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 The Ice Storm
Criterion
directed by Ang Lee
starring Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire, Christina Ricci
Ang Lee’s unrelentingly dour exploration of family dysfunction in mid-1970s Connecticut was unaccountably chosen as the opening night feature f the NY Film Festival in 1997. Perhaps its story, about Watergate and a group of people unknowingly contributing to their own extinction, was the drawing card. Rick Moody’s novel is far more knowing and less glib than James Shamus’ screenplay. A stellar cast -- Kevin Kline, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Allen, Christina Ricci, Tobey McGuire, and a newcomer named Katie Holmes -- does what it can. EXTRAS: Commentary by Lee and Schamus; deleted scenes; interviews with director, screenwriter, actors, cinematographer, production designer, and costume designer.
 King Priam
Arthaus Musik
directed by Nicholas Hytner and Robin Lough
starring Rodney Macann, Sarah Walker, Howard Haskin, Roger Norrington
British composer Michael Tippett’s masterpiece is this 1962 opera based on the fall of Troy, an antecedent to classic operas by Hector Berlioz (Les Troyens) and William Walton (Troilus and Cressida). In this 1985 TV film directed by Nicholas Hytner, the story’s homoeroticism and Tippett’s starkly beautiful music are harnessed in a production that brings the mythical characters out of antiquity and gives them a contemporary feel. Several exceptional British singer-actors, such as baritone Rodney McCann as Priam, and the Kent Opera Chorus and Orchestra led by conductor Roger Norrington bring this difficult, worthwhile work into vivid relief, and Hytner’s staging is highly imaginative.
 Mafioso
Criterion
directed by Alberto Lattuada
starring Norma Bengell, Cinzia Bruno, Alberto Sordi, Ugo Attanasio, Michele Bally
Alberto Lattuada is an unsung Italian master best known for co-directing Fellini’s first feature, Variety Lights, yet his other films show an auteur in complete control of his material. Mafioso is unclassifiable: It’s at once a domestic comedy, a satire of Italian differences (north vs. south), and a drama about the Mafia’s “honorable” tradition. Lattuada effortlessly shifts the tone from humor to horror and back. Alberto Sordi gives one of his greatest performances as the husband who takes his wife and kids home to meet his Sicilian family, only to again get caught up in their traditional ways. Much more than a knowing glimpse at Italian sub-culture, Mafioso is a masterly demonstration of Lattuada’s forgotten genius. EXTRAS: 1996 interview with Lattuada; new interviews with his wife and son.
 Mike Douglas–Moments & Memories
SRO
directed by Al Greenfield
starring Martin Luther King Jr., Bob Newhart, John Lennon, Mel Brooks, Bill Cosby
It’s almost criminal that this affectionate look back at afternoon talk-show host Mike Douglas’s ultra-popular show, which ran from 1961 to 1982, clocks in at barely an hour. There are so many wonderful clips -- including appearances by Alfred Hitchcock, the Rolling Stones, Groucho Marx, Marlon Brando, Martin Luther King, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s week as co-hosts -- that it’s a shame there aren't more. But wait, there are! The extras include another hour’s worth of interviews, including a few extended segments with the likes of Hitchcock and John and Yoko, plus a talk with Douglas’ widow, Genevieve.
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