May 3, 2006

Dispatch #131

Ole! A tip about our new, full and complete list of all the titles new and coming soon kicks off our Cinco de Mayo edition of the GreenCine Dispatch. Vamanos!

#131 | May 2, 2006


"All that other stuff, all that history? To hell with it, right? Forget the Alamo." -- Lone Star.

A new long list of all the titles new and coming soon greets you as you hit our home page. Check it out to keep abreast of all the good (along with some bad and ugly) titles coming your way soon.

The new Tennessee Williams Collection (eight discs, $56.95) set is comprised of six classic films faithfully based on William's sultry plays, most of which had never previously been out on DVD, along with a remastered, new two-disc Streetcar; but the real treat is the exclusive "Tennessee Williams' South", a feature-length vintage documentary that includes priceless interviews with Williams in and around The Big Easy, and scenes from his plays dramatized by Jessica Tandy, Maureen Stapleton, Burl Ives, and others. The set is full of new featurettes, too. As Blanche DuBois said, "Oh look, we have created enchantment."

Damiano Damiani's A Bullet For the General (a.k.a., El Chuncho, quién sabe?, 1967; $15.45) is one of the best, or at least most underrated, Spaghetti Westerns, on par with any of Sergio Leone's work in the genre, and certainly more politically radical. Set on the fringes of the Mexican revolution, the film is the story of the friendship of two mercenaries and ends with one hell of a call to arms. Don't miss this one.

Now available via Video-on-Demand: Gather your sports-happy kids around the computer to Learn Baseball from the Pros, with an instructional program that teaches younger players all about hitting, fielding, pitching, and base running. Advanced instruction from professional Major League scouts and trainers makes this the perfect program for any team or individual striving to excel at baseball.

Available via GreenCine VOD ($3.99).

 

More like this: Splendor in the Grass | Suddenly Last Summer More like this: Companeros | And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself More like this: Vegetarian Cooking with Compassionate Cooks on VOD | Touching the Game on DVD

Feast your eyes on the highlights of this week's new releases, starting with two staff favorites out on disc for the first time:

Delicatessen (1991; $21.71). "Set in some sort of post-apocalyptic Parisian deli o' the damned, this lunatic's take on the future of man is so delightfully warped that it's impossible to shake it out of your head and go get a decent night's sleep," wrote Marc Savlov in the Austin Chronicle of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's cult classic when it hit these shores in 1992. "It's not a very pretty picture of the future, but God, what fun it is."

Modern Romance (1981; $10.95). "Not [Albert] Brooks's best film, but one of his funniest," writes DVD Verdict. "Those who have ever weathered the world of relationships will immediately relate to Robert's struggles with finding, keeping, and then losing the woman of his dreams."

The Warrior (2001; $21.76). Appropriately enough, we suppose, this DVD release was announced, then delayed (the Weinsteins snapped up the rights years ago, but the film only saw a limited release in theaters last summer). But finally, we can see it, "a minimalist but strikingly beautiful tale of renounced violence told with uncommon precision and depth," as Laura Kern wrote in the New York Times.

Also out this week: The Family Stone (2005; $21.95) with a wonderful cast including Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Luke Wilson and Claire Danes; Kokkuri (1997; $11.95), a "strikingly filmed example of new-generation Japanese cinema" (Variety); Hoodwinked (2005; $25.45).

New Anime:
Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 9: Pain and Lust (2006; $21.45). "Burgeoning love - the more I see of Fullmetal the more enamored I am," writes Ursus. "The quality intrinsic in this series' execution is undeniable, growing more and more as time passes. Well written, and executed."

A complete list of this week's New Releases | Coming Soon | New Releases Archive | Your Queue

 The writing team of Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi had written several well-regarded scripts before tackling Aeon Flux, an adaptation of the popular MTV animated series. While the finished product garnered mixed reviews, a talk with the affable writers gives a new appreciation for the process of creating a big budget adaptation, as well as the hard road to becoming a working screenwriter.

Sisters in Law, which has screened at Cannes and over 120 other festivals, continues its tour in the US. Next stops: San Francisco, Boston, Seattle and Chicago. David D'Arcy talks with Kim Longinotto about the award-winning documentary she's made with Florence Ayisi - and about discovering aspects of faraway places we rarely see.

Our award-winning film blog, GreenCine Daily is even more action-packed than Aeon Flux; you've gotta keep checking it to stay caught up.

We celebrate Cinco de Mayo this week by popping into our Latin American film section, for peliculas de Mexico. From Amores Perros and Angel de Fuego to the old school classic The Woman of the Port (and don't forget Santo films like The Vengeance of the Mummy), Mexican cinema may be experiencing a renaissance in recent years but it goes way back.

 

Speaking of which, the GreenCine member list of the week is: Cinema Latino Collection, a handy guide by SergDun to the Fox collection of movies from Spain, Mexico and Argentina. (We particularly like Todo el Poder.)

Also, congrats to the winners of our Heirloom, Pray and Natural City trivia contest: Ccapers, Thermal, Criticalmv, Hanimal, Mrpooru and Dasherman.
Our next screening at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be on Wednesday, June 7 as we proudly present René Clément's And Hope to Die. More details to follow in forthcoming issues of the Dispatch.
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Posted by cphillips at May 3, 2006 3:26 PM