|
Page 1 of 3 November Classic DVD Roundup The highlights of another typically full month of older films finally getting a DVD release–or a long-awaited re-release, as the case may be–include a couple of silent classics that have been lovingly and exactingly restored, and the return of Steven Spielberg’s first alien-encounter classic....in all three of its versions from the past three decades.
Battleship Potemkin Kino
directed by Sergel Eisenstein
You’d think that, after eight decades of parody and outright theft, the freshness and originality of Sergei Eisenstein’s classic would dissipate somewhat. But, thanks to a splendid new restoration that makes the film look as perfect as if we were back in 1925 seeing it for the first time, Eisenstein’s profound silent masterpiece is still a monumental achievement. Masterly sequences abound, aside from the widely-imitated and discussed “Odessa Steps” sequence, and the music by Edmund Meisel remains a marvel of cinematic drama. This is easily one of the best DVD releases of this—or any—year.
Extras: "Tracing Battleship Potemkin," 42-minute documentary on restoring the film; original score in 5.1 surround; option to watch film with original Russian intertitles or with English ones.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula Sony
directed by Francis Ford Coppola
starring Gary Oldman, Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Sadie Frost
Francis Coppola’s go-for-baroque retelling of the classic horror novel has moments of unearthly beauty–especially in the set design and costumes–but as a full-blooded gothic horror film it remains sketchy. Attempting to finesse the horror into psychology, Coppola comes up short in both areas, despite a grandstanding Gary Oldman in the title role. Sony’s two-disc Special Edition includes a new transfer which has caused controversy among fans, since several scenes have been desaturated of their color: in other words, they’re bloodless. “Dracula” is a dark film, but making it quite literally so may not have been the best idea.
Extras: Coppola introduction and commentary; new featurettes: “The Blood is the Life: The Making of Dracula”; “The Costumes are the Sets: The Design of Eiko Ishioka”; “In-Camera: The Naive Visual Effects of Dracula”; “Methods and Madness: Visualizing Dracula”; 30 minutes of deleted scenes.
Chinatown and The Two Jakes Paramount
directed by: Roman Polanski
starring Jack Nicholson, Faye Dunaway, John Huston
Another DVD release of Roman Polanski’s classic mystery “Chinatown”–with its near-perfect Oscar-winning script by Robert Towne–comes equipped with more behind-the-scenes features; the sequel, “The Two Jakes”–also scripted by Towne and directed by the star of both films, Jack Nicholson–finally makes its DVD debut. Although not as memorable as the original–mostly because of the absence of Faye Dunaway (Madeleine Stowe is a merely adequate substitute)–“Jakes” is much better than its rep suggests, and the two movies make a most delectable double bill.
Extras: three featurettes including interviews with Polanski, Towne, Evans and Nicholson (“Chinatown”); featurette including interviews with Nicholson, Towne and Evans (“Jakes”)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind: 30th Anniversary Ultimate Edition Sony
directed by: Steven Spielberg
starring Richard Dreyfuss, François Truffaut, Bob Balaban, Melinda Dillon
I never thought that Steven Spielberg’s celebrated 1977 UFO classic needed any tweaking, but obviously the director disagreed, re-editing the film for a 1980 theatrical re-release; then, for its original DVD release in 2001, he made a “director’s cut” by restoring some of what he trimmed and tightening other sections. This three-disc release brings all the versions together, and those so inclined can study the differences (helpfully, a facsimile of the original theatrical poster contains a timeline of changes among the three versions). Still, this remains Spielberg’s first–and in many ways best–exploration of child-like wonder in the face of the unfathomable.
Extras: new 30-minute interview with Spielberg; vintage featurettes and making-of documentary. But what happened to the 11 deleted scenes from the previous release?
I Am Cuba Milestone
directed by: Mikhail Kalatozov
starring Sergio Corrieri, Salvador Wood
Mikhail Kalatozov, best-known for his 1957 classic “The Cranes Are Flying,” made “I Am Cuba” in 1964; it was almost immediately suppressed by Soviet authorities. It’s easy to see why: although it purports to support the Castro revolution that brought Communism to Cuba, the movie also revels in the “decadence” of Batista’s capitalist paradise. Whatever its political allegiances, it’s simply a joy to watch, with Sergei Urusevsky’s amazingly fluid camerawork and Nina Glagoleva’s astonishingly precise editing combining to create a one-of-a-kind time-capsule study of a society in flux. Milestone’s restoration is first-rate, as are the additional two discs’ worth of special features and the cigar-box packaging.
Extras: 2 full-length documentaries “The Siberian Mammoth” and “Film about Mikhail Kalatozov”; interviews with Martin Scorsese and co-author Yevgeney Yevtushenko.
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 Next > End >>
|
