Blu-Ray – Dramatic Movies

Last Year at Marienbad (Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Not just a defining work of the French New Wave but one of the great, lasting mysteries of modern art, Alain Resnais’ epochal visual poem has been puzzling appreciative viewers for decades. A surreal fever dream, or perhaps a nightmare, Last Year at Marienbad (L’année dernière à Marienbad), written by the radical master of the New Novel, Alain Robbe-Grillet, gorgeously fuses the past with the present in telling its ambiguous tale of a man and a woman (Giorgio Albertazzi and Delphine Seyrig) who may or may not have met a year ago, perhaps at the very same cathedral-like, mirror-bedecked château they now find themselves wandering. Unforgettable in both its confounding details (gilded ceilings, diabolical parlor games, a loaded gun) and haunting scope, Resnais’ investigation into the nature of memory is disturbing, romantic, and maybe even a ghost story.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Alain Resnais, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack • New audio interview with Resnais • New documentary on the making of Last Year at Marienbad, featuring interviews with many of Resnais’ collaborators • New video interview with film scholar Ginette Vincendeau on the history of the film and its many mysteries • Two short documentaries by Resnais: Toute la mémoire du monde (1956) and Le chant du styrène (1958) • Theatrical trailer • Optional original, unrestored French soundtrack • New and improved subtitle translation • PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Mark Polizzotti and film scholar François Thomas, and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s introduction to the published screenplay and comments on the film

Stills from Last Year at Marienbad (Click for larger image)

Similar to Alain Resnais’ previous film Hiroshima mon amour, Last Year at Marienbad begins with a postulate of memory and perspective. A handsome stranger, X (Giorgio Albertazzi) encounters an alluring socialite, A (Delphine Seyrig) at a grand, baroque hotel and, captivated by her, attempts to convince the reluctant object of his desire that they have met before – that it was, in fact, precisely a year earlier at a luxury resort similar to Marienbad, perhaps, in Fredericksburg or Baden-Salsa. X explains that A was then unable (or unwilling) to separate from her enigmatic and forbidding lover (or husband), M (Sacha Pitoëff), and that she had agreed to meet X a year later at this pre-arranged destination – perhaps to test X’s romantic resolve, or to give herself time to wrest free from M’s icy control (a domination that he also exerts through seemingly un-winnable card or matchstick Nim games). X’s account seems persuasive, recalling specific (albeit, often contradictory) details of their brief dalliance at the ornate European hotel: a gravel path where she stumbles and breaks the heel of her shoe during a rendezvous in the impeccably manicured garden; a Greek statue of a man and a woman (whose formal pose was either a guiding or hindering one) on an overlooking terrace; A’s radiant expression as she clandestinely invites X into her room, seductively dressed in a mutable (white or black) feathered evening gown. And so the intriguing game of seduction unfolds in Marienbad, as the two ‘lovers’ recount a fractured tale of their perceived – and self-actualized – reality and unrealized love affair.

Written by nouveau roman (also known as ‘antinovel’ or ‘new novel’) author Alain Robbe-Grillet (whose own aspirations of filmmaking led to the formulation of an inflexibly detailed shooting script that Resnais, while remaining faithful to script, nevertheless managed to ascribe his own aesthetic imprint), Last Year at Marienbad is a sublimely tactile, exquisite, and hauntingly enigmatic composition on the interrelation of perception, consciousness, and reality. Resnais audaciously combines the experimental narrative structure of the French avant-garde literary movement that sought to blur the delineation between subjective and objective reality (and similarly, the linear progression of conventional storytelling) with the classical, dramatic staging of performance art (especially in the presentation of highly formalized, tableaux vivant-like ephemeral characters) to create a complex and idiosyncratic, yet captivating and thematically accessible story of unrequited love. Presenting an organic narrative through disjunctions of time, consciousness, and perspective, Resnais further reflects the fragmentation of temporal and spatial linearity through sinuous tracking shots through the chateau’s sensual, baroque interiors that curiously defy identification of location and relativity to other rooms – sleeping quarters, hallways, recreational lounges, pistol firing range, and even a theatrical stage seem intrinsically part of, yet strangely dissociated from, the disorienting estate. (Note the indelible image of people casting shadows on the gravel path juxtaposed against a parallel line of trees without cast shadows in the sculptured garden). In essence, the visual contradiction implies a contextual unreality or, more appropriately, a subjective reality to the film’s narrative: a manifestation of X’s point-of-view that interweaves memory, desire, logic, embellishment, and suggestion into a compelling (and self-serving) argument of intellectual seduction. By modulating and re-arranging the syntax of film language away from the familiar découpage classique narrative structure of traditional (usually Hollywood) cinema and towards a stylistic convergence of images, textures, sounds, and imagination, Last Year at Marienbad serves as a singular, audacious, and iconic exposition on the malleability of reality, time, existence, and memory.

Last Year at MarienBAD – Blitzkrieg – Outer Space
This is a perfect example of why French films are often made fun of. This film is pretentious and boring. From it’s ridiculously over the top wax poetic voice over to it’s annoying organ music, it claws at you with its “hey, look at me!” style. The only thing going for it is the lovely location and decor, but that wasn’t enough to keep my interest beyond 20 minutes. That’s when I turned it off. I love watching foreign films and I give every film a chance, but this one isn’t my cup of tea.

On a positive note, the Criterion blu-ray transfer is excellent.

BORING – who cares – H. Boehning – Dallas, TX
I do not understand how this film could be highly rated. It is so boring. Totally bored woman x with no interest in anyone or anything is stalked by a boring man y with no interest in anyone or anything except convincing y that they fell in love last year. No sign of any love or interest in each other. She is so bored with everything that she does not remember him. Flashbacks showing they encountered each other before. SURPRISE! They do not have the exact memory! She is apparently there this year with a man, but there is no evidence of any relationship between then, so who cares who he is. So it doesn’t matter that you do not find out who he is. Who cares if x does or does not go off with y?

If you love Tati’s Playtime and give it 5 stars, you probably would love this. Although maybe not, Marienbad kind of sort of almost has a plot and kind of sort of has characters x and y.

Regret that I bought this (stupidly let myself be led by all the 5 star ratings). If you are curious about this film, I recommend renting it first

Last year in Marienbad – Y. Matsushita – Tokyo
I saw this film 40 years ago for the first time and was shocked as this changed completely

my notion about film. I do not think that I should chnnge my evalution at that time.

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Add comment April 8th, 2010

The 400 Blows: The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]

François Truffaut s first feature is also his most personal. Told through the eyes of Truffaut s cinematic counterpart, Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud), The 400 Blows sensitively re-creates the trials of Truffaut s own difficult childhood, unsentimentally portraying aloof parents, oppressive teachers, and petty crime. The film marked Truffaut s passage from leading critic to trailblazing auteur of the French New Wave.

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with an uncompressed monaural soundtrack
Two audio commentaries: one by cinema professor Brian Stonehill and another by François Truffaut s lifelong friend Robert Lachenay
Rare audition footage of Jean-Pierre Léaud, Patrick Auffay, and Richard Kanayan
Newsreel footage of Léaud in Cannes for the showing of The 400 Blows
Excerpt from a TV program in which Truffaut discusses his youth, his critical writings, and the origins of Antoine
TV interview with Truffaut about the global reception of The 400 Blows and his own critical impression of the film
Theatrical trailer
PLUS: An essay by film scholar Annette Insdorf

If you are coming late to this pathbreaking film after having seen and enjoyed other Truffaut movies, be forewarned: it’s not much like Jules et Jim, or The Bride Wore Black, or even the later Antoine Doinel features. Truffaut spent his childhood watching movies, especially the American studio products turned out by men who became his heroes — Hawks, Ford, Hitchcock, Ray. In his later films, he unabashedly adapted their styles, combining commercial narrative techniques with his own New Wave sensibility. The result was a type of French cinema that could both entertain and dig deeper than a typical Hollywood vehicle.

In The 400 Blows, his first full-length film, Truffaut opted instead for a documentary style that he felt offered the best chance of telling the truth. (He knew this truth very well, because the story is largely autobiographical.) Elements that typically enhance a studio film and nudge the viewer toward a certain reaction are almost totally absent. The camera “passively” records whatever is taking place, allowing fairly long scenes to unfold in real time. There are few quick cuts or editing that calls attention to itself or to particular lines. The music seems perfunctory, serving more to bridge scenes or otherwise offer continuity (again, in the manner of a documentary) than to prompt emotional responses or underline the psychology of a moment. Dialogue is usually banal, i.e., naturalistic. The characters, even the least sympathetic ones, don’t get sorted into heroes or villains. We can sympathize with all of them even as we discern their obvious limitations.

In other words, not a great date movie. Just a courageous first effort by someone who wasn’t afraid to translate strong ideas about film into an actual film. I’m glad I finally watched it, although I will probably continue to treasure other Truffaut movies much more.

The Blu-Ray transfer seems superb. Rich variations of black and gray and white. Beautiful visual detail. Wide-screen format, which surprised me, as with Jules et Jim. (Why have I always assumed that the great European film-makers of the 50s and 60s stuck with Academy Ratio?) Technically another great job by Criterion.

Highly recommended, with the implicit caveats noted.

Moving and exhilirating – Alan A. Elsner – Washington DC
The movie announced the talent of Francois Truffaut and still makes a powerful impact 50 years later.
We follow the life of Antoine, a 13-year-old Parisian kid with a knack of getting himself into trouble. He’s persecuted in turn by his stupid French literature teacher, his adoptive father and his cold, neglectful mother and winds up in a juvenile institution after stealing a typewriter from his father’s office, failing to sell it and getting caught trying to return it.
Antoine is basically not a bad kid but each petty lie and immature stunt gets him deeper and deeper into trouble from a system that seems capable only of punishing and never of understanding him.
We learn that Antoine’s mother never wanted him and sees him as a nuisance and a burden; that his adoptive father has no real investment in his success and that the authority figures he meets are interested only in processing him and never relate to him as a person.
This movie is full of exuberant cinemagraphic moments: the camera swoops up and down like a bird watching a clueless teacher taking his class for exercise and having the kids run off behind his back one by one. Antoine and his friend emerge from the Metro and a flock of pigeons explodes into the air. Antoine spends the night alone, surrounded by the cold, unfeeling statues of the Tuileries Gardens.
One notable aspect: every single adult in this movie is an idiot and most are also casually cruel.
The message of this humanistic film is that children need love to thrive. Without it, they are we are victims.

Timeless Classic – H. M. Evans – Pennsylvania, USA
Truffart’s masterpiece, everyone should see this film at least once, mere words fail when describing this gem of a film!

Another fine Criterion Blu-ray – Michael Gillett –
This is the last Criterion Blu-ray I’ll ever have to buy in that cheap paper jacket. Shame on you Criterion for producing such a thing. However, all their new discs have the plastic shell you expect from Blu-rays and you might get one after the original pressing runs out.

The film is flawlessly presented and I recommend it highly to anyone interested in Truffaut, french films, film history, and all around creative film making. If you’re idea of a good film is something directed by Michael Bay then stay clear of this one. ‘Armageddon’ or “The Rock” this is not.

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Add comment April 2nd, 2010

For All Mankind – Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]

In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge of: landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert’s documentary, For All Mankind, is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the Moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years later, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earth-shaking event

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by producer-director Al Reinert

• DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack

• Audio commentary featuring Reinert and Apollo 17 commander Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to set foot on the Moon

• An Accidental Gift: The Making of: For All Mankind, a new documentary featuring interviews with Reinert, Apollo 12 and Skylab astronaut Alan Bean, and NASA archive specialists Don Pickard, Mike Gentry, Morris Williams, and Chuck Welch

• On Camera, a collection of excerpted, on-screen interviews with fifteen of the Apollo astronauts

• New video program about Bean’s artwork, accompanied by a gallery of his paintings

• NASA audio highlights and liftoff footage

• Optional on-screen identification of astronauts and mission control specialists

• PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by film critic Terrence Rafferty and Reinert

If you are an Apollo collector, you do not want to miss this addition to your experience. The narrative by Eugene Cernan is alone worth the price of admission. Having read Cernan’s book, “The Last Man On The Moon,” I was expecting a polite appraisal of some old stock footage, by a tough old fighter pilot, who had previously confessed that he actually regretted having not flown combat in Vietnam – in spite of his place in the Apollo program~!. Instead, we are introduced to a contemplative , soulful and truly insightful gentleman who expresses the universal importance and positively spiritual significance of that entire period of history. As he states, it was impossible, period. There is no way, in retrospect, that we could have gone from missiles blowing-up on the launch pad in 1960, to putting men in orbit around the moon in 1968. Mankind has never before or since put together such a mind-boggling project, let alone in eight years. What Gene touches on – lightly- is the sacrifices of all those involved. The divorce rate was 80% for the Cape Canaveral area in those days. Ron Howard tried to capture that aspect of the Space Race in the two hour segment, Part 11, “The Original Wives Club,” of the HBO movie, “From The Earth To The Moon.” It was not just the astronauts that gave it their all.
The engineers and technicians from that era tell stories that 14 hour days were just common, because no one wanted to leave their job. There was a spirit of teamwork and comradery that has left a hole in their psyche that has never since been filled. As Gene says, “It’s as though we went into the future and stole a time segment.”
Gene needs to write another book.

fraud – Ivan Karasi – Croatia
I am from Europe and I have buy this blu-ray disc because in product details write Region: All Regions, but my Pioneer LX71 blu-ray player dont play this disc. Shame!

I loved it! – Mike Troutner – Tampa, FL
This was super cool. I really had a gut feeling I went to the moon after watching this movie. It contains footage before and during the moonshot (including the astronauts’ 1st person video of the event) and really brings it to life. If you are looking for the best storytelling, go watch Braveheart or something. But, if you want something the whole family can watch, that recalls the greatness of American Exceptionalism – watch it. As an aside, look at the NASA folks – this was America’s best and brightest. Solid, smart and serious about ‘The Mission.’ Picture mission control as a Wall Street boiler room now. We lost our will to make REAL science a priority. Now, we import people who can do calculus. Pretty sad. But, I digress… get this video.

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Add comment March 24th, 2010

Chungking Express – Criterion Collection [Blu-ray]

Chungking Express – Criterion Collection [Blu-ray] Information

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Jan 23, 2010 19:34:10

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Chungking Express – Criterion Collection [Blu-ray] Reviews By Customers

It’s easy to see why this film catapulted Wong Kar Wai’s status and is considedered one of the best films of the nineties. Not being a fan the first time through, the blu ray resparked my interest for this film so I decided to give it another chance. Lucky for me I made that choice.
The first half of the film is rather funny dealing with a heart broken cop who runs into a blond wig wearing woman whom he falls for exactly 57 hours later. This is great stuff. The comedic timing of Kaneshiro and Lin are spot on. The smooth transition from the first story to the next is also marvelous. Wong’s direction of this film is fresh and invigorating and gives a new meaning to say chick flicks. I prefer the first part over the second however many will tell you they like the second story which deals with a cop who, you can tell is pretty good at picking up women, but the one that interests him now catches him off gaurd so to say. Either way you look at it both stories are great and you get a little bit of everything which makes this a very special film. The blu ray release is perfect and I’m sure it’s pretty much exactly how Wong Kar Wai would want anyone to see this film. Picture quality 5/5 Audio quality 4.5/5 Check Special Price!

One of my absolute Favorites, foreign or otherwise! – raeve – tulsa, ok
Why do I love this film so much? I’m an Indie and foreign film lover so, that helps. Overall though, I enjoy the honesty in each of the film’s love stories, three in all that subtly intertwine with each other. Quirky love at it’s finest! The actors are stellar in this cast: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Brigette Lin & musician Faye Wong in her debut role. A lighthearted look at life’s relationships, this film is gem that shouldn’t be missed. If you enjoy Punch Drunk Love, Lost in Translation and everything in between, try Chungking Express.
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One of the best movies of the nineties. – geoff –
Gotta be honest. I love Amelie to tears, but this movie did the fanciful young girl romance earlier and maybe even better. That’s not for me to say though. Check it out on your own.
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ChungKing Express – Smokey Joe –
One of the most interesting films I have ever seen. Never was a big sub- title movie person, but this movie takes off from the begining,and soars throughout. Truly a fantastic, well directed film .
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I love this movie! – vicky z – New York, NY
Just watched this movie, and omg, it’s so wonderful. Didn’t know what to expect, got the movie for Takashi Kaneshiro and in the end came out loving Tony Leung and Faye Wong. Their chemistry is perfect. The movie’s hip, cool, romantic, sexy–it stays with you for days. I’m about to buy all of Wong Kar Wai’s films now.
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