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Film and the Arts
July '19 Digital Week IV
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 23 July 2019 21:29
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
The Baker’s Wife
(Criterion)
In Marcel Pagnol’s hilarious and affecting 1938 classic, a baker in a French village stops making bread after his beloved wife leaves him for a local shepherd; meanwhile, desperate villagers decide to find her and bring her back so the baking can continue as before. As silly as it sounds, it’s also profoundly funny and serious, with that extraordinary actor Raimu nothing less than perfect as the baker. Pagnol, whose Fanny trilogy is a masterpiece, very nearly repeats that feat here.
The B&W film has been dazzlingly restored in hi-def; extras are Pagnol expert Brett Bowles’ commentary; 1966 Pagnol interview; 1967 TV intro by Pagnol; and 1977 French TV segment about Le Castellet, the village where the film was shot.
Breakthrough
(Fox)
When John, a rebellious teenager, falls through the ice and isn’t rescued for a good 15 minutes, it appears improbable that he can survive: but his mother, congregation and schoolmates are praying for him, so who knows?
This earnest if clumsily handled religious drama has its moments—especially the tense ice rescue sequence—and emotional performances by Chrissy Metz (mom), Josh Lucas (dad), Dennis Haysbert (doctor) and Topher Grace (pastor), which help alleviate the nearly unrelenting sanctimony. There’s a splendid Blu-ray transfer; extras include a commentary, featurettes and deleted scene with optional commentary.
Buster Keaton Collection, Volume 2—Sherlock Jr./The Navigator
(Cohen Film Collection)
Two more restored Buster Keaton classics make up the second volume of Cohen’s Keaton Collection, starting with Sherlock Jr., the hilarious and wizardly 1924 comedy whose dazzling visual inventiveness has influenced filmmakers from Luis Bunuel to Woody Allen (whose lovely The Purple Rose of Cairo directly lifts from this).
The Navigator (also 1924) suffers by comparison from padding and unevenness, but some of its set pieces are as funny and daring as anything Keaton ever did. Both films look immaculate in hi-def; extras include featurettes and scores by Timothy Brock (Sherlock) and Robert Israel (Navigator).
Critters Attack!
(Warner Bros)
Warner Bros. provided me with a free copy of this disc for review.
The title says it all in this tongue-in-cheek horror flick about a litter of gremlin-like creatures who tear apart everyone in sight, except for a bunch of resourceful teens who finally beat back their invasion.
There are truly hilarious moments amid the encroaching goofiness and blood spurting, but director Bobby Miller knows that 89 minutes is about the furthest he can stretch this, and he does that job efficiently, with an assist from Dee Wallace (the mom from E.T.), having a blast blasting away critters. The hi-def transfer looks good; extras comprise Miller’s commentary and featurettes.
DVD of the Week
Manifest—Complete 1st Season
(Warner Bros)
In this tense series, passengers on a plane that took off in 2013 land in 2018, yet they feel that it was only a few hours. From this Twilight Zone premise comes myriad plot strands both personal and professional, including deaths in families, new relationships and marriages, and other rude intrusions of life.
Throughout these 16 episodes, the seeds of an involving drama are planted, and if some subplots end up as dead ends, there’s enough of interest here to make the trip worthwhile—at least until the survivors return to the airport to look at the fateful plane.
CDs of the Week
Berlioz Odyssey—The Complete Sir Colin Davis Recordings
(LSO)
Colin Davis, who died in 2013, was the go-to conductor for the big, sweeping music of the great French composer Hector Berlioz. This essential 16-disc set includes Davis’ final recordings of several Berlioz masterpieces, including his operas—the towering epic Les Troyens, the gorgeous-sounding bio Benvenuto Cellini and the gossamer Shakespearean adaptation Beatrice et Benedict—and his massive orchestral and choral works, from the ubiquitous Symphonie fantastique and beautiful Harold in Italy to the thunderous Messe des morts.
Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra, various choruses and soloists bring this Romantic (with a capital “R”) music to thrillingly vivid life, and the recordings (supervised by James Mallinson, who died last year, a great to loss to the industry) are amazingly detailed, especially the discs that are also SACDs.
July '19 Digital Week III
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 16 July 2019 21:11
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Shazam!
(Warner Bros)
David F. Sandberg’s dopey but disarming superhero movie smartly doesn’t take itself too seriously—except when it annoyingly piles on endless false endings, dragging things out 20 minutes longer than they should be, and threatening an inevitable sequel during the end credits.
Asher Angel and Zachary Levi are in fine form as teenage Billy and his superhero alter ego, Mark Strong is amusingly villainous as Dr. Sivana and Jack Dylan Grazer is a born scene-stealer as Billy’s foster brother Freddy. It all looks splendid on Blu; extras include a commentary, gag reel, featurettes, deleted scenes, and alternate opening and closing.
BRD Trilogy
(Criterion Collection)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s three melodramas about postwar Germany are highlighted by three great actresses: Hanna Schygulla (1979’s The Marriage of Maria Braun), Barbara Sukowa (1981’s Lola) and Rosel Zech (1982’s Veronika Voss) give glorious performances that raise the level of these otherwise strident films.
There’s also visual luster in the rich cinematography of Michael Ballhaus (Braun) and Xaver Schwarzenberger (Lola and Voss, with its enticing B&W images). Criterion’s hi-def transfers look tremendous; voluminous extras include commentaries, interviews, archival footage of Fassbinder interviews and on-set workings, and I Don't Just Want You to Love Me, a full-length career-spanning doc about the director.
Fast Color
(Lionsgate)
Cowriter-director Julia Hart’s pretentious sci-fi drama, set in an arid Midwest in a near-future, follows a young woman with supernatural powers, on the run from the shadowy authorities, who returns home to see her estranged mother and young daughter.
Despite inventive flashes, Fast Color bogs down in confusion in lieu of interesting character development; luckily, the cast—led by the extraordinarily compelling Gugu Mbatha-Raw—provides the humanity the script and direction lack. There’s an excellent hi-def transfer; extras are a commentary and making-of featurette.
DVD of the Week
Dogman
(Magnolia)
In Italian director Matteo Garrone’s latest, vengeance takes the form of a put-upon dog groomer who finally has enough of the town bully, after spending a year in jail for refusing to implicate him in a robbery.
Despite Marcello Fonte’s entirely believable performance in the title role, Dogman is an entirely predictable fantasy that contents itself with scenes of vicious but repetitive violence, set in a crumbling town where I doubt such a dog grooming saloon could stay in business. Fonte won Best Actor at Cannes last year, but his intensity isn’t enough to rescue Dogman from the dog house.
CD of the Week
Romance—The Piano Music of Clara Schumann
(Decca)
Composer Clara Schumann (best known as the wife of 19th century master Robert Schumann) is on a roll! This disc—played with beauty and precision by Isata Kanneh-Mason—is the third in the last few months containing her romantic music that I’ve reviewed, but it’s the first that’s all Clara from start to finish.
Kanneh-Mason delicately tackles several lovely miniatures (Romances for piano and for piano/violin, along with two transcriptions of Robert’s lieder), but reserves her greatest strengths for traversing Clara’s A Minor concerto and G Minor sonata, both substantive, engrossing works which deserve wider currency.
An Evening of Marvelous Music with Laura Benanti
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Monday, 15 July 2019 02:41
- Written by Jack Angstreich
July '19 Digital Week II
- Details
- Parent Category: Film and the Arts
- Category: Reviews
- Published on Tuesday, 09 July 2019 21:54
- Written by Kevin Filipski
Blu-rays of the Week
Corvette Summer
(Warner Archive)
Matthew Robbins’ breathless 1978 comic romance stars Mark Hamill (fresh off Star Wars) as a high school mechanic who improbably sets out for Vegas when the beloved Corvette he was working on is stolen—and he meets a prostitute in training who (equally) improbably falls for him.
This forgettable concoction does have one thing in its favor: a truly delightful turn by Annie Potts as the would-be hooker with a heart of gold. The film looks fine on Blu.
Gaslight
(Warner Archive)
The term “gaslighting” originated with this dated but entertaining thriller about a murderous husband driving his young wife insane by degrees; George Cukor’s 1944 adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s play hinges on the performances of Charles Boyer and Oscar winner Ingrid Bergman as the couple, along with memorable turns by 18-year-old Angela Lansbury as a saucy maid and Joseph Cotton as the detective pursuing the husband.
The restored hi-def transfer is superb; extras include the shorter 1940 British film version, 1946 radio version with Boyer and Bergman, Reflections on ‘Gaslight’ (featuring Angela Lansbury), reminiscence by Pia Lindstrom about her mother Ingrid Bergman, and 1944 Oscar ceremonies newsreel.
High Life
(Lionsgate)
Claire Denis’ first foray into sci-fi is a typically diffuse tale of a group of criminals on the first spaceship to explore a black hole and how the power dynamics play out, as the mission’s doctor (Juliette Binoche) conducts unethical experiments that lead to a baby being born among the crew.
Surprisingly, Denis opts for easy conflicts and routine drama, and there’s not much room for the cast to shine: even Binoche—the lone highlight of Denis’ most recent failure, Let the Sunshine In—looks lost. There are a few arresting images, but these occur in a dramatic and thematic vacuum. There’s a superior hi-def transfer; extras are making-of featurettes.
La Passion selon Marc—Une Passion après Auschwitz
(BelAir Classiques)
The Passion According to Mark—A Passion After Auschwitz, by French composer Michaël Levinas, is an exceedingly dissonant work whose sounds are remindful of what happened to those millions who were killed by the Nazis.
Led by countertenor Guilhem Terrail (whose unearthly voice perfectly embodies the otherworldly music), this performance led by conductor Marc Kissóczy is unsettling to be sure, right up until soprano Marion Grange’s emotionally resonant singing at the finale. Hi-def audio and video are excellent.
The Tough Ones
(Grindhouse Releasing)
In this prime example of mid-70s Italian poliziotteschi, director Umberto Lenzi follows cops who will do anything—ethical or not—to bring criminals to justice, whether they are gang-raping, killing or thieving. The cast is game, the Rome locales are happily unprettified and untouristy, and Lenzi’s direction is down and dirty.
It all looks great in a new hi-def transfer; extras include a disc of interviews, a documentary on Lenzi’s career and even a special surprise inside, like a Crackerjack box.
DVDs of the Week
Poldark—The Complete Collection
(Acorn TV)
The original Poldark, shown on television in 1975-77, is in many ways a more faithful adaptation of Winston Graham’s novels about Ross Poldark and his ongoing adversarial relationship with his cousin Francis, who married Ross’ sweetheart Elizabeth, all while Ross begins a new life with his own bride Demelza.
There’s little of the swooning good looks of the current Masterpiece reboot’s cast, but these performers—led by Robin Ellis as Ross, Jill Townsend as Elizabeth, Clive Francis as Francis and Angharad Rees as Demelza—may fit into their roles more snugly and believably. All 29 episodes of the original series (on five discs) are included in this set.
Styx
(Film Movement)
This story of a woman on a solo boat trip begins like another All Is Lost (with Robert Redford) or En solitaire (with François Clouzet) as a lone skipper against the elements, but director Wolfgang Fischer soon pivots it into a moral thriller about the implications of Europe’s migrant problem.
Fischer, his versatile star Susanne Wolff and Benedict Neuenfels’ technically impressive cinematography combine to create a tense, thought-provoking action movie. Extras are Fischer and Wolff’s commentary and a short, Ashmina, directed by Dekel Berenson.
CD of the Week
Einem—Orchestral Works
(Capriccio)
One of the most unabashedly tonal composers who came of age after World War II in Austria, Gottfried von Einem is best-known for his operas Danton’s Death, The Trial and The Visit of the Old Lady, all satisfyingly dramatic if musically old-fashioned.
That straightforward style is showcased on this disc of four of his orchestral works, from his 1944 Concerto for Orchestra to his 1981-2 Three Gifts. All of these works—always arresting if at times facile in their proficient polish—are given substantive readings by the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under the agile baton of Johannes Kalitzke.
