THE CRITERION COLLECTION PRESENTS: KING OF JAZZ (1930) and F IS FOR FAKE (1975). A DOUBLE REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS.

DVD Review - The Immortal Story (1968)

Blu-ray Review - Chimes at Midnight (1965)

Blu-ray Review - The Stranger (1946)

Blu-ray Review - Too Much Johnson (1938)

MUBI Selects - Friday 3rd April 2015

It's time to relax as the Easter weekend  has arrived 2(or 3) days of relaxation, it's time for bliss and  chill out after the hard slog of the week.It's time to refuel your brain with sophistication and MUBI Selects.

In our latest weekly 'Mubi Selects' we've teamed with MUBI the purveyors of great cinema online curating a great selection of cult, classic, independent, and award-winning movies. It's an international community discovering wonderful intelligent thought provoking films MUBI is your passport to those great films.

MUBI unleash great new films every week and in our MUBI Selects we've picked  a selection of those great movies  help you enjoy that lazy weekend you desire...

Code 46 (2003) | Michael Winterbottom

Winterbottom has been an unpredictable filmmaker since day one, you don't know what version will turn up and that's what makes him an exciting director. Code 46 maybe been called an 'Futuristic Brief Ecounter', the dystopian totalitarian society that hits the bone. The love story is simple a story one that is doomed thanks genetic incompatibility.A cold story backed by a mesmerizing performance by Samantha Morton.


Reprise (2006) | Joachim Trier

The directorial feature debut for Joachim Trier (nephew of  Lars Von Trier) a film that gained critical acclaim around the festival circuit. Joachim has developed a style which is satirical drenched in realism , truly poetic blessed with  beautifully framed cinematography. Reprise is call to arms for all ambitious writers struggling in a fun character study of the writers and the pitfuls they face.


F For Fake (1973) | Orson Welles

"Are you watching carefully?" Orson Welles who he was and what he did needs no explanation he was a legend in hos own right, a film auteur on every level. F For Fake showcases Welles as the perfect master of ceremonies. Welles is a magician and the journey he takes us on is like the magic's slight of hand , part documentary, part essay, a playful journey that exposes the fakers. Let the legend that's Orson Welles frauds, fakes, and hoaxes.


Let Me In (2010) | Matt Reeves

Last Week we selected Let The Right One In and like many great European/Non English films they get the now expected Hollywood remake.Skeptics jump on every inevitable remakes however Reeves created a version that's comfortably adapted into American way of life , the South West to be precise.Let Me In is an story of a bullied young boy  who befriends a young girl who becomes his neighbour and just happens to be a vampire


Why not give up on those expensive chain coffoees once a wee, toenjoy the weekend and every day great films at MUBI? click below to get more info on the other fantastic films on offer...

DVD Review - Man In The Shadow (1957)

Orson Welles The Trial Blu-Ray Review

★★★★1/2

Orson Welles’ The Trial was his penultimate feature length film. His last proved to be Falstaff : Chimes at Midnight but there are fragments of unfinished films such Don Quixote floating about.The Trial is a radical adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel which itself was a radical novel, he changes the book’s already fragmented order up and changes the ending. Welles was offered the chance to make any film from a public domain source by the producer Alexander Salkindso and Welles eventually picked The Trial partly due his son’s insistence and after he re-read it. However he later found it wasn’t in public domain at that time (it now is) but the producer and Welles decided to continue with the project.

The plot is relatively simple Josef K. (played brilliantly by Anthony Perkins) is woken in his apartment by some police officers who arrest him for a crime he is accused of committing, however he is never told of his offence. This starts a increasing downward spiral for Josef K. and increasing surreal events.

Anthony Perkins gives a brilliant nervous wreck of a performance at Josef K. It also really shows his really underused acting talent that sadly few films showed Psycho and On The Beach are the only others that come to mind. The film has a extra level of surrealism by the fact Orson Welles dubbed a lot of characters himself (which he also did in some other films) and the blu-ray makes it a lot more obvious with some dubbing noticeably out of synch at times. Orson himself has a supporting role as a strange law advocate and it seems like Welles redubbed his lines in adr. It also stars French star Jeanne Moreau as Josef’s neighbour.

 The film’s cinematography and sets’ are best Welles did since Citizen Kane with the exception of THAT tracking shot in Touch of Evil and that’s saying something! The film was mostly shot in Croatia (not Kafka’s native Czech Republic) and a lot of the sets weren’t sets at all but strange surreal futuristic buildings in the city of Zagreb.

The film’s structure is fragmented which is partly due to the novel’s structure. The film’s pacing is slightly off which is annoying at times but the film’s quality overcomes this. However it could probably loose about 15 minutes off it’s running time. Overall it’s one of the most flawed masterpieces to be made, which was partly because it’s financial limitations. However Welles’ inventiveness makes a it’s one of his most fascinating films in a career of fascination. It also boosts a stunning performance from Anthony Perkins who deserved a lot more juicy parts in his career. It is also worth noting that Welles believed Josef was guilty but you can make your own mind u[.

Ian Schultz

Rating:PG
Blu Ray Release Date: 10th September 2012 (UK)
Directed by:Orson Welles
Cast:Anthony Perkins, Jeanne Moreau, Romy Schneider, Elsa Martinelli, Orson Welles

Studio Canal Announces This Year's Titles For It's 'Studio Canal Collection'

StudioCanal have announced the films that will make up this year's 'StudioCanal Collection' the series that aims to revisit some of the most iconic films from Studiocanal's  back catalogue of over 5,000 titles.

For those of you who don't know, the StudioCanal Collection is a series of acclaimed and influential films on Blu-ray with unique special features and accompanying booklets, available in HD so as to present the best possible picture and sound quality. This year's classic films will be Orson Welles The Trial,Luis Buneul's  That Obscure Object of Desire and Marcel Carne's  Le Quai Des Brumes (Port Of Shadows).

THE TRIAL

Based on the influential Franz Kafka novel, THE TRIAL is a paranoid masterpiece directed by Orson Welles (Citizen Kane, Touch of Evil). Josef K (Anthony Perkins – Psycho) is arrested, but has no idea what crime he is accused of. In order to find out what offence he is meant to have committed, and to protest his innocence, Josef K must go through the machinations of the judicial system, but he soon finds himself trapped in a dehumanised nightmare.
  
Extras: 
Welles, Kafka and The Trial documentary
Welles, Architect of Light documentary
Tempo Profile: Orson Welles
Interview with Steven Berkoff (actor, playwright) - adaptations of Kakfa's The Trial andMetamorphosis
Deleted Scene
Trailer
Booklet on the movie written by Jonathan Rosenbaum, film critic and author of Discovering Orson Welles (2007), the editor of This Is Orson Welles  (1998) and consultant on the 1998 re-edit ofTouch Of Evil. 

THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE

Adapted from Pierre Louÿs' 1898 novel 'La Femme et le Pantin', THAT OBSCURE OBJECT OF DESIRE marked Buñuel's final film. Recounted in flashback to a group of railway travellers, the story wryly details the romantic perils of Mathieu (Buñuel favourite Fernando Rey), a wealthy middle-aged French sophisticate who falls desperately in love with his 19-year-old former chambermaid Conchita (Carole Bouquet). Thus begins a surreal game of sexual cat-and-mouse, with Mathieu obsessively attempting to win the girl's affections as she manipulates his carnal desires, each vying to gain absolute control of the other.

Extras: 
Arbitrary Desire (Interview with Jean-Claude Carrière)
Interview with Carlos Saura
Double Dames (Interview with Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina)
A portrait if Luis Buñuel (Interview with Pierre Lary and Edmond Richard)

QUAI DES BRUMES

Le QUAI DES BRUMES is Marcel Carné's controversial adaptation of the Pierre Mac Orlan novel of the same name, today regarded as one of the greatest French classical movies. Jean (Jean Gabin), a deserter, arrives in Le Havre and looks for a shelter before leaving the French territory. Housed in a shed on the harbour, at the end of the docks, he meets an eccentric painter (Michel Simon) and a mysterious and beautiful girls called Nelly (Michele Morgan)… From then on he will be trapped in a tragic destiny, in spite of his passion for Nelly and his will to live…

Extras: 
On The Port Of Shadows
Introduction to Quai Des Brumes by Ginette Vincendeau, Professor and Film Critic
Restoring Quai Des Brumes
Booklet on the movie written by Ginette Vincendeau, Professor and Film Critic.