Film
COMEDY ROMANCE WITH A DOUBLE BASS (12) 40min
(Liberation) COO
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J HH CONNIE CL ESE BOOTH
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This 1974 short is an abject lesson in how to do Chekhov with some of the situational comedy of Faw/ty Towers Here. John Cleese. Connie Booth and others adapt an Anton Chekhov stery
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about a double bass player (Cleese) whose skinny dip in a lake. accidentally coincides with that of the princess (Booth). for whom he will shortly be performing. When their clothing is stolen. they decide the most decent thing to do is to put the princess inside the double bass while the naked Cleese. as inconspicu0usly as possible. makes it back to the house.
This short film doesn't quite have the laugh- out-loud moments we expect from Cleese and Booth's classic situation TV comedy that followed a year later. but it has a nice. reflective tone that plays yearning desire off
Welcome to the curious world of the double bill DVD. There has been an
delicate laughs. and a great cast that includes June Whitfield. Freddie Jones. Jonathan Lynn and the soon-to-be
Manuel. Andrew Sachs.
Extras include Roman s Kontrabasom. the 191 1 silent Russian adaptation of the same story. (Tony McKibbin)
CRIME/DRAMA
A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR (PG) 84min
(BFI) 0...
Some argue that sound ruined movies. and this terrific late British silent certainly lends credence to that view. Made in 1929 by Anthony Asquith — the PM's son who ironically went on to find fame with a string of very
explosion of late of the number of these shelf-space saving additions to the home entertainment family. There was a time when a single movie would come with a plethora of discs, but we live in carbon neutralising times. and the name of the game now is ‘bunking up'. However. like any good marriage. there needs to be some chemistry between the two features. The Easy Rider/Two Lane Blacktop (UCA) moo set is an example of marital harmony. The hippy nihilism and tragedy of Hopper's landmark 1969 film opens the viewer up for the more existential and tangential joys of watching James Taylor and Beach boy Dennis Wilson drag race themselves in to an age of dissent. The 3:10 to Yuma/Young Guns set (Lionsgate) 000 example of a coupling on the rocks. Neither of these films is bad. but what does each really bring to the union? Christopher Cain‘s 1988 brat pack western is a million miles away from James Mangold's slickly embellished journeyman western. Here's a few other economical new DVD sets I like The Greatest/When We Were Kings (UCA 4) 0000 . For fans of the noble art of boxing this is just heaven. Adventures of a Taxi Driver/Plumber’s
Mate/Private Eye (Icon) 0”
. on the other hand is an
these are terrible films but. at a time when
British cinema was in a marginally less healthy state than it is now. these films provided gainful employment for Christopher Biggins. Plus this set also comes with some great postcards and posters. Also. if you are holding a retro wife swap party or thinking of establishing a 'dogging' circle in yOur driveway then you these films will provide the perfect backdrop. Finally let's get serious. 45 Magnum serious. The Dirty Harry Ultimate Collector's Edition (Warner Home Video) 0000 box set gathers all Detective Lieutenant Harry Callaghan's screen adventures together for the first time. It's a law of diminishing returns and the 803 films are best given a miss. but Dirty Harry (pictured) is still a classic and the extras that come with this five disc package are ab80lutely terrific. There are interviews with just about everyone who had anything to do with this influential policier franchise plus commentary tracks, short documentaries and much more. Go ahead punk.
(Paul Dale)
56 THE LIST 5—19 Jun 2008
A COTTAGE ON DARTMOOR
A
‘talkie' Terence Rattigan stage adaptations including 1951 '8 The Browning Version — this melodrama about a lovelorn escaped convict returning home to his beloved opens with a virtuoso chase sequence that pre- empts the memorable beginning of David Lean 's Great Expectations.
Asquith's knowledge of both the Russian avant-garde and German expressionism movements is evident throughout. most notably in one superb montage in which our pre-convicted barber hero sharpens a razor before taking it to the throat of a romantic rival. at which point the screen turns red.
At the time of A Cottage on Dartmoor's release. critics were more impressed with Hitchcock's 1929 silent B/ackmail. This immaculately restored and beautifully packaged re-issue (complete with booklet. interviews and an Asquith short) returns an overlooked classic to the limelight.
(Miles Fielder)
MARTIAL ARTS. DRAMA THE BANQUET (15) 131 min (Metrodome) 000
This slick big-budget Chinese period epic illustrates the corrupting influence of power. the dangers of loving the wrong person and the impossibility of loving the right one. A young widowed Empress
(Zhang Ziyi) plays it safe by taking up with the new man in charge whilst secretly desiring her stepson and the new emperor's nephew. Meanwhile can the new emperor really trust the Empress. or will his love for her be central to his downfall? Shakespeanan undeniably. but The Banquet is also heavily influenced by that most Shakespearian of Japanese directors — Kurosawa.
Invoking Shakespeare and Kurosawa is useful to locate Feng Xiaogang‘s film. but comparisons with the latter would hardly be favourable. Overly obvious use of slow motion. telegraphed emotions and a score that doesn't want to leave anything ambiguous means that this is extremely well- done on its own terms. but hardly fresh and barely memorable. Extras include ‘making of' film. (Tony McKibbin)
COMEDY DRAMA JANUARY 2ND (15) 118min
(Guerilla Films) 00
From The Big Chill it was downhill to Peter’s Friends. but the nadir of the ‘bunch of thirty something friends get together to assess the changes in their lives since they were young pals‘ genre is Surely reached here.
Matt Winn's film features a bunch of thoroughly unsympathetic London yuppies partying into a New Year in a country house. Various emotional dilemmas are explored. but since one could never tire of kicking each characters' self indulgent. brainlessly affluent head up a rocky incline. not much empathy is created. The best parts of the film are the pretty rural
exteriors and Witt's own electronic soundtrack, which, given a decent story to play over, could have been atmospheric. There's also a short film by the same director included in the package about a man who abandons his fiance at the altar to join a drug- hoovering friend in Ibiza which is far more affecting than the feature. Admittedly. that isn't saying much. (Steve Cramer)
BIOPIC
I’M NOT THERE (15) 131 min (Paramount) 000.0
There’s just enough space to mention the DVD release of Todd Far from Heaven Haynes‘ brilliant and unconventional biopic of Bob Dylan utilising the talents of six different actors (including the late Heath Ledger and Cate Blanchett).
I'm Not There is difficult challenging cinema afloat with the spirits of Godard. Richard Lester. Monte Hellman. Georges Franju and many more. It is a movie about confusion and chaos and cinema and music very much in keeping with Dylan's own forays in to filmmaking (Eat the Document. Rena/do and Clara).
Depending on your inclinations and the level of your Dylan obsession this often beguiling film is by turns confusing, strange. digressive and unlike anything to have come out of the US in the last ten years. This is not for everyone but cine- literate Dylanologists out there need to invest some serious time in this near seminal modern classic. There are also quite a lot in the way of extras on this DVD worthy of exploration too.
(Paul Dale)