www.list.co.ule’film
FANTASY THE DEVIL AND
(U) 106min (Eureka DVD retail) 0....
A very welcome release for this diabolically undervalued 1941 masterpiece of 19th century American folklore fantaSy. Based on a story by Pulitzer Prize-Winning poet- writer Stephen Vincent Benet (upon whose work Seven Brides for Seven Brothers was also based), its a
FILM BOOKS ROUNDUP
the ‘ devil q '»ed°nl.ei Mster
version of the Faust myth in which a down- on-his-luck New England farmer sells his soul to the devil, an impish vagrant named Mr Scratch (brilliantly
played by Oscar- nominated Walter Huston) whose right of collection seven prosperous years later is challenged by champion of the common man Daniel Webster (Frank Capra regular Edward Arnold) and settled in a court of law populated by the nation's dead traitors.
Directed by German emigre William Dieterle from a screenplay by Dan Totheroh and scored by Oscar—Winner Bernard Herrmann. it's a gloriously executed flight
Douglas Fairbanks
There's something of a publishing boom in books about cinema at the moment. Whether anyone is actually going to buy these books is obviously a moot point, the current mantra of publishers and university presses is ‘publish and be damned, libraries will always take them.’ Elia Kazan: The Cinema of an American Outsider (lB Tauris 0m ) by Brian Neve attempts to concentrate on Kazan's diverse and unique body of work rather than his less than admirable HUAC committee activities (which haunted him until his death in 2003). Well researched and intelligently written this offers along overdue reassessment of a man and his art. Falling in Love Again (IB Tauris m ) a selection of essays on romantic comedy focuses largely on the American interpretations of the form with just the occasional visit to Bollywood and
beyond, it's all a bit one note but interesting enough. Douglas Fairbanks (University of California Press 000
) by Jeff Vance
looks at the mad life and times of one of cinema's first superstars. Though not quite as grand in sweep as Vance's previous books on Keaton, ond and Chaplin. Vance still brings a lot of freshness to the Fairbanks biography.
The Cinema of Naruse Mikio (Duke University Press me ) by Catherine Russell is an exhaustive study of this brilliant, oft-overlooked Japanese filmmaker who always made women and the woman’s perspective central to his films. Well contextualised and full of the kind of details anyone interested in Naruse’s work would want, Russell's book is a delight.
Michael Berry's Jia Zhangke’s Hometown Trilogy (BFI ”or
) is a study
of the Chinese filmmakers three remarkable films Xi'ao Wu. Platform and Unknown Pleasures. Berry deciphers these difficult works so we don't have to and he leaves the reader in no doubt that these may be some of the key film works of our age. A Family Affair (Wallflower 0000 ) is a selection of intelligent well-modulated essays by international film theorists on the role of family in cinema. After all this chin stroking let's end on a light note: Paul Simpson's Movie Lists (Profile 000 ' . ) presents ‘397 Ways to Pick A DVD'. Alphabetically organised in subject sections like ‘Alcohol' and ‘Dogs' Simpson offers a totally random but amusingly nutty selection of films to stay
indoor with. (Paul Dale)
56 THE LIST 19 Feb—5 Mar 2009
of fantasy that comes on like an episode of The TLV/llghf Zone directed b, Orson Welles. Also known as All That Monet Car‘ Buy. it was ill-advisedly remade in ZOO-1 by Daniel Baldwm With Anthony Hopkins as Webster and — the horror! - Jennifer Love HeWitt as the devil. This director's cut of the film (it was badly mutilated on its original release) IS a beautiful, fully restored transfer and it comes With a layish (SO—page booklet With archival publiCity stills. an essay by professor Tony Williams. an article by director William Dieterle and a celebration of the film by author Benet. (Miles Fielder)
MUSICBOXSET EDITH PIAF: LE CONCERT IDEAL/T HE DOCUMENTARY (E) 110min
(Acorn DVD retail) ”0.
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The life of legendary chanteuse Edith Piaf was the stuff of melodrama, which, along with her incredible talents. accounts for her enduring appeal and status as a kind of deity in her native France. The documentary half of this two-DVD box set cracks through that life in a bare hour, whiZZing through La Mome‘s upbringing in her grandmother's brothel and on the streets of Paris to her burgeoning fame in the 19308 and 405 and eventual breakthrough to global superstardom.
The story is interspersed with interviews with her collaborators and archive footage. including. fascinatingly, Piaf 's despondent reaction to the murder of her friend. nightclub Owner LOuis Leplee in 1936.
While Marianne Lamour's documentary
was Clean» made for a French audience. and assumes a lot of prior knowledge about its Subject. there's a lovely intimate tone to the VOlceOver. which echoes the confessional feel of the chanson and draws VOU into Piaf's story Even better is the accompanying DVD of concert clips recorded at the height of the Singer's fame in the 19508. which exhibit Piaf's emotional blood- letting at its best and includes such signature tunes as ‘La Vie En Rose'. “Milord' and ‘Hymne a L'amour'. (Allan Radcliffe)
EPIC
NOMAD
(15) 112min (Optimum DVD retail) 0..
This might have been Kazakhstan's offiCial entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the Oscars. and was several years in the making, but the end reSUIt is weary with predictability. Like many a big budget film, freedom in budget often requires numerous constraints in story and character. Nomad tells the tale of a boy in the 18th century who grows up to be a tough warrior capable of uniting three tribes who have fought each other and all- comers for centuries. Along the way. our hero (Kuno Becker) Will have to endure hardships — and the audience numerous cliches - as he befriends another boy and they both fall in love with the young girl they hang out with as she burgeons into the village beauty. The mu3ic is constantly egging us on to have feelings that the script hasn't worked hard enough to justify. Co- directed by Sergei Mongol Bodrov and legendary
Crecn American writer and director lxan Passer
5Cllfft‘i’S '.'..il. Sl/\ er Btjk'lrs' Thtj F‘rtxnwv‘YH'S 83/"). (“IS
tir‘iderstandatvx aims directh (it the T‘lLllltSitt‘dllt. but has nothing more than the grandiose landscapes to ftX‘Ol‘tlTleltti it Minimal extras.
(Tony McKihbini
ANIMATION 'THHlt L ER FILM NOIR
(18) 96min
(Optimum DVD retaili 0..
Mixing the conventions of its genre namesake With explicit sex scenes, this adult animated feature is a cross between 405; mm The Big Sleep and 70s underground cartoon Fritz The Cat. It opens under the famous Hollywood Sign, where an amnesiac man awakes to find himself lying beside the corpse of a cop he's apparently shot through the head. and then follows its beWildered protagonist on a journey of self‘ discovery through a Single dark night in Los Angeles punctuated With shoot—outs and shagging. The plotting is intriguing. but the characterisation and dialogue bland and the animation rudimentary in comparison to Persepolis, Waltz With Bashir or Sin City, which live action-animation hybrid it most resembles. Animated by a slim ten-person team in a tight 18 months. the film betrays its relative poverty of means. But. written and directed by US-based Serbian D Jud Jones (aka Srdjan PeneZic) and Visualised in Belgrade. it's the first film of its kind to come out the former YugoslaVia. Extras include director interView and documentaries The Audio Sessions and A History of Film Noir. (Miles Fielder)