In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

Each year, millions make the pilgrimage to the French city of Lourdes to be blessed and healed by the Virgin Mary (who supposedly appeared to a young local girl in 1858), and Thierry Demaizière and Alban Teurlai’s riveting documentary follows several French pilgrims who make the journey—both youngsters and adults, injured, sickly, frail, or accompanying others—as well as local religious and health aides who are the necessary backbone of the entire enterprise.

 

 

There is something undeniably moving about people whose faith is so strong that they believe that praying, attending services and taking a dip in blessed water will lead to miracles. It’s easy to be cynical in the face of such desperation, but since Demaizière and Alban Teurlai record these people without commentary, their realness is never in doubt.

 

 

 

 

 

Les Nôtres 

Although director Jeanne Leblanc walks a thin line in her marvelous movie about a pregnant teen in small-town Quebec who refuses to name her baby’s father—a decision with irreversible consequences—she gives her protagonist, high school sophomore Magalie, agency to deal with a widowed mother, close male friend and the local mayor, who lives next door with his wife—her mom’s best friend—and has always been very friendly.

 

 

Although her subject matter is dicey, Leblanc never shies from having Magalie confront each difficulty plausibly and, thanks to a fierce and flawless portrayal by actress Émilie Bierre, Les Nôtres is a rare honest glimpse at teen life.

 

 

 

 

 

The Birthday Cake 

Despite its authentic recreation of a slice of Brooklyn Italian-American existence, cowriter-director Jimmy Giannopoulos’ drama about a young man whose family is knee-deep in the local mob scene feels recycled and tired.

 

 

The central set piece—a memorial for our hero’s dead father in which the title cake takes center stage—is filmed, edited and acted with an urgency the rest of the film lacks. Shiloh Fernandez is competent, if uninspired, in the lead, while the likes of Val Kilmer, Lorraine Bracco, Ewan MacGregor and Ashley Benson fill supporting roles admirably. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Summer of ’85 

In François Ozon’s semi-autobiographical feature, set in 1985 when the writer-director was 18, teenager Alexis falls in love with the older, worldlier David, only to be confused by David’s ambivalence and then turned upside down when tragedy strikes.

 

 

Ozon strikes a nice balance between sentiment and camp—sometimes the downfall of his other movies—but despite correct details of era and characters, something doesn’t quite click: what should be devastating and deeply moving isn’t. The acting is, for the most part, unexceptional, except for Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (David’s mom), who’s mainly overly emotive. 

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

These opera recordings gain immeasurably from superb singing, starting with Richard Strauss’ shattering Elektra, which, in director Krzysztof Warlikowski’s grab bag of a modernist staging at Salzburg last summer (during the pandemic!), has a superlative cast led by Ausrine Stundyte in the title role and Tanja Ariane Baumgartner as Clytemnestra, while Franz Welser-Most brilliantly conducts the orchestra and chorus.

 

 

French composer Charles Gounod’s Mireille, a sentimental tragic romance that’s rarely staged, has a solidly old-fashioned 2009 Paris production by director Nicolas Joe and lovely vocal performances by Inva Mula in the title role and Charles Castronovo as her lover. There’s excellently hi-def video and audio on both releases.

 

 

 

 

 

Guns for San Sebastian 

French director Henri Verneuil made this 1968 western on location in Mexico: set in 1746, it’s about Leon Alastray, a Mexican army deserter, who appears in a remote village posing as a priest, and who soon helps the locals defend themselves against savage attacks.

 

 

Despite Verneuil’s vigorous directing and the always boisterous Anthony Quinn in the lead, the drama sputters for much of its 120-minute length. A young Charles Bronson is the main antagonist, while Anjanette Comer—an actress I was previously unfamiliar with—winningly plays Quinn’s love interest. The film looks terrific on Blu; lone extra is a vintage on-set featurette.

 

 

 

 

 

It Happened at the World’s Fair 

An Elvis vehicle that’s a cut above despite its creaky, corny sentimentality, Norman Taurog’s 1963 romp through Seattle’s famous fairgrounds includes a stop at the top of the Space Needle, for starters. The flimsy plot finds Elvis plotting to win an attractive nurse (Joan O’Brien) who resists him—until she sees he’s playing foster father of sorts to an adorable little girl (Vicky Tiu).

 

 

Elvis sings “One Broken Heart for Sale” and his personality and chemistry with both O’Brien and Tiu are enough to carry such an overlong vehicle. There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer.

 

 

 

 

 

Visions of Eight 

With eight directors filming their own glimpses of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, this bumpy omnibus feature suffers from the segments’ variable quality: Milos Forman’s offputtingly jokey short about the Decathlon, for example, pales next to John Schlesinger’s sober look at the Marathon, the lone segment to mention the elephant in the room, the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists.

 

 

Watching athletes push their bodies and minds to punishing levels is always fascinating, but not highlighting what these games are remembered for is a no-win situation. But here, even with directors like Kon Ichikawa (whose Tokyo Olympiad is a masterpiece), Arthur Penn and Claude Lelouch, this remains blurry and ineffectual. The film looks good and grainy in hi-def; extras include an audio commentary, a 55-minute retrospective documentary, and a vintage featurette about the film.

 

 

 

 

 

Voyagers 

Not really Lord of the Flies in space, writer-director Neil Burger’s ambitious sci-fi drama follows a several youngsters on a spaceship sent to a distant planet to discover whether it’s habitable—after years away from civilization, the now teenage astronauts take sides, discover sex and violence, and are just, well, as flawed and foolish as their compatriots on earth.

 

 

In theory, this is captivating stuff but Burger’s clinical approach smooths things out and render it all dully predictable, despite a few good scenes and imaginative visuals. There’s a fine Blu-ray transfer; extras are a Burger commentary and several featurettes.

 

 

 

 

 

Ziegfeld Follies 

The last of the onscreen Ziegfeld spectacles, this 1946 entertainment—co-directed by Vincente Minnelli among many other hands, including inventive dance director Robert Alton—consists of an enjoyable selection of song-and-dance numbers with comic breathers in between, all in sparkling Technicolor.

 

 

Obviously, it’s hit-or-miss, but the best moments are Gene Kelly and Fred Astaire’s duet, “The Babbitt and the Bromide,” and Judy Garland—Minnelli’s new wife—in “The Great Lady Has an Interview.” There’s a spectacular hi-def transfer; extras include several audio outtakes, the featurette Ziegfeld Follies: An Embarrassment of Riches, a pair of vintage cartoons and a live-action short.

 

 

 

 

Finally hearing a complete recording of Le Loup (The Wolf), a wonderful ballet score by the great French composer Henri Dutilleux (1916-2013), is the highlight of this new release, which also includes charming orchestrations of three early Dutilleux works for flute, oboe and bassoon with piano.

 

 

But it’s Le Loup that’s the centerpiece: the arresting orchestral colors as well as the elegantly assured musicalization of a fairytale about a bride who falls in love with the title canine—rendered with precise detail and majestic sweep by conductor John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London—make this one of Dutilleux’s major works.

 

 

 

 

 

Luciano Berio—Berio to Sing 

Italian modernist Luciano Berio (1925-2003) was never pigeonholed by any musical category, as this excellent recording of some of his wide-ranging vocal music—from folk songs and the Beatles to pyrotechnics for a single voice—superbly demonstrates.

 

 

Mezzo-soprano Lucile Richardot proves herself equal to Berio’s own muse—his American wife, Cathy Berberian—in the stunning solo opening, Sequenza III, with its astonishing array of squawks, screeches, and other sounds. Cries of London shows off Berio’s easy mastery of styles from hymnlike to wistful, while his arrangement of “Michelle” again provides proof that Beatles songs in any style are captivating.

4K Release of the Week 

The showdown between two of the biggest screen monsters of all time is disappointingly predictable and tame, especially after director Adam Wingard doesn’t fumble what was an unnecessarily prolonged setup. It’s not the setup that hurts, it’s what comes after, as the highly touted battle royale between the title creatures is a repetitious and, quite frankly, thuddingly dull spectacle whose flashy special effects never transcend their digital origins.

 

 

Of course, it all looks quite spectacular in 4K; the feature is also included on a Blu-ray disc, and extras include director’s commentary and 10 making-of featurettes (on the Blu-Ray disc).

 

 

 

 

 

In-Theater/Streaming/Virtual Cinema/VOD Releases of the Week

After her dynamic performance in the Netflix series Unorthodox, Shira Haas consolidates her strength as a powerhouse actress in this unbearably touching drama about how the fraught relationship between rebellious teenager Vika (Haas) and her single young mother Asia (Alena Yiv, equally good) takes an unexpected turn when Vika is diagnosed with a debilitating condition.

 

 

Director-writer Ruthy Pribar never flinches throughout her thoughtful character study about a painfully believable mother-daughter relationship, right until the devastating final moments.  

 

 

 

 

 

Rita Moreno—Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It 

When I was a kid, Rita Moreno on The Electric Company was my first celebrity crush, and Mariem Pérez Riera’s intimate and frank documentary about the legendary stage, screen and TV actress and singer demonstrates how Moreno’s life and art are intertwined. As a Cuban immigrant, Moreno had more obstacles to stardom than usual, especially in the ‘50s.

 

 

But talent, charm, beauty and perseverance won out, as proven by her Tony for the play The Ritz and Oscar for the musical West Side Story, among other awards. Her on-and-off romance with Marlon Brando (characterized by domestic violence and an unwanted abortion) is an eye-opener, but Moreno never exudes negativity: instead, radiating optimism as she prepares for her 87th birthday celebration, it looks like Rita Moreno will live forever. (She’s 89 now.) We can only hope.

 

 

 

 

Take Me Somewhere Nice 

In Ena Sendijarević’s serious comedy, teenager Alma travels from her home in the Netherlands back to Bosnia to introduce herself to the father she has never met—but, of course, all kinds of misadventures ensue, some patently absurd, others more realistic, but all serving to toughen up Alma and broaden her view, both personal and—unsurprisingly in the Balkans—political.

 

 

Ena Sendijarević has an occasional heavy hand as she too cleverly traces Alma’s journey, filled with detours both literal and metaphorical, but she’s gifted by the fearless young actress Sara Luna Zorić, who makes every moment, every word, every silence, every gesture of Alma meaningful and humane.

 

 

 

 

 

Truman & Tennessee—An Intimate Conversation 

Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams—two of America’s greatest and most distinctive artists during the heyday of celebrity for writers—are brought to vivid, parallel life by Lisa Immordino Vreeland’s documentary, which dives into their early friendship and later falling-out as well as providing their insights into subjects as disparate as their addictions, successes and failures, all through their own words, written and spoken.

 

 

Along with many clips of them talking with Dick Cavett and David Frost, among other TV interviewers, we hear them through the voices of Jim Parsons (Capote) and Zachary Quinto (Williams), who translate their wicked humor and regional uniqueness winningly.

 

 

 

 

 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

Husband-and-wife team Roma Downey and Mark Burnett, who have bankrolled several Christian projects, now dramatize the final days of Jesus and what happened to his apostles after he rose from the dead, despite the Romans’ desperate attempts to quell his support.

 

 

It’s manufactured efficiently enough by director Ciaran Donnelly, with an almost risibly bloody crucifixion scene, followed by some less than idiomatic sequences of the disciples—led by Peter and Thomas—being threatened for their association. Most welcome is the presence of Joanne Whalley and Greta Scacchi as Pilate’s wife and Jesus’ mother, respectively; their presence lifts up an otherwise grounded project for a few moments. There’s a superb hi-def transfer.

 

 

 

 

There Was a Crooked Man 

In his first and only western, Joseph Mankiewicz—director of such classics as A Letter to Three Wives, All About Eve and Sleuth—leisurely spins a battle of wits between an armed robber and the new warden in a frontier prison in the Arizona Territory.

 

 

There’s star power aplenty here, from Kirk Douglas (robber) and Henry Fonda (warden) to Burgess Meredith, Hume Cronyn and Warren Oates (prisoners), and Mankiewicz’ solid direction and Robert Benton and David Newman’s clever script are also assets, but this 1970 film’s sheer length (two hours) and snail’s pace sorely test one’s patience, and the meager punch line at the end is too little, too late. The film looks splendid on Blu; lone extra is a vintage making-of featurette.

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Releases of the Week

To discover new insights into the life and work of surrealist Salvador Dali, director David Pujol went to the source: the heads of the two Dali museums in his hometown of Valencia, who enlighten us about the man, the mythic celebrity and the serious—if underestimated—artist.

 

 

There are glimpses of many of his most colorful works, archival footage of Dali and his beloved wife and muse Gala speaking about art and their relationship and a look at his home studio and handpicked museum, both of which look like the places a man with Dali’s prodigious imagination would create. It’s all beautifully shot, accentuating Dali’s uniquely frenzied and disturbing artworks.

 

 

 

 

 

True Mothers 

In Naomi Kawase’s moving chamber drama, the lives of two different mothers—a teen who gave up her baby for adoption and the middle-class wife who adopted him—are illustrated by the inevitable difficulties that crop up when the young mom wants to reenter her child’s life, followed by an unexpected and bittersweet resolution.

 

 

Kawase walks a tightrope of sentimentality and contrived plotting, but her honest characterizations transform this far above the soap opera it might have become. There’s immeasurably strong acting by the leads, Hiromi Nagasaku (adoptive mother) and Aju Makita (real mother), who embody these women with unaffected naturalness. Extras are a Kawase interview by Juliette Binoche and a short film, Return to Toyama, by Japanese director Atsushi Hirai.

 

 

 

 

 

Your Honor 

If you can get past the enervating first episode—in which the entire storyline is set up so laboriously, implausibly and at times risibly (no one with asthma like the teenager in this series has would forget his inhaler no matter how stressed he is, among other howlers)—then this 10-part drama series about the lengths a respected New Orleans judge will go to protect his guilty son will do quite nicely.

 

 

As long as you’re don’t look too closely at all the coincidences and lucky breaks, then the acting of Bryan Cranston, Michael Stuhlbarg, Hope Davis, Hunter Doohan, Carmen Ejoho and Isiah Whitlock Jr. helps smooth over the many rough spots. Lone extra is a series of deleted scenes.

 

 

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week 

Recorded live last fall at the Buffalo Philharmonic’s glorious home, Kleinhans Music Hall, this disc showcases one of the best American orchestras in its element, with JoAnn Falletta leading a sparkling account of the old Vivaldi warhorse, The Four Seasons, making it sound so fresh and it’s like it was just composed.

 

 

Even better is Argentine master Astor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, not so much a riff on the Vivaldi but an update to 20th century Argentina, where the tango and jazz music are prominent. Tessa Lark shines as the violin soloist in the Piazzolla, while BPO concertmaster Nikki Chooi does the honors in the Vivaldi. 

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Made between 1959 and 1961, Japanese director Masaki Kobayashi’s massive, three-part masterpiece is, in my humble opinion, one of the greatest films ever made. Don’t be put off by the inordinate length (nine hours—just think of it as a nine-episode Netflix series, and quite superior to all of them!) and grim subject matter (a pacifistic Japanese soldier becomes a Soviet POW during World War II): Kobayashi, a truly humanist artist, has made a powerful, transcendent character study of one man’s struggle to make sense of inhumanity that features several momentous, extraordinarily cinematic set pieces.

 

 

Tatsuya Nakadai, who gives a staggering performance, also starred in other Kobayashi (and a few Kurosawa) films. The widescreen B&W photography, so integral to the film’s forcefulness, looks luminous in Criterion’s hi-def transfer; extras include a 1993 Kobayashi interview, new Nakadai interview and an appreciation of the film by director Masahiro Shinoda. All in all, it’s a remarkable package for a remarkable film.

 

 

 

 

 

Center Stage 

Taiwanese director Stanley Kwan made this intelligent 1991 biopic about Chinese silent-era actress Ruan Lingyu, who died by suicide at age 24. Kwan fascinatingly pieces together the remnants of her life, her career and her legacy by layering his film with several interviews with former colleagues, some lush recreations of scenes from her films—including titles which are lost—and discussing her artistry with Maggie Cheung, who commandingly plays her.

 

 

It’s challenging and lengthy (2-1/2 hours) but utterly absorbing, with an emotionally shattering final sequence that merges sorrowful film and personal history. There’s a first-rate Blu-ray transfer; extras include a Kwan intro and interview as well as a making-of featurette.

 

 

 

 

 

Falstaff 

Giuseppe Verdi’s enchanting final opera based on Shakespeare’s Merry Wives of Windsor still enchants, even in this straining-to-be-hip, updated 2018 Berlin State Opera staging by director Mario Martone.

 

 

Even though the great character of Falstaff has lost some comedic gravitas in this production, Michael Volle plays him estimably—and hilariously—and he is supported by a superlative stable of the women surrounding him, led by Barbara Frittoli’s sublimely funny Alice Ford and Nadine Sierra’s bewitching Nannetta. Daniel Barenboim ably conducts the terrific State Opera Chorus and Orchestra; both hi-def video and audio are exemplary.

 

 

 

 

 

The Snow Maiden 

Would that the fairy-tale sweep of Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s lovely fantasy opera wasn’t muted by director/designer Dmitri Tcherniakov’s 2017 Paris Opera modern-dress production; at least the composer’s shimmeringly beautiful music conjures whatever the onstage action has blocked from view.

 

 

Rimsky’s score sounds gorgeous performed by conductor Mikhail Tatarnikov, the orchestra, chorus and cast—in which Aida Garifullina makes a touchingly vulnerable snow maiden. Hi-def video and audio looks and sounds superb.

 

 

 

 

 

In-Theater/Streaming/Virtual Cinema/VOD Releases of the Week 

These short films (from 1950) by the great French director Alain Resnais (1922-1914) might seem slight compared to the shattering, innovative films he would make—like the short Night and Fog and features Hiroshima Mon Amour, Muriel and Love Unto Death—but are springboards to a unique cinematic oeuvre. 

 

 

Paul Gauguin is an intriguing if unexceptional look at the French painter with an appropriately dramatic score by Darius Milhaud, but Guernica (also 1950) is something else entirely: how Resnais juxtaposes and superimposes imagery from Picasso paintings as the wonderful French actress Maria Cesares speaks poet Paul Eldard’s impassioned narration about the ghastliness of war, Guernica anticipates later Resnais masterpieces.

 

 

 

 

 

The Ancient Woods 

Mesmerizingly dream-like, Lithuanian director Mindaugas Survila’s astonishingly photographed documentary has been a pet project for decades, and it shows in its child-like wonder at the mysteries that pervade in nature.

 

 

Over a period of 10 years, Survila and his intrepid crew went into an old-growth forest in Lithuania and recorded life in all its forms, from the smallest ants and insects to owls, deer, wolves and other memorable creatures (even man). With no narration or music, Survila’s thrilling film is like discovering the glories of the natural world for the first time.

 

 

 

 

 

The Real Thing 

Like his previous film A Girl Missing but on a much larger scale, Japanese director Koji Fukada has made a slowly evolving drama about a young man who rescues a strange but compelling woman when her car stalls on railroad tracks and soon finds himself drawn to her increasingly messy existence while trying to balance his own relationships—including a sometime girlfriend, who’s not thrilled with this latest intrusion.

 

 

Based on a graphic novel, Fukada’s film contains a surfeit of melodrama, which he keeps mostly in check; but at nearly four hours, The Real Thing degenerates into occasional self-indulgent messiness. 

 

 

 

 

 

Tove 

Creator of beloved children’s books about moomins, hippo-like characters having myriad adventures, Finnish illustrator Tove Jansson lived a complicated but fulfilling life as an artist and a free woman, dramatized in director Zaida Bergroth’s engrossing biopic.

 

 

Set during and after World War II—her formative years where she grew as both an artist and a woman—Tove recounts Jansson’s open marriage, relationships with other women and the growing respect she eventually won from the public and artistic community. There’s a sympathy and light touch paralleling the author’s delightful illustrations and stories, which is cemented by Alma Pöysti’s wonderfully multi-faceted performance in the lead role.

 

 

 

 

 

DVD Release of the Week 

Marco Bellocchio’s controversial 1986 film about Andrea, a high school student who gets involved with Giulia, an older, strong-willed and—as he soon discovers—psychologically disturbed woman is typically operatic, as Bellocchio allows his characters to act out their grand drama amid sweeping emotions, radical politics and robust sexuality.

 

 

Dutch actress Maruschka Detmers—who gives a fiercely committed (in all senses) portrayal of Giulia in what is truly a performance for the ages—was apparently the first mainstream performer to partake in a non-simulated sex act onscreen, but that sequence is remarkable for its casualness and restraint. It’s too bad the transfer on DVD and streaming looks even less good than the only adequate look of the 2005 No Shame release (which at least had an interesting interview with Bellocchio).

 

 

 

 

 

CD Release of the Week

Robert Schumann’s chamber music for piano is, with his songs, his best, and this exceptional recording by Trio Wanderer comprises the composer’s three piano trios, piano quartet, piano quintet—all masterpieces.

 

 

Although their readings of Schumann’s greatest chamber works, the piano quartet and the piano quintet—which include valuable collaborations by violist Christophe Gaugué and violinist Catherine Montier—are excellent, Trio Wanderer really shines in the trios, especially the one in F-major, the most immediately accessible of the three and the one that Schumann himself felt best showed off his mastery of this medium.