Jamon Jamon / A Tale of Ham and Passion (1992) DVD9

The plot takes place in small Spanish town where young Jose Luis (played by Jordi Mola) works in the underwear factory owned by his parents. His 18-year girlfriend Sylvia (played by Penelope Cruz), who works in the factory, is pregnant so Jose Luis decides to propose her. Jose Luis' mother Conchita (played by Stefania Sandrelli) sees this as unacceptable, since Sylvia's mother Carmen (played by Anna Galiena) happens to be notorious local prostitute. In order to break the engagement Conchita hires services of local stud and underwear model Raul (played by Javier Bardem) who is supposed to seduce Sylvia. However, her scheme doesn't go as planned - Conchita falls in love with Raul, Jose Luis finds solace in Carmen, while Jose Luis' father begins making moves on his son's fiancee.

This film is the first part of a trilogy filmed by spanish director Bigas Luna between 1992 and 1994, titled "The Iberian Passion Trilogy".

DVD9 | PAL 16:9 | 01:30:27 | 5.65 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Espanol, Francais
Subtitles: English, Francais
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Director: Bigas Luna
Cast: Penelope Cruz, Stefania Sandrelli, Anna Galiena
Country: Spain
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How the West Was Won / The Macahans (1976 – 1979) 14 x DVD The Complete Collection Digitally Remastered

How The West Was Won started on TV as a 1970s spin-off of the wildly popular Oscar wining Cinerama feature film of 1963. Told over several years of varying formats, it's the story of Zeb Macahan, a rugged mountain man who has spent ten years in the Dakota Territory before returning to Virginia where his brother's family is getting ready to make the long trip west to escape the coming violence of the Civil War. Just as the war begins, Zeb's brother Timothy returns east and his wife Kate is killed in an accident, leaving four children in Zeb's care. Luke, the oldest son, kills three men in self-defense and becomes a fugitive from the law; Laura is beautiful and ready to become a woman; Jessie is the tomboyish 12-year-old; and Josh is the exuberant teenager, anxious to become the man of the family. Aunt Molly, Kate's widowed sister, travels from Boston to help them on their travels, through perils and hardship caused by Indians, renegades, nature and other dangers.

Adding to the scope of the series was the spectacular setting. It was filmed in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and Southern California. The executive producer was John Mantley, who had also been the producer of Gunsmoke and the pilot movie was filmed only two years after James Arness left the saddle as Marshall Matt Dillon. How the West Was Won began it's TV run as the 1976 pilot movie The Macahans. It then returned as a top-rated miniseries in February of 1977. It came back for second 'season' as a weekly series in 1978. Finally, the show returned for a third go around in early 1979 with 11 new two-hour stand-alone movies depicting the Macahans as they built a ranch in the Tetons and began to raise Appaloosa horses.
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Familia (2005) DVD9

Michele, a divorced aerobics instructor with a gambling addiction, loses her job and seeks refuge with a childhood friend, Janine, who lives in a seemingly comfortable middle-class suburban neighborhood. Michele's rebellious teenage daughter, Marguerite, and Janine's shy and reserved daughter, Gabrielle, become friends, leading to unforeseen tensions that force both generations to reassess their values. Familia explores the question of how value systems are passed on from mother to daughter and asks: Is it possible to avoid passing on to our children those traits that we despise in our parents?

DVD9 | NTSC 16:9 | 01:42:45 | 7.65 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Francais
Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama

Director: Louise Archambault
Cast: Sylvie Moreau, Macha Grenon, Juliette Gosselin
Country: Canada
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The Ross McElwee DVD Collection: Charleen or How Long Has This Been Going On? (1980), Backyard (1984), Sherman’s March (1985), Time Indefinite (1993), Six O’Clock News (1997), Bright Leaves (2003) 5 x DVD

Documentarian Ross McElwee literally has one of the most distinctive voices in cinema. Where other first-person filmmakers tend toward the loud and chummy, McElwee speaks in a halting, drawling whisper, and adopts a detached tone that's not so much neutral as ecumenical. His films are informed by cinema verite, the avant-garde, and the personal touch of regional filmmaking, but they're mainly noteworthy for being cine-essays that don't take firm positions. McElwee likes to hear what people have to say for themselves, and he listens respectfully, with real curiosity.

There's a misperception that McElwee's movies are exclusively about McElwee himself, but the six films in The Ross McElwee DVD Collection are more about documentaries' inability to capture the full complexity of life, especially in the modern American South.

All too often, nonfiction filmmakers set out to document what they already believe to be true — that McDonald's makes you fat ("Super Size Me"), that presidents make mistakes ("Fahrenheit 9/11") and so on. Ross McElwee allows himself to be distracted from his goal, taking pleasure in getting sidetracked along the way. Fans of his meandering autobiographical films (a select but hardy group) should be delighted to get a more thorough look at his oeuvre in this collection, featuring "Sherman's March", "Bright Leaves" and four new-to-DVD treasures.

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38 parrots / 38 popugaev / 38 попугаев (1976 – 1991) DVD5

38 Parrots is a series of ten children's cartoons produced in the Soviet Union between 1976 and 1991 by Soyuzmultfilm. The last two parts were added 6 years apart from each other in 1985 and 1991, which says something about the success of the series.

Featuring animated puppets, the series portrays the amusing adventures of four friends: the talkative marmoset Martyshka, the shy young elephant Slonionok, the eccentric parrot Popugai, and the thoughtful boa Udav.

The title of the series comes from the very first episode, where Udav has his length measured in parrots. In most episodes the heroes tackle all kind of riddles to the children's mind like How can you send greetings when you cannot hold them? How long is a snake when he's 2/2 of his length and 4/4 too? And when is tomorrow? Because when you think you'll wake up tomorrow, the next day is always today! So where did tomorrow go?

The series was created by director Ivan Ufimtsev and artist Leonid Shvartsman, and scripted by children's author Grigoriy Oster. The characters were voiced by popular actors Nadezhda Rumiantseva (Martyshka), Mikhail Kozakov (Slonionok), Vasilii Livanov (Udav) and Vsevolod Larionov (Popugai). The series includes songs by Gennadii Gladkov and Yuri Entin.
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La passion de Jeanne d’Arc / The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928) DVD5 Criterion Collection, 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Eureka (Masters of Cinema)

Jeanne d'Arc (1412-1431), who was granted sainthood by the Roman Catholic Church in 1920, has become a mythic figure in world culture. In particular, her life and martyrdom are central to the French national idea: key elements of this myth include her humble peasant origins in Domremy; the "celestial voices" that inspired her to action; her controversial donning of men's clothes; her courageous military leadership resulting in victory against the English at Orleans in 1429 (the turning point in the Hundred Years' War); and finally her capture by the English, her trial for heresy and her execution at Rouens in 1431. She has since been made the subject of innumerable books, paintings, poems, plays and films.

Carl Theodor Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928), one of the most celebrated of all silent films, focuses on the last period of her brief life. The narrative compresses the twenty-nine sessions of the trial into a single day, encompassing Jeanne's examination before the judges, the torments by the guards, her physical torture, her coercion into signing a confession that she later retracted, and finally her burning at the stake.

Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Cast: Maria Falconetti, Eugene Silvain, Andre Berley
Country: France
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Silent

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Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922, 1968) DVD9 Criterion Collection

Witches, devils and demonic possession have been a part of humanity since before recorded history, and haven't changed much in content or principle from the middle ages to the present. European culture is rooted in the belief in a supernatural universe where God and the Angels dwell in the heavens and demons and devils infest the interior of the Earth. In the Middle Ages, organized religion in Europe unleashed a reign of terror on whole populations through organized witch hunts. Thousands of women were victimized simply for being old, ugly and misunderstood.
The film Haxan is one of the most eccentric and enjoyable films from the silent era. Directed in 1922 it is a short historical docu-drama of witchcraft, demons, grave robbing, superstition, hysteria and other such supernatural maladies from the 15th century.
The Criterion Collection to present two versions of this genre-defying "documentary".

DVD9 | NTSC 4:3 | 01:45:08 | 7.77 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Swedish intertitles
Subtitles: English
Genre: Documentary, Horror

Director: Benjamin Christensen
Cast: Benjamin Christensen, Elisabeth Christensen, Maren Pedersen
Country: Sweden
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