DVD Review: Chikamatsu Monogatari / Uwasa No Onna (1954)

Released in the same year, these two minor gems from Japanese cinema grandee Kenji Mizoguchi are slow but graceful dramas which, though differing greatly in subject matter, share the auteur’s characteristic precision, high production values and humanist yen for emotion defying societal repression.

Set in 17 th-century Kyoto, Chikamatsu Monogatari is a tragic love story with a distinctly Shakespearean flavour. Osan, the wife of a corrupt and philandering printer, seeks help from Mohei, one of his employees. She needs money to pay off the debts of her foolish brother, and dare not ask her husband directly. Mohei tries to help her but through a series of betrayals the printer is led to believe that Osan and Mohei are having an affair.

They flee – the penalty for adultery at the time is crucifixion – and mustered by the danger of the chase their love, previously only imagined by Ishun the printer, becomes real. They soon realise, however, that capture by their ruthless pursuers is inevitable. After being denounced by both Mohei’s father and Osan’s ungrateful brother, they surrender and are put to death, but not before arranging a suitable come-uppance for Ishun.

DVD Review: Rocco and His Brothers (1960)

A landmark in world cinema, Rocco and His Brothers marries the neo-realism of Luchino Visconti's early films with the grand, operatic vision of his later masterpieces.  The story centres around the Parondi family who leave their home in rural, southern Italy for the bright lights of Milan.  Brothers Rocco (Alain Delon), Simone (Renato Salvatori), Ciro (Max Cartier) and Luca (Rocco Vidolazzi) arrive amidst eldest sibling Vincenzo's (Spiros Focas) engagement to kindly Ginetta (Claudia Cardinale), whereupon their fiery Mama (Katina Paxinou) - suspicious of all beautiful women - squabbles with their future in-laws and gets everyone turfed out on the street. 

As the family struggle to survive in the harsh city, Rocco moves from dry-cleaning to military service and finally boxing, giving every penny of his hard-earned cash to his demanding mother ("If you have anything left - send it.  You can't spend it anyway").  Meanwhile, feckless dilettante Simone sinks lower and lower.  Things come to a head when both brothers fall for sultry prostitute Nadia (Annie Girardot) and the family unravels amidst robbery, rape and murder. 

Alain Delon excels in the role that - alongside Rene Clement's Plein Soleil (1960) - made him a superstar, but Renato Salvatori and Annie Girardot (married in real life!) deliver performances of equally remarkable depth and realism.  Visconti may have been an aristocrat, but he was also a Marxist and this film reflects his preoccupation with the injustices endured by the poor.  He tackles prejudice (Immigrants mocked as coming "from the land of layabouts") and satirises Milan's welfare programme (the Parondis are advised: "rent a house, avoid paying, get evicted and then city hall will look after you.")

DVD Review: Der Letzte Mann (1924)

F.W. Murnau's Der Letzte Mann ("The Last Man", also known as The Last Laugh) represented a major technical breakthrough for silent cinema.  Inspired by Nikolai Gogol's story "The Coat", it concerns an elderly hotel doorman (silent cinema giant: Emil Jannings) who, because of his age, is cruelly demoted to bathroom attendant.  Reduced to towelling hands and polishing sinks, he tries to conceal the truth from friends and family, but to his shame is discovered.  Neighbours believe he's lied all along about his prestigious job and taunt him mercilessly, while his niece (Maly Delschaft), her new husband (Max Hiller) and his aunt (Emilie Kurz) reject him out of embarrassment. 

Grief-stricken, the old man retreats to the hotel bathroom, where a kindly night watchman (Georg John) covers him with his coat while he sleeps.  A title card concedes the story should end here since "in real life the old man has little left but death".  However "the author took pity on him and provided an improbable epilogue."  At the end, the old man inherits a fortune and dines happily at the hotel where he once worked. 

Cult Clip: Kes (1969)

One of the finest scenes from one of the finest British movies. Yes, this is the football match from Kes, with Brian Glover excelling as the sports teacher desperate to win at all costs. They really don't make them like this anymore.

DVD Review: Bellissima (1951)

It seems like you can’t turn on the idiot box these days without coming across the newest reality show star turn. Thirteen weeks of Big Brother and the great British public vote for a winner who thinks Shakespeare directed Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet simply because he was the nicest of a particularly motley crew.

Concerns about the dumbing down of TV aside, it does make you wonder what televisual legends we’re going to revere in twenty or thirty years time. Genuine talent seems to be in painfully short supply, and nowadays producers are reverting to the lowest common denominator, which is your basic common-or-garden talent revue. There’s no denying that there are some people in this green and pleasant land that do have genuine skill and presence, but that’s not exactly why people tune in – it’s to see either cute kids being pushed to the front of the stage by pushy parents living a dream vicariously through their offspring, or the judges arbitrarily ripping into self-deluded but honest people.

Look Back at England: The British New Wave

The Pacific Film Archive at the University of California in Berkeley is currently running a spectacular retrospective of British films from the late fifties and early sixties called Look Back at England: The British New Wave. Some of the terrific films being shown in the coming weeks include The Servant (1963), Room at the Top (1958), The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Georgy Girl (1966), The Knack... and How to Get It (1965), Alfie (1966) and If... (1968).

If you're in Northern California you won't want to miss the chance to see some of these classic films on the big screen. The program started in early September and runs until October 27th. For more information about this special retrospective and all the films being shown, as well as ticket prices and show times, please visit the official Pacific Film Archive site below.

Look Back at England: the British New Wave

- Kimberly Lindbergs

DVD Review: Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss (1998)

Strictly speaking, films about homosexuality are no longer about an ‘alternative’ lifestyle. This isn’t a recent demarcation, off the back of say, Kissing Jessica Stein or Brokeback Mountain. Homosexuality hasn’t been illegal in most countries, and certainly Western democracies, for decades, and so films that deal in sexuality should no longer be taboo. Romantic comedies should deal in both sides of the argument.
   
But strangely, they don’t. This has less to do with social acceptance and more to do with the prudish attitudes of cinema audiences. I mean, think about it: homosexuals of both genders are responsible for some of the most brilliant, awe-inspiring and inventive entries into the artistic canon as any heterosexual, but because of a biological imperative and centuries of social conditioning, we have to distinguish between the two sexualities, especially in the fields of film and literature.

It sucks. Just because someone prefers to get up to something ‘other’ in the bedroom, it must be made clear that their art is different because they themselves are. Gender politics are too complicated an argument to place into a film review, but I will say this – if you can enjoy Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, you can easily sit through this “trifle” by director Tommy O’Haver.

Flame In The Streets (1961)

The best thing about the BBC's Summer of British Film is the scheduling of lost Brit classics during the daytime schedules, as opposed to re-runs of Columbo, 'made for TV' rubbish and cheap imported dramas. Long may it continue...but I'll not hold my breath.

One such gem was Flame In The Streets, a tale of race and racism in early 60s London. In fact, it's about racism on three levels - in the workplace, in the home and on the streets. And it all centres around Jacko Palmer (John Mills), a career-minded union leader, fighting to make his mark in the role - and fighting for the rights of black employees to be treated equally on the shopfloor.

But what's fine in the workplace isn't as fine in the home. His daughter Kathie (Sylvia Syms) is dating a black teacher (Peter Lincoln, played by Johnny Sekka) - and the two plan to marry. Her mother Nell (Brenda De Banzie) is outraged, fearing the good name of the family and airing just about every prejudice in the book - looking to Jacko for a solution to their impending 'shame'.

The Ken Loach DVD Collection boxsets

Ken Loach isn't everyone's cup of tea, but if you fancy getting to know the man's work a bit better, you need to pick up The Ken Loach DVD Collection boxsets, which are available from September.

Ken Loach is arguably Britain’s most respected director, with a career dating back to the mid-60s with the controversial Cathy Come Home and a body of work over the following 40 years to match - without concession to commercialism and always with a social conscience.

DVD Review: My American Uncle (1980)

Martin Amis once wrote a short story that went by the name of ‘Career Move.’ In it, the world of literature was turned on its head. Screenwriters were not courted by Hollywood, and instead left to starve in garrets, desperately trying to find someone to publish their efforts. Conversely, poets were wined and dined, feted by all, and hugely rich. What I think Amis was trying to say, when he wasn’t trying to be too clever for our own good, is that the superiority of one entertainment form over another is purely human construction. Basically, it’s out of our hands - we've been conditioned to prefer one medium instead of the other. Which brings me neatly on to Henri Laborit.

Laborit was a French psychologist who specialised in the field of evolution. Put plainly, all human activity is down to the memory banks of the brain, which has remembered over generations which actions earn us rewards, which ones lead to conflict, and which ones make us so scared of a reaction that we curl up in a corner and suck our thumbs. All very interesting, unless you’re reading this in America, in which case it’s all very heretical.

DVD Review: The Family Way (1966)

We have covered The Family Way previously, but as the DVD has been reissued and as it's a personal favourite, I'm more than happy to revisit the movie.

It's a film that's close to my heart because it was filmed in my hometown (Bolton) - and many of the locations are unchanged today. But it's more than a nostalgia trip, it's a great piece of 60s realism with a top-notch cast including the likes of John Mills, Hayley Mills, Hywel Bennett, Barry Foster, Wilfred Pickles and Liz Fraser and it features an early Paul McCartney score, orchestrated by George Martin.

On the face of it, this adaptation of a Bill Naughton play is a fairly simply tale of neighbourhood whispering. Arthur Fitton (Hywel Bennett) has married Jenny Piper (Hayley Mills), with a honeymoon planned before they return to live with Arthur's parents - Ezra (John Mills), Lucy (Marjorie Rhodes), along with Arthur's brother Geoffrey (Murray Head). But there's a problem - the travel agent has swindled them (and others) out of their money, so married life starts immediately with the in-laws.

DVD Review: Alain Delon Boxset (1960-1975)

You could count on the fingers of one hand the amount of male Hollywood leads that have had the attributes that make up the Holy Trinity of an acting career – namely longevity, talent and looks. Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Jack…most get two out of three, if they’re lucky. Even then, part of their back catalogue is taken up by roles so undercooked you’d need several gallons of Newman’s special vinaigrette to make them palatable.   

In France, it’s no different, but they tend to afford their elder statesmen (and women) with a great deal more respect. In an era where the BBC are sacking anyone over thirty from their news and current affairs just in case they lapse into senility live on camera, it’s refreshing to see the likes of Catherine Deneuve and Alain Delon still getting stacks of screen time. Okay, Delon’s had to ham it up as Julius Caesar in another live-action Astérix adventure, but the point remains.

The Alain Delon Boxset goes some way to help you find out why he’s still in demand. Acting legends become legends for specific reasons, not because they’re in the right place at the right time (unlike Nicholas Cage). Currently celebrating fifty years as a screen icon, Delon is chiefly known in Britain for his role as an album cover for The Smiths’ classic The Queen Is Dead.

DVD Review: Perth (2004)

“Singapore's Answer to Taxi Driver,” trumpets Perth’s press bumf, and though this flawed film won’t have de Niro trembling in his spats, its lags and defects are interlarded with moments of impressive emotional precision and evocative tone.

The blurb writer can be forgiven for the glib comparison; the film does have much in common with the Scorsese classic. Lead man Harry Lee (Kay Tong Lim) is a self-deluded cab driver with an irrational and hypocritical sense of crusading justice, at once savagely violent and unconditionally compassionate. He dreams of a better life (in Perth, Australia hence the title), is sickened by the moral squalor he witnesses (in Singapore), attempts to rescue a fallen woman and ends up destroyed by his own darker nature. There are even a few mirror soliloquys that can only be a deliberate homage to the uncredited source material.

Meantime (1984)

If Mike Leigh redrew the kitchen sink drama during the 1980s, then Meantime is arguably his finest piece of work.  Based on the real life story of two unemployed brothers who entered into a suicide pact, Meantime oozes a stark reality that even in 1983, was rarely seen on film.  Funded on a shoestring by Channel Four (at that time a neophyte channel) and shot on minuscule 16m film, Meantime was never meant to be nothing more than a TV drama. Yet as the years have past, the film has built up an enormous following that has taken it out of the cult and into the realm of classic status.

The cast list is phenomenal, a veritable Who's Who of emerging British acting talent. If anyone thought that Phil Daniels' acting prowess started and ended with Quadrophenia think again. Daniels plays Mark Pollock, an instinctively intelligent young man who's blighted by the twin towers of unemployment and his crumbling environment. Tim Roth plays Colin, Daniel's' retarded brother, with a conviction that had Meantime come to the big screen would have won him a string of awards.

DVD Review: Pressure (1976)

British films that document current social conditions are of course well known. Amongst these are the special ones, the ones that, having exposed graphically the inconsistencies and failures of then government policies regarding welfare, housing and youth detention, catalysed major reforms and political change. Ken Loach and Alan Clarke were the high priests of this strand of film making, but in 1976 an equally important piece of social conscience cinema was released, albeit with less impact on general public perception but nonetheless standing proud as the first and finest black British feature length film - Pressure.

Horace Ove had previously made two documentaries, Baldwin’s Nigger in 1969 and Reggae the following year- both encapsulating the West Indian spirit and outlook as well as, respectively, taking an in depth look at a literary icon and iconic music. 

DVD Review: David & Lisa (1962)

American independent cinema has had a long and fascinating history. One of the most critically acclaimed early independent films to come out of the US was undoubtedly Frank Perry's David & Lisa (962), which was recently released on NTSC Region-1 DVD in the US by Image Entertainment.

David & Lisa tells the story of two young and deeply troubled patients living at a mental health clinic. David (Keir Dullea) suffers from an extreme phobia that makes him go berserk anytime another person touches him. Lisa (Janet Margolin) is suffering from schizophrenia and insists on speaking only in rhymes. Somehow these two mentally damaged individuals manage to overcome their personal instabilities and form an uneasy friendship. As the film unfolds their relationship deepens and David and Lisa finally help each other come to terms with their psychoses.

Keir Dullea and Janet Margolin are both very good in their roles as David and Lisa. Dullea does a terrific job of portraying an emotionally damaged young man, but I was especially impressed with Janet Margolin here. Margolin is beautiful, but also very talented and she manages to imbued Lisa with the perfect combination of innocence and world-weariness. It's a shame that the actress didn't find more worthwhile starring roles throughout her rather brief career.

If You Were Young: Rage (1970)

One of the best Japanese dramas produced in the early seventies is If You Were Young: Rage (a.k.a. Kimi ga wakamono nara, 1970) made by the talented director Kinji Fukasaku. The movie was filmed in a bold style that's reminiscent of his excellent crime drama Blackmail is My Life (a.k.a. Kyokatsu koso Waga Jinsei, 1968) which was made a few years earlier. Both movies were shot in color, but Fukasaku uses black and white flashback sequences, multiple freeze frames, jittery hand-held camera shots, fast zooms and creative editing to tell his complex stories.

At the heart of If You Were Young: Rage is a heart-wrenching coming of age tale about a group of troubled young men growing up in Japan during the sixties after WW2. The film explores the complicated and uncertain future that young Japanese men were faced with after the war as they tried to make their own way in a battle ravaged country trapped between tradition and modernism.

The performances by all the actors involved are really memorable and moving. The gritty realism of If You Were Young: Rage forces the actors to abandon themselves to their roles and deliver performances that seem incredibly honest and heartfelt. You sympathize with their plight as well as their anger, and hope that they'll see a better outcome than the film foreshadows.

Coming to DVD: This Is England (2007)

There's been a lot of talk about Shane Meadows' This Is England, but if you want a balanced view of his tale of 80s skinhead life, you could head to your local cinema or you could check out our review of the movie. Alternatively, you can wait until 3rd September, when the movie is available to buy on DVD.

We have just received details of that DVD release, which comes with a host of extras in addition to the movie. These include a director's commentary, a making of/behind the scenes documentary, deleted scenes, Tommo's audition tapes, Tommo's video diary, trailers and a BFI interview.

No price as yet, probably best to shop around nearer the release date.

Read our This Is England review

DVD Review: Family Life (1971)

If you're looking for something light hearted after a hard week at work, you really don't want to slip Family Life into the DVD player. But if you're a fan of Ken Loach, this first-time DVD release is definitely worth seeking out.

It's an incredibly difficult film about mental illness and family breakdown, played out like a real-life documentary. In fact, if you caught this halfway through, you would be hard pushed to choose between fact and fiction. The only giveaway would be the main characters, including Sandy Ratcliff (long-time EastEnders character) and Bill Dean (best known as Harry Cross in Brookside in the 1980s).

Sandy Radcliff plays troubled teen Janice Baildon, struggling to hold down a job and struggling to come to terms with an abortion that was forced upon her. That's all compounded by the attitude of her parents - a strict disciplinarian father (Bill Dean) and a mother (Grace Cave) who wants to protect her daughter from the perceived evils of the modern world.

DVD Review: The L-Shaped Room (1962)

As well as The Raging Moon, another Bryan Forbes movie is getting a DVD reissue this month - The L-Shaped Room, which got lead actress Leslie Caron a well-deserved Oscar nomination in 1964.

It's not obvious Oscar territory - The L-Shaped Room (based on the Lynne Reid Banks novel) is probably labeled as British New Wave or indeed kitchensink if you prefer. Either way, it's a slice of realism set in the Notting Hill area of London, long before the in-crowd took house prices through the roof.

Leslie Caron plays Jane Fossett, a stranger in London, on the run from her French family and the fallout from her pregnancy. After a long search, she finally finds a place to stay within her budget - a rundown house inhabited by an assortment of social misfits. Gradually, these strangers become her friends and in the case of writer Toby, much more. But that happiness starts to falter when Toby finally discovers Jane is pregnant.

DVD Review: John Sayles Collection (1980 - 1984)

The true spirit of independent American cinema has always been alive and kicking in the shape of director John Sayles. He moonlights as a screenwriter for big Hollywood projects in order to finance his own pictures, churning out schlock like Piranha for Joe Dante, and next year’s Jurassic Park IV (honestly, how many dinosaurs did they leave on that island?)

   This collection captures three of Sayles’ better-known projects, spearheaded by the critically-acclaimed Return of the Secaucus Seven. Ostensibly set around a yearly reunion of seven friends and former political activists that got busted in the town of the same name, Sayles raised the $30,000 budget himself, filled the cast with unknowns and like most of his other projects did the writing and editing as well as directing.

Meantime (1984)

Was there ever a more dismal place in living memory than early 80s Britain? Economy down the pan, unemployment through the roof and for a large chunk of the population, very little hope for the future. And if you want a visual representation, check out Meantime.

Obviously with a Mike Leigh film, we're not going to get a musical or a light-hearted comedy, but this really is downbeat, with the uplifting moments coming from the performances of the rising young talent on show. That includes Phil Daniels as Mark, Tim Roth as the slow-thinking Colin (with a look stolen by Blur in years to come) and Gary Oldman as stereotypical 80s skinhead/bonehead Coxy.