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Criterion Collection: White Material [Blu-ray] | DVD Review
Much of the credit must go to Huppert, who conveys more emotional turmoil with her chin than most actors can evoke with their entire bodies. Not since Heaven’s Gate 30 years ago, has Huppert taken a role so wholly dependent on her unique physicality. In an early scene, Huppert desperately clings to the side of a rusty, overcrowded bus in a life-or-death attempt to escape the advancing rebels. Her tiny arms bulge from the strain as her body is engulfed in a hot, dry wind, manifesting not only her character’s fierce determination but also her stubborn resistance.
Review: Illegal
"Masset-Depass, helming his sophomore feature, uses a brisk version of cinema verite to quickly establish Tania and Ivan’s backstory and their banal, work-a-day world of the present. These opening scenes have the look and feel of Dardenne Brothers products of the early 2000s, as Masset-Depass’s handheld cameras capture the cold, biting grime of industrious Liège with clanging immediacy."
DVD Review: The Stranger
Orson Welles’s brief flirtation with hired-gun hackery from 1946. Made a mere 5 years after Citizen Kane, The Stranger is a film notable mainly for its cynicism. To producer Sam Spiegal, who appears in the credits as S.P. Eagle, it was an attempt to cash in on the horrific revelations from the recently liberated Nazi death camps. To director/star Welles, it was a last chance at Hollywood redemption.
DVD Review: Salvador Allende
"Guzman does not spout a mere recounting of Allende’s amazing life and career, although that would certainly be sufficient to hold our interest. Instead, he attempts to capture the true spirit of the times, both the mounting frustrations that led to Allende’s election, and the tremendous sense of loss left in his wake. Through historical fragments in museum displays, we get an icy look at how the Chilean military attempted a total annihilation; not just of Allende the man, but of any physical artifact that proved his very existence."
