DVDs, 10/3.

First stop will have to be the Parallax View, where you'll find Richard T Jameson's lengthy 1975 piece on Nashville for Movietone News and another, this one from 1979, on Apocalypse Now for Seattle's Weekly.

"It's a rare and welcome event when merchandisers get product so good as to sell itself," writes John McElwee. "Witness for the Prosecution was that kind of gift for United Artists. They actually gave away tickets (seven thousand in NYC) so as to generate what they knew would be positive word-of-mouth. The offer was floated on Times pages other than amusement oriented ones in hopes of luring viewers not otherwise inclined to follow movies.... Witness for the Prosecution had class and mass appeal."

In the New York Times, Dave Kehr looks back on early British cinema, specifically, "the era of the 'quota quickie,' cheap little movies made solely to fulfill the demands of the 1927 Cinematographic Film Act, which required that 5 percent of the movies on British screens actually be British.... Like American B movies, the quota quickies were, among other things, perfect training grounds for those crucial directorial virtues of speed and economy."

"Confident enough to simply suggest the fantastical and never nail it down, and nervy enough to quote Jean Vigo's L'Atalante in the end, Jellyfish is rich with motifs and mysteries, and displays a sweet, patient personality," writes Michael Atkinson for IFC. Related: Gary M Kramer talks with co-director Etgar Keret for Film International.

Michael Atkinson also reviews Snow Angels: "In this kind of movie, convincing realism is 90% of the battle - we know these people, even if the story's fire alarms feel a little forced and predictable."

Michael Wood in the London Review of Books on Criterion's recent round of Max Ophüls releases: "[T]he real discovery among these films for me was the first part of Le Plaisir, the only one of the set I hadn't seen before."

"The Fall commemorates the point at which film began to assume some of the responsibilities previously held by oral storytelling traditions," writes Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman. "The picture's allusions to great moments in cinema - a horse suspended in its harness, from Sergei Eisenstein's October; the Vertigo shot of a woman plummeting from a bell-tower; the Wizard of Oz touch of having characters from Alexandria's daily life reappear in the story-within-the-film - carry such resonance because these are our stories round the campfire, our paintings on cave walls."

Back to Film International, where you'll find Bryan Nixon on Inland Empire, Deirdre Devers on The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and Daniel O'Brien on lots and lots of Peter Greenaway.

"The film version of The Holcroft Covenant interested me for several reasons," writes Vince Keenan. "A startling array of talent, for one thing. Directed by John Frankenheimer. A script labored on by a trio of writers I admire: George Axelrod, Edward Anhalt (Panic in the Streets, The Sniper), and John Hopkins (The Offence). Michael Caine at the height of what I call his blazer years, when he played a series of men caught up in international intrigue while looking smashing in navy sports coats."

Larry Gross wraps the 48 Hrs Journals at Movie City News. Ten parts, and quite a tale.

DK Holm recommends brushing up on your Edgar Wallace.

"Just as Bruce Springsteen's Live: 1975 - 85 box set drove lots of rock fans to buy a compact-disc player back in the mid-80s, so I suspect the Coppola Restoration of the Godfather trilogy will compel lots of film lovers to buy a Blu-ray disc player today," writes Fred Kaplan at Slate. "It should."

DVD roundups: The AV Club, Sean Axmaker, Movie City News, PopMatters and James Van Maanen.

And of course, keep an eye on the Guru.

Posted by dwhudson at October 3, 2008 9:46 AM