DVDs, 6/24.

"Konrad Wolf's Solo Sunny was widely regarded at the time of its 1980 release as perhaps the best film to come out of the unhappy nation then known as East Germany, and with the passing of time the 'perhaps' might safely be removed," writes Dave Kehr in the New York Times. "On its surface the film is a Socialist reinterpretation of the highly romanticized youth films that flooded America in the early 70s - its heroine, Sunny (Renate Krössner), is a wide-eyed waif from the industrial provinces who dreams of becoming a pop star in the big city. But it is at heart a devastating study in social determinism, in direct line with the realist Kammerspiele films of the late Weimar period."

"The rediscovery of Classe Tous Risques is, in a way, doubly special, as it leads us to reexamine the work of someone who is not an acknowledged master," writes Andrew Chan at the House Next Door. "[Claude] Sautet's career is notable for its lack of ostentation.... What anchored his films was not the nouvelle vague's cinephilia or ideology, but rather the ordinary human concerns he found at the center of big genre constructions like the criminal underworld or the comic ménage a trois. For him, even the fantasies of genre were subject to the cruel disappointments of real life."

"No matter how slick a plan is, no matter how well it's executed, it's always the unexpected events, the things that you can't plan for that ultimately trip up the murderer's scheme." Guy Savage on the Noir of the Week: Elevator to the Gallows.

Ed Howard reviews Le Gai Savoir, "Godard's attempt to 'return to zero' at the end of the 60s, an attempt to both erase and rethink the 17 features he'd made during the previous decade."

Online viewing tip. C Mason Wells on Truffaut's Two English Girls. See also: Kevin Lee's notes.

At Twitch, Blake Ethridge talks with Alex Proyas about the director's cut of Dark City.

Glenn Kenny's "Monday Morning Foreign-Region DVD Report" this week features Hiroshi Shimizu Film Collection Volume One: Landscape: "The English language literature on Shimizu is sparse but growing, but film lovers won't need any of it to recognize a master; he's worth getting to know feet-first, as it were."

DVD roundups: Sean Axmaker (MSN), Monika Bartyzel (Cinematical), Paul Clark (Screengrab), DVD Talk and Peter Martin (Cinematical).

Posted by dwhudson at June 24, 2008 9:39 AM