DVDs, 9/21.

Among a relatively light load of DVD releases this week are Criterion's discs of Victor Erice's highly esteemed Spirit of the Beehive from 1973 and Nobuno Nakagawa's maudit horror film Jigoku from 1960. Reviewer Fusion3600 at DVD Authority comes to the conclusion that the "genesis of the fear and dread" in Spirit of the Beehive "is Frankenstein's monster from the movie, but this movie doesn't focus on a monster, the real focus is death. The subject is dealt with in an honest fashion, but still a quite childlike fashion. There is fear to be sure, but there is also deep fascination, as the children delve deeper to try to uncover the truth." Fusion also found the supplements light but effective.

At the DVD Journal, Mark Bourne, in a lengthy consideration of the film, determines that "looking for Erice's coded subversive critiques of the Franco government is one of the film's headier pleasures," and that the film is "a visually striking sketch of childhood at the place where childhood fantasy and bullet-hard reality come together. How those two opposites blend and shape one another gives us a graceful, lyrical masterpiece wound around one of the most natural and engrossing performances by a child actor we've ever seen."

For Jigoku, DVD Verdict's Brett Cullum traces the film's influence on later J-Horror films. "This film defined Japanese horror for many years to come. Strange camera angles, spiritual torture, and crazy narrative edits are all in place as the reels unfold. Westerners may find the symbols and subtle clues impenetrable, but interests will pique once the torture begins," adding that "Jigoku is entertaining and completely over the top. Anyone expecting a slow-paced, classical-feeling foreign film will be shocked to find out that the plot writhes and turns at an almost breakneck pace." DVD Talk's Glenn Erickson, the DVD Savant, determines that "Nakagawa's Hell is an almost random array of ghastly, garish visions laid out in widescreen tableaux," and notes that the film actually predates similar gore films such as those by Herschell Gordon Lewis. Erickson also helpfully tracks the history of the Criterion disc: "Disc producer Marc Walkow began work on the title over two years ago, when Criterion was planning a second branded label called 'Eclipse' to handle genre cinema. The focus was eventually changed to include more general overlooked and lesser-known cinema, a category for which Jigoku certainly qualifies. Eclipse hasn't been abandoned altogether, but both this film and Equinox were re-routed to the standard Criterion banner."

And finally, over at the DVD Journal, Gregory P Dorr takes a look at The Devil and Daniel Johnston, calling it "one of the best recent musical documentaries," adding that director Jeff Feuerzeig "fashions an exceptional profile of this most bizarre character - whose cult-fueled career has been defined by his severe bouts with mental illness - in a portrait that should deeply touch Johnston's fans while also relating to the uninitiated why this offbeat and troubled performer is held in such high esteem by his peers."

Earlier: In Rouge 9, Alain Bergala and Miguel Marías on Erice and Kiarostami; in Rouge 4, Erice himself; in the Voice, Michael Atkinson on Spirit; Peter Lennon's 2003 interview for the Guardian.

And then there's David D'Arcy's interview with Jeff Feuerzeig.

Posted by dwhudson at September 21, 2006 1:11 AM