Marana Simhasanam / Throne of Death (1999) DVD5

Throne of Death (Marana Simhasanam) by 34-year-old Murali Nair is a disturbing 57-minute film about class oppression and political manipulation in Kerala, India. This darkly ironic film an graphically captures the soul-destroying poverty and backwardness that confronts a large proportion of the state's population.

Krishnan and his family, who have been seasonal labourers for generations, live in a small island community in Kerala. Driven by desperation because he is out of work, Krishnan steals a bunch of coconuts from his landlord. He is caught, imprisoned and suddenly finds himself accused of a murder which happened on the island several years ago. The people on the island are shocked. It is election time and the politicians take up his cause to win votes. A new technology for killing people is introduced in the country: the "Electronic Chair". Developed with a loan from the World Bank and technological help from America, the Chair is seen as the epitome of a glorious death. The islanders and politicians join hands to demand that Krishnan be the first in the country to die by Electronic Chair.

Director: Murali Nair
Cast: Vishwas Njavakkal, Lakshmi Raman, Suhas Thayat
Country: UK, India
Genre: Drama

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Peter Nestler: 9 Films 1962-2009 2 x DVD9

Admired by the likes of Jean-Marie Straub and Harun Farocki, Peter Nestler was one of the most important filmmakers to emerge from postwar Germany. From his early films about the changing realities of rural and industrial areas in Germany and the UK, to his work for Swedish television, Nestler has remained a precise observer of the poetry and politics of labor, crafting meticulous portraits of industrial processes, working conditions, and workers themselves, as well as the background of struggle and oppression against which the era's proletariat toiled. A vigorous yet nuanced opponent of fascism, an excavator of lost histories and a masterful formalist whose works are rich with a materiality all their own, Nestler has spent five decades chronicling how things get made, whether in a factory or at the level of ideology.

Nestler's films are beyond documentaries. He is not engaging in mere journalism. Nor are these films essays, whereby Nestler expounds on working class life or the ravishing changes of industry.

Rather, Nestler is a kind of poet connecting the dots between environmental shifts and the resilience of human beings. Whether it is the innocence of schoolchildren, or the contemplative suffering of community elders, Nestler presents us with the enduring joy of the human heart.

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Waxworks / Das Wachsfigurenkabinett (1924) Blu-Ray, DVD5

A poet (William Dieterle) takes a job to write back-stories about three exhibits in a carnival empresario's Wax Museum. He does so, and we see three stories where the poet and the empresario's daughter Eva (Olga Belajeff) play the ingenue leads. The first and longest tale is a fanciful farce in old Baghdad, where a baker becomes a criminal to impress his fickle wife, while the Caliph (Emil Jannings) goes out of his way to seduce her. In the second tale, the evil Ivan the Terrible (Conrad Veidt) poisons supposed enemies for fun, and callously uses a nobleman as a shield against assassins. But the madman's superstitions backfire on him. The final, very short third story is not a story at all, just a series of phantom illusions where the hero is threatened by Jack the Ripper.

Despite its narrative and structural imperfections, Waxworks is a prime example of German expressionism at its most vivid, comprising fantastic stories set in crazily distorted representations of familiar settings - and it is no accident that each revolves around a murderous tyrant. Influenced by Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) and F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), Leni carves an unsettling dreamscape that is both freakishly absurd and subtly disturbing, the oddly proportioned sets lending a fearful manic potency to each of the villainous protagonists.
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Eclipse Series 46: Ingrid Bergman’s Swedish Years: The Count of the Old Town (1935), Walpurgis Night (1935), Intermezzo (1936), Dollar (1938), A Woman’s Face (1938), June Night (1940) 6 x DVD5 Criterion Collection

Ingrid Bergman is a genuine Hollywood icon thanks to her co-starring role in Casablanca and her collaborations with Alfred Hitchcock. While many are aware of her later films, including the challenging Italian pictures directed by her husband Robert Rossellini, as well as her eventual pairing with the other famous Swedish Bergman, Ingmar, not as much attention is paid to her pre-Hollywood career. For a short period, Ingrid Bergman made her name as an actress in Sweden, and six of her m films from her home country are now collected in the Ingrid Bergman's Swedish Years boxed set from Eclipse--giving many of us our first chance to see a screen legend developing her craft in the earliest stages of her endeavors.

The set starts out with smaller roles where she is a big supporting player before developing into lead roles where it's clear she was becoming a leading star. It isn't difficult to see why Bergman went on to carry entire productions with her presence: she shines through as a star in the making at each turn.

6 x DVD5 | NTSC 4:3 | 520 minutes | 23.6 Gb + 3% rec
Language: Svenska
Subtitles: English
Genre: Drama, Comedy, Romance

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Far from the Madding Crowd (1967) DVD9 Warner, Blu-Ray Warner, Blu-Ray Studio Canal

In the farm country of South West England a spirited beauty must deal with the amorous attentions of three very different suitors. Bathsheba Everdene (Julie Christie) is not a wealthy woman, but she's determined to choose a man for love instead of simple security. Shepherd and farmer Gabriel Oak (Alan Bates) is disappointed when Bathsheba turns down his proposal. Suddenly made penniless by a cruel trick of fate, Gabriel wanders for several months before taking a job as shepherd on a large farm. His master turns out to be none other than Bathsheba, who has just inherited the farm from an uncle. Now just an employee, Gabriel must swallow his pride when the rich William Boldwood (Peter Finch) visits and falls deeply in love with his new neighbor. Bathsheba does her polite best to discourage him as well. As Boldwood's obsession grows, she meets the man of her dreams, the handsome soldier Frank Troy (Terence Stamp). Unaware that Troy has refused to marry young Fanny Robin, a maidservant pregnant with his child, because she embarrassed him by going to the wrong church on their wedding day, Bathsheba foolishly becomes his wife.

Director: John Schlesinger
Cast: Julie Christie, Peter Finch, Alan Bates, Terence Stamp
Country: UK
Genre: Drama, History, Romance
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Mouchette (1967) DVD9 Criterion Collection, Blu-Ray Artificial Eye, Blu-Ray Criterion Collection

The bleakest of Bresson's meditations on misery, MOUCHETTE feels every bit the logical extension of his previous AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, but here with specific focus on the realm of human suffering. Abused and overburdened at home, ridiculed at school by classmates and teachers alike, the life of country schoolgirl Mouchette is presented on no uncertain terms; the world for her is a living hell. In the title role, Nadine Nortier is the apotheosis of Bresson's actor/model doctrine. Her one-off performance is heartbreaking, but also honest and raw, stripped of artifice to a degree rarely seen in child actors. Her finest moment lies in the joyful release of the carnival scene, where an oppressive world takes a backseat to bumper cars and a boy, and from under her downtrodden facade emerges genuine warmth. But with the arrival of her alcoholic father, this exuberant reprieve is cut unceremoniously short, and Mouchette slides back into her role as supreme pariah of 60s cinema. Bresson had always possessed a fascination with the human spirit under desperate times (he had, after all, spent a year in a POW camp during World War II), but by 1967, this was coupled with an underlying cynicism present in the 65-year-old director's films. That cloud hangs over MOUCHETTE right up through the cold and uncompromising final scene, a testament to the devastating punch minimalism can pack, and an all-around unshakable slice of filmmaking.

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The Wind (1928) DVD5

Swedish director Victor Sjostrom's [Seastrom] most famous and finest work, based on the novel by Dorothy Scarborough, is now recognised and hailed as one of the all-time great silent movies.

The Wind is a masterpiece in writing directing and acting. The film is dragged by the performance of Lillian Gish and without her, it would not be considered the classic it is today. The best performance of 1928 by a bonafide star of the silent era.

The Wind tells the tale of Letty Mason (Gish) who has travelled from Virginia to Sweetwater Texas to live with her cousin and his family. Upon her journey to her cousin Beverly, she is disturbed by the constantly strong winds around her. She is informed by a fellow passenger that such winds are known to drive women crazy. As she tries to become accustomed to her new life, multiple suitors (Sourdough and Lige played by William Orlamond and Lars Hanson) come her way to take her hand in marriage, but that constant bothersome wind continues to disturb her...

Director: Victor Sjostrom
Cast: Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love
Country: USA
Genre: Drama, Romance, Thriller, Western

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