Britain’s Network are releasing a lot of previously hard to find movies on disk. Two new Blu-rays, Peter Yates’ Robbery and Val Guest’s 80,000 Suspects, resurrect a couple of interesting titles from the ’60s.
Blu-rays from Network
Category: Review
Philip Ridley’s The Reflecting Skin (1990)
A new Blu-ray makes Philip Ridley’s elusive feature The Reflecting Skin available in a beautifully restored edition which includes several excellent supplements, including an illuminating commentary, a lengthy making-of documentary, and both if Ridley’s early short films.
Antonio Pietrangeli’s I Knew Her Well (1965): Criterion Blu-ray review
Criterion’s Blu-ray release of Antonio Pietrangeli’s I Knew Her Well (1965) reinforces the impression that this filmmaker has been almost criminally neglected as a major figure in Italian film.
Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence (2014)
Viewing the Indonesian genocide of 1965 from the victims’ point of view, Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Look of Silence is more devastating than his previous film, The Act of Killing, which dealt with the self-mythologizing of the murderers.
Criterion Blu-ray review: Jan Troell’s The Emigrants (1971) and The New Land (1972)
Criterion releases a superb Blu-ray edition of Jan Troell’s 2-part epic about poor Swedish farmers looking for a new life in the US in the mid-19th Century.
More from Twilight Time
Twilight Time revive Gordon Douglas’ The Detective starring Frank Sinatra and Michael Winner’s Scorpio starring Burt Lancaster, a couple of largely forgotten movies from the late ’60s and early ’70s in editions which highlight their interest as time capsules of attitudes and filmmaking styles which have since all but disappeared; and revisit Mysterious Island, one of Ray Harryhausen’s better movies, with a new edition featuring some interesting supplements.
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit (2015)
Despite facing a seemingly unending barrage of derision, M. Night Shyamalan continues to put out fine, underrated movies: The Visit is one of his best.
Criterion Blu-ray review: Giuseppe De Santis’ Bitter Rice (1949)
Giuseppe De Santis’ Bitter Rice (1949) expands the possibilities of neo-realism by incorporating elements of melodrama and film noir into the lives of women working in the rice fields of northern Italy.
Kinji Fukasaku’s Yakuza epic
Arrow releases yet another impressive limited edition box-set with their dual-format edition of Kinji Fukasaku’s Battles Without Honor and Humanity, a key work in the transition of Japanese cinema from the “classical” post-war period to a more transgressive critique of the nation’s history and culture.
Year End 2015
Although I saw fewer movies in theatres than ever, this year offered a rich array of films on disk, belying continuing prophecies of the medium’s demise in the face of on-line streaming.
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