Film
Reviews
DIRECTOR COLLECTION SPIKE LEE BOX SET
(18) 1086mm
(Universal DVD retail) 0...
Spike Lee was 50 on March 20 and this nine disc box set has been released to celebrate the occasion. It is an odd collection that reeks of commercialism with the films — School Daze.
Do The Right Thing, Mo' Better Blues, Jungle Fever, Crook/yn, Clockers. Get On the Bus. She Hate Me and Inside Man — released in
an effort to clear some
; surplus stock. There are no new extras and the
absence of three of
Lee's pivotal works She ’3 Gotta Have It.
f Malcolm X and
Bambooz/ed is telling. As for the films
5 themselves. they
DVD ROUNDUP
highlight the best and worst of this. the most important of living American directors. Lee is much celebrated for his African-American characters but what is clear in this collection, especially in Do The Right Thing and Jungle Fever is that he is equally adept at portraying other ethnic minority groups. in this case Italian-Americans. Get On the Bus about
“When April winds/Grew soft, the maple burst into a flush’ - (that's American poet William Cullen Bryant in case you wondered) — our thoughts turn to female space warriors. Well, just one really, the one they call Ripley. The proto feminist hammerhead beast-slayer makes a slight return with two nicely packaged cheapo editions of both Ridley Scott's Allen and James Cameron’s Aliens (both Fox use ). There's not much in the way of extras on these discs but the transfers are good and. really, when a film becomes
this much a part of the cultural landscape. who cares?
It’s a good fortnight for box sets. There’s the Fritz Lang Box Set (Eureka 00000), which features five absolute gold cast classics from the great German silent filmmaker including both Dr Mabuse films. M. and of course. the mind-blowing Metropolis. There’s also the John Sayles Collection (Optimum mo ). featuring three of this remarkable American filmmaker's lesser-known works — The Return Of The Secaucus Seven, The Brother From Another Planet (pictured) and the witherineg forthright lesbian campus drama Lianna. Sayles has been much copied by the mainstream but rarely equalled. Most interesting of all is a Leos Carax Collection (Artificial Eye on. ). Carax became something of a cause celebre when his visceral first two films Boy Meets Girl and The Night is Young (Mauvais Sang) were released in the mid-19805. His subsequent films have been vital. disturbing tracts on the abuses and behaviour of France's underclass and have been mostly greeted with derision by middle class film critics. Now is the time for re-evaluation of Carax's work. especially his superb 1999 film Po/a X, included here.
As we head towards May a low budget release of Elia Kazan's mighty On the Waterfront (Columbia Classics one ) hits the shelves. as does a reissue of visionary anarcho-realist Belgian filmmaker Lucas Belvaux's sublime Trilogy 1, 2, 3 (Tartan 0000.). Documentary fans should welcome the long overdue DVD releases of the Maysles Brothers Grey Gardens and Salesman (both Eureka a... ). Finally. Stuart Samuels’ fascinating documentary Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the
Mainstream (Metrodome 0” Scotland so now's your chance to catch it on DVD.
) never received a theatrical release in
Next issue I'll be giving you a lesson in Italian history and we'll be taking a stroll in Beckett-land with a couple of skagheads. Until then. pass the foil.
(Paul Dale)
46 THE LIST 12-26 Apr 2007
This collection of short
the 1996 Million Man March is an undervalued work. On the flipside She Hate Me and School Daze highlight Lee's occasional tendency to ramble and labour a point.
Another great absence is Lee's masterful collection of documentaries. noticeably 2001's four little girls and last year's When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
about the municipal
disgrace that was the US government's handling of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Still these criticisms come with the major caveat that much of Lee's minor work is of a quality that most filmmakers can only dream. Long may he continue. (Kaleem Aftab)
DOCUMENTARY SHORTS BRIDGING THE GAP: LIES
(E) 58min
(Scottish Documentary Institute DVD retail) 0...
documentaries from the
all too often undervalued and under funded Scottish Documentary Institute serves as a
welcome taster for the
excellent work executed by this organisation. The best of the films here is probably
RUcken/age/Upside
Down which narrates and visualises the letters that Rudolf Hess sent home during the 1941 solo mission he made to Scotland. This is an accomplished and
generally superior film to the Dutch director Astrid Bussink‘s multi award- winning debut short The Ange/makers. Also included is Peter Everett's fascinating The Big Lie. which utilises archive footage while interviewing a Scottish veteran from the Spanish Civil War about his memories of that time. Mentiras by Nick Higgins is a 13 minute film containing the confession of a man to human rights crimes committed with the backing of the Mexican government during a supposed ceasefire between the Mexican government and the
; Zapatistas after 1995. Accompanying the
testimony are images of Mexico City. carefully and meditatively framed. It is a giddying and memorable journey into the most troubled of consciences.
DVDs are available for £6.99 including UK postage — email scottishdocumentaryinst itute@eca.ac.uk or visit wwwscottishdoc institutecom (Tony McKibbin) COMING OF AGE DRAMA TWELVE AND HOLDING (15) 95min
(Lionsgate DVD rental/retail) so.
; When a prank goes
horribly wrong with one boy being burned alive in a tree house, his closest allies cope with the loss in their own ways. The dead lad's brother Jacob. born with a massive birthmark. goes on a mission to make the incarcerated prankster‘s life hell; the obese Leonard tries to shed the pounds and take his large mum with him; and Malee. a therapist's daughter. fixates on an unbalanced ex- firefighter.
'guxm mtompmuomocr
OM09 MID DH DOM“? WM 0‘
This moving pre—teen drama is only spoiled by an over-emphasis on elemental symbolism (mainly fire. but also gas and water), and some glaring flaws in its stOryline. But with impressive performances from its young leads. and a lack
of fear in tackling some
tough issues. Twelve and Holding makes its impact count. No extras.
(Brian Donaldson)
ROMANCE
ROMEO JULIET
AND DAIRKNESS (PG) 92min
(Second Run DVD retail) 0..
Jifi Weiss' line 1960 film
is a tale of moral
ambivalence and youthful idealism. Set in 1942 Czechoslovakia at a time when the Nazis were occupying the country and the Jews were hounded out of it. Pavel (Ivan Mistrik) falls
in love with the Jewish
Hanka (Daniela Smutna) whom he hides in the family attic. but for how
. long can he keep her hidden away without
the other residents finding out? And who will prove to be the heroes and villains in this housing block?
Romeo and Juliet
collide with the
occupation in a film that is nicely told but lacks visual invention, and. with a minimal soundscape. feels more stagey than cinematic. Minor grumbles aside this. along with Jan Nemec's The Party and the Guests. Karel Kachyna's The Ear and Ivan Passer's /ntimate Lighting is among the key Czech films from the 19605 released by the remarkable distribution company Second Run. Extras include a booklet on the film. Visit www.secondrun dvd.com for more information.
(Tony McKibbin)