DVDs, 3/4.

"The German Expressionist film was born on Feb 27, 1920, when The Cabinet of Dr Caligari received its first public screening at the Marmorhaus, a Berlin theater." The New York Times' Dave Kehr offers a guide to Kino's German Expressionism Collection: "[T]hese films converse between themselves in illuminating ways and reward a sequential viewing."

Related: The DPA reports (in German) on the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Stiftung's ongoing restoration of Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen. One revelation so far: Kremhild was stabbed! The restored version is due in theaters next year, with a DVD to follow.

At IFC News, Michael Atkinson looks back to when Ernst Lubitsch "came off a string of fiercely witty silent farces in Expressionism-era Germany and arrived in 1923 Hollywood to direct one lavishly praised and audience beloved hit after another. He even jumped to sound with uncanny ease a few years later, and virtually invented, in his own Teutonic-vaudeville way, the movie musical." Also reviewed is Kilometre Zero, Hiner Saleem's "return to Iraq, and in 86 lean, sand-blasted minutes he takes on the memories of the Saddam regime as experienced by a luckless Kurd during the Iran-Iraq War of the 80s."

The Self-Styled Siren argues that The Letter "is not a mere melodrama, not just a Bette Davis vehicle, nor a dated back-number that's lost some of its juice. It's a masterpiece, with layer on layer of images and themes that touch on colonialism, marriage and the lives of women."

For Dennis Lim, Sidney Lumet's 12 Angry Men "remains one of the more entertaining civics lessons Hollywood has produced, a simple but effective illustration of due process in action."

Also in the Los Angeles Times, Sheri Linden talks with Bob Newhart about his sitcoms.

Glenn Kenny's "Monday Morning Foreign-Region DVD Report": 10 Rillington Place, Richard Fleischer's "British-made account of a very British true-life criminal and his awful true-life crimes."

"After seeing The Young Ones for the first time, I had thought I had seen the missing link between The Band Wagon and A Hard Day's Night," writes Peter Nellhaus.

DVD roundups: Sean Axmaker, Paul Clark (ScreenGrab), the LAT, Peter Martin (Cinematical) and Slant.

And as always, do consult the Guru.

Posted by dwhudson at March 4, 2008 7:43 AM