Meghe Dhaka Tara / The Cloud-Capped Star (1960) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Bengali writer-director Ritwik Ghatak ("Nagarik"/"A River Called Titas"/"Reason, Debate and a Story") is recognized widely as India's second most acclaimed filmmaker, with only the great Satyajit Ray considered his better. The Cloud-Capped Star is the first leg of a trilogy that includesE FlatandSubarnarekha. This film classic from India is set in the late 1950's in the outskirts of an impoverished Calcutta. The tragic melodrama involves a refugee middle-class family, victims of the 1947 Partition of East Bengal, who are struggling to survive their poverty and loss of cultural values.It's based on a story by Shaktipada Rajguru.

A family, uprooted from East Pakistan by the Partition of India, are now refugees living on the outskirts of Calcutta. Nita (Supriya Choudhury), a beautiful young girl, has taken on the responsibility for the family as her older brother, Shankar (Anil Chatterjee) has abandoned the family for the life of a singer. He spends his days singing rather than working. The father is a teacher, but makes only a pittance. Nita is trying to go to school while also teaching local children, but when her father is injured she becomes the sole support of the family.

Director: Ritwik Ghatak (as Shri Ritwik Kumar Ghatak)
Cast: Supriya Choudhury, Anil Chatterjee, Gyanesh Mukherjee
Country: India
Genre: Drama, Musical

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Todo sobre mi madre / All About My Mother (1999) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Pedro Almodovar's challenging films shouldn't be only for his dedicated fans: nobody mixes genuine human compassion with world-class filmmaking as well as he ... while maintaining a marvelous sense of humor, of human proportion. This 1999 effort is perhaps Pedro's strongest drama, and yet another heartfelt endorsement of womankind.

The film opens in Madrid, where Esteban (Eloy Azorin) is about to celebrate his 17th birthday. On the cusp of adulthood, Esteban is blossoming into an accomplished writer, and he jots down in his journal that he wishes his mother, Manuela (Cecilia Roth), would tell him the story of his father, whom he has never met. After Esteban makes his feelings known to her, Manuela promises to tell him, but tragedy strikes before she has an opportunity. While running after a taxi to get the autograph of a star he admires, Esteban is struck and killed by a car. A grieving Manuela then decides to travel from Madrid to Barcelona, where Esteban was conceived, to find her ex-husband and inform him that the son he never knew about is dead.

Director: Pedro Almodovar
Cast: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Candela Pena, Penelope Cruz
Country: Spain, France
Genre: Drama

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On the Black Hill (1988) DVD9 and Blu-Ray BFI

Film charting the travails of the Jones family Amos (Bob Peck), Mary (Gemma Jones), and their three children the heart of the story is the intense relationship between their sons, identical twins Benjamin and Lewis (played by real-life brothers Mike and Robert Gwilym).

Sharing a unique bond, the brothers journey through eight decades of life, death and hardship together, all the while tied to the land on which they were raised. The epic sweep of the film takes in two world wars, exploring themes of nationalism, class, community, faith and pacifism. Though unrelenting in its portrayal of the raw experiences of rural life, On the Black Hill celebrates the people of the Black Mountains and its landscape, made transcendent by the magnificent cinematography of Thaddeus O'Sullivan.

Set in the stunningly dramatic Welsh Borders, Andrew Grieve's evocative adaption of Bruce Chatwin's novel is presented with a fascinating selection of new and archival extras.

Director: Andrew Grieve
Cast: Aled Baker, Rhys Baker, Iona Banks
Country: UK
Genre: Drama

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Andrzej Wajda Anthology / Andrzej Wajda: Antologia filmowa Wydanie Kolekcjonerskie (1955 – 2016) 36 x DVD

90th birthday calls for an extraordinary present and that is why Digital Film Repository, with the patronage of the Polish Film Institute, is honouring Andrzej Wajda with a unique publication summing up his oeuvre to date.

A majestic edition summarizing the achievements of Andrzej Wajda - the great Polish artist, one of the most impressive creators of world cinematography. It contains 26 feature films chosen by the Master himself: from "Pokolenie" to "Afterimages". They are complemented by 10 DVDs with unique additional materials on which there are documents and short films of the director, films about him, television interviews and reports on plans. Films are accompanied by a book that collects Wajda's comments and stories about individual works. All the films included in the release were digitally reconstructed, and the momentum and editorial quality make this collection absolutely unique.

36xDVD | PAL | 3766.00 minutes | 230 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Polish
Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama

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Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) 2 x DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

With this trailblazing musical, writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask brought their signature creation from stage to screen for a movie as unclassifiable as its protagonist.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch tells the story of transexual punk-rocker Hedwig (played by Mitchell himself), who is embarking on a tour of low-rent family diners (all part of the fictional Bilgewater Inn chain) with her band The Angry Inch. The dates and locations have been selected to follow those of her ex-boyfriend and former musical partner Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt), who is now a huge success, playing the songs they wrote together (and some Hedwig wrote herself) to packed out arenas. Angry, jealous and heartbroken, she relates to her audiences the story of what brought her to this state, largely through song.

BD50, 2xDVD9 | 1080p AVC, NTSC | 01:31:45 | 46.1 Gb + 14.3 Gb
Language: English
Subtitles: English

Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Cast: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Stephen Trask
Country: USA
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Music, Musical
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War and Peace / Voyna i mir / Война и мир (1966) 2 x Blu-Ray and 3 x DVD9 Criterion Collection, 5 x DVD9 RUSCICO

Amazing! Colossal! 'Gone With the Wind' is a tempest in a teacup compared to this jaw-dropping adaptation of the Tolstoy classic: seven hours of artful splendor, passionate characters, map-altering politics and the biggest, most spectacular battle scenes ever filmed.

A gargantuan version of Tolstoy's national epic, approached as a priority as important as the Soviet space program, War and Peace is surely the biggest production ever put on film, with entire armies filling the screen and covering vast landscapes. The recreation of the Napoleonic era in St. Petersburg and Moscow is marvelous to behold. Director Sergei Bondarchuk makes the story work even better at the intimate level. The romantic adventures and heartbreaks of the central trio, Pierre, Natasha and Andrei lead to at least four or five devastatingly emotional highpoints.

In production for five years, War and Peace became four separate features which together run just over seven hours. Provided with unlimited resources which included access to numerous museums and the full cooperation of the Soviet military, Bondarchuk and Mosfilm were able to outdo anything that a big Hollywood studio could achieve. Watching War and Peace even today inspires a sense of awe; the opulent palaces and ballrooms and panoramic battle scenes involving 15,000 soldiers reenacting brutal historical events have a visceral power which even the most sophisticated CGI is still unable to match.

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The Kid Brother (1927) Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

Today Harold Lloyd's fame as one of the top film comics of the silent era rests largely on his two most often-screened films, Safety Last (1923) and The Freshman (1925). But many film critics and Lloyd admirers rate The Kid Brother as one of his very best, arguably a masterpiece, and probably his most accomplished all-around performance. Even critics who rate Lloyd below Chaplin or Keaton because they find his films mechanical and lacking in human feeling point to this movie as the exception, an exciting, funny, and touching work that depends on acting and story line more than daredevil stunts.

The Kid Brother, a male Cinderella story, finds Lloyd as Harold, youngest son of the backwoods Hickory clan, treated with contempt by his brutish father and brothers because he's timid and sensitive. Though unappreciated by his family, he's also a clever young man, demonstrated by the way he comes up with various Rube Goldberg-like devices to help him complete his huge burden of farm chores. Harold falls for lovely Mary Powers, who moves in with his family after her traveling medicine show burns down. When thugs from the show steal the town's money, Harold's father is accused. Then the mistreated young drudge springs into action, using his brains rather than brawn to impress his family and outwit the crooks in a hilarious sequence of chases and gags until he restores his father's good name and wins the heart of his girl.

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