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14 May
2024 |
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11 May
2023 |
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| There's Still Tomorrow |
| Paola Cortellesi’s audacious, astonishingly assured debut feature There’s Still Tomorrow is a love letter to cinema with a sting in its tail. It leaves Jerry Whyte feeling like the cat that got the cream. Italy fell head over heels for Cortellesi's moving and politically potent tale of a woman and women defying all odds. Now, no doubt, the wider world will too. |
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9 May
2024 |
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8 May
2024 |
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| 3 May 2023 |
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| The Cat and the Canary |
| 12 years before the horror-comedy that launched Bob Hope’s career, John Willard’s stage play The Cat and the Canary was made into an expressionistic and enormously entertaining silent feature by German director Paul Leni. A delighted Slarek finally catches up with this glorious original on Eureka’s new Masters of Cinema Blu-ray. |
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1 May
2024 |
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1 May
2024 |
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| 30 Apr 2023 |
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| Chocolat |
| Claire Denis's debut feature Chocolat, inspired by her childhood in Cameroon in the 1950s, comes to Blu-ray from the BFI and is reviewed by Gary Couzens. |
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30 Apr
2024 |
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| Fukusaku Kinji's 1978 Message from Space on Blu-ray in July |
| Eureka Entertainment is to release Battle Royale director Fukusaku Kinji's 1978 response to the worldwide success of Star Wars, the science fiction adventure Message From Space is being released as part of the Masters of Cinema series. |
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30 Apr
2024 |
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| 27 Apr 2023 |
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| A Story Written with Water |
| The reasons behind a young man’s misgivings about his approaching marriage are compellingly explored in director Yoshida Kijū’s bold, intelligent and mesmerising 1965 drama A Story Written with Water. Slarek is captivated by the film and its excellent presentation on Radiance’s recent Blu-ray. |
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26 Apr
2024 |
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| 25 Apr 2023 |
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| Two Films by Yasujirō Ozu |
| The BFI releases two more films on Blu-ray by the great Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu: the silent classic comedy I Was Born, But… and the later There Was a Father . Review by Gary Couzens. |
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24 Apr
2024 |
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24 Apr
2024 |
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| 23 Apr 2023 |
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| Children’s Film Foundation Bumper Box Vol. 5 |
| The BFI’s fifth compilation of Children’s Film Foundation productions once again features nine films from the 1940s to the end of the 1970s on three DVDs. Gary Couzens is sitting in the one-and-nines. |
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22 Apr
2023 |
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| Civil War |
| Like Christopher Nolan, director Alex Garland has forged a career, albeit on lower budgets, with work every bit as creative, diverse and original as the Oppenheimer director’s oeuvre. Civil War showcases his talents with an uneasy, highly relevant subject. Camus dons a Hi-Viz vest and keeps his head down… |
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22 Apr
2023 |
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| Baltimore |
| Jerry Whyte squares up to contemporary complacency and seeks to rescue heiress-turned-academic-turned-revolutionary Dr. Brigit Rose Dugdale from the enormous condescension of posterity. He wonders how Baltimore, the latest compelling thriller from Desperate Optimists, manages to honour her memory while simultaneously doing it damage. |
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| 19 Apr 2023 |
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| The Bat Woman |
| Borrowing shamelessly from film and TV icons north of the border, director René Cardona's 1968 The Bat Woman is often silly, occasionally a little cackhanded, but still a fun and thematically progressive ride for fans of low-budget Mexican genre cinema. Gort jumps down the bat pole with Indicator's new Blu-ray in his utility belt. |
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| 12 Apr 2023 |
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| The Panther Women |
| In the second of his reviews of recent Indicator Blu-ray releases of multi-genre lucha libre films from director René Cardona, Gort goes ten rounds with The Panther Women, a surprisingly effective and enjoyable blend of luchadora and old-school satanic creature horror. |
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| 9 Apr 2023 |
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| Santo vs. the Riders of Terror |
| Six patients escape from a leper hospital and are approached by bandits with a plan to prey on the fear of nearby townspeople, prompting the local sheriff to call on the help of a masked outsider in the 1970 Santo vs. the Riders of Terror. Gort jumps in the ring for a curious but entertaining hybrid on Indicator's ace new Blu-ray. |
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| 8 Apr 2023 |
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| Snapshot |
| Snapshot, a thriller from 1979 starring Sigrid Thornton as a model under threat, is released by Indicator on Blu-ray and 4K UHD. Gary Couzens looks at the pictures. |
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| 7 Apr 2023 |
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| Elegant Beast |
| The Japanese New Wave is one of the great film movements, and the 1962 film Elegant Beast by Yūzō Kawashima is a fascinating example. Radiance Films brought this lesser known gem to light on a late 2023 Blu-ray release that is reviewed here by SilverBlueSnow. |
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| 30 Mar 2023 |
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| Tony Arzenta |
| Alain Delon plays a mob hitman who wants to retire for the sake of his family, a decision that does not impress his criminal employers in director Duccio Tessari's moodily compelling Eurocrime drama from 1973. Slarek takes a ride with a hired gun on the vengeance trail on this new Blu-ray from Radiance. |
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| 27 Mar 2023 |
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| Patrick |
| Richard Franklin's suspense thriller from 1978, Patrick, is the first of a series of Ozploitation films to be released on Blu-ray and UHD by Indicator. Gary Couzens is anything but comatose. |
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| 20 Mar 2023 |
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| The Village Detective: a song cycle |
| The chance recovery of four cans of decomposing film from the ocean floor launches filmmaker Bill Morrison on an voyage of cinematic discovery in his latest feature, The Village Detective: a song cycle. Slarek is bewitched by decay and learns about a major star of Soviet cinema on Second Run’s recently released Blu-ray. |
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| 20 Mar 2023 |
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| Beautiful Thing |
| Beautiful Thing, written by Jonathan Harvey from his play and directed by Hettie Macdonald, is a key British love story and coming-out film, optimistic in defiance of the climate of its time, released by the BFI on Blu-ray. Gary Couzens sees rainbows. |
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