand+cuts+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-4lqQS5IiUPI/UR_XH2B-B_I/AAAAAAAAARo/LcqfEk-TzGM/s1600/a+thousand+cuts+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
A Thousand Cuts [Blu-ray] (Charles Evered, 2011) Lorber
Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cheaply made and basically bad, this play on film about a
director of slasher films defending himself against the distraught father of a
daughter murdered by a psychopath influenced by said films is intelligently
enough in its presentation of the debate. But it is not much more, and the
debate is not really interesting unless you have the terrible misfortune to
deeply identify with one of the two main characters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cKPTtpfr8ic/UR_XPNWlIOI/AAAAAAAAARw/or0NSGaUdXc/s1600/a+thousand+cuts+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cKPTtpfr8ic/UR_XPNWlIOI/AAAAAAAAARw/or0NSGaUdXc/s320/a+thousand+cuts+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
SRP: $26.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Thousand-Cuts-Blu-ray-Michael-OKeefe/dp/B008BWFOZK/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361041122&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7dYgVN-3AeM/UR_XqVGuddI/AAAAAAAAAR4/nNi9SiB1hBA/s1600/ticks-movie-poster-1993-1020230633.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7dYgVN-3AeM/UR_XqVGuddI/AAAAAAAAAR4/nNi9SiB1hBA/s320/ticks-movie-poster-1993-1020230633.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
<br />
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Ticks [Blu-ray] (Tony Randel, 1995) Olive Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is exactly the sort of film, of which there are
apparently an endless supply, that is completely muddled about its demographic.
It is too gruesome for children and too badly organized for anyone but a
forgiving child. The idea here is that marijuana growers through growth
steroids for their crops have inadvertently created a mutated form of the basic
wood tick. A group of inner city kids are forced to band together, first to
convince the always sceptical grown-ups that the problem is real, and then to
combat it through ridiculous acts of heroism and sacrifice. The ticks multiply
and there are some spooky scenes especially if you are creeped out by
quantities of large bugs skittering across the ground or floor. As a depiction
of the drug culture and its vampirish effect on the American teen it is telling
that the only people who have ever enjoyed this film are groups of teenagers
high on weed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yY-R4iSv2fo/UR_XxeVPZpI/AAAAAAAAASA/pzkQ3cXWQHY/s1600/ticks+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yY-R4iSv2fo/UR_XxeVPZpI/AAAAAAAAASA/pzkQ3cXWQHY/s320/ticks+blu+ray.jpg" width="252" /></a></div>
SRP: $29.76 <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u_GvTEFFcMk/UR_YJt82ymI/AAAAAAAAASI/cwa4sshaoU0/s1600/Trust-Movie-Poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u_GvTEFFcMk/UR_YJt82ymI/AAAAAAAAASI/cwa4sshaoU0/s320/Trust-Movie-Poster.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<h4 class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
Trust [Blu-ray] (Hal Hartley, 1990) Olive Films</h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am drawn to this film for the way it slides past all the
things that are wrong with it including an absence of set decoration, wooden
acting (except for Edie Falco who is unusually alive and real in this company)
and characters suddenly performing symbolic gestures in the place of what they
might have actually done. Maria, a pregnant teenager suddenly single and
homeless meets up with Matthew, abused by his father and overly dramatic about
his disdain for a television culture. These two going nowhere types are shown
to be already somewhere and their quiet non-romantic, non-sexual affection for
each other ingratiates itself into the viewer. You become startled by them
without caring about what else they do. All the unrealistic stuff they do with
other characters and the unrealistic situations expose themselves as not poor
movie making but a stylistic point – that stuff is fake because it is fake and
that it would take a heavily deluded person to believe that it looks real.
Their anomie and their fear freed by a sense of caring for one another we find
people in the place of these personas. The film seems to be suggesting that
love stories are fake, trust stories can’t be and that with trust all the fake
stuff can either be avoided or handled. It takes a careful cast and crew to
present the relation between the artificial and the real as both artificial and
real and compel the audience to make the same movement as the characters. This
happened for me, around the time that Matthew and Maria began to trust each
other I had begun to trust the film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1mce6ObNLPo/UR_YPWVrg5I/AAAAAAAAASQ/ffkhA41vbiE/s1600/trust+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1mce6ObNLPo/UR_YPWVrg5I/AAAAAAAAASQ/ffkhA41vbiE/s320/trust+blu+ray.jpg" width="254" /></a></div>
SRP: $29.95 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Trust-Blu-ray-Adrienne-Shelly/dp/B00A32GZT0/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1361041379&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910961867408235791.post-68035700665343757272013-02-02T08:37:00.001-08:002013-04-06T08:44:02.325-07:00DVD Column Three<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pick of the Week<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qJbl6b2Nfmo/URE7pOjkbqI/AAAAAAAAAL0/YUXjn4MuPxk/s1600/Tabu-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qJbl6b2Nfmo/URE7pOjkbqI/AAAAAAAAAL0/YUXjn4MuPxk/s320/Tabu-poster.jpg" width="225" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.fdmovie.com/wp-content/uploads/tabu-movie-poster.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title="Tabu (2012)"></a> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009K5693I/dvdbeaver-21/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Tabu</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Miguel Gomes, 2012) RB UK New Wave Cinema <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Two
films in one but both needing the other for context and structure<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, Tabu </i>is a collection of scenes about
Aurora at two vastly different periods of her life: as an elderly woman in Lisbon
and as a young woman in Africa. The two narratives are connected by the
rambling/sharing of memories by Aurora the elder of her younger life which are
perceived by those around her as signs of dementia. It is not until after her funeral
and we meet Ventura, her paramour from her African life who is also believed to
be demented, that we are shown that her stories had some grounding in a history.
Beyond realizing that Aurora lived a fascinating life, I was not sure what we were
being shown here: old age can be tragic, youth can be tragic, love is
impossible when security/tradition demands our attention, that the wild pet
will lead to your joy and destruction? If one is not careful (and the film
demands a level of care to a point that almost assures that it will not be
paid) you might settle for any one of those. But with attention to one’s
response to the array of lovely images one can discern that the point is the
very thing that the viewer is led to feel. Loneliness comes from beauty insofar
as beauty in this life is both rare and overwhelming. Once witnessed it haunts
you. This penetrating theme is exacerbated by the further realization that our
access to beauty is contingent on an intrinsic loneliness drawing us towards
that which promises to be something that we are not. To find beauty, and its
lesser sister love, is to not be satisfied, it is to be homeless. The film must
be praised for presenting the discovery that the viewer’s recognition of a
similar ache is part of the experience of viewing the film. This is a rarity
and is the opposite to the sentimental movie that relies on your already
possessing the feelings that it seeks to exploit. This is not an easy film; it
is a dream and a gamble on that dream that has no assurance of paying off in a
meaningful way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YU_iIS1ek7E/UQ0fPGfMo3I/AAAAAAAAAF4/y4qxcKNVsHY/s1600/tabu+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YU_iIS1ek7E/UQ0fPGfMo3I/AAAAAAAAAF4/y4qxcKNVsHY/s320/tabu+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>17.00 pounds </span></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tabu-Blu-ray-Teresa-Madruga/dp/B009K5693I/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359814140&sr=8-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoelUhjVXas">Trailer For Above Film</a><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Also Released<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kqsJXeLvi2w/UQ0j7cSgONI/AAAAAAAAAGI/a_8uaS_UN3o/s1600/about-cherry-poster01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kqsJXeLvi2w/UQ0j7cSgONI/AAAAAAAAAGI/a_8uaS_UN3o/s320/about-cherry-poster01.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009M4KSHK/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">About
Cherry</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Stephen Elliott, 2012) MPI<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A
young woman named Angelina needs money and will provide naked pictures of
herself for a website that pays well. It escalates from there as all viewers
can predict and some will hope. This is one of those types of movies that have
no point in a culture jammed up with, as it is, pornographic options. Once upon
a time a young person would have rented a movie such as this one for the
promise of nudity and sex under the guise of respectability. Given that the
film is directly about the pornographic website industry and is not itself,
completely, pornographic the cinematic justification for the exploitation pretends
to be a warning and critique. It is a bad life, we are shown, that starts slow
and runs out of control damaging both prior innocent relationships and newly
developed already damaged ones. As a critique on a larger level of what we will
do to succeed in this day and age the film is at its best ironic, utilizing the
very thing it wanly chastises in order to succeed. The most telling scene is
when long-time friend Andrew is caught by Angelina looking at her on the
website. She is outraged, he explains that even though he loves her he is the
only one who cannot see her naked. We are encouraged to recognize that even Andrew
has fallen prey to the demon of objectifying lust because any deeper
consideration is mooted by the fact that, as Andrew notes, we have already seen
her naked. This is the best the film can do: have the guilty judge the
confused.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$29.79</span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/About-Cherry-Blu-ray/dp/B009M4KSHK/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359815733&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CJvB8Wae78">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CoPHVhXnfe8/UQ0lLj5vOgI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/NHVqcB7yMCk/s1600/BLOODBEASTTERROR+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CoPHVhXnfe8/UQ0lLj5vOgI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/NHVqcB7yMCk/s320/BLOODBEASTTERROR+poster.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008IEMY54/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Blood
Beast Terror</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Vernon Sewell, 1968) AIS</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Hammer
films are often entertaining because they deal with simple but intriguing
metaphysical premises in a way that is stylistically attractive. The acting is
never strong but that is beside the point, you are captured by a simple story
well told in a way that makes you wonder beyond the flimsy structure of the
movie. The metaphor of Dracula and Frankenstein, among others, are mined over
and over in slightly different and mostly similar ways that bear small fruits
for those with time on their hands. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Blood Beast Terror</i> is not a Hammer film but it pretends to be one by
utilizing similar cast members, colour and framing structures, and the inane as
something potentially meaningful. This is a rip-off not only because it lacks
the Hammer stamp but because the premise of a scientist father who protects and
preserves his daughter who is also a moth creature fails to connect in a
metaphorical way. There is no suggestion as to what analogy might be being made
about this woman`s powerful weakness beyond the loosest sense that her
sexuality makes her a monster. But this is not clearly presented and the viewer
has no confidence at all that they are doing anything else in their musings but
imposing their hopes on a movie that is otherwise wasting their time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UpsCC_PvpHY/UQ0lzutdHbI/AAAAAAAAAGY/8PCJqvCKL2g/s1600/blood+beast+terror+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UpsCC_PvpHY/UQ0lzutdHbI/AAAAAAAAAGY/8PCJqvCKL2g/s320/blood+beast+terror+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$47.67 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Blood-Beast-Terror-Blu-ray/dp/B008IEMY54/ref=sr_1_3?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359816055&sr=1-3">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuD6jY12360">Trailer For Above Film</a><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> </o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2612COKEfo/UQ0mec5NOzI/AAAAAAAAAGg/PmvZrhwKlLU/s1600/castlefreak+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-W2612COKEfo/UQ0mec5NOzI/AAAAAAAAAGg/PmvZrhwKlLU/s320/castlefreak+poster.jpg" width="246" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008UUNLMG/dvdbeaver-21/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Castle
Freak</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Stuart Gordon, 1995) RB UK
88 Films<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Genuinely
disturbing and occasionally gruesome, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Castle
Freak</i> is a cheaply made but unusually effective story about an American
family with a difficult past that has, surprising to all, inherited an enormous
Italian castle that contains its own difficult past. John Reilly, the American
father, is a failed writer and alcoholic who accidentally, and not it appears
as a result of criminal negligence, killed his young son and blinded his older
daughter in a traffic accident. His wife is no longer affectionately available
to him and while the blind daughter is forgiving the family is in ruins. And
now with this inheritance they have a physical space to echo their own turmoil
though it is startling how much space they are given. A wide expanse and
terrain is necessary so that the dungeons can house a man provided with decades
of torture and he can coexist with them without being daily observed. The
demons in our cellars require, it seems, a large geography so they can properly
haunt before they actually hinder. As such films go, all physical points do
eventually converge, temptations are accepted, vices are exhibited, the unknown
terror is denied, but eventually the convergence insures a gathering of broken
pieces into a united whole that seeks to do not only what needs to be done but
is remedial in the narratives of the character`s lives as well. The film is
cheap and has a straight to video feel about it. It is not a great movie in any
possible sense of that word but it was also perpetually compelling and the
dialogue brings an essential component of the believable to the absurd.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>8.00 pounds</span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Castle-Freak-Blu-ray-Jeffrey-Combs/dp/B008UUNLMG/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359816522&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj-HQUCgZww">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8eZPhjLF1ZE/UQ0oRxDjPOI/AAAAAAAAAGo/JiKiaa4hdFQ/s1600/death-watch-movie-poster-1980-1010203646.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8eZPhjLF1ZE/UQ0oRxDjPOI/AAAAAAAAAGo/JiKiaa4hdFQ/s1600/death-watch-movie-poster-1980-1010203646.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007H6M940/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Death Watch</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Bertrand Tavernier, 1980) AIS</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">This
expose of the elements within human psychology that thirty years later have
become the standard appeal of reality television seeks to separate the
cinematic from the idolatry of voyeurism. The line between the two is ambiguous
and one can never be sure what side of that perspective they are on even when
the thing being viewed is the question of whether you are being a witness to
something true or stealing glances for the benefit of a mere curiosity. Roddy,
for reasons I either do not understand or accept, has agreed to have his ocular
lenses connected to a television network so that whatever he sees they can
show. The reason for this is connected to the network`s idea of presenting a
show about a woman who is dying. They find her, Katherine Mortenhoe, film from
behind one way glass the doctor`s delivery of the bad news and then seek to
incorporate her into their program with the sole moral logic being that people
will want to see it. She is not as enticed as one might suspect but agrees for
the money that it will leave her widower. Having taken the money she flees from
the oppressive system of the network with its obvious cameras. But this is the
point of Roddy, he finds her in private, befriends her in private, and makes
anything she has to say and do public. The film explores the need to see how
other people live in private and its own logic cuts right to the mostly
personal question of all: if death is essential to life, and death is a mystery
to us all, could we not be given so much by watching and coming to see what
happens when a women, who does not know she is on view, comes to die? The answer
is no but not only because there may not be a correlation between what we
experience and what is true but because the degrees of being viewed are
engrained in us, even in 1980, and we are aware of the camera that is the other
even when the audience exposure is presumed to be the select few of family and
friends. The film is fascinating and more than a bit discouraging given that
our desire to be exposed over our desire to be a witness and participant in the
joy and suffering of life has certainly only increased. We are all camera
people now, directors of others at our worst, and voyeurs at our dubious best.
If we cannot see the truth, which cannot be seen, we say we don’t believe in it
because we do not have any other options.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$44.69</span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Death-Watch-Blu-ray/dp/B007H6M940/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359816806&sr=1-2">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r28jOeDbLgU">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lI7ust0fRnQ/UQ0pw6ac65I/AAAAAAAAAGw/NqaXlTvh0Is/s1600/dredd-movie-poster-640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lI7ust0fRnQ/UQ0pw6ac65I/AAAAAAAAAGw/NqaXlTvh0Is/s320/dredd-movie-poster-640.jpg" width="216" /></a></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Dredd
[Blu-ray] (Pete Travis, 2012) Alliance Films<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Bearing
a strong resemblance to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Robo-cop</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dredd</i> replaces the satire of 1980s
America with a political/theological stance that derides complicity in the
dehumanizing forces of a justice system against the powers of self-absorbed
criminals profiting on the desperation of those perpetually wounded by their
society. Justice is largely absent but when present can be purchased to do
one’s own bidding as long as you’re among the kings and queens of the criminal
world. This is except for Judge Dredd (for Dredd read anxiety, an anxiety that
demands civic action and not empty despair) and his rookie partner Anderson who
is, herself, undertaking a trial to see if she has what is required to be a
judge. Initially, we are informed that the requirements to be a judge are
contingent upon an ability to abide and imbibe a number of set rules and
strictures. It is these rules, though, that, we come to see, sometimes can be
broken in the spirit of a justice that includes or accepts human weakness and
failure. Dredd is barely human and is mostly bent on the destruction of that
which destroys, Anderson is all inclination to help those in need, and together
they are united. The film is relentlessly and excitingly violent but it does
also display tenderness and an affection that are stirring if not exactly
moving. The film as a piece, despite or perhaps in hand with the carnage,
strikes me as akin to scriptures – we are warned that judgment is coming and
that inaction in the face of darkness is the same as death. You do not have to
be the monster to enable the monster. It should be stated that nothing I have
noted is directly presented in the film and there is nothing to suggest that
these points are intended. But they are in there, I swear.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OLT5KVIOYE0/UQ0qJ5W8LAI/AAAAAAAAAG4/jEAErYTO66U/s1600/dredd+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OLT5KVIOYE0/UQ0qJ5W8LAI/AAAAAAAAAG4/jEAErYTO66U/s320/dredd+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$39.99 </span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Dredd-3D-Blu-ray-Digital-Copy/dp/B00A0YQ0QE/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359817185&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PifvRiHVSCY">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yRjDY0OPkbE/UQ0rMyx9oKI/AAAAAAAAAHE/_ILMLqMEG-0/s1600/FarewellMyQueen+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-yRjDY0OPkbE/UQ0rMyx9oKI/AAAAAAAAAHE/_ILMLqMEG-0/s320/FarewellMyQueen+poster.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009TTTKJ0/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Farewell,
My Queen</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Benoît Jacquot, 2012) Cohen
Media Group<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Farewell, My Queen</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> is an evocative presentation of the
side of those who hold power when the reigning order is threatened by those it
oppresses. Our perspective is largely that of Sidonie, Queen Marie Antoinette’s
reader and academic advisor, who is befuddled and terrified that loyalty and
allegiance to the queen despite her capriciousness callousness and demeaning
understanding of the lower classes is not enough to sustain a necessary
existence. Sidonie’s life is meaningful because she belongs to an order. It is
this that makes acceptable a life of squalor and the itchy bites of bed bugs.
The distinction is, I suspect, that Sidonie is fed sustaining food and the
rebels of Paris were not and thus their relation to order was overturned by a
basic human hunger. But as a film about the requirements of human dignity and
their place in a social order, the critique presented by the picture is
devastating and intriguing. Loyalty is shown to be senseless outside of the
language of sacrifice and that sacrifice while necessary does not return even
the favor of acknowledgement or remembrance. We care for those who rule and we
know they do not really care for us. If they did they would not be as deeply
deserving of our care – how could we love someone who loves us in our depraved
condition? Tie into this questions of sexual identity and expression and you
have a historical costume drama that also, or equally, is about our own
identities and their formation in relation to structures of order and our
corresponding roles and rebellions within those systems.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-URyW-r4LT-g/UQ0rou_xjmI/AAAAAAAAAHU/6lMa-aJjpH4/s1600/farewell+my+queen+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-URyW-r4LT-g/UQ0rou_xjmI/AAAAAAAAAHU/6lMa-aJjpH4/s320/farewell+my+queen+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<strong><u>SRP:</u></strong> $29.79 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Farewell-My-Queen-Blu-ray/dp/B009TTTKJ0/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359817570&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOQfyExCVQk">Trailer For Above Film</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ExKi7stDneU/UQ0sR-N8AnI/AAAAAAAAAHc/MEIVer7Rh3E/s1600/gentlemans_agreement+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ExKi7stDneU/UQ0sR-N8AnI/AAAAAAAAAHc/MEIVer7Rh3E/s320/gentlemans_agreement+poster.jpg" width="196" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00A7OBJM2/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Gentleman's
Agreement</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Elia Kazan, 1947) 20th
Century Fox<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Gentleman’s Agreement</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> demonstrates the moral inadequacy of
empathy. Schuyler Green, a journalist, has been assigned a piece on anti-Semitism
by a New York publisher and the topic holds very little interest for him. As he
puts it, it has been done, the ideas are all already out there and they make
little difference. It is only when he comes upon a provocative strategy for
writing the article that he takes on enthusiasm for the work. He will spend six
months pretending to be Jewish in order to know what it feels like. His
approach because it is existential will perhaps be the thing that comes to mean
something for the Jewish people. His discovery is that it is hard to be hated
and that there is bigotry present even in those who seem beyond reproach. It is
this last point that I think we should pay special attention to as the film
itself seems likely guilty of the same oppressions that they identify in
others. The idea that you can know a people by pretending to be like them, in other
words what we call the empathy of putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, is
the problem. It is telling that, really, Green only gets excited about the
problem because of his approach. He is not that concerned about the problem, or
the people, but with his ideas. The idea again is that the actions of the white
male will save those burdened by the ideas of white males. And the idea is
empty and ugly pretending to be someone does not make you remotely like that
someone. It is not the same as being raised and formed in an understanding and
knowing that it cannot be escaped once one’s time at play is over. It is
intriguing that this smart awareness of the plight of others is not extended to
women. Throughout the film they are presented either as pretty distractions or
domestic/secretarial work. In twenty years Schuyler Green will be open to
pretending to be a woman for six months. In everything that he thinks he has
learned nothing will be altered.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ipTxKHLrckU/UQ0szu_427I/AAAAAAAAAHk/YI99NX1Omzk/s1600/gentlemans_agreement+bluray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ipTxKHLrckU/UQ0szu_427I/AAAAAAAAAHk/YI99NX1Omzk/s320/gentlemans_agreement+bluray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$25.99 </span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Gentlemans-Agreement-Blu-ray-Gregory-Peck/dp/B00A3V2IK6/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359817837&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYDIWrcevkQ">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3w0f4VZMiwE/UQ0tfeK9saI/AAAAAAAAAHs/nMAoiKv4t2s/s1600/grindhouse+slave+girls+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3w0f4VZMiwE/UQ0tfeK9saI/AAAAAAAAAHs/nMAoiKv4t2s/s320/grindhouse+slave+girls+poster.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00A7EK7ES/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Grindhouse
3- Slave Girls From Beyond Infinity</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">
(Ken Dixon, 1987) R2 UK 88 Films<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
recent minor trend, since Tarantino’s grindhouse homage, is to release terrible
movies with acceptance that they are terrible because they are at least twenty
years old. We watch for titillation and to mock the failures of an exploitative
film-maker. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Slave Girls from Beyond
Infinity</i> is about bathing suit clothed women dealing with the madman from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Most Dangerous Game </i>who hunts them
on his island somewhere, I am only guessing, beyond infinity. It is terrible
but it is not that enjoyably so unless feeling ashamed has become funny I
cannot imagine why anyone would want to see this film.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>9.00 pounds</o:p><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1DNFNvqYV18/UQ0wLQyXRJI/AAAAAAAAAH0/47JkRAtOmTA/s320/grindhouse+3+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></div>
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<o:p> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grindhouse-Slave-Girls-Beyond-Infinity/dp/B00A7EK7ES/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1359818698&sr=8-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p><br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
<o:p></o:p> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M74MKt05zvI/UQ0xC5x5m9I/AAAAAAAAAH8/UA43qiuUGds/s1600/hannah+and+her+sisters+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-M74MKt05zvI/UQ0xC5x5m9I/AAAAAAAAAH8/UA43qiuUGds/s320/hannah+and+her+sisters+movie+poster.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009UTX4M8/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Hannah and
Her Sisters</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Woody Allen, 1986) 20th
Century Fox<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Even
though this is one of Woody Allen’s best films there is much in it that is hard
to accept – the sentimental ending, the architecture travelogues, the
fetishization of a conservative cultural style. That said, none of it matters
because the movie is a smorgasbord of other delights many of them not only
tasty but also nutritious. I am drawn less to Hannah and her sisters than I am
to the example of Frederick, sister Lee’s older boyfriend and teacher, who
discovers to his pain that disgust for the idiocy of the world does not suffice
as a replacement for human comfort and that a relationship based on education
is more damaging, but no less doomed, than one built on lust. Elliot (Hannah’s
husband) and his travails with marital fidelity and doubt about what he needs
and how he is needed are nuanced and powerful. His failures are acceptable to
the viewer because they mask confusions and hesitations that strike us as both
believable but also responsible to a serious engagement with commitment from a
man who is baffled by his place in this world. Hannah is too good and too
beautiful to connect with and her other sister Holly is too damaged and
narcissistic to be desired. Holly, in all of her grasping, is at least
struggling and in struggle there is at least the fascination of an energetic
movement. In Hannah the same struggle is verbalized but not embodied and so we
only worship but do not love her. We love the stupid, the hypochondriac, and
the lost; this is the joy of the film, the broken are where the heart is.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VFhlGZm_2sI/UQ0xbMio_tI/AAAAAAAAAIE/g_GPfmGK8Ss/s1600/hannah+and+her+sisters+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VFhlGZm_2sI/UQ0xbMio_tI/AAAAAAAAAIE/g_GPfmGK8Ss/s320/hannah+and+her+sisters+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$25.99 <br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Hannah-Her-Sisters-Blu-ray/dp/B00A3V2IJ2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359819053&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtgw38Yq2Qs">Trailer For Above FIlm</a><br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7O9N6UOifyw/UQ0yLvpSvcI/AAAAAAAAAIM/9I0SXUP3EYo/s1600/lawless-poster-movie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7O9N6UOifyw/UQ0yLvpSvcI/AAAAAAAAAIM/9I0SXUP3EYo/s320/lawless-poster-movie.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Lawless
[Blu-ray] (John Hillcoat, 2012) Anchor Bay<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Writing
this column I have noticed my own prejudice towards movies that stick with me
after I have seen them. These types of movies give me something to consider and
to ponder and they provide the sense that something is continuing to happen
between myself and the show. The suspicion is that a movie that resists this is
not as good, or perhaps a bad movie but I want to resist this conclusion. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lawless</i> leaves me with nothing to say
about it and the sense that to underline pleasures of certain scenes and
flourishes with my own words is to add a further nothing. The film is as nice
to look at as any expensive film made today; it is neither annoying nor
special. It is about moonshiner brothers in the era of prohibition who are
resisting the efforts of a corrupt legal machine that seeks to extort from them
monies for a smoother business practice. This is resisted and the brothers
three, each wildly different from each other, spend the rest of the film
battling and being battled with expected results. That is it and while it is on
it was certainly enough. It was enjoyable and I was chagrined to see it end and
I will never think to see it again.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-P5QYys-6rD4/UQ0y1DSUWWI/AAAAAAAAAIU/yh1sT74piBY/s320/lawless+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$30.99 <br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Lawless-Blu-ray-Digital-Copy-LaBeouf/dp/B0093DCV0C/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359819339&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Zl7S1LaPMU">Trailer For Above FIlm</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fY_pzr7mzA8/UQ0zg02aSEI/AAAAAAAAAIc/0v54RwbZwSs/s320/LTBugPoster.jpg" width="240" /></div>
</div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009L63QCS/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Lightning
Bug</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Robert Hall, 2004) Image
Entertainment<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Here
is a horror film of sorts with the terror residing, for one character, in a
vicious step-father and, for another, a mother using Christian virtue as a
weapon of control. So much of the film seems like a made for television warning
film against child abuse that the other aspects of the film that are not so
built on platitudes are all the more surprising. Our main character and abused
figure Green Graves is much more interesting than his name as he presents us
with a bit of high school bravado dashed with a larger quantity of adolescent
impotence. His friends Billy and Tony seem like they would fit in well with any
Hallmark feature but when they open their mouths and provide us with endless
amounts of well-meaning but sexually explicit commentary they seem much closer
to being actual teenagers, raging with sexual desire and violence but not old
enough to be filled with the resentments and casual hatreds that ruin their
elders. They brighten the screen, as does Green’s younger brother Jay who is
swept up by the local church but remains ungoverned by their need to separate
the us from the them. All of this is to say that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lightning Bug</i> is an R-Rated family movie. The traditional family
movie elements make it almost unwatchable, it is the R-Rated elements and the
fact that honesty about adolescent life is a subject only for adults that one
wishes were standard in all of our family dramas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eIgRDLYhv_g/UQ00FayD5eI/AAAAAAAAAIw/yYqI0o_likU/s1600/lightening+bug+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eIgRDLYhv_g/UQ00FayD5eI/AAAAAAAAAIw/yYqI0o_likU/s320/lightening+bug+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$16.99 </span></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Lightning-Bug-Blu-ray-Bret-Harrison/dp/B00A8KJME2/ref=sr_1_4?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359819731&sr=1-4">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e443q3ZNa-8">Trailer For Above FIlm</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uqkKod00o1o/UQ1zPvL6S2I/AAAAAAAAALc/f2B6_dIGHvc/s1600/man-who-knew-too-much-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uqkKod00o1o/UQ1zPvL6S2I/AAAAAAAAALc/f2B6_dIGHvc/s320/man-who-knew-too-much-poster.jpg" width="211" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bJVpeehLJe8/UQ00pWO08vI/AAAAAAAAAI4/8Lh9t7LgHz0/s1600/man-who-knew-too-much-poster-getting-remade.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009RWRIP2/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Man Who
Knew Too Much</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Alfred Hitchcock, 1934)
Criterion Collection</span> </div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QyIWaWUkDi4/UQ01zeoZG5I/AAAAAAAAAJA/gmFZjr7MqAg/s1600/the+man+who+knew+too+much+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What
would you save, your child today or potentially millions of citizens next year?
The answer provided by the parents in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Man Who Knew Too Much</i> (and given that mother and father are both implicated
in this difficult knowledge I have no idea who the man of the title refers to)
is the obvious moral one. You save your child, Betty, who is often an annoyance
and causes much trouble to those around her. It is her horror that is the real
one, the spectre of all those lives tomorrow is abstract and what, the question
we have here is, is the point of saving tomorrow at the expense of today? This
Hitchcock film is a masterpiece of filming and of subtle tension culminating in
a real understanding of human psychosis and fear in a way that lies beneath all
of our more visible apprehensions. The closing shots of a young girl obviously
if only partially shattered by her experience resonates and I don’t think I have
seen a more believable representation of a person devastated by an experience
in any other film. It lasts a second or two but it has me captured. There are many
more such moments in this film, certainly just as many as there are scenes that
are too silly to remember. I prefer to privilege the grand moments rather than
the scenes of a chair fight where only the furniture seems to suffer any real
pain. Patriarch Bob Lawrence’s inability to hide his smirk of small
accomplishment in the face of an evil he does not know how to beat; mother Eve
Lawrence’s internal search for the right thing to do in public settings for
which she has no understanding; and mostly, head villain Abbott’s absolutely
infectious delight and laughter at how he is perceived and how he perceives
others. His complete merriment at much around him, included with his malign and
absolutely mysterious intentions, draw the viewer to him with engagement for
his personality and apathy for almost anything else about him. These scenes,
and others, stick with you and the slightness of the plot becomes a delight
insofar as it never threatens your enjoyment of these small moments of
cinematic majesty.<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
<br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$54.99 </span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QyIWaWUkDi4/UQ01zeoZG5I/AAAAAAAAAJA/gmFZjr7MqAg/s1600/the+man+who+knew+too+much+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QyIWaWUkDi4/UQ01zeoZG5I/AAAAAAAAAJA/gmFZjr7MqAg/s320/the+man+who+knew+too+much+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Man-Who-Knew-Much-Blu-ray/dp/B009RWRIP2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359819959&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ft2smpFxJgY">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eeIltT0FqdA/UQ03aE6A5cI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/cxkzgM5R7lY/s1600/paperboy+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eeIltT0FqdA/UQ03aE6A5cI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/cxkzgM5R7lY/s320/paperboy+poster.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009R8Q924/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The
Paperboy</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Lee Daniels, 2012)
Millennium<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Established
Hollywood from Nicole Kidman to John Cusack to Matthew McConnaghey to Scott
Glenn go slumming by sporting, all to the one, the worst haircuts they have
ever worn. Set in a Florida of swamps and suburbs, the story is of two
journalists, one from a newspaper family, setting out to investigate the
possible innocence of a man convicted of murdering the worst sheriff in Florida
history. We are shown that the swamp and the suburb are not all that different
except you really cannot live in the swamp. Considered to be one of the worst
movies of 2012 I was expecting something else entirely. Yes, the love story is
flimsy but at least one half of the pairing seems well aware of the same fact.
The film does not have much to say, and that is no criticism, but it does mask
that in trying to half say a lot of things about the justice system, the power
of the sexually decadent, the failures of journalism, race relations,
homosexual siblings, and the depravity of those who live off the land and
water. It is a film where you watch actors you know well try on clothes and
accents that they would never usually wear. In Hollywood this is called
stretching your character range, elsewhere this is usually called a stretch and
it is not without its fun as long as you do not learn from people who are
slumming. (See: Gentleman’s Agreement)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wQ5AaGaT9nc/UQ05ao8bYSI/AAAAAAAAAJY/xFoECWru7t8/s1600/the+paper+boy+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-wQ5AaGaT9nc/UQ05ao8bYSI/AAAAAAAAAJY/xFoECWru7t8/s320/the+paper+boy+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$29.99 </span></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Paperboy-Blu-Ray-Nicole-Kidman/dp/B009R8Q924/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1359821053&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Paperboy">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2GMwWaDSr0">Trailer For Above Film</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Oa-ts3jm74/UQ06EHrw19I/AAAAAAAAAJg/vvxfNj0p9bU/s1600/the+posession+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="230" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7Oa-ts3jm74/UQ06EHrw19I/AAAAAAAAAJg/vvxfNj0p9bU/s320/the+posession+movie+poster.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The
Possession [Blu-ray] (Ole Bornedal, 2012) Lionsgate<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Films
about possession by some sort of demon or other have become ever present in
our culture. Each year offers two or three exorcism movies. I suspect that this
has more to do with our own feeling of being possessed by things beyond our
control than it does with any affection we may have for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Exorcist</i>. I am privately intrigued by all these films from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Paranormal Activity </i>industry (even
though the demons in those movies are more obvious metaphors for actual
tensions in our lives) to offerings like <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Last Exorcism</i> (with its support of a sacrificial communal love for a
suffering stranger). I am drawn to the metaphysics, the overt theologies and to
the images which are a microcosm of cinema itself – inviting the exotic into
the mundane. This film is wondrous for its narrow range. It is disturbing and
intriguing but its levels of disturbance are such that you are never drawn to
really ponder the things that intrigue. This is probably for the best as the
metaphors of teenage sexuality, the pains of divorce on children, the need to
suffer for one’s guilt towards one children, and the demonic control that body
image (along with the language of animal over human rights) holds over young
people are probably bigger than a film of this scope can handle except for
their mentioning. That is fine because what you are left with is image of a
young girl looking into the back of her throat and seeing the living fingers of
another clawing their way up and out. Wow. Who wants out of us? The film gives
us no shortage of powerful visual jolts. It also provides a better argument
against anti-Semitism than any other film I have seen this week.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-47gy24YJDxc/UQ06l-Hb06I/AAAAAAAAAJo/wiDKE8l6KJI/s1600/possession+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-47gy24YJDxc/UQ06l-Hb06I/AAAAAAAAAJo/wiDKE8l6KJI/s320/possession+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$39.99 <br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Possession-Blu-ray-Jeffrey-Dean-Morgan/dp/B009KU2NWE/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359821361&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gBeG31fX40">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SLER5ny9BAg/UQ07UjiR7rI/AAAAAAAAAJw/AEhXD6gI55U/s1600/sleeper+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SLER5ny9BAg/UQ07UjiR7rI/AAAAAAAAAJw/AEhXD6gI55U/s320/sleeper+poster.jpg" width="224" /></a></div>
</div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009UTX53Q/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Sleeper</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Woody Allen, 1973) Sony<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">I
don’t think I am the only person who does not prefer Woody Allen’s early,
“funny” films over what came after this juvenile period ended. This movie about
a man reawakened two hundred years into a future that is filled with domestic
robots, mechanized sex and science failing everyone seeks to draw attention to
the silliness of today by imagining its shape tomorrow. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sleeper </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is more silly than satirical
and be thankful for that given that its satire is so specifically focused not
on systems but on particular people that are now far removed from the public
eye. Where it is silly it is fun and one can be justified in thinking that
Woody Allen’s strengths, like Jacques Tati, are as a physical comedian albeit
substantially less subtle. But less subtle is also not a criticism when it
comes to the inane and where the film is physically silly I was amused. The
verbal amusements and the sight gags contingent upon ideas (like the oversized
vegetables of scientifically enhanced agriculture) seem overwhelmed by their
making a point. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4rdhJnSGJLA/UQ07p0yyJII/AAAAAAAAAJ4/jsZPCd3OZG8/s1600/sleeper+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4rdhJnSGJLA/UQ07p0yyJII/AAAAAAAAAJ4/jsZPCd3OZG8/s320/sleeper+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$25.99 <br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Sleeper-Blu-ray-Woody-Allen/dp/B00A3V2IL0/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359821675&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qo2Lo28FNpg">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uV5TNd0XxQs/UQ08eIOw-oI/AAAAAAAAAKA/BvYxrm3ENBk/s1600/taken+2+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uV5TNd0XxQs/UQ08eIOw-oI/AAAAAAAAAKA/BvYxrm3ENBk/s1600/taken+2+movie+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0067EKYDG/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Taken 2</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Olivier Megaton, 2012) 20th Century Fox<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We
seem to love the Bourne trilogy so much that we are willing to take on any
similar type of adventure film that puts us into old Europe and has us in over
our heads. But where the Bourne movies point to traps that persist all around
us and that only Jason Bourne with his nebulous hold on identity can escape, other
regurgitations de-complicate these meanings by connecting their drifts to more
basic refrains of our culture. Namely, this is another film where a man
protects his family from the evil good that he has done. After slaughtering a
number of Albanians who made the mistake of kidnapping his daughter in the
first Taken, the Albanian grieving males swear revenge and make a work vacation
in Istanbul for the Mills family miserable for at least two-thirds of them. In
order to avoid another male saviour story, which is exactly what this is, the
daughter is incorporated into the heroism but only through the strict guidance
of her father. The mother does nothing but everything wrong. It all flows well
enough (though I must confess that much of the logic of why they were able to
do what they do or even why they were doing it lost me) but this is one messed
up family. The father ceaselessly monitors his daughter and even while
promising not to do, keeps doing it and it is presented as an amusing foible.
The ex-wife has had it with her present husband because he has cancelled a
family trip to China presumably because he is rotten but more likely because
their lives are extraordinarily expensive in a recessed economy. The daughter
is better than most but in the film’s closing scene jokes in the presence of
her new boyfriend that she hopes Dad does not shoot him. He laughingly says he
won’t but the joke one suspects is that of course he will.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5KaCEfZsjsE/UQ08yTAwN7I/AAAAAAAAAKI/NnJVEG4VtN8/s1600/taken+2+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5KaCEfZsjsE/UQ08yTAwN7I/AAAAAAAAAKI/NnJVEG4VtN8/s320/taken+2+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$49.99 </span></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Taken-Blu-ray-DVD-Liam-Neeson/dp/B00A3V2JPU/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359821973&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8eE5T6iMsg">Trailer For Above FIlm</a><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HOyvV743kQE/UQ09UvhgzyI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/tuz4m1SLLb8/s1600/tin+drum+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v3Se0P-pDok/UQ09rNyWnzI/AAAAAAAAAKY/sF_aF65S0Ig/s1600/tin+drum+poster+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v3Se0P-pDok/UQ09rNyWnzI/AAAAAAAAAKY/sF_aF65S0Ig/s320/tin+drum+poster+1.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009RWRIUC/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">The Tin
Drum</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979)
Criterion Collection</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Oskar,
at the age of three, viewing the adults around him with their love triangles and
fascist allegiances decides that he is not going to grow anymore. He hides this
act of willfulness by throwing himself down the cellar stairs and in doing so
sparks further tensions in his family. Oskar is also beholden to a third year
birthday gift of a tin drum and when attempts are made to remove him from it he
discovers he has the pinpoint ability to break glass with his shrieking voice
of retaliation. Oskar is a bit of a menace and causes harm to most of the
people he knows because of his insanely selfish need for new drums and for care
to be taken for his every whim. He is a monster but because he is three all is
largely ignored or forgiven, by me especially. There is something essentially
encouraging about this refusal to be a man (though he does not deny himself
entrance into a carnal life, apparently using the only appendage not stymied by
his refusal to grow) when all evidences of men are either louts of powerful and
idiotic demand or ineffectual cowards against these powerful. Echoing
Melville’s scrivener Oskar would prefer not to join the ranks of the adult
world which seems to promise only duplicity, compromised conformity, and
wretched responsibility. Oskar travels in the wake and support of a Nazi
conquering and decline in Europe neither negating nor complicit, he is just not
big enough to be responsible for anything. If this sounds condemning of the
irresponsible lout it probably should be but it is not. His movements are
within a history that he refuses to identify with; this refusal is his only
judgment. It is all, the good forces and the darker ones, an adult game that he
cannot bear to have an interest in. Willfully naïve about the importance of
temporal politics Oskar lives, as he puts it between the decadent spirituality
of a Rasputin and the desire for an enlightenment he identifies with Goethe. Me
too and I would also agree that there is something about the exhaustion of
adult life that sadly renders such battles to be childish luxuries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-00dEAc8gW9k/UQ0-CUZubxI/AAAAAAAAAKg/sxtDDfZf_Kk/s1600/the+tin+drum+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-00dEAc8gW9k/UQ0-CUZubxI/AAAAAAAAAKg/sxtDDfZf_Kk/s320/the+tin+drum+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$54.99 <br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> <a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Tin-Drum-Blu-ray/dp/B009RWRIUC/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359822282&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></span></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ewzWkFZOFk">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--AABe3gVBzM/UQ0-n4M7LfI/AAAAAAAAAKo/isDx5_Jx7Xg/s1600/to+rome+with+love+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--AABe3gVBzM/UQ0-n4M7LfI/AAAAAAAAAKo/isDx5_Jx7Xg/s1600/to+rome+with+love+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00A1O0G5E/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">To Rome
with Love</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Woody Allen, 2012) Sony<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">There
are five stories at play here: an American music executive seeks to persuade
his daughter’s father in law to be to become an opera singer despite the fact
that his only venue can be the shower; a young man from the country seeks his
wealth by joining the family business and is, through odd circumstances, forced
to pretend that a local prostitute is his wife; this same young man’s wife
unable to find her way back to the hotel spends time and romantic energy on
Italian cinema’s latest Don Juan; a visiting architecture student becomes
enamored with his fiancé’s friend despite sensible warnings from a third party
whose actual presence is unclear; and finally a clerk of no importance or
interest becomes famous for no reason other than that he is becoming famous.
The thing that unites these disconnected plotlines is the idea of wishing, for
security, for love, for adventure or for fame. Other than that not much is said
except perhaps that wishing will only provide you with the understanding that
what you have is better than what you want. In any and all cases the film is a
mess, sometimes amusing, occasionally witty and none of it necessarily set in
Rome. As such, it is another Woody Allen travel piece with small bits of funny
wisdom set in a context that is likely without much resonance to anyone
watching.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-We7NMhxOnAk/UQ0-_wKFC2I/AAAAAAAAAKw/WxQM8fnROzQ/s1600/to+rome+with+love+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-We7NMhxOnAk/UQ0-_wKFC2I/AAAAAAAAAKw/WxQM8fnROzQ/s320/to+rome+with+love+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> <strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$38.99 </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<a href="http://www.amazon.ca/To-Rome-Love-Bilingual-Blu-ray/dp/B00A1P11Y8/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359822529&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZcip9HY1Pw">Trailer For Above Film</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A7EzMjCVAyc/UQ0_urpw77I/AAAAAAAAAK4/z2JsfXD7748/s1600/wake-in-fright-movie-poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A7EzMjCVAyc/UQ0_urpw77I/AAAAAAAAAK4/z2JsfXD7748/s320/wake-in-fright-movie-poster.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009YX8KN8/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Wake in
Fright</span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (Ted Kotcheff, 1971) Image
Entertainment <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></o:p></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">A
school teacher literally in the middle of nowhere Australia aims to visit his
girlfriend in Sydney for the Christmas holidays. En route he stops in
Bundanyabba and that is as far as he gets. Befriended by the local police and
toured to the dark spots of town he is drawn into a gambling game of
toss-a-coin where he eventually loses all he has save one dollar. Destitute and
dependant on the kindness of the strangest of strangers (“little demons proud
of their hell”) he spends a weekend descending into the wilderness of his own
capabilities. There he discovers an insatiable taste for drink and violence
against nature that by film’s end have left their mark on him. He is out there
beyond civilization where ideas like progress are mocked as the vanity of the fearful
and it is here that he confronts an identity and a promise that he would have
hoped never to consider. The promise is that he can survive even beyond the
point of wanting to and that life is perhaps something other than what he has
been educates, and educates others, to believe. But is this something to be
desired? Is there comfort in knowing that depravity can be a home or that it is
perhaps closer to one’s nature than one normally allows? Is the understanding
that civilization is a façade mean that it is also destructive? The men of
Bundanyabba are trusting men but they are outsiders to each other and to
themselves, they pay no attention to such attentions and their extended
kindness to a man with nothing is a gesture not of principle but of their nature.
They are beasts and part of their beastliness is a kindness that has no respect
for the proprieties usually demanded of such gestures. But to those without any
place to go it is still a real kindness. The film is perfectly powerful in its
representations of squalor, the alcoholic doctor is a genius of barbarity (“and
where is Socrates now?”) who recognizes that he is special because he has some
education but is accepted because he does not care about it. There is no
pretention in the people of the town and where there are what we might call
virtues they are performed as extensions of real natures and are not performed
out of tradition or self-benefit. One wonders by the time the film has ended
what sort of Christmas present our school teacher has received, the thing he
wanted or the thing he needs? Or nothing of the sort?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jEdS-CNhPKw/UQ1AMvMfYAI/AAAAAAAAALA/K4K46jg0Y10/s1600/wake+in+fright+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jEdS-CNhPKw/UQ1AMvMfYAI/AAAAAAAAALA/K4K46jg0Y10/s320/wake+in+fright+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><u>SRP: </u></strong>$29.78 </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Wake-in-Fright-Blu-ray/dp/B009YX8KN8/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359822825&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9redLlFi7xI">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910961867408235791.post-68726727269068053342013-01-30T15:05:00.001-08:002013-05-04T13:28:33.450-07:00DVD Column Two<span style="color: black;">
</span><br />
<h1 style="margin: 24pt 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 197.25pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span class="MsoBookTitle"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">Pick Of The Week</span></u></span><span class="MsoBookTitle"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></span></span></h1>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7vLBJwXgm8g/UQmiVYaUCaI/AAAAAAAAACg/2pmhOP2JJdI/s1600/cape+fear+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7vLBJwXgm8g/UQmiVYaUCaI/AAAAAAAAACg/2pmhOP2JJdI/s1600/cape+fear+movie+poster.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: white;">
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<strong><span class="Heading2Char"><u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Cape Fear (J. Lee
Thompson, 1962) Universal Studios</span></u></span><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></strong></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">Max Cady imprisoned in Baltimore, on the strength of
testimony by attorney Sam Bowden (at that time in Maryland for a legal
conference), for the rape of a teenage girl has been released and plants
himself in Bowden’s home town in order to play the classic game of unjust revenge.
The plot, as plots should be, only serves to provide a context for a battle of
wills and principles and an investigation of both. The viewer can predict which
of these wills and value systems will triumph but the victor does not survive unscathed.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">Bowden represents the moral tradition of an American
liberal belief in justice and law. This system with its beliefs in the
presumption of innocence and its anti-fascist philosophy that the dangerous
cannot be prosecuted until they cause actual harm is turned on its head and
exposed as a pretense to be rejected at the first sign of its potential inefficacy.
Max Cady, smart and self-educated in the law, knows the game, knows that he has
lived life in a corner, and knows that those beholden to the statutes of the
law are eventually powerless to combat that which they disdain with either senseless
prejudice or justified suspicion. Bowden is reduced to entrapment and
enticement and the encouragement of a violence that falls far outside the
domains of his own investment as an icon of the law. Max Cady is our obvious
villain but like Heath Ledger’s Joker his destructive provocations are also
seen as encouraging exposures of a belief system that on one hand governs a
nation and, on the other hand, is also a lie. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">It is telling that Bowden is a dull man, driven by
allegiances and affections that while comforting are also stifling and
impotent. Cady is erotic, dead-smart, interesting, a consistent catalyst of
stimulation in others (on and off the screen) and, of course, dangerous to the
safe, the dull, and the good. When Cady is on the screen playing his casual
charms, he is intoxicating. When we have become drunk and we realize that he is
still sober and the merriment has turned to malice he is terrifying in no less
a thrilling way. He conveys an actual threat to our normalcy and our desire to
protect that which we insist and presume is innocent and because of this he is
both our hero and our nemesis. Cady is no mere beast, his drive is not
instinctual but rather built on a raging hatred for the safe hypocrisies of our
American times. Living in a world of encouraged lust he goes further than
allowed and cannot believe that his is the only crime/failure that is to be noted
and prosecuted. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">There is nothing to recommend in the acts he
commits, the foundational rape, the implied sodomy of a woman of little
reputation, the terror of a wife contorted into horrible choices, and the
eventual stalking of a girl just entering puberty, beyond the exciting
enticement of his bravado and style. It is this excitement that makes us
complicit in his deeds, and while we do not share his physic al and carnal
taste for youth in the performance of actual decadence, we are made aware that
he is not foreign to our attraction to the forbidden and that it is this
attraction that encourages us to hide in its moral and social denouncement. We
ask him if he is trying to seduce us and we are thrilled and spooked that the
answer is yes. He must be our villain because he is so attractive in all the
wrong ways. The film is captivating and threatening.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJquxM5cLcg/UQmilqkTYgI/AAAAAAAAACo/eNM4FPlMJeA/s1600/cape+fear+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJquxM5cLcg/UQmilqkTYgI/AAAAAAAAACo/eNM4FPlMJeA/s1600/cape+fear+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">$19.85 </span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Cape-Fear-Blu-ray/dp/B009NQX47I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358979493&sr=8-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VPAdUq7Z6k">Trailer For Above Film</a></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<strong><span class="MsoBookTitle"><u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt; line-height: 115%;">Also Released</span></u></span><span class="MsoBookTitle"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-variant: normal !important; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></strong></div>
<span style="color: white;">
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sCvXAkTjJ98/UQmi8yjpWQI/AAAAAAAAACw/nnfc2ZEi0Io/s1600/driving+miss+daisy+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sCvXAkTjJ98/UQmi8yjpWQI/AAAAAAAAACw/nnfc2ZEi0Io/s320/driving+miss+daisy+movie+poster.jpg" width="207" /></span></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes; mso-themecolor: accent1;"></span><span class="MsoBookTitle"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009CV12YQ/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Driving Miss Daisy</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray]
(Bruce Beresford, 1989) Warner Bros.<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">They don’t make films like this anymore
and that is probably for the best. Incessantly and gently racist throughout,
this saga of an elderly Jewish woman and the imposed upon her black chauffeur,
who become, shockingly, friends aims to touch our hearts with demonstration of
how affection overcomes racial barriers. But it does not accomplish this
because those barriers are not overcome, they are highlighted and we are asked
to be tickled by how this unlikely couple became close all the while accentuating
our acceptance that such a pairing must and should be unlikely. The film gives
itself away in the declaration of the affable son of the matriarch who is
affectionate and kind to all the black folk who work in his mother’s house but
declares that if he were to align himself with the actual civil rights of
African Americans it would be bad for business. The film shares this
perspective.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p><span style="color: white; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aVxzvs0gqB4/UQmjMBqsFdI/AAAAAAAAAC4/tjTmBTIAYl8/s1600/driving+miss+daisy+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aVxzvs0gqB4/UQmjMBqsFdI/AAAAAAAAAC4/tjTmBTIAYl8/s1600/driving+miss+daisy+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">SRP:</span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> $26.99 <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Driving-Miss-Daisy-Blu-ray-Book/dp/B009CV12YQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358980808&sr=1-2"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR0oZ2pnhyg">Trailer For Above Film</a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5QbbzLJuHv8/UQmjkco38sI/AAAAAAAAADA/osqkpgpEbn4/s1600/forbidden+games+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5QbbzLJuHv8/UQmjkco38sI/AAAAAAAAADA/osqkpgpEbn4/s320/forbidden+games+movie+poster.jpg" width="238" /></span></a></div>
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
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</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00A2A79VG/dvdbeaver-21/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Forbidden Games</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray] (René
Clément, 1952) RB UK Studio Canal<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;">This
beautifully photographed and directed film is merciless in its exposure of
human cruelty and suffering. Set in the countryside outside of France in a
community blighted by a bridge that has a military value as a target, a young,
quickly orphaned, girl is reluctantly taken in by a farming family, presently
lamenting the crippling of their eldest son by a horse startled by the same
actions of war. There is suffering available for all. The kids take a beating
as do the neighbors, pets and livestock, much of the human travails are the
result of petty resentments and the difficulty of managing a difficult life in
a difficult time that dispels the premise that tough times bring out the best
in people. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“And wounded is the fruit of
the womb, Jesus.” This scriptural confusion provided by the young girl could
serve as the epigraph for the movie in its study of the tribulations of life in
the midst of death. Whether are not this wounding is also blessed is a difficult
question to approach given that the children’s game of reconciling themselves
to the devastation around them is that which comes to be forbidden resulting,
surely, in more suffering for them both.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H1pGn4oShOE/UQmjwSkn4dI/AAAAAAAAADI/TAD_pGwO91E/s1600/forbidden+games+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-H1pGn4oShOE/UQmjwSkn4dI/AAAAAAAAADI/TAD_pGwO91E/s1600/forbidden+games+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SRP: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>$13.99 in pounds</span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Forbidden-Games-Blu-ray-Georges-Poujouly/dp/B00A2A79VG/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358982062&sr=1-2"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5u31XTlOd4">Trailer For Above Film</a></span></u></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kfNPrjChn6M/UQmlP5EoJOI/AAAAAAAAADQ/jQ9-3-RQVFc/s1600/game+change+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kfNPrjChn6M/UQmlP5EoJOI/AAAAAAAAADQ/jQ9-3-RQVFc/s320/game+change+movie+poster.jpg" width="217" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B007KAUZY4/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Game Change</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray] (Jay
Roach, 2012) HBO Studios<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">While apparently, a very popular
rendering of the McCain presidential campaign decision to put Sarah Palin on
the ticket, this film is at best an interesting disaster. It is interesting in
the deceptive sense that it is providing us with a real presentation of Palin’s
inadequate political and personal character. It is a disaster because the
presentation seems cynically loaded, the performances almost as bad as the
obvious bald caps (save Moore’s impersonation of Palin which seems believable
to someone like myself who has never met Palin). Palin, besides all her
apparent and enormous failings, seems to have disgraced herself in the minds of
“serious”<br />
Republicans because she broke the rule of allowing herself to be completely
being used by seeking something for herself. She agreed to stand beside McCain
in regards to stem cell research and now she is sticking to her own principles?
These are the ingredients of outrageous self-aggrandizing and opportunism. The
rest of us who don’t care about the wake of her political reflection can be
content to watch her rise as a fall from the dignity and grace of being a
useful tool. But who really cares?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-THIeU8DI17E/UQmlURWsYZI/AAAAAAAAADY/j-P8Y-qHqa0/s1600/game+change+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-THIeU8DI17E/UQmlURWsYZI/AAAAAAAAADY/j-P8Y-qHqa0/s1600/game+change+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">SRP:</span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"> $24.99 <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Game-Change-Blu-ray-Julianne-Moore/dp/B007KAUZY4/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358985075&sr=1-2"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOa98P_Mv68"><span style="color: white;">Trailer For Above Film</span></a></span></u></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A2UZenarE1E/UQmlZRv35OI/AAAAAAAAADg/I4EqX7CNElA/s1600/grand+hotel+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-A2UZenarE1E/UQmlZRv35OI/AAAAAAAAADg/I4EqX7CNElA/s320/grand+hotel+movie+poster.jpg" width="209" /></span></a></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009CVELHG/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Grand Hotel</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray]
(Edmund Goulding, 1932) MGM<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">This extraordinary film pitches the idea
of Berlin’s Grand Hotel as a metaphor for a moment in time filled with
characters seeking their own ends through devices sometimes devious and
sometimes communal. As this moment comes to an end the promise is that another
will begin with new voices and visions competing for life in their era. Because
it continues, incessantly, the rhetorical argument of the film is that none of
it matters; lives come and go and are replaced. The film is also; however,
explicitly clear on what constitutes continuity between generations and it is
not the procreative urge. Rather, it is vulnerability and the desire not
perhaps for success but for a real account of freedom, where one can be without
the constant restraint of servitude. The name of servitude, articulated by many
in the film, is money. But money is not everything and its force does not carry
the day in the picture. What captivates the viewer is this vulnerability of the
human condition, and the glamour of those who can accept it and the despair of
those who would rather kill or die than be humbled by it. Also, while the film
is mostly advertised as a Greta Garbo vehicle despite its star ensemble, Joan
Crawford clearly and constantly steals the moment.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5vPttX2AyNI/UQmldSDAxMI/AAAAAAAAADo/VkSNocY9qUI/s1600/grand+hotel+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5vPttX2AyNI/UQmldSDAxMI/AAAAAAAAADo/VkSNocY9qUI/s1600/grand+hotel+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">$19.85 <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Grand-Hotel-Blu-ray/dp/B009CVELHG/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358986002&sr=1-1"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-themecolor: background1;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRqCTXjXNGw"><span style="color: white;">Trailer For Above FIlm</span></a></span></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m6_vsMw03J4/UQmlhFpk84I/AAAAAAAAADw/-T4bjL30DPI/s1600/hit+and+run+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-m6_vsMw03J4/UQmlhFpk84I/AAAAAAAAADw/-T4bjL30DPI/s320/hit+and+run+movie+poster.jpg" width="217" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009EU6T16/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Hit & Run</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray]
(David Palmer, 2012) Universal Studios<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">What does it mean that a film can have
interesting dialogue and charming characters and still be a so what? It means
that the world is filled with movies and there is no shortage of slight virtues
in many of them. In a world without movies, Hit & Run would be an exciting
crime drama with a few smiles for relief. But in this world this movie tries
too hard to be both funny and exciting. From pratfalls involving an incompetent
US Marshall to the potentially intriguing plot of a man in the witness
protection program who leaves said protection so his girlfriend can seek a job
in another jurisdiction, consistency is tossed away for that which is presumed
might be intriguing for a minute or two. This does happen, and the film is not
terrible, but with fifteen to twenty new DVDs every week there is nothing remotely
special to recommend this one.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TadrD85IG2E/UQmllJHJELI/AAAAAAAAAD4/bkZF2BDnJYM/s1600/hit+and+run+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TadrD85IG2E/UQmllJHJELI/AAAAAAAAAD4/bkZF2BDnJYM/s1600/hit+and+run+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">$30.99 <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Hit-Run-Blu-ray-Kristen-Bell/dp/B0093DCULM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358986390&sr=1-1"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nZlXB5okeo"><span style="color: white;">Trailer For Above FIlm</span></a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WAGILY0NwvE/UQmlp5xFgrI/AAAAAAAAAEA/tTAMw9_0Wdg/s1600/house+at+the+end+of+the+street+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WAGILY0NwvE/UQmlp5xFgrI/AAAAAAAAAEA/tTAMw9_0Wdg/s320/house+at+the+end+of+the+street+movie+poster.jpg" width="221" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B005LAIHCW/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">House at the End of the Street</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray] (Mark
Tonderai, 2012) Relativity Media<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;">Sarah and her
daughter Elyssa are renting a largely country house in a neighborhood beyond
their means. The price is affordable because the house at the end of the street
is the site of the murder of a married couple by one of their children. The
house looms in their imaginations, their dreams and their suspicions. Upon
making contact with one of the children of this very broken home our mother and
daughter are confronted by the ways the community conceives of the child and
how they themselves see him differently – the mother worried, the daughter
attracted by the image of the suffering loner. His status moves her in relation
to her sympathies as someone also suffering half orphan status as a child of divorced
parents. The film is ordinary, with the usual cats jumping when you would
expect to not expect and there is nothing introduced in the first three acts
that isn’t relevant in act five. This is a complaint, as there is no room to
breathe beyond the necessity of plot. And the necessity of this plot is
especially dark and scary for the ways it reinforces and rewards the practical
morality of paranoia and mistrust in our treatment of troubled strangers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rCfNOxKbXaQ/UQmluYq6AiI/AAAAAAAAAEI/TqQaL08rxVk/s1600/house+at+the+end+of+the+street+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rCfNOxKbXaQ/UQmluYq6AiI/AAAAAAAAAEI/TqQaL08rxVk/s1600/house+at+the+end+of+the+street+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">$39.99 </span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/House-Street-Blu-ray-Digital-Copy/dp/B009KU2KR2/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358986832&sr=1-1"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKNQ9BgGrjc">Trailer For Above Film</a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUxR2DtvJ7w/UQmlzL12QII/AAAAAAAAAEQ/naWurEXHpyc/s1600/the+imposter+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YUxR2DtvJ7w/UQmlzL12QII/AAAAAAAAAEQ/naWurEXHpyc/s320/the+imposter+movie+poster.jpg" width="220" /></span></a></div>
<h1 style="margin: 24pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><br /><span style="color: white; font-size: large;">
</span></span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0096MJH2K/dvdbeaver-21/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">The Imposter</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray] (Bart
Layton, 2012) RB UK Revolver Entertainment<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h1>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;">I think it was
an asset to my viewing that I had no idea what this film about before watching
it. I had no idea it was a documentary, I had no idea it was based on a true
story. I had no idea about anything. And as the film progressed my suspicions
about what it was about were continually being shifted. The initial suggestion
is that it is a film about a missing boy from Texas quickly fell away, or
perhaps more to the truth became much more complicated. My thought that it was
about a Spanish con artist also fell away. What the film is about is varied and
never a settled thing. Additional viewings would draw your attention to a
different aspect of narrative or character possibility. The true story is
intriguing but what is completely fascinating is our main character
Nicholas/Frederic and his willed ability to be a chameleon. He is a tremendous
actor all the more frightening and enticing for making it real even when it is
not believable. The film-makers are to be commended for constantly keeping
suspense in the picture and affections for all, the dark and the light even
after you cannot tell them apart.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xt7GrwjuFBw/UQml3OxwkXI/AAAAAAAAAEY/wdv8Fv9j9eY/s1600/the+imposter+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xt7GrwjuFBw/UQml3OxwkXI/AAAAAAAAAEY/wdv8Fv9j9eY/s1600/the+imposter+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">$12.99 in pounds </span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;">: </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Imposter-Blu-ray-Bart-Layton/dp/B0096MJH2K/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1358987346&sr=8-2"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></u></div>
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</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auG_IuMHGZo"><span style="color: white;">Trailer For Above FIlm</span></a></span></u></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jfBWSq0Jjr0/UQml7yHbMKI/AAAAAAAAAEg/Pte33xEtt90/s1600/the+jazz+singer+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jfBWSq0Jjr0/UQml7yHbMKI/AAAAAAAAAEg/Pte33xEtt90/s320/the+jazz+singer+movie+poster.jpg" width="210" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div>
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<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009P07QPS/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">The Jazz Singer</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray] (Alan
Crosland, 1927) Warner Bros.<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;">Jakie
Rabinowitz’s father wants his son to follow five generations of Rabinowitz men
and be the cantor for their New York City synagogue. Jakie has different
designs for his life and instead seeks the spotlight of the jazz singer, though
it must be stated that this is not jazz as other records of the era by Bessie
Smith, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong’s “Potato Head Blues” present. So,
he does not really want to be a jazz singer, he wants to be famous diluting
jazz into something more palatable to the Broadway masses. This touches upon the
argument of the film articulated as one between religious obligation and
secular self-expression, the dialectical conclusion that both can be prayer. I
wonder what this film would be like for the audience if remade as the
confrontation between a religious family and a child who sought their fame in
the sex industry. Even if you are sceptical of that argument between the
religious and the secular it does not matter as the actual tension of the film
is between the call of family and the call of reward for personal dues paid.
This is probably an easier choice and Jakie becomes Jack Robin who pursues fame
at the expense of everything and is praised for doing so. But of course he is
conflicted and we are supposed to be moved by his soul-searching even when
confronted by his actual performance we rely solely on being told it was a
show-stopper as it seems in actuality to be trite and racially offensive. Sold
throughout history as Hollywood’s first sound picture it is a mostly a silent
film. I concede that if the first line of movie sound dialogue is “You have not
heard anything yet” as it is in the film that is winning. But more to the point
when Jakie/Jack talks you wish he would shut up. The empathy he gathers as a
silent figure is destroyed by his cloying, creepy and persistently disturbing
affection he inappropriately displays for his mother. This is a classic film
with no claims to its title.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xn8eeeQkRUE/UQmmAn3V1uI/AAAAAAAAAEo/DWYIOKA3L4U/s1600/the+jazz+singer+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Xn8eeeQkRUE/UQmmAn3V1uI/AAAAAAAAAEo/DWYIOKA3L4U/s1600/the+jazz+singer+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>$26.99<u> </u></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Jazz-Singer-Blu-ray/dp/B009P07QPS/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358991164&sr=1-1"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></u></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpjhEj9R_qU">Trailer For Above FIlm</a></span></u></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AbDx1AIsF_A/UQmmE48NrPI/AAAAAAAAAEw/CR1gRXoJjgQ/s1600/mrs+miniver+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AbDx1AIsF_A/UQmmE48NrPI/AAAAAAAAAEw/CR1gRXoJjgQ/s320/mrs+miniver+movie+poster.jpg" width="217" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009CUW2IC/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Gothic"; mso-fareast-theme-font: major-fareast;">Mrs. Miniver</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="color: white;"> [<span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Blu-ray</span>] (William Wyler, 1942) Warner Bros.<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="color: white;">It is sentimental and off-putting for
its presentation of ordinary English salt of the earth people as what we would
call the upper class in any other part of the world, likely including England.
Mrs. Miniver, both rose and woman, are lovely. All the Minivers are lovely and
they better be as they are the essence of our superiority to any other world
view. But these thoughts are afterthoughts and like a true work of sentimental
art they do not occur to the engaged viewer while the movie plays out. Genuine
tension is created on the basis of our sentimental affections. We cannot really
say that we know these people; all we know is that they are good and because
they are quiet, and never give the game away, we are propelled into belief.
They do not exist like the rest of us because they are not at all like the rest
of us. We believe that they are possible and we fill them with our apprehension
and anxiety for their well-being because we want to believe that such
personalities are achievable, especially in times of strife. They are the
Christian ideal without any directly communicated evangelical message. I would
be intrigued to see how Mrs. Miniver would have responded to Max Cady. My hope
is that they might have seduced each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8B2ssUtmxyc/UQmmKjTuEiI/AAAAAAAAAE4/GBLCWfK2FEs/s1600/mrs+miniver+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8B2ssUtmxyc/UQmmKjTuEiI/AAAAAAAAAE4/GBLCWfK2FEs/s1600/mrs+miniver+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;">$19.99 <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Mrs-Miniver-Blu-ray/dp/B009L147NA/ref=sr_1_3?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358991538&sr=1-3">Amazon Purchase Link</a></span></u></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8NInYPgofI">Trailer For Above Film</a></span></u></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j6pcmYbPH4I/UQmmOyYYKWI/AAAAAAAAAFA/47HOSDUe0bo/s1600/my+dog+tulip+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j6pcmYbPH4I/UQmmOyYYKWI/AAAAAAAAAFA/47HOSDUe0bo/s1600/my+dog+tulip+movie+poster.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00A1CK3S6/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">My Dog Tulip</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray] (Paul
Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger, 2009) New Yorker Films<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;">If you like
animation unburdened by computer enhanced realism and anecdotes about dogs,
with a heavy emphasis on their breeding habits, this is the movie that you have
been waiting for. For myself, I do like drawn animation and observations about
canines but I did find the endless passages on the mating habits of Alsatians
to be uncomfortable even before we were taught about the potential necessity of
applying Vaseline to Tulip’s vulva as an aid to copulation. The film does
dignify the mystery of dogs and if you have a new dog in your home, as we do in
ours, this can be warming to one’s heart and appeasing of one’s tensions about
how dogs are to be raised. But eventually it is not about your dog and with
that realization one’s attention wanes. The soundtrack of barking and yelping,
both social and sexual, did seem to send our dog into a bit of a frenzy after
the film was over.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xHjKuP4bl9M/UQmnMnYpM0I/AAAAAAAAAFo/R_FvomjLBM8/s1600/my+dog+tulip+blu+ray+column.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xHjKuP4bl9M/UQmnMnYpM0I/AAAAAAAAAFo/R_FvomjLBM8/s320/my+dog+tulip+blu+ray+column.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/My-Dog-Tulip-Blu-ray-US/dp/B0057FGCXC/ref=sr_1_6?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1359299176&sr=1-6"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-CEDsZstdI">Trailer For Above FIlm</a></span></u></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--HVrvCQqsRY/UQmmT8w6bHI/AAAAAAAAAFI/aYs2NLopbM4/s1600/samsara+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--HVrvCQqsRY/UQmmT8w6bHI/AAAAAAAAAFI/aYs2NLopbM4/s320/samsara+movie+poster.jpg" width="215" /></span></a></div>
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-themecolor: accent1; mso-themeshade: 191;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B008N9AAQ4/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Samsara</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray] (Ron
Fricke, 2011) Paradox<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;">In the
tradition of the Qatsi trilogy (recently released by the Criterion Collection),
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samsara</i> is free of dialogue and
relies on music and images (shown at various and sometimes misleading speeds,
making the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hajj</i> seem like a mass
whirling dervish) to connect with its viewer. It is a film that one thinks you
should admire even if you don’t really appreciate it. For myself, I found it
endlessly depressing. The images of religious life seemed as dreary and
dreadful as the images of our mechanized urban lifestyles. In fact, the most
beauty I found in the film were in the ways our highways and buildings come
alive at night and the ways that chickens are mass handled for production. The
rest, including the chicken based scenes, were mostly reminders of how dead we
are becoming inside. The problem is that this seemed the same with the scenes
of the religiously observant. And so I was left by this glorious celebration of
the eternal that everything is dead and corrupt. It is not true.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p><span style="color: white; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0-LlyQgmzPo/UQmmXWUa1_I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/-a1y2Pr15oY/s1600/samsara+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0-LlyQgmzPo/UQmmXWUa1_I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/-a1y2Pr15oY/s1600/samsara+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">$34.99 </span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Samsara-Blu-ray/dp/B00A0HT9BO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358992350&sr=8-1"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcEj1m6YIDc"><span style="color: white;">Trailer For Above FIlm</span></a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6bzUAxjJ318/UQmmcNQYVbI/AAAAAAAAAFY/s5i-LgKRhpA/s1600/two+lane+blacktop+movie+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6bzUAxjJ318/UQmmcNQYVbI/AAAAAAAAAFY/s5i-LgKRhpA/s320/two+lane+blacktop+movie+poster.jpg" width="197" /></span></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br /></div>
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<h2 style="margin: 10pt 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="color: white;">
</span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B009RWRIMU/dvdbeaver-20/ref=nosim" target="_blank"><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;">Two-Lane Blacktop</span></a><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="color: white;"> [Blu-ray]
(Monte Hellman, 1971) Criterion Collection AVER REVI<o:p></o:p></span></span></u></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;">The driver, the mechanic, the G.T.O., and the girl,
racing on the road – this is all we are given in terms of character and it is a
wonderful cinematic experience that this seems like more than enough. The film
subverts Hitchcock’s claim that movies are life with the dull parts cut out by
showing us life with the exciting parts removed. The excitement is transformed
into the subtle and steady movements of lives going down a road. There is a
race between the driver and the mechanic against the G.T.O. but they are more
friends than foes, or at the least they are more akin than they are foreign.
The girl is an outsider, knows it, and resents it. She is desired but no one
cares to know her and socially speaking her only sense of herself is internal,
all else becomes pouts and performance and ultimately acts of leaving. The
mechanic and the driver have almost nothing to say while showing us who they
are and how they are trying to be true to something that they have not yet
discovered. G.T.O. cannot stop talking and nothing he says seems to be true. It
is in the ache of his smile and his constant need to connect that we are shown
that he is of the same spirit as the other two, trying to find something of
himself and something other than himself out there on the road. The films use
of images and found sights and people is observant and loving, it is not an
investigative camera, it is a seeing one that understands that the eye is a
participant in what it sees. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Samsara</i>
gives the proximity of distance that leaves me cold, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Two-Lane Blacktop</i> in its lack of intent to make a point, but to
seek inclusion in everything, fills me with hope and faith in the road to come.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CqIDmj80njI/UQmmf_kiS5I/AAAAAAAAAFg/qIQpvrdNCgA/s1600/two+lane+blacktop+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CqIDmj80njI/UQmmf_kiS5I/AAAAAAAAAFg/qIQpvrdNCgA/s1600/two+lane+blacktop+blu+ray.jpg" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="color: white;"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">SRP: </span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">$54.99 </span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes;"></span><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: white;"> </span><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Two-Lane-Blacktop-Blu-ray/dp/B009RWRIMU/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358992598&sr=1-1"><span style="color: white;">Amazon Purchase Link</span></a></span></u></div>
<span style="color: white;">
</span><br />
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<u><span style="color: white; font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKcIGPQST9s">Trailer For Above FIlm</a></span></u></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="color: white; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p><span style="color: white; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: black;">
</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1910961867408235791.post-851228256856618112013-01-27T08:24:00.000-08:002013-04-06T08:45:10.679-07:00DVD Column One<br />
<div align="right" class="MsoHeader" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Pick of the Week</span></u><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jCxQ-U0akK4/UQVSh_rKZoI/AAAAAAAAABg/Ul7EOOBKPiI/s1600/berberian+sound+studio+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jCxQ-U0akK4/UQVSh_rKZoI/AAAAAAAAABg/Ul7EOOBKPiI/s1600/berberian+sound+studio+poster.jpg" /></a></div>
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"></span></u><br />
<h2 style="margin: 12pt 0cm 3pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-language: EN-CA; mso-no-proof: yes;"><v:shapetype coordsize="21600,21600" filled="f" id="_x0000_t75" o:preferrelative="t" o:spt="75" path="m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe" stroked="f">
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</v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:f></v:formulas></v:stroke></v:shapetype></span><span class="SubtitleChar"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Berberian Sound Studio (Peter Strickland, 2012) RB UK Artificial Eye</span></u></span><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></h2>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Gilderoy, a sound editor whose usual source of
employment has been for agricultural/nature films set in his homeland of
England, has taken a job in Italy on a giallo (the exotic Italian term of
affection for gothic films that mix brutal violence and soft core pornography)
film. It is not clear why Gilderoy has taken this job except perhaps out of
confusion that it was a film about horses. The film, which is largely about the
male priestly need to discover the mark of the devil in women through the usual
means of torture and persecution, does bear the ungainly title The Equestrian
Vortex. It is also not clear what Francesco, the Italian producer and dictator
of the project, sought in Gilderoy but one is not led to think the choice was
equally built on confusion but rather that given Gilderoy’s innocent, natural
pedigree Francesco sees a man with talents who will not be belligerent about
lacks of payment or for reimbursement for the cost of arriving at the Berberian
Sound Studio.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">The film is about this cost and for Gilderoy it may
be entire. Horrified and disturbed by the misogynistic film he has been hired
to flesh out with sound, Gilderoy becomes immersed in a small battle with his
sense of decorum and righteousness in a way that is not comforted by his lesser
but still evident potential attraction to enacting revenge against women in the
name of a symbolic truth. For this is the claim of Santini, the bearded devil
who is the director of the film within the film, we do not glorify the violence
against women, we present it because it is the historical record. His film aims
to be a brutal witness to the brutality committed against the historical
female. But this is just sound, just words, and Santini, like the Giallo
tradition and countless others, is banking on having it both ways. Bearing
witness to the presentation of sexual and other violence against women becomes
also a source of titillation to its makers and its viewers. The witness to the
confession becomes the justification for the continuance of the very same sin,
the enjoyment of exacting revenge against the mystery and beauty of women.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Gilderoy is in over his head and the question left
by the film is to ask is Gilderoy a naïve conservative mother’s boy from a
falsely genteel world in need of an awakening or is he another victim, like you
and I, of the juxtaposition of cinematic truth with voyeuristic desires to see
the other raped and destroyed and unable to stand against the temptation of the
latter? I think the film is an interesting film and so the question is not
answered and I imagine my own response, in future viewings – which the film
encourages in its depth and lack of direct explanations of its logic, will be
largely connected to where I see myself on that same continuum between naïve
and simple truth and my own complicity with the evil I am and am in. That said
I offer here that the film is a rewarding tragedy about a good man who sought
the science of nature and was led instead towards a disturbance of resentment
and violence that exists and persists in truth but did not have a home in him
until he was forced to swallow its seed; a film made all the stronger by its
use of sound and its steadfast refusal to impregnate us with any disturbing or
rewarding images that it depicts in flesh gouging (more truthfully watermelon
slashing) 5.1 DTS sound. We are not tempted like Gilderoy, we do not see, we
only hear the depiction of the description. We would surely be more drawn to
the themes, but in a less powerful way, if we saw what Gilderoy had to watch.
But to show that which is only heard would be to overwhelm the theme of the
film – the complicity of bringing a voice to that which is perhaps best unseen,
especially when it pretends to edify as it degrades. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uxoaDnLdK-s/UQVSoqXngnI/AAAAAAAAABo/DdSrwdCP8Yc/s1600/berberian+sound+studio+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uxoaDnLdK-s/UQVSoqXngnI/AAAAAAAAABo/DdSrwdCP8Yc/s1600/berberian+sound+studio+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><u>SRP:</u>
11.99pounds<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Berberian-Sound-Studio-Blu-ray-Jones/dp/B008VFELYM/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358011569&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKG63WoOFGI">Trailer For Above Film</a></span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;">Also Released</span></u></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9ixybHni0Lw/UQVS0ccK4tI/AAAAAAAAABw/jJ4X2U17_Cw/s1600/cosmopolis+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9ixybHni0Lw/UQVS0ccK4tI/AAAAAAAAABw/jJ4X2U17_Cw/s1600/cosmopolis+poster.jpg" width="235" /></a></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;"></span></u> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 18pt;"></span></u><span class="SubtitleChar"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cosmopolis</span></span></u></span><span class="SubtitleChar"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> </span></u></span><span class="SubtitleChar"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size: large;">(David Cronenberg</span></span></u></span><span class="SubtitleChar"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">, 2012) Ent</span></u></span><span style="font-size: large;"><span class="SubtitleChar"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">. One</span></u></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">Cosmopolis is also a film firmly built on the
importance of sound. However, the sound here is the constancy of people talking
like they are characters in a book written by Don Delillo. This means that they
are characters that do not express who they actually are rather they speak only
as struggling voices seeking to articulate the abstractions that they imagine,
also abstractly, to be at the essence of who they are. The main essence and
idea of the film (of which there are many and thus in this way may encourage
repeat even looped viewings) is that technology and money are both sexy and
sexual ideas and that we live in their intersection, defined and frustrated by
both. This is the sort of idea that excites and stimulates cultural theorists,
those drawn to understanding the lives we live in terms of explanatory and
intimately complicated theories. My view, akin to my view of the film, is that
this is simply not true. Instead we live in confrontation with our ideas and
that it does not take a great deal of self-reflection to note that who we are,
or perhaps more to the case what we have just done, is built on a constant
lived refutation of our favorite principles. We are not the things that we
think we understand in words and sounds, our lives seek to underline those
thoughts and we daily, in our deeds, cross them out. Whether or not this is a
concern or a problem is also probably connected to the theories that we have
accepted about such actions. In any case, this is a film that is a theory with
pictures presented only as symbolic support or deepening for said declarations.
Beyond its respect for ideas and theories, the film is empty. I suspect that I
would find more truth and relevance, though less to talk about, in Gilderoy’s
nature movies.<span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gf3UOZ4sTDs/UQVS6Y3QlfI/AAAAAAAAAB4/PU2A_RRGQfE/s1600/cosmopolis+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gf3UOZ4sTDs/UQVS6Y3QlfI/AAAAAAAAAB4/PU2A_RRGQfE/s1600/cosmopolis+blu+ray.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></div>
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<u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">SRP:</span></u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"> $29.99 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Cosmopolis-Blu-ray-DVD-Robert-Pattinson/dp/B00A0HT9FA/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1358011434&sr=1-1">Amazon Purchase Link</a> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS9jc3BnLRc">Trailer For Above Film</a></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OHxZEPA_iqg/UQVTLBm-GJI/AAAAAAAAACA/lkLigNpo7VQ/s1600/the+thompsons+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OHxZEPA_iqg/UQVTLBm-GJI/AAAAAAAAACA/lkLigNpo7VQ/s1600/the+thompsons+poster.jpg" width="227" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span class="SubtitleChar"><u><span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Thompsons (Mitchell Altieri, Phil Flores,
2012) Anderson Merchandisers</span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;">This past holiday season I purchased a number of ten
horror movies on two DVDs for $5. The movies are not very good and the quality
of the DVD transfer is even worse. But for fifty cents a film I am still
delighted and if there is one scene that provides interest to me this delight
is further validated. The Thompsons is a fine quality transfer of a film that
would find itself as one of the lesser lights on one of these five buck
packages. A film about vampires, or something close to that, who are seeking
their own kind so in order to be cared for in a time of persecution and plight,
I recognized that even if I was of their kind that I would not have wanted to
provide them with any such care. The film like its main and subsidiary
characters is dull and violent, splashy with blood from bared fangs and necks.
The film cruises along with little tension until it screams to a halt with
tacked on platitudes about the importance of family and home. It is a tedious
experience that does not even offer the tease of a cheap thrill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PzJiywQAoxc/UQVTSc7PFWI/AAAAAAAAACI/q2S28qU5SiA/s1600/the+thompsons+blu+ray.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PzJiywQAoxc/UQVTSc7PFWI/AAAAAAAAACI/q2S28qU5SiA/s1600/the+thompsons+blu+ray.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span><u></u></span> </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><u>SRP:</u> $20.06 <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>`<span style="mso-tab-count: 3;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="http://www.amazon.ca/Thompsons-Blu-ray/dp/B009FB3X4U/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1358011122&sr=8-3">Amazon Purchase Link</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fn5Bf_z2Cxk">Trailer For Above Film</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Cordia New","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span> </div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14966733930750720934noreply@blogger.com0