June 7, 2006

Dispatch #136

We usher in June with some general giddiness about new DVDs and pointers to new articles on GreenCine. All this and more, and it's free, by gum!

#136 | June 6, 2006
"Hello, the living room of renowned theatrical director Roger De Bris' elegant Upper East Side townhouse on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in June. Whom may I say is calling?"
-- The Producers.

Criterion's new two-disc edition of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused is anything but dazed and confused. A sharp all new high-definition digital transfer, amusingly droll commentary by the director, extras including "Making Dazed," a 50-minute documentary by filmmaker Kahane Corn, and for those who buy it, a delightul 70(!) page booklet on the making of the film. How perfectly lo-fi for a film that captured 1970s adolescence better than most films from the 70s, and which featured a darned impressive cast of future stars. "What everybody in this car needs is some good ol' worthwhile visceral experience."

Two discs for $29.96.

The Israeli anti-war film Cup Final (G'mar Giviya) is a stunner, a powerful and poetic work set in 1982, at the time of the World Cup. An Israeli Army reservist is captured by a retreating eight-man unit of Palestinian soldiers during Israel's invasion of Lebanon. The PLO squad is... read the rest here.

Buy now for only $24.45.

"Finally, a Hong Kong sequel that lives up to its precursor's premise (sort of)," wrote the Austin Chronicle's Marc Savlov of Ronnie Yu's The Bride With White Hair 2. "Bursting with gorgeous cinematography and stunning set pieces, the film is a powerhouse feast for the senses, and a passionate, albeit blood-drenched, love story to boot. This is what Hong Kong filmmaking can be when all the stops are pulled." Watch the classic original, The Bride With White Hair, and then the sequel, anytime you wish via GreenCine's Video-on-Demand service.

Watch for only $3.99-$4.99.

 

More like this: Slacker (Criterion) | American Graffiti More like this: History of Soccer - The Beautiful Game | The Inner Tour More like this: Golden Swallow | Dance of a Dream

This week's new releases are magic and deceitful but we like them, we like them very much:

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (2005; $22.87). "Big in both scale and ambition (and a thoroughly independent production by anybody's standard), the film is a social comedy about the ambiguities of the Texas-Mexico border region and also a laconic, masculine odyssey into the hinterland between the two nations, between life and death, between identity and disintegration," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "As you'd expect, [Tommy Lee] Jones has a marvelous eye for acting and for the gritty, seriocomic touches that make the town of Van Horn, Texas, feel both wide open and claustrophobic." Written by Guillermo Arriaga (Amores Perros, 21 Grams).

Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic (2005; $18.45). Sarah Silverman is unlike any stand-up comic around, so it only makes sense her concert movie would be, too, spiffed up as it is with sketches and musical numbers. "Though Silverman's edginess never quite crosses into social consequence, she's a brilliant craftswoman on stage, blessed with crack timing and an ability to massage each line to maximum effect," writes Scott Tobias in the Onion's A.V. Club. "In Jesus Is Magic, she lobs grenade after grenade and deftly scatters before they blow up in her face."

The Syrian Bride (2004; $21.45). "Once people see the film, they can understand it emotionally even if they don't quite know where Syria is," director Eran Riklis (of the aforementioned Cup Final) told John Esther in a recent interview.

"The Boys of Baraka (2005; $21.95) gives a poignant human face to an alarming statistic: 76 percent of black male students in Baltimore city schools do not graduate from high school," notes Stephen Holden in the New York Times. "[T]he film's message is clear and pointed: If you take the boy out of the poor neighborhood, you stand a good chance of taking the despair and hopelessness of the poor neighborhood out of the boy."

Also out this week: The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things (2004; $17.25); À nos amours (Criterion) (1983; $29.97); Glory Road (2006; $21.95); John Wayne: John Ford Film Collection (1935 - 1957; $67.45 for the box set); House of Strangers (1949; $10.95).

New anime: Kamichu! (2005; $23.45). "'Last night, I turned into a god.' With these words begins an anime series of unusual grace, where divine transformation is something you casually mention over lunch, and talking to spirits is as easy as saying hi to them on the street," writes Carlo Santos for the Anime News Network. "Kamichu! walks a unique line between the real and fantastic, buoyed by crisp, imaginative visuals and an overall mood that's sweet without ever being stupid."

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

 In true "live fast die young" rock 'n' roll fashion, Gram Parsons died in 1973 of a drug overdose, leaving behind a timeless song catalog, as well as one of the more tragic and twisted life stories in rock history. Gandulf Hennig's new documentary Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel sheds some light on the fascinating, short life of the influential musician and Heather Johnson spoke to the German filmmaker on the eve of the documentary's release. (Note: the film also screens at San Francisco's Roxie Cinema from June 8 to June 15. Hennig will attend the June 8 screening for a Q&A.)

Named one ten "Indies to Look Out for in 2006" by Film Threat and "one of the best American movies of the last ten years" by Cassavetes scholar Ray Carney, The Puffy Chair has been a hit on the festival circuit for a while and is now slowly rolling into theaters across the nation. Thomas Logoreci talks to the brothers who made it, Jay and Mark Duplass, about what to do when Hollywood comes calling.

GreenCine Daily continues its breathless coverage of the critics, fests, and events that make the film world go round.

As we prep for the World Cup with a little soccer movie promo on the GreenCine home page, we're in the mood for sports movie in general. Walt Opie's primer on the subject is a perfect place to hang out between matches. "Many things can add up to a high-quality sports movie, including genuine emotion and compelling characters," Walt wrote, "but one of the most important and difficult goals to achieve is verisimilitude, both in the sport being portrayed and, more importantly, in the way the actors themselves come off as prime athletes." Read the rest here >>

Keep creating those member lists that we all love and use. If you're not sure how, or why, read this.

Tomorrow night! GreenCine presents René Clément's And Hope to Die at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. In one of his final roles, Robert Ryan stars as an aging criminal trying to collect on a kidnapping plot in Montreal. Jean-Louis Trintignant, Aldo Ray and an uncredited Emmanuelle Béart (in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it role) round out a remarkable cast, photographed by Edmond Richard (Welles' The Trial; Bunuel's Le Fantôme de la liberté). Legendary French auteur René Clément crafts David Goodis' "Black Friday" into a gritty, witty, unjustly little-seen neo-noir. The program includes the exceptionally rare short film The Reason Why, also starring Ryan as a conflicted man with a gun in his hand.

Tomorrow night, Wednesday, June 7. 7:30pm. YBCA, 701 Mission Street, San Francisco. $7/$5 GreenCine and YBCA Members, Students, Seniors.

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Posted by cphillips at June 7, 2006 3:39 PM