August 31, 2006

Dispatch #148

Happy Labor Day! Enjoy these fruits of our own labors, as we slave over a hot newsletter to bring you the latest news from GreenCine HQ.

#148 | August 29, 2006


"I thought all the nuts went home on Labor Day."
-- The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming

If you have a specific (and constructive) critique or suggestion for GreenCine regarding the functionality of our site or service, please feel free to drop a friendly line to suggestions@greencine.com. We read all of them, and try to respond to as many of them in kind as we can - and sometimes we even implement your ideas! So keep 'em coming.

The Chinese film Mountain Patrol (Kekexili) is a real sleeper, and unforgettable - all the more so because it's based on a true story. Set in Tibet where a small group of Tibetans struggle to protect the Tibetan antelope (chiru) from poachers, Mountain Patrol is the rare ecologically-minded film that is extremely gripping rather than didactic; or, as Manhola Dargis wrote in the NY Times, it's "as tough and unsparing as its backdrop, a blood-boiling environmental thriller with a dash of Sergio Leone." The new DVD is not of the greatest quality in the world, but the film itself is highly recommended.

The Tick vs. Season One brings us the initial, animated series created by Ben Edlund, based on his comic book, about an invulnerable, if somewhat dim and confused, superhero and his sidekick Arthur (a one-time accountant who wants to join the ranks of do-gooders) as they do battle with The Idea Men, The Breadmaster, El Seed, The Uncommon Cold and other colorful enemies. An oft-hilarious send-up of pompous superheroes, which later spawned an almost as amusing live-action version. "And so, may Evil beware and may Good dress warmly and eat plenty of fresh vegetables."

"You can't talk about giallo [Italian pulp mysteries] without talking about Dario Argento," wrote Cheryl Eddy in our Italian Horror primer. And the creepy suspenser The Cat O'Nine Tails is "shot with Argento's dynamic sense of framing, brutal camera angles and a great Morricone score," adds cammelltoe. "This movie has the balls to make a glass of milk threatening - and pulls it off!"

Cat o'Nine Tails is now available to download to own for only $9.99, using the DivX player. For additional information about GreenCine DivX, see our DivX FAQ.
More like this: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seeamstress | The Saltmen of Tibet More like this: Batman: The Animated Series | The Incredibles More like this: Five Minutes to Live | Strange Illusion

This week's new DVD titles are a unique lot, with "edgy" written all over 'em:

V

Water (2005; $20.87). Deepa Mehta's incredible film, the third in a trilogy of elementally-titled films (Earth and Fire were the others), is set in India, 1938. "An exquisite film," wrote Jeannette Catsoulis in The New York Times. "Serene on the surface yet roiling underneath, the film neatly parallels the plight of widows under Hindu fundamentalism to that of India under British colonialism."

Seduced and Abandoned (Criterion) (1964; $22.46). "Pietro Germi creates an incisive and wickedly irreverent satire on manners, duty, honor, and socially cultivated machismo," noted Strictly Film School. And Dave Kehr: "Maliciously funny examination of the marriage rites of Sicily, done up in a crowded, cartoonish style that suggests the work of Preston Sturges."

The Charles Bukowski Tapes (1987; $17.95, two discs). Released to coincide with this month's theatrical release of the Bukowski-based Factotum (and the writer's birthday), Barbet Schroeder's film was seven years in the making, the result this four hour-long study of the man and the music of his words. "The ideal way to show this material was in short video-clips - a new style of film," remarked Schroeder (who also directed the Bukowski-based Barfly). "Once I had screened it this way, it seemed twice as powerful."

Lonesome Jim (2005; $19.93) On Steve Buscemi's most recent directorial effort, Peter Travers in Rolling Stone: "What we cheer in Buscemi as an actor - his gift for locating the elusive details that define a life - is also there in his work as a director. Buscemi does not act in Lonesome Jim, but his sly humor and keen eye for nuance resonate in every frame. I can't recall having a better time at a movie about depression."

Also out this week: Friends With Money (2006; $21.70) - "an exquisitely calibrated hypermodern comedy of manners" (Kenneth Turan, LA Times); Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World (2006; $20.98); The Zodiac (2005; $19.45); Let's Scare Jessica to Death (1971; $10.95); Trilogy of Terror (Special Edition) (1975; $15.45); Ultimate Crime Box Set (NoShame; 2 discs; $13.97); Mystery Science Theater vol. 10 (4 discs; $36.95); Arrested Development Season 3 (2 discs; $21.95) - gone but hopefully never forgotten.

New anime: Hayao Miyazaki's fine early feature Castle of Cagliostro returns to DVD in a new special edition ($16.95) based on the popular master thief character Lupin, of manga and a long-running series. The new disc is digitally remastered with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, and also includes an interview with animation director Yasuo Ohtsuka. The film boasts "a series of slapdash, high-energy comic chases and face-offs that showcase Miyazaki's obsessively detailed, gloriously colorful animation style," says Tasha Robinson in Onion AV Club.

GreenCine's review blog: Guru | A complete list of this week's new releases and all titles coming soon is available here | Your Queue

"After But I'm a Cheerleader, I had wanted to do something that was a little darker," filmmaker Jamie Babbit tells Michael Guillén as she explains what compelled her to make her new understated thriller, The Quiet. The conversation then turns to what makes the closet such a resilient fixture in Hollywood. Full article >>

Andy Spletzer has an "entertaining, exhausting, exuberant and ultimately edifying" conversation with Craig Baldwin about Sonic Outlaws and Spectres of the Spectrum (both of which are now available via GreenCine Video-on-Demand), Other Cinema's screenings, DVDs, his zine and the films he's working on right now. Full article >>

Even as Joe Swanberg's first feature, Kissing on the Mouth, comes out on DVD, his second, LOL, is screening at the Pioneer Theater in New York through September 3, his webisodic series Young American Bodies rolls on at Nerve - and he's just completed shooting yet another feature. Andrew Grant (Filmbrain) asks him about all this hyperactivity, his influences, and of course: what's next. Full article >>

And, speaking of hyperactivity, GreenCine Daily should keep you plenty busy with reading material, as well.

Interested in promoting your film festival, theatrical release, DVD release, label or service on GreenCine? Now you can do so with a few clicks (and a few bucks) by going to our advertiser information page, and then filling out this "request for advertising" form. Thousands of internet-enabled film viewers check out GreenCine every day; maybe it's time their eyes were on your prize.

The GreenCine member list of the week will blow your mind, man! chaosmind's films that "Deviate (from normal storytelling)," i.e., films "that changed my ideas about narrative structure."

The next GreenCine-sponsored screening at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will happen in early October, when we offer a rare screening of The Fabulous Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Czech filmmaker's Karel Zeman's 1961 take on the tall-tale spinner. More details on this fantastic event coming next week.

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Posted by cphillips at August 31, 2006 11:58 AM