Kino Lorber’s ongoing drip-drip release of Universal’s seemingly endless archive of Golden Age film noirs continued with its most recent box set, The Dark Side of Cinema XXVI ($24.99 Blu-ray), the latest entry in this library of classic crime cinema. But as its three titles reveal, one person’s noir is another’s romance, and is another’s gilded literary adaptation, films that … [Read more...]
The View From Home: WWII spycraft, stealth feminism in Kino’s latest film noir box set
Kino Lorber recently retrieved three titles from the distributor’s seemingly bottomless well of obscure noirs from the genre’s golden age for yet another impactful box set. The Dark Side of Cinema XXI ($33.22 Blu-ray) features three titles that largely dance around the traditional expectations of noir, mixing its shadowy atmosphere with timely espionage drama and hothouse … [Read more...]
The View From Home: Pain and pleasure in two historic jazz documentaries
Two documentaries about the Golden Age of jazz, new on video from Kino Lorber and its affiliates, spotlight both the agonies and ecstasies of the lives of its performers. Both are essential, but if you’re going to make a double feature out of them, it’s best to get the tough one out of the way first. James Erskine’s arresting Billie ($13.99 DVD) charts the tragic life of … [Read more...]