DVDs, 12/28.

"Arguably the last half-century's least seen, least documented, and most marginalized filmmaking master, ex-Englishman-cum-global-exile Peter Watkins has finally emerged on the public radar as a titanic figure to be reckoned with, a slow burn that began when his six-hour epic La Commune (Paris, 1871) began touring world festivals in 2001 after being, typically, dumped by the French TV networks for which it was made," writes Michael Atkinson in the Stranger. "Up to then, and having endured every form of media and bureaucratic blackout conceivable, Watkins was famous here only for Edvard Munch (1974), a massive, Norwegian-made historical tapestry that is an easily declared champion in the Greatest Artist Biopic Ever drag."

"What's in Your DVD Player, David Cronenberg?" asks Sean Axmaker at MSN.

Why did Two-Lane Blacktop die "a quick death at the box office" in the summer of '71, never to be seen again, at least on video, until 1999? Elbert Ventura offers a theory or two in Slate: "Two-Lane Blacktop held up a mirror, and the audience didn't like what it saw: a counterculture whose rejection of society had curdled into soul-killing solipsism." It was "a meditative and elliptical mood piece in a crowd of rowdy and flashy peers - a sui generis convergence of Antonioni and Americana."

"Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes, and the first animated film to ever be considered for such an honor, Fantastic Planet made an unprecedented impact upon its initial release, though its handful of elements that are inappropriate for kids - like the nudity, philosophical digressions and rampant death - probably handicapped it in terms of its staying power in the cartoon canon," writes Josef Braun in the Vue Weekly. "Neither an easily digestible family film nor a raunchy, Ralph Bakshi sort of R-rated film, it hovers in its own bizarre little universe, slowly nurturing its small cult following, which will hopefully continue to grow with the release of Accent Cinema's nicely supplemented new DVD."

Wells Dunbar in the Austin Chronicle on Kino's edition of the restored Nosferatu: "One of the most influential films of all time, it's almost superfluous to discuss the film itself and its considerable merits. But if anything, this crystalline edition imprints Murnau's fascination with nature's grotesqueries - carnivorous plants, plague rats, and tentacled polyps, not to mention the titular bloodsucker - even deeper on the psyche."

"In my opinion, It's a Wonderful Life is a masterpiece, but a disturbing one," writes Graham Fuller in the Guardian, tracing the history of the critical reception of "the beloved Christmas movie, one of the most iconic and misunderstood in American cinema."

DVD roundup: Peter Sobczynski at Hollywood Bitchslap.

Posted by dwhudson at December 28, 2007 4:32 PM