DVD Release Update, 24 January

More DVD updates. You'll find a number of new additions to the TCM Vault/Universal catalogue for 27 April. From Facets, the performance art piece Roy Cohn/Jack Smith (which stars Ron Vawter as Cohn and Smith, produced by Jonathan Demme), Raoul Ruiz's Dialogues of the Exiled and Harun Farocki's documentary How to Live in the German Federal Republic will all be available on 27 April as well. There's a slew of Roger Corman-produced B movies from Shout! Factory. And from Microcinema, a remastered re-release of Hal Hartley's Surviving Desire and the second set of short films from Hartley will hit shelves on 27 April (a busy week, no doubt). Surviving Desire will also include the shorts Theory of Achievement and Ambition, which were also featured on the now long out-of-print Wellspring disc. Via Microcinema's website, they are also planning new DVDs of Lynn Hershman-Leeson's Conceiving Ada and Teknolust, both starring Tilda Swinton, as well as a set of her early experimental works, which should be out by the end of the year.

On the Blu-ray front, Palm will be releasing The Basketball Diaries on 20 April. The Who's The Kids Are Alright will be released by Sanctuary Records on 2 March. Troma will be releasing Steve Balderson's teen slasher satire Pep Squad and Peter George's Surf Nazis Must Die on 25 May. And it looks as though Hannover House will be releasing a Blu-ray in addition to the DVD of Abel Ferrara's Chelsea on the Rocks on 4 May.

- Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak, 2009, d. Lance Bangs, Spike Jonze, Oscilloscope Pictures, 2 March, w. Maurice Sendak, Jonze, Catherine Keener, Meryl Streep, James Gandolfini
- Up in the Air, 2009, d. Jason Reitman, also on Blu-ray, Paramount, 9 March
- William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe, 2009, d. Emily Kunstler, Sarah Kunstler, Arthouse Films/New Video, 30 March
- Irene in Time, 2009, d. Henry Jaglom, Breaking Glass Pictures, 6 April, w. Karen Black
- Jade Warrior [Jadesoturi], 2006, d. Antti-Jussi Annila, Lionsgate, 6 April
- Party Down, Season 1, 2009, d. Fred Savage, Bryan Gordon, Anchor Bay, 6 April
- Tetro, 2009, d. Francis Ford Coppola, also on Blu-ray, Lionsgate, 6 April
- Humanoids from the Deep, 1980, d. Barbara Peters, Jimmy T. Murakami, Shout! Factory, 13 April
- Tenderness, 2009, d. John Polson, Lionsgate, 13 April, w. Russell Crowe, Jon Foster, Laura Dern
- Three Kingdoms, 2008, d. Daniel Lee, Lionsgate, 13 April, w. Andy Lau, Sammo Hung, Maggie Q
- Duska [Dushka], 2007, d. Jos Stelling, Cinema Vault/MVD, 20 April
- Return to Hansala [Retorno a Hansala], 2008, d. Chus Gutiérrez, Cinema Vault, 20 April
- Wind Man, 2007, d. Khuat Akhmetov, Cinema Vault, 20 April
- Beginning of the End, 1957, d. Bert I. Gordon, Hens Tooth Video, 22 April
- Because of Him, 1946, d. Richard Wallace, Universal/TCM Vault, 27 April, w. Charles Laughton
- Dialogues of the Exiled [Diálogos de exiliados], 1975, d. Raoul Ruiz, Cnemateca/Facets, 27 April
- For the Love of Mary, 1948, d. Frederick De Cordova, Universal/TCM Vault, 27 April
- How to Live in the German Federal Republic [Leben - BRD], 1990, d. Harun Farocki, Facets, 27 April
- Mad About Music, 1938, d. Norman Taurog, Universal/TCM Vault, 27 April
- Possible Films, Volume 2: New Short Films by Hal Hartley, d. Hal Hartley, Microcinema, 27 April
- Red Rowan [Jarzębina czerwona], 1970, d. Ewa Petelska, Czesław Petelski, Polart/Facets, 27 April
- Roy Cohn/Jack Smith, 1994, d. Jill Godmilow, Facets, 27 April
- Surviving Desire, 1991, d. Hal Hartley, Microcinema, 27 April, w. Martin Donovan
- Sympathy, 2007, d. Andrew Moorman, Breaking Glass Pictures, 27 April
- That Certain Age, 1938, d. Edward Ludwig, Universal/TCM Vault, 27 April
- Three Smart Girls Grow Up, 1939, d. Henry Koster, Universal/TCM Vault, 27 April
- The Unquiet Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, 1974, d. Alan Moorman, Facets, 27 April
- The Muse, 1999, d. Albert Brooks, Universal, 4 May, w. Brooks, Sharon Stone, Andie Macdowell, Jeff Bridges, Cybil Shepherd
- Suburbia, 1984, d. Penelope Spheeris, Shout! Factory, 4 May
- Love Games [Sette ragazze di classe], 1979, d. Pedro Lazaga, MYA Communication, 25 May
- Phyllis and Harold, 2008, d. Cindy Kleine, Breaking Glass Pictures, 25 May
- Sandok [Sandok: La montagna di luce], 1965, d. Umberto Lenzi, MYA Communication, 25 May
- Somebody's Knocking at the Door, 2009, d. Chad Ferrin, Breaking Glass Pictures, 25 May, w. Noah Segan
- True Blood, Season 2, 2009, also on Blu-ray, HBO, 25 May
- The Red Baron [Der rote Baron], 2008, d. Nikolai Müllerschön, Monterey Video, 1 June, w. Til Schweiger, Joseph Fiennes, Lena Headey
- Forbidden World [aka Mutant], 1982, d. Allan Holzman, Shout! Factory, 20 July
- Galaxy of Terror, 1981, d. Bruce D. Clark, Shout! Factory, 20 July, w. Robert Englund, Sid Haig, Grace Zabriskie

The Decade List: Fay Grim (2006)

Fay Grim – d. Hal Hartley

I have such a love/hate relationship with Hal Hartley. The man has made at least one film that’s rocked my world (Trust), one that I always think I like even though I’m pretty sure I don’t (Amateur), one that I may be the only person who enjoyed (No Such Thing) and several that have driven me mad (Henry Fool, Flirt, The Book of Life). He has a certain advantage of using some of my favorite women in his films, from Parker Posey in Fool and Fay Grim, Isabelle Huppert as an ex-nun who writes pornographic novels in Amateur, Adrienne Shelly in a most of his early works to PJ Harvey as Mary Magdalene in The Book of Life. I’m still a bit floored at how much I liked Fay Grim, a weirdo sequel to Henry Fool which follows Posey’s character ten years later.

Instead of following in its predecessor’s footsteps, a deadpan satire, Hartley turns Fay Grim into an espionage thriller, which I guess could be best described as Hartley doing his own Jason Bourne film. He shoots the film (almost) entirely in Dutch angles, an absurd idea that works only as a result of the overall ludicrousness of the film itself. For those familiar with Hartley, easing into Fay Grim’s breed of humor is a fairly simple transition. For others, I’d imagine plenty of difficulty in letting one’s self laugh at the folly of it all. I was never able to follow the laugh cues of Henry Fool, but in Fay Grim, I got it, at least as much as someone with a general aversion to Hartley can.

To sum up the plot, Fay and her now fourteen-year-old son Ned (Liam Aiken) live off the royalty checks from her brother Simon Grim’s (James Urbaniak) poetry, as he sits in jail for aiding and abiding Henry’s illegal fleeing of the country. The mess of international intrigue and espionage comes when the head of the C.I.A., played by Jeff Goldblum, starts interrogating Fay about Henry’s confessionals, once thought (in Henry Fool) to be dense gibberish, now believed to contain secrets of US involvement in South American coups and other highly confidential information. Goldblum sends Fay to Paris to retrieve selected notebooks of Henry’s confessionals as it’s believed Henry has died and, as his wife, Fay is the only person who can legally obtain these documents. The C.I.A. isn’t the only one who wants these documents, Fay soon learns, as she encounters, among others, a British spy played by Saffron Burrows and Henry’s partner and accomplice Bebe (Elina Löwensohn, a regular of Hartley’s). Danger ensues.

In a tactic used best in some of his earlier films, Hartley places Parker Posey in direct opposition to the film she’s playing in. Posey appears oblivious as to what’s going on throughout the entire film, a sentiment likely mirrored by the audience of the film. Instead, she appears ripped out of the frames of a delusional melodrama directed by John Waters. Her delivery is perfectly deadpan, and she’s brilliantly misplaced within the Dutch-angled frame of Fay Grim. Hartley has said himself that the premise of Fay Grim was an ongoing joke between him and the cast of Henry Fool as the idea itself is so absurd you almost expect Posey to wake up from a dream at any minute during the film. For its first hour, Fay Grim is a wickedly amusing farce dressed up, just as impeccably as Posey is in her couture attire, as an espionage thriller. Many reviewers have noted, accurately, that, unfortunately, as Fay’s journey takes her to the streets of Istanbul, Hartley forgets the joke. Once it becomes clear that Henry isn’t dead, the film loses nearly all of its magic, not the least of which as a result of Posey not being onscreen once Henry’s whereabouts become evident. Hartley has a gift for his brand of comedy and has found no greater muse than Posey since he stopped working with Adrienne Shelley in the mid-90s. Even when Hartley missteps, as he does painfully in the last half hour of Fay Grim, we can always count on the gameness of Posey, a radiant and woefully underappreciated comedic actress at the top of her game.

With: Parker Posey, Jeff Goldblum, James Urbaniak, Liam Aiken, Thomas Jay Ryan, Saffron Burrows, Elina Löwensohn, Chuck Montgomery, Leo Fitzpatrick, Miho Nikaido, Peter Benedict, Tim Seyfi, Nikolai Kinski, Robert Seeliger, Anatole Taubman
Screenplay: Hal Hartley
Cinematography: Sarah Cawley
Music: Hal Hartley
Country of Origin: USA/Germany
US Distributor: Magnolia

Premiere: 11 September 2006 (Toronto Film Festival)
US Premiere: 19 January 2007 (Sundance Film Festival)

Scratch my palms, there's blood on my hands

I suppose this could be filed under self-promotion, but I thought I'd share my goings-on as of lately. A few friends of mine and I have formed a project entitled The Fortnight Film Project, originally planned as a bi-monthly way to fuck around with a camera. Well, it's sort of growing into a larger project, hopefully with more people involved, and highly intricate storylines (well, at least, intersecting ones). It's still a work-in-progress as we work out our kinks (for example, the audio is terrible on both films... and we're only now making better efforts in setting up shots and framing and all that jazz). You can check out our first two shorts via the website above. My character will be making his grand entrance this coming weekend, so look for that in the next coming week following. Feedback is always appreciated, help always wanted.

In addition to all the filmmaking fun, I've gotten my hands on a surplus of films once painfully unavailable to me: the entire Russ Meyer collection, Abel Ferrara's Mary, Hal Hartley's Trust, and Destricted, to name a few. Expect thoughts on said films in the coming days.