Blu-Ray | Cagey Films

Poetic noir from Criterion

Posted on March 25, 2020December 10, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Temple (Miriam Hopkins) suddenly finds herself in a world stripped of security in Stephen Roberts’ The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

Although separated by fifteen years, the Depression and World War Two, Stephen Roberts’ The Story of Temple Drake (1933) and Frank Borzage’s Moonrise (1948) have quite a bit in common, stylistically and thematically; each centres on an outsider character brought low by guilt, who ultimately finds redemption through self-knowledge, and each uses richly Expressionistic black-and-white photography to create a feverishly claustrophobic atmosphere to trap its protagonist in a seemingly hopeless situation.

Camp Losey

Posted on March 18, 2020June 15, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Liz Taylor as wealthy widow Sissy Goforth clinging to life in Joseph Losey's Boom (1968)

In the middle of a career striving for artistic seriousness, Joseph Losey took a diversion into camp with three movies in the late 1960s. Gorgeously photographed and rife with scenery-chewing, one s a dud, one a great Gothic psychodrama and the third … well, it’s simply unclassifiable.

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (1968): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on February 29, 2020January 6, 2023 by Kenneth George Godwin

The Visitor (Terence Stamp) attracts people with his ethereal air in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema (1968)

Criterion has released Teorema (1968), one of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s most engaging yet enigmatic films, in an excellent Blu-ray edition, featuring a 4K restoration, a commentary and several interview featurettes which tackle the film’s ambiguous allegory of Capitalism and religion.

Three Fantastic Journeys by Karel Zeman:
Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on February 15, 2020December 10, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

The Count's men head out to ransack a recently sunken ship in Karel Zeman's Invention For Destruction (1958)

A new three-disk Blu-ray from Criterion showcases three fantasies by the great Czech animator Karel Zeman, whose unique, inventive style creates a child-like sense of wonder in even the most jaded viewer. The superb restorations provided by the Karel Zeman Museum in Prague are supplemented with some terrific extras, including an excellent feature-length documentary about Zeman’s career and four of his early short films.

Ghostly excess

Posted on February 12, 2020December 10, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

A seance under the guidance of psychic investigator Harry Price tries to contact the ghosts in Ashley Thorpe's Borley Rectory (2017)

Ashley Thorpe’s Borley Rectory (2017) is an eccentric, hand-crafted “animated documentary” about the notorious “most haunted house in England”, using a small cast shot against green screen who are embedded in richly layered images reconstructed from old photographs. Calling up memories of silent film and spirit photography, Borley Rectory is a uniquely immersive spectral experience.

Sex-Death-Exploitation-Art

Posted on February 5, 2020October 13, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Jörg Buttgereit’s transgressive films are notorious for their gore and disturbing subject matter – murder, suicide, necrophilia – yet for all their graphic exploitation imagery, they display genuine artistry and a serious perspective on life, death and the emotional and psychological ties which bind being and non-being.

Indicator’s Hammer Vol. 4: Faces of Fear

Posted on January 22, 2020December 10, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

... at the perfect body (Michael Gwynn) the Baron (Peter Cushing) has fashioned for him in Terence Fisher's The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

With Hammer Vol. 4: Faces of Fear, Indicator continue to prove themselves one of the finest companies producing exceptional Blu-ray editions of a wide variety of genres. This new set includes three of the studio’s finest features, each very different from the others, plus an interesting misfire. As always, there’s an almost overwhelming quantity of supplementary material to provide background and critical assessments for each film.

Back to the ’70s

Posted on January 18, 2020June 7, 2024 by Kenneth George Godwin

Waldo and Axel (Bo Svenson) practice wing-walking in George Roy Hill's The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)

Revisiting movies from the early 1970s, I recently watched Howard W. Koch’s rather ugly cop feature Badge 373 (1973), with Robert Duvall as a rule-breaking, racist misogynist NYC detective; Willard (1971), Daniel Mann’s adaptation of Stephen Gilbert’s dark horror novel Ratman’s Notebooks; and two features by George Roy Hill, his faithful adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) and his most personal, and best, film The Great Waldo Pepper (1975).

Seeing in the New Year

Posted on January 4, 2020August 7, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley) finds setting zombies on gangsters enormously amusing in Paul Maslansky's Sugar Hill (1974)

This year’s New Year’s Eve movie binge with my friend Steve spanned from ’50s 3D Red Menace sci-fi to ’70s blaxploitation horror to a political thriller about right-wing apocalyptic political paranoia which, while dating from 1972, suggested the atmosphere of the coming 2020 presidential election year.

Wim Wenders’ Until the End of the World (1991):
Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on December 28, 2019September 24, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Claire discovers hidden memories through her recorded dreams in Wim Wenders' Until the End of the World (1991)

Wim Wenders’ most ambitious film, Until the End of the World (1991) was a huge commercial failure when released in 1991 in a severely truncated version; the almost five-hour director’s cut gets a stunning restoration on Criterion’s two-disk Blu-ray release – visually gorgeous, fascinating and frustrating, this sci-fi epic now looks prescient in its depiction of our solipsistic attachment to out personal electronic devices.

Tag: Blu-Ray