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Joseph Strick – The Savage Eye (1959)

newland — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 17:39:23 GMT

This drama takes the form of a story told using documentary material as an intrinsic part of the narrative. In this journey through the dark side of 1950s urban life, the camera follows Judith –a newly divorced woman looking for a fresh start– through the streets of Los Angeles as she encounters the strange denizens of the city, ranging from trendsetters to religious fanatics. All the tawdry and desperate faces of this world become a mirror for Judith's personal failures and struggles to claim her new life.

Judith McGuire débarque à l'aéroport de Los Angeles. Elle vient de divorcer et espère refaire sa vie dans la cité des anges. Une voix l'accoste, c'est le narrateur du film. Un dialogue s'instaure entre cette âme troublée et celui qui se présente comme "le poète". Ensemble, ils traversent la ville, en s'enfonçant toujours plus loin dans les sept cercles de l'enfer.

Jean-Luc Godard – King Lear (1987)

newland — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:36:07 GMT

This offbeat adaptation gives the viewer a postmodern taste of Shakespeare through the eyes of a deliberately obscure auteur. The film is set some time after Chernobyl has wiped everything out, and the world is trying to set itself right again. William Shakespeare Jr. the Fifth (Peter Sellars) is faced with the task of restoring his famed ancestor's lost works. He visits a resort in Switzerland and becomes fascinated with a visiting gangster, Don Learo (Burgess Meredith) and his lovely daughter, Cordelia (Molly Ringwald), who converse in actual Shakespearean lines. That's as close to the bard as this King Lear gets. It also includes appearances by Woody Allen, Norman Mailer, and director Godard himself as Professor Pluggy, a deranged individual who seems fascinated with Xeroxing his own hand.

Ernst Lubitsch – The Merry Widow (1934)

newland — Mon, 24 May 2010 23:19:27 GMT

Sonia is an immensely wealthy widow whose spending keeps the small kingdom of Marshovia afloat economically. When she decides to move to Paris to find a husband, the king dispatches prince Danilo –a notorious Casanova– to seduce and bring her back home.

The best musical helmed by the great Ernst Lubitsch, The Merry Widow is frothy, funny, and tuneful from start to finish.
"Witty and incandescent...heady as the foam on champagne, fragile as mist, and as delicately gay as a good-natured censor will permit." – The New York Times

Shohei Imamura – Kuroi ame / Black Rain / Pluie noire (1989)

newland — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:28:35 GMT

Mr and Mrs Shizuma, and their niece Yasuko, make their way through the ruins of Hiroshima, just after the atomic bomb has dropped. Five years later, Yasuko is living with her aunt and uncle, and her senile grandmother, in a village containing many of the bomb survivors. Yasuko does not appear to be affected by the bomb, but the Shizuma's are worried about her marriage prospects, as she could succumb to radiation sickness at any time.

Extremely powerful film by Imamura which exposes the effects of Hiroshima's bombing, but like the characters, does not dwell obsessively on the event. There is no shock value to this film. That would have been too easy. This is as subtle an expression as you will find, hence heightening the effectiveness.

Carlos Reygadas – Stellet licht / Silent Light / Luz silenciosa (2007)

newland — Sun, 09 May 2010 06:34:59 GMT

Johan and Esther have been married for years, and live with their children in a Mennonite community from the north of Mexico. Against the law of God and man, Johan falls in love with another woman.

“

I was amazed by Silent Light – the setting, the language, the delicacy of the interactions between the people on screen, the drama of redemption. And most of all by Carlos Reygadas's extraordinarily rich sense of cinema, evident in every frame. A surprising picture, and a very moving one as well. — Martin Scorsese

”

Orson Welles – Falstaff / Chimes at Midnight / Campanadas a medianoche (1965)

newland — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:03:39 GMT

The legendary Shakespearean character Sir John Falstaff, the notoriously drunken, obese, and yet charming companion of the young Henry V, steps up from supporting character in several plays to the central focus of Orson Welles' Chimes at Midnight, considered by many critics the best of the director's acclaimed Shakespeare films. Welles held this film in high regard and considered it along with The Trial his best work. As he remarked in 1982: "If I wanted to get into heaven on the basis of one movie, that's the one I'd offer up." Many critics, including Peter Bogdanovich and Jonathan Rosenbaum, also consider it Welles's finest work.

Note on the Studio Canal edition: Probably due to an endless legal war over the rights of the film, Falstaff (Chimes at Midnight) has been rarely seen and exists today as bootleg or as poor quality DVD transfers. However, the film obviously underwent a complete restoration prior to 2005 and was released in France in a pristine DVD by Studio Canal. Sadly, this edition was quickly taken off the market soon after its release.

Andrei Tarkovsky – Zerkalo / Mirror / Le miroir (1975)

newland — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:13:36 GMT

Mirror is Tarkovsky's fourth of seven feature films and proceeds in a non-narrative, stream-of-consciousness form. The director mixes flashbacks, historical footage and original poetry to illustrate the reminiscences of a dying man about his childhood during World War II, adolescence, and a painful divorce in his family. The story interweaves reflections about Russian history and society.
Mirror has relevancy being numerically "central" in Tarkovsky's oeuvre also marking itself as, by the director's own account, 'My most openly autobiographical, daring, and self-revealing film'. Infused with dense, personal references from memory and an inaccessible use of time, space and performances, this is considered the director most artistically bold work being steeped in layered constructions. In examining his entire body of work this tends to be a catalyst of his vision of transcendency.

Jean-Luc Godard - Une femme est une femme / A Woman Is a Woman (1961) - (Criterion #238) [DVD9]

newland — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 14:32:10 GMT

Jean-Luc Godard – Une femme est une femme / A Woman Is a Woman (1961) – (Criterion #238) [DVD9]
Full dual-layer DVD image (.ISO) | DVD9 | French | English subtitles | 1:23:54 | 2.35:1 | 7.12 GB | 200MB RARs | RS

With A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents "a neorealist musical—that is, a contradiction in terms." Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of popularity, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard's signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession: the cinema.

Erich von Stroheim DVD Collection [3 DVD9 + 1 DVD5]

newland — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 23:27:36 GMT

Erich von Stroheim DVD Collection [3 DVD9 + 1 DVD5]
Blind Husbands (1919) | Foolish Wives (1922) | Queen Kelly (1929) | The Great Gabbo (1929) | The Man You Loved to Hate (1980)
Full DVD images (.ISO) | English intertitles | French subtitles (optional) | RS files all checked (checksum md5 available)

"A true artist -- My God, he had talent!" — Orson Welles

These versions of Blind Husbands, Foolish Wives and Queen Kelly are the most comprehensive to date. The recent restorations of these films are remarkable although numerous scratches remain (you can't work miracles on masters as damaged as Foolish Wives), but Queen Kelly is remarkably clean for a silent film. Through their innovative style and incredible visual originality, Blind Husbands, Foolish Wives and Queen Kelly are still surprisingly modern today as when they were created by the director of Greed. And each of these classics still carry an unique scent of scandal.

Nous voici ici en présence des versions de ces trois films (Maris aveugles, Folies de femmes et Queen Kelly) les plus complètes à ce jour. De plus, les restaurations effectuées dernièrement sont vraiment très réussies et si demeurent d'innombrables scratchs et rayures en tous genres (on ne peut pas faire de miracles non plus, surtout pour des masters aussi abîmées que celui de Folies de femmes), les copies ont retrouvées une belle jeunesse (surtout en comparaison de celles ignobles, et à bannir de toute urgence, proposées dans une collection de DVD vendue sur Cdiscount, Ciné Club Hollywood), celle de Queen Kelly étant même remarquablement propre pour un muet. Bref, pour ces films des années 20, je ne vois pas comment il aurait été possible de faire mieux ; et pour ne rien gâcher, la compression s'avère parfaitement bien gérée. Du très bon travail.

F.W. Murnau - Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) [DVD9]

newland — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:55:31 GMT

F.W. Murnau - Tabu: A Story of the South Seas (1931) [DVD9]
Full dual-layer DVD image (.ISO) | DVD9 | English intertitles | French subtitles | 1:22:04 | 720x576 | 6.51 GB

In 1929, F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu, Faust, Sunrise), one of the greatest of all film directors, invited leading documentarist Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North, Man of Aran) to collaborate on a film to be be shot on location in Tahiti, a Polynesian idyll in which Murnau imagined a cast of island actors would provide a new form of authentic drama and offer rare insight into their "primitive" culture. The result of their collaboration was Tabu, a film that depicts the details of indigenous island life to tell a mythical tale that is rich in the universal themes of desire and loss.

Loin de son pays natal et de son pays d’adoption, les Etats-Unis, Murnau tournera Tabou en Polynésie. Co-réalisé avec le documentariste Robert Flaherty, ce film ultime d’une sensualité inouïe chante en une célébration homo-érotique les corps cuivrés et lisses sous le soleil des tropiques. Mais dans ce lieu paradisiaque rôde la tragédie, fait retour l’angoisse propre à son cinéma.

John Cassavetes – Husbands (1970) [DVD9]

newland — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:28:41 GMT

John Cassavetes – Husbands (1970) [Extended Cut]
Full Dual-Layer DVD Image (.ISO) | DVD9 | English Dolby Digital 2.0 | English Subtitles | 2:21:45 | 720x480 | 8.01 GB

Gus, Harry, and Archie, three husbands with families in suburban New York, are shaken when their best friend suddenly dies of a heart attack. Unable to return to work after the funeral, they take off on a weekend-long debauch, with way too much drinking and loose women. In the process, they have lengthy heart-to-hearts about the nature of friendship, manhood, and marriage, among other things.
As strong an example of Cassavetes's improvisational art as any of his films, this film may test your patience with his indulgent treatment of actors, allowing them to explore their characters on film. Sometimes they come up empty, but more often, they find precious moments and revelations. And these three guys play off each other like long-time partners in a high-wire game of chicken in which they all emerge as winners. — Marshall Fine

Jacques Demy – Model Shop (1969)

newland — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 08:10:47 GMT

Jacques Demy – Model Shop (1969)
DVDrip | English | Subtitles: English (optional) | 1:37:08 | 720x400 | H264 | NTSC 23.97fps | Audio: MP3 - 160kbps | 1.52 GB

French New Wave writer/director Jacques Demy, best known for his stylish musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, reunites with French star Anouk Aimée (their first pairing, 1961's Lola) to direct his first film in America. Gary Lockwood (2001: A Space Odyssey) plays shiftless but innocuous George Matthews, who can't seem to get himself worked up about anything: the girlfriend he is about to lose, his soon-to-be repossessed car or even his draft notice. Until one day, he sees a beautiful but detached model (Aimée), and he begins to follow her. From Malibu Beach to Beverly Hills mansions to Santa Monica Boulevard's cheap strip joints, Los Angeles is critically examined...

Jacques Tourneur – Night of the Demon (1957)

newland — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 22:36:49 GMT

Lem goes to Chicago to sell the wheat his family has grown on their farm in Minnesota. There he meets the waitress Kate. They fall in love and get married before going back to the farm. Kate is accepted by Lem's mother and kid sister but is rejected by his father, who believes she married for the money.
Long available only in soft 16-millimeter prints, City Girl now possesses a contrast and detail that suggest a pristine 35-millimeter source, and perhaps the dramatically improved image quality will contribute to the rehabilitation of what has long been Murnau’s most underrated film.