Douglas Sirk + Barbara Stanwyck + Daria; DVD Update 12 February

Universal has announced a Barbara Stanwyck box set as part of their Blacklot Series. The six titles included are listed below, but the two that are most alluring are the two Stanwyck did with Douglas Sirk: All I Desire and There's Always Tomorrow. The set will be available on 27 April.

A couple of weeks ago, E1 Distribution announced their plans for a 50th Anniversary DVD and Blu-ray edition for Fellini's La dolce vita, set to be released sometime in 2010. In addition to that, they also acquired the rights to a quartet of Italian films: Vittorio De Sica's Shoeshine [Sciuscià] and Luchino Visconti's La terra trema, Bellissima and Ossessione. Image released Shoeshine, La terra trema and Ossessione previously.

And in distribution news, Strand acquired François Ozon's latest, The Refuge [Le refuge], which stars Isabelle Carré and Melvil Poupaud. Keep in mind that the date for The White Ribbon is likely to change if it wins the Oscar. The DVDs below are in descending order of release.

- The Crucifier of Blood, 1991, d. Fraser Clarke Heston, Warner, 30 March, w. Charlton Heston
- Marina Abramovic: 7 Easy Pieces, 2007, d. Babette Mangolte, Microcinema, 30 March
- The Italian Straw Hat [Un chapeau de paille d'Italie], 1928, d. René Clair, Flicker Alley, 6 April
- Lord, Save Us from Your Followers, 2008, d. Dan Merchant, Virgil Films, 20 April
- The Descent: Part 2, 2009, d. Jon Harris, Lionsgate, 27 April
- The End of Poverty?, 2008, d. Philippe Diaz, Cinema Libre, 27 April
- Euro-Fantastico Double Feature [The Black Cobra (Die schwarze Kobra) / No Survivors Please (Der Chef wünscht keine Zeugen)], 1963/1964, d. Rudolf Zehetgruber, Hans Albin, Peter Benies, VCI, 27 April
- Georgia O'Keeffe, 2009, d. Bob Balaban, Sony, 27 April
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, 2009, d. Terry Gilliam, also on Blu-ray, Sony, 27 April
- Is Everybody Happy But Me?, 1981, d. Bob Emenegger, VCI, 27 April
- The White Ribbon [Das weiße Band], 2009, d. Michael Haneke, Sony, 27 April
- California Dreamin' (Endless) [California Dreamin' (Nesfârşit)], 2007, d. Cristian Nemescu, IFC Films, 4 May
- Eye for an Eye, 2008, d. Ahn Kwon-tae, Kwak Kyung-Taek, Cinema Epoch, 4 May
- Paper Covers Rock, 2008, d. Joe Maggio, IFC Films, 4 May
- Daria, The Complete Series, 1997-2001, Paramount, 11 May
- Jermal, 2008, d. Ravi L. Bharwani, Rayya Makarim, Orlow Seunke, IndiePix, 11 May
- American Bandits: Frank and Jesse James, 2010, d. Fred Olen Ray, E1 Distribution, 18 May, w. Peter Fonda
- Gamera: The Giant Monster, 1965, d. Noriaki Yuasa, Shout! Factory, 18 May
- The Girl on the Train [La fille du RER], 2009, d. André Téchiné, Strand, 18 May
- Stigma, 1972, d. David E. Durston, Code Red, 18 May
- Bottomland, 1992, d. Ed Radtke, Facets, 25 May
- Dany Laferrière: Films from a Poet's Imagination [On the Verge of a Fever (La goût des jeunes filles) / How to Conquer America in One Night (Comment conquérir l'Amérique)], 2004, d. John L'Ecuyer, Dany Laferrière, Art Mattan/Facets, 25 May
- Kamikaze Hearts, 1986, d. Juliet Bashore, Facets, 25 May, w. Sharon Mitchell
- What's Underground About Marshmallows?, 1996, d. Jill Godmilow, Facets, 25 May
- Yesterday Girl [Abschied von gestern - (Anita G.)], 1966, d. Alexander Kluge, Facets, 25 May

Barbara Stanwyck Collection, Universal, 27 April
- Internes Can't Take Money, 1937, d. Alfred Santell
- The Great Man's Lady, 1942, d. William A. Wellman
- The Bride Wore Boots, 1946, d. Irving Pichel
- The Lady Gambles, 1949, d. Michael Gordon
- All I Desire, 1953, d. Douglas Sirk
- There's Always Tomorrow, 1956, d. Douglas Sirk

Blu-ray

- Dune, 1984, d. David Lynch, Universal, 27 April
- The Jackal, 1997, d. Michael Caton-Jones, Universal, 27 April
- Out of Africa, 1985, d. Sydney Pollack, Universal, 27 April
- Traffic, 2000, d. Steven Soderbergh, Universal, 27 April
- Escape from L.A., 1996, d. John Carpenter, Paramount, 4 May
- K-19: The Widowmaker, 2002, d. Kathryn Bigelow, Paramount, 4 May
- The Getaway, 1972/1994, d. Sam Peckinpah, Roger Donaldson, Warner, 8 June
- Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935, d. Frank Lloyd, Warner, 16 November

Women (in love)

Thanks to Ed at Only the Cinema, I'm posting my list of my 20 favorite actresses, in no particular order and with apologies to many whom I could not include, not the least of which Samantha Morton, who blew me away in Morvern Callar but has been losing favor with me in the past year or so (for no good reason). Others I feel bad ignoring are Sissy Spacek, Julianne Moore, Ashley Judd (whenever she stays away from the Hollywood system), Gong Li, Sheryl Lee (at least in Fire Walk With Me), Liv Ullmann, Julie Christie, Emmanuelle Devos, Bibi Andersson, Nastassja Kinski (hmm), Juliette Binoche, Emmanuelle Béart, Diane Keaton, Ludivine Sagnier and a load of others. And if you know me, you know I'm f'real on my number 20.

Isabelle Huppert - La pianiste

Helen Mirren - The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover

Tilda Swinton - Teknolust (not her finest, but you get four Tildas for the price of one)

Béatrice Dalle - Betty Blue

Parker Posey - Broken English

Isabella Rossellini - Blue Velvet

Faye Dunaway - Chinatown

Maggie Cheung - Clean

Margit Carstensen - The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant

Asia Argento - Boarding Gate

Barbara Stanwyck - Double Indemnity

Penélope Cruz - Volver

Ingrid Thulin - The Silence

Glenda Jackson - Women in Love

Irm Hermann - The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (her silence is remarkable!)

Charlotte Rampling - Sous le sable

Laura Dern - Wild at Heart

Harriet Andersson - Through a Glass Darkly

Lara Flynn Boyle - Happiness

Gina Gershon - Showgirls

S'mother DVD announcements

Gregg Araki's Smiley Face (which was pushed back theatrically from its original 4/20 release date) will be released by First Look on the 19th of August, over a year after its premiere at Sundance.

Not so far into the future, you can pick up Paris je t'aime on the 20th of November.

A Barbara Stanwyck/Warner Brothers box-set will be out on the 30th of October. The set includes Annie Oakley, East Side West Side, Executive Suite, My Reputation, To Please a Lady, and Jeopardy. The John Waters doc/stand-up film This Filthy World will be out the same day.

You can get your special editions of all of Kubrick's films (other than Dr. Strangelove, The Killing, Paths of Glory, and Spartacus) on the 23rd of October. A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, and 2001 will be double-discs, though no word as to the content of EWS, whether it will be censored or not. Lindsay Anderson's long-awaited O Lucky Man! will also be out in a double-disc from Warner; the film stars Malcolm McDowell. If low-art is more your cup of tea, Lionsgate is releasing Cutting Class, a 1989 slasher film that stars Brad Pitt (pre-Thelma and Louise), Martin Mull (!!), Roddy McDowell, and Donovan's son, Donovan Leitch.

Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy will be the next box-set from Criterion's Eclipse. The films include Blood Wedding, Carmen, and El Amor brujo. The set will be available on the 16th of October. The 1997 HBO original movie, Subway Stories, will also be available. The film stars, among others, Lili Taylor, Denis Leary, Bonnie Hunt, Peter Sarsgard, Mercedes Rheul, Gretchen Mol, Rosie Perez, Sam Rockwell, Mekhi Phifer, and Steve Zahn, and is directed by, among others, Jonathan and Ted Demme, Bob Balaban, and Abel Ferrara.

For some sleaze (both high art and sexploitation), pre-order Just Jaeckin's Emmanuelle and the Sylvester Stallone soft porn Italian Stallion, both due on the 9th of October. Reportedly, the hardcore porno version of Italian Stallion has been lost (though some sites report that the German DVD, under a different title that cashes in on the Rocky franchise, is the full version), but don't get upset, Stallone didn't actually take part in the dirtier bits. Do you ever wonder what Sylvia Kristel looks like now? I'd rather not know. On another sleaze level, Rise: Blood Hunter, with Lucy Liu as a bisexual vampire huntress will also be out.

The Imperial Edition of Caligula, which contains 4 discs, will be available on the 2nd of October. The exciting feature is that Image Entertainment allowed Malcolm McDowell (wow, 2007 sure is his year for DVD) and Helen Mirren conduct a no-holds-barred commentary on the notoriously awful film. Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr's One to Another (Chacun sa nuit), which got some pretty solid reviews in limited release, will be out the same day from Strand Releasing and Red Envelope Entertainment.

On the 18th of September, Genius Products have boxed up their Wellspring titles into sets: Catherine Deneuve (Pola X, Kings and Queen, Dangerous Liaisons, Place Vendôme); Werner Herzog (White Diamond, Wheel of Time); Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Le petit soldat, Les carabiniers, Notre musique); and Pedro Almodóvar (What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Dark Habits).

Naturally, if there's anything else worthy of mention announced in the near future, I'll let you know.

A couple more DVDs on the way

I don't know how I forgot to mention the upcoming DVD release of one of my all-time favorites, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity, perhaps the quintessential film noir, starring Fred MacMurray and the amazing Barbara Stanwyck. The "Universal Classic" disc comes out August 22nd and includes the sure-to-be-dreadful 1973 made-for-TV remake, with Samantha Eggar in the classic Stanwyck role.

The Notorious Bettie Page was big news before it came out, and then everyone forgot about it. Well, it'll be on DVD September 26th. The film stars Gretchen Mol, who, supposedly, does a good job though no one would have guessed the waifish blonde former Hollywood starlet could accurately portray the busty Page. Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol, American Psycho) directs.

The final episode of Showtime's Masters of Horror series (which featured hour long films from Dario Argento, John Carpenter, John McNaughton, and Stuart Gordon) entitled Imprint will be on DVD September 26th. Directed by Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer), Imprint was banned from being aired on Showtime, so this'll be the first time we'll be able to see it.

On September 5th, Wellspring is releasing Unknown White Male, a British documentary about a man suffering from amnesia.

Hopefully you don't care, but I'll let you know in case you secretly do. The sequel to L'Auberge espagnole, Russian Dolls (Les Poupées russes), will be on DVD, from IFC Films, on the 26th of September. Romain Duris reprises his role, alongside Cécile de France and (yep) Audrey Tautou.

If you prefer your French cinema a little less Audrey Tautou and a little more Haneke-esque, Strand is releasing Lemming on August 15th. The film was one of the front-runners of the Cannes film festival last year, but was probably overlooked due to its similarities with Caché. Lemming stars two French-speaking Anglo Charlottes (Rampling and Gainsbourg) and Laurent Lucas in director Dominik Moll's follow-up to his overrated With a Friend Like Harry... (Harry, un ami qui vous veut du bien).

On the subject of Cannes, Theo Angelopoulos' Palme d'Or winning Eternity and a Day (Mia aioniotita kai mia mera) will be released by New Yorker on the same day as Lemming. As it's a New Yorker release, you might expect a shitty PAL-to-NTSC transfer without features and perhaps even a release date delay (as that's how they like to roll).

Magnolia will release the Australian import Somersault on July 27th, from director Cate Shortland. My friend Brad referred to it as My Winter of Love, and though it was made the same year as the lovely My Summer of Love, the distance in US releases (and the fact that no one really saw either film) has kept the unpleasant comparisons at bay.


For those die-hard Parker Posey fans and those who remember her when, TLA Releasing will have Adam & Steve on the shelves August 8th. If you actually care about the premise, it's about two gay men who meet one another, unaware of their unsuccessful one night stand fifteen years prior. If you only care about Parker, it's supposed to be the closest thing to the Parker we all knew and loved in Party Girl and The House of Yes. Writer/director Craig Chester did the smart thing in giving her lines that only she could deliver like, "I'm sweatin' like Whitney Huston going through customs." She's supposedly making a comeback this year, so if that fails then maybe you can just watch Adam & Steve and remember the good ol' times.

Though you could look on your own by visiting their website, Criterion's fall line-up so far includes re-releases of The Seven Samurai, Amarcord, and Brazil. I'm still waiting for a rerelease of The Naked Kiss and Andrei Rublev. But I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Rumor Mill:
According to a website whose address I've since lost, Paramount will be releasing the first and second season of Twin Peaks in Australia this September. The website stated that there may be hope for Twin Peaks season 2 in November, but a rerelease of season 1, with the pilot (that hopefully doesn't have that awful ending tacked on), has not been mentioned.

On the Criterion front, it's been mentioned that they're working on a disc for Kieslowski's The Double Life of Véronique (La Double-vie de Véronique). This is probably the best confirmed rumor of their impending releases, as no one has really heard further on titles like Jodorowsky's El Topo (to my knowledge, there is not an uncensored, non-full scren version of this on DVD anywhere), Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz, or the release of Grey Gardens.

And finally... my 100th post is just around the corner. I think I'm at 97 now, or something like that. I would like to do something extra special for said post, but I'm blank on ideas. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to let me know. 'cos if you don't, and if I can't think of something, I may just push off that 100th post for a long time. Maybe I could do something AFI-ish, but something more interesting... like 100 Films that Gave Me an Erection or... 100 Films that Suck. Ideas welcome.