Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman (25 Zatoichi films from 1962 to 1973) 18 x DVD, 9 x Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

It's easy to imagine Zatoichi, the mega-popular blind masseur/swordsman, as a man on a continual personality-altering pilgrimage, since in a series of films stretching from 1962 until 1979, he was almost exclusively played by one actor. Shintaro Katsu's Zatoichi is a lover, athlete, drinker, gambler and killer. Moreover, in 1967, after fifteen films, Katsu started his own company, Katsu Productions, to make his own star vehicles.

Twenty-five of the 26 entries of the film's official series are collected in the Criterion Collection's lavish new box set (only "Shintaro Katsu's Zatoichi," the second film Zatoichi film Katsu directed, is missing).

The set comprises 25 feature films. They've been known under various titles through the years:

The Tale of Zatoichi / The Tale of Zatoichi Continues / New Tale of Zatoichi / Zatoichi the Fugitive / Zatoichi on the Road / Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold / Zatoichi's Flashing Sword / Fight, Zatoichi, Fight / Adventures of Zatoichi / Zatoichi's Revenge / Zatoichi and the Doomed Man / Zatoichi and the Chess Expert / Zatoichi's Vengeance / Zatoichi's Pilgrimage / Zatoichi's Cane Sword / Zatoichi the Outlaw / Zatoichi Challenged / Zatoichi and the Fugitives / Samaritan Zatoichi / Zatoichi Meets Yojimbo / Zatoichi Goes to the Fire Festival / Zatoichi Meets the One-Armed Swordsman / Zatoichi at Large / Zatoichi in Desperation / Zatoichi's Conspiracy

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Ze soboty na nedeli / From Saturday to Sunday (1931) DVD5

Mana is a young secretary. One evening she and her roommate accompany two wealthy older gentlemen to dinner. After one of them offers money to her she realizes his intentions and flees from the restaurant in shock. She later meets a man named Karel in a nearby cafe. They spend the night wandering the rainy streets of Prague and the two quickly develop strong feelings for each other.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:08:13 | 3.90 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Czech(Ceske)
Subtitles: English, Espanol, Czech(Ceske)
Genre: Drama, Romance

Director: Gustav Machaty
Cast: Ladislav H. Struna, Magda Maderova, Jirina Sejbalova
Country: Czechoslovakia, Austria
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The Pawnbroker (1964) Blu-Ray

Rod Steiger earned a Best Actor Oscarr nomination for his stunning performance in this powerful story of hope and empathy from celebrated director Sidney Lumet.

With the rise of Hitler, Prof. Sol Nazerman, a Jew, and his family were dragged to a concentration camp, where he saw his two children die and his wife raped by Nazi officers. Entire family was killed during the Holocaust. Some twenty years later, he's the owner of an East Harlem pawn shop, emotionally shut down and struggling with horrific flashbacks. Sol has little faith in his fellow man, and treats them with thinly veiled contempt. Still, Sol has the respect of his employee Jesus, who hopes to be mentored by his boss. But even this young man is pushed too far by Sol's bitterness, which results in a terrible tragedy for them both.

Is based on Edward Lewis Wallant's 1961 novel. The Pawnbroker was one of the first American films to address the Holocaust through the eyes of a survivor after the events.

BD25 | 1080p AVC | 01:55:49 | 17.6 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none
Genre: Drama

Director: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Brock Peters, Jaime Sanchez
Country: USA
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Ivan Brovkin on the State Farm / Ivan Brovkin in the Virgin Lands / Ivan Brovkin at Virgin Soil / Ivan Brovkin na tseline / Иван Бровкин на целине (1958) DVD9 RUSCICO

Cheesy dialogue, sappy songs and a predictable love story characterize Ivan Lukinskii's 1958 musical comedy, Ivan Brovkin in the Virgin Lands. The film starts where its 1955 predecessor, The Soldier Ivan Brovkin, leaves off. The eponymous hero is discharged from the army, decides to head east to the Virgin Lands, and stops at his home kolkhoz to see his sweetheart, Liubasha. Although he charms his friends and neighbours with his ever-present accordion and his decision is announced in Pravda as 'patriotic conduct', Liubasha and her parents view Brovkin's move as a sign of his good-for-nothingness. Once in the Virgin Lands, Brovkin suffers from heartache. Brovkin overcomes his problems: he becomes a model worker and receives the Order of Lenin. With this prize in tow, he returns to his kolkhoz to marry Liubasha and to take her to the radiant future of the Virgin Lands...

DVD9 | PAL 4:3 | 01:30:45 | 6.53 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English, Russian
Genre: musical comedy

Director: Ivan Lukinsky
Cast: Leonid Kharitonov, Daya Smirnova, Sergei Blinnikov, Mikhail Pugovkin, Tatyana Pelttser
Country: Soviet Union
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Adolpho Arrietta – Complete Works (Obra completa) (1966 – 2008) 4 x DVD9

Adolpho Arrietta was a major figure in the new cinemas that appeared in the sixties and seventies in various countries. Thus he became one of the fundamental film directors in the history of Spanish cinema. As with Bunuel, a long exile seems to have been the condition that allowed his work to keep up with the most important trends in the cinema of his era. Throughout the seventies he produced a series of "punk a la francaise" films, as Severo Sarduy called them, which for their originality and influence are among the most important in French cinema of that decade. In 1989 he returned to Madrid, and despite noteable intervals, which other Spanish film directors of his generation also experienced, his work proceeded. Alone, like in the era of El crimen de la pirindola but with a digital camera, he produced what for the moment is his latest film: Vacanza permanente (2006).

This is the complete works of this filmmaker, considered the pioneer of independent cinema in Spain and hailed by artists and critics such as Jonas Mekas, Marguerite Duras or Serge Daney.

4 x DVD9 | PAL 4:3 | 517 min. | 24 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Espanol, Francais
Subtitles: English, Espanol, Francais
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Fantasy, Short, Experimental

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Gente d’onore (1967) DVD9

In Sicily the police has set up an operation that should wipe out the mafia definitively. The main suspects, whose arrest could lead to the heads of the Organisation, are seven killers who are hiding in the remotest places. Nevertheless, under precise instructions of "Cosa Nostra" these seven men undertake a difficult journey through the island to reach a ship that will take them safely abroad. Apparently, a strange fate is upon this team, since every day one of its members accidentally dies; at the end of the trip it becomes clear that the mafia has betrayed them and has prepared a police ambush for the two survivors...

DVD9 | PAL 16:9 | 01:25:22 | 6.12 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Italiano, Deutsch
Subtitles: English, Italiano
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama

Director: Folco Lulli
Cast: Saro Urzi, Folco Lulli, Rosemary Dexter
Country: Italy
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Big Wednesday (1978) DVD5

Big Wednesday is the opposite of all those "beach party" movies of the early 1960's; it takes surfing as seriously as the surfers themselves. Matt (Jan-Michael Vincent), Jack (William Katt) and The Masochist (Gary Busey) are three buddies who are the local surfing champions of Malibu in the early 1960's. They are treated like gods and live only to catch the next big wave.
But as the 60s progress and with the start of the Vietnam war, life becomes more complex for them. Jack is sent to Vietnam, and eventually the three friends begin to wonder if they will live to see "Big Wednesday", a mythical day when the greatest wave of all time will come.

DVD5 | NTSC 16:9 | 01:59:32 | 4.23 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English, Francais
Subtitles: English, Francais, Espanol, Portugues
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Sport

Director: John Milius
Cast: Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, Gary Busey
Country: USA
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La notte / The Night (1961) DVD9 Criterion Collection

La Notte (1960) is the second part of Antonioni's trilogy of alienation that fits between L'Avventura and L'Eclisse (1962). It is the journey of a single night in the relationship of a novelist (Marcello Mastroianni) and his wife (Jeanne Moreau) as they confront, but do not resolve, the crisis in their marriage. Set in Milan, Italy's most modern and industrial city, the film examines themes of failed communication and the sterility of modern life. By this time, Antonioni was less concerned with plot and story development in his films, and more with his characters' reactions. As a result, the imagery in La Notte often takes on a symbolic quality, with sterile cityscapes, reflections, characters separated by glass, and stark, almost architectural compositions. All of these are used to express the characters' isolation and disaffected ennui.

DVD9 | NTSC 16:9 | 02:02:10 | 7.56 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Italiano
Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama

Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
Cast: Jeanne Moreau, Marcello Mastroianni, Monica Vitti
Country: Italy, France
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Cloud Heaven / Cloud-Paradise / Oblako-ray / Облако-рай (1990) DVD5

Early Sunday morning in a small Soviet town. Loitering in idleness, Kolya is hanging around and bothering the townsfolk with goofy talk. As no-one shares his enthusiasm, he decides to visit his friend Fyodor. Kolya finds him weary and indifferent. In an attempt to catch his attention, Kolya breaks the news: he's about to leave for the Russian Far East. Surprisingly, this decision of him gets overwhelming support; Kolya becomes a local hero, and all his neighbors suddenly get involved in seeing him off. Those materialistic ones start buying Kolya's furniture, as Fyodor convinces his friend to write a letter of resignation.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:18:00 | 4.13 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English
Genre: Comedy, Drama

Director: Nikolai Dostal
Cast: Andrei Zhigalov, Sergey Batalov, Irina Rozanova, Alla Kliouka, Anna Ovsyannikova, Vladimir Tolokonnikov, Lev Borisov
Country: Soviet Union
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Mia aioniotita kai mia mera / Eternity and a Day (1998) DVD9 The Theo Angelopoulos Collection Volume III and Greek Release

Eternity and a Day (1998), winner of the coveted Palm d'Or Award at the Cannes Film Festival, tells the story of aging and seriously ill writer Alexandre (Bruno Gantz, Downfall) whose days are numbered. On the way to his daughter's house Alexandre encounters a young Albanian boy who as we later find out is in Greece illegally. The two form an unusual bond, even though they don't speak the same language, and travel across Greece learning about each other...

Director: Theodoros Angelopoulos
Cast: Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Renauld, Fabrizio Bentivoglio
Country: Greece, France, Germany, Italy
Genre: Drama

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Umberto D. (1952) DVD9, Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Umberto Domenico Ferrari (Carlo Battisti) is a retiree with debts, living on a tiny pension, who is quickly running out of options. He has a room, but his uncaring landlady who would rather evict him so as to have more room to impress her gentleman callers. He's avoided by peers with more control over their finances, who don't want needy friends. A short hospital stay is like a vacation, but he's not a good enough liar to stretch it out, as do many of the other ward residents. Umberto strikes up a pleasant relationship with the housemaid Maria (Maria Pia Casilio), an unschooled girl with an unwanted pregnancy. Umberto faces an uncertain and lonely future on the street. His only true companion is his small dog Flike, that he really can't afford to feed.

Director: Vittorio De Sica
Actors: Carlo Battisti, Maria-Pia Casilio, Lina Gennari, Ileana Simova, Elena Rea, Memmo Carotenuto
Country: Italy
Genre: Drama
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Babij Jar – Das vergessene Verbrechen / Babiy Yar – The forgotten crime (2003) DVD9

1941 : On the outskirts of Kiev, the families Lerner and Onufrienko live in a detached house . Their children grew up together, and the families can look back on a twenty-year friendship.
Genady Lerner (Michael Degen), a Jew and the patriarch of a relatively large extended family, watches with profoundly mixed emotions as the Russian army retreats from the Ukrainian city under intense bombardment from the advancing Nazi army. Skeptical of the rumors abounding regarding the Nazis' extermination of the Jewish race, Genady opts to remain at the family home. Meanwhile, Genady's longtime neighbor Lena Onofrienko (Katrin Sass) decides that assisting the invading army may be in her best interests, in spite of her friendship with the Lerners. Soon, both families are caught up in what became one of the largest Nazi atrocities of World War II, in which 35,000 Ukrainian Jews were slaughtered and incinerated over a period of two days in the nearby ravine called Babij Jar.

DVD9 | PAL 16:9 | 01:45:48 | 6.63 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Deutsch, Russian
Subtitles: English, Deutsch, Nederlands
Genre: Drama

Director: Jeff Kanew
Cast: Michael Degen, Barbara De Rossi, Katrin Sass
Country: Germany, Belarus
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