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.”
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.
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.
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.
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)
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 Chordstarring 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.
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.
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.
Keaton in The General, a true classic
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 Generalis 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.
Have you ever been mellow?
We often are, especially when we hear the scrumptious, soothing vocals of Olivia Newton-John. (Yes, even “Xanadu” soothes us in a certain way.)
That’s good news. Really good news.
More really good news: With candor, humor and warmth, Olivia writes about her life and career and cancer in the must-have Don’t Stop Believin’(Gallery Books, $28). Available for the first time in the United States, this edition includes a new afterword by Olivia.
She speaks about her childhood, her father’s role in breaking German Enigma codes during World War II, her feeling about about stardom,her beloved daughter Chloe, meeting the love of her life, and her passion and unwavering advocacy for health and wellness.
“I hope this story of my life from my early years up to today will bring some inspiration and positivity to the reader,” Olivia says. “We all share so many experiences in our own unique way.”
We share, we savor, we pray.
For more than five decades, Olivia Newton-John has been one of our most successful and adored entertainers. A four-time Grammy Award winner, she is one of the world’s bestselling recording artists of all time, with more than 100 million albums sold; numerous Country Music, American Music, Billboard and People’s Choice Awards; an Emmy Award; 10 No. 1 hits and more than 15 Top 10 singles among her successes. Her unforgettable role in Grease catapulted her into super-stardom. In addition to her music and screen successes, Olivia is perhaps best known for her strength, courage and grace.
After her own personal journeys with cancer, she has thrived and become an inspiration for millions around the world. A tireless advocate for countless charities, her true passion is as the founding champion of the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Center in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia. Olivia was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992; the diagnosis “came the same weekend my father died of cancer, so you can imagine the shock”, she remembers. Learn more @ onjcancercentre.org.
Olivia has always radiated joy, hope and compassionate.
She continues to be a force for love, for goodness, for strength, throughout the world.
“I also believe that when you go through something difficult, even something as dramatic as cancer, that something positive will come of it,” she says.
Don’t stop believin’.
Action legend Jean-Claude Van Damme takes a powerful and dramatic turn in the action-packed crime thriller We Die Young, available on Blu-ray (plus Digital), DVD and Digital on April 9 from Lionsgate. (The film is currently available On Demand.)
When ruthless drug lord Rincon and his MS-13 gang recruit 10-year-old Miguel to work as a runner in a crime-ridden barrio in Washington, D.C., big brother Lucas is desperate to keep Miguel safe. Fleeing for their lives, the boys are rescued by an Afghanistan war veteran with PTSD named Daniel (played by Van Damme), who helps them find their revenge. Finally, on the wedding day of Rincon’s sister, the ghetto explodes with violence.
Based on the award-winning short film Roads (2008 Student Academy Award for Honorary Foreign Film Award – Foreign Short; 2008 London Film Festival – Short Film), which screened at more than 70 international film festivals and held the Guinness World Record for Most Awards Won by a Student Film, We Die Young focuses on the struggles of gang life in Washington, D.C.
We Die Young also stars Elijah Rodriguez, Joana Metrass and David Castañeda. The Blu-ray and DVD includes a commentary with writer-director Lior Gellar and members of the cast, a storyboard-to-screen comparison and the featurette “On the Set of We Die Young”.
We love it when actors cook up something that will make an impression. Take comedian Dane Cook. He’s quite the stunner in a new type of role in the intense crime-thriller based on a true story, American Exit, arriving on DVD, Digital and On Demand May 14 from Lionsgate.
Based on an incredible true story, this searing crime-thriller stars Cook as Charlie, a desperate father who steals a million-dollar painting from Anton (played by Udo Kier), a shady art dealer. With time running out, he flees to the California desert with his rebellious teen son, Leo (Levi Miller).
But when Anton and his henchman come seeking revenge, the situation explodes into violence, and suddenly Charlie is not the only one whose days may be numbered.
Save the date: On April 16, Lionsgate releases The Adventures of Jurassic Pet on DVD, Digital, and On Demand. This is a cute, amusing film about an adventurous teenager adopts and hatches a baby T. Rex (that he names Albert), but then must rescue the creature from a mad scientist who wants to clone a whole new breed of dinosaurs.
This new 2K restoration includes plenty of special features and has an intro from Horror Express super fan and horror journalist, Chris Alexander.
![Terra Formars [Blu-ray]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81QXnfN%2BubL._SX342_.jpg)
This story of a doomed love triangle is based on the classic play from Henri Bernstein and come with a stunning new 2K restoration.
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.
Fans of ’80s horror and practical effects are sure to have a soft spot for this one.
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.
