This week’s DVDs begin in Israel:
DVDs
for July 24 by Boo Allen
This week we begin in Israel:
Footnote (***1/2)
This Israeli Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee
examines a delicate balancing act between a domineering father and
his complacent son. In the cleverly rendered tale by writer-director
Joseph Cedar, the son learns that a prestigious prize for scholarship
was mistakenly given to his father, landing the younger man in a
moral quandary. The son, a Talmudic scholar, then struggles with
telling his father, hiding the discovery, or even moving on to
another option. The well paced, minutely observed film maintains a
healthy dose of often raucous humor, while also pungently commenting
on universal human behavior.
Rated PG, 103 minutes. The DVD includes a 24 minute
“behind-the-scenes” featurette and a ten minute conversation with Joseph Cedar.
B.B.C. Home Entertainment releases two separate discs of their fine dramas,
and they both focus on unusual relationships while also being based
on notable pieces of literature.
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister (****), Madame Bovary (****)
In the colorful historical drama Anne Lister,
Maxine Peake plays Anne, a free-spirited woman who left behind
diaries outlining her then-scandalous life in the early 1800s. The
journals were written in code, using Greek and Algebra symbols, and
were not decoded until the 20th century and not published until about
20 years ago. The diaries, and the film, chronicle Lister’s daily
life with her aunt and uncle. When he dies, leaving her as owner of a
large estate, she ignores society’s restraints and lives as she
wants. Consequently, she takes various lovers and virtually ignores
public opprobrium. Director James Kent convincingly conveys the mores
of the times, while Peake gives a convincing performance as an
independent and intelligent yet passionate woman. In the sumptuous
production of Madame Bovary, Frances O’Connor plays
French novelist Gustave Flaubert’s great creation, with Hugh
Bonneville (the Earl of Grantham of Downton Abbey) as
her boorish, country doctor husband. Director Tim Fywell, with help
from a spirited performance from O’Connor, renders an earthy Emma
Bovary, filled with ardor and sexual desire, particularly for her
succession of two lovers (Greg Wise, Hugh Dancy).
The Secret Diaries of Miss Anne Lister: 91
minutes. Plus: a 60 minute documentary on Lister’s diaries along with
nine minutes with Maxine Peake talking with James Kent.
Madame Bovary: 152 minutes. Plus: a 30
minute analysis on Flaubert, his life in his native Rouen, and the
novel widely considered the first great modern novel.
Jean Grémillon: During the Occupation:
Remorques (***1/2), Le Ciel Est À Vous (***), Lumière D’Été (***1/2)
On their movie-only Eclipse label, The Criterion
Collection has individually assembled three fine films by a now
overlooked French director. Made during Germany’s World War II
occupation of France, the trio displays the versatility Jean
Grémillon learned from
his many years in film, starting during the silent era and going
through his years as an editor and documentarian. In Remorques
(1941, 81 minutes), Jean Gabin stars as Andre, the
rough-edged owner of a tugboat who leaves a wedding party, along with
most of the male guests, to rescue a floundering vessel during a
storm. The other boat’s captain swindles Andre, who, while his wife
(Madeleine Renuad) suffers at home, takes revenge later by becoming
involved with the man’s wife Catherine (Michele Morgan). In Le
Ciel Est À
Vous (1944, 107 minutes), a former pilot during World War I
and now small town mechanic (Charles Vanel) begins flying again much
to his wife’s (Madeleine Renaud, again) disapproval. But their
relationship as well as their home life takes a dramatic turn when
she becomes an even more obsessed pilot. In Lumière
D’Été (1943, 110 minutes), considered Grémillion’s
best film, he mixes unequal parts Rules of the Game,
Grand Hotel and a Feydeau farce. When a group gathers at a
mountain resort, five members become involved in an on-going romantic
drama, with one woman (Madeleine Robinson) being pursued by a local
nobleman (Paul Bernard), a construction worker (George Marchal) and
her artistic boyfriend (Pierre Brasseur). The Nazis would not let the
film remain in circulation, censoring it until after the war.
Like last year’s Another Earth and Melancholia,
the following two films use an impending apocalypse to tell a
personal story, and they both take place almost entirely in an
apartment. In the first, it is done for quirky laughs, while the
second succumbs to absurd melodrama.
Extraterrestrial (***)
A couple wakes up in a Madrid apartment after a one
night stand to discover a giant spaceship hovering over the city and,
reportedly, other places around the world. Soon after, the woman’s
boyfriend returns home. Eventually, the trio suspects another
neighbor of being an alien. It’s all enjoyable nonsense accentuated
by an oblique love story complemented by minimal special effects.
Not rated, 90 minutes. The DVD includes a 24 minute
“making of” featurette and four short films by director Nacho
Vigalondo.
4:44 Last Day on Earth (*1/2)
Abel Ferrara wrote and directed this dreary story of two
people (Willem Dafoe, Shanyn Leigh) in a New York apartment as night
bleeds into the next morning when the ozone layer will disappear at
4:44, taking the earth with it. In the interim, they make love, eat,
talk to friends and relatives on the phone, and even leave the
apartment to walk on the roof and visit neighbors, empty exercises
which lead nowhere.
Not rated, 85 minutes.
Brake (**1/2)
Much like Ryan Reynolds in 2010’s Buried,
Stephen Dorff, as Jeremy, wakes to find himself enclosed. But instead
of a coffin, he is in a transparent box trapped in a car trunk.
Director Gabe Torres gives Jeremy just enough equipment to flesh out
the story, providing him with a cell phone, a light, and other
distractions until he finally leaves to surprising discoveries. But
while trapped, Jeremy must deal with kidnapped loved ones and
co-workers, an assassination plot on the presidency, and a terrorist
attack.
Rated R, 91 minutes. The DVD includes commentary, a 24
minute “making of” featurette, band a brief music video.
On the Inside (**1/2)
Nick Stahl, a fine actor who always seems perched on the edge of greater
stardom, stars as a man who takes revenge for his girlfriend’s rape
but mistakenly kills the wrong man. Instead of jail, he ends up in a
mental institution where, in a joint program, he meets and connects
with another patient, bi-polar Mia (Olivia Wilde). While their
unlikely love blossoms, various acts of violence by the inmates erupt
inside.
Rated R, 90 minutes. The DVD includes commentary.
Also on DVD: Boss—season one, The Deep Blue Sea, Jiro Dreams of Sushi,