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Letter Never Sent Directed by Mikhail Kalatozov Written by Grigori Koltunov, Valeri Osipov and Viktor Rozov Starring: Innokenti Smoktunovsky, Tatyana Samoilova, Vasili Livanov, Yevgeny Urbansky There's something to be said about Criterion's boutique releases and their in-depth extras and fancy packaging, but it's the curatory nature of the label that allows for the discovery of some great films that might not have otherwise come across your blu ray/DVD player. I went into Mikhail Kalatozov's Letter Never Sent blindly (outside of some knowledge about his films Soy Cuba and The Cranes Are Flying) and was absolutely blown away. As a fan of survival-thrillers, the classic man against nature story had me hooked and the filmmaking on display is absolutely mindblowing. The film opens as four people -- three geologists and a guide -- are left in the Siberian Taiga. It's spring time and they're searching for diamonds. Their mission...

(Grigori Kozintsev, 1964/ 1971, PG, Mr Bongo Films)

Grigori Kozintsev (1905-1973) was a prominent figure in Soviet cinema from his late teens until his death, making ambitious political films until after the second world war when he turned to literary adaptations, concluding with his classic versions of Hamlet and King Lear. Both were shot in black-and-white and widescreen on austere Estonian locations beside the Baltic using Boris Pasternak's translations (with Shakespeare's text as subtitles) and music by Shostakovich, and they're based on years of thought and study as revealed in Kozintsev's book Shakespeare: Time and Conscience. The great Russian actor Innokenti Smoktunovsky is a forceful, sane, sensitive Hamlet trapped in a prison of political intrigue, and the film, set in a Tudor Denmark, is vigorous, intelligent and visually stunning. Lear is played by the Estonian actor Jüri Järvet (dubbed into Russian) and is truly old, mad and heartbreaking, and the picture...