Politics | Cagey Films

World Cinema Project 4: Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on September 28, 2022September 27, 2022 by Kenneth George Godwin

Servant Kanizak (Shohreh Aghdashlou) schemes for power in Mohammad Reza Aslani’s Chess of the Wind (1979)

With their fourth set of World Cinema Project restorations, Criterion again present a fascinating collection of films from different periods and different cultures: two features from post-colonial Africa which illuminate the complex effects of tradition distorted by colonial influences; a South American movie which also deals with colonialism and the exploitation of labour; a pre-war Hungarian feature about two women struggling to survive in a city towards the end of the Depression; an Indian film exploring myth and the politics of Independence and partition through music and dance; and a pre-revolutionary film from Iran which uses melodrama as a metaphor for the nation’s transition from feudalism to modernity.

Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on September 29, 2021September 28, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Martin von Essenbeck (Helmut Berger) provides entertainment at a family gathering in Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969)

Criterion’s new Blu-ray presents Luchino Visconti’s darkly perverse The Damned in a new 2K restoration whose dense colours emphasize the gloom hanging over a powerful German industrial family collapsing under the weight of its own decadence as the Nazis consolidate their political power in the early 1930s.

Bill Duke’s Deep Cover (1992): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on July 17, 2021July 16, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Laurence Fishburne as conflicted cop Russell Stevens Jr. in Bill Duke's Deep Cover (1992)

Director Bill Duke uses a mixture of film noir and blaxploitation tropes to explore the political complexities of being Black in the U.S. in Deep Cover (1992), his neon-tinted crime drama about an undercover cop (Laurence Fishburne) infiltrating the West Coast cocaine trade, now released in an extras-loaded 4K restoration by Criterion.

John Ford at Columbia 1935-1958: Indicator Blu-ray

Posted on May 12, 2021May 11, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Chief Inspector George Gideon (Jack Hawkins) knows that Joanna Delafield (Dianne Foster) is involved in a series of robberies in John Ford's Gideon's Day (1958)

Indicator’s four-disk John Ford at Columbia 1935-1958 box set raises some interesting questions about the nature of auteurism and how the ways in which a filmmaker comes to be defined influence how different films are viewed. Two of the movies in the set – The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) and Gideon’s Day (1958) – tend to be seen as minor and extraneous to Ford’s core body of work, yet both are among his most entertaining even if they don’t advance his familiar thematic preoccupations.

Ousmane Sembene’s Mandabi (1968): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on February 13, 2021December 25, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Ibrahim Dieng (Makhouredia Gueye) is at the mercy of a post-colonial society in Ousmane Sembene's Mandabi (1968)

Known as the “father of African cinema”, Ousmane Sembene’s films grapple with issues of identity in the complex social and political conditions of post-colonial Africa. His second feature (and first in colour) Mandabi (1968) is a tragi-comedy about a proud man clinging to an outmoded patriarchal role whose life is upended when a nephew working in France sends him a money order for 25,000 francs.

Alan Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on February 10, 2021February 9, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) undergoes a final psychological test in Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View (1974)

The quintessential ’70s paranoid thriller, Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974), gets a stunning restoration on Criterion’s new Blu-ray.

Miguel Llansó’s trash aesthetic

Posted on November 4, 2020March 23, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

The Soviet Union virus (Ciaron Davies) tries to seduce Agent D.T. Gagano (Daniel Tadesse) with power in Miguel Llanso's Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (2019)

Once again, Arrow Video introduces me to a previously unknown filmmaker whose work is wildly imaginative, playful and challenging. Their two-disk set of Miguel Llansó’s Crumbs (2015) and Jesus Shows You the Way to the Highway (2019) is one of the year’s most engaging releases.

World Cinema Project 3: Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on October 7, 2020April 7, 2021 by Kenneth George Godwin

... but Lucia (Adela Legra) refuses to be tied down in Humberto Solas' Lucia (1968)

With volume 3 of their World Cinema Project box sets, Criterion has released another treasure trove of largely unknown (in the West) features spanning five decades and six countries, from the Expressionist horror of Mexico’s Dos Monjes (1934) to the Neo-realist horrors of life on Brazil’s streets in Hector Babenco’s Pixote (1980), with stops in between in Indonesia, Iran, Mauritania and Cuba.

Bleak Britain

Posted on June 10, 2020June 9, 2020 by Kenneth George Godwin

Mrs Ross (Edith Evans) lives in a world beset by forces beyond her control in Bryan Forbes' The Whisperers (1967)

The British have a tendency to indulge in miserablism, a characteristic that filmmakers have been turning into powerful dramatic art for decades. Bryan Forbes’ The Whisperers (1967) and Ray Davies’ Return to Waterloo (1984) approach it from very different directions, but both create powerful portraits of people living depressing lives.

Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Teorema (1968): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on February 29, 2020February 29, 2020 by Kenneth George Godwin

The Visitor (Terence Stamp) attracts people with his ethereal air in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema (1968)

Criterion has released Teorema (1968), one of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s most engaging yet enigmatic films, in an excellent Blu-ray edition, featuring a 4K restoration, a commentary and several interview featurettes which tackle the film’s ambiguous allegory of Capitalism and religion.

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