Monty Python and the Holy Grail: 40th Anniversary Edition (Sony, Blu-ray) – After a career of inspired skit comedy, the unbalanced minds of Monty Python pounded the Knights of the Round Table into their own skewed square hole for their first “real” feature film (I’m not counting their skit comedy And Now For Something Completely Different) and Camelot has never been the same. King Arthur, Lancelot, Galahad and the rest of the dotty knights forsake the decadence of the Camelot (“It’s only a model”) to bang coconut shells across the misty English countryside and take on abusive Frenchmen with outrrraaageous accents (“Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!”), hot-to-trot nuns, a killer rabbit, the mysterious Knights Who Say “Nih!,” and other typical medieval threats. Probably the cheapest Arthurian adventure ever made (heck, they couldn’t even afford horses!), and easily the funniest. In fact, this absurdity is considered by many (including myself) to be one of the funniest movies ever made. The DVD restores an extra 24 seconds unseen in the original American release, but even with the remastering the grimy, drab visuals still look like a big budget TV show that’s been a bit underlit. But these are the dark ages, after all, and the models and the English countryside look suitably earthy, muddy, and medieval.
This is one of those perennials that gets a new edition every few years, each one adding something new to the accumulating menu of special features. New to this edition (the second Blu-ray release) is a new 30-minute Q&A with the five surviving members of the team recorded at the gala screening at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Carried over from the previous disc releases are two commentary tracks (one production-focused track by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, and other with general complaints and back-biting by John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin), featurettes (“The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations” hosted by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, the 18-minute 1974 BBC report “On Location with The Pythons,” “How To Use Your Coconuts”), “Lost Animations” (a 12-minute collection of unused animated bits prepared for the film with an introduction by Terry Gilliam) nearly 20 minutes of outtakes and extended scenes with an introduction by Terry Jones, three sing-alongs, clips from the film in Japanese with English subtitles, and the all-interlocking “Monty Python and the Holy Grail In Lego.” Missing is the “Holy Book of Days” Second Screen Experience (an interactive function that required an iPad, a downloadable app and a connection to the same WiFi network as the Blu-ray player, an idea that never took off with viewers).
There’s also a deluxe edition in a substantial castle-shaped box with a toy catapult and collection of small plastic animal figures, for those of you who like the conversation piece packaging.
You Can’t Take It With You (Sony, Blu-ray), Frank Capra’s adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, won Best Picture and Best Director Academy Awards in 1938. The film has a delightful romantic couple in Jean Arthur and James Stewart and a wonderfully eccentric patriarch in Lionel Barrymore, but it replaces the unhinged anarchy of the play with sentimental Capra-corn. The production never recovers. Now the story turns on a battle of wills between embrace-the moment-everyman Barrymore and bitter king of capitalism Edward Arnold, who refuses to accept these addled free spirits as future in-laws. Capra turns out an amiable and appealing little comedy with some memorable character bits (Mischa Auer and Ann Miller in particular), but spends so much effort hammering home his own populist point that he misses the spirit of the material. I find Capra a poor match for the material but he did bring out the spirit in his case and he took home his third and final Oscar for best director for his efforts. And give him credit for knowing a winning formula. He reunited Stewart and Arthur in his next film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1940).
It comes in a Blu-ray booklet case with 28 pages of photos, notes, and an essay by TCM writer Jeremy Arnold. Features commentary by Frank Capra Jr. and author Catherine Kellison, the interview featurette “Frank Capra Jr. Remembers… You Can’t Take It With You,” and the trailer, plus a bonus Ultraviolet Digital HD copy of the film.
Triumph of the Will (Synapse, Blu-ray), Leni Riefenstahl’s record of the 1934 Nuremburg rally, is a stunning piece of cinema, a landmark of propaganda cinema, and a terrifying look at totalitarian demagoguery. The rhetoric about the thousand year Reich, the one and only party, and the purity of the race is less important than the mythic dimensions and sense of awe that Riefenstahl created not just in the filmmaking but on the design and staging of the event itself. It is possibly the first political spectacle choreographed specifically for the cameras, and it presents Hitler as both a God from the heavens and man of the people with a message: “this future belongs entirely to us!”
For years, the film was only available with the original English subtitles created by the government, which played down the politics by purposefully mistranslating many of the speeches. This translation, released on home video for the first time in 2000, features an accurate translation of the speeches and reveals the verbal imagery and strident nationalism of the real thing, and this Blu-ray debut is newly remastered in 2K from a duplicate 35mm fine grain master.
Synapse does an excellent job of subtitling, identifying locations, activities, and key figures as well as translating speeches and correcting some of the rhetoric that was watered down for American audiences in its original translation, and the commentary by historian Dr. Anthony R. Santoro makes him a play-by-play announcer, color man (giving background to the players), and interpreter all in one on the commentary track.
Also features a newly remastered edition of Riefenstahl’s Day of Freedom (1935), another of her propaganda pieces, this one a short shot at the 1935 rally.
Eugenie…The Story Of Her Journey Into Perversion: 3-Disc Limited Edition (Blue Underground, Blu-ray+DVD)
Marquis De Sade’s Justine: 3-Disc Limited Edition (Blue Underground, Blu-ray+DVD)
Jess Franco adapts the Marquis de Sade in a pair of notorious Euro sexploitation classics, both making their respective Blu-ray debut in three-disc combo packs with bonus DVD copy and CD soundtrack.
Marquis De Sade’s Justine (1969) is one of Franco’s first collaborations with Harry Alan Towers, the famous British producer of Euro pulp thrillers with decadent flourishes, and his entry into the international production. The kinky tale of a virtuous innocent (Romina Power, Tyrone Power’s 18 year old daughter) who is “cruelly treated, robbed, falsely accused, imprisoned, assaulted, beaten, and pursued” by all she encounters while her sister indulges in vice, sin, murder, and all sorts of wickedness with such glee that it sends her to the top of society is perfect Franco material, though the satire and irony is admittedly buried in sheer excess. What surprises isn’t the kink and cruelty, it’s the handsome style and gorgeous photography (two Gaudi designed buildings serve as key locations), and the unhinged performance of Jack Palance as a malicious monk exploring the carnal limits of pleasure through pain. Klaus Kinski plays the Marquis in a framing sequence, and we periodically cut back to him madly scribbling in a prison while visions writhe around him, and Mercedes McCambridge, Akim Tamiroff, and Howard Vernon are a few of the familiar faces in the cast. The film was cut by half an hour and released under the name Deadly Sanctuary in the U.S. by AIP.
This features the complete (or as complete as possible) version in a beautiful transfer that preserves the color and the beautiful sets as well as the all the sex and sadism. It features the new interview featurette with Franco historian “Stephen Thrower on Justine” and the 20-minute interview featurette “The Perils and Pleasures of Justine,” originally recorded for the DVD release, with director Jess Franco (who describes how the Romina Power was forced upon him against his wishes, and how Jack Palance was “drunk all the time” and brilliant nonetheless) and screenwriter/producer Harry Alan Towers. In Franco’s own words, it was “the most expensive film I ever made… A fake big film. Of course, only we knew it was fake.”
Eugenie: The Story of Her Journey into Perversion (1969, also released as De Sade 70), based on De Sade’s “Philosophy in the Boudoir,” followed soon after. The story of an innocent girl (Marie Liljedahl of Inga fame) seduced into a dreamy/nightmarish world of eros and perversion by a decadent couple (Jack Taylor and Maria Rohm), it co-stars Christopher Lee as the sinister Dolmance, master of the island.
It features the new interview featurette with Franco historian “Stephen Thrower on Eugenie” and interview featurette “Perversion Stories” with director Jess Franco, producer Harry Alan Towers, and stars Marie Liljedahl and Christopher Lee.
Each release includes a collectable booklet with an essay by Stephen Thrower, a bonus DVD copy with the supplements, and a CD soundtrack of Bruno Nicola’s score for each film.
Also recently released:
Aladdin: Diamond Edition (Disney, Blu-ray+DVD) – It’s a whole new world for the 1992 Disney animated classic in the Blu-ray debut of the film, freshly remastered for its high-definition incarnation with bright, vivid color. Robin Williams provides the voice to the big blue genie, a fun-loving guy in curly slippers who offers three wishes to the plucky young poor boy and marketplace thief Aladdin, who dreams of romancing a princess. It’s one of the jewels in Disney’s crown of traditional hand-drawn animated features.
New to this edition are “The Genie Outtakes” (nine minutes of unused improvisations from Robin Williams set to storyboards), “Aladdin: Creating Broadway Magic” (about the Broadway adaptation, 19 minutes), “Genie 101” (explaining the pop culture references to 21st century kids), “Ron and Jon: You Ain’t Never Had a Friend Like Me” (with filmmakers John Musker and Ron Clements reminiscing about their early days at Disney), and “Unboxing Aladdin” (a guide to the Easter eggs hidden through the film). Carried over from the previous DVD release are the commentary tracks (one by directors Ron Clements and John Musker, the other by the animators), the 70-minute documentary “A Diamond in the Rough: The Making of Aladdin,” plus the rest of the short featurettes, deleted scenes and songs, music videos, and such. Also includes bonus DVD and Digital HD (via Disney Movies Anywhere) copies of the film.
Bad Boys I & II: 20th Anniversary Collection (Sony, Blu-ray) – The original Bad Boys (1995) was the obnoxiously loud and destructive action hit that launched Michael Bay’s reign as the definitive expression of the Bruckheimer and Simpson aesthetic of big, expensive, flamboyantly excessive action cinema. Interestingly Martin Lawrence, who plays the married man and harried father trying to reign in the excesses of his ladies man partner Will Smith, gets first billing in this partnership. How things change in the intervening years. The box set features Bad Boys and the Blu-ray debut of the 2003 sequel Bad Boys II (also directed by Bay), each in its own case. Bad Boys carries over the extras from the 2010 release, with director commentary, a featurette, and music videos. Bad Boys II includes featurettes on the stunts and visual effects, on-set production diaries, “Sequence Breakdowns” of six key scenes, and deleted scenes, all in 480i SD. But fear not, the movies themselves are both remastered in 4K and are vivid and sharp.
Thundercrack! (Synapse / CAV, Blu-ray, DVD), the 1975 underground cult film by Curt McDowell and co-writer / star George Kuchar, is a gothic romp that veers into horror, sex, and camp parody, with explicit scenes and graphic horror. It makes is American home video debut (at least it first official release) in DVD and Blu-ray editions, with an audio-only interview with Curt McDowell (on the second audio track) and newly translated subtitles in Parisian French, German, and Castilian Spanish. Exclusive to the Blu-ray edition is the 2009 documentary It Came From Kuchar, on the underground filmmaking brother George and Mike Kuchar, and a bonus DVD with rate short films, interviews, and audition footage and outtakes from Thundercrack!
Living In Oblivion: 20th Anniversary (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray) – Steve Buscemi is the angst-ridden auteur of a low budget art film falling apart at the seams (splices?) in Tom DiCillo’s very funny 1995 satire of indie filmmaking nightmares, which won him the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance. James Le Gros plays his egotistical, impulsively improvising star with blow-dried smarminess, Catherine Keener has a crisis in confidence as his female lead, and Dermot Mulroney swaggers in an eye-patch and leather vest as the artiste of a cinematographer. Features commentary by director Tom DiCillo, deleted scenes, a video interview with DiCillo and Buscemi, and trailers.
Stalingrad (Synapse, Blu-ray) presents the Blu-ray debut of the complete 2003 3-part documentary on the devastating World War II battle that lasted over 6 months and took 4 million casualties. The epic production features rare footage from both Russian and German archives, some of it shot by the soldiers themselves, and presents the battle from both perspectives. Nominated for the 2003 International Emmy Award for Best Documentary. Presented in the English language dubbed version with footage not seen in original broadcast. Features deleted interview segments, the featurette “Stalingrad Today,” and a video interview with professor and historian Dr. Guido Knopp.
The Brain That Wouldn’t Die (Scream Factory, Blu-ray), a bizarre tale of a scientist hunting for a shapely body for his fiancée’s floating head while it hisses and taunts a deformed assistant back at the lab, has become a cult classic of classic B-movie horror. It has been newly restored from original negative, with new commentary by film historians Steve Haberman and Tony Sasso, an alternate scene from the international cut, and the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode featuring The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.
White of the Eye (Scream Factory, Blu-ray+DVD), the cult thriller from Donald Cammell (co-director of Performance), makes its disc debut in a Blu-ray combo pack mastered from the original camera negative. Features commentary by Cammell biographer Sam Umland, deleted scenes with commentary, an interview with Steadicam operator Larry McConkey, and an alternate credit sequence.
Troll / Troll 2 (Scream Factory, Blu-ray) is actually a triple feature. It includes the original 1986 low-budget horror film from director John Carl Buechler, the notorious in-name-only English-language Italian-produced sequel directed by Claudio Fragasso, and the 2009 documentary The Best Worst Movie, a loving tribute/remembrance/celebration of Troll 2, which explores the film and the cult that has grown up around what many have deemd the worst film ever made. The two Troll features include commentary.
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD