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July 31, 2007
[BERGMAN, ANTONIONI]  We are at a loss for words today regarding the deaths of two of the greatest icons of global cinephilia, Ingmar Bergman (89) and Michelangelo Antonioni (94). Fortunately, world press seems to have clued into their cultural importance and are supplying plenty of high profile obits for both filmmakers, whose works will be viewed and remembered for a long time to come.
- D.C.
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July 9, 2007
[TREASURES III] Official word has come from the National Film Preservation Foundation regarding its upcoming fall addition to its wonderful Treasure from American Film Archives series; the four-disc, all-region box set will focus on social engagement during the silent period. It will include 48 new-to-video titles, 12.5 hours of comedies, serial episodes, cartoons, melodramas, documentaries, and advocacy films, plus new scores, twenty audio commentaries, and a 192-page book. (And as we noted earlier, Treasures IV: The American Avant-Garde Film, 1945-1985 will follow in 2008.) You can find more information on both at the NFPF website, here.
- D.C.
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JULY 1, 2007
[EDWARD YANG] It seems our newsfeed has been loaded with obituaries lately, but none may be more shocking than that of Edward Yang, the 59-year-old filmmaker, who died Friday in his home in Beverly Hills after a seven-year fight against cancer. As one of the pioneers of the Taiwanese New Wave, Yang's humanistic investigations of national identity and character served as a highpoint for world cinema during the 1990s.
- D.C.
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June 11, 2007
[OUSMANE SEMBENE] Terribly sad news today: Ousmane Sembene, often described as the "Father of African Cinema," has died at 84. The sharp social clarity and beauty of his films provokes nearly as much astonishment as does their lack of availability on English-subtitled videos, save a handful of barebone DVD releases, including Sembene's 2004 international success, Moolaade. (Francophones are encouraged to seek out the 2004 six-film DVD set released by M3M.) We can only hope this situation will be rectified in the near future, helping to fill the void left by this towering figure.
- D.C.
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May 15, 2007
[RESTORATIONS] The Museum of Modern Art (USA) has announced its fifth festival of restored films, many of which are the latest success stories for preservationists: Andy Warhol's Chelsea Girls (1966), Powell and Pressburger's The Spy in Black (1939), Victor Sjostrom's A Man There Was (1917), Roberto Rossellini's A Pilot Returns (1942), Noel Black's Pretty Poison (1968), Hollis Frampton's Zorns Lemma (1970) and Winter Solstice (1974), Maurice Pialat's short Isabelle aux dombes (1951), Ken Hamman's Sunday, Too Far Away (1975), and more.
From the MoMA release: "Each year, the 120 member institutions of the Brussels-based International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF, of which MoMA is a founding member) preserve hundreds of motion pictures, working together to find the best surviving materials for each film."
- D.C.
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May 9, 2007
[ANDRZEJ ZULAWSKI]
Our friends at Second Run have worked wonders to bring the Polish maverick Andrzej Zulawski to the UK to attend three special screenings of his debut film The Third Part of the Night. Zulawski will introduce the film and participate in a Q&A discussion after each screening.
Starting this weekend in London, the dates are as follows:
London, Curzon Soho - Sun 13th May 12.30pm
Cambridge, Arts Picturehouse - Tues 15th May 6.30pm
Edinburgh, Filmhouse - Wed 16th May 8.15pm
Second Run will be releasing the film on DVD in the midst of those screenings, on May 14th, the first-ever release on DVD for what is widely regarded as being one of the best Polish films of the 1970s.
The DVD will include a specially filmed introduction by Zulawski; a restored new, director-approved transfer; Second Run's now customary superb English subtitles; and a booklet with a new essay by Daniel Bird. So it's London, Cambridge or Edinburgh... please pass this information to anyone you know who might like to attend.
- N. W.
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April 3, 2007
[THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WIND] On Friday 30 March, at the Florida Film Festival, Peter Bogdanovich announced that the final paperwork regarding the completion (that is, completion-hypothesis) of Orson Welles' late film The Other Side of the Wind has been signed, with US premium-cable network Showtime presumably taking part in the financing. A Wellesnet source was told by Bogdanovich that the first step in the process, naturally enough, will be taking inventory of all of the footage shot — but never fully assembled — by Welles from the late '60s, on through the '70s.
Godspeed to all involved in this endeavor which, taking into account an editing schema that anyone acquainted with Welles' work must understand remains, to a certain extent, truly inimitable, will ideally provide the world with a close approximation of the great film Welles had intended.
C. K.
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March 6, 2007
[AVANT-GARDE] We're surprised it hasn't been more widely reported that the National Film Preservation Foundation (USA) has recently announced they're working on a fourth entry in their wonderful Treasures from American Film Archives series for 2008: Treasures IV: The American Avant-Garde Film, 1945-1985. With funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, this 2-disc box set will include animation, nature and still life films, portraiture, underground narratives, dance films, works of social engagement, and city symphonies culled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Anthology Film Archives, the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, and the Pacific Film Archive. (And the NFPF is still on track to release this fall's 4-disc box set, Treasures III: The Social Issue Film, 1900-1934.) While it's hard to imagine a more elaborate avant-garde release than Image Entertainment's Unseen Cinema (2005) box set, the NFPF's track record suggests it could offer something just as essential.
- D.C.
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February 15, 2007
[JACQUES RIVETTE] We're always excited about online endeavors devoted to filmmakers we admire, so we're pleased to help promote the new website, jacques-rivette.com (Order of the Exile). "The goal of this site is to disseminate materials on Rivette's films so both the serious scholar and the simply curious have access to items that are out of print, rare, or unavailable."
- D.C.
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January 24, 2007
[THE MASTERS OF CINEMA SERIES]
For those that have been out of the loop for a while, or those new to the site, I'd like to draw your attention to our own series of DVDs, issued in the UK by Eureka Entertainment and entitled The Masters of Cinema Series.
Now into its third year, and with over thirty titles under our belt, we are preparing to release a director-approved deluxe 4 x DVD edition of Claude Lanzmann's Shoah replete with 184-page book in a hard box.
In recent months, we have released Toshio Matsumoto's Funeral Parade of Roses, Vittorio De Sica's Shoeshine, a three-film Mikio NARUSE box set, and The Complete Buster Keaton Short Films 1917-1923. We have a packed release schedule lined up for 2007/2008 including the work of the Maysles Bros, Kenji Mizoguchi, Jean-Pierre Melville, Carl Th. Dreyer, Luchino Visconti, Fritz Lang, F. W. Murnau, G. W. Pabst, Masahiro Shinoda, and more... Full details will become available on our new Masters of Cinema Series website as soon as we have them.
We are extremely grateful to those that purchase releases in the Masters of Cinema Series because it directly allows us to keep investing in new restorations and new releases. We would not be able to continue without your help.
- N. W.
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January 6, 2007
[MoC DVD OF THE YEAR AWARD 2006] The results of the 4th annual Masters of Cinema DVD of the Year Award are here. Sorry for the delay.
- N. W.
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October, 2007
The Adversary
(Satyajit Ray, 1972) Wrasse Records R2 UK
Edvard Munch
(Watkins, 1976) MoC R2 UK
El Bruto
(Bunuel, 1952) Facets R1 USA
Days of Heaven
(Malick, 1978) Criterion R1 USA
Director Series: Stanley Kubrick Collection (2 x disc special editions: 2001: A Space Odyssey,
A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut, 1968-'99) Warner R1 USA
Everything Will Be Okay
(Hertzfeldt, 2007) Bitter Films R1 USA
Hitler: A Film from Germany (3 x disc set)
(Syberberg, 1978) Facets R1 USA
Gandahar
(Laloux, 1988) MoC R2 UK
Les Maitres du temps
(Laloux, 1982) MoC R2 UK
Secret Sunshine (Limited Edition)
(Lee Chang Dong, 2007) Art Service R3 South Korea
The Tree of Wooden Clogs
(Olmi, 1978) Arrow R2 UK
Treasures III: Social Issues in American Film, 1900-1934 (4 x disc set)
(Various) NFPF R1 USA
Why has Bodhi-Darma Left for the East? (Director's Deluxe Edition)
(Yong-kyun Bae, 1989) Milestone R1 USA
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September, 2007
Away From Her
(Polley, 2007) Lions Gate R1 USA
Bellissima
(Visconti, 1951) MoC R2 UK
Berlin Alexanderplatz
(Fassbinder, 1980) Second Sight R2 UK
Flanders
(Dumont, 2006) Soda Pictures R2 UK
My Way Home
(Jancso, 1965) Second Run R2 UK
The Round-Up
(Jancso, 1966) Second Run R2 UK
Silence
(Shinoda, 1971) MoC R2 UK
Ten Canoes
(Rolf de Heer, 2006) Universal R2 UK
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August, 2007
The Aki Kaurismaki Collection
(Shadows in Paradise, 1986; Ariel, 1988; The Match Factory Girl, 1990) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Ballad of Narayama
(Imamura, 1983) Tartan R2 UK
Close-Up
(Kiarostami, 1990) Soda Pictures R2 UK
Cria Cuervos
(Saura, 1976) Criterion R1 USA
The Devil's Eye
(Bergman, 1960) Tartan R2 UK
The First Films of Samuel Fuller
(The Baron of Arizona, I Shot Jesse James, The Steel Helmet) Eclipse R1 USA
Kisses
(Masumura, 1957) Yume R2 UK
Luis Bunuel Boxset
(Gran Casino, The Young One) Lions Gate R1 USA
The Milky Way
(Bunuel, 1969) Criterion R1 USA
Mutual Appreciation
(Bujalski, 2005) Diffusion Pictures R2 UK
Private Fears in Public Places
(Resnais, 2006) IFC R1 USA
The Trial
(Welles, 1962) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts
(Lee, 2006) Warner R2 UK
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July, 2007
Ace in the Hole
(Wilder, 1951) Criterion R1 USA
Alexander Kluge: The Films for Cinema (8 x disc set)
(1966-1986) Edition Filmmuseum R0 Various
Avant-Garde 2: Experimental Cinema 1928-1954
(Various) Kino R1 USA
Bigger Than Life
(Ray, 1956) BFI R2 UK
Diary of a Country Priest
(Bresson, 1950) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Distant Voices, Still Lives
(Davies, 1988) BFI R2 UK
Les Enfants terribles
(Melville, 1950) Criterion R1 USA
Film Noir Classic Collection, Vol. 4
(Various, 1946-'55) Warner R1 USA
Five
(Kiarostami, 2004) Kino R1 USA
Iraq in Fragments
(Longley, 2006) Drake R2 UK
Ivan's Childhood
(Tarkovsky, 1962) Criterion R1 USA
Kon Ichikawa's 47 Ronin
(1994) Koch R1 USA
Raymond Bernard (3 x disc set)
(Wooden Crosses and Les Miserables, 1932 and '34) Eclipse R1 USA
Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara (4 x disc set)
(1962-'66) Criterion R1 USA
Six in Paris (delayed)
(Douchet, Chabrol, Godard, Pollet, Rohmer, Rouch; 1964) New Yorker R1 USA
The Stranger
(Welles, 1946) MGM R1 USA
Woman in the Window
(Lang, 1944) MGM R1 USA
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June, 2007
Bamako
(Sissako, 2006) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Blonde Venus
(Von Sternberg, 1932) Universal R2 UK
If....
(Anderson, 1968) Criterion R1 USA
Jan Svankmajer: The Complete Short Films 1964-1992
BFI R2 UK
La Jetee/Sans Soleil
(Marker, 1961 and '82) Criterion R1 USA
The L-Shaped Room
(Forbes, 1962) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
The Last Supper (delayed)
(Tomas Gutierrez Alea, 1977) New Yorker R1 USA
Late Ozu (5 x disc set)
(1956-'61) Eclipse R1 USA
Moses and Aaron (delayed)
(Straub/Huillet, 1975) New Yorker R1 USA
The Raging Moon
(Forbes, 1970) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Le Silence de la Mer
(Melville, 1949) MoC R2 UK
Science is Fiction: The Films of Jean Painleve
(1910-'35) BFI R2 UK
The Stolen Children
(Amelio, 1992) Arrow R2 UK
Sweet Movie
(Makavejev, 1974) Criterion R1 USA
Two-Lane Blacktop
(Hellman, 1971) Universal R2 UK
Waiting for Happiness
(Sissako, 2002) New Yorker R1 USA
Wim Wenders Road Movies
(Alice in the Cities, Wrong Move, Kings of the Road, 1974-'76) Madman R4 Australia
WR: Mysteries of the Organism
(Makavejev, 1971) Criterion R1 USA
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May, 2007
The Andrei Tarkovsky Companion
(Tempo di Viaggio, One Day in the Life of Andrei Arsenevitch, Moscow Elegy, 1983-2000) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Army of Shadows
(Melville, 1969) Criterion R1 USA
The Big Road/Queen of Sports
(Sun Yu, 1934) Cinema Epoch R1 USA
China Doll
(Borzage, 1958) MGM R1 USA
Classic Western Round-Up (two volumes)
(Canyon Passage, Tourneur; Texas Rangers, King Vidor; The Lawless Breed, Raoul Walsch;
and Boetticher's The Texans, California, The Cimarron Kid, The Man from the Alamo) Universal R1 USA
Crossroads/Daybreak
(Sun Yu, 1937) Cinema Epoch R1 USA
Un flic
(Melville, 1972) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Jordan Belson: Five Essential Films
(Allures, Samadhi, Light, Fountain of Dreams, Epilogue, 1961-2005) Center for Visual Music R0 USA
Kasaba/Clouds of May
(Ceylan; 1998,'99) Artificial Eye R2 UK
Sansho the Bailiff
(Mizoguchi, 1954) Criterion R1 USA
Scarface
(Hawks, 1932) Universal R1 USA
Song at Midnight
(Weibang Ma-Xu, 1937) Cinema Epoch R1 USA
Spring in a Small Town
(Fei Mu, 1948) Cinema Epoch R1 USA
Street Angel/Twin Sisters
(Weibang Ma-Xu/Zheng Zhengqiu, 1937/'34) Cinema Epoch R1 USA
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April, 2007
Bedazzled
(Stanley Donen, 1967) Fox R1 USA
Brute Force
(Dassin, 1947) Criterion R1 USA
Chantal Akerman Collection-Les annees 70 (english subtitles rumored)
(1972-'78) Carlotta R2 Belgium
The Documentaries of Louis Malle
(Vive le tour; Humain, trop humain; Place de la republique; Phantom India; Calcutta;
God's Country; And the Pursuit of Happiness, 1962-'86) Criterion R1 USA
Dora-Heita
(Ichikawa, 2000) Animeigo USA
Grey Gardens
(Maysles brothers, 1976) MoC R2 UK
Henri-Georges Clouzot Collection
(Le Corbeau, Quai des Orfevres, The Wages of Fear, 1943-'52) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Japanese Anime Classic Collection (4-disc set)
(Various, 1920s-'30s) Digital Meme R0 USA
Jean Renoir Collection (3-disc set)
(La Fille de l'eau; Nana; Sur un air de Charleston; La Petite marchande d'allumettes;
La Marseillaise; Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier; Le Caporal épinglé,
1925-'62) Lionsgate R1 USA
Les Miserables
(Richard Boleslawski, 1935) Fox R1 USA
Palms
(Artour Aristakisian, 1993) Second Run R2 UK
Play
(Alicia Scherson, 2005) R2 Vital UK
Salesman
(Maysles brothers, 1969) MoC R2 UK
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March, 2007
The 60's Collection
(Vivre sa vie; Masculin feminin; Two Or Three Things I Know About Her, 1962-'67) Nouveax R2 UK
Animated Soviet Propaganda (4-disc set)
(Various, 1924-'80s) Kino R1 USA
La Belle captive
(Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1983) Koch Lorber R1 USA
The Burmese Harp
(Ichikawa, 1956) Criterion R1 USA
Early Bergman (5-disc set)
(Torment; Crisis; Port of Call; Thirst; To Joy; 1946-'50) Criterion R1 USA
Climates (Iklimer) (2-disc set)
(Ceylan, 2006) Imaj R? Turkey
Fires on the Plain
(Ichikawa, 1959) Criterion R1 USA
Histoire(s) du cinéma + 2 x 50 Years of French Cinema (with English subs)
(Jean-Luc Godard, 1988-1998; Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Miéville 1995) Gaumont R2 France
Jesse James
(Henry King, 1939) Fox R1 USA
Muriel
(Alain Resnais, 1963) Koch Lorber R1 USA
My Way Home
(Jancso, 1965) Second Run R2 UK
Naked City
(Dassin, 1948) Criterion R1 USA
Pan's Labyrinth
(Guillermo Del Toro, 2006) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Return of Frank James
(Fritz Lang, 1940) Fox R1 USA
The Round Up
(Miklos Jancso, 1965) Second Run R2 USA
True Story of Jesse James
(Nicholas Ray, 1957) Fox R1 USA
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February, 2007
49th Parallel
(Powell and Pressburger, 1941) Criterion R1 USA
Les Anges du peche
(Bresson, 1943) Gallimard R0 France
Bicycle Thieves
(De Sica, 1948) Criterion R1 USA
The Big Steal
(Don Siegel, 1949) Universal R2 UK
Cocorico monsieur Poulet (also Hippopotamus Hunt and Cimetiere dans la falaise)
(Jean Rouch, 1974) Editions Montparnasse R2 France
Elegy of the Land
(Sokurov, 1977) Facets R1 USA
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On
(Kazuo Hara, 1987) Facets R1 USA
F for Fake
(Commentary by Gary Graver and Bill Krohn, 28-minute interview with Jonathan Rosenbaum, 40-page booklet.)
(Welles, 1973) MoC R2 UK
A Gorgeous Girl Like Me
(Truffaut, 1972) Cinema Club R2 UK
The Heiress
(Wyler, 1949) Universal R1 USA
The Party and the Guests
(Jan Němec, Czechoslovakia/1966) Second Run R0 UK
Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist
(1925-1940) Criterion R1 USA
Performance
(Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg, 1970) Warner R1 USA
Requiem
(Hans-Christian Schmid, 2006) Soda Pictures R2 UK
Romeo, Juliet and Darkness
(Jirí Weiss, Czechoslovakia/1960) Second Run R0 UK
Shoah (4 x DVD box set, 180-page book)
(Lanzmann, 1985) MoC R2 UK
Volver
(Almodovar, 2006) Fox R2 UK
When a Woman Ascends the Stairs
(Naruse, 1960) Criterion R1 USA
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January, 2007
Angel Face
(Otto Preminger, 1957) Warner R1 USA
Blind Husbands (includes version comparisons, newsreel, and ROM version of Jon Barnas' OOP book)
(Von Stroheim, 1919) Edition Filmmuseum R0 Austria
Diva
(Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Douglas Sirk Collection
(Imitation Of Life, Magnificent Obsession, Written On The Wind, All I Desire, Has Anybody Seen My Gal,
All That Heaven Allows, The Tarnished Angels, 1952-'59) Universal R2 UK
The Films of Kenneth Anger, Vol. 1
(Fireworks, Puce Moment, Rabbit's Moon, Eaux d'Artifice, Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome, 1947-'54) Fantoma R1 USA
Home from the Hill
(Vincente Minnelli, 1960) Warner R1 USA
The Go-Between
(Joseph Losey, 1971) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Luis Bunuel Box Set
(That Obscure Object Of Desire, The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie, Diary of A Chambermaid,
The Phantom Of Liberty, The Milky Way, Tristana, The Young One, Belle De Jour. 1960-'77) Optimum Releasing R2 UK
Macau
(Josef von Sternberg and Nicholas Ray, 1952) Warner R1 USA
Mouchette
(Bresson, 1967) Criterion R1 USA
Ozu Collection 4
(Late Autumn, An Autumn Afternoon, 1960-'62) Tartan R2 UK
The Plow That Broke the Plains/The River
(Pare Lorentz, 1935) Naxos R2 UK
Still Life
(Jia Zhangke, 2006) Warner R6 China
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Though Milestone's (USA) recent push to finally release Charles Burnett's masterpiece, 
