DVDs, 11/27.

"It was the autumn of 1952, and with a bad conscience, a rocky relationship, and little work for him in Stockholm, Bergman set to work on synthesizing all of this guilt, betrayal, and dissatisfaction into the first major work of his career." Leo Goldsmith at Not Coming to a Theater Near You on Sawdust and Tinsel: "[T]his is the world of all of Bergman's subsequent masterpieces, fully formed, if more savage on its surface."

More from Fernando F Croce at Slant: "It's easy to see why the film became one of Bergman's popular early successes: There's still a reliance on ponderous metaphors (phallic cannons, a scurvy old bear, a return-to-the-womb dream) that Bergman would prune as he moved toward the asceticism of the 1960s, but there's also a new intensity and directness of feeling, expressed in a series of powerhouse one-on-ones."

Updated through 11/28.

"It's been nearly two years since we started running our list of the '100 Greatest Films to Build Your DVD Collection,'" writes Tom Charity in the Vancouver Sun. "So, it's about time we confessed to a few infractions and inconsistencies." Take those into account and download the list as a PDF.

For IFC News, Michael Atkinson reviews Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Our Hitler, "an astounding, intellectually adventurous monument, and obviously a cinephile's required viewing, if in fact the cinephile in question wants to remain worthy of the label," and Peter Watkins's The Freethinker, "a four-and-a-half-hour essay on the life and legacy of August Strindberg, famed Swedish playwright, controversial misanthrope, notoriously disastrous family man and self-destructive genius. But it's not a straight-on mock-doc - like Syberberg's gargantua, it's a collage of formal ideas, mixing faux-documentary elements with cohesive dramatization, archival footage, photos, huge chunks of Strindbergian text, direct camera address, group discussions, documentary footage of the making of the film itself, texts by Watkins about Strindberg, the film and Watkins's outrageous, but indisputable, summary evaluation of modern media, and so on, at Herculean length and with the defiant seriousness of an obsessive Luddite."

This week, the New York Times' Dave Kehr reviews Akira Kurosawa's Drunken Angel, "his first to feel solidly like a Kurosawa movie" (more from Fernando F Croce in Slant), A Cottage on Dartmoor, revealing an Anthony Asquith who "still seems drunk on the possibilities of cinematic form," and Curtis Harrington's The Killing Kind, "an overlooked independent release from 1973... Harrington expertly balances camp humor and shocking cruelty to create a disturbing little movie that merits rediscovery."

"Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices is a typically ludicrous [Werner] Herzog production, stretching credibility to such a degree that I was surprised to find out, in research after the documentary, that a great deal of the film was actually true," writes Ed Howard.

"We, the viewers of today, like the viewers of yesterday (or the year the film was completed, 1977), can't see this film because nothing in it is recognizable." The film is Killer of Sheep. Charles Mudede explains in the Stranger. Related: Alex at motion picture, it's called on My Brother's Wedding.

"Visually there is plenty to appreciate and enjoy with Pickup on South Street but [Sam] Fuller's use of the close-up is the visual element that resonates deepest with me," writes Steve-O at Noir of the Week. Related: Annie Nocenti at Stop Smiling on Fuller's novel, The Dark Page.

Back in Slant, Rob Humanick recommends the Ultimate Edition of Nosferatu.

Dennis Lim spells out what makes for a good - and bad - set of DVD extras. Also in the Los Angeles Times: Casey Dolan's list of notable titles and sets slated for release just in time for Christmas and a shopping guide from Noel Murray.

"It's the dirty little secret that the DVD industry doesn't want you to know about, the scam that gives them more than one crack at your entertainment dollar while conning you into thinking you're getting more cinematic bang for your beleaguered buck." Bill Gibron at PopMatters on "The 'Unrated' Conspiracy."

DVD roundups: Bryant Frazer; and as always, keep an eye on the Guru.

Updates: John Waters has a list of DVD recommendations for NPR.

Jeff watches the second volume of The Films of Kenneth Anger at Cinema Strikes Back.

Bill Weber in Slant: "As part of this season's revival of Bobmania, 65 Revisited confirms the icon as a willing confessor of the calculation in his rich mythos." More from Camille Dodero in the Voice: "Watch these 63 minutes for the first time and you'll be haunted at least once by Cate Blanchett's Dylan avatar Jude Quinn."

Peter Martin writes up the "Indies on DVD" released today for Cinematical.

Dave Kehr on the state of the Ford a Fox box so far: "Having watched The Iron Horse in the new Fox version (with its excellent orchestral score by Christopher Caliendo), I can say with some confidence that Ford's first epic (the fourth of five features he would release in 1925) remains an astounding achievement, a suite of embedded narratives that expand and comment on each other, as audacious in its way as Griffith's Intolerance."

Update, 11/28: "[H]aving just watched Sawdust and Tinsel, a key developmental work for Bergman and yet probably the weakest of the many films I've seen by him, I nevertheless remain more convinced than ever that Bergman is a cinematic great," writes Ed Howard.

Posted by dwhudson at November 27, 2007 2:31 AM