| The fact that it’s blockbuster season at the multiplex doesn’t mean that avowed cinephiles have to go hungry. Here are the latest DVD releases for those with discriminating tastes:
· By Brakhage (Stan Brakhage, Criterion Collection): Twenty-six key films from renowned experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage.
· The Collected Shorts of Jan Svankmajer, Volumes 1 and 2 (Jan Svankmajer, Image): Czech surrealist filmmaker is, hands-down, the greatest animator working today.
· Come and See (Elem Klimov, Kino): Poetic rendering of the madness, horror and brutality of war from an adolescent’s perspective.
· Coup de Grâce (Volker Schlondörff, Criterion Collection): A startling tale of heartbreak and violence set against the backdrop of the Bolshevik revolution.
· Dead or Alive (Takashi Miike, Kino): Japanese trash filmmaker Miike ups the filthy ante with this Yakuza gangster flick.
· Dead of Night/The Queen of Spades (Anchor Bay): Two British horror classics in one box.
· The Decalogue (Krzysztof Kieslowski, Facets): Kieslowski’s 10-episode TV series, with each instalment inspired by a Biblical commandment.
· Jubilee (Derek Jarman, Criterion Collection): Jarman’s post-apocalyptic vision of the U.K. has Queen Elizabeth I witnessing a punk-rock freak-out.
· Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone, Warner Brothers): Epic, elegiac tale of friendship, betrayal, love and death in the criminal underworld.
· Quai des Orfèvres (Henri-Georges Clouzot, Criterion Collection): Proto-noir from the French master of suspense.
· Throne of Blood (Akira Kurosawa, Criterion Collection): Kurosawa’s acclaimed re-imagining of Shakespeare’s Macbeth is set in feudal Japan. |
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