Showing posts with label Alejandro Jodorowsky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Alejandro Jodorowsky. Show all posts

14 May 2007

Webster University Film Series: Summer 2007

For those of you in Saint Louis, I thought I'd give a heads-up to the films playing at the Webster University Film Series this summer (though you can find the complete listing here). Alexandra Lipsitz's documentary Air Guitar Nation played this past weekend, but coming next weekend is Cam Archer's ambitious Wild Tigers I Have Known, with Fairuza Balk and with nods to Derek Jarman, Kenneth Anger, and Araki's Mysterious Skin. The Ralph Nader documentary, An Unreasonable Man, will be screening the following week. On the 1st of June, the documentary, The Cats of Mirikitani, which Mike Steinberg, director of the series, has been raving about, will be screening all weekend. They will also be showing 35mm prints of Jodorowsky's El topo and The Holy Mountain later that month, as well as the beastiality doc, Zoo (or, better known among my friends, They Fuck Horses, Don't They?). July will show two of Peter Greenaway's early films, The Draughtsman's Contract and (my personal favorite) A Zed and Two Noughts. Expect reviews of most of these films on Playback's website, which I will, naturally, link from this blog.

06 February 2007

To avoid writing anything of substance...

In descending order of release:

David Lynch's digital epic, Inland Empire (which still hasn't come to Saint Louis, or perhaps, never will), will hit the shelves from Rhino Entertainment on the 8th of June. Rumor has it that it will be the first Lynch DVD to feature a commentary, but no specifics have been mentioned officially yet. The film stars Lynch regulars Laura Dern, Justin Theroux, Harry Dean Stanton, Grace Zabriskie, Diane Ladd, as well as Jeremy Irons, Julia Ormond, and Nastassja Kinski.

On the 15th of May, New Line will release Guillermo del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth, which has become the highest grossing Spanish-language film in the United States as of last week, in a Platinum Edition will plenty of dorked-out features.

As I mentioned prior, the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky will be released by Anchor Bay on the 1st of May. It looks as if Anchor Bay will be releasing the three titles (El topo, The Holy Mountain, and Fando & Lis) separately, as well as in a box, but this, too, has yet to be confirmed. Also on this day comes Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy, a surely unnecessary documentary about Matthew Barney, and the ho-hum Dreamgirls.

Criterion's sub-studio, Eclipse, will have seven documentaries by Louis Malle out on the 24th of March. Lionsgate, just after their acquisition of a large sum of Studio Canal titles, will have three early films of Jean Renoir out the same day. Also on the 24th: Little Children, Volver, Panic in Needle Park, and Tears of the Black Tiger (a Thai pulp film which one of my professors described as a 'pad thai western.' I don't recommend the film, by the way).

As stated before, Criterion will release Mathieu Kassovitz's La haine on the 17th of April. Also out that day: Screen Door Jesus and Bye Bye Brazil.

On the 8th of April, Koch Lorber will release two contemporary French films that never made it to the theatre stateside. Le petit lieutenant is a crime thriller from actor/director Xavier Beauvois, starring Jalil Lespert, Roschdy Zem, and Nathalie Baye who won a César, the French equivalent of an Oscar, for her role. Philippe Grandrieux's Sombre, literally Dark, is another nasty, bleak French film starring Elina Lowensohn (Nadja). Robert Altman's A Wedding will also be released, outside of the Altman box, on this date.

Wolfe Video will be releasing Thom Fitzgerald's 3 Needles on the 3rd of April. The film, which sounds like an HIV-positive Babel from the director of The Hanging Garden, stars Lucy Liu, Shawn Ashmore (X-Men), Olympia Dukakis, Sandra Oh, Sook Yin-Lee, Stockard Channing, and Chloë Sevigny as a nun in South Africa. Also bowing on this date: Alfonso Cuarón's apocalyptic masterpiece Children of Men, Manoel de Oliveira's The Convent (with Catherine Deneuve and John Malkovich), a new, feature-less edition of Freeway, The Last King of Scotland, and the second season of Twin Peaks (without the first season or pilot).

On the 27th of March, several smaller titles will become available, including Kim Ki-duk's (3-Iron, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, The Isle) latest, The Bow, Claude Chabrol's The Bridesmaid (La demoiselle d'honneur) with Benoit Magimel, Candy with Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish, Zhang Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower with Gong Li, El Cortez with Lou Diamond Phillips, Joe D'Amato's Emanuelle Around the World, Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, the Russ Meyer homage, Pervert!, with Mary Carey, Béla Tarr's eight-hour Sátántangó, and Eclipse's first box-set: The Early Films of Ingmar Bergman.

On the 20th of March, Wellspring will bring us Joey Lauren Adams' directorial debut, Come Early Morning, starring Ashley Judd, who's apparently wonderful in the film, recalling her finest work in Victor Nunez's Ruby in Paradise. Also on that day, a limited edition of Stuart Gordon's Re-Animator, Jules Dassin's The Naked City, Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima, and Blood Diamond.

The 13th of March will have the latest James Bond film, Casino Royale, from Sony, on your shelves. Alain Resnais' Muriel will also be released from Koch Lorber on the same day, as well as John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus.

The cult classic Night of the Comet will be arriving on the 6th of March from MGM, as well as Sacha Baron Cohen's box office smash Borat: Cultural Learnings for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Also bowing on that day, Charles Jarrott's notoriously awful The Other Side of Midnight, starring Susan Sarandon, the German possession drama Requiem, and Hong Sang-soo's Woman Is the Future of Man.

As for the rest of February, here's a list of DVDs you should at least consider renting.

13 February: Géla Bubluani's 13 (Tzameti), The Apprentice with Susan Sarandon, the Criterion reissue Bicycle Thieves, Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy, Martin Scorsese's The Departed, Yilmaz Arslan's Fratricide, Federico Fellini's Ginger & Fred, Ryan Fleck's Half Nelson, Constantine Giannaris' Hostage, Infamous, Tony Richardson's The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Andre Bujalski's Mutual Appreciation, Nicolas Roeg's Performance, Mikio Naruse's When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, and Christophe Ali and Nicolas Bonilauri's Wild Camp.

20 February: Martin Donovan's Apartment Zero, Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel, Jean-Marc Vallée's C.R.A.Z.Y., Christopher Guest's For Your Consideration (if you want to kick yourself afterward), Jan Svankmajer's Lunacy, Christopher Nolan's The Prestige, and Michael J. Bassett's (Deathwatch) Wilderness.

27 February: The final cut of Oliver Stone's Alexander, an Early Hitchcock boxset, Henry Jaglom's Going Shopping, Lucio Fulci's Perversion Story, Terry Gilliam's Tideland, and Jean Genet's Un chant d'amour.

18 December 2006

Bloated, Unstructured Wish List for DVD 2007

What this intends to be is exactly what the title suggests. A horrible flu + cold medicine + not being able to sleep = a lot of time wasted on the Internet and plenty of blog postings that don't require much eloquence or thought on my part. So, I've compiled a list of 40 (er, 41) DVDs that would make me smile if their respective studios decided to release them in this upcoming 2007. They are in no particular order, whatsoever.

Antonioni Adoration:
1. Red Desert (Il deserto rosso) - dir. Michelangelo Antonioni - 1964 - Italy/France
[NOTE: Available Region 1 from Image Entertainment, though highly out-of-print (and of mediocre quality). The disc usually goes for well over $100 on amazon.com; also available in France, Italy, and Russia without English subtitles]

2. Zabriskie Point - dir. Michelangelo Antonioni - 1970 - USA

3. Beyond the Clouds (Al di là delle nuvole) - dir. Michelangelo Antonioni, Wim Wenders - 1995 - Italy/France/Germany
[NOTE: Previously released and discontinued by Image. Available in France.]

Give Me Ken Russell:
4. The Devils - dir. Ken Russell - 1971 - UK

5. The Boyfriend - dir. Ken Russell - 1971 - UK/USA

6. Whore - dir. Ken Russell - 1991 - USA/UK

Oh, Derek Jarman:
7. The Garden - dir. Derek Jarman - 1990 - UK
[NOTE: Available in the U.K. and Japan, Region 2.]

8. Wittgenstein - dir. Derek Jarman - 1993 - UK
[NOTE: Available in Japan, Region 2.]

And, Oh, Peter Greenaway:
9. Drowning by Numbers - dir. Peter Greenaway - 1988 - UK/Netherlands
[NOTE: Available in Australia (Region 4) and Japan (Region 2), panned and scanned.]

10. Prospero's Books - dir. Peter Greenaway - 1991 - UK/Netherlands/France/Italy/Japan

Pre-Romance Breillat:
11. Sale comme un ange (Dirty Like an Angel) - dir. Catherine Breillat - 1991 - France

12. Tapage nocturne (Nocturnal Uproar) - dir. Catherine Breillat - 1979 - France

Y Buñuel:
13. The Exterminating Angel (El ángel exterminador) - dir. Luis Buñuel - 1962 - Mexico
[NOTE: Available in most countries. The U.K. version is region free.]

14. Tristana - dir. Luis Buñuel - 1970 - France/Italy/Spain
[NOTE: Available in many regions.]

¡Pedro!:
15. Labyrinth of Passion (El laberinto de pasiones) - dir. Pedro Almodóvar - 1982 - Spain

16. Pepi, Luci, Bom (Pepi, Luci, Bom y otras chicas del montón) - dir. Pedro Almodóvar - 1980 - Spain
[NOTE: Available Region 2 from the U.K. and Spain.]

Jodorowsky:
17. El topo - dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky - 1970 - Mexico
[NOTE: No existing media release of the film has ever been fully uncensored.]

18. The Holy Mountain - dir. Alejandro Jodorowsky - 1973 - Mexico/USA
[NOTE: Available in edited versions from Italy and Japan.]

And the Rest:
19. The Addiction - dir. Abel Ferrara - 1995 - USA
[NOTE: Available region 1 from Mexico, and in various European countries.]

20. À la folie (Six Days, Six Nights) - dir. Diane Kurys - 1994 - France
[NOTE: Only available in Australia.]

21. Before the Revolution (Prima della rivoluzione) - dir. Bernardo Bertolucci - 1964 - Italy
[NOTE: Available in Italy and Japan.]

22. The Castle (Das Schloß) - dir. Michael Haneke - 1997 - Austria/Germany
[NOTE: Available in Germany.]

23. Flaming Creatures - dir. Jack Smith - 1963 - USA

24. A Hole in My Heart (Ett Hål i mitt hjärta) - dir. Lukas Moodysson - 2004 - Sweden/Denmark
[NOTE: Available for rent exclusively from Netflix.]

25. Johnny Guitar - dir. Nicholas Ray - 1954 - USA

26. Last Year at Marienbad (L'année dernière à Marienbad) - dir. Alain Resnais - 1961 - France/Italy
[NOTE: Formerly available from Fox Lorber, currently available in the U.K.]

27. Love & Human Remains - dir. Denys Arcand - 1993 - Canada
[NOTE: Available in the U.K.]

28. Made in U.S.A. - dir. Jean-Luc Godard - 1966 - France
[NOTE: Available in France, Japan, and Italy.]

29. The Magician (Ansiktet) - dir. Ingmar Bergman - 1958 - Sweden
[NOTE: Available throughout Europe and Japan.]

30. Mala noche - dir. Gus Van Sant - 1985 - USA

31. Mon homme (My Man) - dir. Bertrand Blier - 1996 - France

32. Multiple Maniacs - dir. John Waters - 1970 - USA

33. Napoleon - dir. Abel Gance - 1927 - France
[NOTE: Available in many countries.]

34. No Skin Off My Ass - dir. Bruce LaBruce - 1991 - Canada
[NOTE: Available in the U.K. as a double-bill with Super 8 1/2, both edited for content.]

35. Nowhere - dir. Gregg Araki - 1997 - France/USA
[NOTE: Available in France.]


36. The Passion of Darkly Noon - dir. Philip Ridley - 1995 - UK/Germany/Belgium
[NOTE: Available Region 1 in Canada.]

37. The Reflecting Skin - dir. Philip Ridley - 1990 - UK/Canada
[NOTE: Available in Japan.]

38. Rosetta - dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne - 1999 - Belgium/France
[NOTE: Available in France and U.K.]

39. Shy People - dir. Andrei Konchalovsky - 1987 - USA

40. Trouble Every Day - dir. Claire Denis - 2001 - France/Germany/Japan
[NOTE: Available for rent on Netflix with a Hong Kong NTSC disc, available most everywhere else too.]

And one to grow on...

41. A Portrait of Jason - dir. Shirley Clarke - 1967 - USA
[NOTE: Available in the U.K. from Second Run.]