Blind Husbands/The Great Gabbo (DVD)
$21.57
»
Blind Husbands/The Great Gabbo (DVD)
This special double feature contains two Erich von Stroheim classics: BLIND HUSBANDS and THE GREAT GABBO.BLIND HUSBANDS (1919)Erich von Stroheim wrote, directed and starred in this sly romantic drama, which was also his first film as a director. Von Stroheim stars as von Steuben, a Prussian officer who pursues a surgeon's wife while the couple is on vacation in the Alps. After successfully seducing the wife, Mrs. Armstrong, von Steuben decides to further emasculate Dr. Armstrong by challenging him to a series of contests. Von Stroheim's first film is filled with the director's signature themes and finds him already experimenting with the cinematic techniques he would perfect in his later masterpieces.THE GREAT GABBO (1929)This bizarre drama/musical stars Erich von Stroheim as the volatile ventriloquist The Great Gabbo. Along with his dummy Otto, Gabbo has become a supremely successful act at a popular nightclub. Unfailingly cruel to his colleagues, Gabbo begins a sadistic relationship with one of the club's young ingenue. Unfortunately, Gabbo's self-imposed loneliness has led him to rely more and more on Otto, whom he begins to treat like a real person. Filled with grandly staged musical numbers and featuring a diabolical lead performance by von Stroheim, THE GREAT GABBO is one of the forgotten treasures produced by Hollywood during the early days of sound features.DVD Features:Region 0Keep CaseAdditional Release Material: Audio Interview - 1. Valerie von Stroheim and Paul Kohner Additional Audio Material - 1.The High Command (1944 Radio Broadcast)Interactive Features: Scene Access Interactive MenusText/Photo Galleries: Stills/Photos - 1. Portrait Gallery Biographies Essay - 1. A Note on THE GREAT GABBO - Erich von Stroheim Additional Text - 1. Dossier on the Ill-Fated 1929 Remake
2. Excerpts from the Original Pressbook
Drama
Man With a Movie Camera (DVD)
$21.57
»
Man With a Movie Camera (DVD)
Not merely a cinematic portrait of a day in the life of a city, cinema pioneer Dziga Vertov's MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA is an experimental manifesto of vision.
Controversial when it was created in 1929, the film still pulses with the unruly energy and innovation of Vertov's genius. Subverting and criticizing the conventions of capitalist fiction filmmaking that he so despised, Vertov and his revolutionary Kino-Eye crew (including his wife as editor and his brother as cameraman--both of whom appear in the film) created a plethora of filmic devises in order to comment on vision, life, Marxism, and modernity. Differing film speeds, superimposition, evocative and manipulative editing, and rhythmic graphic composition all blend seamlessly in a magic show of life above and below the city. Shooting shops, traffic, children, coal miners, workers, human bodies, and nature, Vertov creates visual rhymes and graphic portraits of the structure of life and the explosion of perception. MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA took part in the city symphony genre that was popular at the time (BERLIN: SYMPHONIE OF A GREAT CITY is another example) but transcended it in its critical distance, sheer innovation, and sublimely fluid vision of man, machine, and society.DVD Features:Region 0Snap CaseFull FrameAudio: Mono - Italian Subtitles - English - OptionalAdditional Release Material: Alternate Audio Track - 1. Audio Essay
Drama
The Maids (DVD)
$21.57
»
The Maids (DVD)
This adaptation of Jean Genet's THE MAIDS was part of the American Film Theater series, conceived in the 1970s by producer Ely Landau and meant to be shown theatrically just like a play, with tickets sold in advance. The film stars Glenda Jackson and Susannah York as two sisters named Solange and Claire who work as maids for their strict Madame. However, when Madame leaves the house, the two sisters dress up as their masters and take turns humiliating one another as the surrogate Madame. This masterpiece of the absurd blends Genet's acerbic existentialism with cutting surrealist humor.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseAnamorphicAdditional Release Material: Production Interview - 1. Edie Landau Featurette - 1.Ely Landau: In Front of the Camera TrailersInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive MenusText/Photo Galleries: Stills/Photos Production Art Poster ArtTHE MAIDS and Jean Genet - An essay by Michael Feingold, Head Theater Critic, The Village Voice
Drama
The Iceman Cometh (DVD)
$21.57
»
The Iceman Cometh (DVD)
Produced as part of the American Film Theater series, which produced films of classic plays with top-shelf actors and directors, this adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's THE ICEMAN COMETH is infused with director Frankenheimer's (THE FRENCH CONNECTION, THE EXORCIST) trademark kinetic style. Set in 1912, the entire film takes place inside a dive bar named The Last Chance Saloon, where its destitute patrons eagerly await the arrival of Hickey, who arrives annually and props everyone up with free drinks and spirited stories of his travels. However, when Hickey does show up this year, it is with a message of temperance and an exhortation to give up hopeless dreams and face reality.DVD Features:Region 12-Disc SetAnamorphicAdditional Release Material: Production Interview - 1. Edie Landau Featurette - 1.Ely Landau: In Front of the Camera TrailersInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive MenusText/Photo Galleries: Stills/Photos Production Art Poster ArtEugene O'Neill and THE ICEMAN COMETH - An essay by Michael Feingold, Chief Theater Critic, The Village Voice
Drama
Orphans of the Storm (DVD)
$21.57
»
Orphans of the Storm (DVD)
Legendary director D.W. Griffith (INTOLERANCE) delivers another sweeping historical epic with this film, based on the d'Ennery and Corman play, THE TWO ORPHANS. Sisters Lillian and Dorothy Gish are the girls who become separated in the streets of eighteenth century Paris during the dramatic upheavals of the French Revolution. As Henriette (Lillian Gish) searches for her blind adopted sister Louise (Dorothy Gish), she falls in love with a kind and concerned young member of the aristocracy, Chevalier (Joseph Schildkraut). Unfortunately their love is doomed by her commoner status, and his callous uncle (Frank Losee), who railroads her off to prison to keep them apart. The revolution occurs, and Henriette is liberated, but then there's more trouble when mob rule causes chaos in the streets, the guillotine awaits Chevalier, and Louise remains just out of reach.Griffith captures the class injustice at the heart of this story by contrasting scenes of lavish parties at the houses of the nobles with the abject poverty of the beggars outside. The thrilling use of crowds and meticulous historical accuracy make this an epic comparable in scope and theme to BIRTH OF A NATION, which is how Griffith undoubtedly meant it. The film is silent, with tinted scenes and film score.Keep Case
Drama
Intolerance (DVD)
$21.57
»
Intolerance (DVD)
Silent film director D.W. Griffith's biggest, most ambitious spectacle uses stories from different times and places to illustrate humanity's intolerance of religious differences throughout the ages. The most visually impressive of these chronicles is the fall of Babylon, for which Griffith built the largest sets in Hollywood and filled them with thousands of extras; there's also Christ's crucifixion and the massacre of the Heugenots in 15th century France. The most emotionally involving tale is the modern one, about a poor girl (Mae Marsh) whose life is repeatedly ruined by the zealotry of social reformers. The image of a mother (Lillian Gish) rocking her child in a cradle (the uniter of the here and hereafter) links the stories. At one point, angels reach down from heaven to stop soldiers in midbattle, making it clear that Griffith intended this follow-up to THE BIRTH OF A NATION as a message of global peace and love (and an answer to his critics' accusations of racism). For a nation poised to enter World War I, this was perhaps the wrong message, and INTOLERANCE opened to mixed reviews and poor attendance. It is now rightly recognized as a unique work of cinematic art. The restored version includes color-tinted scenes.DVD features:Region 0 EncodingRestored and reconstructed to 178 minutes from fine grain archival master printsColor tinted to the original 1916 specificationsDigital stereo organ score by Gaylord CarterVisual essay by Russell Merritt including:
Extra footage cut from original release
Copyright registration frames
Publicity materials
Background and production photographs
Drama
The Birth of a Nation (DVD)
$21.57
»
The Birth of a Nation (DVD)
This landmark film from silent director D.W. Griffith was the first movie blockbuster. However, it also reveals a horribly racist version of American history. The first part of the film chronicles the Civil War as experienced through the eyes of two families; the Stonemans from the North, and the Camerons of the South. Lifelong friends, they become divided by the Mason-Dixon line, with tragic results. Large-scale battle sequences and meticulous historical details culminate with a staged re-creation of Lincoln's assassination. The second half of the film chronicles the Reconstruction, as Congressman Austin Stoneman (Ralph Lewis) puts evil Silas Lynch (George Siegmann) in charge of the liberated slaves at the Cameron hometown of Piedmont. Armed with the right to vote, the freed slaves cause all sorts of trouble until Ben Cameron (Henry B. Walthall) founds the Ku Klux Klan and restores order and decency to the troubled land. While THE BIRTH OF A NATION was a major step forward in the history of filmmaking, it must be noted that the film supports a racist worldview. But there is no denying that it remains a groundbreaking achievement, setting a high watermark for film as an art form.DVD Features:Region 0Snap CaseFull Frame - 1.33Single Side - Single LayerAudio: Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 -
Orchestral ScoreAdditional Release Material: Behind the Scenes Footage FeaturetteText/Photo Galleries: Stills/Photos Production Notes
Drama
Boesman& Lena (DVD)
$21.57
»
Boesman& Lena (DVD)
In South Africa a young black couple (Angela Basset, Danny Glover) with a new baby are driven out of their shanty by white oppressors, and are forced to abandon their home and their memories of a happy life and wander around the Cape Flats looking for shelter. As their feelings of grief, shame, and misery grow, their relationship begins to fall apart. Directed by John Berry, BOESMAN& LENA is based on a play by South African author Athol Fugard.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CasePan& Scan - 1.33:1Widescreen - 2.35:1Additional Release Material: Interviews - 1. John Berry, Director
2. Danny Glover and Angela Basset, Stars
3. Athol Fugard, Source Writer Original Theatrical TrailerInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive MenusText/Photo Galleries: Biographies Filmographies
Drama
Parisian Love/Down to the Sea in Ships (DVD)
$21.57
»
Parisian Love/Down to the Sea in Ships (DVD)
This double feature contains two movies starring Clara Bow, the It girl, in two films that were long considered lost, PARISIAN LOVE and DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS.PARISIAN LOVE (1925):Long considered a lost film this print of PARISIAN LOVE was mastered from the only surviving print. It stars the magnetic Ms. Bow as an Apache dancer who feeds off the tourists hanging out in Paris' seedier districts, and Mr. Keith as her lover. When he is shot during a robbery, Bow vows revenge on the wealthy culprit. By the director of REEFER MADNESS.DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS (1922):Ms. Bow's screen debut (she was only 17), DOWN TO THE SEA IN SHIPS is an adventure/romance set in 19th century New Bedford, MA, in a whaling community. Ms. Bow stars as Dot, the mischievous daughter of a conservative Quaker who won't allow her older sister to marry a young businessman.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseFull FrameAudio: Mono - EnglishInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive Menus
Drama
Richard III (DVD)
$21.57
»
Richard III (DVD)
The earliest surviving American feature length film, James Keane's RICHARD III was rediscovered in 1995 when film collector William Buffum donated his mint print of the film to the AFI. The AFI restored the film's fading tints and commissioned Ennio Morricone to compose a new score.Frederick Warde stars as Richard, the hunchback brother of King Edward IV who aspires to take his brother's throne. To accomplish this, Richard uses the turmoil brought about by the War of the Roses to turn the king against their other brother, the Duke of Clarence, who is imprisoned for treason, then arranges for Clarence's murder. He then woos the Lady Anne, determined to wed her to increase his influence. When Edward finally dies, Richard plots the murders of the young heir apparent and his brother--his own nephews. His machinations accelerate and murder piles atop murder as Richard succeeds in taking the throne--and desperately tries to hold it.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseFull FrameAdditional Release Materials: Documentary - 1.Rediscovering Richard IIIInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive MenusText/Photo Galleries; Additional Text - 1. Essay by Shakespearean Film Historian Douglas Brode
Drama
Coming Apart (DVD)
$21.57
»
Coming Apart (DVD)
Little seen sixties classic about Joe (Torn), a psychiatrist who puts a hidden camera behind his couch, facing a wall sized mirror in order to document a number of women who come and go. Obsessed with a former lover, Joe intends to perform and record an experiment in contemporary sexual aberration. In the process, Joe documents his own mental breakdown as well as a number of sexually volatile encounters with the women who come to see him. Controversial when it was released, COMING APART has never been available on home video before.DVD Features:Region 1 EncodingSnap CaseCOMINGA PART 2: ADVENTURES IN RE-RELEASING - a series of Q&A with Torn, Ginsberg, and KirklandGinsberg's new video THE CITY BELOW THE LINEHOW TO FALL INTO OBLIVION AND TAKE YOUR MOVIE WITH YOU, an essay on COMING APART by Ginsberg
Drama