Indy Datta revisits Walter Hill’s influential 1978 car-chase classic, released on Blu-ray today.
Category Archives: Home Video
Porky’s
The seminal Canadian teen sex comedy is out this week on Blu-ray from Arrow Films. Indy Datta girds his loins.
There’s a War on… Somewhere
Ace in the Hole is reissued on Bluray today by Masters of Cinema. Philip Concannon’s look back at Billy Wilder’s cynical masterpiece is illustrated by behind-the-scenes photographs.
Phantom of the Paradise
Brian de Palma’s cult musical – a riff on Phantom of the Opera, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Faust – is reissued in a typically spiffy new Blu-ray edition by Arrow Films today. Blake Backlash takes a look.
Shadow of the Vampire
F.W. Murnau’s classic “Nosferatu” has been playing in a new restoration in the BFI’s Gothic Season, and has now made its way to Blu-ray on Eureka’s Masters of Cinema imprint. Fiona Pleasance takes a look back at the daddy of horror movies.
Computer Chess
This surreal science-fiction comedy is rich and strange, and the best film of the year, says Indy Datta.
“I’ve never expected metal ships!”
Indy Datta takes a look at the top-notch new Blu-ray of Philip Kaufman’s remake of “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, released by Arrow Video on Monday.
Smiley’s People
Emma Street explains why Ben Wheatley’s new film is – and isn’t – like The Breakfast Club
Ben Wheatley’s A Field in England was released last Friday across all platforms with the possible exception of kinetoscope. Viewers were offered the option of watching the film at the cinema, on DVD, via digital download or by tuning in to Film4 at 10:45 where the whole thing broadcast without ad breaks.
I dipped my toe in the multiple release formats experience by watching it first on television on Friday night and then seeing it on the big screen on Sunday at the ICA. This showing was followed by a question and answer session with director Ben Wheatley and actor Reece Sheersmith, who stars in the film and is better known as one of the League of Gentlemen. In this session Wheatley discussed how he chose to shoot the film chronologically in order to allow the actors the opportunity to grow with their characters. He also shared his thoughts on the cinematic advantages of shooting in black and white – how it prevents viewers becoming distracted by attractive scenery or costumes and focuses attention on character’s faces. Black and white footage, he says, also highlights dirt and grime.
In which case, he certainly achieved the look he was going for. The images that remain with you after watching A Field In England are the moods, reactions and suffering written on the protagonists’ faces and the grubby muddiness of their surroundings. Continue reading Smiley’s People
Firebombs and Broomsticks
Indy Datta takes a look at the new BluRays of Ghibli’s Grave of the Fireflies and Kiki’s Delivery Service.
After the recent theatrical run for the 1988 Ghibli double bill of Hayao Miyazaki’s My Neighbour Totoro and Isao Takahata’s Grave of the Fireflies, today sees the release of a slew of Studio Ghibli titles in DVD/Blu-ray dual format editions. I was lucky enough to score review copies of Fireflies and Miyazaki’s follow-up to Totoro – Kiki’s Delivery Service. Thoughts on the films and the discs after the jump.
A Truth About Hal Hartley
by Mr Moth
A man in a dark suit escaping a criminal past. An woman giving up everything for the dream of another life. Deadpan dialogue. Low key drama in the shabby outskirts of New York and Long Island. Welcome to the early work of Hal Hartley. Take a seat. Don’t look at me, gaze out of the window. I’ll talk to you. You talk to the air. The blank space between us says everything else.
MostlyFilm 