50 Years Of Beautiful Success
By: Kevin Filipski |
Sunday September 24, 2006 |
| Celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the most recognized Art House distributor, Criterion releases the spectacular 50 Years of Janus Films DVD box set. |
| The Criterion Collection has been DVD's standard bearer since the format began. (Criterion did the same with laserdiscs....remember those?) Criterion's relationship with Janus Films-which for a half-century has been the leader in distributing foreign films and other American arthouse hits-allows it to releases the most-wanted titles on disc.
In fact, if it wasn't for Janus Films, then very likely the careers of such luminaries as Francois Truffaut, Luis Bunuel, Michelangelo Antonioni, Akira Kurosawa and Ingmar Bergman would have been slower to take off on this side of the Atlantic. That said, it's little wonder that the 44th New York Film Festival has chosen to honor Janus Films-and, by extension, the Criterion Collection-as its esteemed festival sidebar this fall. 50 Years of Janus Films (Sept. 30-Oct. 26 at the Walter Reade Theater, filmlinc.com) includes important classics-including Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Jules and Jim, Bunuel's Viridiana, Antonioni's L'Avventura, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and High and Low, and Bergman's The Seventh Seal and Wild Strawberries-along with films unjustly forgotten such as Carlos Saura's Cria!, Mario Monicelli's The Organizer and Bergman's Monika. Several of the films in the series have recently been restored and released in immaculate Criterion DVD editions, but seeing them on the big Walter Reade Theater screen is an experience not to be missed. A few titles-including Kon Ichikawa's Fires on the Plain, Dusan Makavejev's WR: Mysteries of the Organism and Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff-have yet to be released by Criterion, but are surely in the works.  I admit to leaning toward the latter camp, and even a repeat viewing of his magnum opus Six Moral Tales didn't change my mind. In these films-four features and two shorts-Rohmer introduces male protagonists who, for one reason or another, become attracted to one woman, then flirt with another, only to return to the first. If Rohmer had found sufficient insight to keep returning to this theme, then more power to him. But he never does: too often the switcheroo happens on mere happenstance, just because it's time for the character to return to the first woman, apparently so the film can end. "But that's life," you argue. True: but these are movies, and we want-even expect-a true artist to create something more original than consigning the lives of his characters to coincidence or fate. There are notable exceptions to this method-mostly in My Night at Maud's, where the protagonist and the divorcee he so greatly lusts for but tries to resist have late-night discussions about the philosopher Pascal, or when the happily-married protagonist in Love in the Afternoon freely associates about the endless supply of beautiful, willing woman available to him-but for the most part, Rohmer's Six Moral Tales are occasionally stimulating but ultimately frustrating attempts to dissect morality onscreen. Happily, Criterion has given Rohmer's six-part epic the context it deserves, and the extras are more illuminating than the films. There are several Rohmer short films (mostly mediocre but historically valuable nonetheless); an interesting 85-minute conversation between Rohmer and Barbet Schroeder, who produced this series and even appeared as the lead in the first moral tale, the 23-minute short The Bakery Girl of Montmontre; and a copy of the Tales in Rohmer's original novelistic treatments, greatly expanding upon the films. If you're a Rohmer fan, this is cinematic heaven; if you're not, at least Criterion supplies enough material to re-evaluate the director. Since Criterion started releasing DVDs in 1997, it's revisited older titles which have been restored or for which new, better original elements have been located. Luckily for collectors, Criterion is doing this for a quartet of its most popular titles. Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai was the first DVD the company released-its spine number is 2, but number 1, Grand Illusion, was hampered by delays-and it's been crying out for an improved release, which it now has. This 3-1/2 hour action-filled masterpiece (indeed, it may be the most exciting intelligent movie ever made) has been spread out over two discs, which gives its stunning visuals the breathing room they need to look better than ever. Add to that two illuminating audio commentaries (the first taken from the original release by Michael Jeck, the new one a roundtable of David Desser, Joan Mellen, Stephen Prince, Tony Rayns, and Donald Richie), and a third disc jammed with essential extras, including another chapter of Toho's wondrous Kurosawa series, It Is Wonderful to Create, this one on the making of Seven Samurai, and you have another necessary multi-disc set from Criterion.  Although Federico Fellini's Amarcord won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1974 and was raved about by critics everywhere, it's always seemed a too deliberate attempt by the Maestro to curry favor with those who thought he'd lost it after 8-1/2 - films such as Juliet of the Spirits, Satyricon and Roma were by no means universally honored. Even so, and in spite of its 1930s Fascist-era background, Amarcord has always seemed one of Fellini's lighter films, although there are many moments of great beauty as only Fellini knows how to orchestrate, i.e., the gorgeous snow scene that culminates in the peacock spreading its plumage. Now that it's gotten a sorely-needed restoration, Amarcord looks smashing on this new Criterion disc. Peter Brunette and Frank Burke's audio commentary is pretty wooden; even though both men know their subject intently, they discuss everything through the same narrow thematic thread. At least the second disc, featuring interviews, radio ads, and Fellini's lovely drawings, also includes the substantial 45-minute featurette Fellini's Homecoming-concerning the director's relationship to his beloved hometown of Rimini, where Amarcord is set-which make this a worthy new addition to the Criterion canon. Playtime has long been called French comedic director Jacques Tati's greatest achievement. I beg to differ: his extraordinary trilogy from the 1950s-Jour de Fete, Mon Oncle, M. Hulot's Holiday-is unsurpassed French film comedy. Playtime is too long, too bloated, too much an attempted "masterpiece" to fully succeed. Like Fellini's Amarcord, Tati's Playtime has stunning sequences best appreciated on the big screen. But Criterion's new anamorphic transfer of the restored 70mm version is simply brilliant, and may be enough to re-evaluate this fascinating but equally maddening modernist work of comic art. The new Criterion edition of Playtime includes the many extras from the original release, and adds another disc's worth, including a short by Tati and another about him, along with two interviews with the director. 
Not all of Criterion's current output is re-releases of films already in its collection. The new releases show the breadth of the collection, from classic Italian satire to mid-90s slacker comedy-drama. Pietro Germi's hilarious Seduced and Abandoned (1964) is a stellar black comedy from the master director's peak period: after his beautiful teenage daughter loses her virginity to an older sister's fiancee, the embarrassed father tries not to lose the family honor along with her hymen. Germi's vicious satire of Sicilian society has lost none of its potency, and the famed face and figure of then-teenager Stefania Sandrelli are equally timeless. Extras include new interviews with Germi colleagues, including Sandrelli, along with her screen test and a documentary, Commedia all'italiana, Germi Style.
The Spirit of the Beehive, a 1973 drama by Spanish director Victor Erice, has become a cult favorite, undoubtedly due to its relative lack of availability. Now that it's out from Criterion, perhaps that verdict will be reversed: while certainly not awful, this unsubtle exploration of childhood's simultaneous horrors and happiness is far too self-consciously arty to succeed as a portrait with psychological depth. Erice has all the hallmarks of a disciple and only a few of a true artist; still, this is the best Beehive has ever looked, and the second disc of extras will surely keep Erice fans happy: a 50-minute interview with the director is paired with a recent 45-minute retrospective documentary that includes discussions with Erice and his astonishing lead actress, Ana Torrent. Along with these new releases and the New York Film Festival's Janus Films sidebar, there's also the 50 Years of Janus Films deluxe collector's box available this fall, with 50 Criterion DVDs of classics and a deluxe coffee table-style book going for $850 (although the Janus Films website is currently selling it for $650). That may be out of many movie fans' price range, but you've got to get your Janus-Criterion fix somehow. |
