Drive, He Said, Husbands and Fuller from Sony (plus Jeanne Dielman and more)

Partially due to my weekend cold and also in hopes they'd throw an additional something exciting our way today, I'm a little late in posting the August Criterions. Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, starring Delphine Seyrig, will make its home video debut in the US on DVD 25 August. Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco, with Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, hits on the same date, as well as Blu-rays of Kurosawa's Kagemusha (18 Aug) and Tati's Playtime (18 Aug). The Eclipse set for August sounds promising, a collection of five Nikkatsu noirs (25 Aug): Koreyoshi Kurahara's I Am Waiting, Toshio Masuda's Rusty Knife, Seijun Suzuki's Take Aim at the Police Van, Takumi Furukawa's Cruel Gun Story and Takashi Nomura's A Colt Is My Passport. Eric has a few other titles that might be part of a later Nikkatsu set from Eclipse.

Sony's got a huge line-up for the late-summer and fall, which Eric has already pointed out. A Sam Fuller box set (29 Sep) which includes Crimson Kimono, Underworld USA and Scandal Sheet; Cassaevetes' Husbands (18 Aug), which doesn't appear to be part of their "Martini Movies" set any more; 2 film noir sets, one with a re-release of The Big Heat, and a Rita Hayworth box (all 3 November).

Not mentioned on Filmbo's blog are a few other Sony releases. They've got a set called The New Hollywood Box Set for 15 September. The set includes Jack Nicholson's Drive, He Said, with Karen Black, Robert Towne, Bruce Dern and Henry Jaglom; Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces; Rafelson's The King of Marvin Gardens with Nicholson, Dern and Ellen Burstyn; Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show; Jaglom's A Safe Place, with Tuesday Weld, Nicholson and Orson Welles; Rafelson's Head with The Monkees; and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider. This is the R1 debut of both Drive, He Said and A Safe Place. Sony also has Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps (20 October) and James Hill's A Study in Terror (10 November) premiering on DVD.

Strand is releasing Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's Born in 68 [Nés en 68], with Laetitia Casta, Yannick Renier and Yann Trégouët, on 11 August. Facets' website has been doing a remodel for the past few weeks, so I've only been able to uncover one of their August releases, another Ning Ying film For Fun on the 25th. PeaceArch has the supposedly dreadful Mysteries of Pittsburgh on 4 August.

Water Bearer is releasing two films in July. Christian Moris Müller's Four Windows [Vier Fenster] and Alessandro Avellis' Ma saison super 8 premiered at the 2006 Berlinale and will street on the 7th. If 80s T&A is your cup-of-tea, Severin will have Screwballs out on 25 August on DVD and Blu-ray, and Anchor Bay is releasing Spring Break, which I talked about in a previous blog about the films available on iTunes.

And finally, here are a few Blu-ray titles coming soon: Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (28 July, Universal); John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (4 August, Fox); Brian De Palma's Casualties of War (21 July, Sony); George A. Romero's Creepshow (8 September, Warner); Jim Henson and Franz Oz's The Dark Crystal (1 September, Sony); Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm (8 September, Warner); Peter Yates' The Deep (7 July, Sony); Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer (11 August, Tokyo Shock); Henson's Labyrinth (1 Septmber, Sony); Alan Parker's Midnight Express (21 July, Sony); Patty Jenkins' Monster (1 September, First Look); Jonathan Lynn's My Cousin Vinny (4 August, Fox); the director's cut of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (25 August, Warner); the extended cut of Terrence Malick's The New World (8 September, New Line); John Carpenter's Starman (11 August, Sony); Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (14 July, MGM); and Irwin Allen and John Guillermin's The Towering Inferno (14 July, Fox). The UK update should be coming at you later this week.

A few DVD updates, Some Acquisitions, 5 May

Nothing terribly exciting has been announced for DVD in the US lately, but here are a few. Lionsgate is releasing a Special Edition of Abel Ferrara's Bad Lieutenant, HBO has the second season of Flight of the Conchords on 4 August (though I don't know anyone who especially liked this season), Focus is releasing Coraline on 21 July while parent Universal will have Duplicity out on 28 July, and finally Synapse has a special edition of The Stepfather 2 on 29 September, though for some strange reason the first installment has never been released in the US (I suppose in the same way Phantasm II hasn't either, despite 1, 3 and 4 being readily available).

In acquisition deals, Benten/Watchmaker Films landed Wei Zheng's Fish Eyes, which premiered at Tribeca. Cinema Guild picked up Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax, and Film Movement nabbed Adrián Biniez's Gigante, which won the Silver Bear at Berlin earlier this year. And finally, Warner has added 40 more titles to the original 150 in their Archive Collection. Check this link for all of the titles.

Also, Eric's informed us of a number of planned DVD releases from Sony and theatrical releases from The Film Desk. A Sam Fuller box-set and Husbands are reportedly coming from Sony, the latter part of their Martini Movies series. And The Film Desk is releasing a resorted print of Alain Cavalier's Le combat dans l'île [Fire and Ice], with Romy Schneider and Jean-Louis Trintignant, as well as a first-run release of Alexander Olch's The Windmill Movie.

Jesus Died for Somebody's Sins, But Not Mine...

Julia – dir. Erick Zonca – 2008 – France/USA/Mexico/Belgium

Call it Tilda Swinton day at my blog, for, similar to my thoughts on Burn After Reading, my wild thoughts on Julia have been ruminating all morning. Premiering at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, the film was met with waves of disapproval (which can be found here and here) as well as occasional praise (here and here), most of which for Swinton’s performance, which is absolutely radiant but more on that in a bit. Julia is kinda sorta a remake of Cassavetes’ Gloria, with Gena Rowlands in the title role, and it’s Erick Zonca’s first film in nine years after Le petit voleur in 1999 and the popular The Dreamlife of Angels (La vie rêvée des anges) in 1998. In essence, without giving away much, it’s a film about a raging alcoholic who finds herself in the middle of a kidnapping scheme.

The film’s detractors aren’t completely off-the-mark. Julia is scattershot, with most critics assessing that the film felt like three separate ones rolled together. At 144 minutes, Zonca reaches at least three different forks-in-the-road, leading Swinton head-first. I’d prefer not to go into much detail, seeing as the film is still unavailable in the US, because even the most drastic of turns the film takes are so stunningly intense that you never quite get the chance to reflect on whether Zonca is taking you in the right direction or not. It's even at times an uneasy mix of raw character analysis and plot contrivances, but I was never less than enthralled the whole time.

Salon’s Stephanie Zacharek was one of the few who didn’t buy into Swinton, even commenting that her peers that hated the film at least admired her: “Cast as a woman who's blowsy, selfish and usually sozzled, Swinton plays down to her character, which isn't nearly the same as playing it.” It’s easy to get caught up in Swinton’s performance. She’s typically mesmerizing; her Julia is a bigger, louder version of her Karen Crowder in Michael Clayton which gave Swinton her Oscar and propelled her into the American consciousness. But for those unfamiliar with her body of work, having a little pit stain, allowing her tit to fall out of her bra and playing an almost entirely unlikable character is nothing new for the actress. Certainly, she ranks among the most fearless actors working today in terms of how she allows herself to be depicted and in her varying role choices, but that’s not the reason people who’ve loved her for so long continue to do so.

Believability is not paramount in recognizing Swinton’s immense talent. Take Sally Potter’s Orlando as the easiest indicator of such. Playing a French boy who turns into a woman midway through the film, there’s never a moment where you buy Swinton as a male, and that’s perfectly fine. It’s what she brings out in her performance that’s so uncanny. She exudes a rare classiness in each of her delicate performances, no matter how rough around the edges she may look, something that seems both long-forgotten and new. Even at Julia’s most belligerent, Swinton never drops her put-on American accent, and yet it’s still an accent that doesn’t sound terribly authentic. And again, it doesn’t really matter. It’s Swinton’s glances and delivery and the way she moves herself through the film that is so stellar. Whereas an actress like Naomi Watts, who seems to seek out roles that allow her to showcase her impressive crying/snotting abilities, Swinton is consistently surprising, never allowing the grittiness and possible familiarity to run stale.

Released a little over a month ago on DVD in France from Studio Canal, I can’t say when Julia will officially make it stateside. Filmbrain ran down a list of excuses distributors made when asked about the film, most of which bitching about the length and how unlikable a central character Julia is. I like to believe that, if given a little faith from investors, Julia would have solidified Tilda Swinton’s placement in American cinema, proving much more than in The Deep End her capacity as a leading actress. To add to the hurt, even Zonca’s brief popularity following The Dreamlife of Angels, which won both Élodie Bouchez and Natacha Régnier the Best Actress prize at Cannes that year, hasn’t been met with embracing arms from the US market. The Dreamlife of Angels is still only available on DVD in the US in an edited version, and Le petit voleur hasn’t even received a DVD release after its theatrical run. Perhaps a better appreciation of Julia will come with time, which seems to be the only thing it has on its side right now.

Gay Zombies, Exterminating Angels and Good Days to Be Black and Sexy

Strand announced the DVD release of Bruce LaBruce's wonderful Otto; or Up with Dead People for 10 February, just in time to make my Valentine's Day extra special. No word on the special features yet.

Sony Pictures Classics will have Courtney Hunt's Frozen River on 10 February, which would be good timing for a home-video push if actress Melissa Leo gets that dark horse Oscar nomination. Zeitgeist is releasing Chris & Don: A Love Story on 24 February. Kino is releasing Jan Schütte's Love Comes Lately on 3 February. The film stars Barbara Hershey, Elizabeth Peña, Rhea Perlman and Olivia Thirlby.

Set for February are three films from Magnolia. The first is Prachya Pinkaew's martial arts flick Chocolate, on 10 February. Dennis Dortch's A Good Day to Be Black and Sexy will street on 3 February. And Barry Levinson's star-studded What Just Happened? is set for 10 February. The film stars, among others, Robert De Niro, Stanley Tucci, Bruce Willis, John Turturro, Kristen Stewart, Sean Penn, Catherine Keener, Michael Wincott and Robin Wright Penn.

I'm sure you've already seen Criterion's February line-up, but if you haven't, two Luis Buñuel films, The Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert, will hit stores on 17 February. The only other new title is a comedy from David Lean, Hobson's Choice, which will be available the following week. John Cassavetes' Shadows and Faces will also become available to own separate from the Cassavetes box-set.

Under the "unnecessary" umbrella, Universal is re-releasing the video-game adaptation of Street Fighter in an "Extreme Edition." You may remember the film as being poor Raul Julia's final film, or as Kylie Minogue's futile foray at an acting career. Either way, it's available on 10 February.

HBO will have out Chris Lilley's hilarious Summer Heights High on 24 February; the show started airing about a week ago, and you can catch all the episodes on HBO On Demand, which I strongly suggest.

And finally, it looks like Music Box Films have delayed Tell No One yet again, this time set for 31 March.

Bullied

Alpha Dog - dir. Nick Cassavetes - USA - 2007

The career of late cinema pioneer John Cassavetes has proved to have little to no effect on the directing career of his son Nick. His first two features, Unhook the Stars and She’s So Lovely, may have suggested otherwise, but, c’mon, The Notebook? I know Ryan Gosling is in it, and I’m convinced he’s the finest young actor working today, but I can’t stomach sitting through that. So if The Notebook was a bit too pussy for you, here’s Alpha Dog, a testosterone-infused real-life crime drama about the kidnapping and murder of a fifteen-year-old boy (Anton Yelchin). But is this really an improvement on the ham- and cheese-stuffed Notebook? I’m going for no.

It’s a real feat to make Larry Clark look like a visionary, but Cassavetes appears to have done so. Alpha Dog, rather awkwardly, intertwines interviews with those involved in the crime (most notable Sharon Stone wearing a frightening fat-suit) with the depictions of the crime, conducted by a young drug dealer (Emile Hirsch) with a vendetta against a speed-head (Ben Foster), who owes him a large chunk of money. If Clark’s Bully was true crime in the falsely-plastered southern Florida, Alpha Dog is the My Super Sweet 16 version. It’s nearly as sleazy, but in more of a Paris Hilton sort of way than an Aileen Wuronos one. Each of the kids live with their equally morally-reputable parental units (including Bruce Willis and Alex Kingston) in Beverly Hills mansions, all equipped with large swimming pools to inspire the most flesh possible. That the final murder scene is rather hard to watch doesn’t make Alpha Dog any more sophisticated, as the real superiority in this scene is the surprising dramatic abilities of Yelchin and, yes, Justin Timberlake.

Though the trial of the Hirsch character has yet to be finalized, Alpha Dog jumps into its final credits just as you might expect, with text letting the audience know of the severity of the kids involved’s sentence. It’s these moments that Clark actually succeeds in Bully, adding a chilly realism and gravity to the crimes of a bunch of fucked-up, bored teenagers. It’s hard to imagine that, within a film like Alpha Dog, that any of the characters had time to concoct a murder between binge-drinking, pot-smoking, fucking, and partying (all while still keeping their perfectly-toned bodies in check). The true sadness of Bully is that murder was simply a way to cure the sad teenagers’ boredom. In Alpha Dog, murder comes from power and manipulation (though, like Bully, there‘s still some sort of homosexual undertones in the relationship between Hirsch and Shawn Hatosy, who actually commits the crime), something strikingly less interesting. Either way, Alpha Dog only ends up being curiously viewable if you want to see what dogshit the loins of John Cassavetes has produced or seeing Sharon Stone, who might have delivered the best performance of her career if not for being one of the annoying talking heads, in a ridiculous fat-suit.

Quelque fois...

Sometimes, a film, no matter how good or bad it may be, just cannot connect with me. Today, I received Cassavetes' Opening Night and Maurice Pialat's Loulou in the mail from Netflix, popped Loulou in (which I had seen years ago), and promptly pushed the stop button twenty minutes in. It had nothing to do with the quality of the film, but my particular mood. I just couldn't bring myself to get into a Cassavetes-esque film after watching an actual Cassavetes film. Plus, how many times do I have to see Gérard Depardieu as the rugged French tough guy? And how many times do I have to see Isabelle Huppert slapped? Don't get me wrong, I could watch Huppert get slapped 'til the cows come home... but not today. So I did what I had to do: I sealed the envelope up and dropped it in the mailbox. Maybe another day.