Kevin's Digital Week 12: From L.A. to Russia with Love (and Death)

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Sunday, 07 February 2010 05:00

Written by Kevin Filipski

To Live and Die in L.A.
(Fox)
After bombing with Sorcerer, Cruising and Deal of the Century, director William Friedkin made this straight-ahead 1985 cop thriller about a Secret Service agent (William Pedersen) after an artist-turned-counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe). Always a prime action director, Friedkin outdoes his famed French Connection car chase with one on a jammed freeway where the cars go the wrong way. That there’s no CGI involved—just top-notch stunt driving and filmmaking—still makes it exciting to watch 25 years later.

The movie—stuck in a time warp thanks to the inclusion of synth-pop one-hit wonders Wang Chung on the soundtrack—stars then-unknowns Petersen, Dafoe, and John Pankow. And throughout, Friedkin’s rhythmic sense keeps L.A. moving forward until its downer ending. On Blu-ray, the movie is encased in grain, giving it a real filmic look that also makes it look like a flat, 1980s production. Too bad that the solid extras (Friedkin commentary, making-of featurette, deleted scenes, alternate ending) are on the second, standard DVD—so you can’t watch the movie on Blu-ray and listen to the informed, entertaining commentary, which is a real shame.

DVD of the Week

You Cannot Start Without Me
(Bel Air Classiques)
Russian conductor Valery Gergiev’s whirlwind career encompasses three continents, several countries, and dozens of cities. In Allan Miller’s sympathetic portrait, Gergiev is a likable ball of energy who somehow finds the time to rehearse huge operatic and symphonic scores with various orchestras, globe-hop to many concert halls and opera houses to lead thrilling performances, and continue to oversee his beloved Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, which under his direction has grown into one of the world’s greatest musical organizations. 

Miller’s low-key approach is the opposite of Gergiev’s: the director manages to slow the Maestro down for occasional moments of insight when discussing his family or upbringing in the South Ossetia region of Russia. The 87-minute film is reinforced by an additional hour’s worth of deleted scenes and extended interviews with Gergiev, including an emotional return to his homeland in 2008 to promote peace after its bombing during the Russia-Georgia war: he and the Mariinsky Orchestra performed Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.

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