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Welcome to a pair of vintage mysteries with George Simenon’s popular Inspector Jules Maigret, a gumshoe who gets the tough cases. Top kick French actor Jean Gabin is the cop who keeps cool, until it’s time to rattle a recalcitrant suspect. In two separate cases, he tracks a serial killer in the heart of Paris, and travels to his hometown to unearth a murder conspiracy.

Maigret Sets a Trap

and

Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case

Blu-ray (separate releases)

Kino Classics

1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.

Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.

Cinematography: Louis Page

Film Editor: Henri Taverna

Original Music: Paul Misraki...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Carol (Todd Haynes)

From the first note of Carter Burwell‘s magnificent score and opening shot of Edward Lachman’s ravishing cinematography — introducing a Brief Encounter-esque opening bookend — Todd Haynes transports one to an intoxicating world of first love and its requisite heartbreak. Carol excels at being many things: a romantic drama; a coming-of-age story; an exploration of family dynamics and social constructs of the time; an acting...

Criterion Reflections is David Blakeslee’s ongoing project to watch all of the films included in the Criterion Collection in chronological order of their original release. Each episode features panel conversations and 1:1 interviews offering insights on movies that premiered in a particular season of a year in the past, which were destined to eventually bear the Criterion imprint. In this episode, David is joined by Jordan Essoe and Trevor Berrett to discuss four titles from the Winter of 1969: Marco Ferreri’s Dillinger is Dead, Nagisa Oshima’s Diary of a Shinjuku Thief, Agnes Varda’s Black Panthers, and Costa-Gavras’s Z.

Episode Time Markers: Introduction: 0:00 – 07:27 Dillinger is Dead: 07:28 – 01:06:05 Black Panthers: 01:06:06 – 01:17:36 Diary of a Shinjuku Thief: 01:17:37 – 01:37:25 Z: 01:37:26 – 02:20:20 Dillinger is Dead (1/23/69):

Just as was the case with Michel Piccoli’s character in this film,...

Hi there, readers and listeners! This post is just a quick update to let you know about the plans I have to take my blogging and podcasting hobby in a new direction. Since 2009 I’ve been working my way through the films of the Criterion Collection in the chronological order of their release in my Criterion Reflections blog, which I started on Blogspot and transitioned over to this site last year. I’ve also had more than a few side projects and diversions along the way, like The Eclipse Viewer podcast and dozens of review essays I’ve written for CriterionCast.

Now that I’ve run out of Eclipse Series movies to talk about, I need a new task to throw myself into. So I’ve decided to transform my blog into a podcast, where I will pick up right where I left off in my most recent Criterion Reflections review of Mr. Freedom,...

David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:

Mr. Freedom begins with a wail of sirens as Chicago cops swarm in to crack the skulls of rioters and looters. It ends with a catastrophic explosion that levels a city block in Paris and mutilates the body of the movie’s titular hero. In between all that, against a backdrop of Cold War intrigue and superpower paranoia run amok, we see scenes involving overt racist mockery, rape as a spectator sport, sacrilege, poisoning, prostitution, assassination, the sexist degradation of women and a pervasive attitude of unmitigated cynicism and ridicule toward the aspirations of the USA as a bulwark of liberty, democracy and decency against the forces of tyranny and oppression around the world. All the necessary ingredients for a robust satirical take-down of good old fashioned patriotism, American-style! The politics are radical, the humor is often guttural, and the...

Raro Video resurrects an excitingly obscure title this month with Liliana Cavani’s 1967 film, The Year of the Cannibals, a counter culture art house film modernizing Sophocles’ play Antigone to explore modern political unrest, here in the streets of Milan. Cavani, perhaps best known for her notorious 1974 film The Night Porter, posing star Charlotte Rampling in one of her most iconic roles, has crafted a stunningly photographed and arresting film in this early work that’s ripe for rediscovery. Shown in art houses and retrospectives after receiving favorable reaction upon domestic release and major film festival play (Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes), the title never secured distribution in the Us, though this is mostly due to Cavani’s refusal to change the bleak finale when a major studio approached her to buy the film.

Set in a dystopic Milan, corpses litter the bustling streets after the government has squashed a vicious rebellion.

Every Labor Day weekend, cinephiles journey out to a small town nestled in a remote corner of southwest Colorado’s San Juan mountain range for the Telluride Film Festival. Production staff are hard at work building state-of-the-art theaters for more than a month before the event and readying for a sudden influx of dedicated filmgoers. Veteran pass holders, staff, and volunteers make the trip largely out of faith in the festival’s superb programming that’s famously kept completely secret up until the day before it begins. The shroud of mystery, the breathtaking scenery of a box canyon and the fact that there are no press lines, competitions, or paparazzi lend a sanctified awe to this complete cinematic immersion. Venturing deep into uncharted storytelling territory with old or new friends make the cost of getting out here and the intensive labor involved with putting it all together worth it each and every time.

14th Mumbai Film Festival (Mff) announced its complete lineup today in a press conference. Mff will be held from October 18th to 25th at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Ncpa) and Inox, Nariman Point, Liberty Cinemas, Marine Lines as the main festival venues and Cinemax, Andheri and Cinemax Sion as the satellite venues. Click here to watch trailers and highlights from the festival.

Here is the complete list of films to be screened during the festival (October 18-25)

International Competition for the First Feature Films of Directors

1. From Tuesday To Tuesday (De Martes A Martes)

Dir.: Gustavo Fernandez Triviño (Argentina / 2012 / Col. / 111′)

2. The Last Elvis (El Último Elvis)

Dir.: Armando Bo (Argentina / 2012 / Col. / 91′)

3. The Sapphires

Dir.: Wayne Blair (Australia / 2012 / Col. / 103′)

4. The Wall (Die Wand)

Dir.: Julian Pölsler (Austria-Germany / 2012 / Col. / 108′)

5. Teddy Bear (10 timer til Paradis)

Dir.: Mads Matthiesen (Denmark / 2012 / Col. / 93′)

6. Augustine

Dir.: Alice Winccour (France / 2012 / Col.

by Steve Dollar

Nothing would be greater cause for joy than to think that the 1970s-style sci-fi film is enjoying a second orbit. Writers in major daily newspapers and across the Twitterverse are talking about Solaris again (even if it's for the wrong reasons). Duncan Jones, whose 2009 Moon was a smartly devised homage to the era, scored big with his recent Source Code—which resonated more for its existential quandaries than any pyrotechnic flash. Two recent Sundance favorites, Another Earth and The Sound of My Voice, play off of fantastic premises with limited technical mojo, letting the script drive the imagination.

Even if that doesn't add up to a zeitgeist moment, it doesn't hurt that an actual film of the era and genre gets its never-intended American theatrical debut next week: World on a Wire, the 1973 production made by Rainer Werner Fassbinder for German television. At three-and-a-half hours, it was broadcast in two parts,...

Versatile French actor whose work ranged from popular comedy to melodrama

Annie Girardot, who has died aged 79 after suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was an extremely versatile performer whose distinguished career stretched from the Comédie-Française, through popular comedies and melodramas to the French New Wave and beyond. Jean Cocteau, in whose play La Machine à Ecrire (The Typewriter) she starred, called her "the finest dramatic temperament of the postwar period". Hardly ever considered a sex goddess like her near contemporaries Jeanne Moreau and Brigitte Bardot, the petite Girardot, with her strongly etched features, often set off by short hair, and a warm deep voice was, nevertheless, able to create an erotic charge when needed.

Ironically, following her screen debut in 1956, and after nine French films in four years, she came to international prominence when her voice was dubbed into Italian in Luchino Visconti's Rocco e i Suoi Fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers,...

Criterion's December release announcement is brief, but sweet. David Cronenberg's Videodrome is coming to Blu-Ray while Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray. 

 

The Videodrome Blu-Ray seems to be sourced from same master as the 2004 Criterion DVD.  Extras are largely same. Cronos is newly restored and packed with extras, including a previously unreleased short film called Geometria. Check the links in the calendar for full specifications.

Finally, as mentioned in the last Criterion Column, the DVD release of the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story comes out on December 14th. The Blu-Ray will be released on November 23rd.

 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (January through December 2010, up-to-date as of September 16, 2010)

 

December 2010

 

David Cronenberg, Videodrome, Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

Guillermo del Toro, Cronos, 2-disc DVD & Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

 

November 2010

 

Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, 2-dsc DVD & Bd, 11/16/10, Us & Canada

Charles Laughton, Night Of The Hunter, 2-disc DVD & 2-disc Bd,...

Amongst the cavalcade of news coming from the massive news beast that is the Toronto International Film Festival, it looks like we have a hotly anticipated film changing homes instead of finding one, as is the case at the festival to the north.

According to The Playlist, Lionsgate will not be handling Steven Soderbergh’s (Traffic, Schizopolis) upcoming film, Haywire, but instead, the film will be released in North America thanks to Overture. Apparently, Relativity Media head and producer on the film, Ryan Kavanaugh nabbed up Overture back at the start of the summer, making this move the obvious next step.

Also, the outlet is reporting that the film is currently being slated for a March or April 2011 release, meaning we’ll get to lay our eyes upon this action/thriller sooner, rather than later. To boot, Neil Kellerhouse, the same designer behind the brilliant posters for films like The Girlfriend Experience,...

In November, The Criterion Collection is set to release an eclectic mix of American classics with a bit of European transgression thrown in. A newly restored version of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is planned for DVD and Blu-Ray. Charles Laughton's stunning black-and-white noir/horror tale Night of the Hunter (1955) is also on the schedule for DVD and Blu-Ray. Lars Von Trier's Antichrist will invade home video players everywhere.

Those are great releases, but highlight of the November list is the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story box set, which features 6 films from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider's production company Bbs during the 60s-70s.  Titles include: Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, The Last Picture Show, and The King Of Marvin Gardens. Think about the scope of this release for a second. This is six films by Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Jack Nicholson Bob Rafelson,...

The October 2010 batch of Criterion titles brings a few surprises. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray as is Ingmar Bergman's film The Magician. Criterion continues its relationship with Wes Anderson by releasing The Darjeeling Limited on Blu-Ray and DVD. Ok.

Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is headed for Blu-Ray with a new restored high-def transfer. If the quality of Criterion's other Kurosawa Blu-Ray discs (e.g. Kagemusha, Sanjuro and Yojimbo) are any indication, it is time to ditch the DVDs. This one should look spectacular.

Finally, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House is making its way to Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for Halloween. There are a few things to note here. First, the fact that Criterion is releasing this on Blu-Ray with a restored transfer and uncompressed mono sound is kind of a surprise. This is a very good thing. The other curious thing is the extras.

The September releases of Breathless on Blu-Ray and The Thin Red Line on Blu-Ray and DVD aren't so much of a surprise. A high-def Breathless release was inevitable and the Malick title leaked out a while ago. Also, Charade is the sort of classic Hollywood auterist fare that Criterion often deals in. No, the big surprise here is Oshima's Happy Birthday Mr. Lawrence. Both this release and the recent Oshima DVD box indicate that Criterion is seriously intent to digging deeper into the director's filmography. Finally, it would be a mistake not to mention the Eclipse box set of Allan King films. The Canadian director's documentaries have never been readily available in the U.S. so this box should expose his work to an entirely new audience (including this writer). 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through September 2010, up-to-date as of July 7, 2010)

September 2010

Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless, DVD & Bd, 9/14/10, Us...

Fall 2010 brings very interesting news and rumors about releases from The Criterion Collection. First, the label has issued the official list of films for August release. These include two essential documentaries by Terry Zwigoff, Black Orpheus, a box of Josef von Sternberg silent films, and 4 early Akira Kurosawa films that originally appeared in the Ak 100 25 disc box set.

Lots of unofficial information has also begun to surface about future releases. In late April, The New York Times confirmed rumors that Criterion will release Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu will in September. Additionally, pre-order pages for Criterion Blu-Rays of Antichrist, The Darjeeling Limited, The Seven Samurai, The Thin Red Line, and Videodrome have popped up on Amazon. Look for official updates in the next Criterion Column. 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through August 2010, up-to-date as of May 23, 2010)

August 2010

Akira Kurosawa, Eclipse Series 23: The First Films Of Akira Kurosawa 

(Sanshiro Sugata...

The thing, itself: I bow to no one in my admiration for the wit and persipicacity of the film critic Dennis Lim, but I have to admit that every now and then he shows a tendency—one might call it "monklike," or maybe not—towards eyeball-roll-inducing pronouncements. In a recent Los Angeles Times review of The Criterion Collection's new DVD of Marco Ferreri's 1969 Dillinger Is Dead, he makes much of the film's Marcuse-inflected political content, and ends his notice ruefully: "Present-day viewers of 'Dillinger Is Dead' are likely to respond less to its overly literal satire than to its riot of colors, its Pop Art flair, its modernist design. In other words, a furious attack on capitalist society lives on, ironically, as a consumer fetish object."

"What incredible irony!" as one of those kids on South Park would say. "Oh, please," is what I said, as I've always believed that,...

The thing, itself: I bow to no one in my admiration for the wit and persipicacity of the film critic Dennis Lim, but I have to admit that every now and then he shows a tendency—one might call it "monklike," or maybe not—towards eyeball-roll-inducing pronouncements. In a recent Los Angeles Times review of The Criterion Collection's new DVD of Marco Ferreri's 1969 Dillinger Is Dead, he makes much of the film's Marcuse-inflected political content, and ends his notice ruefully: "Present-day viewers of 'Dillinger Is Dead' are likely to respond less to its overly literal satire than to its riot of colors, its Pop Art flair, its modernist design. In other words, a furious attack on capitalist society lives on, ironically, as a consumer fetish object."

"What incredible irony!" as one of those kids on South Park would say. "Oh, please," is what I said, as I've always believed that,...

Another month brings another set of titles from The Criterion Collection. July 2010 releases include two early films by Yasujrio Ozu, Secrets of the Grain, a Sacha Guitry box set, and long awaited digitally-restored versions of The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.

An earlier column mentioned the availability of 6 Zaitoichi films for free streaming on Hulu. Within the past few days, Criterion added 12 more Zaitoichi titles as well Roman Polanski's Knife in the Water to Hulu. The link to all of the free Criterion Hulu titles is featured in the "Related Links" section of this post.

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through July 2010, up-to-date as of 4/19/2010)

July 2010

Yasujiro Ozu, The Only Son/There Was A Father: Two Films By Yasujiro Ozu, 2 DVD Box, 7/13/2010, Us & English speaking Canada

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, Black Narcissus, DVD & Bd, 7/20/10, Us & Canada

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, The Red Shoes,...

This past Monday, Criterion added two new posters to their store: M. Hulot’s Holiday and Dillinger is Dead. Last month we saw the addition of Lola Montes and Amarcord as available options for your wall art collection.

Each poster is 27″ x 40″, retails for $25, and will certainly be the envy of your cinephile friends. Click the images below to head over to the Criterion store to add them to your shopping cart.

On a sidenote, Criterion recently tweeted out an amazing photo, giving us a glimpse into the inner sanctum of it’s Wonka-like laboratories.

Redecorating

Don’t you just wish that Criterion would make all of these cover posters available to purchase as well? Which would you purchase?

Are you planning on purchasing either of these? What do you think of the artwork in general?...

So, looking at the Cryptic New Years Drawing that we received back in January was a pretty clear roadmap for their release schedule so far. Over the past three months, we’ve seen almost all of the films that were hinted at in this drawing have their official announcements. Clearly this drawing has not contained all of the 2010 films, but it has been fun crossing them off each month.

What has been announced so far? I’ll break it down for you:

Locusts = Blu-ray release of Days of Heaven Hotel sign = Vivre Sa Vie Pitcher of milk = Bigger than Life Blue leopard = The Leopard on Blu-ray Red desert = Red Desert Guy riding with the devil = Ride With The Devil Blue M on guy’s jacket = M on Blu-ray Giant baby = Colossal Youth Dog with star t-shirt = Brakhage on Blu-ray Hatchet in tree stump = Revanche Woman = Lola Montes Gun that woman...

Five titles from The Criterion Collection has been announced for release in June 2010. The list includes: Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, Michelangelo Antonioni's Red Desert, Abbas Kiarostami's Close-Up, Luchino Visconti's The Leopard, Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich, and Jan Troell's Everlasting Moments. All of these titles except for Night Train to Munich will be released on both DVD and Blu-Ray. Specific details have been added to the bottom of the release calendar.

In other news, Criterion continues to make moves in to video on demand. As previously reported, dozens of Criterion titles are now available for streaming on Netflix. Now, Criterion has established a channel on Hulu through which six films in the classic Zatoichi: The Blind Swordsman series can be accessed. Check the "Related Links" for more info.

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through June, up-to-date as of 3/20/2010)

January 2010

Federico Fellini,...

It isn’t an insult to say that Marco Ferreri’s provocation Dillinger Is Dead remains a film of its time, a response to political, social, and cinematic ideas that were floating around in 1969, but don’t have much currency now. Even then, the Italian director’s radicalism didn’t import as easily as that of like-minded European auteurs like Jean-Luc Godard or Michelangelo Antonioni, and the new Criterion edition of Dillinger Is Dead makes it easy to see why his work was perpetually out of fashion. Save for a key passage of dialogue near the beginning of the ...

Marco Ferreri's 1969 film Dillinger is Dead is now out on DVD from The Criterion Collection. Ferreri's film is an exercise in pop art surrealism that captures the aesthetic and political zeitgeist of the 60s. Connoisseurs of avant-garde cinema will be more than pleased with this release. As for others . . .

Dillinger is Dead depicts a night in the life of an Italian gas mask designer named Glauco (Michel Piccoli). Glauco is tired with his job, his wife (Anita Pallenberg) and the sexy maid (Annie Girardot) with whom he has an affair. He goes through his routine with bored efficiency. While cooking dinner, he discovers a gun wrapped in old newspapers. The lead story in the papers is the shooting of John Dillinger in 1934. He becomes obsessed with Dillinger and the gun. As a result, his mundane existence gives way to escapist fantasies.

Ferreri's film is unorthodox in both style and subject matter.

It's a fairly crowded DVD release day today, although there is a definite emphasis on mainstream releases instead of smaller indie films this time around. The Twilight Saga: New Moon is by far the biggest title of the week, and it isn't hitting stores until Saturday, but in the meantime you can check out Disney's acclaimed return to 2-D animation The Princess and the Frog, The Wachowskis' Ninja Assassin, Nimrod Antal's heist flick Armored and the alien abduction film The Fourth Kind starring Milla Jovovich. John Krasinski's directorial debut Brief Interviews with Hideous Men is also out today, along with The White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights documentary and the second season of AMC's Breaking Bad. Will you be renting or buying anything this week? The Twilight Saga: New Moon [1] (+ Blu-ray [2]) (on Saturday) The Princess and the Frog [3] (+ Blu-ray [4]) Ninja Assassin [5] (+ Blu-ray [6]) Armored [7] (+ Blu-ray [8]) The Fourth Kind...

DVD Links: DVD News | Release Dates | New Dvds | Reviews | RSS Feed

Vengeance Trilogy

(Sympathy for Mr. Vegeance/Oldboy/Lady Vengeance) I only received this set about nine hours before putting together this round-up so unfortunately I haven't had time to do anything more than toss away the cellophane, but I am already impressed by the wealth of bonus features.

Oldboy and Lady Vengeance are each three-disc sets while Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance is two discs. The first disc for each is simply the movie itself and the film's commentaries, which is great and will make for the most disc space for as little compression as possible. Each carries a DTS audio track. Lady Vengeance's second disc includes the "Fade to White version" in which the film slowly loses its color until it is monochrome by the end, some refer to this as the "Fade to Black-and-White version" but what's the difference?...

The Criterion Collection is bringing out the big guns in May 2010. No, Hausu has not been announced yet, but another big Japanese release is forthcoming. Specifically, Criterion is releasing a 5 DVD box set of Nagisa Oshima films from the 1960s. Oshima's earlier works are very difficult to find in legitimate form so this announcement is very exciting.

The good news doesn't stop with Oshima. The second volume in the Stan Brakhage anthology will finally see the light of day, and both volumes will be collected on a 3 disc Blu-Ray set. Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout makes an appearance for the first time on DVD and Blu-Ray. Fritz Lang's M will receive the Blu-Ray treatment. Finally, John Ford fans (there are a few) can look forward to Stagecoach on DVD and Blu-Ray. As usual, full details on the new titles have been added to the 2010 release calendar at the bottom of this post.

The Criterion Collection has announced five new titles for April 2010. The list is the usual mix of vintage and recent films, including Jean-Luc Godard's Vivre Sa Vie, Ang Lee's Ride with the Devil, Sidney Lumet's The Fugitive Kind, and Olivier Assayas' Summer Hours. The full list has been added to the 2010 release calendar, which is featured at the bottom of this post.

In other news, Netflix has added dozens of Criterion titles to their "Watch Instantly" streaming service (United States only). The Criterion Cast site has compiled a list of over 35 titles currently available for streaming on Netflix. In some instances, the streaming titles track or even precede the home video release (Che was streaming before the DVD or Blu-Ray was available) On the downside, these releases don't include the extras that come with the DVDs and Blu-Rays. Also, the highest available resolution for streaming is 720p...

2010 is quickly approaching, and the timing seems right to begin a new endeavor: The Criterion Column. At least once a month, this column will provide information about upcoming releases from The Criterion Collection and highlight titles that may be of interest to Twitch readers. This column will also be complimented by timely reviews of upcoming Criterion and Eclipse releases as well as discussions of gems in the company's back catalog.

This first volume of this column is dedicated to a list of all announced releases for January, February and March of 2010. The data fields are in the following order: Director, Title, Format(s), Street Date, and Regional Availability. Each title is linked to the relevant entry at The Criterion Collection website. This list will be updated as new titles are announced.

January 2010

Federico Fellini, 8 ½, Bd, 1/12/10, Us & Canada

Steven Soderbergh, Che, DVD & Bd, 1/19/10, Us only

Wim Wenders, Paris, Texas, DVD &  Bd,...