Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers (1902-1929) 6 x DVD9

There was a time in the last century where a woman ran her own studio, as Alice Guy Blache did when she began her Solax Film Company in Fort Lee, New Jersey. On the West Coast, Lois Weber reigned as one of the top-earning directors of the 1910s. And in that time, Universal Studios once promoted the strength of their women-led workforce. One historian estimated that the scrappy studio north of Hollywood released some 170 movies from women directors from 1914-1919. For comparison, between 2007-2017, only 53 women directed a major studio release that cracked the list of top 100 movies at the box office.

Film fans, rejoice! The true history of the motion picture industry just got a bit more complete. The invaluable film distributor Kino Lorber has assembled a truly eye-opening collection of films from the silent era—all made by women. Pioneers: First Women Filmmakers is a DVD/Blu-ray box set that presents more than 50 silent feature and short films (a total running time of 1,710 minutes) digitally mastered from 2k and 4K restorations from a variety of sources, including the Library of Congress, Academy Film Archives and the New York Women in Film & Television Preservation Fund.

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Midas Run (1969) Blu-Ray

Fred Astaire plays John Pedley, an aging British Secret Service agent who feels that his hard work over the years has remained unnoticed. To get the appreciation that his country owes him, as well as a proper financial bonus that will allow him to enjoy the rest of his life in style, Pedley masterminds a brilliant plan. In Venice, he approaches the ambitious but struggling writer Mike Warden (Richard Crenna) and convinces him to participate in an elaborate heist at the end of which a jetliner owned by the British government will lose $10 million dollars in gold. Soon after, the two are joined by the freshly scorned but ready for adventure wife Sylvia Giroux (Heywood), who instantly adds a great deal of class to the operation and in the process awakens Warden's desire to be in a 'meaningful relationship'. Pedley then hires various shady 'experts' to assist them during the heist and after the gold is removed from the jetliner.

BD25 | 1080p AVC | 01:47:08 | 22.5 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none

Director: Alf Kjellin
Cast: Fred Astaire, Richard Crenna, Anne Heywood
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama, Romance
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L’une chante l’autre pas / One Sings, the Other Doesn’t (1977) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Six years after Varda added her name to the Manifesto of the 343 — a declaration by 343 women publicly proclaiming that they had had an abortion, despite the procedure still being illegal in France — she made this remarkable combination of social commentary and musical about a woman's right to choose.

Agnes Varda's very touching film is a bewitching tale about two French women who become friends during a period of rootlessness for each. Pauline leaves home at seventeen to try to make it on her own as a singer; Suzanne is left alone with two small children after her lover commits suicide. Even through the two women have very little in common, they feel good with each other. Theirs is a natural, effortless relationship. At one point, Pauline describes it as "like love, with no heartaches." Over the years they are forced to go in separate directions. Suzanne has to live with her parents on their farm; later she moves to Southern France and sets up a family planning center; Pauline — now calling herself Apple — forms a group of feminist troubadours who practice consciousness raising through their songs.

The two women's interests intersect and they meet ten years later at a rally for women's abortion rights. They pick up where they left off, sharing news of their loves — Apple's for Darius, an Iranian economist, Suzanne's for her lovely children — and their experiences. Through their struggles and successes, director Varda celebrates the particular joys of being a woman. Over thousands of miles (Apple live in Iran for a while) and periods of loneliness and happiness, the two keep in touch with postcards and occasional letters. Their friendship remains a holy bond.

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Blue Velvet (1986) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Written and directed by David Lynch (Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive), Blue Velvet is a powerful and hallucinatory film that documents a young man's coming of age against a backdrop of perversion, sadomasochism, and violence. This is a film that delves into the black side of human nature in a way that few films have ever accomplished. It's a film that will stay with you—like the stuttery twitch-memories of a nightmare—long after its end credits scroll. Blue Velvet is about the moral rot underlying the American Dream.

College student Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) discovers a human ear in a field. He contacts detective John Williams (George Dickerson), hoping that he would assist him in his search for the owner of the ear, but is quickly told to keep his mouth shut.

Together with the detective's daughter, Sandy (Laura Dern), Jeffrey launches his own investigation. Soon after, he meets the beautiful night club singer Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini), who often sees a drug-addicted loner (Dennis Hopper) who loves hurting people. Without realizing, Jeffrey quickly gets sucked up in a dangerous world where everyone has something to hide and life is cheap.

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The Breaking Point (1950) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

If you know Hemingway's novel, it doesn't take long before you realize that The Breaking Point is the most faithful screen adaptation, and what few key alterations Curtiz and his screenwriters made have actually created a stronger story.
The result is a tense, fast paced, atmospheric and highly watchable thriller, even a neglected little gem.

In the Curtiz version, John Garfield plays Harry Morgan, the owner of a charter boat who is having trouble making enough money to support his wife and daughters. When he accepts a charter to take a man named Hannagan and his mistress to Mexico to do some fishing, his client skips out without paying, leaving Morgan with Hannagan's girlfriend Lenora (Patricia Neal), and a docking fee he can't pay. In order to make enough money to get home, Morgan reluctantly agrees to smuggle Chinese people into the United States, but the Coast Guard finds out about it and impounds his boat. The situation becomes increasingly desperate for Morgan as a gang of crooks blackmails him and kills his first mate, forcing him into a fateful confrontation.

Director: Michael Curtiz
Cast: John Garfield, Patricia Neal, Phyllis Thaxter
Country: USA
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller

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The 39 Steps (1935) DVD9 (Reissue) and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

The 39 Steps is a fascinating early film from Alfred Hitchcock, made five years before he left Britain to begin making films in America. It's a loose, free-spirited thriller, ragged around the edges, sloppily plotted, and often unevenly paced, but the director turns it into a near-masterpiece almost in spite of itself. Its subject is pure Hitchcock, an early stab at the kind of "wrong man" thrillers that would soon become his most characteristic works.

Ordinary businessman Richard Hannay (a suavely charming Robert Donat) stumbles into an international espionage plot when he brings home a mysterious foreign woman (Lucie Mannheim) after a vaudeville-style show. She's wearing a black lace veil and speaks with a sinister accent, so of course she turns out to be a mercenary spy, working for the British government to prevent some military secrets from leaving the country in the hands of an enemy spy (Godfrey Tearle). The only thing she manages to tell Hannay before she's abruptly murdered in the middle of the night is that the spy ring's leader is missing the tip of his pinky finger, and that she had planned to meet a man in a certain town in Scotland next. Hannay, quite naturally suspected of his guest's murder, flees towards Scotland with both the police and the spies on his tail.

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The Manitou (1978) Blu-Ray Shout Factory

Karen (Susan Strasberg) is frightened, newly aware of a small growth on her upper back that's expanding rapidly. Doctors are baffled, unable to identify what the problem is, with all evidence pointing to the development of a fetus under the woman's skin. Trying to find comfort, Karen goes to ex-boyfriend Harry (Tony Curtis) for help, reconnecting with the amateur psychic, who cares deeply about her well-being. When modern medicine can't remove the lump, which carries special powers capable of mind-control, Harry is left to figure out things on his own while Karen remains in the hospital. Reaching out to medium Amelia (Stella Stevens, painted brown for unknown reasons) and anthropologist Snow (Burgess Meredith), Harry finally makes his way to John Singing Rock (Michael Ansara), a Native American healer who identifies the lump as the coming rampage of Misquamacus, a Native spirit who's looking for revenge.

William Girdler Sr. remains one of Hollywood history's most prolific and unappreciated B-Movie directors, even long after his death in the late 70s. The Manitou became William Girdler's last film and swan song. It has all the typical traits that defined him as a filmmaker; a simple and gimmicky plot, usually a recycled twist on a recent horror hit of the time (in this case The Exorcist), corny comedy, crazy camera work and campy acting.

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A Face in the Crowd (1957) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

This is one of the greatest films of the 1950s, a prophetic film about the dangerous power of modern media. Like "Network" which followed two decades later, Elia Kazan's "A Face in the Crowd" is a vitriolic condemnation of the media and the monsters it creates that was ahead of its time.

In an astonishing screen debut, Andy Griffith portrays Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a fast-talking drifter fortunate enough to find himself in the right Arkansas jailhouse at the right time. Local radio personality Marcia Jeffries (the always capable Patricia Neal) plans to feature his singing/songwriting talent on her radio show, but gets much more than she realized when Rhodes quickly displays his down-home talent for swaying public opinion, cleverly starting with housewives. Then he converts the local sheriff into a dogcatcher, later he offers up a private pool for use by all the town's children. Rhodes' uncanny talent for appealing to the masses soon lands him on television in Memphis, where his mass appeal soars to new heights, all while alienating program sponsorship and causing those closest to him to have doubts. Eventually his grass roots platform allows him to shape a major politician's campaign, whereby Rhodes envisions unrivaled political power for himself.

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Trollflojten / The Magic Flute (1975) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

There's a common misconception that Ingmar Bergman made only glum philosophical dramas, but his work is not without its life-affirming moments and he ventured into a variety of genres over his long career, including comedies. Perhaps the most surprising film in his career however is The Magic Flute, a filmed staging of Mozart's famous opera for TV.

The Magic Flute is a winsome fairy tale concerning a young prince who is sent to rescue the recently abducted daughter of The Queen of the Night. With the aid of a comic sidekick and a magic flute the prince embarks on a journey of love and self-discovery. The Magic Flute is certainly one of Mozart's most cherished works and among the best-known operas of all time.

BD50 | 1080p AVC | 02:18:04 | 33 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Swedish
Subtitles: English

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Ulrik Cold, Josef Kostlinger, Irma Urrila
Country: Sweden
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Music, Romance
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Japon / Japan (2002) DVD9, 2xDVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

A man with no name (Alejandro Ferretis) limps through the Mexican high country in what he intends to be his last journey. It is clear that he hates himself and is tired of life, but in order to prepare for death he seeks first the solitude of the mountains and finds shelter with Ascen (Magdalene Flores), an elderly widow living on the outskirts of a mountain village.
She isn't without her own problems, either, as her nephew is in the process of cheating her out of her barn. Gradually, El Hombre and Ascen found a relationship, which grows with the passing days, as he wrestles with the urge to self-destruct and a compunction to cling on to his new-found life and to help her in her struggle.

Recruiting a cast of nonactors and filming in sublime 16 mm CinemaScope, Reygadas explores the harsh beauty of the Mexican country­side with earthy tactility, conjuring a psychic landscape where religion mingles with sex, life coexists with death, and the animal and spiritual sides of human experience become indistinguishable. A work of soaring ambition and startling visual poetry, Japon is an existential journey through uncharted cinematic territory that established the singular voice of its director.

Director: Carlos Reygadas
Cast: Alejandro Ferretis, Magdalena Flores, Yolanda Villa
Country: Mexico, Germany, Netherlands, Spain
Genre: Drama
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House of Games (1987) DVD9 (2007 edition) and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

In his directorial debut, Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet creates a stylish cinematic puzzle of games within games, as con men are joined by a psychologist in creating the perfect caper. Dr. Margaret Ford (Lindsay Crouse), the writer of psychological self-help books, meets Mike (Joe Mantegna) as she attempts to help a patient who owes heavy gambling debts. When she herself is the victim of a con, she becomes intrigued by the psychological drama of the con game and joins in a complicated scam involving a suitcase of cash. Mamet directs his extremely complicated plot with skill and complete control until it is impossible to tell who is the con and who is the victim. The suspense builds to an amazing surprise ending which is both reasonable and believable but completely unpredictable. Crouse and Mantegna are outstanding as are all the supporting performances. Mamet and his cinematographer Juan Ruiz-Anchia create a visually stunning, compelling film that does justice to Mamet's superbly written screenplay.

Director: David Mamet
Cast: Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum
Country: USA
Genre: Crime, Thriller

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Opera (1987) 3 x Blu-Ray Scorpion Releasing Deluxe Collector’s Edition

Betty is a young opera understudy in Rome. One night after the lead singer in a recent production of Lady Macbeth is injured in an accident, Betty is asked to take her place. It won't be an easy task, however. The production has had a long, troubled history, and Betty is hesitant at first about taking on such a role. As you probably have already guessed, Betty was right to be cautious…for on the night of her debut, a theater worker is murdered in the balcony and a lamp comes crashing down to the crowd below. The next night, as she and her new boyfriend finish up an unsatisfying round of sex, a mysterious masked stranger enters the room. He binds Betty's hands and feet, and props her eyelids open with needles, so she will be forced to watch him brutally stab her boyfriend to death. Soon, others involved with the production begin dying in equally savage ways. Each time, the killer again wants Betty to watch everything he does. Is he trying to impress her or simply drive her mad? Who is Betty's deranged fan, and why is he committing such horrible crimes?

Director: Dario Argento
Cast: Cristina Marsillach, Ian Charleson, Urbano Barberini
Country: Italy
Genre: Horror, Mystery, Thriller

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Zendegi va digar hich / And Life Goes on… / Life and Nothing More… (1992) DVD9, Blu-Ray

Life and Nothing More (1992) (the title was changed by its distributor to the less accurate translation And Life Goes On... to avoid confusion with a similarly titled French film) charts the efforts of a director (Ferhad Khermanend, playing a fictionalized but unnamed Kiarostami) and his young son to return to Koker, the setting of Where Is The Friend's Home, in the wake of the devastating 1990 earthquake. Kiarostami imagines his own journey as a fictional drama set against the real life legacy of the disaster, the camera simply watching out the car window for much of the film, taking in the changing landscape, the ruins of mud buildings and small houses, and the streams of homeless people hauling food and equipment to makeshift shelters. Ostensibly Life and Nothing More is about the search for the two boys who starred in the earlier film but it turns into a kind of fictional documentary about the strength of the human spirit in the face of disaster filtered through a self-reflexive prism. It's a film that denies even the most rudimentary of dramatic arcs: Nothing happens, and yet life erupts all around.

Director: Abbas Kiarostami
Cast: Farhad Kheradmand, Buba Bayour, Hocine Rifahi
Country: Iran
Genre: Drama, Adventure
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I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

In February of 1964, the Sunday variety show of Ed Sullivan (Will Jordan) is a madhouse — The Beatles have landed in America and are going to perform. Converging on Manhattan are thousands of brain-addled Beatles fans, crowding the streets around both the CBS TV theater and the Beatles' hotel.

The film follows closely six teenagers from New Jersey who head to the Big Apple a day before The Beatles are scheduled to perform at Carnegie Hall. Rosie (Wendy Jo Sperber) is obsessed with the band and literally throws herself out of the car when her friends refuse to stop so that she can make a phone call to a local radio station that is giving away free tickets to anyone that can answer their trivia questions. Janis (Susan Kendall Newman) hates the band and is planning to protest outside their hotel. Grace (Theresa Saldana) wants to interview the band and then use the material to further her journalistic career. Pam (Allen) hasn't had much time to think about the band because she is getting married. Tony (Bobby DiCicco) is just looking for a brawl. Larry (Marc McClure) is the driver, though he does not have a driver's license yet.

Director: Robert Zemeckis
Cast: Nancy Allen, Bobby Di Cicco, Marc McClure
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance

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Night on Earth (1991) DVD9 (2007 edition) and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Night on Earth is another thoroughly distinctive and compelling film by writer and director Jim Jarmusch. This deadpan comedy-of-the-night is a collection of five vignettes taking place in the enclosed space of a cab ride, each occurring simultaneously in five different cities and five different time zones -- Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki.

On one winter night, we witness the human condition via encounters between taxi drivers and their passengers in five different cities. Class differences are explored in Los Angeles where a casting agent (Gina Rowlands) pressures a cabbie (Winona Ryder). Family problems are aired in a New York segment starring Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller-Stahl, and Rosie Perez. In Paris, an African driver experiences discomfort and mystery in the presence of a beautiful blind woman. A wild cab driver confesses his sins to a priest in Rome, and in Helsinki, three inebriated men share their lives with a cab driver who has problems of his own. Nights on Earth is a great concept well executed.

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Lisanne Falk, Roberto Benigni
Country: France, UK, Germany, USA, Japan
Genre: Comedy, Drama
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Detour (1945) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Director Edgar G Ulmer's all-time great, flashback-driven 1945 film noir thriller is a deservedly famous cult B-movie classic. Zero-budgeted but rousingly handled, it's termite art. It holds the honour of being the first B-movie chosen by the Library of Congress for its National Film Registry (in 1992) and it is the first Hollywood film noir so honoured. The film has long enjoyed a cult reputation in Europe and among American film buffs for its existential tone.

The main character, Al Roberts (Tom Neal), is an unemployed piano player intent on hitchhiking from New York to Hollywood where his girlfriend is a singer. When he reaches Arizona, he thumbs a ride with a dissipated gambler who relates a disturbing tale about a female hitchhiker he recently encountered. From that point on, the film travels quickly into nightmare territory with border crossings into paranoia, death and despair.

Tom Neal's real life story is probably even sadder and stranger than the luckless character he plays in Detour.

Director: Edgar G. Ulmer
Cast: Tom Neal, Ann Savage, Claudia Drake, Edmund MacDonald
Country: USA
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
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Cash and Company (1975) 4 x DVD9 The Complete Series

A true classic of Australian television, Cash & Company captures the essence of the 1850s – a pioneering era where life was lived on the land and gold was ready for the taking. The original series consisted of 13 one hour episodes, filmed in colour and on location in rural Victoria.

The episodes dealt with the adventures of bushrangers Sam Cash and his partner Joe Brady and a helpful widow, Jessica Johnson. Cash and Brady were fugitives, constantly absconding from the authorities, led by the police trooper Lieutenant Keogh. Other regular and recurring characters included Jessica's father in law and her servant, Annie.

Featuring all 13 episodes and a Logie Award winner for best new series in 1976, Cash & Company includes a dynamic line-up of guest stars, including Terry Gill, Judith Durham (of The Seekers, performing six songs), Gerard Kennedy, Judy Morris, Michael Pate, Noel Ferrier and Tonny Bonner. Driven by a lively theme from the 'Bushwhackers and Bullockies Bush Band' and directed by award winning filmmakers George Miller (The Man from Snowy River) and Simon Wincer (Lonesome Dove), Cash & Company is an action-packed trip back to an era of horses, hold-ups and wild colonial boys.
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Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors / Tini zabutykh predkiv / Тени забытых предков (1964) DVD9, Blu-Ray

Ethnically Armenian and born in Georgia director Sergei Paradjanov only made four films in a span of nearly 30 years, yet remains one of the most acclaimed Soviet directors of all time. Based on Ukranian folklore, Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors — Paradjanov's feature debut — is a rare film which demands repeat viewing in order to appreciate its relentless stream of colorful imagery; scene after scene is dazzling in its cinematic innovation. Known as the "Carpathian 'Romeo and Juliet'," Shadows transcends cultural boundaries with its universal trope of tragic romantic loss, yet simultaneously remains firmly grounded within the fascinating minutiae of Eastern European village life.

Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors is set in Western Ukraine (Carpathian mountains) circa the 1860's. It spins a seemingly straightforward tale of two lovers, Ivan and Marichka, who develop a magical, passionate bond in childhood, but who are kept apart tragically in life, only to be reunited spiritually in death.

The film also features a detailed portrayal of Ukrainian Hutsul culture, showing not only the harsh Carpathian environment and brutal family rivalries, but also the beauty of Hutsul traditions, music, costumes, and dialect. Fifty years later, Shadows remains both one of the most beautiful and revolutionary films ever made.
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La resa dei conti / The Big Gundown (1966) 2 x Blu-Ray + DVD9 + CD Grindhouse Releasing

Legendary Jonathan Corbett (Van Cleef) blasts down a trio of outlaws in the New Mexico mountains before attending the gala wedding of the daughter of the wealthy railroad baron Brokston (Walter Barnes). Brokston is gathering power around him in the form of paid gunmen and 'friendly' politicians and judges, and has the notion of running the well-known Corbett for the Senate. But word comes that the ruthless Mexican outlaw Cuchillo (Tomas Milian) has raped and killed a young girl. Corbett sets off to capture or kill the wily bandit, with the promise of Brokston's campaign backing when he returns. Cuchillo leads Corbett on a wild chase, involving encounters with a widow in a ranch house, a wagon train of devout Quakers and various deadly adversaries. Cuchillo runs like the wind and is faster with his throwing knife than are most men with a gun. Corbett soon suspects that the uncouth but principled Cuchillo may have been framed for the crime, and his suspicions grow when Brokston brings an entire hunting party with him into Mexico to help capture the bandit.

Director: Sergio Sollima
Cast: Lee Van Cleef, Tomas Milian, Walter Barnes, Nieves Navarro
Country: Italy, Spain
Genre: Western
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Hai zi wang / King of the Children (1987) DVD5

Set during the twilight of the Cultural Revolution, Chen Kaige's third film, King of the Children, concerns a young man who is sent from the city to the country for his scheduled tour of farm labor. Upon arriving in this remote mountain area, he -- much to his surprise -- is asked to become a teacher even though he lacks all the customary qualifications. Confronted with the apathy of his students, the young man decides to throw out the Maoist textbook, which includes such tedious exercises as copying all the characters out of the dictionary, and teach his students to think about the world around them. At the same time, through a series of dream-like meetings with a young cowherd, he begins to sense the possibilities of a life beyond the parameters of traditional education.

DVD5 | NTSC 16:9 | 01:45:47 | 3.70 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Chinese
Subtitles: English, Japanese
Genre: Drama

Director: Kaige Chen
Cast: Yuan Xie, Xuewen Yang, Shaohua Chen
Country: China
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The Jerk (1979) Blu-Ray

It was Steve Martin's first foray into a comedic leading role, playing the most insanely dumb and most ignorant white man on Earth.

Having been abandoned as a baby on the door steps of some poor, black sharecroppers in Mississippi, Navin Johnson (Steve Martin) has grown up believing that these poor, kindly folk were his own flesh and blood. But having reached adulthood, Navin is surprised to discover that the people he calls kin are not and in fact that he is very different to all of them. Feeling at a loss from this devastating news, he decides that he needs to leave home and experience the real world so that he can find his special purpose in life. Through his journey of discovery into the real world, Navin finds work in a gas station before ending up working in a carnival where he falls for the shows motorbike riding stuntwoman. But through a series of fortunate and funny twists he manages to find wealth through inventing a device called an "Opti-Grab" and meets the real love of his life, Marie Kimble (Bernadette Peters).

Director: Carl Reiner
Cast: Steve Martin, Bernadette Peters, Catlin Adams
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy
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The Garage / Garazh / Гараж (1979) DVD5

The action takes place in a confined space filled with people of all different types and walks of life. Men and women, professors and manual workers are trying to solve a question vital for a soviet person that era: who is worthy to participate in a parking garage co-op, and who is not. The film was inspired by the real meeting of a parking garage-construction co-op in which Ryazanov participated. Acting, closed-space staging and precision of the dialogs deserve much praise and admiration.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:35:35 | 4.06 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Russian
Subtitles: English
Genre: Comedy, Drama

Director: Eldar Ryazanov
Cast: Liya Akhedzhakova, Iya Savvina, Svetlana Nemolyaeva, Valentin Gaft, Georgiy Burkov, Vyacheslav Nevinnyy, Andrey Myagkov, Igor Kostolevskiy, Gleb Strizhenov, Borislav Brondukov, Semyon Farada
Country: Soviet Union
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Smithereens (1982) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

First-time film actress Susan Berman stars in Smithereens as Wren, a New Jersey ex-pat who is trying to blag her way into a rock-and-roll lifestyle. It's never quite clear what Wren's artistry encompasses, and likely she hasn't figured it out yet either, but she plasters photocopies of her face around the city and pretty much barrels through anyone who gets in front of her. Forever the opportunist, she drags along fresh Montana-transplant Paul (Brad Rinn) to her night on the town when it's clear he'll pay the bills, but then drops him for Eric, a singer played by real life punk icon Richard Hell, as soon as he shows a passing interest and potentially something to gain. Wren spends the rest of Smithereens bouncing between the two, with only Paul being smart enough to know he's being used, and the girl too blind to see that Eric will never take her to Los Angeles and let her manage his band.

BD50, DVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:33:31 | 45.1 Gb + 7.34 Gb
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Director: Susan Seidelman
Cast: Susan Berman, Brad Rijn, Richard Hell
Country: USA
Genre: Drama, Music
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Historias minimas / Intimate Stories / Minimal Stories (2002) DVD9

It's road movie, which unfolds in the southern Argentinean region of Patagonia. "Historias Minimas" unpretentiously chronicles a trio of separate yet interweaving stories about ordinary people attempting to follow their dreams.
The octogenarian Don Justo (Antonio Benedictti) has handed over the running of his grocery store to his son and daughter-in-law. Fading eyesight prevents him from driving, but he resolves to hitchhike to the distant town of San Julian, where somebody has spotted his beloved missing dog, Badface.
Elsewhere, an obsessive travelling salesman, Roberto (Javier Lombardo), is planning to surprise a young widow with the gift of a birthday cake for her kid.
And in the third, less developed segment, the impoverished Maria (Javiera Bravo) is heading to the recording of television game show Multicoloured Casino with her baby, intent on gaining a prize.

DVD9 | NTSC 16:9 | 01:27:48 | 6.65 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Espanol
Subtitles: English, Portugues
Genre: Drama, Comedy

Director: Carlos Sorin
Cast: Javier Lombardo, Antonio Benedicti, Javiera Bravo, Julia Solomonoff, Laura Vagnoni
Country: Argentina, Spain
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La double vie de Veronique / The Double Life of Veronique (1991) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Krzysztof Kieslowski's The Double Life of Veronique tells the stories of two young women, Weronika and Veronique, both played by French actress Irene Jacob. One lives in Poland, the other in France. Both are passionate about music, love and life. Both have weak hearts. They never meet in the film, though Weronika sees Veronique from afar during a street protest in Poland. At times, they feel each other's presence, but don't know how to react to the feeling.

Exploring a simple story based on the myth of the 'twin soul', the film is a heady concoction of music, spirituality and transcendence that although slightly surreal in principle, is utterly convincing in its execution. The story is also completely indigineous to the medium of cinema because it is totally reliant on images and music – and Jacob's tour-de-force, expressive and sensitive performance.

BD50, 2xDVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:38:06 | 43.8 Gb + 14.1 Gb
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English

Director: Krzysztof Kieslowski
Cast: Irene Jacob, Wladyslaw Kowalski, Halina Gryglaszewska
Country: France, Poland, Norway
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Music, Mystery, Romance
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I vinti / The Vanquished (1953) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Raro Video

Michelangelo Antonioni's daring second feature, originally released in England as Youth and Perversion, was made as a commentary on the postwar generation. There was, and still is, the idea that children growing up in Europe during the WW2 had known nothing but violence throughout their lives, and thus became desensitized. The film began as a project designed to highlight the problem of juvenile delinquency in Europe.
I Vinti unfolds in three episodes, set in three different countries. In the first episode, set in France, a group of young people plans an outing in the country, where some of them plan to murder a rich friend and steal his money. The second episode takes place in Italy, where a young man smuggles cigarettes for a living and becomes involved in a murder. And in the third, set in London, a cynical, snooty young poet reports a dead body to the police, hoping to profit from it.
The finished product, compromised upon release by conservative producers and distributors who would force the director to re-edit a significant portion of the film, isn't in any form one of Antonioni's benchmark accomplishments. What it is, however, is a fascinating snapshot of a young filmmaker figuring out his political and aesthetic ideologies on screen, and an early example of contemporary omnibus storytelling which has since proven both profitable and popular.

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Les possedees du diable / Lorna the Exorcist (1974) Blu-Ray Le chat qui fume, DVD9 Mondo Macabro

Successful, wealthy, happily married businessman Patrick Mariel's privileged life is about to be threatened when his past literally comes back to haunt him. A strange woman Patrick met nearly two decades earlier has recently resurfaced and has been calling his home, prompting suspicion from his wife Marianne (Jacqueline Laurent), who begins to suspect he's having an affair. Strangely, Patrick seems to be at the mercy of the caller and even agrees to switch his family's vacation plans from St. Tropez to Camargue at the last minute specifically to meet up with her. This doesn't sit too well with Patrick's teenage daughter Linda (Lina Romay), who's recently been having weird sex dreams about a strange woman with outrageous eye makeup she's never met before.
Linda's visions intensify, strange supernatural manifestation overtake her mother, and her father must face the consequences of a bargain he made many years ago.

Jess Franco has one of, if not the most immense filmographies of all European Cult directors. He has over 200 films to his credit, and even in his 80's is still working on new works. Lorna the Exorcist may not be as well known as some of his others from the same period, but it certainly has the same atmosphere, and feeling that makes his films such a joy to fans the world over, and as such feels like a hidden gem in his vast filmography.

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Images (1972) Blu-Ray Arrow Academy, DVD9 MGM

Susannah York won the Best Actress award at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival for one of director Robert Altman's most intriguing but difficult films. It was Golden Globe nominated for 1973 Best English-Language Foreign Film.

She plays disturbed married heroine Cathryn, a schizophrenic housewife who questions her sanity when she finds herself battling actuality as her mind is haunted by troubling images of her life, of a former lover who died and of her fantasies, not knowing if these are demons of the mind or part of reality.

It is a dream, or rather a nightmare, of a film, with a screenplay by the director based on the star's own book In Search of Unicorns. Beautifully assembled and orchestrated by Altman, it is a very offbeat film and not at all easy going, but with effort it is possible to get into it.

Director: Robert Altman
Cast: Susannah York, Rene Auberjonois, Marcel Bozzuffi, Cathryn Harrison
Country: UK, USA
Genre: Drama, Horror, Mystery

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Llorenc Llobet Gracia: Vida en sombras / Life in Shadows (1949) + 22 curts restaurats / cortos restaurados / restored shorts (1928-1954) 3 x DVD9

Llorenc Llobet Gracia (1911 - 1976) has always bonded intimately with the world of cinema since his father gave him, in his young age, a Pathe-Baby camera. This childhood experience is re-enacted at the beginning of Vida en sombras, the only commercial film he made, in 1948, after having developed an intense activity in amateur cinema circles.

The plot, with autobiographical tinges, is about the life of a man born literally in a stall during one of the first cinema showings in Barcelona. His fascination for Chaplin's short-films and the Pearl White series forge his childhood and, in his yough, he devotes his time to write for cinema magazines and film everything he sees. However, the 1936 coup d'etat, ruins everything. While the protagonist, performed by Fernando Fernan Gomez, is shooting war images on the street, his pregnant wife, Maria Dolores Pradera, dies at home, fatally wounded by a burst of ammunition.
Traumatized by guilt, the protagonist decides to give up any contact with the cinema...

Director: Lorenzo Llobet Gracia (as Llobet Gracia)
Cast: Fernando Fernan Gomez, Maria Dolores Pradera, Isabel de Pomes
Country: Spain
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Al-mohager / The Emigrant (1994) DVD9

The biblical tale of Joseph is told from an Egyptian perspective in this interesting character study.

Adam (Michel Piccoli) has 8 sons, but Ram (Khaled Nabawy) is his favorite. Ram wants to travel to Egypt to study agriculture and help his family. But his brothers are jealous and his sister-in-law Basma (Safia El Emari) wants him dead, so the brothers tie him up and leave him in a ship's hold to die. Ram manages to escape, and is sold into the service of one of the pharaoh's top men. Ram manages to make an impression on the head of the pharaoh's guard, Amihar (Mahmoud Hemida), who gives the young upstart a tract of land in the desert. If he can grow crops there, the land is his. Ram, with the help of his beloved Hati (Hanan Turk), succeeds, but soon is caught in a sexual, religious and political power struggle between Amihar and his beautiful fiancee Simihit (Youssra).

DVD9 | NTSC 4:3 | 02:03:27 | 5.86 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Arabic
Subtitles: English hardcoded

Director: Youssef Chahine
Cast: Youssra, Khaled Nabawy, Mahmood Hemaidah
Country: Egypt, France
Genre: Drama
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Marcel Pagnol’s “Marseilles Trilogy” (The Fanny Trilogy): Marius (1931), Fanny (1932), Cesar (1936) 4 x DVD KINO Video, 3 x Blu-Ray Compagnie Mediterraneenne de Film, 3 x Blu-Ray and 4 x DVD9 Criterion Collection

When Marcel Pagnol adapted his play Marius for the cinema in 1931, he was a relatively well-known young playwright who had recently left behind his modest Marseillais beginnings and a teaching career. By the time Cesar , the third part of the trilogy, came out in 1936 (and was the no. 1 box-office hit for that year), he had become one of the most popular filmmakers in France, was running parallel careers as novelist, journalist, and publisher, and had founded his own film production company. His "empire" was completed by the opening of his own cinema in Marseilles for the release of Cesar. For although Pagnol had to move to Paris to "make it", his roots remained in the south, and the trilogy is first of all a tribute to Marseilles and its people.

Critics at the time may have preferred the cinematically innovative work of Renoir or Gremillon, or the committed manifestos of the Popular Front, but audiences flocked to see Pagnol's films and in particular the trilogy. Constant repeats on French television show that time has done nothing to erode this tremendous popularity, and some of the trilogy's phrases have entered the national vocabulary ("tu me fends le coeur!"). Apart from a first-class cast, Pagnol's joky claim that "I only write about cliches" may give a clue to this lasting appeal and relevance: like all Pagnol's films, Marius, Fanny, and Cesar share a direct concern with simple but basic psychological and social relations, and primarily the family.
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Welt am Draht / World on a Wire (1973) 2 x DVD Second Sight, 2 x Blu-Ray Second Sight Limited Edition

Science fiction loves to predict the future of technology...and occasionally, it hits a bullseye. Daniel F. Galouye's 1964 novel Simulacron-3 presented the the possibility of a virtual world where the inhabitants had no idea they were part of a simulation. The lead scientist behind this virtual world dies under questionable circumstances and another employee vanishes, leading one eyewitness through a spiraling mystery that makes him question the "reality" of the world around him. Less than 10 years later, prolific German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder adapted Galouye's novel into World on a Wire (Welt am Draht, 1973), originally a two-part television feature that added plenty of its own touches. Our man of action is Fred Stiller (Klaus Lowitsch), who witnesses the aforementioned disappearance of a co-worker and quickly becomes lost in a complex, layered hall of mirrors (literally and figuratively). As he inches ever closer to the truth, however, large chunks of World on a Wire begin to show their seams.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Cast: Klaus Lowitsch, Barbara Valentin, Mascha Rabben, Karl Heinz Vosgerau
Country: West Germany
Genre: Crime, Sci-Fi
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Fast Company (1979), Stereo (1969), Crimes of the Future (1970) Blu-Ray and 2 x DVD9 Blue Underground

Years before he melded his body grotesqueries with car collisions in the controversial Crash, director David Cronenberg helmed this more straightforward ode to one of his more obscure passions, competitive auto racing.

William Smith stars as Lonnie "Lucky Man" Johnson, an ex-champion drag racer who survives a harrowing explosion while testing a newly-designed, supercharged engine. His racing team's sponsor, the crooked FastCo Oil rep Phil Adamson (John Saxon), thinks this is the final nail in Lonnie's long careerhe's over the hill, and Adamson wants to throw the FastCo name behind up-and-coming funny car driver Gary Black (Cedric Smith). Ignoring the protests of his girlfriend Sammy (Claudia Jennings), Lonnie is determined to show up Black, and even takes a funny car out from under fellow team member Billy "The Kid" Brocker (Nicholas Campbell) to show Adamson he can still compete. But Adamson intends to use any means to stop Loonie...

Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: William Smith, Claudia Jennings, John Saxon, Nicholas Campbell, Don Francks, Cedric Smith
Country: Canada
Genre: Drama, Sport
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Brian De Palma Les Annees 60: Dionysus in ’69 (1970), The Responsive Eye (1966), Woton’s Wake (1962) DVD9

William Finley who stars in Woton's Wake and Dionysus in '69 would work with De Palma on a total of eight films including his most recognizable role as Winslow Leach in Phantom of the Paradise. Early on in his career Brian De Palma's fixation with voyeurism would become a central theme that he would explore time and again.

Brian De Palma Annees 60 gives his fans a chance to see some of his rarely seen early works in their best home video presentations to date. This collection of films is not representative of his later works which fans now associate him with.

Overall the films contained Brian De Palma Annees 60 may not be some of his best films to date, still they show that even early on De Palma had already developed his cinematic style.
De Palma's willingness to take on controversial subjects and his desire to satisfy himself as filmmaker is one the main reasons he has been able to make films for nearly forty five years and this set of films showcases an artist finding his muse.

DVD9 | PAL 4:3 | 163 min | 6.97 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: Francais
Genre: Drama, Documentary, Short, Horror

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The Naked Prey (1965) DVD9 (2007 edition) and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Although he directed and produced eight feature films during his career, Cornel Wilde was better known to movie audiences as an actor who excelled in swashbucklers (At Sword's Point, 1952) and athletic action roles (The Greatest Show on Earth, 1952). Only now, almost thirty years after his death, is his work as a director being reappraised as some of the most original and compelling work in the American cinema with his fifth feature, The Naked Prey, regarded as possibly his finest achievement.

Bearing similarities to the 1932 film version of Richard Edward Connell's short story, The Most Dangerous Game, a movie that had a profound effect on Wilde as a young boy, The Naked Prey follows a safari guide as he leads his party through the South African jungle. When the arrogant ivory hunter, who is financing the safari, refuses to pay homage to a group of tribesmen for entering their territory, there is bloody retribution. Only the safari guide is allowed to live...if he can outrun a group of armed warriors in pursuit. He is given a brief head start and then the chase begins, one which will test his strength, endurance and cunning repeatedly as he attempts to reach safety...

Director: Cornel Wilde
Cast: Cornel Wilde, Gert van den Bergh, Ken Gampu
Country: South Africa, USA
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Thriller
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Babyface (1977) Blu-Ray Vinegar Syndrome

Babyface is a great film to have come from the golden age of adult films and director Alex de Renzy.

Dan (Dan Roberts) is a dockworker in heaps of trouble after seducing Priscilla (Lyn Cuddles Malone), a sexed up teen looking for a little trouble to upset her uptight mother, Molly (Molly Seagrim). Nearly killed during a police chase, Dan hopes to reinvent himself as a male prostitute working in a brothel that services an exclusively female clientele, joining a stable of studs (including Joey Silvera and Paul Thomas). Initially overwhelmed by the job and its intimidating customers, Dan soon finds himself in deeper trouble when Molly zeroes in on his location, looking for revenge.

BD25 | 1080p AVC | 01:45:43 | 23.2 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none

Director: Alex de Renzy (as Alex deRenzy)
Cast: Rudy Graham, Blair Harris, Carla Harwood
Country: USA
Genre: Adult, Comedy
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Corruption (1983), The Last House on Dead End Street (1977) Blu-Ray Vinegar Syndrome

Directed by Roger Watkins (under the pseudonym of Richard Mahler), Corruption is one of those films that blends hardcore pornography with arthouse style to create something unique.

The dirty underbelly of business, sexual fantasy and the deprivation of love and sexual gratification collide in this unique offering from director Roger Watkins.

Corruption is a Faustian like tale where the protagonist sells his soul to a mysterious organization, who in return promise him power and fortune. From there things start too go awry in the protagonists personal and professional lives.

Overall Corruption is an extraordinary film that stands out as one of adult cinema's most unique cinematic experiences.

Director: Roger Watkins (as Richard Mahler)
Cast: Jamie Gillis, Michael Gaunt, Tiffany Clark, Milton Ingley (as Michael Morrison), Samantha Fox, George Payne
Country: USA
Genre: Adult, Crime; Horror

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Dead Man (1995) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

The films of Jim Jarmusch are generally multi-layered reflections of differing aspects of humanity. His films have a subtle and gentle humour that seem to ride well with his philosophical tales and poetic visions. The deliberate pacing and ambiguity of his films are generally not embraced by mainstream audiences, but are devoured by lovers of arthouse cinema.

The fact that Jarmusch had ventured into the western genre surprised many in 1995, with the release of Dead Man, although upon viewing the film, you realise quickly that Dead Man is much more than a simple stereotypical western. This tragic tale of a young man's decent into personal oblivion is rich in black humour, visually stunning and is highly intelligent filmmaking.

Johnny Depp plays William Blake, a Cleveland accountant who arrives in a frontier town ready to start a new life only to find out that the job he was promised has been given to another man.

While he is spending the night with a woman, her lover shows up and kills her. In self defense, Blake shoots the man and flees with a bullet in his chest. Nobody (Gary Farmer), an outcast Native American who was educated in England, looks after Blake and dispenses his spiritual vision of life. They have to elude various lawmen and bounty hunters who are on his trail.

Nobody is convinced that Blake is the reincarnation of the famous English poet and sees it as his mission to usher him back to the spirit world.

Neil Young's electric guitar score punctuates this imaginative Western which includes interesting meditations upon the myth of the frontier, violence, artistic outlaws, and the plight of mistreated Native Americans. Blake's arduous journey toward death is a wonder to behold.
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Verbotene Filme / Forbidden Films: The Hidden Legacy of Nazi Film (2014) DVD9

The documentary Forbidden Films opens with a familiar metaphor for cinephiles. As Felix Moeller's camera tours a Berlin archive of 1,200 German films made between 1933 and 1945, a guide mentions that the nitro-celluloid filmstrips are highly flammable. In both the literal and figurative sense, these Nazi propaganda movies are explosive.

Though most of the tamer Nazi films are available in edited versions that snip out the swastikas, 40 remain banned from public consumption in Germany because their ideology has been deemed too dangerous. These 40 are the ones that interest Moeller.

The film raises the question: Should these films – some of which, crude as they are, are still poisonous – be made available to the general public without restriction?

DVD9 | NTSC 16:9 | 01:37:57 | 5.09 Gb + 3% rec
Language: German
Subtitles: English

Director: Felix Moeller
Country: Germany
Genre: Documentary
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No Way Out (1950), All About Mankiewicz (1983) Blu-Ray Eureka – Masters of Cinema

No Way Out sees Poitier play Luther Brooks, a newly qualified doctor who's assigned to cover in the prison ward on his first night. There he treats two of the notorious Biddle brothers who are brought in after being shot and caught by the police. One of them, Johnny (Dick Paxton), looks considerably worse off than his leg injury suggests and Brooks thinks he may actually have a brain tumour. The doctor decides to take action straight away, but it's too late and Johnny dies. Ray Biddle (Richard Widmark), a violent racist, blames Brooks for his brother's death and vows to take revenge once he's on his feet, not only on Brooks, but on the local black community as a whole. On top of this pressure, Brooks is worried that perhaps he was to blame for the patient's death, so wants an autopsy to define the cause. This requires consent from Johnny's closest family though and Ray of course would never allow it...

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Cast: Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell, Stephen McNally, Sidney Poitier, Harry Bellaver
Country: USA
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Thriller
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Le gang (1977) Blu-Ray

After the enormous popularity of Borsalino and its sequel Borsalino et Co. in the early 1970s, director Jacques Deray and actor/producer Alain Delon hoped to repeat their success with Le Gang, a similar kind of period gangster action film. The film was based on a novel by Roger Borniche, which recounted the real-life story of a notorious gangster boss, Pierre Loutrel (known as "Pierrot le Fou").

In Le Gang (1976), set in 1945 when the French police are somewhat disorganised while trying to root out Nazi collaborators from their ranks, Delon (in a curly wig) assembles a gang which embarks on a series of daring robberies. The story is told in flashbacks from the point of view of Delon's mistress as his mournful gang gather round his deathbed.

BD25 | 1080p AVC | 01:43:41 | 21.7 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Francais
Subtitles: English, Japanese

Director: Jacques Deray
Cast: Alain Delon, Laura Betti, Xavier Depraz
Country: Italy, France
Genre: Crime, Drama
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Clouzot: The Early Works: The Terror of Batignolles / La terreur des Batignolles (1931), Dragnet Night / Un soir de rafle (1931), The Unknown Singer / Le chanteur inconnu (1931), I’ll Be Alone After Midnight / Je serai seule apres minuit (1931), My Cousin from Warsaw / Ma cousine de Varsovie (1931), Tell Me Tonight / La chanson d’une nuit (1932), Dream Castle / Chateau de reve (1933) 2 x Blu-Ray Kino Lorber

Henri-Georges Clouzot (The Wages of Fear, Diabolique) is considered one of the masters of French cinema. The filmmaker has a master's eye for visual storytelling. His most cherished works clearly demonstrate Clouzot's artistic brushstrokes as a director are uniquely his own. With several classic films made during his legacy as a director he is an artist who has undeniably made a mark in the pantheon of filmmaking history.

Clouzot: The Early Works is an interesting compilation of some of the filmmaker's earliest forays into filmmaking. This set showcases his beginnings as a filmmaker when he worked as a screenwriter for dialogue adaptations and as an assistant director. It also includes his directorial debut, The Terror of Batignolles (1931), a short film that only hints at what was to come from Clouzot.

As with other master filmmakers who started their prolific careers during the early era of studio filmmaking (such as the brilliant Alfred Hitchcock), Clouzot's earliest filmmaking demonstrate his finesse for the art and craft while only giving a glimpse of his later brilliance. Before making classics like The Wages of Fear he had to learn the ropes of filmmaking. This set showcases his growth from a novice to a skilled filmmaking who would one day become an auteur.

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John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) 2 x Blu-Ray Shout! Factory – Scream Factory Collector’s Edition, Blu-Ray Arrow Films Limited Edition

A Norwegian helicopter circles the perimeter of United States National Science Institute, station 4, a remote scientific outpost deep in the Arctic. For reasons unknown, a gunman inside the chopper fires a rifle at a dog. The engagement ends with the copter down and the two-man crew killed. The confused American research team takes in the seemingly harmless dog, and several of the group, including R.J. "Mac" MacReady (Kurt Russell), take their own helicopter to the Norwegian outpost in hopes of discovering what drove the Norwegians to hunt the dog in such an aggressive manner that ultimately cost them their lives. There, amidst the smoldering remains of the station, they find the remnants of some "thing." Taking it back to station 4, the facility's medical examiner finds inside of it normal human organs, but the "thing's" external appearance is anything but, a bloody jumble of limbs, torsos, and faces melded together as one. Soon after, the team discovers a deadly creature in their midst, one that can absorb and imitate any life form it so chooses, leaving the team confused, frightened, and untrusting of one another. A series of bloody events reveals that appearances can be deceiving, that your best friend may very well be harboring inside of him a deadly creature capable of unleashing unspeakable, grotesque attacks.

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Rosemary’s Baby (1968) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Roman Polanski's (Carnage; The Pianist; Chinatown) 1968 Hollywood debut Rosemary's Baby introduced the already established European director of such psychological dramas as Repulsion to an American market with a similar journey through a woman's madness. This time around, however, the journey would take on more supernatural leanings, and Rosemary's Baby, based on the novel by Ira Levin, would also lead the way for the horror/thrillers of the 1970s such as The Exorcist and The Omen.

Starring a waifish Mia Farrow straight from her Peyton Place role in the titular role as Rosemary, the film follows the Woodhouses, Guy (John Cassavetes; A Woman Under the Influence) and Rosemary as they move into a new apartment in Manhattan, the historic building carrying a long history of gruesome deaths. Their nosy elderly neighbors inveigle their way into the Woodhouse's lives. When Rosemary becomes pregnant – the implication being that Rosemary has been raped by the devil himself as we see in an earlier nightmare sequence – Rosemary becomes increasingly suspicious about her neighbors, her doctor, and even her husband, suspecting they want to steal her baby and use it for satanic rituals.

What makes Rosemary's Baby so effective, however, is the fact that the film's focus is rarely on anything supernatural. As a viewer we are forced to question right up to the very end whether Farrow's character Rosemary is truly being targeted by supernatural forces, or if she is just a woman knocked of center by her new circumstances and in the midst of a breakdown. Polanski, already a master at such topics by this time, builds the tension masterfully through his use of the camera, the eerie jazz-inspired score from Krzysztof Komeda, and a breakout performance from Farrow herself.
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Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns (1957) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Forty Guns stars the great Barbara Stanwyck as Jessica Drummond, a wealthy landowner in Arizona. She's a powerful woman who has control over the 'forty guns' of the title, a band of riders who help her maintain her dominant position over the area alongside her ability to pay off anyone she needs. When ex-hired gun Griff Bonnell (Barry Sullivan) and his two brothers ride into town and put a stop to her brother Brockie's (John Ericson) drunken bullying, Jessica begins to lose her tight grip. This isn't helped by the fact that she falls in love with Griff. Brockie isn't about to let the Bonnells get away with what they did though and Jessica becomes torn between both sides whilst Griff's life is put in danger.

A remarkable, typically eccentric film produced, written, and directed by the irreplaceable Samuel Fuller, Forty Guns is quite unlike any Western made before or since. It's floridly melodramatic in the Douglas Sirk manner and, for its time, was explicitly violent with outrageous sexual innuendo.
Like many other Fuller films, Forty Guns influenced the director's younger European counterparts.

Director: Samuel Fuller
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Barry Sullivan, Dean Jagger
Country: USA
Genre: Romance, Western
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