Reviews / Blu-ray Reviews
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David Lean Directs Noël Coward
Posted on March 22, 2012 with No CommentsWith “David Lean Directs Noël Coward,” Criterion has presented a quartet of classic films that chronicle the highly successful and challenging collaboration between director David Lean and writer/producer Noël Coward. The pair created four...
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Godzilla (1954)
Posted on January 20, 2012 with No Comments“Godzilla was baptized in the fire of the H-bomb. What could kill it now?” -Dr. Yamane Godzilla was released in Japanese cinemas nine years after the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and just...
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Design for Living
Posted on December 6, 2011 with No CommentsBefore the Hays Code shortened Hollywood’s leash in the early 1930s, films like Design for Living scandalized movie houses with sophisticated gaiety and progressive sexual exploits. Thankfully, the concerned citizens behind The Motion Picture...
Average User Rating:Rating: 4.0/5 (1 vote cast) -
Criterion Catch Up
Posted on November 11, 2011 with No CommentsI’d fallen somewhat behind on my review duties after an extended bout with the flu and some general “real world” intrusions. I’m also in production on a short film, which is getting in the...
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The Four Feathers
Posted on October 9, 2011 with No CommentsI’ve never had much use for the story of The Four Feathers. However, I am planted firmly in the minority here, as there have been at least nine filmed incarnations of A.E.W. Mason’s original...
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The Strange Case of Angelica
Posted on September 27, 2011 with No CommentsManoel de Oliveira’s previous film, Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl, left me feeling impatient and begrudgingly suspicious that I had somehow missed a crucial element. In my review, I suggested that, due to the...
Average User Rating:Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast) -
If….
Posted on August 29, 2011 with No CommentsThe history and relevance of Lindsay Anderson’s If…. is bold, beginning as a script that no one would produce, and ending as a reconfigured auteur piece that Paramount was afraid to release. The film...
Average User Rating:Rating: 4.0/5 (1 vote cast) -
Orpheus
Posted on August 28, 2011 with No CommentsJean Cocteau’s Orphée (the second entry in the filmmaker’s Orphic Trilogy) is a riff on the Orpheus myth, retrofitted with a 1950s setting that transfigures the tragic troubadour into a solipsistic poet. Cocteau’s delightfully...
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Beauty and the Beast
Posted on July 19, 2011 with No Comments“A film is a petrified fountain of thought.” - Jean Cocteau Director Jean Cocteau opens Beauty and the Beast with a disclaimer urging us to put aside our jaded adult sensibilities and give over...
Average User Rating:Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast) -
Naked
Posted on July 6, 2011 with No CommentsDirector Mike Leigh has a fascinating process. He and his actors choose a subject and situation and then build the script through rigorous rehearsals. The script is then refined by Leigh and brought to...
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