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Last night, at the end of a busy week at work when I was just in the mood to hang out at home and unwind a little, I decided that it was a good time for me to wrap up my viewing of Criterion ’68 by ingesting an assortment of short films that had accumulated, like the last crumbs of cereal at the bottom of the bag, in my chronological checklist of films that I’ve been blogging about over the years. It was a suitable occasion for me to fully immerse myself into what turned out to be a festival of random weirdness. My wife, recovering from a bout with illness, was feeling a bit better but wanted to find a productive use of her time with the resurgence of energy, so she kept herself busy by working on a new quilting project. That left me free to indulge without...

“To achieve harmony in bad taste is the height of elegance.”

—Jean Genet

A breeding ground of mutinous filmmakers, skillful craftsmen and established auteurs, the Cormanian Factory is the self-effacing creative engine of post-war American cinema. First as a director, then as a producer, Roger Corman innovated, anticipated and subverted Hollywood canons, ushering in a liberated practice of moviemaking. Instead of aping European new waves, the Cormanian Factory forged an indigenous cinema, commercial and entertaining yet resolutely opposed to dominant taste. Having always operated below the notoriety level and on rigorously low budgets, Monsieur Corman has never been recognized as the 7th art luminary he truly is. Neither Jaws nor Star Wars would have been conceived without his exploratory and influential work. His most successful pupils (Scorsese, Coppola, Demme and Bogdanovich) diligently achieved international fame, some others, like Corman himself, ‘irresponsibly’ kept on pushing boundaries within the b-movie format in the catacombs of imagination.

Black Sunday: Remastered Edition (1960) Lorber Films Blu-ray and DVD Available Now

One of director Mario Bava’s most acclaimed works, Black Sunday is a strikingly photographed “old dark castle” thriller revolving around witchcraft and possession. Barbara Steele (Piranha) gives a hypnotic performance as Katia, the unfortunate look-alike descendent of a witch who intends to possess her. This highly influential film, also shot by Bava, was the precursor to countless American and European gothic horrors. This is the uncut European print with a few extra minutes of footage, a different English track and Robert Nicolosi’s haunting original score. After years of ugly public domain releases, Black Sunday is finally being presented in its original aspect ratio with a high definition transfer struck from a pristine 35Mm archival print.

Special Features:

• Audio commentary by Tim Lucas (author of Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark).

• Original Bava theatrical trailers.

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Sept. 25, 2012

Price: DVD $29.95, Blu-ray $39.95

Studio: Criterion

Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov work their way up to Eating Raoul.

A sleeper hit independent comedy film of the early 1980s that has since gone on to become a cult favorite, Eating Raoul (1982) is a bawdy, gleefully amoral tale of conspicuous consumption.

Warhol superstar Mary Woronov (Rock’n'Roll High School) and co-writer/director Paul Bartel (The Usual Suspects) star as a prudish married couple who feel put upon by the swingers who live in their apartment building. One night, by accident, they discover a way to simultaneously realize their dream of ridding themselves of the “perverts” down the hall and opening a little restaurant with a very unique menu.

Also starring Robert Beltran (Repo Chick) in the role of the ultimately consumable title character, Eating Raoul is a mix of anything-goes slapstick and clever satire on me-generation self-indulgence

Criterion...

Long rumored and wished for, "The Game" is finally getting the special edition treatment the rest of David Fincher's films have, joining the director's "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" in The Criterion Collection. That's right, this September your wallet is going to get a little bit lighter when the refreshed film becomes available from the boutique label.

So, what are you gonna get for the dollars you drop on this? Besides a newly restored transfer, the meaty part of the extras is an audio commentary, previously only available on the Region 2 edition of the DVD, featuring Fincher, Harry Savides, Michael Douglas, screenwriters John Brancato and Michael Ferris, digital animation supervisor Richard “Dr.” Baily, production designer Jeffrey Beecroft, visual effects supervisor Kevin Haug, and visual effects producer Robyn D’Arcy. Damn. There's also an hour's worth of fresh behind-the-scenes footage and film-to-storyboard comparisons for four of the film’s major set pieces,...