TIFF 2013 Review - Gerontophilia

Rating:
15
Release Date:
9,11,13th September (TIFF)
Director:
Bruce Labruce
Cast:
Pier-Gabriel Lajoie, Walter Borden, Katie Boland, Marie-Hélène Thibault,

The Oxford dictionary of Psychology defines the rather ominous term Gerontophilia thus: ‘A paraphilia characterized by recurrent, intense sexual fantasies, urges, or behaviour involving sexual activity with old people’. Bruce La Bruce’s feature film makes certain attempts at uncovering the nature of this particular affliction and in-so-doing unveils a bizarre fusion of love, obsession, and impulse.

Lake (Pier-Gabriel Lajoie) is a young attractive man with a beautiful girlfriend. However, after taking a job at a nursing home, he develops a romantic and sexual attraction towards senior citizen Mr Peabody (Walter Borden), which soon sees him at ends with a society that frowns upon such controversial relations.

La Bruce is no stranger to the subject of transgression from accepted behaviours, his repertoire flaunts a keen interest in the subject and continual exploration. Gerontophilia, whilst still engaging with transgression, is La Bruce’s tamer more palatable attempt at addressing taboo. The key to his success here lies in the beautifully reserved performances of Lajoie and Borden, particularly Borden who exudes a kind of charisma and class that makes the film charismatic to say the least. Though Mr Peabody’s reasoning never quite gets addressed, Lake’s is chopped and mixed so that the line between obsession and love is truly blurred. You’re never sure whether this is a faulted love story in the vein of Lost in Translation/Harold and Maude, or a darker story of incontestable carnal desire.

La Bruce spends far too much time wandering around Lake’s life, letting us live his bizarre fantasies and see his disgust at the retirement home’s desire to keep patients consistently catatonic. Attention meanders until finally Lake makes a definitive decision that opens the door to a hasty third act. Its this last act which plots the difficult covert relationship between the Peabody and Lake.

The issue is that there is much to be explored, too many things to see and so many questions about how this coupling works in, not physical but, emotional terms. The answer is a book too-soon closed once it is opened.  The tender heartfelt chemistry between the two is laced with a wry sense of humour, but just as we get into it, the door is slammed in our faces. La Bruce has perhaps best encapsulated the heart of such a relationship in this simple structuring; either that or he rushed the most enjoyable part of his film.

Arguably La Bruce has forsaken his usual outré stunts to get a shot at the big audience, but I would probably put this down to a tasteful regard of a personal choice deserved of as much compassion as the usual boy meets girl tripe dragged out of mainstream cinema year after year. That’s another point in Gerontophilia’s favour: its unpredictable as a romance or drama because it simply isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen.

Brave in an entirely different way, but far from perfect. La Bruce may have ditched the shock tactics of sexual coercion in favour of a more subdued character study, but here is a film suffering from long stretches of tedium, bad acting, and dull dialogue until its last half hour. However, good sound-tracking, Nicolas Canniccioni’s passive shooting, and a great performance from Walter Borden make this an ultimately charming venture.

★★★☆☆

Scott Clark

Blu-Ray Review - Convoy 35th Anniversary Special Edition

Rating:
12
Distributor:
StudioCanal UK
DVD/BD Release Date:
30th September 2013 (UK)
Director:
Sam Peckinpah
Cast:
Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, Ernest Borgnine , Walter Kelley
Buy Convoy:
DVD
Convoy is in the surprisingly in the very long lineage of films based on songs which seem to go back almost as film itself. The film is based on the trucker anthem Convoy by C. W. McCall. It’s also directed by one of the finest directors of the 60s and 70s Sam Peckinpah but this is by far one of his worse films but that doesn’t mean it does have some merits.

The film is kinda like a tamer and cheesier version of Vanishing Point without the amphetamines or existentialism. It’s about a bunch of truck drivers led by Martin "Rubber Duck" Penwald (Kris Kristofferson) who are driving though Arizona. They group together in a many mile long convoy to protest police corruption (it also starts due to Duck and 2 truck driver friends who are forced to pay Sherriff Dirty Lyle) and shady political dealings. Duck is however adamant they are just driving and there is nothing more to it. Ali MacGraw rides along with The Duck after she flirts with him in the opening scene but her car breaks down and she needs a ride.

The film is a mildly funny comedic romp but the film is sadly really the film that ended the career of one of the great autuers Sam Peckinpah. He also had a serious drink and coke problem by this point, which didn’t help matters. The film was a surprise hit and was most the successful film of his career ironically. It was also clearly made so Peckinpah could have a hit. Despite it’s success Sam had became too much like Bennie in his masterpiece Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and would sabotage anything that came his way. It’s also rumoured that Sam’s old buddy James Coburn directed a bulk of him because Sam was too messed up on booze and coke.

The film’s crowning achievement is this wonderful slow-motion fight in a dinner that is in the higher thresholds of cinematic food fights. Kris Kristofferson tries his best with the poor script he was given and he is always watchable. Ernest Borgnine who is also a great psychopath plays the evil Sheriff Dirty Lyle. Ali MacGraw is wasted but she was never that good of an actress in the first place. Seymour Cassel pops up as a the slimy governor who is only interested in how the public support for the convoy can help his own political career.

Overall it’s sad Peckinpah scooped this low but it’s perfectly watchable and I’ve seen much worst films by noted directors. It’s a mildly entertaining romp with a great food fight and good performance from Kristofferson who tries his best. It does however have a wonderful blu-ray with a documentary on the film that is over an hour along with some other features.

★★1/2☆☆

Ian Schultz

TIFF 2013 Review - Under the Skin

Rating:
15
Release Date:
9,10&15th September 2013 (TIFF) 13, 14th October (LIFF)
Director:
Jonathan Grazer
Cast:
Scarlett Johansson, Paul Brannigan, Jessica Mance
Directed by Jonathan Glazer (Sexy Beast) and filmed entirely on location across Scotland Under the Skin is a film flaunting incredible cinematography strung together by a predominantly performance-orientated narrative. Based on the Novel by Michael Faber, Under the Skin follows Laura (Scarlett Johansson), an alien from another world, as she travels across Scotland kidnapping young men.

Glazer’s latest is a sci-fi film akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey in that one of the film’s main components is its striking tone and total control over the presented image. Daniel Landin’s exquisite palette of subdued tones creates a grim atmospheric back-drop for the film’s often macabre visual style. The same gorgeous control over image translates the Scottish landscape into a strange muggy alien territory, foreboding and stirring in equal measure. Hundreds of directors have only seen fit to make such land a charming tourist spot, whilst Glazer has here crafted an environment that is as much a character as Laura herself.

  Under the Skin is a road movie of sorts, shot in a near-documentary style of lingering shots and snappy disjointed editing, which again expand on the notions of “alien” culture. We are presented time and time again with bizarre social situations; the crowds of Glasgow’s Sauchiehall Street, Neds rampant in the night, masses of colour-coordinated football fans, all of them overpowering and vast, a sensory overload. But even these shots can tire on the viewer in a film with little dialogue and even less narrative explanation. As a companion to the novel, the film is possibly at its best, but still entirely able as a stand-alone project. For true intrigue: Glazer executes some of the most haunting, striking, and unsettling images of extra-terrestrial life ever put to film.

Glazer keeps the mystery of his alien culture tightly wrapped and that pays off big time, rewarding the audience with a kind of abstract macabre that strays into the realm of the horrific. The aesthetic of this alien technology is the definition of minimalism ensuring nothing can be deduced until the last moment, and though the use of contrast lighting is indeed perfect thinking , it at times crowds scenes with far too much shadow, erasing any finer details. In the same setting Mica Levi’s jarring and genius screech-synth scoring is at its best in Laura’s black widow sequences where it plays out like some bizarre striptease music done in pulse-like percussion. The young Londoner is proving a major talent in sound engineering and someone to keep your eye on.

Apart from the stunning cinematography, the most enrapturing thing about this film is Johansson’s turn as alien provocateur-cum-abductor. Relying less on her lines - which she drones in an awful regional accent - the starlet exhibits an accomplished and often intimidating portrayal of the alien amongst us. This is Johansson’s best performance to date. Johansson, as per, is stunning, and her beauty plays an important part in the alien’s role both during the alien’s predatory ventures, and in the film’s powerful lingering and poignant climax.

Incredibly beautiful piece of sci-fi horror with a stellar performance from Johansson and a soundtrack to compliment, Under the Skin is not the gripping sort of hunter/hunted thriller some may expect. If you can look past its relatively reserved lack of narrative you’ll find a powerful and considerate meander through the life of an alien in an alien land.

★★★★☆

Scott Clark

Martin Scorsese World Cinema Foundation Volume 1 To Get A Masters Of Cinema Release

Rating:
PG
DVD/BD Release Date:
25th November 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Pre-Order/Buy:
Martin Scorsese Presents: World Cinema Foundation: Volume One - Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) [Masters of Cinema]
Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS: WORLD CINEMA FOUNDATION: VOLUME ONE ( Three films preserved, restored, and re-presented by the efforts of the World Cinema Foundation: DRY SUMMER / TRANCES / REVENGE). This is the first release from the official partnership between Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation and The Masters of Cinema Series, and will be released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) box set edition on 25 November 2013.

Founded in 2007 and overseen by Martin Scorsese, the World Cinema Foundation (WCF) has spearheaded efforts to preserve, restore, and annually re-present neglected masterpieces of world cinema, particularly those from areas of the globe that have not traditionally been highlighted in prevailing evaluations of film, or which have lacked the financial, technical, or governmental infrastructure to ensure their preservation.

As the WCF's mission statement announces: "Cinema is an international language, an international art, but, above all, it is a source of enlightenment. There are wonderful, remarkable films, past and present, from Mexico, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central Asia that deserve to be known and seen. Composed of filmmakers from every continent, the World Cinema Foundation breathes life into the idea that when a cultural patrimony is lost, no matter how small or supposedly 'marginal' the country might be, we are all poorer for it."

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to act as the official partner of the World Cinema Foundation for the UK region. In this first in a regular series of Blu-ray box sets, we present the WCF's restorations of masterpieces from Turkey (Erksan's Dry Summer), Morocco (El Maanouni's Trances), and Kazakhstan (Shinarbaev's Revenge), with exclusive introductions by Martin Scorsese for each film in this set.

DRY SUMMER [ SUSUZ YAZ ] | A film by Metin Erksan | 1964 | Turkey | 75 minutes | 1.37:1 original aspect ratio

A brutal naturalist melodrama, Metin Erksan's masterful Dry Summer [Susuz yaz], which won the Golden Bear at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival, returns to the spotlight in a new restoration after decades of suppression by Turkish authorities: an arid fate for one of the most exciting films of the 1960s. Viscerally tactile, unsparing, and even on occasion outright lurid, Dry Summer has been described by filmmaker Fatih Akin as "one of the most important legacies of Turkish cinema."

During a particularly dry rural Turkish summer, a group of local workers enter into a dispute with a landowner when he decides the construction of new irrigation infrastructure must first and foremost service his own property. Wholly rapacious, the landowner foments a private war with his own kin after the brother takes a bewitching young wife. The battle between the factions plays out in stunning set-pieces: a pursuit with pistols amidst grass-stalks and dam-water before the setting sun evokes elements of Renoir (Toni), Ford (The World Moves On), Bergman (The Virgin Spring), and Shindô (Onibaba), while a scene set in a brush thicket wherein the landowner and his aggressors fight it out hatchet-and-club provides drama at least as exciting and gasp-inducing as the climax of Seven Samurai.

Dry Summer's sweat-dappled tone and baked images of promenade and labour recall Mexican-period Buñuel as much as aspects of mid-'50s Italian commercial melodrama and, via the film's backdrop of agrarian agitation and its low angles – which effect a figural relief against blazing, albeit greyish mid-contrast summer skies – post-montage Soviet agitprop. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the World Cinema Foundation's restoration of Metin Erksan's classic on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.



TRANCES [ TRANSES ] | A film by Ahmed El Maanouni | 1981 | Morocco | 87 minutes | 1.85:1 original aspect ratio

The inaugural film of the World Cinema Foundation's efforts, Trances [Transes] is a picture unlike any other: a poetic, roving documentary-portrait performance-film based around the Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane.

In this rare, transformational work, Nass El Ghiwane perform their music at concerts at once fervidly rally-like and suffused with the spontaneity of a mass happening; recount their time working alongside the great chaâbi musician Boudjemaâ El Ankis in the 1970s; and generally philosophise and reflect upon life. As Martin Scorsese expressed at the time of the film's re-presentation in 2007: "I became passionate about this music that I heard and I saw also the way the film was made, the concert that was photographed and the effect of the music on the audience at the concert. I tracked down the music and eventually it became my inspiration for many of the designs and construction of my film The Last Temptation of Christ. [...] And I think the group was singing damnation: their people, their beliefs, their sufferings, and their prayers all came through their singing. And I think the film is beautifully made by Ahmed El Maanouni; it's been an obsession of mine since 1981."

True to its title, Trances is an hypnotic, exhilarating masterwork. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Ahmed El Maanouni's film, restored from the original 16mm camera and sound negatives, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.


REVENGE [ MEST' ] | A film by Ermek Shinarbaev | 1989 | Kazakhstan | 96 minutes | 1.37:1 original aspect ratio

Set largely in Korea and China, and spanning the 1910s to 1940s, Ermek Shinarbaev's epic masterpiece unites the resonant pictoriality of certain Far Eastern cinema with a mysticism rooted in the Russian tradition: a fitting and harmonic convergence for this collaboration (one of three) between the Kazakh director and Korean-Russian writer Anatoli Kim.

A rural schoolteacher, Jan, murders a pupil, the young daughter of a family under whom he had previously been a tenant. The father, Caj [pronounced "Tsaiya"], tracks him to China to exact revenge – but at at the moment of vengeance, Caj cannot act. He returns home only to take a concubine, who in turn bears him a son: Sungu, a prodigious composer of verse. At Caj's deathbed, the boy is informed he has been brought into the world purely for the sake of vengeance; he takes an oath to annihilate Jan.

Tonally, Revenge exhibits an extraordinary use of natural light that lends the figures an almost ethereal incandescence in the picture's first half; the second half of the film shifts into a no-less-impressive palate that is ally to late-Tarkovskyan naturalism. A narrative broken into seven chapters, and constructed in a full-circle that creates a visual and spoken summary of Sungu's poetic universe, Revenge is, to quote the critic Kent Jones, "a true odyssey, geographically and psychologically. One of the greatest films to emerge from the Kazakh New Wave, and also one of the toughest." The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Revenge, restored from the original camera negative with the involvement of Ermek Shinarbaev, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Glorious new restorations of three neglected masterworks of world cinema, all presented in 1080p HD
• Exclusive video introductions to each film by Martin Scorsese
• 80-page book featuring writing by Kent Jones on Revenge, Bilge Ebiri on Trances, archival documentation and imagery, and more to be announced
• Optional English subtitles on each film
• More features to be announced closer to release date

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon - TIFF 2013 Review

Rating:
15
Release Date:
7,8,14th September 2013 (TIFF)
Director:
Mike Myers
Cast:
Shep Gordon,Alice Cooper, Michael Douglas,Tom Arnold, Anne Murray, Sylvester Stallone
Mike Myers’ directorial debut is proof not only that he’s a skilled director and impressive documenter, but the subject of his film is probably one of the coolest men to ever live. Shep Gordon, manager extraordinaire, is a power house of productivity, a messiah of good times, and an all-round nice guy. He’s managed Alice Cooper since the beginning of his career, practically invented the concept of the celebrity chef, and has managed to intertwine his existence with the mint of Hollywood and rock royalty by being one of the world’s greatest hosts. So says Supermensch; The Legend of Shep Gordon.

The key to Myers’ film is that he has a genuine respect for Gordon, like the rest of the stars who pop up through this charming - often hilarious - exploration of Gordon’s career. Michael Douglas, Sylvester Stallone, Myers himself, Alice Cooper, Willie Nelson, to name a few, all jump at the opportunity to give candid tales of Gordon’s frankly mindboggling life. From his humble, drug fuelled beginnings hanging out with the likes of Hendrix and Joplin, onwards through his fast-paced career in music and film. His legendary appetite for good times and women are here exceeded only by his love for seemingly everyone he meets.

Myers is an incredibly gifted filmmaker, fusing his zany wit and comic timing with Gordon’s own barmy life. His editing is sharp and gripping; snippets from movies and a great soundtrack make Supermensch nothing short of fascinating viewing. Perhaps Myers gets a bit caught up in his own love for the father-figure, at points making his documentary a kind of advertisement, but a keen sense of ‘the man’ Gordon as opposed to just ‘the legend’ maintains a suitably grounded and heartfelt film. The Alice Cooper chapter goes on a bit but Gordon’s input into Cooper’s vaudevillian act is vast and thus arguably important. Sure, near-ridiculous amount of good praise for Gordon gets silly at points, but only a cynical kind of tabloid gossip-craving would render this an actual fault. Take a page out of Gordon’s book and cheer the hell up.

No matter where your interests lie, Gordon’s life is at worst intriguing and at best mad. This is a highly impressive debut and a thrilling story of a loving friend, hedonist, innovator, and showman. The fifteen year old me wants another Austin Powers, whilst now I can’t help but hope Myers has another go in the director’s chair.

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon is entirely watchable, vivid, and compulsive filmmaking punctuated by a host of celebrity guests, a great soundtrack, and some psychedelic editing. Myers’ debut film is an impressive exploration of a life well-lived: heart-warming, hilarious, but above all highly recommendable.

★★★★½

Scott Clark

TIFF 2013 Review - Thou Gild'st the Even

Rating:
12A
Release Date:
8th, 10th & 13th September 2013 (TIFF)
Director:
Onur Ünlü
Cast:
Derya Alabora, Ali Atay, Tansu Biçer

Undoubtedly one of the most bizarre features at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival is Turkish oddball drama Thou Gild’st the Even: a film that may strain the patience of some viewers but captivate others with its casual absurdity.

Onur Unlu’s film explores sorrow, hope, and the insanity of human nature through the life of a bored and depressed barber shop worker in a small Turkish town with two suns and three full moons. The people there have inherited extraordinary abilities. Cemal (Ali Atay) wanders through life despondent and unfulfilled whilst surrounded by an invisible teacher, an immortal doctor, and a beautiful girl who can stop time with a clap of her hands.

Beautifully shot in black and white with a kind of nonchalant regard for its weird moments, Onur Unlu’s film is startling in its lack of pretention, events just occur and no particular weight is put on them. The film would make a dull little study into the mind of a loner if it were not for its touches of surrealism which lace the feature like finely warped filigree. This doesn’t just apply to the characters and their behaviours but the bizarre scenes that spring up around them: the pill-fuelled flight, the brazen assassination in the night, a disturbed serenade totally lacking in romantic endeavour, all these fall awkwardly into place like some ill-constructed child’s toy. However Unlu eventually pulls off a successful illustration of life in all its nuts and sometimes heart-breaking entirety.

When the film starts to strain patience with its casual non-committal kind of narrative, it draws the viewer in by presenting yet another strange character whose bizarre ability has taught them some life lesson they can impart to a man truly lost in his own mundane existence. Excellent casting, beautiful scoring, and a fine eye for humour in a black and white world, definitely ease the passing of this often slow venture.

That’s the key to the film’s success: under the humour and weirdness there’s a story about a man’s life being told, a man who- for all intents and purposes- is totally ordinary besides his strange power. It’s a small town romance, a love story that documents jealousy and passion, family and friends, relationships and ultimately regret. Though time and again it finds such weird ways of relaying such everyday situations, the message will often pass by, only to be picked up later.

Though intriguing Thou Gildst the Even is at many points tiresome and not an easy pill to swallow. However, maybe a little alienation is obligatory as part of an absurdist drama with a Twin Peaks kind of logic to it. For a film lacking in true drama, there’s a lot of heart and poignancy to this truly strange and comical vignette into extraordinary lives.

★★★★☆

Scott Clark

Man of Tai Chi - TIFF 2013 Review

Rating:
18
Release Date:
10th & 11th September 2013 (TIFF)
Director:
Keanu Reeves
Cast:
Keanu Reeves, Tiger Chen, Karen Mok, Simon Yam, Iko Uwais
At one point in time many of us owed our teenage years to Keanu Reeves. Not only did the guy become a global star overnight thanks to The Matrix but he also put Kung-Fu back in vogue. Perhaps because of his affinity with martial arts Reeves has decided to make his directorial debut in Man of Tai Chi; a film based on the life and exploits of Tiger Chen, his coach on The Matrix.

Chen stars as himself, a devout Tai Chi student struggling to make ends meet. His achievements at national championships attract the attentions of Dakata Mark (Reeves) a mysterious businessman who organises secret underground fights. Soon Chen’s control over his honourable craft gives way to a dark and violent nature, pushing him to the brink of self-control in Mark’s shadowy games.

Man of Tai Chi is a strange film. It dodges between great action adventure and corny throw-away trash with all the rapidity of its lead’s martial arts. At times the jet-setting and glorious backdrops look like Tekken cast-offs and at others it seems to be going for Fight Club by way of Fast and Furious. The inconsistency will be the most irritating feature for most people.

The fight sequences are great, well-shot and obviously well under Reeves’ control. But CGI effects and an unfortunate stroll into Kung-Fu magic really send the film wobbling on its axis. This is a shame when moments of dark genius punctuate this near-camp affair. The heart of a thriller erupts at moments to accentuate what the film could have been, leaving Reeve’s debut- for the most part- floating in anonymity

Chen makes a great leading man, mysterious and strong, wilful yet troubled, his drives and actions however get lost in translation leaving the audience bewildered at his often unfound actions. On the subject of unfound actions Reeves’ own performance is in keeping with his repertoire: a wee bit silly. Playing the omnipresent leader of the underground fight club, Dakata Mark, Reeves is partial to a bit of over-acting, under-acting, and utterly ludicrous dialogue. Most of the time you won’t know whether to laugh but there’s no denying the magnetism of his screen presence - in a Nicholas Cage way. That is in no way a negative comment by the way. There is however an unattractive masturbatory quality to his fast cars, big persona, and finely tailored suits. A kind of quality that salt-wraps his watchable manoeuvres.

For some people this could be the oddball-exploitation-action runaway of the year, for most it will be exploitation of the audience; a mess of different ideas with its head half screwed on. But there’s enough fun action to keep you distracted from the fact this is just a tad off-mark.

★★★☆☆

Scott Clark

John Wayne's Red River To Premier on Blu-Ray Via Masters of Cinema

Eureka! Entertainment have announced first UK Blu-ray appearance of the iconic classic Red River (1948). Voted the fifth greatest western of all time by the American Film Institute in June 2008, Red River was directed by the legendary Howard Hawks, one of the most influential American directors of all time, and stars John Wayne and Montgomery Clift in his debut film. Red River will be released in a Blu-ray edition on 28 October 2013 as part of Eureka! Entertainment’s award winning The Masters of Cinema Series.

“Immaculately shot by Russell Harlan, perfectly performed by a host of Hawks regulars, and shot through with dark comedy, it's probably the finest Western of the '40s." - Geoff Andrew, Time Out

One of Hollywood's most iconic westerns, Howard Hawks' Red River launches cinema's grandest cattle drive, and one of the screen's most powerful father-son dramas. One of John Wayne's most intense roles inspired one of his finest performances, and in his debut leading role, Montgomery Clift instantly leapt to the forefront of Hollywood's young actors.

After the Civil War, ranch owner Thomas Dunson (Wayne) leads a drive of ten thousand cattle out of an impoverished Texas to the richer markets of Missouri, alongside his adopted son Matthew Garth (Clift) and a team of ranch hands. As the conditions worsen, and Dunson's control over his cattlemen gets ever more merciless, a rebellion begins to grow within the travelling party.

Filmed among glorious expanses with no expense spared, and a roster of brilliant turns from greats including Joanne Dru, Walter Brennan, Harry Carey, John Ireland and Hank Worden, Red River is an all-American epic, a grand adventure yarn, and a profound psychological journey. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present its first UK release on Blu-ray.



SPECIAL FEATURES
- New high-definition 1080p presentation
- Original theatrical trailer
- Exclusive lengthy video conversation about Red River and Howard Hawks by filmmaker and critic Dan Sallitt, conducted by Jaime Christley, and shot by Dustin Guy Defa and James P. Gannon
- And more to be announced
- A booklet featuring the words of Howard Hawks, rare imagery, and more!

Buy Red River Starring JOHN WAYNE (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray)

Maurice Pialet's Van Gogh Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray Review

Rating:
15
BD/DVD Release Date:
23rd September 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka! Video
Director:
Maurice Pialat
Cast:
Jacques Dutronc, Alexandra London, Bernard Le Coq
Buy:
2-Disc DVD or Blu-ray
Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh is one of the reasons why I love Masters of Cinema. I was sort of dreading to watch a 2 hour and 40 minute French film on the last 60s days of the life of the artist Vincent Van Gogh but it was one of the most captivating films I’ve seen in a while. Pialet had been obsessed with Van Gogh for a very long time; he made a documentary about him in the 1966.

The film takes a very unsensationalistic take on Van Gogh’s last 60 days of his life till his inevitable suicide. The film for example doesn’t mention the fact he cut his ear off and in fact shows Van Gogh with two ears. It also doesn’t really go much into his art. Van Gogh does paint in the film naturally and you see him hand his physician Paul Gachet his famous portrait, which also happens to have the world record for most expensive painting at public auction in history. It most concerns his relationships with his physician and his daughter and his art dealer brother Theo, who disliked his brother’s paintings.

Jacques Dutronc is cast as the title character. Dutronc was one of the biggest French “Chanson” singers of the 1960s. His music dabbled in garage rock and psychedelic rock. Dutronc began acting in the mid 1970s but it wasn’t till his role in Jean Luc-Godard’s Slow Motion people really took him seriously as a real dramatic actor. Dutronc won a César (the French equivalent to the Oscars or Baftas) for his performance and rightfully so. Dutronc inhabits the role with his gaunt performance that is a transformation to behold.

The film is a naturalistic take on quite an extraordinary life and was real pleasure for beginning to end. The blu-ray release characteristically of Masters of Cinema includes over 2 hours of interviews, over half an hour of deleted scenes and Pialet’s original 60s documentary on Van Gogh. It’s a highly recommended release which should be added to any cinema lover’s collection.

★★★★1/2

Ian Schultz

A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray Review

Rating:
PG
BD Release Date:
23rd September 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka Video
Director:
Douglas Sirk
Cast:
John Gavin, Liselotte Pulver, Jock Mahoney
Buy:
A Time To Love And A Time To Die (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray)
A Time to Love and a Time to Die was previously released by Masters of Cinema on dvd but it’s a welcome blu-ray upgrade. That master of melodrama Douglas Sirk directs it and as far as I know Masters of Cinema are the only company to have released any of his films on blu-ray. The other film they released is The Tarnished Angels and both films give 2 different sides to Sirk. A Time to Love… is firstly in colour and his colour films have a very expressionistic use of colour. The Tarnished Angels on the other hand is black and white and is to an extent an even more pessimistic film, which is the norm with his black and white films.

A Time to Love… is firstly a surprising sympathetic film about a Nazi officer. The thing, which is most surprising, is Sirk who of course is German and Jewish himself and who also fled in the 1930s became of his political leanings and ethnicity would make such a sympathetic film about a Nazi officer. The film however is about an apolitical soldier who was literally just a hired hand, which was often the case at the time.

The film is a classic piece of Sirkian melodrama; the plot is basically the Nazi soldier who is stationed out on the Eastern Front finally gets his first furlough in 2 years. He arrives home and Allied bombing has destroyed his hometown and his parents are missing. He meets a girl who is the daughter of his family’s doctor but the Gestapo is holding him. They two of them fall in love and marry but in typical Sirkian style everything ends in tragedy.

The film was made near the end of his career in Hollywood he would later move back to his Native Germany to teach films. His last film was a collaborative short film with his greatest admirer Rainer Werner Fassbinder (who wrote extensively on Sirk and was one of the 1st to revaluate his films). It was the last film he made before his much-revered Imitation of Life (recently voted one of the 100 best films ever made in the Sight and Sound poll). It’s one of the first post-war films I can think of that doesn’t paint all Nazis are evil bastards which is why it’s so fascinating.

John Gavin stars as the Nazi soldier and in many ways he is Rock Hudson’s replacement (who Sirk cast in the majority of his key films). He is a handsome black haired masculine actor very much in the build of Hudson and was groomed to be like him by Universal Studios so the similarity obviously appealed to Sirk who also casted him in Imitation of Life. However interestingly is actually of Latin descent and not gay. Hudson’s closeted homosexuality always brought interested subtext to many of his roles especially his work with Sirk and Seconds. John Gavin would later star in Spartacus, Psycho and was even cast as James Bond before Roger Moore. The film also features a absurdly young Klaus Kinski in a small role.

The film is very typical of Sirk with its lush CinemaScope photography and Sirk’s films were certainly made for that format. It also has that characteristic irony that runs though all his work especially with the film’s ending. It’s not his greatest film but it’s a fascinating one.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz