Tag: Foreign Film Blu Ray Review
Criterion Collection: Mr. Klein (1976) | Blu-ray Review
In Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Chinese Roulette (1976), a venomous marital melodrama, a character played by Margit Carstensen provocatively inquires, “Who would this person have...
Skin is In: Ishii’s Signature Erotic Violence in Inferno of Torture (1969) | Blu-ray Review
An unsung eccentric of Japanese cinema is Teruo Ishii, referred to in his native country as ‘the King of Cult,’ whose forays into Ere...
The Doctor and the Devils: Pabst’s Subversive UFA Propaganda Revisited in Paracelsus (1943) | Blu-ray Review
Austrian born G.W. Pabst remains one of the most celebrated figures of German language cinema in the Weimar Republic, his enduring works featuring Louise...
Dead Again: Fulci’s “Zombie” (1979) Cult Classic Finds New Life | Blu-ray Review
Italian ‘Maestro of Gore’ Lucio Fulci canvassed a wide array of genres. Not unlike his colleague Mario Bava, his filmography resists being pigeonholed, seeing...
Man of Straw: Dearden’s Racially Charged Film Noir “Pool of London” (1951) | Blu-ray Review
For having the distinction of presenting one of cinema’s first interracial relationships between a black man and a white woman, Basil Dearden’s 1951 socially...
Criterion Collection: The Cranes are Flying (1957) | Blu-ray Review
The only Soviet film to ever win the coveted Palme d’Or, Mikhail Kalatozov’s The Cranes Are Flying (1957), gets a loving 2K restoration on...
Criterion Collection: Teorema (1968) | Blu-ray Review
“Whatever the bourgeois do is wrong?” is a question posited in the flurried opening segment of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s arcane arthouse classic Teorema, a...
Caught in a Bad Romance: Clouzot’s Dire Love Story Resurrected “Manon” | Blu-ray Review
Arrow Academy resurrects an early notable work from the filmography of Henri-Georges Clouzot with his 1949 Manon, which won the Golden Lion at the...
Passion of the Christ Figure: Ridley Leans Religious in Stylized “The Passion of Darkly Noon” | Blu-ray Review
In the thirty years since he first became a cult favorite with his 1990 debut The Reflecting Skin, multifaceted English artist/director/novelist Philip Ridley has...
Criterion Collection: Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman | Blu-ray Review
If cinema can be viewed as an evolutionary form, a missing link would certainly be Czech director Karel Zemen. One must first ruminate on...
Three on a Match: Chabrol Breaks Commandments with “The Third Lover” | Blu-ray Review
A prominent member of the French New Wave, often credited as the French Hitchcock, director Claude Chabrol’s first few features were internationally renowned, seminal...
Crime and Punishment: Sautet’s Enthralling Policier an Obscure Neo-Noir “Max and the Junkmen” | Blu-ray Review
An unsung genre masterpiece from Claude Sautet, 1971’s Max and the Junkmen comes to Blu-ray for the first time courtesy of Kino Lorber. Featuring...
When the Walls Can Talk: Forbes’ Forgotten “The Whisperers” Finds New Breath | Blu-ray Review
British director Bryan Forbes is perhaps best remembered for his iconic American horror film The Stepford Wives, which became a genre classic and entered...
Lost in Translation: Lapid Languishes in Enigmatic, Complex Study on Cultural Identities with “Synonyms” | Blu-ray Review
Winning the Golden Bear at the 2019 Berlin International Film Festival, Nadav Lapid’s third film Synonyms was one of the best theatrical releases of...
Another Old Dark House: Larraz Gets Derivative with Final English Language Title Deadly Manor (1990) | Blu-ray Review
Arrow Video continues to reconstitute the filmography of Spanish genre filmmaker Jose Ramon Larraz with his final English language thriller, Deadly Manor (originally released...
Lars and the Unreal Girls: The Danish Provocateur Pushes Buttons in Cruel, Grotesque “The House That Jack Built” | Blu-ray Review
The most controversial entry in the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, Lars Von Trier’s The House That Jack Built finally makes its way to Blu-ray...
Criterion Collection: All About My Mother (1999) | Blu-ray Review
Pedro Almodóvar’s most exquisitely dramatic and compassionate film All About My Mother arrived in the final year of the last century, a supercharged queer...
Wrinkles in Times: Hill Tackles Vonnegut’s Time-Traveling Classic “Slaughterhouse-Five” | Blu-ray Review
Kurt Vonnegut Jr., who remains one of the modern era’s most celebrated American writers, is a largely untapped inspiration for cinematic adaptation—perhaps because he...
There’s No Love Like Easy Love in Garrel’s Intriguing Farce “A Faithful Man” | Blu-ray Review
Louis Garrel’s sophomore film, A Faithful Man, which was co-written by the esteemed scribe Jean-Claude Carriere, premiered at TIFF in 2018 prior to competing...
Criterion Collection: Cold War | Blu-ray Review
Polish auteur Pawel Pawlikowski ascends to the Criterion Collection with his 2018 success Cold War, which competed at Cannes (winning him Best Director), and...
Love is Like Woe: Duvivier Crashes into Romance in Final Film Diabolically Yours (1967) | Blu-ray Review
Kino Lorber resurrects Diabolically Yours, the final film from French auteur Julien Duvivier, arguably the most neglected member of the “Big Five” of classic...
Criterion Collection: Fists in the Pocket | Blu-ray Review
Criterion re-releases the mordant directorial debut of Italian auteur Marco Bellocchio, Fists in the Pocket (1965), just as the perennial filmmaker ends his sixth...
And Then There Were Nuns in Berruti’s Neglected Camp Classic “Killer Nun” (1979) | Blu-ray Review
Arrow Video resurrects one of nunsploitation cinema’s greatest outliers with the Anita Ekberg headlined Killer Nun, a 1979 oddity about a morphine addicted nun whose...
Whoa, Nelly: Sautet’s Final Neglected Classic “Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud” (1995) | Blu-ray Review
Claude Sautet took home a Best Director Cesar and lead Michel Serrault nabbed Best Actor for their work on the subtle melodrama Nelly and...
Criterion Collection: The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice (1952) | Blu-ray Review
For those accustomed to the bittersweet greatest hits of Japanese auteur Yasujirô Ozu’s later period familial dramas, the lesser known 1952 social satire The...