All posts by alanwp

The Pacific island nation of Kiribati is one of the most remote places on the planet. And may disappear.

April 26, 2019 alanwp

What if your country was swallowed by the sea?

The Pacific island nation of Kiribati is one of the most remote places on the planet, far removed from the pressures of modern life. The tiny nation (formerly called Gilbert Islands) is in danger of being engulfed by rising water levels or wiped out by patterns of extreme weather.

Kiribati president Anote Tong races to find options, from mass migration to building underwater cities. But the water grows higher and citizens are fleeing the island, leaving behind 4,000 years of Kirabati culture.

Montreal filmmaker Matthieu Rytz’s debut film, Anote’s Ark, is a study of the situation; the sweeping cinematography captures the shifting dynamics of climate change while crafting a portrait of the Kiribati people that reveals their strength as they face the looming waters head on.

“The country will be drowned in the next 50 years, no matter the investments and agreements” said in his Kickstarter pitch for the film. “I am so honored and I feel like I need to tell the story of this nation before it completely drown out.”

DVDs, Movies

Film Movement Classics release two remastered Eric Rohmer gems

April 26, 2019 alanwp

Iconic French director Eric Rohmer has (finally!) been celebrated with two of his most renowned films: Full Moon in Paris and The Marquise of O. Both have been released by Film Movement Classics.

Originally released in 1984 to universal acclaim, Full Moon in Paris was heralded as “a small masterpiece” and “the very best of Rohmer” by The New York Times. The story of Louise (portrayed by Pascale Ogier), a young interior designer bored with her life in the sleepy suburbs with her live-in boyfriend Remi, and eager to lead the life of an independent socialite in the city, Louise arranges to move back into her Paris apartment during the week.

https://youtu.be/w7t4rXfOplw

Balancing a steady boyfriend in the suburbs with a best friend, Octave (Fabrice Luchini), who makes plain his interest in her, and a bad boy musician who catches her eye at a party, eventually even the sophisticated and aloof Louise cannot untangle herself from the emotional realities of her various romantic encounters. Decades after first impressing critics and audiences alike, Full Moon in Paris remains a modern, wry observation of youth and love.

Already an established filmmaker by the 1976 release of The Marquise of O, an adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist’s classic short story, the film stands as Rohmer’s “dazzling testament to the civilizing effects of several different arts, witty, joyous and so beautiful to look at” (The New York Times). Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival that year, Rohmer’s film is set in 1799 during the Russian invasion of Italy. A young widow, The Marquise (Edith Clever) lives with her parents; her father is the commander of a citadel embroiled in battle. With the fort overrun by Russians, the Marquise is abducted by a group of rowdy soldiers and nearly taken advantage of when the Russian commander Count F (Bruno Ganz) appears as if from nowhere to rescue her.

Later, the Marquise realizes she is pregnant, though she cannot decipher how the circumstance came to be. The Marquise’s scandalized parents banish her to their country estate, where she pens a letter to the newspaper announcing that she will marry the father, whomever he may be, should he only present himself.

DVDs, Movies

“The Mahoning Drive-In” steers film fans to saving a piece of Hollywood history

April 26, 2019 alanwp

It remains one of the last remaining

drive-in theaters in the country. The Mahoning Drive-In,opened in 1949 and was operated by James Humphries. It originally had a capacity for 500 cars. The drive-in changed ownership in years; new owners took over the Mahoning Drive-In in 2014.

Located in Lehighton, Pennsylvania, the drive-in is open May through on weekends. It features the second largest screen (measuring 120 feet) in the country, FM listening devices and room for 900 cars. The Mahoning Drive-In also offers camping on the grounds for an extra $10 per car load.

Mahoning Drive-In

From sleeping in the concession stand to working entirely for free, the film fanatics at the struggling drive-in face uncertainty when Hollywood announces it will switch to digital projection for all new movies. Unable to purchase a $50,000 digital projector, a group of quirky film fanatics inrural Pennsylvania fight to keep the dying drive-in theater alive by screening only vintage 35mm film prints on their original 1949 projectors, and working for free. Relive their underdog story to save film, the Mahoning Drive-in, and drive-in theaters everywhere.

The drive-in’s history has been documented in the award-winning At The Drive-in.

“Technology moves so fast today, faster than ever before. As technology distracts us from one another and segments us further into smaller audiences, it was just magical to see a bunch of people gather together in rural Pennsylvania to watch film flicker through a projector from 1948,” Alexander Monelli, director. “That’s ultimately what this documentary is about.”

It has also screened at multiple Alamo Drafthouses and at TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood as an official selection of Dances With Films.

Bonus Materials

Over 17 Minutes of Deleted Scenes
Three Separate Feature Length Commentary Tracks (two with cast and one with director)
30-minute Q&A from Alamo Drafthouse Screening
Trailer

CDs, Movies

The bottom line: Great films. The top line: More greatness from Arrow Films/Academy

April 25, 2019 alanwp

Arrow Films and Arrow Academy sent a fiery arrow deep into our heaving bosom with these releases. Even Tums didn’t sooth the burning. And that’s a good thing. That’s how good these flicks are.

Two films are from legendary director Luigi Bazzoni. First up is The Possessed, co-directed by Bazzoni and Franco Rossellini.

The film follows a novelist that investigates the disappearance of an old lover and ends up unwrapping a mysterious web of murder, madness and perversion. This classic slice of Italian cinema, known for wonderfully combining film noir and giallo, features a new 2K restoration.

The second Bazzoni title is The Fifth Chord starring Franco Nero and Edmund Purdom. Following in the footsteps of Dario Argento, The Fifth Chord is a stunning giallo worthy of competing with the best the maestro has to offer.

This release features a new 2K restoration and a number of special features including a new interview with Nero.

On February 12th, Arrow offers up to classics from different eras, starting with 1972’s Horror Express. Starring horror icons Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, this tale of terror takes horror fans on a first class trip that’s just as chilling today as it was forty plus years ago.

This new 2K restoration includes plenty of special features and has an intro from Horror Express super fan and horror journalist, Chris Alexander.

For something a bit more modern, Arrow is proud to release Takashi Miike’s Audition. This shocking J-horror entry exploded on the festival circuit nearly two decades ago and continues to be a favorite today.

Color Me Blood Red is from The Godfather of Gore,Herschell Gordon Lewis. This final chapter in the infamous “blood trilogy” features all the signature sleaze fans love Lewis for. Included in the multitude of bonus features is 1967’s Something Weird.

The final two releases are a pair of mid-40s classics from director Joseph H. Lewis and come courtesy of Arrow Academy with My Name is Julia Ross and So Dark the Night. The former is a Hitchcockian film noir about mistaken identity, while the latter is about a Paris detective that finds love and then suddenly disappears.

DVDs, Movies

Arrow Films unleash a slew of must-have Blu-rays . . . shoot that arrow!

April 25, 2019 alanwp

Close to completing your spring cleaning? Sit and savor these nifty Blu-rays from Arrow Films.

Not to bug you out: We have Takashi Miike’s Terra Formars, a sci-fi adventure sees a team of space explorers take battle against a horde of oversized anthropomorphic cockroaches.

The release in includes a full-full-length documentary on the making of the film, outtakes and more. Fans of Miike will certainly be thrilled to get their hands on this modern classic.

The Iguana with the Tongue Fire is an oddity for a giallo. Set in Dublin, this film from legendary director Riccardo Freda follows a series of brutal killings that carry political complications. The film is presented with a new 2K restoration from the original 35mm camera negative. A second giallo release: Mélo from director Alain Resnais.

This story of a doomed love triangle is based on the classic play from Henri Bernstein and come with a stunning new 2K restoration.

Keoma, one of the greatest spaghetti westerns, pairs two icons in star Franco Nero and director Enzo G. Castellari, this is the story of a half-breed gunfighter that returns home to find his fellow townsfolk terrorized by a terrible gang.

This truly epic film gets an epic release resented with a new 2K restoration and loaded with brand new special features. If you’re a spaghetti western aficionado this one is a must for your collection.

Mary Page Keller and Andrew Stevens star in Richard Friedman’s Scared Stiff. A singer moves into a colonial mansion with her son and boyfriend only to uncover deep, dark secrets hidden within the boarded up attic.

Fans of ’80s horror and practical effects are sure to have a soft spot for this one.

On April 30 comes the release of Khrustalyov, My Car! This darkly funny satire is the story of a military doctor arrested in Stalin’s Russia, accused of being a participant in the so-called “doctor’s plot.”

This limited edition release includes a 60-page booklet featuring new writing by Gianna D’Emilio, an archival essay by Joël Chaperon and original reviews.

Books

Hungry for an offer you can’t refuse? Tey “The Godfather: The Corleone Family Cookbook”

April 25, 2019 alanwp

Insight Editions has done it again . . . a gorgeous book that is an offer you can’t refuse. Save the date of May 14 — that’s the day The Godfather: The Corleone Family Cookbook ($35) hits kitchen tables and bookstores. And yes, it has been officially licensed by Paramount pictures.

Now, you’ll finally be able to make your very own authentic Italian meals with recipes inspired by the Corleone family, including delicious pastas, sauces, meatballs, breads and desserts. Immerse yourself in the classic story of the Italian immigrant family determined to keep their long-held traditions intact in the new world. Featuring 75 recipes complete with gorgeous photography for infamous dishes such as “The Best in the City” Veal Marsala, Clemenza’s Sunday sauce, and of course (our fave), “Leave the gun” cannoli.

Liliana Battle whips up the text and the photos by Stacey Tyzzer make the food on the page seem like food in your mouth. Yummy!

Celebrating the strong themes of loyalty, family and tradition, the tasty tome sheds new light on the legendary cinematic trilogy. Including images and quotes from the films, this cookbook is an absolute must-have for all fans of The Godfather–especially those with a taste for the finer foods in life.

Books

W. W. Norton offers a pair of must-read books, both true stories and both riveting

April 25, 2019 alanwp

W.W. Norton has released a pair of books that will whet the appetite of fans of literary biographies as well as true crime thrillers.

Colin Asher’s Never a Lovely So Real ($39.95) is the definitive biography of National Book Award-winning novelist Nelson Algren (The Man With the Golden Arm), whose career as a writer was stalled by a decades-long FBI investigation into his ties to the Communist Party, and ultimately subsumed by changing tastes in literature. In its starred review, Publishers Weekly calls the book “a generous, stylish portrait of an impulsive, directionless outsider who nonetheless established a place among the lions of mid-twentieth century American literature”.

Noted fans of Algren’s include Don DeLillo, whom Algren mentored, and Russell Banks; he was friends with Richard Wright and had a long affair with Simone de Beauvoir. CUNY literature instructor Colin Asher’s close reading of Algren’s work, and his access to Algren’s FBI file, allow him to reconstruct in vivid detail Algren’s life, from his Depression-era struggles to his Army service to his sudden fame and then his struggles late in his life. A fascinating glimpse into the world of a writer who deserves to be remembered and re-read by new generations of readers.

In The Last Job: The “Bad Grandpas” and the Hatton Garden Heist, ($26.95), New York Times reporter Dan Bilefsky’s offers a riveting account of the biggest bank heist in the U.K. since the Great Train Robbery. Over Easter weekend 2015, a motley crew of six English thieves, several in their sixties and seventies, couldn’t resist coming out of retirement for one last career-topping heist. Their target: the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit, in the heart of London’s medieval diamond district.

Perhaps not the smoothest of criminals—one took a public bus to the scene of the crime; another read Forensics for Dummies in hopes he would learn how to avoid getting caught—they planned the job over fish and chips at their favorite pubs. They were cantankerous and coarse, dubbed the “Bad Grandpas” by British tabloids, and were often as likely to complain about one another as the current state of the country. Still, these analog thieves in a digital age managed to disable a high-security alarm system and drill through twenty inches of reinforced concrete, walking away with a stunning haul of at least $19 million in jewels, gold, diamonds, family heirlooms, and cash.

Books

Simon & Schuster two history lessons, from way back to the baseball field of today

April 25, 2019 alanwp

Simon & Schuster has released a pair of must-read, must-have books that offer fascinating history lessons . . . ancient and modern.

In Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine ($28), bestselling classical historian Barry Strauss tells the story of three and a half centuries of the Roman Empire through the lives of ten of the most important emperors, from Augustus to Constantine. The book illustrates the Roman Empire’s constant reinvention and adaptability, and examines its enduring heritage through the lives of the men who shaped it: Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Vespasian, Trajan, Hadrian, Marcus Aurelius, Septimius Severus, Diocletian and Constantine.

During these centuries Rome gained in splendor and territory, then lost both. The empire reached from modern-day Britain to Iraq, and gradually emperors came not from the old families of the first century but from men born in the provinces, some of whom had never even seen Rome. By the fourth century, the time of Constantine, the Roman Empire had changed so dramatically in geography, ethnicity, religion, and culture that it would have been virtually unrecognizable to Augustus.

After the Miracle: The Lasting Brotherhood of the ’69 Mets ($28) is the heartwarming inside account of one of the most iconic teams in baseball history: the 1969 New York Mets—a consistently last-place team that turned it all around in just one season—told by ’69 Mets outfielder Art Shamsky, Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver and other teammates as they reminisce about what happened then and where they are today.

The New York Mets franchise began in 1962 and the team finished in last place nearly every year. When the 1969 season began, fans weren’t expecting much from “the Lovable Losers.” But as the season progressed, the Mets inched closer to first place and then eventually clinched the National League pennant. They were underdogs against the formidable Baltimore Orioles, but beat them in five games to become world champions. No one had predicted it. In fact, fans could hardly believe it happened. Suddenly they were “the Miracle Mets.” Right-fielder Art Shamsky gets together with Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Ron Swoboda, and Bud Harrelson to reminisce on that life-changing year.

A home run in every way.

Books

Murder most mystic: Did lesbian Lizzie Borden whack her parents dead? Count to 41 . . .

April 25, 2019 alanwp

Lizzie Borden took an axe
And gave her mother forty whacks
When she saw what she had done
She gave her father forty-one

Or did she?

In The Trial of Lizzie Borden (Simon & Schuster, $28), the definitive account of one of America’s most notorious murder mysteries, Cara Robertson, a lawyer and former Supreme Court clerk, takes a deep dive into this country’s first “trial of the century.”

You’re likely familiar with the story of Borden—the Massachusetts spinster accused of brutally murdering her father and stepmother in 1892. Immortalized in rhyme, told and retold in every conceivable genre from novels and films to ballet to podcasts and stage musicals, the Borden murders have secured a place in the American pantheon of mythic horror.

Based on 20 years of research and primary source material, including transcripts of the Borden legal proceedings, contemporary newspaper accounts, unpublished local accounts, and recently unearthed letters from Lizzie herself, Robertson explores the stories Borden’s culture wanted and expected to hear, and how those stories influenced the debate inside and outside of the courtroom.

The Trial of Lizzie Borden by [Robertson, Cara] The Trial of Lizzie Borden breaks open one of the most sensational murder trials in American history, showcasing how the Borden murders offer a window onto America’s Gilded Age, and its most troubling social anxieties and deeply held convictions.

DVDs, Movies

Cohen media Group celebrates the brilliance of Buster Keaton in a trio of true marvels

April 25, 2019 alanwp

Charles S. Cohen, Chairman and CEO of Cohen Media Group, can never be accused of having a stone face.

He could, of course, be honestly called a great fan of The Great Stone Face. (Those would don;t know who we are chatting about need to open a new window and Google.)

This month he has released (on Blu-ray, DVD and digital platforms) director and movie historian Peter Bogdanovich’s acclaimed new film The Great Buster: A Celebration. It is as brilliant as the tribute it pays to one of silent cinema’s greatest artists, Buster Keaton.

The Great Keaton celebrates the life and career of one of America’s most influential and celebrated filmmakers and comedians, whose singular style and fertile output during the silent era secured his legacy as a true cinematic visionary. Filled with stunningly restored archival Keaton films from the Cohen Film Collection library, the film is directed by Peter Bogdanovich, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker and cinema historian whose landmark writings and films on such renowned directors as John Ford and Orson Welles have become the standard by which all other studies are measured.

The Great Buster chronicles Keaton’s life and career, from his beginnings on the vaudeville circuit through the development of his trademark physical comedy and deadpan expression that earned him the lifelong moniker “The Great Stone Face,” all of which led to his career-high years as the director, writer, producer and star of his own short films and features. Interspersed throughout are interviews with nearly two-dozen collaborators, filmmakers, performers and admirers, including Mel Brooks, Quentin Tarantino, Werner Herzog, Dick Van Dyke and Johnny Knoxville, who discuss Keaton’s influence on modern comedy and cinema itself.

The loss of artistic independence and career decline that marked his later years are also covered by Bogdanovich, before he casts a close eye on Keaton’s extraordinary output from 1923 to 1929, which yielded 10 remarkable feature films (including 1926’s The General and 1928’s Steamboat Bill, Jr.)that immortalized him as one of the greatest actor-filmmakers in the history of cinema.

In his landmark book The American Cinema, critic Andrew Sarris placed Buster Keaton among the “Pantheon Directors,” his elite grouping of the 14 greatest filmmakers. Sarris wrote, “Cops, Sherlock Jr., The Navigator and The General stamp Keaton as the most enduringly modern of classical directors.” Critic and film historian David Thomson, in his famed Biographical Dictionary of Film, writes, “In Keaton’s films there is an extraordinary use of space in the jokes that is faithfully and beautifully recorded.”

Wait! There’s more Keaton craze.

On May 14, Cohen Media Group releases the Keaton masterpieces The General and Steamboat Bill, Jr. together on single-disc Blu-ray and DVD packages, as well as digital platforms.

The films, high points not only of Keaton’s incomparable career but of all silent cinema (both are included on the National Film Registry), are presented in new 4K restorations and feature orchestral scores by Carl Davis.

Many critics and historians consider The General (1926) to be the last great comedy of the silent era, and it consistently ranks as one of the finest films of all time on international critics’ polls. It is No. 18 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest American Films, and is No. 34 on the latest Sight & Sound critics poll of the Greatest Films of All Time.

Set during the Civil War and based on a true incident, the film is an authentic-looking period piece that brings the scope and realism of Mathew Brady-like images to brilliant life. Keaton portrays engineer Johnnie Gray, rejected by the Confederate Army and thought a coward by his girlfriend (played by Marion Mack). When a band of Union soldiers penetrate Confederate lines to steal his locomotive, called The General, Johnnie sets off in pursuit. There is no better showcase for Keaton’s trademark physical comedy and deadpan expression that earned him the moniker “The Great Stone Face.”

The renowned critic Raymond Durgnat wrote, “Perhaps The General is the most beautiful film, with its spare, grey photography, its eye for the racy, lunging lines of the great locomotives, with their prow-like cowcatchers, with its beautifully sustained movement.” “The pioneering genius of Buster Keaton’s 1926 silent film … looks even more startling than ever … more or less invented the action movie,” said The Guardian‘s Peter Bradshaw.

In Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928), Buster, as the son of a steamboat captain, falls in love with the daughter of a rival steamboat owner. When a cyclone rages, Buster proves himself a hero by rescuing his love (played by Marion Byron) and her father from a watery grave.

The comedy contains what many consider Keaton’s most memorable, and potentially deadly, film stunt: One side of a house falls on him while he stands in the perfect spot to pass through a window frame unharmed.