Long feng dian / Adventure of the King (2010)

Emperor Zhu Zhengde (Richie Jen) flees the palace after his mother picks an unappealing bride for him to marry. The emperor disguises himself as a commoner and attempts to live his life as one. Unfortunately, the emperor has always lived a pampered life and the emperor soon loses his money and his memory. The owner (Barbie Hsu) of an inn takes pity on this man and takes him in. Meanwhile, the emperor's evil uncle scours the land looking for the emperor and planning to take his throne ...

DVD5 | NTSC 16:9 | 01:48:52 | 4.35 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Chinese
Subtitles: English, Chinese
Genre: Comedy, Romance

Director: Shu-Kai Chung
Cast: Richie Jen, Barbie Hsu, Changjiang Pan
Country: China, Hong Kong
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Robert Kramer Work volume 04: Guns (1980), Naissance (1981), La peur (1983) DVD9

Following a series of films questioning commitment and politics in America and culminating with Milestones 1975, and a 1977 documentary on Lisbon's Carnation Revolution, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Portugal, Robert Kramer moved to France with his family. The first film he made there was Guns, an intricate feature which echoed the paranoid films of 1970's Hollywood. With Guns, Kramer continues his exploration of the militant psyche, while at the same time experimenting with different forms of narration.

"There are two distinct strands of reality in Guns. One deals with
the world at large. Tony (Patrick Bauchau), a journalist, speaks of 'a nonsensical story'. We no longer have any way to penetrate this wider world. The other strand concerns our intimate and personal experiences, as represented by Margot (Juliet Berto), who has decided to dedicate herself to caring for her dying mother. This strand comprises everything that results from her decision. I used the decline of Margo's mother as a means of discussing certain things." (Robert Kramer)

Director: Robert Kramer
Cast: Patrick Bauchau, Juliet Berto, Peggy Frankston
Country: France

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David Cronenberg’s Crash (1996) Blu-Ray Turbine, 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

In this bracing adaptation of J.G. Ballard's pathologically phantasmagorical novel, television producer James Ballard (James Spader) and his wife, Catherine (Deborah Kara Unger), light the gloom of their empty relationship with frank accounts of their extramarital conquests. They're desperately in need of a new thrill.

Their lives are transformed when James is involved in a car accident that leaves him bruised and broken and the male passenger in the other car dead. But the other, surviving driver, Dr. Helen Remington (Holly Hunter), gets all revved up over this horrible collision. After leaving the hospital, James and Helen climb into his mangled car and discover a new kind of auto-eroticism.

Suddenly, a whole world is opened for James and the sexually experimental Catherine: a subculture of car-crash survivors who seek to reexperience the mortality they so narrowly escaped by purposefully getting into more accidents and having sexual liaisons with fellow survivors...

Director: David Cronenberg
Cast: James Spader, Holly Hunter, Elias Koteas, Rosanna Arquette, Peter MacNeill
Country: Canada
Genre: Drama
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An American Trilogy – 3 films by Cyril Morin: The Activist (2014), NY84 (2016), Hacker’s Game (2015) 2 x Blu-Ray

"An American Trilogy" is a compilation of three independent movies directed and written by Cyril Morin, showing three "American tragedies" over the last 40 years.

THE ACTIVIST - A riveting political thriller set during the Wounded Knee protest in 1973. Two Native American activists are arrested and held in custody in a small sheriff's office in the middle of nowhere. Why are they secretly kept there when the events make national news? When a lawyer is assigned to the case, she will realize there is more to investigate than it seems...

NY84 - Three young artists and lovers, Kate, Anton, and Keith, live carefree in the New York art scene of the early 1980s. They party, photograph, paint, sing, and play their way through the clubs and lofts of Alphabet City. The party ends in 1984 when Anton and Keith contract a mysterious illness known as the gay cancer. What follows is an intimate glimpse into their creative and emotional lives as the trio loses their youth and innocence.

HACKER'S GAME - A modern, relevant, and suspenseful techno thriller. Soyan is a hacker hired by a high profile cyber security firm running covert activities for international clients. Loise is a cyber detective. Soyan and Loise embark on an intense but dangerous romance after Soyan s boss ask him to protect the same arms dealer that Loise is determined to capture. Will Soyan and Loise leave their virtual world and risk everything for true love?
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9 Songs (2004) DVD9 Sony Pictures, Blu-Ray Optimum Releasing

What is a relationship, what is love between two people, and why isn't it allowed to show to people in love having sex? Those were the questions which led Michael Winterbottom to '9 Songs', a love story told from a sexual point of view by two people making love.

In a flight over Antarctica, Matt (Kieran O'Brien), a member of the British Survey team, recalls his passionate sexual affair with Lisa (Margo Stilley). He says: "When I remember Lisa, I don't think about her clothes, or her work, where she was from, or even what she said. I think of her smell. Her taste. Her skin touching mine." They meet in a large music hall for a rock concert in London and go to bed in his apartment afterwards. Their relationship is not built on sharing intimate details of their lives or commenting on the state of the world. What they have in common is a love of loud and raucous music and sex in all its different permutations.

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Kieran O'Brien, Margo Stilley, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
Country: UK
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance

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Amanece, que no es poco / Dawn Breaks, Which Is No Small Thing (1989) DVD5, Blu-Ray

One-of-a-kind Spanish surreal comedy that is so dense with gags, eccentricities, sketches, characters, fantastical absurdities and punchlines, that it is almost impossible to describe.

It tells the story of a father and son arriving to a small village lost in the mountains where their inhabitants have a quite bizarre communal life: masses are like parties and people vote in order to elect the major, priest, teacher, prostitute and adulterers. Everyone seems to be an avid reader of William Faulkner and have a deep personal view of the world. Spanish cultural stereotypes are systematically presented in amusing forms, but criticism towards the Franco's regime always lies beneath jokes and gags.

"Amanece, que no es poco" is probably one of the most interesting examples on surrealist comedy in the modern spanish history. This film could be considered as an unconventional fresco of what Spain was and still is.

Director: Jose Luis Cuerda
Cast: Jose Sazatornil, Carmen de Lirio, Francisco Martinez
Country: Spain
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
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Newman’s Law (1974) Blu-Ray Kino Lorber

From Richard T. Heffron, the director of "Trackdown", "Futureworld", "Foolin' Around" and "I, the Jury", comes this action-packed thriller starring George Peppard ("The Groundstar Conspiracy", "P.J.") as an honest L.A. cop battling criminals and corrupt policemen in his own precinct.

Detective Vince Newman, a tough but honest cop investigating a reputed druglord named Lo Falcone (Louis Zorich). After two years of coming up short on evidence, Newman finally hits paydirt when he and his partner Garry (Roger Robinson) discover a mountain of hashish and the dead body of the nephew of Falcone's mob rival Dellanzia (Abe Vigoda) in a house owned by Falcone.

However, the too-slick district attorney (Gordon Pinsent) refuses to prosecute the case after Newman's reputation — and potential testimony — are tarnished by a frameup by Falcone's men. With no longer a job or pension to risk, Newman has little to lose by bringing Falcone to justice his way.

Director: Richard T. Heffron
Cast: George Peppard, Roger Robinson, Eugene Roche
Country: USA
Genre: Action, Crime, Thriller
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Time Limit (1957) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Kino Lorber

Major Harry Cargill (Richard Basehart) was the highest ranking American officer while being held in a North Korean prisoner of war camp. His fellow prisoners admired him and considered him unbreakable until the day he became a collaborator, spreading anti-American, pro-Communist propaganda not only in the camp but over radio broadcasts. Later, liberated from the camp, Cargill faces the possibility of court martial for treason. But first an Army investigator, Col. Edwards (Richard Widmark), must make a recommendation for or against court martial. And Edwards suspects there's more to the story than he's been told. What could possibly make a man suddenly betray his country? What pressure was applied to Cargill in the camp to cause him to break?

It's a deeply serious film not just about war but about patriotism, idealism, and the ways in which war inevitably strips soldiers of parts of their humanity.

Director: Karl Malden
Cast: Richard Widmark, Richard Basehart, Dolores Michaels, Rip Torn
Country: USA
Genre: Drama, War
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Chicago (1927), The Golden Twenties (1950) 2 x DVD and Blu-Ray Flicker Alley

Seventy-five years before it was released as an Oscar-winning musical, Chicago was a sassy silent film created by Cecil B. DeMille's production company. It boasted a brilliant turn by Phyllis Haver as the heartless Roxie and, just to make things yummier, it was secretly directed by Mr. DeMille himself!

The story should be familiar to most filmgoers. The blonde seductress Roxie Hart has been two-timing her good-natured husband Amos (Victor Varconi). Roxie is a true gold digger, and Amos's empty pockets don't turn the girl on any longer. She has been having an affair with a moneyed businessman, Rodney Casely (gravel-voiced character actor Eugene Pallette), and when Casely tries to drop her, Roxie shoots him. The district attorney (Walter Richmond) is more than ready to string the murderess up, but a reporter (T. Roy Barnes) sees a way to milk the case and sell some papers. He dubs Roxie "the Jazz Slayer" and plasters her pretty face on the front page. A celebrity is born!

It's a terrifically entertaining mix of humor and melodrama, as well as a pungent critique of trash journalism. It's a film that was thought to be lost for a long time, until an intact print was found in DeMille's archives in 2006.
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Buffet froid / Cold Cuts (1979) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Kino Lorber

Superb black comedy and a tour-de-force of the absurd. This is about morbid fears, murder and cliches, an absurd world where people break out in compulsive violence as if they were being controlled, a place where everyone is sad and afraid but when death comes along, they shrug it off. A man finds his knife in a man's stomach who claims he killed him. A police inspector is morbidly afraid of string orchestras, murdering or jailing violinists, and arguing that murderers are OK because if you put them away, you'd be contaminating the innocents in jail. And thus, the movie is endlessly surprising, moving from one absurd hilarious scene to another, including a doctor who charges money for raping a patient, a man who sets up his own murder, and high-class torture by chamber orchestra.

The best way to enjoy this very, very strange film is to let it transport you to the Wonderland where its kooky characters reside and then get comfortable in their company. If you question its intentions from the get-go or try to discover the logic that explains the madness that will unfold before your eyes, you will kill a lot of precious brain cells and grow incredibly frustrated.

Director: Bertrand Blier
Cast: Gerard Depardieu, Bernard Blier, Jean Carmet
Country: France
Genre: Comedy, Crime
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Lo sceicco bianco / The White Sheik (1952) DVD9 Criterion Collection, Blu-Ray Studiocanal

This early Federico Fellini 1952 movie, his first as writer and sole director (after jointly filming 1951's Lights of Variety), is an extremely eye-catching and highly diverting triumph.

Newlyweds Wanda (Brunella Bova) and Ivan (Leopoldo Trieste) Cavalli have just arrived for their honeymoon in Rome from their village in the countryside. The thoroughly middle-class Ivan has every minute of their stay in Rome planned out. Most of it is to be spent with his uncle, who is an employee of the Vatican, and his family. The highlight will be an audience with the Pope.

Wanda heads upstairs while Ivan is on the phone and gets a dreamy look in her eyes when she looks over the city. Before we know it, she asks to take a hot bath then sneaks out of the hotel. She is headed to the studio where her idol Fernando Rivoli (Alberto Sordi), better known as the "white sheik", works. She has written Rivoli several fan letters signed "Passionate Dolly" and he wrote back asking her to visit if she ever happened to be in Rome.

Director: Federico Fellini
Cast: Alberto Sordi, Giulietta Masina, Brunella Bovo, Leopoldo Trieste
Country: Italy
Genre: Comedy, Drama
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Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse / The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) 2 x DVD9 Criterion Collection, Blu-Ray Eureka – Masters of Cinema

A sequel to his enormously successful silent film Dr. Mabuse: The Gambler, Fritz Lang's The Testament of Dr. Mabuse reunites the director with the character that had effectively launched his career. Lang put slogans and ideas expounded by the Nazis into the mouth of a madman, warning his audience of an imminent menace, which was soon to become a reality.

With the titular character, crime lord Dr. Mabuse now locked away in an asylum, taken by madness, under the watchful eye of Professor Baum, mysterious violent crimes begin to occur around the city. The only clues left behind lead to the impossible scenario that the nefarious crime lord has been directing the crimes from his cell in the asylum.

Using the same stunning visuals that defined his silent films, like Metropolis and the earlier Mabuse film, Lang creates an astonishing vision of the morose, high tech, and eerie impending doom that would find itself banned by the Reich. Shadowy docks, empty warehouses, foggy nights, explosions, and a fantastic climax verging on the supernatural all make The Testament of Dr. Mabuse one of Lang's classics on par with his most memorable title, the Metropolis.

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Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) Blu-Ray Eureka – Masters of Cinema

Fritz Lang's final feature brings his career full circle to the core thriller concepts he pioneered back in 1922: superstitious human nature and sinister technological advances combine to make the 20th century an Age of Terror. Lang reboots his highly cinematic Weimar-era narrative tricks for a film that heralds the beginning of a brave new world where total surveillance and mind control are at the service of paranoid conspiracies.

Police inspector Kras receives a phone call from the psychic Peter Cornelius who predicts the murder of journalist Peter Barter at the traffic lights moments before it happens. In investigating the murder, Kras discovers there have been an alarming number of suspicious deaths of high-profile people where the common factor is that all have stayed at the Luxor Hotel. Kras finds links to the late criminal mastermind Dr Mabuse and comes to believe that Mabuse is still alive...

Director: Fritz Lang
Cast: Dawn Addams, Peter van Eyck, Gert Frobe, Wolfgang Preiss
Country: West Germany, France, Italy
Genre: Crime, Mystery, Thriller
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Queen Bee (1955) DVD5

An Academy Award nominee for Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design, QUEEN BEE (1955) is the story of a manipulative socialite in Georgia who tries to control the lives of those around her to disastrous effect. In the tradition of a Southern Gothic melodrama by Tennessee Williams, this movie provides a showcase for Crawford's most aggressive, scheming seductress since her role in The Women.

Jennifer Stewart (Lucy Marlow) travels from the Midwest to the South, to stay at the home of her cousin Eva Phillips (Joan Crawford), who has been her benefactress. She finds the inhabitants of the Phillips home bitter. Eva's husband Avery (Barry Sullivan) is a beaten-down alcoholic, scarred by a mysterious car accident. Jud Prentiss (John Ireland) is Eva's former lover and now manages the family mill. Avery's sister Carol (Betsy Palmer) is in love with Jud but doesn't know about his past with Eva, nor the fact that she keeps attempting to seduce him. Over this brooding household rules Eva... the manipulative, possessive, passive-aggressive queen bee.

Director: Ranald MacDougall
Cast: Joan Crawford, Betsy Palmer, John Ireland, Fay Wray
Country: USA
Genre: Drama
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Lo straniero / The Stranger (1967) DVD9, DVD5

The Stranger is a literal (but still very cinematic) adaptation of the novel by Albert Camus.

Camus's central character, Meursault (Mastroianni) is a Frenchman living in occupied Algiers, profoundly alienated from the world around him. Unable to feel anything, he goes through the motions of his life. He feels nothing at his mother's funeral, he feels nothing at the sight of a man viciously abusing his girlfriend, and, most notably, he feels nothing as he kills an Arab on a sandy beach, in the blistering heat and blinding glare of the North African sun. In the trial that ensues, he is condemned not so much for his crime but for his cool, seemingly uncaring demeanor. Which makes him about as un-Viscontiesque a character as one can imagine.

It is a low-key but magnificent performance, played out against the arid scenery of northern Africa, capturing the blank alienation of Camus's existential anti-hero perfectly.

This is an intelligent and honest film but, while Visconti's and writing are admirable, even he is not quite able to reconcile Meursault's meandering motivelessness with the moral depths alluded to in the novel. Unsurprisingly, Camus's book proves a hard nut to crack as a movie, though this is a commendable attempt.
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La venexiana / The Venetian Woman (1986) DVD5

Venice, 16th century: The young, handsome Jules arrives in the city. Staying for one night only before journeying on, he is looking for an erotic adventure. There is the attractive girl Valeria, whose husband is out of town. Jules is deeply stunned by her and a "date" is arranged at midnight. But someone else has laid eyes on him – the lonely widow Angela, said to be the most beautiful woman of Venice. Tough choice for Jules...

The screenplay is adapted from a 16th century theater play by an anonymous writer, and that play is clearly in the same vein as Boccaccio's 14th century story collection "Decameron", one of the most important and popular pieces of Italian Renaissance literature.

DVD5 | PAL 16:9 | 01:23:08 | 4.06 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Italiano
Subtitles: English, Italiano
Genre: Drama, Romance

Director: Mauro Bolognini
Cast: Laura Antonelli, Monica Guerritore, Jason Connery
Country: Italy
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V: The Final Battle (1984) 2 x Blu-Ray

V: The Final Battle begins several months after the first miniseries ended.

After winning its first victories against the alien Visitors, the Resistance is growing ever stronger. But the Visitors are adapting too, strengthening their armor and security measures as they harvest Earth's water and Humanity itself for food. The good news is that there's an alien Fifth Column that's willing to help stop them… and the Resistance has discovered a bacteria that can kill the Visitors. Weaponized as a "red dust," it provides the perfect means to fight back. But the Visitors have a contingency plan—they'll use one of their "motherships" as a doomsday device to destroy the Earth if their efforts are defeated.

BD50 + BD25 | 1080p AVC | 267 min | 64 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Director: Richard T. Heffron
Cast: Jane Badler, Michael Durrell, Robert Englund
Country: USA
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
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V: The Original Miniseries (1983) Blu-Ray Warner Archive Collection

Our world changes forever with the arrival of the Visitors in mother ships. They seem friendly and human, but this familiar form hides a nasty enemy. The reptilian aliens have nefarious plans and will do anything to keep the populace from discovering them. Scientists are the primary target and are rounded up for "conversion" on the ships. Meanwhile, the Visitors mount a propaganda campaign to keep everyone subservient to their will. It's a brilliant strategy, but individuals like investigative reporter Mike Donovan (Marc Singer) and Dr. Julie Parrish (Faye Grant) mount a resistance. Their odds of survival are slim, but the determined group has a chance if they stick together. As the casualties rise, they enact a daring mission to strike at the Visitors and discover their true plans.

The Original V Mini Series was one of the most popular Sci-fi Television events of all time. An estimated 65 million people in the US alone tuned in to watch it.

Director: Kenneth Johnson
Cast: Jane Badler, Michael Durrell, Faye Grant
Country: USA
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
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Scorsese Shorts: What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963), It’s Not Just You, Murray! (1964), The Big Shave (1967), Italianamerican (1974), American Boy: A Profile of – Steven Prince 1978) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

"A filmmaker shows what his career will be in his first 150 feet of film," François Truffaut once wrote. He was talking about Jean Vigo at the time, but he might as well have been talking about Martin Scorsese, whose early short films — from the narrative works of his student years at New York University and immediately afterward to the midlength documentaries he made as his feature-filmmaking career was getting underway — reveal the energy, eclecticism, and invention that would make him one of the most exciting American directors of the seventies and, eventually, one of the great artists of our time.

Criterion's release of five early Martin Scorsese shorts reveals that the filmmaker knew the kind of artist he was and wanted to be at a young age. All of the films included in this set contain seeds of future Scorsese classics, and they're all formally playful and sophisticated, with lasting career reverberations: Four of the five shorts center around the rapture and mythology of storytelling, while the fifth plumbs the theme of self-annihilation that would become a Scorsese leitmotif. Collectively, the five films span two distinct periods in Scorsese's career: as an N.Y.U. student and graduate in the early-to-mid 1960s, and as a rising filmmaker in the mid-to-late '70s.

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Ring of Spies / Shadow of Treason (1964) DVD5 and Blu-Ray Network

There have always been spies men and women who have pried for patriotism, for religion, for love... or for money. This intriguing drama is based on the true story of the Portland spy ring an unlikely Soviet operation active in southern England from the late 1950s until January 1961 when the core members were arrested.

A disgruntled Navy Clerk is transferred to a secret research establishment and is subsequently black-mailed/paid by Czech intelligence to procure secrets for them. He seduces the secretary who controls the most secret documents, and they enjoy the fruits of their treachery until the British authorities begin to close in on them.

This film rocked Britain because it showed that spies could be living in the most mundane and suburban of circumstances, literally next door to you.

It's interesting to see how 'real' espionage actually works, with a lot of screen time devoted to the details of how the spy ring actually operated. Both traitors were eventually caught and the film ends revealing what happened to them once the authorities got a hold of them.
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Crackers (1984) Blu-Ray Kino Lorber

Directed by Louis Malle, the award-winning French film-maker who gave us Pretty Baby, Atlantic City and Damage, this offbeat American comedy caper is actually a remake of the 1956 Italian movie, Big Deal on Madonna Street.

Crackers transposes the setting from Rome to San Francisco but keeps the group of quirky and clumsy criminals who plan a safe-cracking caper. The eccentric gang of thieves (including veteran actor Sutherland and then-newcomer Penn) attempts the burglary of a local pawnshop (owned by Warden) only to bungle the job in a series of escalating misadventures that comically highlight the ineptitude of the crew.

BD50 | 1080p AVC | 01:31:40 | 30 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: English
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Thriller

Director: Louis Malle
Cast: Donald Sutherland, Jack Warden, Sean Penn
Country: USA
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Cenere (1917) DVD5

The most important aspect of "Cenere" is that it was the only film in which appeared the eminent Italian stage actress Dame Eleonora Duse.
Set in Sardinia, a barren and disconsolate land, where Rosalia, a poor young mother, entrusts her only son to the natural father, who is well-off and already married. Before she leaves her boy, the woman gives to the child an amulet in order to protect him. The amulet will be the key to put him in connection with his old mother when the boy grows up.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 00:39:09 | 1.57 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Italian intertitles
Subtitles: none
Genre: Drama

Directors: Febo Mari, Arturo Ambrosio
Cast: Eleonora Duse, Febo Mari, Nietta Mordeglia
Country: Italy
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Rat Race (2001) DVD9

A criminally underused John Cleese plays Donald Sinclair, an eccentric billionaire who's devised a new way to entertain highrollers at his Las Vegas hotel. Instead of decks of cards or spinning wheels, the game involves setting a group of randomly selected visitors to the hotel on a race to find $2 million that is stowed away in a train station locker in New Mexico. There aren't any rules, and the participants -- which include a guileless foreigner (Rowan Atkinson), a straightlaced attorney (Breckin Meyer), a disgraced football referee (Cuba Gooding Jr.), a scam artist team of brothers (Seth Green and Vince Vieluf), a mother and daughter meeting for the first time after 27 years (Whoopi Goldberg and Lanei Chapman), and a vacationing family (led by Jon Lovitz) -- have no idea that every step they take is being monitored remotely. Of course, all sorts of wacky hijinks ensue, ranging from a bus of crazed Lucille Ball fans to a talking cow dragged about by a hot air balloon.

DVD9 | NTSC 16:9 | 01:52:00 | 7.33 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English, Francais
Subtitles: English
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy

Director: Jerry Zucker
Cast: Breckin Meyer, Amy Smart, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr.
Country: USA, Canada
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Utvandrarna / The Emigrants (1971), Nybyggarna / The New Land (1972) 3 x DVD9 and 2 x Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

In every country there is a book which every schoolchild knows or an author who's embedded in the fabric of the culture. The Emigrants Suit, written by Wilhelm Moberg, comprises four books (The Emigrants, Unto a Good Land, The Settlers and The Last Letters Home). The novels are classics and considered to be amongst the best examples of Swedish literature. Adapting them to the screen was a daunting task but one Jan Troell was more than a match for. Along with Bengt Forslund, they condensed the tomes into two epic films, The Emigrants and The New Land.

The films tell the story of a group of poor country folk from the province of Smaland in Sweden. In over seven hours of considered yet riveting filmmaking, we follow their fortunes all the way to eventually settling in the United States. Set in 1850, there story largely revolves around Karl-Oskar Nilsson (Max von Sydow) and his wife, Kristina Johansdotter (Liv Ullmann). They live on a small farm with their four children, Karl-Oscar's parents and his wayward younger brother Robert (Eddie Axberg). Despite struggling to make ends meet on the small family farm, they vow to plough on. That changes after their eldest daughter dies due to the side-effects of malnutrition.

Along with Robert, several friends, family and other members of the province, they make the decision to emigrate to the United States. They dream of the promises of fertile land and freedom the new land offers. After an arduous and gruelling voyage, they disembark to find themselves in a strange country with highly limited grasp of the language. The family struggles on to build their new lives, with the perils of the natives and new country to contend with. Meanwhile, Robert tries to make his fortune in the Gold Rush.
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Early Women Filmmakers Collecton (1911-1940) 4 x Blu-Ray BFI

More women worked in film during its first two decades than at any time since. Unfortunately, many early women filmmakers have been largely written out of film history, their contributions undervalued. This necessary and timely collection highlights the work of 9 of early cinema's most innovative and influential women directors, re-writing and celebrating their rightful place in film history.

The BFI Early Women Filmmakers collection features a wide-ranging variety of fantastic work by female directors, writers and performers from the 1910s to the early 1940s, including Mabel Normand, Alice Guy Blache, Lois Weber, Dorothy Davenport, Germaine Dulac, Olga Preobrazhenskaya, Dorothy Arzner and Mary Ellen Bute. These women were technically and stylistically innovative, pushing the boundaries of narrative, aesthetics, and genre. Going back to the beginning of cinema, this collection makes visible the tremendous directorial contributions women made.

Clocking in at over 640 minutes of total content, including short documentaries that help to contextualise the films of these artists, this is a set that will keep anyone serious about film history busy for some time.
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Disputed Passage (1939) Blu-Ray Kino Lorber, DVD5

From Frank Borzage, the acclaimed director of 7th Heaven, Street Angel, Bad Girl, A Farewell to Arms, Desire, The Mortal Storm and Moonrise, comes this gripping story about the powerful healing ability of the human spirit.

John Wesley Beaven (John Howard, The Undying Monster), an understudy of Dr. 'Tubby' Forster (Akim Tamiroff, For Whom the Bell Tolls), esteemed professor of medicine and surgery, struggles to fully surrender to his teacher's philosophy of keeping the sterility of science separate from the warmth of the human spirit. His views are challenged after he falls in love with Lan Ying (Dorothy Lamour, Road to Morocco), a Chinese woman of American descent raised in Shanghai. Upon completion of paying a personal debt to her Chinese father, she promptly returns to John to accept his marriage proposal but is interjected by Forster claiming that she would ruin his life. When John becomes aware that Forster has interfered, he sets out to find his love in China.

Director: Frank Borzage
Cast: Dorothy Lamour, Akim Tamiroff, John Howard, Judith Barrett
Country: USA
Genre: Drama, War
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An Unmarried Woman (1978) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

When writer-director Paul Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman opened in 1978, it had the slogan, "She laughs, she cries, she feels angry, she feels lonely, she feels guilty, she makes breakfast, she makes love, she makes do, she is strong, she is weak, she is brave, she is scared, she is… an unmarried woman." This makes the film sound hokey, but it's actually an unpretentious look at a woman's life turned upside down.

Jill Clayburgh is terrific as Erica, a Manhattan gallery worker who has to forge a new life after her husband (a deliciously self-absorbed Michael Murphy) leaves her for a younger woman. Clayburgh delineates each stage of Erica's transformation into an independent woman – from abandonment and grief to anger, reconciliation, and empowerment – with delicacy and wit, and Mazursky captures the performance with a visual style that alternates elegant, formal compositions and freewheeling handheld camerawork to perfectly accentuate his title character's rollercoaster journey.

Director: Paul Mazursky
Cast: Jill Clayburgh, Alan Bates, Michael Murphy
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

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Perfect Friday (1970) Blu-Ray Kino Lorber

Mr. Graham (Stanley Baker, Accident, Lizard in a Woman's Skin) is a manager in a bank somewhere in London who is convinced that he has devised the perfect plan to get rich and retire in a foreign country with beautiful beaches. But to steal the money from the bank Mr. Graham needs two accomplices. This is where the stunningly beautiful Lady Britt Dorset (Ursula Andress, The 10th Victim, Red Sun) and her extravagant husband Lord Nicholas Dorset enter the picture. Both desperately need money to continue living beyond their means, but only Lady Dorset is brave enough to state the obvious. Graham seizes on their difficulties and suggests a bank robbery.

None of the three are to be trusted and a love triangle develops. A sum of 300,000 pounds is to be stolen from the vault under the bank's nose. The plan is clever and intricate, requiring Nick to impersonate a bank inspector on just the right day - the perfect Friday and exchange a box. All three have their own ideas and both men think they're going away with Britt at the end. A flat is rented and costumes purchased. The robbery eventually goes ahead without incident, but who goes away with Britt at Heathrow?

Director: Peter Hall
Cast: Ursula Andress, Stanley Baker, David Warner
Country: UK
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller

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The Man from Morocco (1945) DVD5

When a group of idealistic freedom fighters arrive in France during World War II, following Franco's triumph in the Spanish Civil War, they find themselves being taken as political prisoners by the collaborationist Vichy government. Following two years in a prison camp, they are sent to build a railway in the relentless heat of the Sahara desert. Treated as less than humans, one makes a brave escape to return to London to find his lover who believes him to be dead. She is being romantically pursued by a man who is his greatest enemy – a traitor to the cause of freedom. As he holds the names of some 2000 men who are to be trusted in occupied France to help the cause of freedom, he is in very great danger with plans afoot to relieve him of both the names – and his life!

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:51:38 | 4.05 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none
Genre: Action, Adventure

Director: Mutz Greenbaum (as Max Greene)
Cast: Anton Walbrook, Margaretta Scott, Mary Morris
Country: UK
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The Comfort of Strangers (1990) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection, DVD9 and Blu-Ray BFI

Adapting the acclaimed novel by Ian McEwan, playwright and screenwriter Harold Pinter lends his trademark unnerving dialogue and air of creeping menace to this spellbinding study of power, control, and the frighteningly thin line between pleasure and pain.

Colin (Everett) and Mary (Richardson) are second-honeymooning in Venice, warily striving to repair the fissures in their stale relationship. A seemingly fortuitous encounter with the aristocratic Robert (Walken) bemuses them, his evident hospitality sitting uneasily with his unusually frank questions and confessions. But the suave tale-spinner also catalyses what remains of the couple's sexual feelings for each other, and as if mesmerised, they return to the palazzo he shares with his submissive wife (Mirren), only half oblivious to the dangers awaiting them...

Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Christopher Walken, Rupert Everett, Natasha Richardson, Helen Mirren
Country: USA, Italy, UK
Genre: Drama, Thriller
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Reflections of Evil (2002) 2 x DVD5

Now, there are cult movies and then there are CULT movies. There are movies that gradually find exposure and a dedicated audience. There are movies that barely make a whimper initially and take years to catch on. And, there are movies so notorious and/or scarce they become the stuff of back alley legend.
Damon Packard's Reflections of Evil (2002) may be the first modern, digital equivalent of the underground cult film.

Bob (played by Packard himself) is an obese, sugar addicted, quite possibly insane, street seller of cheap watches. He still lives with his mother, who despite her henpecking complains cannot control her weird son. Given to Tourretes-like screaming fits and gorging himself on sweets, Bob is a seeming magnet for violence, be it from random pedestrians, homeless people, or dogs that assault him as he walks around LA.

Flashbacks to 1971 reveal Bob as a kid with his mother and sister, Julie (Nicole Vanderhoff), taking a Universal Studios tour. Julie gets off the tram, wanders around the backlot, and stumbles upon a young Steven Spielberg making his first film Something Evil. She then meets the Golden Guru and his followers who entice her with drugs. After what can only be described as a 2001ish psychedelic nightmare, she apparently OD's and is sent into the afterlife where her ghostly spirit wanders. And, eventually, we come to find she is looking for Bob.

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Die Russen kommen / The Russians Are Coming (1987), Karriere / Career (1971) DVD9 + DVD5 Edition Filmmuseum 107

In The Russians Are Coming, director Heiner Carow and screenwriter Claus Kuchenmeister tell the story of the final days of World War II from the perspective of a member of the Hitler youth. For this boy, an ardent devotee of National Socialism, the day that will later become known as "Liberation Day" in the GDR brings about the collapse of his entire world.

Originally included in the DEFA production schedule in 1966 as a reserve entry for the forthcoming 50th anniversary of the October Revolution in 1967, the almost-finished film was aborted in 1968. It would not be completed until 1987. A DEFA film about fascism without an anti-fascist hero would have been unusual at any time, but The Russians Are Coming strayed too far from the dominant narrative and was inopportune.

This double DVD presents a new, restored version of the film and allows viewers their first ever opportunity to compare it with Career (1971), in which Heiner Carow made use of parts of the unreleased material from The Russians Are Coming.

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The Complete Fritz Lang Mabuse Box Set: Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler / Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse / The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933), Die 1000 Augen des Dr. Mabuse / The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) 4 x DVD9 Eureka – Masters of Cinema

With two great bodies of work, the first in the German silent era, the other in Hollywood talkies, Lang (1890-1976) bestrides the history of cinema, arguably the most original, innovative and influential figure in film history. He virtually invented several movie genres, including the paranoid conspiracy thriller, and running through his oeuvre over three decades is the mysterious figure of the megalomaniac criminal genius, Dr Mabuse, who reflected the madness of the 20th century and its possessed leaders.

This superbly produced four-disc set in Eureka's Master of Cinema series features his three very different takes on Mabuse: the five-hour Dr Mabuse, The Gambler (1922), one of the masterpieces of silent cinema which captured the malaise of the Weimar Republic; The Testament of Dr Mabuse (1933), which targeted the ascendancy of Nazism and was his last German film before going into exile; and The 1,000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse (1960), his final movie, reflecting his thoughts on the new Germany and the cold war.

4xDVD9 | PAL | 495 minutes | 26.5 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Deutsch
Subtitles: English
Genre: Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

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Marriage Story (2019) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Marriage Story charts the dissolution of one married couple's (Adam Driver's Charlie and Scarlett Johansson's Nicole) relationship virtually from start to finish, as filmmaker Noah Baumbach follows the protagonists through the minutia of modern-day divorce and its myriad of humiliations and complications.

The film opens in a therapist's office, where Charlie and Nicole have each written down what they love about the other. Charlie reads his touching letter aloud, but Nicole refuses before storming out of the office. Before the instant turmoil, Charlie and Nicole lived in New York City with their young son, Henry (Azhy Robertson). Charlie directs experimental plays, usually starring Nicole, who was previously a teenage movie star. She is offered a starring role in a television pilot in Los Angeles and takes Henry to live with her mother, Sandra (Julie Hagerty), who has a special relationship with Charlie. The move is supposed to be temporary, but when Charlie arrives, he realizes Nicole is laying down roots in California. Pushed by Nicole, Charlie agrees to split amicably and forego hiring divorce attorneys. This changes when Nicole hires an experienced litigator, Nora Fanshaw (Dern), to handle the legal separation. As the case heads to court, the couple also must wade through feelings of betrayal, neglect and resentment, while saving face for young Henry.

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Breve Antologia Della Pittura Italiana (2006) 8 x DVD

Italian Art from 1200 to 1900. The life and works of 94 Italian famous painters from the 13th to the 20th century in a unique multimedia work of its kind.

22 hours of movies and documentaries from the Archive of the Istituto Luce, 1200 photographies, artists' biographies and interactive menus which create a great work.

8xDVD | PAL 4:3 | 1320 minutes | 51.6 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Italiano
Subtitles: English, Italiano
Genre: Documentary

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Madhouse / There Was a Little Girl (1981) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Arrow Films

Julia, a young teacher for deaf children living in Savannah, Georgia. Julia has horrid memories of her childhood, which was scarred by her sadistic twin sister Mary. At the urging of her uncle, Father James, Julia visits Mary, suffering from a severe skin disease, in a mental institution. The meet does not go well, and Mary vows to make Julia "suffer as she had suffered". As their mutual birthday approaches, several of Julia's friends and neighbors begin to die gruesome deaths, some of which committed by a mysterious Rottweiler dog that has some sort of connection to Mary. But is Mary really the killer?

A member of the Video Nasties library and banned for several years, Ovidio Assonitis' Madhouse (1981) is now getting the deluxe Blu-ray treatment from Arrow in this must-see release for fans of slasher cinema. Twisted, disturbing, and brutal this is definitely a fierce film and is on par with that of a Dario Argento film and other Italian horror films of the time.

BD50, DVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:33:20 | 40.6 Gb + 6.93 Gb
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Director: Ovidio G. Assonitis (as Oliver Hellman)
Cast: Patricia Mickey, Michael MacRae, Dennis Robertson
Country: Italy
Genre: Horror
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Buster Keaton: Three Films – Volume Two: The Navigator (1924), Seven Chances (1925), Battling Butler (1926) 3 x Blu-Ray Eureka – Masters of Cinema

As a pioneer of cinema and a king of the silent era, Buster Keaton needs no introduction. Holding his own alongside names like Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, the 'great stone face' had a unique style of physical comedy that is as technically impressive as it is hilarious.

Though the public taste in comedy has largely moved away from straightforward slapstick, largely because of the introduction of sound, his influence stretches from Orson Welles to Johnny Knoxville, and the films he directed and starred in remain captivating nearly a century later. In this second volume of his early work released by Eureka, you can find three classics of silent comedy: The Navigator (1924), Seven Chances (1925) and Battling Butler (1926). While they're all undeniably products of the time - some are more flawed than others - each one is a piece of film history, and they all provide a fascinating insight into the evolution of the cinematic absurd.

2xBD50 + BD25 | 1080p AVC | 201 min | 89.2 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English Intertitles
Subtitles: none
Genre: Action, Comedy, Romance, Sport

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Urlaub auf Ehrenwort / Furlough on Word of Honor (1938) DVD5

Based on the autobiographical novella of the same title by Kilian Koll, the film is set late in 1918, during the final stages of the First World War. A troop of German infantry are on their way from the Eastern to the Western Front and must change trains in Berlin. After marching through the centre of the city from one station to another, they must wait several hours for their connecting train. The major in command gives strict orders that no one must go into this city full of "deserters, revolutionaries, and defeatists", even though most of the men are from Berlin, but in response to the pleading of Colonel Hartmann (Fritz Kampers), who had saved his life in the trenches, young Lieutenant Pratorius (Rolf Moebius) grants passes on the men's solemn promise to return in time. The film follows several of the men, in particular four of different ages and from different milieux.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:22:58 | 3.97 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Deutsch
Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama, War

Director: Karl Ritter
Cast: Ingeborg Theek, Iwa Wanja, Rolf Mobius
Country: Germany
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Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens / Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922) Blu-Ray BFI, Blu-Ray Eureka – Masters of Cinema, 2xDVD Eureka – Masters of Cinema

An iconic film of the German expressionist cinema, and one of the most famous of all silent movies, F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror continues to haunt - and, indeed, terrify - modern audiences with the unshakable power of its images. By teasing a host of occult atmospherics out of dilapidated set - pieces and innocuous real - world locations alike, Murnau captured on celluloid the deeply - rooted elements of a waking nightmare, and launched the signature " Murnau - style" that would change cinema history forever.

The story is likely familiar to anyone who has seen any of the many Stoker adaptations: young real estate agent Hutter (Gustav von Wangenheim) is sent to a distant land to aid the bizarre Count Orlock (Schreck) in acquiring British property. Failing to heed local folk tales about the scary Nosferatu, Hutter goes to Orlock's castle and is soon trapped in the Count's nocturnal world...

Murnau has created a rarefied world where nothing is as it seems and the scent of fear inches across every frame. He also employed clever and surprisingly convincing special effects to make Count Orlock a creature who is not bound by spatial relationships or time restrictions. Playing with film speeds, double exposure, and other early effects tricks, Murnau practically splits the screen in half, showing us the realm of the undead on one side and the more grounded reality on the other.

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Les felins / Joy House (1964) Blu-Ray

Marc (Delon) is a two-bit hustler and playboy who makes the mistake of seducing the wife of an American gangster. Soon he is running for his life as hired hit men pursue him along the French Riviera. Taking refuge in a homeless shelter, he attracts the attention of Barbara (Albright), a wealthy widow, and her niece Melinda (Fonda), who distribute food to the poor on a weekly basis. The two women offer Marc room and board and a position as their chauffeur and he eagerly accepts, despite their strange behavior because the assassins have traced him to the mission. Once inside Barbara's chateau, Marc begins to realize he is a pawn in some mysterious plot but what is his alternative? With nowhere to run, but also no safety in his current position, Marc tries to get to the bottom of what happened to Barbara's husband and what is going on between the two women.

BD50 | 1080p AVC | 01:37:16 | 36.8 Gb + 3% rec
Language: French, English
Subtitles: English, French

Director: Rene Clement
Cast: Alain Delon, Jane Fonda, Lola Albright
Country: France
Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Thriller
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Diabolik / Danger: Diabolik (1968) DVD9, Blu-Ray Shout Factory

Adapted from a popular (and still-ongoing) Italian comic-book series, Danger: Diabolik takes place in a Europe where square authority figures spend a lot of time combating a masked criminal named Diabolik, played with icy cool and a deadly stare by John Phillip Law. A kind of rogue, epicurean Batman, Law lives in an underground lair lushly appointed with the latest mod furnishings: immense his-and-hers showers, an oversized rotating bed, and of course, a curvy partner in crime (Marisa Mell) to fill both.

Diabolik is a master criminal, pulling off one spectacular robbery after another to the endless frustration of the police. Ruthless and amoral, he nonetheless deeply loves Eva, and will risk everything to protect her. As his crimes become ever more spectacular, and the government teeters on the brink of chaos, even organized crime is pressed into service in order to capture the man.

Director: Mario Bava
Actors: John Phillip Law, Marisa Mell, Michel Piccoli, Adolfo Celi, Claudio Gora, Mario Donen
Country: Italy, France
Genre: Action, Comedy, Crime
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Beat the Devil (1953) DVD9 and Blu-Ray BFI

Undoubtedly one of the most peculiar films to appear from a major director and star in the 1950s is John Huston's Beat the Devil (1953). Produced by Humphrey Bogart's Santana Productions, the film was unlike anything being released by the major studios, and even today is a fascinating gem of cinematic chutzpah.

A motley crew of swindlers led by screen legend Humphrey Bogart try to strike it rich in this sophisticated noir comedy from 1953.

Bogart stars as Billy Dannreuther, frontman for a group of sinister "businessmen" stranded in an Italian port town, scheming for a way to take ownership of uranium-rich, government-owned land in Africa. Into this nest of vipers falls a naive British couple, Mr. and Mrs. Chelm (Edward Underdown and Jennifer Jones). As the lonely Mrs. Chelm flirts with Mr. Dannreuther, she weaves an outrageous tapestry of lies about her husband's financial and political interests, not realizing the ocean of deceit into which she is submerging them. Dannreuther's wife (Gina Lollobrigida), meanwhile, begins a flirtation of her own with Mr. Chelm, so that every allegiance is tested, every loyalty questioned in this romantic and criminal merry-go-round.

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Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales: La boulangere de Monceau / The Bakery Girl of Monceau (1963), La carriere de Suzanne / Suzanne’s Career (1963), Ma nuit chez Maud / My Night at Maud’s (1969), La collectionneuse / The Collector (1967), Le genou de Claire / Claire’s Knee (1970), L’amour l’apres-midi / Love in the Afternoon (1972) 6 x DVD and 3 x Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

"Why film a story when one can write it? Why write it when one is going to film it?" This is how Eric Rohmer (1920-2010) introduced his Six Moral Tales.

Welcome to the exciting, hesitant, guilt-laden and provocative world of Eric Rohmer, and his varied voyages of slightly intimidated romantic discovery. There are six Moral Tales (and some short subjects) and each finds a main character stymied by indecision: should he hew to the narrow moral path, or stop being so conflicted and let relationships happen as they may? Some are moral debates and others are just ruminations on the foolishness of males that overthink their love lives — or are these self-directed men simply trying to be considerate and fair while navigating their amorous possibilities?

For viewers who only care about plot, here's a quick summary that applies to most of the films in Eric Rohmer's "Six Moral Tales" series, now collected in a box set: Boy meets girl. Boy flirts with girl. Boy leaves girl for another girl whom he already loves. The story basically stays the same from the 1962 short "The Bakery Girl Of Monceau" through the 1972 feature Love In The Afternoon, although the second entry, Suzanne's Career, veers from it slightly.

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Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

With this compassionate, startling comedy that could have come from no other artistic sensibility, the brilliant Miranda July reveals a world both familiar and strange—an original vision of creativity, sexuality, childhood, and loneliness that emerges from a series of braided vignettes around a pair of potential lovers.

Richard Swersey (John Hawkes) is a shoe salesman and father of two, whose marriage has broken down. He sets up house in a close knit neighbourhood and shares custody of his 14 year old son Peter (Miles Thompson) and 7 year old Robby (Brandon Ratcliff). Christine (Miranda July) is an artist who lives in a world of her own. When she meets John at the shoe shop, she is drawn to him and they begin an unusual relationship. In the meantime, Peter becomes the guinea pig for two teenage girls experimenting with their sexuality and little Robby gets caught up in a sexually permissive internet chat with an anonymous stranger. Then there's little Sylvie (Carlie Westerman), who is secretly stashing all her dreams, along with various useful items, in her hope chest.

Director: Miranda July
Cast: John Hawkes, Miranda July, Miles Thompson
Country: USA, UK
Genre: Comedy, Drama

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The Byelorussian Station / Belorusskiy vokzal / Белорусский вокзал (1971) DVD5, Blu-Ray

25 years after the end of Great Patriotic War four comrades-in-arms attend the funeral of their friend. He was the only one of them who stayed in the military and rose to the rank of colonel. The rest of them turned to civil professions: locksmith, journalist, accountant and director of the plant.

Being gathered together due to tragic circumstances, during one day they suddenly fall into a variety of situations – both comic and tragic ones. But in each case friends are united by friendship, generosity and willingness to act according to justice, no matter what ...

That difficult day friends complete with a visit to their friend, the former front-line nurse. She sings a lyrical song of the war years, and they cry from the flood of memories as they think back 25 years ago, May 1945, when all of them were alive, young and happy of their victory ...

Director: Andrey Smirnov
Cast: Aleksey Glazyrin, Evgeniy Leonov, Anatoliy Papanov, Vsevolod Safonov, Nina Urgant
Country: Soviet Union
Genre: Drama

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2046 (2004) 2 x DVD

Writer/director Wong Kar Wai has created a dream-like, sci-fi, period reminisce that is a most unusual semi-sequel to his lush love story, "In the Mood for Love".

Consumed by the memory of an unfortunate love affair Chow (Tony Leung) is living in a world where reality is dangerously intertwined with fiction. In a small and dusty room of a cheap Hong Kong hotel Chow is finishing the final pages of a story recalling the women encountered throughout his life. In room 2047 strangers will show up, spend the night, and disappear without a trace barely making an impression on Chow. Except for his neighbor in room 2046, a beautiful prostitute who has captivated his imagination…so much as Chow is ready to follow her in the future where people travel to regain their lost memories.

Beautifully composed, often confusing, yet gently tingling your senses Kar Wai Wong's latest film 2046 is a pleasurable journey to a mysterious world where nothing is what it seems. Populated with stunningly beautiful women, gamblers, and plenty of shady characters Chow's world is indeed the perfect setting for a film which follows anything but a rational storyline. So much that the minute you turn your eyes away from the screen you will fall victim of Kar Wai Wong's deceiving camera and fail to put together the missing pieces in this quite intriguing film.

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Forbidden Fruit: The Golden Age of the Exploitation Pictures Volume 2: Reefer Madness (1936), Sex Madness (1938) Blu-Ray Kino Lorber

Volume 2 presents a double-feature Reefer Madness (1936) and Sex Madness (1938). Both are exploitation films designed to warn teenagers and young adults of the dangers of becoming addicted to, respectively, marijuana cigarettes and the dangers of venereal disease.

Perhaps one of the most infamous exploitation films of all time, Louis J. Gasnier's 1936 anti-marijuana propaganda piece, Reefer Madness (aka Tell Your Children) became a midnight movie sensation in the 1960s due to its unintentionally hilarious depiction of the "dangers of marijuana." The film was designed as a warning to parents about "public enemy number one," and centers around a young man who is made to believe that he committed a murder while high on pot.

Also included on this new release from Kino Lorber is Dwain Esper's 1938 film, Sex Madness (aka Human Wreckage), a film that takes the moralistic lecturing of Reefer Madness to new heights in its crusade against extramarital sex and the scourge of gonorrhea. Featuring graphic depictions of STD wounds, and a plot about a group of teenagers whose inability to say "no" lead to life-long afflictions of venereal disease, ruining marriages and destroying their lives for one night of passion.

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