Renoir / DVDs, 4/24.

"To mark the release of the Jean Renoir Collector's Edition from Lionsgate, a three-disc set featuring five features and two shorts straddling the reaches of his career, I've taken the opportunity to look back on his career, or at least those films now available to us on DVD," writes Sean Axmaker at the main site. "Between Lionsgate (which secured its prints from Studio Canal in France) and Criterion, a rich collection of Renoir's cinematic canvases are available in superior home video prints."

Updated through 4/27.

In the New York Times, Dave Kehr explains why this set is such a bargain and pinpoints what's remarkable in the first and last images, chronologically, of the entire package. Also, though directed by Robert Stevenson, the 1944 version of Jane Eyre can pretty much be seen as an Orson Welles film "in disguise."

Hacking Democracy is "a terrifying HBO doc about the slow ascension of computerized voting machines, and how much rank dirt has been dug up in the process about how ineptly they're programmed and how much outrageous political skullduggery gone into the deal, leading to inevitable accusations (let's make that 'criminal charges') about the degree to which machine-makers like Diebold had been conceiving of these modern miracles as election-stealers from their very inception," writes Michael Atkinson at IFC News. "Sometime before the primaries begin, the movie should be seen by every client of American democracy." Also, another fine rant sparked by Al Franken: God Spoke.

"One of the best scenes in last year's best movie - Children of Men - is in the deleted scenes." Nick Rombes explains.

Arthur Ryel-Lindsey on James Cagney: Signature Collection at Slant: "No actor had more fight in such a small package. None was as scrappy or as capable at throwing his weight around with menace or grace, depending on the scene.... If the cinema were a boxing match, Cagney would be the pound-for-pound champ. And he'd be sure to mention Brooklyn along the way."

"I had the opportunity to meet [Kenneth] Anger in Telluride in 1975," writes Peter Nellhaus. "While keeping a respectful distance from them, I watched Anger and Stan Brakhage, two old friends, conversing. I felt like I was a privileged observer of two artistic giants. For Anger and Brakhage, it was a personal moment, while for myself it was witnessing the reunion of the two most revered names in personal filmmaking." As for Films of Kenneth Anger, Volume 1, "While others have perceptively written about Kenneth Anger, it's nice to be able to see or re-see the films with Anger himself discussing his work."

John Adair on A Moment of Innocence: "There is something false in the filming of any image, but [Mohsen] Makhmalbaf attempts to drive at the truthful portrayal of his actors even as they exist in the midst of this false environment."

"Overlord is striking in its originality and meditative tone and just cynical enough to acknowledge the beauty that often accompanies the most horrible acts of mass human cruelty," writes Josh Rosenblatt in the Austin Chronicle.

Nick Davis watches Martha Fiennes's Onegin, "a gorgeous and beautifully judged rendering of Pushkin's classic novel in verse."

The Self-Styled Siren watches Macao: "Like Come and Get It, this is a movie that was taken away from one celebrated director and finished by another, Nicholas Ray. Unlike the logging epic, with this one you don't get a clear stylistic delineation. There are Sternberg moments, and Not Sternberg moments. Little or nothing suggests Ray's innovative framing, his characters' intense sexuality or his interest in the psychology of violence. The younger director appears to have phoned in Macao from a very, very long-distance connection."

"Despite a shoestring budget, hokey models, and slapdash special effects, The Atomic Submarine delivers enough creative storytelling techniques and efficient acting to transform potentially inane set pieces into engrossing adventures," writes Thomas Scalzo. Also at Not Coming to a Theater Near You, Rumsey Taylor on Corridors of Blood.

DVD roundups: Sean Axmaker at MSN Movies, DVD Talk, Bill Gibron at PopMatters, Movie City News and Susan King in the Los Angeles Times.

Updates, 4/25: Premiere's Glenn Kenny on the Renoir set: "Yes, the appeal to Renoirphiles is substantial — one wouldn't want to recommend this as a starter set to those who haven't yet seen Illusion or Rules. But one doesn't want to identify its value as strictly academic either. Le Marseillaise is, in particular, a revelatory picture. It's a humanistic but hardly uncritical look at Versailles and the seedbeds of the French Revolution that anticipates both neo-realism and that bit of dialogue from Rules stating that everyone has their reasons."

"The Siren registers polite disagreement with Dave Kehr of the New York Times, and his review yesterday of new DVDs. I hope he didn't mean it when he said that the 1948 Anna Karenina and the double DVD set of the 1935 and 1952 Les Misérables were destined to sit 'somewhere on a back shelf in high school libraries, to be shown whenever an English teacher feels like taking an afternoon off.' Both releases have a great deal to offer film lovers."

Update, 4/27: Susan King reviews the Renoir set for the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at April 24, 2007 2:40 PM