Marketa Lazarova (Criterion Collection)

Marketa Lazarova on DVD (Second Run)
This movie from 1967, set in the 12th century, is very hypnotic due to it's vivid images (mixing wide screen landscapes, extreme close ups and moving camera), different modes of narrative (text tableaus, voice, flashbacks, memories) and eerie middle age-like music (it's actually electronic music with voices created specifically for the movie).

In this movie there are no clear cut good vs evil and no typical villains and heroes (maybe for the exception of Marketa Lazarova herself who has some saint-like innocence). The people are more the products of the harsh social and religious environment of the dark ages. The plot is better experienced than talked about in advance. Haunting, complex and spell-binding, this is a very good movie, much better than the historic epics produced by hollywood every year.

The transfer is excellent (I watched it on a projector) with beautiful black/white (it's hard to think of this movie being made in colour).
This is the kind of...

Tarkovsky meets Leone
If you can imagine a cross between Tarkovsky's Andrei Rublev and Leone's Once Upon A Time In The West (all made within a year of each other), you might have a notion of what Vlacil's Marketa Lazerova is like. Throw in a dash of Bergman's Virgin Spring, and you're almost there. Named by Czech critics as the best Czech film of all time, Marketa Lazerova is a poetic social critique/examination of human kind, in particular when operating outside the confines of "civilization."

The film is set in the Middle Ages,* when family clans competed to rule the harsh territory seizing everything within their reach that they were able enough to claim and defend (not unlike the "old West" for a time), a time when religious and social order (established by the church, alongside the king and his army) was not fully accepted, and clans were used to operating in accordance with more primitive codes and authorities largely based around shamanic/mythic insights, the most basic offeudal ethics,...

Flawed DVD, Brilliant Film
**********SECOND RUN DVD REVIEW**********

Well, I have to disagree with the reviewers quality. The picture quality is not aweful, but certainly not what it should be. The blacks are muddled and the whites are grey. There is no streaking or debris to speak of, however. The problem probably lies with the scan resolutuin or scan process in general. The elements used seem to be fine, just an underfunded transfer would be my guess...

I give five stars because Second Run should be applauded for even releasing this DVD. The film itself is a ten star caliber effort!

If you like Rublev, or just have a love of Eastern European cinema from the 1960's, then this is for you. Beautiful 2.35:1 Black & White, nothing better in the world.

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The Life of Oharu (Criterion Collection)

The Top Tier of Japanese Cinema
I don't usually write reviews, but I saw that this had a rating much lower than it should - and on further inspection found that the negative reviews were of the quality of an old imported DVD.

So, to start with: this DVD is being released by the Criterion Collection, who always do an astounding job of presenting films on DVD and Blu-Ray. Please, please, please, do not worry anymore about the quality of the DVD. It will be great.

As for the film itself, it's another heartbreaking but beautiful film by Mizoguchi, and a sort of spiritual sister to his other two masterpieces "Sansho the Bailiff" and "Ugetsu". I don't want to go into a synopsis, so I'll just leave by saying that if you like human dramas presented with a beautiful touch, you'll love this film.

We don't have the right to love one another
'Life of O Haru' is a very characteristic movie for Kenji Mizoguchi with its theme of forbidden love, its criticism of social conventions and its realistic and incisive description of the fate of women, the behavior of males and the effect of being sincere in a society, here a feudal one.

In this feudal society, love (sexual intercourse) between a member of the nobility and a commoner is a transgression of the barrier between the social classes. When it is discovered, like in this movie, it is disastrous for the lover, the girl and her family. A real nightmare begins for the girl O Haru. Her beauty and sincerity are exploited to the bone, by brothel keepers, by those who need a male heir to ensure the continuation of the political and social power of a clan or by males (also a member of her family) in a position of 'strength '.

The choice of the scenes, of which some are extremely painful, and the angles of the shots illustrate masterfully the balance of power in...

No One Can Take Away your Dignity - But Yourself
During the 1990's, both my parents took a whirlwind tour throughout the Far East. When they returned, I asked them what they thought of Japan. My dad adored the country...but my mother told me this was her least favorite destination. "Why?" I inquired. My mother responded that Japan was the most patriarchal culture of all the ones she visited...and she certainly deplored any (mis)treatment of women as second class citizens.

The director Kenji Mizoguzhi obviously shared my mom's sentiments...and this theme permeates most of his films. In thinking about the director's life, he was deeply disturbed that due to failing finances, his sister was literally sold to be a geisha...yet she helped him greatly in his early career - sacrificing herself for a male of the family. And he never allowed himself to forget that moral debt.

Now to the film itself. Except for the framing sequence, Oharu starts her adult life as a valuable court attendant for the Imperial Court...

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The Devil's Backbone (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

What is a ghost?
Guillermo del Toro is currently known as the guy who made the Oscar-winning "Pan's Labyrinth," the "Hellboy" movies, and came close to directing "The Hobbit."

But way back in in 2001, del Toro made a movie that serves as a sport of ghost-story prequel to "Pan's Labyrinth." With its mysterious specter, innocent hero and a story set during a bloody civil war, "The Devil's Backbone" is a unique kind of horror movie -- it deftly sidesteps the cheap tricks and scares that most ghost stories employ.

Unaware that his father has been killed, Carlos (Fernando Tielve) thinks that he's being left at a remote orphanage only temporarily. Kindly Dr. Casares (Federico Luppi) sympathizes with the lonely new boy, but Carlos soon is distracted from his troubles. He keeps seeing shadows, footprints and falling pitchers -- and when he wanders down into the vaulted cellar, he catches a glimpse of a silent ghost with a bleeding head wound. Even worse, the ghost -- which was a boy...

A brilliant ghost story
Guillermo del Toro's 'El Espinazo del Diablo' "The Devil's Backbone" tells a story set during the Spanish civil war in the 30's where a new orphan Carlos arrives at an orphanage that holds dark secrets. A few years before a young boy named Santi was murdered and recently the other boys who call him "He Who Whispers" tell Carlos about him and when Carlos first sees Santi the ghost boy tells him that many others will die. Carlos makes fast friends with some of the other boys and they're all wary about a large unexploded bomb that has landed in their courtyard. Plus, there's also the mystery of some gold that is kept in a secret hiding place by Dr Caspares.
When del Toro makes films in his native language they're just brilliant and this one is a precursor to his even bigger hit the Oscar winning 'El Labarinto del Fauno" "Pan's Labyrinth". As you can tell, this reviewer prefers to name the films by their foreign titles. So for genuine chills in a frightening ghost story when 'El...

An exceptional ghost story from film director Guillermo Del Toro in deluxe high def Criterion edition
A mysterious ghost haunts a Spanish orphange and 10 year old Carlos is determined to find out who and why it is haunting the facility in Guillermo del Toro's exceptinal ghost story set during the Spanish Civil War. This exceptional film receives a deluxe Blu-ray treatment from Criterion. Unfortunately for those who want this edition, it is Region A locked. If you're in Europe, you'll need a region free player.

The transfer for "The Devil's Backbone" tooks absolutely stunning for this 2001 film. Detail is exceptional and there is no overuse of digital noise reduction. The film looks quite nice in its high def debute.

The lossless 5.1 audio also sounds terrific. This doesn't features an English dubbed version but does feature English subtitles.

The special feaatures are a highlight on this set. We get an introduction by del Toro (in English), del Toro's 2004 commentary from the Sony release, deleted scenes, sketches, a 30 minute behind-the-scenes...

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To Be or Not to Be (Criterion Collection)

That Is The Question...This Is The Answer
Jack Benny is the greatest and most groundbreaking comedian certain readers have most likely never heard of. on radio in the '30s and '40s, Benny more than anyone else effectively invented the sitcom, and his series has been rewarded with a title of Greatest Old-Time Radio Comedy that still stands to this day.
radio (and, to a lesser extent, television) was Jack's true forte. his work in movies was nowhere hear as fullfulling. of the nearly 30 films he starred in, he would personally recommend only three, and was completely satisfied with only one of those. (guess which?)
as you might imagine from the title, Benny plays an actor. this neatly dovetails with one of his radio running-gags: a paragon of pomposity, Benny's radio counterpart considered himself a better actor than he in fact was, and he'd always get sulky when Acadamy Awards time rolled around.
the mastperiece of director Ernst Lubitch, this 1942 release tells the story of a Polish theatrical troupe who fight...

Carole Lombard's Final (and Best) Movie
Carole Lombard, Jack Benny and director Ernst Lubitsch were comic geniuses, and all three were at the top of their form when they made TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942), arguably one of the funniest movies of all time. The film has now been restored in a new 2K digital transfer from The Criterion Collection.

This black farce cast Benny, who never gave a more hilarious performance [Imagine him playing Hamlet and you'll get the idea.], and Lombard as a theatrical couple living in occupied Poland. With the help of a young Polish flier (Robert Stack) and their acting company, the pair is able to neutralize a Nazi spy, and then narrowly escape to England.

A simple plot, true, but it's how these performers go about accomplishing their task that has kept audiences laughing these many years...even when most movies about the Nazis were no longer funny.

This, incidentally, was Lombard's final movie.

Extras in this 2-disc set include audio commentary by film...

Hilarious and Suspenseful
A film that is both comedic and suspenseful is no easy trick to pull off. Two that come to mind are FOUL PLAY and SILVER STREAK. Now we finally have this wonderful Criterion release of the classic 1942 Ernst Lubitsch comedy , YES - comedy!, about the Nazis occupying Warsaw, Poland and a small troupe of Polish actors who help to sabotage their invaders. This story isn't played for total laughs, and there are plenty of suspenseful moments, which makes this film so incredibly great. Interesting to note, that when this film was released in 1942, in the thick of the war, it was generally panned and criticized. Even Jack Benny's father walked out on the initial screening-mortified that his son would appear in a Nazi uniform. (Benny later changed his father's mind, And the man ended up loving it and seeing it 46 times!) The passing of time would end up finding this film generally loved and considered a comedy classic.
Interesting notes: The film was Carole Lombard's last, and was...

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