By John ThomasonFor years, I assumed I would simply never have the opportunity to see Skidoo, Otto Preminger’s critically and commercially maligned acid trip from 1968. The film was never even released on VHS and was therefore reduced to a distribution cycle as small as its perceived audience; you could see it at the occasional 35mm revival in New York or Los … [Read more...]
The View From Home 27: New releases and notable screenings, June 14-30
By John ThomasonIs there anything quite like the early films of Todd Haynes?Before he graduated to star-studded Hollywood casts and respectable HBO miniseries (this year’s Mildred Pierce), Haynes was a provocative enfant terrible whose early experimental films upset narrative status quos and pushed censors’ buttons. His 1987, 43-minute docudrama – for lack … [Read more...]
The View From Home 26: New releases and notable screenings, May 24 -June 10
Donatas Banionis and Natalya Bondarchuk in Solaris (1972).By John ThomasonAndrei Tarkovsky, the Russian New Wave’s most glorified director of rarefied museum pieces, represents, more than any director of his generation, the division between true cinephiles and casual “movie buffs.”The latter enjoys Fellini, some Godard and even an Antonioni picture or two, … [Read more...]
The View From Home 24: New releases on DVD
By John ThomasonHeartless (IFC)Release date: April 12Standard list price: $17.99A visionary director whose visions are all too infrequent, Britian’s Philip Ridley has made just three films in 21 years, making Robert Bresson look like a workaholic. His audience is tiny and seems unlikely to grow: His outstanding debut, The Reflecting Skin, has never been … [Read more...]
The View from Home 23: New releases on DVD
By John ThomasonThe Father of My Children (IFC)Release date: March 29Standard list price: $18.99At just 28, French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love has shown an Orson Welles-like prodigiousness, already with a short and two features completed and one more in post-production. Given that she’s engaged to established French director Olivier Assayas, has acted in a … [Read more...]
The View From Home 22: New releases on DVD
By John ThomasonAround a Small Mountain (Cinema Guild)Release date: March 8Standard list price: $26.99Could it be that French director Jacques Rivette, the New Wave lion who just turned 83, is finally slowing down? What else can we make of the fact that his latest feature, which could very well be his last, is a scant 84 minutes? For Rivette, Around … [Read more...]
The View From Home 21: New releases on DVD
By John ThomasonSweet Smell of Success (Criterion)Release date: Feb. 22Standard list price: $21.99Ahead of its time in 1957, Sweet Smell of Success is, like Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole, one of Hollywood’s most sordid exposes of the entertainment/media complex. It dismantles the promotion industry as an intractably corrupt system, while tapping into … [Read more...]
The View From Home 20: New releases on DVD
By John ThomasonSanta Sangre (MPI)Release date: Jan. 25Standard list price: $21.99So Santa Sangre, one of cult director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s most controversial films, is finally released on a beautiful Region 1 DVD, ensuring all of the red paint spilling forth from the body orifices will look as vivid as it should.Jodorowsky has an intensely devoted … [Read more...]
The View From Home 19: New releases on DVD
By John ThomasonShock Corridor and The Naked Kiss (Criterion)Release date: Jan. 18Standard list price: $21.99 eachIn all the documentaries and video interviews made about the work of the great director Samuel Fuller, the movie referenced more than any other is not even made by Fuller. It’s a scene from Pierrot le fou, Jean-Luc Godard’s manic farrago … [Read more...]
The View From Home 18: New releases on DVD
By John ThomasonAmerica Lost and Found: The BBS Story (Criterion)Release date: Dec. 14Standard list price: $88.99Released just 11 days before Christmas, Criterion’s America Lost and Found: The BBS Story box set is the holiday season’s ultimate gift to cinephiles. The six films contained in this collection encompass one of American cinema’s most … [Read more...]