The African Queen per chance? DVD Update 10 December

Looks like a brand new date has been given to John Huston's The African Queen by Paramount to either get delayed again or finally see the light of day on, now, both DVD and Blu-ray: 23 February. I would quit mentioning the thing until I had a copy of it in my hand, but it's kinda fun keeping track of all the false starts it's gotten.

The Blu-ray schedule for the US is seriously disappointing, when I hear about all sorts of exciting films getting put out in Europe. The Precious phenomenon has thankfully brought us one good thing in the announcement that Lee Daniels' glorious/awful Shadowboxer is going to come out on Blu-ray on 16 March, so I can see all its absurdity in the highest quality possible. I can't wait. The only other Blu release I found is Dragon Dynasty's release of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin on 2 March.

Magnolia announced John Woo's Red Cliff for 30 March in two different versions: the U.S. theatrical cut, which edited both films together into a two-and-a-half-hour package, and a 2-disc international version, which contains both of the Red Cliff films uncut. And, thanks a lot, Lionsgate for once again tapping into Republic's library to release two films that have been released previously (Frances and Plenty). More exciting than the Casper Van Dien/James Dean made-for-television flick coming to DVD is a Kurt Russell-as-Elvis TV movie directed by John Carpenter! Shout! Factory will release the film, which also stars Shelley Winters, Ed Begley Jr., Pat Hingle and Joe Mantegna, on 2 March. And finally, it would appear as though here! Films release of Brillante Mendoza's Service [Serbis] will be the uncut version as the box cover lists it as the "unrated version." The DVDs below are in descending order of release.

- Cold Souls, 2009, d. Sophie Barthes, 20th Century Fox, 2 February
- The African Queen, 1951, d. John Huston, Paramount, Centennial Collection, also on Blu-ray, 23 February
- Shall We Kiss? [Un baiser s'il vous plaît], 2007, d. Emmanuel Mouret, Music Box Films, 23 February
- Castle in the Sky, 1986, d. Hayao Miyazaki, Special Edition, Studio Ghibli/Disney, 2 March
- Elvis, 1979, d. John Carpenter, Shout! Factory, 2 March
- Frances, 1982, d. Graeme Clifford, Republic/Lionsgate, 2 March
- My Neighbor Totoro, 1988, d. Hayao Miyazaki, Studio Ghibli/Disney, 2 March
- Plenty, 1985, d. Fred Schepisi, Republic/Lionsgate, 2 March
- The Wraith, 1986, d. Mike Marvin, Lionsgate, Special Edition, 2 March
- The Art of Being Straight, 2008, d. Jesse Rosen, here! Films, 9 March
- Bulletproof Salesman, 2008, d. Petra Epperlein, Michael Tucker, First Run Features, 23 March
- Red Cliff, 2008/2009, d. John Woo, Magnet/Magnolia, also on Blu-ray, 30 March
- The Yes Men Fix the World, 2009, d. Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno, Kurt Engfehr, New Video, 1 April
- Alice Neel, 2007, d. Andrew Neel, New Video, 27 April

The First Werner Schroeter DVD Release in the US? DVD Update 17 November

By my research, Facets' upcoming release of Werner Schroeter's Palermo or Wolfsburg [Palermo oder Wolfsburg] through Filmgalerie 451 will be the first Schroeter film to see a DVD release in the US. Schroeter's three-hour epic won the Golden Bear at the 1980 Berlin International Film Festival. In addition to Palermo or Wolfsburg, Facets will release through Polart Tadeusz Konwicki's Salto, which stars Zbigniew Cybulski (Ashes and Diamonds), and reannounced Ning Ying's For Fun, all for 23 February.

here! Films will finally be releasing Brillante Mendoza's Serbis and György Pálfi's Taxidermia in March, on the 9th and 23rd respectively. No word yet on whether the DVD of Serbis will be uncut, as here!/Regent cut some of the explicit sex from the film for its US theatrical run. Also, for those of you with Sundance Channel OnDemand, Steven Soderbergh's Che and Steve McQueen's Hunger are both available for free right now before Criterion releases them both on DVD and Blu-ray next year.

- Paranormal Activity, 2007, d. Oren Peli, Paramount, also on Blu-ray, 29 December
- The Brothers Bloom, 2008, d. Rian Johnson, Summit, also on Blu-ray, 12 January
- Bright Star, 2009, d. Jane Campion, Apparation/Sony, 26 January
- On the Line [Río abajo], 1984, d. José Luis Borau, Vanguard, 26 January, w. Victoria Abril, David Carradine
- Soul Power, 2008, d. Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Sony, also on Blu-ray, 26 January
- St. Trinian's, 2007, d. Oliver Parker, Barnaby Thompson, Sony, 26 January
- Black Dynamite, 2009, d. Scott Sanders, Apparation/Sony, also on Blu-ray, 2 February
- New York, I Love You, 2009, d. Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Randall Balsmeyer, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Jiang Wen, Shekhar Kapur, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner, Vivendi, also on Blu-ray, 2 February
- Palermo or Wolfsburg [Palermo oder Wolfsburg], 1980, d. Werner Schroeter, Filmgalerie 451/Facets, 23 February
- Salto, 1965, d. Tadeusz Konwicki, Polart/Facets, 23 February
- Serbis, 2008, d. Brillante Mendoza, here! Films, 9 March
- Ciao, 2008, d. Yen Tan, here! Films, 23 March
- Taxidermia, 2006, d. György Pálfi, here! Films, 23 march

Goodbye, Picture This!

Picture This! Entertainment has closed their doors, something I've suspected was about to happen for a while. Over the summer, they announced their first release in a long while with Jiří Chlumský's Broken Promise [Nedodržaný sľub], which Slovakia recently named their Foreign Oscar submission for 2010, but according to IndieWire, they've filed for bankruptcy. While I've always frowned at the graphic layout of their DVD covers and website, they have brought a number of significant films to the US, including Sébastien Lifshitz's Come Undone [Presque rien], Claude Miller's Class Trip [La classe de neige], João Pedro Rodrigues' O Fantasma and Brillante Mendoza's The Masseur.

Some Thoughts on the Closing Ceremony of the 62nd Festival International de Cannes

I trekked through the closing ceremony yesterday morning streaming via the Cannes Official website, which really is not conducive for the few of us who are fluent in both English and French, and had a few observations.

1. The best moment wasn't the long-overdue recognition for Alain Resnais or finally bestowing Michael Haneke with the fest's top prize, but instead, it was the humble acceptance of Charlotte Gainsbourg after being named Best Actress for Lars von Trier's Antichrist. With a "bien sûr" delivery, Isabelle Huppert read off Gainsbourg's name as if there were no other choice the jury could have made, which makes natural sense considering Huppert and fellow jury member Asia Argento's history of emotionally devastating roles. With her hushed voice, Gainsbourg thanked von Trier, co-star Willem Dafoe, husband Yvan Attal, her two children, mother Jane Birkin and, naturally, her late father, whom she hoped was looking down at her both proud and shocked. This was easily the best moment of the whole ceremony.

2. Worse than Isabelle Adjani's shameless plug for her film La journée de la jupe, which Andrew Grant informed me is not only "god-awful" but worse than Bon voyage, were presenter Terry Gilliam's laughless crocodile tears when host Edouard Baer informed him that he was not the winner of the Best Director prize, which he was introducing. IndieWire commented, "Across the stage, Isabelle Huppert, not laughing, remarks simply, 'OK?'" I was sort of hoping for a bitchier "OK?" than Huppert gave, with a half-smile, but her sentiment was precisely how I felt. I was more embarrassed for Gilliam in those three minutes than I was during the entirety of The Brothers Grimm.

3. While I was partly amused by Christoph Waltz's acceptance speech for Best Actor, I think I'm beyond the point of wanting to hear someone verbally jerk Quentin Tarantino off. He does a good enough job by himself.

4. Though it seems Isabel Coixet's Map of the Sounds of Tokyo was the hands-down worst film to screen in competition this year (not surprising after the steady decrease in the director's work from My Life Without Me to Elegy), I'm wondering if the boos that accompanied Brillante Mendoza's Kinatay and Lou Ye's Spring Fever from the US critics were appropriate or if the rumored "jury craziness" had some validity. I wasn't impressed with Mendoza's The Masseur or Lou's Summer Palace, but I'm certainly willing to give both another shot.

5. While this has nothing to do with the ceremony itself, I've read conflicting reports of how IFC Films is planning on releasing Antichrist in the US. Some have said we'll be seeing the film in all its genital-mutilation glory, but others have said it will be cut. Another source said that IFC will be releasing both versions, as certain cable providers would probably shy away from showing the film OnDemand. It'll be interesting to see how this is handled when IFC rolls the film out, hopefully later this year.

Cannes 2009: Haneke, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Andrea Arnold, Jacques Audiard Among the Winners

The jury, headed by Isabelle Huppert, handed out their awards this afternoon, with a few surprises, both good and bad. Jane Campion's Bright Star and Marco Bellocchio's Vincere went home empty-handed despite mostly universal acclaim from the reviews I read. The awards are as follows.

Palme d'Or: Das weiße Band [The White Ribbon] - d. Michael Haneke - Austria/Germany/France
Grand prix: Un prophète [A Prophet] - d. Jacques Audiard
Prix exceptionnel du Festival de Cannes: Alain Resnais - Les herbes folles [Wild Grass]
Prix du jury: (tie) Fish Tank - d. Andrea Arnold; Thirst - d. Park Chan-wook
Prix de la mise en scène [Best Director]: Brillante Mendoza - Kinatay
Prix d'interprétation féminine [Best Actress]: Charlotte Gainsbourg - Antichrist
Prix d'interprétation masculine [Best Actor]: Christophe Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
Prix du scénario [Best Screenplay]: Ye Lou - Spring Fever
Caméra d'Or: Samson and Delilah - d. Warwick Thornton - Australia
Caméra d'Or Mention Spéciale: Ajami - d. Scandar Copti, Yaron Shani - Israel/Germany

As for the acquisitions, only a few have been snatched up so far. Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock and Park Chan-wook's Thirst were produced by The Weinstein Company and Focus Features, respectively. IFC Films took three films so far: Lars von Trier's Antichrist, Ken Loach's Looking for Eric and Tales from the Golden Age, from Romania. Sony Pictures Classics has the Palme d'Or and the Grand prix winners, as well as the fest's out-of-competition closer Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky and Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], which they bought a few months back. It's rumored that Bright Star will be the first release for a new company from Picturehouse's former head. I'll be posting more acquisitions in the coming weeks as they're announced.