Category: DVD review

The Criterion Collection has released Bresson’s masterpiece, Au hasard Balthazar on DVD today; this review is for robert-bresson.com, which will publish our full review of the DVD shortly. –Doug

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The scholar C.H. Dodd once defined a parable as a “a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application as to tease it into active thought.” Parables are thus distinguished from fables (which involve fantasy or myth) or allegories (which are highly symbolic with emblematic …

New Yorker Video have recently released Robert Bresson’s L’Argent (1983) on DVD, and this review of the film will predicate our complete review of the DVD at www.robert-bresson.com shortly. –Doug

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For many, Robert Bresson’s final work, L’Argent (1983), is a perfect formal and thematic culmination of the filmmaker’s sporadic, but consistently provocative career. But its reception has always been mixed; at its Cannes Film Festival premiere, Bresson received a new prize (presented by Orson Welles)–the Grand Prix de CrÈation–which he shared with Andrei Tarkovsky (for Nostalghia), and members of the audience booed the 82-year …

George Lucas isn’t the only filmmaker who can turn ancient myth, graphic eye candy, doomed romance, and Buddhist non-attachment into box office gold, so can Nonzee Nimibutr. What’s more, Nimitbutr did it six years ago in Thailand with Nang Nak (recently released on DVD by Kino International), where the film became a popular sensation and helped finance festival hits like Last Life in the Universe (2003) and The Overture (2004).

For my money, Nang Nak is also a lot more fun–and even touching–than any one of the Star Wars prequels or Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…and Spring (2003), for that matter. …

The new issue of Paste magazine (number 16) is currentlly on newsstands, and it features a number of articles I’ve written, including introductions to Australian cinema and Robert Bresson (highlighting New Yorker’s L’Argent and Criterion’s upcoming Au hasard Balthazar DVDs), and a short write-up on Welles’ F for Fake.

One of the films I wanted to include in my Australian article, but didn’t because I couldn’t obtain the region 4 DVD in time, was Rolf de Heer’s The Tracker (2002), a potent and formally inventive depiction of three white, mounted police in the 1920s who chase a black Aboriginal …

Fritz Lang's first American film, Fury (1936), was released on DVD this week as part of Warner’s Controversial Classics Collection box set, and while it’s not entirely clear what designates each film as being “controversial,” I’m not going to quibble; Warner continues to set the standard for excellent transfers, noteworthy extras, and comparatively low prices for such classic titles.

Lang’s talents are also fully on display in this film, too, although his transition from European to Hollywood production generated its share of tensions–rigid shooting schedules, difficult stars, and a studio that prided itself on glossy musicals frustrated Lang, known for …

The title of Orson Welles’ playful and raffish essay film, F for Fake (1976)–released this week on DVD by the Criterion Collection–suggests one possible word following the sixth letter of the English alphabet, and indeed, the film’s focus on the story of art forger Elmyr de Hory justifies it. But the film could also have been called “F for Fame,” as one of the film’s preoccupations is the way notoriety and personality can overwhelm art, imposing notions of “authenticity” and “fakery,” “expertise” and “value,” in ways that are less certain than one might assume.

The essay film is a genre …