25 September 2007

M.I.A. for 2008: Part 1, the 2000s

Though it’s only mid-September, the year in DVDs is inching toward a close. Criterion announced their December releases the other day (Two-Lane Blacktop with James Taylor and Warren Oates and a repackaged Ingmar Bergman set which includes Wild Strawberries, Smiles of a Summer Night, The Seventh Seal, and The Virgin Spring), and with their lackluster announcement, I can pretty much cross off all of my new-to-DVD hopefuls for 2007. Not that Criterion has the final say on my list, but the month of November seems pretty locked in terms of releases, and I’m not going to hold my breath for December. So, I’ve created a more comprehensive list of titles still missing-in-action on Region 1 USA DVD. The list includes titles I’m aching for (keep in mind that a lot of these titles are Francocentric), some I’ve seen, some that need to be seen, and others that are simply notable and of no interest to me. Here’s hoping for 2008!

Key: NULL - No US Distributor / UNK - Unknown distributor / * (asterisk) - Films, to the best of my knowledge, unavailable anywhere on DVD [Meaning not in the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Canada, etc.; though no asterisk does not guarantee that you can find it with English subtitles; I'm not that in depth]

2007
  • Grindhouse * - dir. Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino, Rob Zombie, Edgar Wright, Eli Roth - with Rose McGowan, Kurt Russell, Rosario Dawson, Marley Shelton, Freddy Rodriguez, Zoe Bell - USA - The Weinstein Company [I would say maybe next year the Weinsteins will give us the whole picture, but look how long it’s taking for the integrated Kill Bill set]


  • 2006
  • Atomised - dir. Oskar Roehler - with Moritz Bleibtreu, Franka Potente, Martina Gedeck - Germany - NULL
  • Container - dir. Lukas Moodysson - with Jena Malone - Sweden - NULL
  • Destricted - dir. Marina Abramovic, Matthew Barney, Marco Brambilla, Larry Clark, Gaspar Noé, Richard Prince, Sam Taylor Wood - UK/USA - IFC Films
  • Drawing Restraint #9 * - dir. Matthew Barney - with Björk and Barney - USA/Japan - IFC Films [Matthew Barney hates DVD]
  • Invisible Waves - dir. Pen-ek Ratanaruang - with Tadanobu Asano - Thailand/Hong Kong/Netherlands/South Korea - Palm Pictures
  • Zidane, a 21st Century Portait [Zidane, un portait du 21e siècle] - dir. Douglas Gordon, Philippe Parreno - with Zinédine Zidane - France/Iceland - UNK

  • 2005
  • Beyond Hatred [Au-delà de la haine] - dir. Olivier Meyrou - France - First Run Features
  • Cindy: The Doll Is Mine - dir. Bertrand Bonello - with Asia Argento - France - UNK [Short film with Argento as photographer Cindy Sherman from the director of Tiresia]
  • Hell [Enfer, L'] - dir. Danis Tanovic - with Emmanuelle Béart, Karin Viard, Guillaume Canet - France - NULL [Sequel to Tom Tykwer's Heaven, also based on a screenplay by Kieslowski]
  • Johanna - dir. Kornél Mundruczó - Hungary - Tartan USA
  • Mary - dir. Abel Ferrara - with Juliette Binoche, Heather Graham, Matthew Modine, Marion Cotillard, Forrest Whitaker - France/Italy/USA - IFC Films
  • Sun, The - dir. Alexandr Sokurov - Japan/Russia - NULL
  • Wayward Cloud, The - dir. Tsai Ming-liang - with Lee Kang-sheng - Taiwan/France - IFC Films
  • What Is It? * - dir. Crispin Glover - with Glover, Fairuza Balk - USA - Self-distributed

  • 2004
  • 36 Quai des Orfèvres - dir. Olivier Marchal - with Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, André Dussollier, Roschdy Zem, Valéria Golino - France - Tartan USA [US remake in pre-production]
  • Consequences of Love, The - dir. Paolo Sorrentino - Italy - NULL
  • En attendant le déluge - dir. Damien Odoul - with Odoul, Anna Mouglais - France - NULL
  • Games People Play: New York * - dir. James Ronald Whitney - USA - Self-distributed
  • Hole in My Heart, A [Häl I mitt hjärta, Ett] - dir. Lukas Moodysson - Sweden - Red Envelope Entertainment
  • Life Is a Miracle [Zivot je cudo / Vie est un miracle, La] - dir. Emir Kustarica - Serbia/France - NULL
  • Process - dir. C.S. Leigh - with Béatrice Dalle, Guillaume Depardieu, Leos Carax - France/UK - NULL
  • Promised Land - dir. Amos Gitai - with Rosamund Pike, Hanna Schygulla, Anne Parillaud - Israel/France/UK - NULL

  • 2003
  • Clefs du bagnole, Les - dir. Laurent Baffie - with Baffie, Gérard Depardieu, Yvan Attal, Daniel Auteuil, Edouard Baer, Jean-Marc Barr, Jean-Claude Brialy, Guillaume Canet, Antoine de Caunes, Samuel Le Bihan, Vincent Lindon, Thierry Lhermitte, Vincent Perez, Sophie Marceau, Jamel Debbouze - France - NULL
  • Errance - dir. Damien Odoul - with Laetitia Castel, Benoît Magimel - France - NULL
  • Inquiétudes - dir. Gilles Bourdos - with Grégoire Colin - France - NULL
  • Los Angeles Plays Itself * - dir. Thom Andersen - USA - UNK [Tough bid due to copyright infringements]
  • Nowhere to Go But Up (aka Happy End) - dir. Amos Kollek - with Audrey Tautou, Jennifer Tilly, Justin Theroux - France/USA - UNK
  • Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 1-3, The - dir. Peter Greenaway - with Jordi Mollà, Debbie Harry, Valentina Cervi, Ornella Muti, Franka Potente, Isabella Rossellini, Gaspard Ulliel - Netherlands/UK - NULL [The first three parts of Greenaway's intended sixteen about his alter-ego Tulse Luper]

  • 2002
  • 17 Times Cécile Cassard [Dix-sept fois Cécile Cassard] - dir. Christophe Honoré - with Béatrice Dalle, Romain Duris, Jeanne Balibar - France - NULL
  • Adolphe - dir. Benoît Jacquot - with Isabelle Adjani, Stanislas Mehrar, Jean Yanne, Romain Duris - France - NULL
  • Ken Park - dir. Larry Clark, Edward Lachman - with James Ransone, Tiffany Limos, Amanda Plummer - USA/Netherlands/France - NULL
  • Lilya 4-ever [Lilja 4-ever] - dir. Lukas Moodysson - Sweden - Red Envelope Entertainment
  • Open Hearts [Elsker dig for evigt] - dir. Anders Thomas Jensen, Susanne Bier - with Mads Mikkelson, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Paprika Steen - Denmark - Newmarket
  • Ten Minutes Older: The Cello - dir. Bernardo Bertolucci, Claire Denis, Mike Figgis, Jean-Luc Godard, Jirí Menzel, Michael Radford, Volker Schlöndorff, István Szabó - with Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Chiara Mastroianni, Dominic West, Alex Descas, Irm Hermann, Daniel Craig - UK/Germany/France - UNK
  • Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet - dir. Chen Kaige, Victor Erice, Werner Herzog, Jim Jarmusch, Aki Kaurismäki, Spike Lee, Wim Wenders - with Chloë Sevigny, Amber Tamblyn - UK/Spain/Germany/Finland/Netherlands/China - UNK
  • Under Another Sky [Chemins de l'oeud, Les] - dir. Gaël Morel - with Nicolas Cazalé, Amira Casar - France/Algeria - NULL
  • Vie nouvelle, La - dir. Philippe Grandrieux - with Anna Mouglais - France - NULL
  • War in Paris, The [Guerre à Paris, La] - dir. Yolane Zauberman - with Élodie Bouchez, Jérémie Renier, Grégoire Colin, Jean-Pierre Léaud - France - NULL

  • 2001
  • Agitator - dir. Takashi Miike - with Miike - Japan - UNK
  • Being Light - dir. Jean-Marc Barr, Pascal Arnold - with Barr, Romain Duris, Élodie Bouchez - France - NULL
  • Chop Suey * - dir. Peter Weber - with Weber - USA - Zeitgeist [Auto-potrait/documentary about the photographer]
  • H Story - dir. Nobuhira Suwa - with Béatrice Dalle - Japan - NULL [Japanese remake of Hiroshima mon amour]
  • Loin - dir. André Téchiné - with Stéphane Rideau - France - NULL
  • Mortal Transfer [Mortel transfert] - dir. Jean-Jacques Beineix - with Jean-Hughes Anglade - France/Germany
  • Roberto Succo - dir. Cédric Kahn - with Isild Le Besco - France - NULL
  • Some Body * - dir. Henry Barrial - USA - Lot 47
  • Souffle, Le - dir. Damien Odoul - France - NULL
  • Telets - dir. Alexandr Sokurov - Russia - Facets
  • Trouble Every Day - dir. Claire Denis - with Vincent Gallo, Béatrice Dalle, Tricia Vessey, Nicolas Duvauchelle, Alex Descas - France - Lot 47

  • 2000
  • Angels of the Universe [Englar alheimsins]- dir. Friðrik þor Friðriksson - with Baltasar Kormáker and Hilmir Snær Guðnason - Iceland - NULL
  • Exhibited, The [Udstillede, De] - dir. Jesper Jargil - with Lars von Trier - Denmark - UNK
  • Fidelity [Fidélité, La] - dir. Andrzej Żuławski - with Sophie Morceau, Pascal Greggory, Guillaume Canet - France - NULL
  • Girl on the Bridge, The [Fille sur le pont, La] - dir. Patrice Leconte - with Vanessa Paradis, Daniel Auteuil - France/UK - Paramount
  • Ivansxtc - dir. Bernard Rose - with Danny Huston, Peter Weller, Valéria Golino - UK/USA - NULL
  • Last Resort - dir. Pawel Pawlikowski - with Paddy Considine - UK - Shooting Gallery
  • Pandemonium - dir. Julien Temple - with Samantha Morton, Linus Roache, John Hannah, Andy Serkis - UK/USA - USA Films
  • Possible Worlds - dir. Robert Lepage - with Tilda Swinton, Tom McCamus - Canada - NULL
  • Pretend I’m Not Here [Faites comme je n'étais pas là] - dir. Olivier Jahan - with Jérémie Renier, Aurore Clément, Sami Bouajila, Emma de Caunes - France - NULL
  • Selon Matthieu - dir. Xavier Beauvois - with Benoît Magimel, Nathalie Baye - France - NULL
  • Time for Drunken Horses, A - dir. Bahman Ghobadi - Iran - Shooting Gallery
  • Too Much Flesh - dir. Jean-Marc Barr - with Barr, Rosanna Arquette, Élodie Bouchez - France - NULL
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