| While spring is hardly the time to be sitting on yer arse watching videos, there have been enough banner-waving DVD releases in the past several weeks to make any cinephile put down roots on the couch. And I’m not talking about the two-disc set of Master and Commander:
· Beast from Haunted Cave (1959, Monte Hellman, Rykodisc): A blood-sucking monster from hell terrorizes thieves in the debut feature from the director of Two-Lane Blacktop.
· Blue Sunshine (1976, Jeff Lieberman, Rykodisc): Kids, beware the evil dope – shock cinema posits delayed reactions to an LSD-like substance in this cult classic.
· Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002, Guy Maddin, Zeitgeist): A proscenium-smashing, constructivist dance film version of Bram Stoker’s gothic horror story by Canada’s master of surreal cinema.
· Helen of Troy (1956, Robert Wise, Warner Bros.): So this is what an opportunistic re-release smells like.
· In My Skin (2003, Marina De Van, Wellspring): This creepy, nightmarish vision of one young French woman’s disturbing body image problems is not for the squeamish.
· Ingmar Bergman Collection (Ingmar Bergman, MGM/UA): This six-disc set of Swedish existential angst includes Persona, Shame, The Passion of Anna, Hour of the Wolf and The Serpent’s Egg, as well as an extra disc devoted to interviews with Bergman and cinematographer Sven Nykvist.
· Invasion U.S.A. (1952, Alfred E. Green, Rykodisc): More Red-baiting paranoia – if Senator Joseph McCarthy had made a film, it probably would’ve looked a lot like this.
· King of New York (1990, Abel Ferrara, Artisan): A gangster film that pretty well consolidated Christopher Walken’s rep as a class-A weirdo and signalled director Ferrara as a formidable talent.
· The Mad Adventures of Rabbi Jacob (1973, Gerard Oury, Facets): Anti-Semitic businessman disguises himself as a Rabbi to evade Arab terrorists – wacky!
· Marx Brothers Collection (Various, Warner Bros.): Seven of the funniest films in cinema history, including A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races.
·A Story of Floating Weeds/Floating Weeds (Yasujiro Ozu, Criterion Collection): Two-disc set includes the 1934 original and the 1959 remake, both directed by Japan’s master of understated family dramas.
· 3 Women (1977, Robert Altman, Criterion): Altman’s dreamy paean to the fairer sex stars Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall. |
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