Nice work with the consistent distribution patterns, guys. Having released three or even four films a week for the past couple of months, our cinemas suddenly grind to a near-complete halt, leaving reviewers flailing. There was just one new title on the multiplex front last weekend, 10,000 B.C. – which I actually quite liked, but writing a whole column on 10,000 B.C. would be like writing a Ph.D thesis on a box of cornflakes. Elsewhere, on the non-popcorn front, Love in the Time of Cholera is apparently doing quite well at the Zena Palace – but reviews were lethal, the thing lasts 138 minutes, and I can’t take it seriously after having watched its trailer wherein Mr. Trailer Guy solemnly intoned: “GET READY for the greatest love story you’ve ever seen! LOVE … in the time of CHOLERA!”. Because nothing says romance like a slow painful death by infectious gastroenteritis.
In short, things look bleak. I thought about writing on the European Film Festival again, but this week’s films are mostly repeats (though look out for The Diving-Bell and the Butterfly, getting its first of three screenings on Friday 28th); for a while, I even toyed with the thought of 1500 words on woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers. But then I recalled that it’s been almost a year since we looked at big-screen alternatives – all the more remiss since the DVD ‘alternative’ is most people’s first choice when it comes to watching movies (cinemas are locked in combat with illegal downloads for second place), making it in turn all the sadder that most DVD clubs are so conservative. Almost all of them stick to the tried and tested, films that played at the multiplex plus a profusion of TV shows and a few other (mostly American) titles with known star names; even the good old B-movie, former staple of the video club, is falling out of fashion – which is wise of consumers, since most cheapo horrors and ‘erotic thrillers’ are execrable, but also unfortunate since they’ve always included a few stray gems. More and more, the DVD club is becoming a place for people to rent films they were too busy, or lazy, or addle-brained to watch at the cinema.
Of course, the fault doesn’t lie with DVD-club owners. They stock those films because those are the films people ask for – and people ask for those films because those are the films they’ve heard of, and round and round we go in a hype-driven vicious circle. Here then, in the spirit of truth, honesty and greater all-round knowledge, are 10 random suggestions for possible alternatives on DVD – 10 films currently available for rental, all of them worth your €2 (or sometimes €2.50) though of course not all readers are going to like all 10 recommendations. I’m not sure I like them all myself – but I know they’re at least as worth seeing as 10,000 B.C.
A few ground rules, trying to narrow things down a bit. DVDs are only recommended if they’re:
(a) Films that haven’t played in Cyprus cinemas;
(b) Films that I doubt will ever play in Cyprus cinemas (this excluded the superb Margot at the Wedding – though I do wonder if that curdled comedy will ever make it to our screens, Nicole Kidman or not);
(c) Films in English, or available in Cyprus with English subtitles;
(d) Films I’ve spotted in at least one local video/DVD club;
(e) Preferably films that arrived in the past couple of months.
I’ve also tried to go for the more unusual stuff, just because it tends to get lost in the shuffle, and also limited myself – with one exception – to films I’ve seen. Look for them at discerning video clubs.
In alphabetical order:
AWAY FROM HER. Not exactly obscure, seeing as it won Julie Christie an Oscar nomination – though it’s actually Gordon Pinsent who gives the more award-worthy performance, as a husband forced to deal with his beloved wife’s Alzheimer’s.
Soberly directed by Sarah Polley (once the little girl in Road to Avonlea), it lacks a little something in style, but when the husband finds his now-institutionalized wife has attached herself to another patient, treating him (the husband) as a mere acquaintance – her great love for him surviving, only misdirected by her fuddled mind to another man – human consciousness has seldom seemed more complex and mysterious.
BLAME IT ON FIDEL (LA FAUTE A FIDEL). Meet Anna, a happy 9-year-old in the early 70s – at least till her parents turn from well-meaning Lefties to radical activists, and their middle-class home fills with scruffy political refugees speaking in strange tongues. A cute French crowd-pleaser with a certain edge, and surprisingly fair to both sides though of course its Message – little Anna growing a political conscience – would be clear even if it weren’t directed by the daughter of Left-wing filmmaker Costa-Gavras.
FALLING (FALLEN). Back-jacket copy isn’t always (or ever) reliable, but this one is accurately described on the DVD cover as “The Big Chill meets Sex and the City” – only in German. Four female 30-somethings, once high-school classmates, meet again at a funeral, and all the old tensions come flooding back. Only available, as far as I know, at Movie Time DVD Club in Nicosia.
GOLDEN DOOR (NUOVOMONDO). Astonishing stuff from Italian director Emanuele Crialese (whose Respiro is also very much worth watching), turning a tale of Sicilian peasants emigrating to America at the dawn of the 20th century into a magical-realist fable with historical trimmings (yes, they really carried out those intelligence tests at Ellis Island). Not much plot, but anyone who cares about films will look – or gawp – at the final shot, or the earlier shot of the ship setting sail for the New World, and resolve to watch whatever this director makes, as long as he keeps making movies.
JOSHUA. Like The Omen done right, free (or nearly free) of supernatural mumbo-jumbo, homing in on the deepest fear at the heart of parenthood: What if my child doesn’t like me? Remarkably tense, because it uses horror-movie tension as shorthand for other kinds of danger – imploding families, emotional breakdown, above all the strangeness of having to take care of a weird little alien. New parents, watch at your own risk.
THE RIGHT OF THE WEAKEST (LA RAISON DU PLUS FAIBLE). Best experienced knowing nothing at all about the plot, not even knowing what kind of film it is – not because there’s a Big Twist (far from it) but because it sneaks up on you, establishing characters before sliding off into genre. Starts like a Belgian Full Monty, ends as something more – an understated tragedy about desperate people doing crazy things, even when they know they’re doomed to failure.
SMILEY FACE. Anna Faris is stoned – and stays stoned for 88 minutes. She cracks jokes, bakes cookies, debates with her stoned self, turns on a dime from laid-back to hyper, and somehow contrives to get an entire busload of people mad at her (“Whew, that was a close one!”). The result is puerile, inconsequential and frequently hilarious. Don’t try this at home, kids!
THIS IS ENGLAND. And speaking of kids … Shaun is a troubled early-teen in Thatcher’s Britain; he falls in with a gang of skinheads – but the early camaraderie gives way to ugly racism, forcing our hero to make a choice. I’m not usually a fan of director Shane Meadows (Dead Man’s Shoes) but this semi-autobiographical drama is his best film in a walk, getting everything right – making the point that not all skinheads are potential BNP members, sidestepping the minefields of both nostalgia and anti-nostalgia, above all illustrating how racism isn’t really about anyone’s nationality or the colour of their skin: it’s about unhappy people trying to make sure everyone else is as unhappy as they are.
WAITRESS. Most of the good films falling through the cracks in Cyprus are American ‘indies’, picked up neither by the multiplex nor the Friends of the Cinema. Here’s a good one, a sharp and funny – if slightly too quirky – comedy about a pie-loving, unhappily-married waitress in a small town. A triumph for director Adrienne Shelly, who also plays one of our heroine’s friends – and was tragically murdered just a few months after the film came out, making it decidedly bittersweet.
ZEITGEIST: THE MOVIE. A cheat, in many ways – because I haven’t seen it, I don’t even know if it’s any good, and I don’t even think it’s out on DVD. But at least one enterprising video club has (legally) downloaded this conspiracy-thriller documentary, offering it for rental to paranoid punters who want their preconceptions challenged, notably about Christianity and 9/11. And remember: after you’ve absorbed all its amazing revelations, you can go on the Internet and have them debunked at no extra cost! Is it good? No idea, but it’s certainly ‘alternative’…
NEW DVD RELEASES
Here’s our regular look at the more interesting titles released on DVD in the US and UK over the past few months. Some may be available to rent from local video clubs, or you can always order over the Internet: dozens of suppliers, but http://www.amazon.com (for US) and http://www.play.com (for UK) are among the most reliable, if not necessarily the cheapest. Prices quoted don’t include shipping. Note that US discs are ‘Region 1’, and require a multi-region player.
NEW FILMS
RESCUE DAWN: Underrated, subtly unusual Vietnam-War adventure from offbeat director Werner Herzog (who previously made a documentary on this same true story); Steve Zahn is a revelation as the put-upon sidekick. Extras include deleted scenes, featurettes and more. [US]
OLD FILMS
TABU (1931): South Sea island romance with lush, sensual visuals in a definitive package from the excellent Masters of Cinema label: uncut edition – the previous DVD was a version that had been censored for nudity – scholarly commentary and a huge 80-page booklet on the film. An education in itself. [UK]
SANSHO THE BAILIFF (1954): More from Masters of Cinema – a 2-in-1 package, pairing this Japanese classic from director Kenji Mizoguchi with his lesser-known ‘Gion Bayashi’ (1953). Well worth seeing, and extras include another fabulous 80-page booklet. [UK]
THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987): Not the first time on DVD, but this 20th Anniversary Edition (it came out last November) of semi-spoofy fairytale includes featurettes and “The Official Princess Bride DVD Video Game”. Great film, mediocre DVD. [US]
FEMALE DEMON OHYAKU (1968) QUICK-DRAW OKATSU (1969) and OKATSU THE FUGITIVE (1969): Too specialized? Probably. Still, this Japanese female-samurai trilogy (known as the ‘Legends of the Poisonous Seductress’) is the kind of thing DVD was invented for. [US]
