Jim's Film Website: Film/DVD Reviews
I hope you enjoy these reviews, focused on a select number of pictures of exceptional interest available on DVD. The films include both U.S. and international releases, ranging from classics to recent works. I have also created Websites for three provocative filmmakers/authors: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Derek Jarman. Some of these reviews are brief, while others take a more in-depth approach.
New Reviews: Fassbinder's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980), Jutzi's Berlin Alexanderplatz (1931), The Films of Kenneth Anger, Donna Deitch's Desert Hearts, Alain Resnais's Muriel, Alain Robbe-Grillet's La Belle Captive (adapted from his own novel), author Jean Genet's only film as a director: Un Chant d'Amour, Tony Palmer's documentary Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was, Fassbinder's The Third Generation and Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?, Murnau's Phantom, Robert Houston's Shogun Assassin, Wolfgang Petersen's The Consequence, Jarman's The Last of England. New Film Book Review: Joseph Lanza's biography/cinematic study Phallic Frenzy: Ken Russell and His Films.
Reviews Coming in June 2008: Glitterbox: Derek Jarman x 4, a major collection of Jarman features new to DVD: The Angelic Conversation, Caravaggio, Wittgenstein, Blue and Glitterbug, plus many special features.
Reviews
- Accattone (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1961)
- Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1974)
- The Andromeda Strain (Robert Wise / 1971) – part of Films by Robert Wise
- The Films of Kenneth Anger Volume One (Kenneth Anger / 1947–1954)
- NEW! The Films of Kenneth Anger Volume Two (Kenneth Anger / 1964–2002)
- The American Soldier (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1970)
Coming Soon! The Angelic Conversation (Derek Jarman / 1985)- Bay of Angels (Jacques Demy / 1963)
- Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein / 1925)
- Beauty and the Beast: Restored DVD/Criterion Collection (Jean Cocteau / 1946) – Best DVD of 2003
- Benjamin Britten: A Time There Was (Tony Palmer / 1980)
NEW! Berlin Alexanderplatz (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1980) - NEW! Berlin Alexanderplatz (Phil Jutzi / 1931)
- Beware of a Holy Whore [tongue-in-cheek title refers to cinema] (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1971)
- Big Eden (Thomas Bezucha / 2000)
- The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1972)
Coming Soon! Blue (Derek Jarman / 1993)- Born to Kill (Robert Wise / 1947)
- Brokeback Mountain (Ang Lee / 2005) – NOTE: This review is of the theatrical release; no DVD has yet been announced
- BRD Trilogy: The Marriage of Maria Braun, Lola and Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1979–1982)
- Bully (Larry Clark / 2001)
Coming Soon! Caravaggio (Derek Jarman / 1986)- Children of Paradise (Marcel Carné / 1945)
- Chinese Roulette (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1976)
- Citizen Kane (Orson Welles / 1941) – Best DVD of 2001
- "The City Tramp" (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1966)
- Coming Out Under Fire (Arthur Dong / 1994)
- The Consequence (Wolfgang Petersen / 1977)
- Criminal Lovers (François Ozon / 1999)
- The Curse of the Cat People (Robert Wise / 1944) – part of Films by Robert Wise
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (Robert Wise / 1951)
- The Decameron (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1970)
- New! Desert Hearts (Donna Deitch / 1985) – NEW 2-Disc Collector's Edition
- Different From the Others (Anders als die Andern) (Richard Oswald / 1919)
- Doña Herlinda and Her Son (Jaime Humberto Hermosillo / 1985)
- Donkey Skin (Peau d'âne) (Jacques Demy / 1970)
- Edward II (Derek Jarman / 1991)
- Effi Briest (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1974)
- 8 Women (François Ozon / 2002)
- Family Fundamentals (Arthur Dong / 2002)
- THE FILMS OF RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER – with an overview of his career, his role in the development of New German Cinema, and reviews of all of his films on DVD, including Katzelmacher (1969), The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (1972), Effi Briest (1974), In a Year With 13 Moons (1978), the BRD Trilogy, and over 20 more
- Fear of Fear (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1975)
- Fellini Satyricon (Federico Fellini / 1969)
- The Films of Kenneth Anger Volume One (Kenneth Anger / 1947–1954)
NEW! The Films of Kenneth Anger Volume Two (Kenneth Anger / 1964–2002) - Fox and His Friends (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1975)
- Genet (Antoine Bourseiller / 1981)
- Coming Soon! Glitterbug (Derek Jarman / 1994)
- Gods of the Plague (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1970)
- The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1964)
- The Haunting (Robert Wise / 1963)
- The Hawks and the Sparrows (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1966)
- Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson / 1994)
- Horror of Dracula (UK title: Dracula) (Terence Fisher / 1957)
- Howards End (a Merchant/Ivory production / 1992)
- I Want to Live! (Robert Wise / 1958)
- In a Year With 13 Moons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1978)
- Intervista (Federico Fellini / 1987)
- Iris (Richard Eyre / 2001)
- THE FILMS OF DEREK JARMAN – with an overview of his career in film, painting and literature, and reviews of his films on DVD – his first three features are now available: Sebastiane (1975), Jubilee (1978), and The Tempest (1979)
- Jean Genet (Bertrand Poirot-Delpech / 1982)
- Jubilee (Derek Jarman / 1985)
- Katzelmacher (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1969)
- The Kingdom: Series One (Lars von Trier / 1994)
- La Belle Captive (Alain Robbe-Grillet / 1983)
- La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini / 1960 – new DVD release date is September 21)
- The Last of England (Derek Jarman / 1987)
- "La Ricotta" (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1963)
- Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles (Jennifer Baichwal / 1998)
- Licensed to Kill (Arthur Dong / 1997)
- "The Little Chaos" (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1966)
- Lola (Jacques Demy / 1961)
- Lola (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1981)
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Extended Edition) (Peter Jackson / 2003) – Best DVD of 2004
- Love is Colder than Death (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1969)
- Love Meetings (Comizi d'amore) (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1964)
- Mamma Roma (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1962)
- The Marriage of Maria Braun (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1979)
- Martha (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1973)
- Maurice (a Merchant/Ivory production / 1987)
- Medea (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1970)
- Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli / 1944)
- The Merchant of Four Seasons (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1971)
- Michael (Mikaël) (Carl Th. Dreyer / 1924)
- Monster (Patty Jenkins / 2003)
- Mother Küsters Goes to Heaven (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1975)
- Mrs. Dalloway (Marleen Gorris / 1997)
- NEW! Muriel (Alain Resnais / 1963)
- My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant / 1991)
- The Niklashausen Journey (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1971)
- Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton / 1955)
- Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles (Owsley Brown / 1999)
- North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock / 1959) – Best DVD of 2000
- Nosferatu (Murnau / 1922)
- Notre Musique (Godard / 2004)
- Odds Against Tomorrow (Robert Wise / 1959)
- Oedipus Rex (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1967)
- The Opposite of Sex (Don Roos / 1998)
- Orpheus (Jean Cocteau / 1949)
- Ossessione (Luchino Visconti / 1942; this is an adaptation of The Postman Always Rings Twice)
- Othello (Orson Welles / 1952) – analysis of a key sequence
- The Outlaw (Howard Hughes & uncredited Howard Hawks / 1943)
- Paris Was a Woman (Greta Schiller / 1995)
- THE FILMS OF PIER PAOLO PASOLINI – with an overview of his career, his role in Italian cinema, and reviews of all of his films on DVD, including so far the documentary Love Meetings (1964), and the feature films Accattone (1961), The Gospel According to Saint Matthew (1964), The Hawks and the Sparrows (1966), Oedipus Rex (1967), Porcile (1969), Medea (1969), and The Decameron (1970)
- The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Th. Dreyer / 1928) – Best DVD of 1999
- Phantom (F.W. Murnau / 1922) – Best DVD of 2006
- The Philadelphia Story (George Cukor / 1940) – with my article on Cukor
- "Photo de famille" (François Ozon / 1988)
- Pioneers in Ingoldstadt (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1971)
- Porcile (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1969)
- Prince in Hell (Michael Stock / 1993)
- Querelle (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1982)
- Ran (Akira Kurosawa's 1985 film of King Lear)
- Rio das Mortes (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1971)
- Run Silent, Run Deep (Robert Wise / 1958)
- Satan's Brew (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1976)
- Sebastiane (Derek Jarman / 1976)
- See the Sea (François Ozon / 1997)
- The Set-Up (Robert Wise / 1949)
- Sex in Chains (Geschlecht in Fesseln) (William Dieterle / 1928)
- Shogun Assassin (Kenji Misumi & Robert Houston / 1980)
- Singin' in the Rain (Gene Kelly & Stanley Donen / 1952) – Best DVD of 2002
- Sitcom (François Ozon / 1998)
- A Slightly Pregnant Man (Jacques Demy / 1973)
- Son of Dracula (Robert Siodmak / 1943)
- The Sound of Music (Robert Wise / 1965)
- The Stationmaster's Wife (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1977)
- Stories from the War on Homosexuality: Coming Out Under Fire (1994), Licensed to Kill (1997) & Family Fundamentals (2002) (Arthur Dong)
- Strangers on a Train (Alfred Hitchcock / 1951)
- I have also done a shot-by-shot analysis of a scene from Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951), including a comparison with Patricia Highsmith's original novel and the screenplay by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde
- "A Summer Dress" (François Ozon / 1996)
- Sunday Bloody Sunday (John Schlesinger / 1971)
- Swimming Pool (François Ozon / 2003)
- Tales of the City (Alastair Reid / 1993)
- Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette / 2004)
- The Tempest (Derek Jarman / 1979)
- Teorema (Pier Paolo Pasolini / 1968)
- The Third Generation (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1979)
- Tous les Matins du Mond (Alain Corneau / 1991)
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (new, restored 40th anniversary edition) (Jacques Demy / 1964)
- Un Chant d'Amour (Jean Genet / 1950)
- Under the Sand (François Ozon / 2000)
- The Val Lewton Horror Collection (Cat People / The Curse of the Cat People / I Walked with a Zombie / The Seventh Victim / five more feature films and a new documentary) – Best DVD of 2005
- Veronika Voss (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1982)
- Victim (Basil Dearden / 1961)
- West Side Story (Robert Wise / 1961)
- Water Drops on Burning Rocks (François Ozon / 2000; based on an early Fassbinder play)
- Whity (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1971)
- Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? (Rainer Werner Fassbinder / 1970)
- FILMS BY ROBERT WISE – with an introduction to his exceptionally diverse career and brief reviews of (now 11) of his best and most representative films, including The Set-Up (1949), The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), West Side Story (1961), The Haunting (1963)
Coming Soon! Wittgenstein (Derek Jarman / 1993)- Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (Pedro Almodóvar / 1988)
- The World of Jacques Demy (Agnès Varda / 1995)
- Zachariah (George Englund / 1971)
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