Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song (1971) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Vinegar Syndrome

From the bowels of cinematic hell comes this grandfather of all blaxploitation films. Written, directed, produced, and containing music composed by star of the film Melvin Van Peebles (father of Mario "I was Solo!" Van Peebles), "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song" was dedicated to "all the Brothers and Sisters who have had enough of The Man". It went on to pave the way for such legendary films as "Shaft", "Super Fly", and "Foxy Brown" as well as the not-so-legendary films "Dolemite II: The Human Tornado", "Black Belt Jones" and "Blackenstein".

One of the most iconic, notorious, and influential American films of the 1970s, Melvin Van Peebles' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song stars Van Peebles as Sweetback, a black orphan raised in a brothel and groomed into becoming a sex show performer. Set up by his boss and two corrupt white policemen for a murder he didn't commit, Sweetback escapes custody only to find himself thrust into an increasingly hallucinogenic world of violence and bigotry where no one can be trusted and the possibility of death lurks at every corner...

Director: Melvin Van Peebles
Cast: Melvin Van Peebles, Simon Chuckster, Hubert Scales
Country: USA
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
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Mister Flow / Compliments of Mr. Flow (1936) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Les Documents Cinematographiques

It is with great reluctance that Antonin Rose, a struggling young barrister in Paris, agrees to take on the case of Achille Durin, a valet accused of stealing a tie-pin from his employer, Lord Scarlett. The impecunious lawyer is duped into purloining a suitcase that will prove Durin's innocence, but in doing so he falls foul of a ruse concocted by the world-renowned burglar Mister Flow! By the time Antonin realises that Durin and Flow are one in the same man, he is in the arch-criminal's power and easy prey for Flow's even more devious partner-in-crime, the delectable socialite Lady Helena Scarlett. During her stay at the casino resort of Deauville, the latter succeeds in making the naive lawyer a willing accomplice in her nefarious exploits, with the result that Antonin soon risks being mistaken for Mister Flow...

Siodmak makes a reasonable fist at juggling the contrasting comedic and dramatic elements of this quirky Jekyll-and-Hyde film, although he is clearly more interested in atmospherics than narrative, happily playing with lighting and camera angles in a way that clearly anticipates the full-bodied noir masterpieces he would go on to make in the following decade.
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La leggenda del santo bevitore / The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) Blu-Ray, DVD9

Rutger Hauer portrays a downtrodden alcoholic who gets a chance for redemption in this 1988 drama, one of Italian director Ermanno Olmi's few studio ventures, adapted from the last novella by Austrian-Jewish writer Joseph Roth.

Andreas (Hauer), a bum who sleeps under the bridges of the Seine, is given 200 francs one day by a mysterious old man (Anthony Quayle) who asks only that he put the same amount in the poor box of a local chapel as soon as he can afford to. Andreas finds temporary work, then sets out to return the money, only to be sidetracked by assorted temptations and memories of his tormented past as a miner in Poland. Yet his wallet is always miraculously replenished. Andreas can't believe his luck, but his determination to follow through on his promise to pay back Therese proves more challenging than he expected.

Director: Ermanno Olmi
Cast: Rutger Hauer, Anthony Quayle, Sandrine Dumas, Dominique Pinon
Country: Italy, France
Genre: Drama
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L’authentique proces de Carl-Emmanuel Jung / The Authentic Trial of Carl Emmanuel Jung (1966, 1977) DVD5

20 years later, the recreation of the trial of a simple man that confesses himself as a war criminal, Carl Emmanuel Jung..

Hanoun used a near documentary style to portray the imaginary trial of the title character, cast in the film as the former commandant of a Nazi concentration camp, finally called to account for his actions. The "real" Carl Jung, of course, held no such position, but his close association with a number of official Nazi organizations, and his implicit approval of Hitler's regime through most of the war, remains deeply problematic for most observers. In this film, Hanoun suggests that "his" Jung has been seduced by a life of postwar luxury, and is all too willing to forget his past, even as he is directly confronted with it.

Shot in stark black and white 35mm, the film is by turns abrasive, seductive, and damning, ultimately leaving any "moral judgments" entirely up to the viewer, thus making the spectator, in a sense, the co-creator of the film.

Director: Marcel Hanoun
Cast: Maurice Poullenot, Ellen Bernsen, Raymond Jourdan
Country: France
Genre: Drama
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Bridgend (2015) Blu-Ray

Between 2009 and 2012, a rash of suicides occurred in the county of Bridgend in Wales. About 79 people killed themselves, most of them teenagers. Danish documentary filmmaker Jeppe Ronde uses this real-life event as the basis for a haunting, ethereal film that offers clues and theories but ultimately no explanations for this tragic phenomenon. Bridgend is Ronde's fiction film debut. It is entirely shot on location in Wales, with many of the local teenagers casted as actors.

Sarah (Hannah Murray) arrives in town with her detective father Dave (Steven Waddington). He has been hired to investigate these suicides, all of which seem to be staged so the parents are the first ones to discover their child. Sarah starts off protective of her widowed father, but as she meets the fellow teens of the town, she is drawn in by their closeness, their strange rituals, and their intensity. One sensitive boy in particular, Jamie (Josh O'Connor), catches her eye. Before long, Sarah joins the teens in tromping nightly through the woods, partying at a lake, drinking, skinny-dipping, play-fighting, and screaming the names of the recently dead at the top of their lungs in a sort of tribute. Hannah's loneliness abates as she is slowly accepted by the group. Her father, however, becomes understandably concerned as the suicides have not abated and he seems powerless to stop them.
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Lost in America (1985) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

The film begins in sunny Los Angeles where successful advertising executive David Howard (Brooks) and his wife Linda (Julie Hagerty) are on the verge of relocating to a much bigger and more expensive home, even though they are both secretly dreaming of living a life on the road, a lot like the main characters in one of their all-time favorite films, Easy Rider. So they are visibly tense and occasionally even openly blame each other for not being brave enough to follow their hearts. On the day when David is supposed to get the crucial promotion that would make the purchase of their new home possible, however, things go terribly wrong and he gets fired. Barely able to contain his anger, David then rushes into Linda's office and with a short but very passionate speech convinces her to quit her miserable job. A few days later the two sell all of their possessions, then combine their financial assets, buy a Winnebago and hit the road. For the first time in years David and Linda feel truly free and even blessed that they have been able to escape the corporate world. But when Linda foolishly loses all of their savings in a casino in Las Vegas, their American Dream very quickly evolves into an American Nightmare.

Director: Albert Brooks
Cast: Albert Brooks, Julie Hagerty, Sylvia Farrel
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy
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Sullivan’s Travels (1941) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection 2015 Edition

After years of shooting comedies, influential Hollywood director John Sullivan (Joel McCrea) decides that it is time for him to make a serious film about poverty in America. But the two studio bosses that greenlight his projects are concerned – Sullivan was born rich and his success in Hollywood has made him even richer, so what does he know about poverty?

Determined to prove that he can direct serious films just as well as he does comedies, Sullivan dresses as a hobo and leaves Hollywood.

On his travels Sullivan befriends a penniless but big-hearted girl (a luminous Veronica Lake) who shares his experiences and wins his love. Their madcap misadventures take a much darker turn before Sullivan finally sees the light.

Director: Preston Sturges
Cast: Joel McCrea, Veronica Lake, Robert Warwick, William Demarest, Franklin Pangborn
Country: USA
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Romance
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Laura (1944) Blu-Ray, 2 x DVD

Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) has been murdered, and no-nonsense detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) has too many suspects. The fussy, supercilious radio personality Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) tells the story of how he 'discovered' Laura in an Ad agency. He nurtured her career, developed her taste for fine things and introduced her to all the right people. Among the wrong people Laura met is the listless Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), a womanizer with a dishonest past who claims he was to be married to Laura. There is also the rich woman who keeps Shelby, Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson). McPherson's investigation leads him to spend more and more time in Laura's apartment, familiarizing himself with her possessions, even reading her letters and diary. As he forms his own impression of Laura through the descriptions of those who knew her best, and from the large portrait that hangs in her apartment, he begins to become obsessed with this woman he never knew.

Director: Otto Preminger
Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb
Country: USA
Genre: Crime, Drama, Film-Noir, Mystery
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Smultronstallet / Wild Strawberries (1957), Ingmar Bergman on Life and Work (1998) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Wild Strawberries captures the thoughtful and compassionate side of Ingmar Bergman rarely seen in his films. It is the story of an aging man's introspective journey on the meaning of his life, and inevitability of death.

Isak Borg is a doctor well into his autumn years and about to receive an honorary degree celebrating his fifty years in medicine. As he makes the trip to the university, he and his daughter-in-law travel across the areas where he grew up, leading Isak to reflect on his life, which ultimately makes him confront his fears and the fact that he has become a cold, inadequate man. They pick up a group of kids and a husband and wife, and even these strangers begin to meld into Isak's nightmares and reflections. Isak Borg is forced to confront his wasted emotional life, the inevitability of his death, and he struggles to make amends with who he has become.

Wild Strawberries is the most beautiful of Ingmar Bergman's pessimistic films. There are splashes of humor in it, but its effective depiction of the suffocating loneliness elderly people struggle with towards the end of their lives is indeed quite depressing.

Director: Ingmar Bergman
Cast: Victor Sjostrom, Bibi Andersson, Ingrid Thulin
Country: Sweden
Genre: Drama, Romance
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12 Years a Slave (2013) DVD9, Blu-Ray

This is the true story of Solomon Northup, an educated black man living a free life in New York during the years before the Civil War. He lives there with his wife, two children, friends, is well off, and has all a man could ask for. The unthinkable happens when Solomon travels with two men to Washington D.C. under the guise of being hired to play his fiddle; the men drug him & sell him as if he were a common slave. Overnight Solomon's old life has vanished. He is now called Platt, taught to forget his privileged background, and sold into bondage. Over the course of years, Solomon has many masters, meets many slaves, comes to understand the Southern world in which he involuntarily lives, and yet somehow never gives up hope that someday he will be a free man once again. His determination to live and to keep his humanity in tact creates conflict wherever he goes, but he survives with what dignity he can, accepting the goodness from some and the terrible treatment from others, staying alive no matter what the cost.

12 Years a Slave is one of those films that is hard to watch. It's so powerful and so very real that it's sickening in its brutality & truth. It's not unbelievable that man can be so cruel to other men, but it's difficult to see this vile treatment right before our eyes, to feel the torture and experience the pain of loss; loss of life, loss of family, loss of self. It's almost hard to call this film "good" or to claim to like it, as it shows us mankind at its worst and makes no attempt to cover up a terrible story with fake heroics or lessons learned.
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La mome vert de gris / Poison Ivy (1953) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Pathe, DVD5

This is the first ever Lemmy Caution thriller, starring trademark tough guy actor Eddie Constantine. It was a role he would return to again and again over the next several decades.
Two million dollars have vanished into thin air. Lemmy Caution, an American agent, is assigned by the FBI to investigate in Casablanca. He soon finds out about a gang of gold smugglers, whose boss might be Saltierra, but Saltierra's mistress, Carlotta de la Rue, nicknamed "La mome vert de gris" stands in his way, at times helping Saltierra at other times helping him. Only when her brother is gunned down by the gang does she choose her side, Lemmy of course.

The entire film is a like one long and very sexy exotic noir commercial. It has the type of edge that the classic American noir thrillers from the same era had, but Borderie and cinematographer Jacques Lemare (The Rules of the Game) basically use every opportunity they get to make the visuals look as elegant and sexually arousing as possible.
Dominique Wilms looks stunning as the femme fatale Carlotta de la Rue. A comparison with Rita Hayworth's seductress from Charles Vidor's Gilda is not only justified, but actually absolutely necessary.

Director: Bernard Borderie
Cast: Eddie Constantine, Dominique Wilms, Howard Vernon
Country: France
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
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The Awful Truth (1937) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

When Jerry Warriner (Cary Grant) returns from Florida, he can't account for his lack of a suntan, and his wife Lucy (Irene Dunne) refuses to make excuses for the time she's been spending with Armand Duvalle, her vocal teacher (Alexander D'Arcy). They divorce out of picque, with Lucy getting custody of the family terrier who brought them together in the first place. Both parties are too proud to admit they've made a mistake. Lucy starts up a romance with Oklahoma millionaire cowboy Dan Leeson (Ralph Bellamy), while Jerry chases socialite Molly Lamont (Barbara Vance). As the 90-day waiting period for the divorce to become final clicks away, each is subconsciously determined to thwart the other's romantic plans.

This very charming and perhaps somewhat deceivingly simple film won Leo McCarey an Academy Award for Best Director in 1938. It is based on the popular play by Arthur Richman, which was already adapted twice for the screen in 1925 and 1929.
In 1996, the film was chosen by the National Film Preservation Board to be one of the motion pictures preserved on the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

Director: Leo McCarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Ralph Bellamy, Cecil Cunningham
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy, Romance
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Moonrise (1948) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Frank Borzage, one of the greatest and sadly one of the most underappreciated directors to work in Hollywood during its early days, left a remarkable legacy of films, but over the years many of them have been quite difficult to track down and see. Moonrise is arguably his best post-war project and one of the jewels in Republic Pictures' catalog.

Set in a swampy backwater town in the deep South, Moonrise is a tale of revenge and redemption that begins and ends with Danny Hawkins (Dane Clark), the black sheep and ne'er-do-well of the village. Haunted by the memory of his father who was hung for murdering the town doctor, Danny has grown up to become a tormented, conflicted man, seething with anger and hatred for those who oppress him. But his worst enemy is himself and, despite a deep need for love and acceptance, his violent, impulsive temper often dictates his fate. When he gets into a fight with Jerry Sykes (Lloyd Bridges), the town rich kid who taunts him about his dead father, the outcome is tragic; Jerry is killed and his body is hidden in the swamp by Danny. Though racked with guilt over what he's done, Danny still pursues Gilly Johnson (Gail Russell), a local schoolteacher who was engaged to marry Jerry. Their tumultuous relationship gives Danny a reason to live but he soon finds himself a major suspect as the manhunt for Jerry's killer closes in on him.
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Accattone / The Scrounger / The Procurer (1961), Comizi d’amore / Love Meetings (1965) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Eureka Masters of Cinema, DVD9 Tartan Video

Accattone (aka: The Scrounger) is Pasolini's first film, but its raw quality perfectly suits the subject matter; the black and white photography crisply capturing the desperate lives of young Italians in the 1960s in a country that hasn't recovered from the Second World War, and where pimping and stealing is commonplace and the future looks just as bleak.

Vittorio 'Accattone' Cataldi (Franco Citti) lives off the immoral earnings of the prostitute Maddalena (Silvana Corsini), until she is beaten badly by a gang in a revenge attack after having turned their leader in to the police. Perhaps in fear of further retribution - her reasoning isn't quite clear - she perjured herself by naming the wrong attackers, which results in her also being sent to jail. Having lived a relatively good life through Maddalena's immoral earnings, Accattone finds that he no longer has anyone to support him. He struggles to make ends meet, refusing to work for a living or stoop to the levels of a group of thieves he knows. Meanwhile he meets a seemingly innocent girl, Stella (Franca Pasut) who he tries to forge a normal relationship with, but fails, falling into his usual traps which sends him into a spiral of self-pity and his ultimate destruction.
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Apache / Massai (1954) Blu-Ray Koch Media

Massai (Burt Lancaster) is a proud Apache chief who refuses to bend to the white man's ways. When an ageing Geronimo, chief of the Chiricahua Apaches, finally submits to the encroaching horde, Massai accuses him of betrayal and fights a lone guerrilla war, killing many whites, robbing, looting and burning. Massai becomes a prize scalp and civilian tracker Al Sieber (John McIntire) is the man leading the pack to hunt him down. In the meantime, Massai falls in love with Nalinle (Jean Peters) who is convinced Apaches can live in peace with the whites if they farm the land, but the father of her unborn child wants to fight on and resigns himself to a death with honour.

Along with Broken Arrow (1950), the story of Cochise, Apache (1954) was the beginning of a new approach to the representation of Native Americans on screen. The sympathetic view of the plight of the oppressed Apache nation and the portrayal of the main character, the warrior Massai, as a complex individual rather than a bloodthirsty savage, was the main factor in attracting Burt Lancaster, a lifelong liberal and social activist, to the project.

Director: Robert Aldrich
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Jean Peters, John McIntire, Charles Bronson, John Dehner, Monte Blue
Country: USA
Genre: Western
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Hellraiser Trilogy: Clive Barker’s Hellraiser (1987), Hellbound: Hellraiser II (1988), Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992) 4 x Blu-Ray Arrow Films The Scarlet Box, 4 x DVD9 Anchor Bay Collector’s Edition Box Set

The face of horror changed in 1987 when author Clive Barker made his impressive debut as director when he unveiled Hellraiser to the world. Based upon his short story The Hellbound Heart the film told of pain, pleasure, desire and everything one would do to attain the delights each can offer.

It wasn't just the gory effects that grabbed attention, what made the film truly memorable was the introduction of Barker's Cenobites - creatures from hell, who have chosen to sacrifice their bodies, contort and abuse them in the pursuit of ultimate pleasure. They explore and experience things that no man has ever dreamed, until the cursed box is placed in hand, the lament configuration which has formed one of the main staples within the Hellraiser mythology.

The success of the first film ensured a successful sequel, and another, and another. To date there are eight films in total and the franchise doesn't look as though it is going to slow down any time soon. The series of films have turned the Cenobites into cinematic, horror icons, the likes of which have never been seen since. Clive Barker's extraordinary visions have disturbed and entertained for years and he has clearly demonstrated over time that he deserved to be labelled one of the greatest masters of modern horror.
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Sayat Nova / The Color of Pomegranates / The Colour of Pomegranates / Цвет граната (1968) 2 x Blu-Ray Second Sight Limited Edition, 2 x DVD and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Probably, besides the cinematic language suggested by Griffith and Eisenstein, the world cinema hasn't discovered anything revolutionary new until Parajanov's The Color of Pomegranates. Paradjanov's films also show the influence of Andrei Tarkowsky, a director he greatly admired.

The Colour of Pomegranates is a biography of the great Armenian poet, singer and musician Sayat-Nova. The 'King of Songs' wrote is several languages, making him a legend across several countries. Writing and performing at a time of great religious piety (18th century) and a priest himself, he created great romantic and secular works. Parajanov doesn't attempt to tell the story in a traditional way. Instead, he mixes Sayat-Nova's writings and his own symbolic (often religious) imagery.
From boyhood discovery of literature, through courtship and monastic life, to eventual death, the film explores not the biographical details of his life, but the spirit of his work through the themes, metaphors, and symbols of which it was crafted.

Director: Sergei Parajanov
Cast: Sofiko Chiaureli, Melkon Alekyan, Spartak Bagashvili
Country: Soviet Union
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Music
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Dawn of the Dead (1978) Arrow Video 3-Disc Edition, XT-Video 4-Disc Collector’s Box

It's a National Emergency as Dawn Of The Dead picks up right where Night Of The Living Dead ended.
As Dawn of the Dead begins, the country (and presumably the planet) has already been overrun by the undead, who are rising up and eating the flesh of the living. Chaos reigns everywhere, prompting two TV station employees, Stephen (David Emge, Basket Case 2) and Fran (Gaylen Ross, Creepshow), along with two S.W.A.T. team members, Peter (Ken Foree, From Beyond) and Roger (Scott H. Reiniger, Knightriders), commandeer a helicopter and escape. They land on the roof of a shopping mall. They take over, evicting the zombies and turn the mall into their own paradise. However, their idyllic world is soon threatened as the mall is invaded by a rampaging biker gang.

Dawn of the Dead was written by Romero in collaboration with the Italian filmmaker Dario Argento, and produced by Claudio Argento, Richard P. Rubinstein and Alfredo Cuomo. It was the second film made in Romero's Living Dead series, but contains no characters or settings from Night of the Living Dead, and shows in a larger scale the apocalyptic effects on society.

In addition to four official sequels, the film has spawned numerous parodies and pop culture references. A remake of the movie premiered in the United States on March 19, 2004. It was labeled a "re-imagining" of the original film's concept. In 2008, Dawn of the Dead was chosen by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time, along with Night of the Living Dead.

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Public Nuisance No. 1 (1936) DVD5

Irresponsible playboy Arthur Rawlings is sent by his uncle to work as a waiter at a hotel in the South of France. Arthur arranges for shop assistant Frances Travers, with whom he has fallen in love, to win a fairground lottery and stay in the hotel as a prize. Complications arise!

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:15:56 | 3.51 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none
Genre: Comedy, Musical

Director: Marcel Varnel
Cast: Frances Day, Arthur Riscoe, Muriel Aked
Country: UK
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The Great Game (1930) DVD5

The hero, Dicky Brown (John Batten), is the reserve forward on a championship team. Thanks to the urgings of Dicky's sweetheart Peggy Jackson (Renee Clama), whose father happens to be the team's manager, the young lad is groomed to compete in the English Cup Final. Unfortunately, the manager is accused of "personal bias" by the judges and disqualified from coaching during the crucial match. The loss of the manager throws the rest of the team into a deep depression, and by the time they get to Wembley, the outlook is pretty bleak -- but never fear, salvation is close at hand!

Much of the film is set in Chelsea's home ground, Stamford Bridge, and it contains guest appearances by numerous real-life footballers, including George Mills, Andy Wilson, Sam Millington and Billy Blyth. It was also notable for featuring the first credited appearance of Rex Harrison.

DVD5 | PAL 4:3 | 01:14:31 | 3.84 Gb + 3% rec
Language: English
Subtitles: none
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance, Sport

Director: Jack Raymond
Cast: John Batten, Renee Clama, Jack Cock
Country: UK
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