June 21, 2006

Dispatch #138

We celebrate Gay Pride '06 with a fabulous rainbow flag edition of the GreenCine Dispatch.


#138 | June 20, 2006

"Because I just went gay all of a sudden!"
-- Bringing Up Baby

You can order an item in our catalog as soon as it is available for purchase, even if the release date is still weeks away. You will not be billed until your order ships. So, for example, you can now pre-order V for Vendetta now, just in case August 1st sneaks up on you. Learn more about buying on GreenCine in our help page.

Get Real is such an appealing coming of age-slash-coming out story that it's also very easily overlooked as inconsequential. Ben Silverstone (very appealing) plays a shy teen who falls for a very closeted prep school track star, who also happens to have a girlfriend. While this British film is occasionally clumsy, it's also quite affectionate and ultimately - as promised in the title - real. Silverstone in particular is a standout.
$14.45.

Sunday Bloody Sunday may sound like a war movie but the battles depicted here are of the pyschological kind, one of the few films of the period to honestly and matter of factly portray homosexual relationships without pretense. Forever underrated director John Schlesinger, basing the film in part on his own personal life, crafted a contemporary drama that remains as modern as it was in 1972 and most importantly, as a showcase for terrific acting: Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson are masterful here.

Buy now for only $10.95.

The independent romantic comedy Song of Songs holds many pleasures. Billboard magazine deemed it "a wonderfully engaging film...Definitely a must see!" Led by an engaging ensemble cast of unknowns and buoyed along by Eve Selis' songs, Tobin Smith's debut effort also surprises with a neat little ending. You can watch Song of Songs now via GreenCine's Video-on-Demand service.

$3.99 a pop.

 

More like this: Eating Out | Beautiful Thing More like this: Billy Liar | My Beautiful Landrette More like this: Summer Solstice | Save the Forest

Music lovers will be pleased with this week's new releases, as will horror aficionados, and fans of cryptic political thrillers:

"Night Watch (2004; $20.87), the occult thriller that shattered box office records when it was released in Russia during the summer of 2004, not only represents an alternate universe - it is one," writes J. Hoberman in the Village Voice. "Despite its cheesy blood and thunder and ludicrous 'Sunshine Makers' metaphysics, this is the funniest apocalypse I've seen since George Romero's Land of the Dead."

Syriana (2005; $21.73). "A movie that demands and rewards close attention," writes A.O. Scott in the New York Times. "Loosely based on the memoirs of a C.I.A. veteran, Robert Baer, on whom [George] Clooney's character is modeled, it aims to be a great deal more than a standard geopolitical thriller and thereby succeeds in being one of the best geopolitical thrillers in a very long time." Also starring Jeffrey Wright and Matt Damon and written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, who does for oil here what he did for drugs in Traffic.

The Loved One (1965; $14.45). "Wildly and unpredictably funny, The Loved One careens from scene to scene so quickly you may not be able to keep up with the jokes," writes Christopher Null at filmcritic.com. "The black and white photography from Haskell Wexler is stark, reminiscent of Dr. Strangelove (as is the whole film - with Jonathan Winters in two roles)."

Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel (2005; $14.95). 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 documentary sheds light on the fascinating, short life of the influential musician. Recently, Heather Johnson spoke to the German filmmaker on the eve of the documentary's release.

Also out this week: Equinox (1970; $29.97); Petulia (1968; $14.45); I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968; $15.95); Eight Below (2005; $25.45); The Hills Have Eyes (Unrated) (2005; $21.44).

New anime: Sister Princess: Complete Collection (2005; $35.45 for the box). Wataru Minakami's butler sends him to school at Stargazer's Hill in a mysterious place called Promised Island, and wouldn't you know, the place is crawling with cute girls. The catch: they're all his sisters. (The most recent volume in the series is the seventh.)

A complete list of this week's New Releases and all titles coming soon is available here | New Releases Archive | Your Queue

 Documentary filmmaker Robert Edwards calls his debut fictional feature, Land of the Blind, starring Ralph Fiennes and Donald Sutherland, a "satiric political drama about terrorism, assassination, and the power of memory." Jonathan Marlow talks with him as the film opens in New York.

In the aforementioned Syriana, Clooney's CIA field officer is loosely based on Robert Baer, whose story is told in his bestselling memoir, See No Evil. Baer's latest work inspired a film, too: The Cult of the Suicide Bomber, "an eye-opening portrait of the overwhelming adoration suicide bombers inspire in their communities and families," as Hannah Eaves puts it in her interview.

GreenCine Daily, which was just called "indispensable" by the Wall Street Journal, wraps up the Seattle Int'l Film Fest. And then of course there's the usual abundant coverage of cinematic happenings.

This week's Genre of the Week is Gay and Lesbian film, in honor of this month's ongoing celebration of Gay Pride. As Gary Morris writes in introducing his primer on the subject, "[t]he history of queer cinema stretches almost as far back as movies themselves, though, as with all queer history, interpretations in this realm are always debatable." And these films, especially recently, have crossed into other genres - from Westerns to noir to road movies to, of course, romance. Go in and out of the celluloid closet with this fabulous read.

The member list of the week is JGerow's Gay Auteurs list, featuring the "best gay directors and recommended rentals."

Our next screening at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will be on July 5, as we proudly present the exceptional noir-ish rarity Une si jolie petite plage (Such a Pretty Little Beach/Riptide). Yves Allégret's work is unjustifiably little-known in America, yet the director can be seen as a clear bridge between the pre-war Gallic filmmakers and the celebrated nouvelle vague. Such a Pretty Little Beach is a masterpiece of crime cinema, full of atmospheric tension, terror and tribulation.

Wednesday, July 5, 7:30pm
Une si jolie petite plage by Yves Allégret (1949, 105 min., 16mm, in French with English subtitles)
$7/$5 GreenCine and YBCA Members, Students, Seniors

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Posted by cphillips at June 21, 2006 11:04 AM