Streaming/In-Theater Releases of the Week 

When CDs were ubiquitous, vinyl record sales fell off to nearly nothing; when streaming became ascendant, CD sales died—but then vinyl took off again, at least for some music lovers. Directors Kevin Smokler and Christopher Boone entertainingly explore why the vinyl niche continues to chug along, interviewing both artists and others in the business alongside fans whose record collections rival those of the biggest collectors in vinyl’s heyday.

 

 

Even with insane pricing—records cost $30 today, double that of CDs and far more than the cost of streaming—the lovers of vinyl show no signs of slowing down, and, as Vinyl Nation shows, the popularity of the annual Record Store Day is another example of its resilience.

 

 

 

 

 

Father 

Serbian director Srdan Golubović’s depressing drama is based on a real-life story of a man who, after his wife has a breakdown, loses his two kids to social services; after much stonewalling from local authorities, he decides his only option is to walk hundreds of miles from his village to Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, to plead his case directly to those in charge.

 

 

Golubović’s skillful direction makes us believe we’re watching a documentary, so despairingly real is the subject and so truthful is Goran Bogdan’s performance as a loving father who, however imperfect, shines with genuineness and humanity.

 

 

 

 

 

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

Directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, along with writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick, have successfully rebooted the cult-like Scream series, even though I wasn’t a fan of any of the other four jokey slasher flicks, which were made between 1996 and 2011. I’m

 

 

also fairly cold toward the returning original cast members (Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and especially David Arquette), but here they decently balance the innate silliness with a stern sense of purpose. Then there’s Jenna Ortega and Melissa Barrera (the latter stealing the In the Heights movie), giving this version a needed transfusion of youthful liveliness. The 4K transfer is excellent; extras are filmmakers’ commentary, deleted scenes and on-set featurettes.

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

The first of Czech composer Leoš Janáček’s great operas centered around tragic heroines, Jenufa was followed by Kata Kabanova and The Makropulos Case, and they are as triumphant a trio of insightful music dramas as are the Mozart de Ponte works.

 

 

And in Damiano Micheieletto’s 2021 Berlin staging, Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund plays Jenufa with sensitivity and intelligence, and conductor Simon Rattle leads the orchestra and chorus in an intense account of Janáček’s gripping score. The hi-def video and audio are first-rate.

 

 

 

 

 

My Afternoons with Margueritte 

At age 77 in 2010, director Jean Becker created this affecting portrait of enduring friendship in this sweetly sentimental tale of two lonely people—a middle-aged, barely literate laborer and an elderly but vigorous woman—who bond over the glories of discovering new worlds through reading.

 

 

As the mismatched pair, an appropriately downtrodden Gerard Depardieu and Gisele Casadesus are wonderful, with a radiant assist by Belgain singer Maurane as Depardieu’s loving but confused girlfriend. The film gets a first-rate hi-def transfer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Parsifal 

Richard Wagner’s final opera—a long, solemn, quasi-religious processional composed for his own theater at Bayreuth in Germany—is now seen in opera houses worldwide, including in Palermo, Italy, where Graham Vick’s 2020 staging flouts the composer’s own stage directions by setting the story in a desert where soldiers in fatigues meander around.

 

 

Despite Vick’s trendy directorial “improvements,” a fine cast, led by tenor Julian Hubbard’s Parsifal and Catherin Hunold’s temptress Kundry, and a capable orchestra and chorus, conducted by Omer Wir Wellber, provide the musical gravitas Wagner’s stately score demands. Hi-def audio and video are first-rate.

 

 

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week 

Finnish master Einojuhani Rautavaara—who died in 2016 at age 87—nearly died a dozen years previously when a blood vessel ruptured.  The four violin works on this disc all date from after that life-changing event, and they make up a lovely autumnal phase of the great composer’s career.

 

 

Although the three violin works were written for other soloists—Fantasia for Anne Akiko Meyers, Deux Serenades for Hilary Hahn and Lost Landscapes for Midori—Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma displays so much sheer emotional power in her playing that she makes each her own. Lamsma is beautifully accompanied by the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Robert Trevino; the orchestra and Trevino also give a robust reading of In the Beginning. Lamsma and Trevino have given Rautavaara a radiant musical epitaph.