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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