Random DVD and Blu-ray announcements

[Larry]

That's front page news.

Beginning approximately with It, starring Clara Bow in '27, there's a terrific streak of female-lead Hollywood movies, in which women are empowered and impassioned and smart and fighting back against a world that could try to bring them down. I say it all the time -- women have been strong since the beginning of cinema. To put some greats next to some greats, Greta Gerwig does Clara on her Tuesdays. Amy Schumer is doing Mae West on a Friday morning. This streak ends with the introduction of the Hays Code, which code for me exemplifies the need to allow movies to be as honest and open as they can be.

Diary of a Lost Girl is a centerpiece for the melodramatic dimensions of this style. Sirk comes later you know, after the code, and certainly within the movies of Stirk there's art and fiery passions. But what's gone is the grit. Maybe someone thinks "Pabst in the 20s, oh who cares that's old," but I don't think you get again the grit of the pre-code until the 60s. Louise Brooks gets right down to portraits of dark girls, working again with Pabst for Pandora's Box, and as long as movies exist she'll be remembered.

Haven't worked into the conversation Marlene Dietrich, Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Blondell, Mary Pickford, Bebe Daniels. So I mentioned my problem with the Hays Code, what about how bad it got after, with Bette Davis, Joan Crawford, Katharine Hepburn. Oh, awful. I think Diary of a Lost Girl is a good movie for seeing the power of female-lead movies.

Jenks!!! I loved GW pabst's the Threepenny Opera..what a masterpiece,!!! the musical numbers were some of the greatest ive ever seen.. definitely need to watch more of his stuff, and diary of a lost girl & Pandora's Box are next.

Joan blondell is also one of the great female's of the cinema...my favorite role of hers at this moment would be in the magnificent "Nightmare Alley"** but i would be interested in your recommendations of her films

definitely need to still see Now, Voyager...one of those films I feel guilty about not seeing yet



**EDIT: actually i prefer her in OPENING NIGHT

[wilder]

[jenkins]

Finally watched Equus last night. Thought it did a good job of exploring what it means to be human, and how difficult that is, and also there was the horse stuff. Its edits have a temporal rhythm, like Don't Look Now. And I appreciate the theatrics of the human condition: a beaten down Richard Burton admires the outrageously free Peter Firth, whose eyes are loaded with curiosity through the entire movie, and Burton's eyes are loaded with weariness. This movie is "realistic depressing" and a kinda classy first-world problems movie. It's reality converted into emotional perspective. Our culture now isn't serious enough about psychology to make this kind of movie. I think Firth would be into New Age and no one would have any questions about that "horse sprinkle" on his personality. That's just a side tale about ol' Firth. Robinson Devor's Zoo raised the horse love notch to a catastrophe, and the insanest always help the near-insane appear realistically ok. Thanks for recommending Equus, hand raise, spin, Magic Mike XXL, leave room.

[wilder]

September 15, 2015

Walerian Borowczyk's The Beast (1975) from Arrow Films US



The head of a failing French family thinks that fate has smiled down on him when the daughter of a wealthy man agrees to be married to his son. The daughter and her aunt then travel out to the French countryside to meet with the family, unaware that a mysterious 'beast' is stalking the vicinity.

The Beast (1975) - Amazon

Walerian Borowczyk's Immoral Tales (1974) from Arrow Films US



Four erotic tales in various historical eras. The first, 'The Tide', is set in the present day, and concerns a student and his young female cousin stranded on the beach by the tide, secluded from prying eyes. 'Therese Philosophe' is set in the nineteenth century, and concerns a girl being locked in her bedroom, where she contemplates the erotic potential of the objects contained within it. 'Erzsebet Bathory' is a portrait of the sixteenth-century countess who allegedly bathed in the blood of virgins, while 'Lucrezia Borgia' concerns an incestuous fifteenth-century orgy involving Lucrezia, her brother, and her father the Pope.

Sadly, these will be the only discs from Arrow's legendary Borowczyk box to get a US release, at least from Arrow - the US rights for the other three features and all the shorts are with another label.

Because of this, the two supporting shorts that were included on the UK discs of Immoral Tales and The Beast had to be dropped - but in their place we've added all the non-film-specific extras from the other three UK discs, including the hour-long Borowczyk portrait Obscure Pleasures.

[wilder]

September 15, 2015

Christopher Guest's The Big Picture (1989) from Mill Creek



When a film student wins an award for his artsy short, Hollywood comes calling and insists that he compromise his vision.

The Big Picture (1989) - Amazon

[jenkins]

^Its MSRP is going to be $15, but I bet it'll drop below $10 in no time. I have no inside knowledge about Mill Creek Entertainment, but I appreciate them in a general philosophical sense, and in fact they're so cheap and great I wish their releases would just arrive at my doorstep upon release.

This one's from January and currently costs $7 new:

[wilder]

The cost comes at a price - they have a generally terrible reputation for dumping movies on blu-ray with transfers only slightly better than DVD (or worse), i.e. their release of The Squid and the Whale (which should have its own release but was dumped on a single disc as a double feature with Running with Scissors). Their copy of The Lady from Shanghai is a major exception in terms of video quality, but they also weren't the ones to handle it initially. I actually don't think I own anything put out by them.

[jenkins]

I own Gamera: Guardian of the Universe/Attack of the Legion, perhaps the first Mill Creek release, but definitely stupid fucking movies that I'm an idiot for owning. I've tried now and then my entire life to like monster attack movies, and in my childhood I think I did like them, but I can't get back to liking them though I keep trying for some reason, I guess for the reason that I think it's better in life to like things than not like things, and there are many monster attack movies in existence.

I own The Legend of Billie Jean, which I'm very glad to own. I consider that some good FYI from Mill Creek. I own The Lady from Shanghai because of course I do.

That's my complete Mill Creek inventory.  My list is missing: The Wild One, Last Action Hero, Heartbreak Hotel, and soon The Big Picture. So I was being overnice to them but yeah, they're so cheap whatever, put 'em on my doorstep and I'll just deal.

[wilder]

Forgot The Wild One was theirs, that transfer is supposed to be solid. Now things get complicated. Now I can't count on them being good or bad. Tricky.

Also jenk I don't know what this is but Straight Talk (1992) looks like something you'd appreciate

[03]

straight talk is GREAT

[wilder]

August 10, 2015

Arrow UK's upcoming limited edition blu-ray release of Videodrome (1983) contains supplements absent from Criterion's release, including the documentary David Cronenberg and the Cinema of the Extreme and a supplemental blu-ray disc containing newly restored versions of Cronenberg's early shorts Transfer (1966), From the Drain (1967), Stereo (1969) and Crimes of the Future (1970).

Crimes of the Future (1970) will be available on Criterion's upcoming release of The Brood (1979), and Stereo (1969) is already available on Criterion's release of Scanners (1981).

Full list of extra features here



Videodrome (1983) - Amazon UK

[wilder]

VinegarSyndrome.tv is fully funded and happening

We owe a BIG thank you to all of our Indiegogo supporters for helping us bring the largest collection of high-def Exploitation films online.

We can't wait to open the doors to over 250 feature films,consisting of our entire home video catalog, a few other partner labels and over 80 previously unreleased films.

We're launching August 20th on the web and Roku (iOS and Android apps to follow later this year).

[wilder]

August 18, 2015

Gerald Kargl's Angst aka Schizophrenia (1983) on blu-ray from Cult Epics (US)

Delayed until October 13th

[wilder]

September 22, 2015

Dirty Work (1998) from Olive Films

[wilder]

September 22, 2015

The American Dreamer (1971) on blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome/Etiquette Pictures



A documentary about actor/director Dennis Hopper, showing him at his home and studio putting together his film "The Last Movie."

The American Dreamer (1971) - Amazon