The week’s DVDs begin in France:

DVDs and streaming for July 21 by Boo Allen

This week, we begin in France:

Life is a Bed of Roses (***1/2), Love Unto Death (**1/2)

The Cohen Film Collection continues its admirable practice of rescuing and releasing, or re-releasing in some cases, overlooked foreign nuggets. So far, their concentration has fallen mainly on French films. Here, two 1980s puzzlers from renowned director Alain Resnais (Last Year at Marienbad, Hiroshima, Mon Amour) receive a revival on two discs in a single package. Both films feature casts of familiar faces from Resnais’ works. Resnais flips among three narratives in Life is a Bed of Roses (1983, 111 minutes), but all three have a fantastical aura which makes the production seem like a fairy tale. In early 1914, shortly before an unscheduled interruption for World War I, a wealthy industrialist gathers friends to inaugurate the building of his dream castle, a wedding-cake confection that then serves as the setting for the film’s modern section. In that latter-day section, the film’s largest, an education conference takes place as various participants argue, make love, disappear, re-appear, and spout knowingly pretentious philosophies. Resnais also sporadically inserts a colorful fantasy sequence, truly a fairy tale, supposedly inspired by the works of French film pioneer George Méliès. The mixture sometimes strains for effect but mostly remains engaging. Whereas Life/Roses bounces merrily along, flipping from one outlandish sequence to another, Love/Death (1984, 93 minutes) plods ponderously and pretentiously. Simon (Pierre Arditi) dies, but quickly revives. Was he really dead? His attending physician says so, and so does Simon’s love, Elisabeth (Sabine Azéma). Simon then gains a zeal for life that, unfortunately for the film, causes him to reflect on the meaning of life, death, and all that might come between and before. Simon seeks counsel with his pastor-friend and his wife, Jerome and Judith (Andre Dussollier and Fanny Ardant, respectively, both of whom appear in the first movie). The film devolves into a meandering talk-fest until an irresponsible promise made by Elisabeth turns the third act into an overwrought melodrama.

Both films include critical commentary and re-release trailers.

White God (**)

This Hungarian Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominee provides some thrilling, even chilling moments. But, at its core, it’s little more than a girl-has-dog, girl-loses-dog, girl-finds-dog drama. The exciting moments, however, come not from the narrative or from the mostly unlikable characters but from the hordes of dogs used in the film. Rebellious thirteen year-old Lili (Zsófia Psotta) must stay with her cranky father when her mother goes out of town. But pop won’t let Lili bring her large, mixed-breed dog, Hagen, with her. So, despite her protestations, he abandons Hagen on the streets. Obviously, this release sets up the rest of the film as Lili neglects her schoolwork and friends, as well as her unreasonable father, to look for Hagen. The dog naturally ends up with the other mixed breed dogs let loose by owners subjected to a tax on non-pure breeds. Subsequently, writer-director Kornél Mundruczó choreographs, with the help of various trainers, several sequences in which dogs flood the streets. The images are powerful and real and also provide about the only reason to see the film that over-plays the emotions and isn’t hesitant to show staged but disturbing dog abuse.

Rated R, 116 minutes.

Extras: a 17 minute “behind-the-scenes” featurette, a 15 minute interview with director Kornél Mundruczó. A five minute interview with animal coordinator and technical adviser Teresa Ann Miller is the most interesting featurette, as she tells of working with 280 dogs.

And, finally, from this week’s TV arrivals:

Witches of East End—season two

The 13 episodes of the sophomore season of this serious yet fun series arrive on three discs. Julia Ormand again portrays Joanna, the matriarch of the Beauchamp family of Long Island’s North Hampton community. Joanna begins the season recovering, with help from Victor (Joel Gretsch), from the poisoning she suffered from Penelope (Virginia Madsen). Also this season, Joanna’s daughter Ingrid Beauchamp (Rachel Boston) moves out, Wendy Beauchamp (Mädchen Amick) and Tommy (Ignacio Serricchio) can’t agree on anything, Freya Beauchamp (Jenna Dewan Tatum) confronts Killian Gardiner (Daniel DiTomasso), Dash Gardiner (Eric Winter) plots revenge, and Frederick Beauchamp (Christian Cooke) returns. The season finally ends, after much time travel, with a race for survival for the Beauchamps.

Not rated, 585 minutes.

Also on DVD and streaming: Jauja, Kung Fu Killer, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2, What We Do In the Shadows.