Pravda: GreenCine Dispatches: August 2006 Archives

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

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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:

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.

We recommend viewing this newsletter in all of its HTML glory; check your e-mail program's settings to view HTML. This newsletter is sent to GreenCine members only. If you do not wish to receive this newsletter in the future, log in to the GreenCine site, click "View Your Profile" then click Edit Profile. Choose "no" on the "Subscribe to the GreenCine newsletter" option and click "Update Profile." Archives of the Dispatch are now available online at GreenCine's Press and Marketing blog.

Posted by cphillips at 11:58 AM

August 23, 2006

Dispatch #147

GreenCine presses on with all possible... Dispatch. Read on for the latest news, tips and hints on all things DVD and VOD.

#147 | August 22, 2006

"It's a small request, but I'd give anything for a good smack on the south end."
-- State of the Union

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In a noir-ish mood? Check out Kino's new Dark Side of Hollywood set ($37.45), five movies including the underrated The Long Night, Anthony Mann's tough, taut Railroaded, and likely the best of the quintet, Sudden Fear with Joan Crawford, which GreenCine's DWoo called a "San Francisco treat." The box from Kino is part of "one of the best ongoing video series around," says Images Journal's Gary Johnson. The latest will hit you like a good slap to the face.

Critics wrote and pled and wrote and pled, but couldn't get their readers to come out and see Duma ($14.45) , Carroll Ballard's beautiful, moving story of a boy and his cheetah. Sounding way too Disney-of-old, it's a hard sell. Too many families had simply forgotten what Ballard is capable of. Duma "could stand tall on the beauty of its images alone," wrote Stephanie Zacharek in Salon, "Even so, it's what Ballard does with this story that makes it sing." It's an unmissable film that will hopefully become more appreciated with age.

Filmmaker Craig Baldwin delights in creating films out of found footage - snippets from B-movies, ads, kinescopes, TV shows, old 16mm ephemera, and anything else he can lay his hands on. His Spectres of the Spectrum, now available via GreenCine's Video-on-Demand service ($2.99), is a sci-fi pastiche and cultural critique ostensibly about an father-daughter team of scientists, but that's only the launching point for what Gary Morris, in Bright Lights Film Journal, called "one of the most exciting and challenging pieces of pure cinema in the past few years." Don't be an "average human" - see it now.

More like this: Scarlet Street | Lured

More like this: Fly Away Home | Walkabout

More like this: Sonic Outlaws | Building Heaven, Remembering Earth

This week's fresh crop of new DVD titles are a small but vocal bunch - from slapping to kicking to capsizing:

Double Indemnity (1944; $19.95). Long out of print on DVD, Double Indemnity is the "most important Film noir ever made," according to Eddie Muller in his new article about the film for GreenCine - all the more reason why this special two-disc edition is cause for rejoicing. Barbara Stanwyck is perhaps the ultimate femme fatale, and Fred MacMurray, long before My Three Sons, proves what a terrific actor he was, delivering the snappy dialogue (adapted for the screen by director Billy Wilder and detective novelist Raymond Chandler, from material by James M. Cain).

"Despite years of imitation and parody, Double Indemnity never loses its freshness," writes Muller. "And make no mistake about it, everything you love about [the film] was drawn up in the script, which is a masterful example of the screenwriter's art." Extras include two separate new audio commentary tracks, one with film historian Richard Schickel, and a second with film historian/screenwriter Lem Dobbs and film historian Nick Redman.

Sketches of Frank Gehry (2005; $19.65). "Lucid and engaging, Sketches of Frank Gehry provides the enormously gratifying opportunity to spend an hour-and-a-half with an artistic giant," wrote Variety's Todd McCarthy of Sydney Pollack's documentary about his friend, the eccentric, brilliant LA-based architect. "True to its title, the relentlessly intelligent Sketches approaches its subject from a multitude of angles," wrote LA Weekly's Scott Foundas, who noted the film is, above all, "an intimate observation of Gehry at work."

Kicking and Screaming (Criterion) (1995; $22.46 ). Not to be confused with the crappy Will Ferrell movie, this indie comedy about the angst of post-college life was written and directed by Noah Baumbach, who gained renown more recently with his Oscar-nominated The Squid and the Whale. Co-starring Whit Stillman fave Chris Eigeman, along with Josh Hamilton, Carlos Jacott, Eric Stoltz and Oliva d'Abo, the film is essentially a "wryly comic mood piece," wrote Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. "Scenes move from hurt to resigned laughter and ring poignantly true. The heroically unfashionable result is a minor but distinct pleasure."

Also out this week: Grab the dramamine, and watch Poseidon - special edition for rent, widescreen for sale; Scared Sacred (2004; $22.48); Galaxina (1980; $14.45), starring poor Dorothy Stratten; Elizabeth I (2006; $23.57), with Helen Mirren excellent as the Virgin Queen and Jeremy Irons being, well, Jeremy Irons, as the Earl of Leicester; Love for Rent (2004; $11.95); Hepburn and Tracy in Frank Capra's State of the Union (1948; $10.95), which works well as a companion to Capra's earlier Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

New anime: Kodocha Vol. 8: Sana's Duty ($21.45). "There's a lot of fun to be had here," says AnimeOnDVD of this volume of the popular shojo series. "These episodes show that there's still a great deal of life in it and plenty to explore."

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

Jan Svankmajer doesn't grant interviews anymore, but he did make a rare appearance for a Q&A with Simon Field at the International Film Festival Rotterdam last fall when the fest screened his latest feature, Lunacy. Jonathan Marlow was there to listen in. Full article >>

For a conversation with Bent Hamer about casting Matt Dillon as Henry Chinaski, alter-ego of Charles Bukowski, in his new film, Factotum, you want someone who hosts a radio show called Drinks with Tony. You want Tony DuShane. Full article >>

Also new: Thomas Logoreci serves up a freewheeling conversation with the hosts of the YouTube hit Royal House of Hangover; and don't forget Eddie Muller's excellent piece on Double Indemnity.

Besides the usual suspects - coverage of fests and events, and plenty of shorts, GreenCine Daily takes a closer look at one of our favorite film sites, Twitch, as well peeking at Meryl Streep's latest role - on stage.

Our new primer goes up to 11, and beyond: mockumentaries. Join Liz Cole as she explores this surprisingly multifaceted little genre, famous for several gag-filled Christopher Guest films beginning with Waiting for Guffman, along with, of course, Rob Reiner's seminal Spinal Tap, but also for political mock-docs like Punishment Park, dark cult items a la Man Bites Dog, political-comedies such as Bob Roberts, horror, alternate history, and other variations. Mockumentaries >>

The GreenCine member list of the week: CBenson's Tween a Rock and a Hard Place, perfect for 'tweeners and their parents, in these waning days of summer.

Posted by cphillips at 3:08 PM

August 16, 2006

Dispatch #146

This edition of GreenCine Dispatch is feeling a mite boxed in, as it were - but in a good way. Read on for a peek at a few brand new, extremely cool DVD box sets. That and some GreenCine recommendations, first word of our next screening, and other snippets of news - all makes for some fine breakfast reading.

#146 | August 15, 2006

"You either surf or you fight."
-- Apocalypse Now

Missed an issue of the GC Dispatch? We keep 'em preserved and as fresh as the day they were first e-mailed, in the archives over on our PR/Marketing/Events blog, affectionately known as Pravda.

With Six Moral Tales by Eric Rohmer ($69.97), Criterion gives us six of the French auteur's fine early films, beginning with 1963's charming The Bakery Girl of Monceau and commencing with the masterful Claire's Knee and Love in the Afternoon. Famous for making films that point the characters inward rather than focusing on plot - i.e., talky - Rohmer's work remains incredibly rich and rewarding. The set gets the highest recommendation from Jeff Ulmer on DigitallyObsessed: "Magnificent transfers that finally do justice to the material, and a bounty of supplementals should delight fans and newcomers alike."

The caper spoof Safe Men ($14.95) disappeared quickly from public view first time around, barely making it to theaters before being deposited on home video - in fact, it's just now making its way to DVD - but with a game cast and some hilarious comic moments, it's much better than that history would lead one to believe. The film utilizes to perfection the deapan talents of Sam Rockwell and Steve Zahn, well-teamed here as... read the rest here.

"The dread marijuana may be reaching forth next for your son or daughter...or yours...or YOURS!" Watching the notorious scare film Reefer Madness is a rather trippy experience, especially since it's an anti-drug film that a) makes drugs seem more fun than they surely intended and b) seems to have mixed up the effects of marijuana with those of cocaine. And now you can enjoy this delirious camp classic on your computer via GreenCine's far out, red-hot Video-on-Demand service, for only $2.99 a pop.

[You can also rent a version with commentary by MST3K's Mike Nelson.]

More like this: The Aviator's Wife | A Summer's Tale

More like this: Palookaville | Happy Texas

More like this: Street Corner/Because of Eve | Teenage Years: Love Connections

Besides a couple of releases mentioned above, this week's new DVD titles are highlighted by some big, honkin' sets and one prize-winner from abroad:

L'enfant (2005; $21.45). Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, the latest from the Dardennes brothers is "a forceful, impassioned and unsparing triumph," wrote Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. "Using a hand-held camera, the Dardennes - with a documentary rigor that recalls Robert Bresson's classic Pickpocket - follow these lovers as they try to find a moral ground in a world that cuts them no slack. Renier and Francois give deeply affecting performances that help soften the film's harsh blows."

Rome: Season 1 ($73.95). "A lavish series that offers many lusty pleasures similar to [HBO's] other period drama, Deadwood," wrote Variety's Brian Lowry. "Coarse, initially convoluted and densely populated by roguish characters, it's an intriguing world that hews closer to I, Claudius than Gladiator, with all the expected pay-cable debauchery. (It's not for the faint of heart). After watching half of the dozen episodes, I'm hooked."

Apocalypse Now: Complete Dossier (only $14.95). After some less than stellar previous editions of Francis Ford Coppola's epic Vietnam War meditation, this one arrives loaded with both the 1979 and 2001 versions, and a host of special features, including: commentary by Coppola over both, the lost "monkey sampan" scene, a Brando outtake, a cast members' reunion, 12 never-before-seen segments from the cutting room floor, and an in-depth look at the film's brilliant sound design. Now if only they'd added the documentary Hearts of Darkness to the mix...

The James Stewart Signature Collection ($37.74) offers up six Jimmy classics previously unavailable on DVD, including: The Spirit of St Louis, in which Stewart plays Charles Lindbergh; The Stratton Story, in which Stewart plays Monte Stratton, who overcame the odds and played baseball after losing a leg in a hunting accident; and likely the best of all the ones here, Anthony Mann's fabulous Western The Naked Spur, with Stewart a bounty hunter on the trail, through the breathtaking Rockies, of killer Robert Ryan, who has (hubba hubba) Janet Leigh in tow. Jonathan Rosenbaum in the Chicago Reader called Naked Spur "the most elemental Mann western and my favorite of all his pictures."

Also out this week: The political satire Land of the Blind (2006; $19.66), with Ralph Fiennes (read our interview with its director, Robert Edwards); Slant's Ed Gonzalez on Hoot (2006; $20.98): "The most goodhearted children's film of 2006 barely made a blip at the box office, but you can save it now that it's on DVD"; Sars Wars: Bangkok Zombie Crisis (2004; $17.95), a crazy Thai zomb-edy; Eternity and a Day ($21.97), 1998 Cannes Palme d'Or winner.

New anime: The 1983 classic Barefoot Gen is finally back in print! The story of a family's struggle to survive in Japan during the waning days of World War II is a "great, great anime," raves Larbeck.

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

"You could argue that David Zucker is one of the most influential movie comedy directors of the past few decades," writes Sean Axmaker, introducing his interview with the writer, director and producer who, often in collaboration with his brother, Jerry Zucker, and Jim Abrahams, has ensured the movies keep a sense of humor about themselves, from the 1980 landmark comedy Airplane! to the latest to hit DVD, Scary Movie 4. Full article >>

Winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize at Sundance and enthusiastically embraced by audiences throughout the festival circuit, House of Sand is a gorgeous tale spanning half a century in a remote Brazilian landscape. Hannah Eaves talks with director Andrucha Waddington. Full article >>

With Jacques Richard's documentary Henri Langlois: Phantom of the Cinémathèque now out on DVD, Axmaker looks at the legacy of the man who, as he ran the Cinémathèque Fran�ais, saved countless classics and became something of a midwife to auteurism and the French New Wave. As A.O. Scott has written in the New York Times, he was "one of the most important figures in the history of film and therefore in the history of 20th-century art." Full article >>

GreenCine Daily, our "essential" (says indieWIRE) film blog wraps up its Summertime Questions series in fine fashion, while continuing to answer this one: What is going on in the world of film? Shorts, fests, trailers, previews, essays - just part of the daily answer.

GreenCine's new DVD review blog offers a steady stream of new reviews by a variety of writers who have their eyes glued to TV sets 24 hours a day. Well, not really, but they do love the unheralded movies they write about on Guru and are eager to tell you why.

Got a picky, moviewatching 12 year old gal in your household? The GreenCine member list(s) of the week is perfect for you: Entertaining a middle school girl, by nhunter.

The next GreenCine-sponsored screening at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts will actually not occur until early October. We'll tease out the details in this space over time, but can already say it'll be a darned good one: a rare screening of The Fabulous Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Czech filmmaker's Karel Zeman's 1961 take on the tall-tale spinner.

Posted by cphillips at 12:04 PM

August 10, 2006

Dispatch #145

Just the right cure for the dog days of summer: the cool breeze that is the GreenCine Dispatch. Read on for the latest GC news, reviews, new releases and tips.

#145 | August 8, 2006

"I was just fixing some ice tea; would you like a glass?"
"Yeah, unless you got a bottle of beer that's not working."
-- Double Indemnity

You can go in and edit any of your movie reviews on GreenCine - whether they're still pending our approval or live on the site, at any time by going into your account and clicking on "edit your reviews." (Warning: Note that editing a live review will erase any member votes attached to that review.) Go here for more.

With the first stellar season of this Baltimore-set HBO series showing the intricacies of the drug wars on all fronts, and the second season focusing on the way the contraband first arrives in the U.S., and corruption around port labor, the fantastic The Wire: Season 3 may be the best yet. The writing remains at the highest level in what continues to be a demanding show that unfolds like a multi-layered novel and serves as a showcase for terrific ensemble acting. This season also ended in rather shocking fashion. As with the other seasons, The Wire: Season 3 is unmissable.

Five discs: $75.60.

Speaking of addictive programs about our criminal justice system, the riveting eight hour documentary The Staircase about the murder trial of the novelist Michael Peterson, who was accused of murdering his wife, in a case that would be implausible if it weren't real. The filmmakers reveal one shocking turn after another in a documentary that The New York Times called "astonishing... brilliantly conceived, reported, filmed and paced."

Two discs: $30.95, or for rent.

Martial arts epic Samurai Reincarnation features Sonny Chiba, although it takes awhile for him to appear - but as Cold Fusion Video says, "that's okay; everything else about his movie is pretty impressive, too. In fact, it's probably the best 'reanimated Christian turns evil and assembles a posse to take down the Shogun' movie out there." In fact, the movie features "some of the best samurai action ever committed to film." See Samurai Reincarnation now or anytime you want via GreenCine's on-demand on GreenCine, for $2.99.

More like this: The Wire: First Season | The Wire: Second Season

More like this: Thin Blue Line | Murder on a Sunday Morning

More like this: Dragon Princess | The Street Fighter

Finally - a summer week just full of inriguing new DVD releases, particularly for the more indie-minded among you:

Brick (2006; $20.56). The slangy, teen-noir is Raymond Chandler reimagined for modern day Orange County, and, adds GreenCine's Craig Phillips, while the film "takes a bit of time to get accustomed to - as if we, the audience, were collectively given a new eyeglass prescription and have to adjust to seeing a certain way - stick with it. Brick is a breakout debut, and one of the best films of 2006."

CSA: Confederate States of America (2005; $19.93). "I made it as a comedy because I want to reach the audience who would never go to see a serious film about slavery," said filmmaker Kevin Willmott in our interview with him, about his alternative history film which posits the question - what if the South had won the Civil War? "A brilliant and irresistible counterfactual overview of American history," raved the San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle, "Ultimately not just amusing but moving because it reminds us that the Civil War was not some sectional disagreement or an argument between two equally worthy points of view, but rather a struggle for the country's moral decency and the future of democracy."

Inside Man (2006; $21.70) has Spike Lee working, with a fine cast, in full-on commercial (or Sidney Lumet) mode and the end result is pretty entertaining. "The suspense crackles, the acting sizzles and the script, by promising first-timer Russell Gewirtz, keeps tossing surprises like grenades," wrote Peter Travers in Rolling Stone. And "Denzel Washington energizes the movie."

Manderlay (2005; $19.93). Love him or hate him, there's no one else like Lars Von Trier. His latest, part of his ostentatious "America" trilogy (following up on Dogville) polarized critics as much as any of his works, poking at "uncomfortable truths," wrote Sam Adams (Philadelphia City Paper), who found it problematic but, "in throwing caution to the wind, [Von Trier] hits on ideas most American directors would be too sensitive to address."

Cavite (2005; $20.43) was filmed for a song but had such a perfect concept for a low-budget film - one main character, shot on location in Manila, it was a "paragon of guerrilla resourcefulness and a model citizen of the global village," wrote Dennis Lim in the Village Voice, "a more anxious and vivid experience than most movies with budgets literally a thousand times bigger... [an] impressively tense micro-thriller."

Also out this week: Don't Come Knocking $21.60 (see more on this Wenders-Shepard collaboration below); The Lost City (2005; $23.95; great cast + practically non-existent theatrical release = ?); Voices of Iraq (2004; $16.45); The Hidden Blade (2004; $19.95).

New anime: Papuwa vol. 1: Wild Things ($21.45). "I�ll cut to the chase: Papuwa is the most hilarious anime I�ve ever seen," raved Anime-Planet.com. "Cromartie was the big winner up until now...but Papuwa is absolutely ridiculous as far as spastic random comedies go." Also new: Basilisk vol. 1: Scrolls of Blood ($21.45).

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

Writing in the New York Times, Stephen Holden described Don't Come Knocking as "a meditation on cultural ectoplasm, on phantom cowboys and outlaws and the potent myths surrounding them." With this latest film by Wim Wenders now out on DVD, GreenCine spoke with the legendary German director about writing on the road, meeting Patricia Highsmith and the benefits of working under pressure. Full article >>

GreenCine Daily scans MovieMaker, The Believer and Offscreen magazines, and offers up more provocative questions and answers with fellow film bloggers, plus another fine round up of new DVD releases from DK Holm.

Congratulations to the winners of The Prisoner box set contest: CSouther and maxgill (the answer was "Be seeing you!") We'll have more contests, soon. In the meantime... be seeing you!

The GreenCine member list(s) of the week is Lastcrackerjack's "Shot in Texas," the best of the many films shot in the Lone Star state. Don't mess with (the) Texas (Film Commission)!

Thanks to all who attended our presentation of the San Francisco premiere of Interkosmos at San Francisco's Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. We'll be taking a bit of a break from screenings before returning with a vengeance for our next one in September. More details on that forthcoming in this very space.

Posted by cphillips at 12:26 PM

August 2, 2006

Dispatch #144

"I'm sweating in here. Roasting. Boiling...."

Read on to see the source of this quote and for the rest of the hot August 1 edition of the GreenCine Dispatch.

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#144 | August 1, 2006

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"I'm sweating in here. Roasting. Boiling. Baking. Sweltering. It's like a sauna. Furnace. You can fry an egg on my stomach. Ohh, who wouldn't lap this up? It's ridiculous. Tremendous. Fantastic. Fan-dabby-dozy-tastic."

-- href="http://www.greencine.com/webCatalog?id=14454&gcdispatch-144&att=beast">Sexy Beast

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Criterion's new Olivier's Shakespeare set ($67.45) includes all three Bard adaptations starring Olivier includes what is arguably the greatest or one of the greatest of them all, Henry V, a groundbreaking film which allowed "Olivier to exploit the open space where stage becomes soundstage...also remarkable for being the first Shakespearean film to be shot in color, and to this day, because of its agressively broad pallette, it remains the most colorful of all" - DVDJournal. Also includes two little-known works called Hamlet and Richard III.

Like Night Moves and Cutter's Way, Cisco Pike is a low-key Seventies character study once derided as a failure but now in crying need of a new audience. It also boasts a superb film debut from Kris Kristofferson (who'd been glimpsed in the previous year's The Last Movie, if you want to pick nits), at the time better known as a musician. Here he plays... read the rest here.

$11.45.

Wanted: Filmmaker to document mad and amusing novel on video. Will pay a small fee. The little Irish film The Book That Wrote Itself, "with its audacious and cleverly executed set-up, [is] an oddly engaging little film," writes FilmThreat. Adds TimeOut: "a fledgling effort that proves surprisingly memorable."

Available only on-demand on GreenCine, for $3.99.

More like this: King Lear | Romeo and Juliet

More like this: Scarecrow | Nashville

More like this: The Appointment | Coffee and Language

A quiet week for releases, all told, but some good 'uns, including the aforementioned Shakespeare set and one of the more provocative blockbusters of the year:

V for Vendetta (2006; 2 discs, $24.78). Based on Alan Moore's brilliant graphic novel, the film version with Natalie Portman and Hugo Weaving (as "V") is "a compelling, rousing and at times strangely moving entertainment," raved Premiere's Glenn Kenny. "[P]owered by ideas that are not computer-generated. It's something rare in Teflon Hollywood: a movie that sticks with you," adds Rolling Stone's Peter Travers. It looks terrific, too. In short, as comic book adaptations go, this one's an "A." The 2-disc special edition includes documentaries on both the main disc and the bonus disc (on the latter, a 17-minute production featurette, a 10-minute history of Guy Fawkes, and the 15-minute "England Prevails: V for Vendetta and the New Wave in Comics.") Look for an easter egg on the second disc, too, with Portman's now infamous SNL performance.

Putney Swope (1969; $16.45) Robert Downey, Sr.'s (yes, Dad of...) bracing satire finally makes its way to DVD. As Jonathan Rosenbaum wrote, this "low-budget, hit-or-miss dadaist (or gagaist) 1969 satire, about a group of blacks taking over a Madison Avenue ad agency, is a bit of a relic now, though a decidedly offbeat one." It remains enjoyable enough if, Rosenbaum adds, "you're in a silly enough mood."

Richard Pryor Live in Concert (1979; $14.45) features the comic at his brilliant, raunchy best in this highly influential (and gut-bustingly funny) performance that hardly seems dated at all. This new DVD re-release is far superior to the previous one, too.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Fifth Season (2005; $29.95) is "a return to classic form," writes Slate's Dana Stevens. Adds The Hollywood Reporter: "The show gets back to where it belongs: under Larry's expansive roof and inside his incessantly neurotic, disgracefully tactless and unerringly heartless skin."

Mrs. Harris (2005; $19.96) retells the juicy story of the sensational 1980 case, in which socialite Jean Harris killed "Scarsdale Diet" guru Dr. Herman Tarnowe. Stars Annette Bening and Ben Kingsley are the main attraction here and don't disappoint; Bening's "brittlely accurate performance is something to watch... [Bening] seems incapable - even during the film's most blackly humorous moments - of a false, Fatal Attraction�like note." (LA Weekly)

Also out this week: Broken Saints: Complete Series (2001; $42.95); Alice in Wonderland (1985; $11.45); The Shaggy Dog (2006; $22.45); Mr. Moto Collection (1937-38; $51.45); and just in time, Burning Man: Beyond Black Rock (2004; $14.95).

New anime: Fullmetal Alchemist vol. 11: Becoming the Stone. Of the 11th volume of the highly rated series, AnimeNation says, "The series just continues to be extremely enjoyable and engaging from episode to episode, making it plainly clear why it's so popular. This is just solid and enjoyable storytelling that doesn't pull very many punches."

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

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Critical interest in A Scanner Darkly, Richard Linklater's adaptation of the novel by Philip K. Dick, has been remarkable and, for such a dark picture, it's been tremendously popular as well. As the film expands to an additional forty-four theatres across the country, Jonathan Marlow talks with producer Tommy Pallotta about the unique animation, the solid cast (Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey, Jr., Woody Harrelson) and future plans. Full article >>

Before GreenCine Daily's David Hudson returns from vacation, the blog continues its series of film-related questions and answers with friends from the blogging world.

Congratulations to the winners of the Docurama Film Festival set: MNoel and Tristan42 (the answer was "All for one and one for all!")

Speaking of contests, you can win a pair of tickets to GreenCine's film screening tomorrow night (details below) by going to our home page and then following the instructions for your chance to win. Interkosmos is beckoning!

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The GreenCine member list(s) of the week is JSenkbile's "Stuff to Watch Instead of Going to Church" list. Intense, religious-themed films with a dark or satirical bent.

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This week! GreenCine presents the San Francisco premiere of Interkosmos (2006, 71 min., 16mm, in English and German with English subtitles), at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts on Wednesday, August 2. In the 1970s, the East Germans had a secret plan to establish Communist colonies on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter. These fabricated details are the grist for writer/director Jim Finn's first feature, an exceptional pseudo-documentary that chronicles the cosmonaut era from an alternate universe replete with musical numbers and faithful reconstructions of the rigors of space travel.

Wednesday, August 2, 7:30pm

$8/$6 GreenCine and YBCA Members, Students, Seniors

San Francisco premiere with the director in attendance!

Posted by cphillips at 2:11 PM