Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

French director Marcel Carné was unparalleled when it came to creating memorable, thoroughly original slices of poetic realism onscreen: his 1938 masterpiece was made after his first mature film, 1937’s Port of Shadows, and before 1939’s lovely Le jour se leve, both written with his greatest collaborator, poet Jacques Prevert, who also wrote the director’s supreme classic, 1945’s Children of Paradise. 

 

 

These films share many of the same characteristics: effervescent, romantic, lively, loving looks at the relationships among several interlocking characters, here played by, among others, the great French stars Annabella, Arletty and Louis Jouvet. Criterion’s usual superb release includes a spectacular-looking new hi-def transfer, which brings to the fore Louis Née and Armand Thirard’s extraordinary B&W photography; extras comprise a 1994 documentary about Carné, a 1972 TV program about the film’s making, and a new interview with Amélie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet about Carné’s influence.

 

 

 

 

 

The Burned Barns 

This routine 1973 French policier was directed by Jean Chapot, a competent veteran who brings little originality or wit to this would-be tense murder mystery, as magistrate Alain Delon arrives in a small farm village to investigate the strange death of a young woman.

 

 

Both Delon and Simone Signoret (as the mother of a prime suspect) use their considerable charisma to overcome a turgid script and unconvincing direction; only Sacha Vierny’s gritty photography makes much of an impression. There’s a superior hi-def transfer; extras are interviews with crew members.

 

 

 

 

 

Naked Over the Fence 

Before becoming an international sensation in the erotic classic Emmanuelle the following year, Dutch actress Sylvia Kristel starred as a pop singer who gets involved with making a stag movie in this silly 1973 crime drama by director Frans Weisz. Kristel’s effortless charm is on display throughout, even though the movie is nothing special. Still, the actress brightens things up whenever she appears.

 

 

The film looks decent on Blu; extras include behind the scenes footage, an audio commentary, audio interviews with Weisz and composer Ruud Bos, and a limited edition CD of Bos’ soundtrack.

 

 

 

 

 

In-Theater Release of the Week

A short home movie discovered decades after it was shot is the lynchpin of director Bianca Stigter’s illuminating and poignant documentary, which uses that bit of 16mm film showing people going about their lives in a neighborhood of Nasielsk, Poland, in 1938, to examine how such fleeting images caught by a camera can answer myriad questions, from quotidian details to more pressing queries of whether any of these people survived the coming Holocaust.

 

 

In addition to being a quite moving (in both senses) historical research project, the film is also the ultimate in cinematic study, as it continuously zooms in on, slows down, pauses and rewinds the footage to glean as much information as possible, to try and resurrect and immortalize these long lost faces.

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Release of the Week 

In the most recent season of the NCIS franchise’s first and most successful spinoff, the latest of the group’s investigations include several of those ripped from today’s headlines, including lethally deadly trolls on the web, omnipresent white nationalist groups and the ever-shadowy Chinese intelligence.

 

 

Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J continue to lead an energetic cast of dedicated professionals in a series of entertaining inquiries. This 5-disc set includes all of the season’s 22 episodes; the extras comprise several featurettes, a gag reel and deleted/extended scenes.

 

 

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week

Italian composer Ottorino Respighi (1879-1936), best known for his Roman trilogy of tone poems, was also an accomplished—and, often, inspired—creator of ravishing vocal music, including several wonderful operas and a body of songs to rival that of anyone else in the 20th century.

 

 

This well-curated recital, beautifully performed by tenor Timothy Fallon and pianist Ammiel Bushakevitz, provides a bracing overview of Respighi’s song output, including some of his finest groups like the Four Scottish Songs (Quattro arie scozzesi), set in English to poets like Robert Burns, but with the same melodic freedom and musical color that distinguish his brilliant orchestral works.