DVDs, 2/5.

"The films produced by Edwin Thanhouser during the Teens may seem fragile in their faded beauty and quaint devices, but their very age and quaintness become strengths to those of us who admire the style and vigor of silent cinema, when rules were made and broken with each new weekly release." Michael Barrett has an extensive review of a three-volume collection in PopMatters.

"I've been watching two recent DVDs on the early history of sound and color," writes Kristin Thompson who, along with David Bordwell, has been revising Film History: An Introduction for an upcoming third edition. Reviews of Discovering Cinema and A Century of Sound: The History of Sound in Motion Pictures: The Beginning: 1876 - 1932 follow, along with comments on the supplements packaged together with The Jazz Singer.

"Fifteen years after its release, Groundhog Day seems as strange and singular as ever: a Hollywood romantic comedy that could double as a Zen koan or an existential nightmare, depending on how you look at it," writes Dennis Lim in the Los Angeles Times. "[T]he genius of [Harold] Ramis and Danny Rubin's script is that, unlike most Hollywood films that flirt with the metaphysical, it never attempts to explain how or why its hero is confined to an eternal present.... Seen one way, it's an inspiring parable of human perfectability. Even a jerk like Phil has the potential to emerge finally as a paragon of decency. But the message is, of course, double-edged. It's the kind of transformative feat that might require endless tries, if not several lifetimes."

Related: Jason Kottke: "Jamie Zawinski reckons that Bill Murray re-lived February 2nd for at least 4 years in Groundhog Day." As it happens, Rubin comments: "[I]t lasted about ten years." It's an interesting entry, and so are the comments that follow. Via Waxy.org.

Dave Kehr in the New York Times on Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: "With its vision of nature in Dionysian riot, its chorus lines of extravagantly costumed peasants and its shifting point of view, it is hard to tell where ethnography ends in this extraordinary film, and where fantasy begins."

Katherine Follett at Not Coming to a Theater Near You on Withnail & I: "It seems that the real power of this film lies not in its extremism, but conversely in the way it sits just at the far edge of reality, the edge that is barely on the savable side of sanity. The craziness is kept in check so that the characters and their situation remain unsettlingly familiar, with a feeling of 'there but for the grace of God go I.'"

"This week Media Blasters released the first film in the Delinquent Girl Boss movie series called Delinquent Girl Boss: Blossoming Night Dreams (Zubeko Bancho: Yumei Wa Yoru Hiraku, 1970) on DVD and it's my DVD Pick of the Week," announces Kimberly Lindbergs. "Due to a rather loose script, the film doesn't exactly pack the same powerful dramatic punch that Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless To Confess had, but the movie still features some really impressive visuals and great musical numbers that more than make up for the writing. Overall it's a terrific addition to the slowly growing stable of pinky violence films now available on DVD in the US and it's sure to impress anyone who enjoys the films of the talented Japanese director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi."

In the Voice, Nathan Lee argues that one way into Kent Jones's work on Val Lewton: The Man in the Shadows is via his previous approach to John Carpenter.

This week's "Foreign Region DVD Report" from Glenn Kenny is all about Marketa Lazarova: "It's not, obviously, as if Frantisek Vasil's film contains the most staggering/jaw-dropping imagery in the history of cinema... it's more that it contains the most consistent succession of staggering/jaw-dropping images."

"Seethingly articulate yet lyrically at a loss, [Rocket Science] chronicles a very particular high school tribulation, and yet it's so finely and generously observed that it feels universal," writes Michael Atkinson at IFC News. Also, "Chris Gorak's Right at Your Door is an active demonstration of what can be accomplished with little more than a potent idea."

Billy Stevenson on Mr Smith Goes to Washington: "Filtered through [Smith's] eyes, Washington DC takes on the majesty of Ancient Greece, with the Lincoln Memorial as its Acropolis, producing a political sublime that elevates every constitutional pronouncement to a marble incision. This beatification of language completes You Can't Take It With You's transference of culpability from the media to the 'business machine.'"

Kevin Kelly on Deep Water: "Finally, a documentary with as many unexpected plot twists and turns as a scripted film."

DVD roundups: Cinema Strikes Back, Paul Clark (ScreenGrab), DVD Talk, Bryant Frazer, Peter Martin (Cinematical) and Slant.

And of course, always keep an eye on the Guru.

Posted by dwhudson at February 5, 2008 2:46 PM