The Visitor (Drafthouse, Blu-ray, DVD), a 1979 Italian giallo-esque supernatural horror with an American cast and a former Fellini assistant taking the directorial reigns with more imagination than storytelling discipline, is not the first Exorcist knock-off to come out of the Italian genre factory. It may, however, be the least coherent. Opening on Franco Nero as a Django Jesus in a heaven with art direction out of Logan’s Run and populated with bald children, it quickly sends John Huston as a paternal emissary (or maybe a particularly grandfatherly God, who knows?) on mission to stop Santeen from taking over Earth through 8-year-old Katy Collins (Paige Conner, more creepy Bad Seed than possessed Linda Blair). There’s also a helping of The Omen, Carrie, The Birds, and the hall of mirrors of The Lady From Shanghai (among many other films), a basketball game with an exploding dunk shot, an abduction out of UFO lore, and Glenn Ford as a police detective who gets his eye pecked out by a falcon.
Giulio Paradisi (directing under the screen name Michael J. Paradise) came up with the story, which recasts the idea of a satanic thriller as a cosmic battle, and apparently keeps rewriting as it goes along. Katy has vaguely telekinetic powers and a strange sense of humor (in a game of tag at an ice rink she tosses a couple of teenage boys out of the rink and through a plate of glass) and somehow the evil corporate cabal’s mission to have Katy’s mommy (Joanne Nail) spawn even more devil children becomes a campaign of torture that lands her in a wheelchair and worse. The cast also drops in Shelley Winters as a cranky housekeeper, Mel Ferrer as the corporate devil, Sam Peckinpah as a doctor (completely dubbed into anonymity), and young Lance Henriksen as the Ted Turner of the Apocalypse. Okay, that’s a stretch, but it does actually take place in Atlanta (though most of it is shot in Rome).
Paradisi may not have a clue about directing actors (Glenn Ford walks through his performance in a daze, though in his defense he probably read the script and ended up more confused than ever) but he has picked up a few tricks from Argento on how to move a camera and from Fulci on how to stage a supernatural freak-out. It’s not particularly gory, mind you, and the cut-rate optical effects of the cosmic finale are so slapdash they become abstract, but that kind of works for this oddball trip.
I confess that this is the first time I’ve tried to review a Blu-ray release via streaming video. It may not have made that much of a difference, for despite the claims of being “restored” the print was filled with minor scuffs, scratches and abrasions and the picture looked a little soft. More likely this is a preservation rather than a restoration, an HD master of a high-quality print.
The press release insists that there are interviews with star Lance Henriksen, screenwriter Lou Comici and cinematographer Ennio Guarnieri, but only Henriksen and Comici were accessible to me. Both artists describe a production where no one had any idea what was going on with the script or the story, including the director, who dismissed all queries when asked to explain. Henriksen is marvelously good-natured about remembering the experience, which he found a delight even though the film is such a mess (his story about getting direction from co-star John Huston is priceless). I did not receive a copy of the booklet that accompanies the disc.
King of the Hill (Criterion, Blu-ray+DVD Dual-Format), the third film from Steven Soderbergh, was yet again a complete change of style and subject matter for the director. Based on the memoir by A. E. Hotchner, recalling his life as an adolescent during the Depression Soderbergh uses the resources of a studio production to recreate early thirties St. Louis as seen through the eyes of a hopeful boy in an increasingly desperate situation. Jesse Bradford is Aaron, a smart, creative, generous high school kid who spins stories to hide the truth: that his family is broke and living out of a hotel. Over the course of the film, his younger brother is sent to live with relatives, his frail mother (Lisa Eichhorn) is checked into a sanitarium, and his father (Jeroen Krabbé) all but abandons him to take a job as a traveling salesman. As the situation goes from bad to worse, Aaron is increasingly isolated and desperate, but he’s also resourceful and resilient as he takes on a bullying street cop and a thuggish bellhop trying to lock him out of his family’s apartment. Adrien Brody plays his first significant role as savvy teenager who looks out for Aaron like an older brother, Karen Allen is a supportive teacher, and Spalding Gray is the gentle alcoholic across the hall drinking away the last of his fortune.
Soderbergh doesn’t flinch from the hard realities he faces but presents it with a poetic quality, suggesting the worst rather than showing it, in an urban world painted in sepia colors and brightened by the summer sun (a little too sunny, perhaps, given the hard times it presents). With its mix of guardian angels, mercenary authority figures, eccentric neighbors, and colorful urban atmosphere, it’s like a modern version of a thirties street drama painted in the colors of an Edward Hopper canvas.
Along with the usual kind of Criterion supplements—including new interviews with Soderbergh and author A. E. Hotchner and a video essay by filmmaker :: kogonada—is Soderbergh’s fourth feature The Underneath (1995), a remake of Criss Cross with Peter Gallagher, Alison Elliott and William Fichtner. Which is, yes, yet another genre leap. This one never really comes together but you can see him working out ideas that emerge fully formed in his later films Out of Sight and The Limey, and it effectively makes this release a double-feature. Available in a three-disc Blu-ray+DVD Combo and a two-disc DVD-only release, each with an accompanying booklet.
Tess (Criterion, Blu-ray+DVD Dual-Format), directed by Roman Polanski and starring Nastassja Kinski in her first breakthrough role, is Polanski’s gorgeous adaptation of Thomas Hardy’s romantic tragedy Tess of the d’Urbervilles. Kinski is the teenage farm girl used and discarded by the men in her life (notably Peter Firth and Leigh Lawson) in this study in class, sex, commitment and betrayal. It was nominated for six Academy Awards (including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Score) and won of three (for Set Decoration, Cinematography and Costume Design). It’s the fifth Polanski film to get the Criterion treatment and fourth director-approved Blu-ray release, and yes, it is gorgeous, mastered from a 4K digital restoration that showcases the Oscar-nominated photography of cinematographers Geoffrey Unsworth and Ghislain Cloquet.
New to this release is the 2006 documentary “Once Upon a Time… Tess,” which runs 53 minutes and features new (at the time) interviews with Polanski, Kinski and other members of the cast and crew, a 1979 episode of the British arts series The South Bank Show featuring an interview with Polanski, and a 1979 episode of the French series Cine Regards shot on location during the production of the film. Carried over from Sony’s earlier DVD release is a collection of three featurettes produced in 2004: “Tess, From Novel to Screen,” “Filming Tess” and “Tess: The Experience.” On one Blu-ray and two DVDs, plus a booklet with an essay by critic Colin MacCabe.
Also new from Criterion is a new dual-format edition of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (Criterion, Blu-ray+DVD Combo), which apparently replaces the previous individual Blu-ray and DVD releases.
Come Back, Africa – The Films of Lionel Rogosin, Volume II (Milestone, Blu-ray, DVD) presents Rogosin’s 1959 drama about apartheid, which he shot clandestinely in South Africa under the constant threat of arrest and deportation (his local collaborators faced even worse). The disc debut of the film is complemented by Rogosin’s fourth feature Black Roots (1970), a documentary on the African American experience, the making-of documentaries An American in Sophiatown and Bitter Sweet Stories (both directed by Michael Rogosin), a 1978 interview with Lionel Rogosin, an introduction to Come Back, Africa by Martin Scorsese, and the 1989 documentary Have You Seen Drum Recently? directed by filmmaker and photographer Jürgen Schadeberg.
Hairspray (Warner, Blu-ray) – the original 1988 film, mind you, not the remake based on the stage musical – was the first John Waters film to get a PG rating, in itself noteworthy from the self-proclaimed Pope of filth. It’s also the most endearing and infectiously fun film of his career. Ricki Lake stars as the unlikely civil rights activist on a local TV dance show and Divine is her supportive (and similarly plus-sized) mother. A comedy about racism, integration, body image, and the liberating power of rock and roll music hilariously upends stereotypes and turns the hysteria of prejudice into hysterical humor. Sonny Bono, Debbie Harry, Ruth Brown, and Jerry Stiller co-star. The Blu-ray debut features commentary by John Waters and Ricki Lake, vintage interviews with the cast and crew, tributes to Waters regulars Divine and Cookie Mueller, and other supplements.
The Shadow (Shout Factory, Blu-ray) features Alec Baldwin as the mysterious superhero of the thirties pulps and radio shows. The new collector’s edition is mastered from a new high-definition transfer and features new interviews with director Russell Mulcahy, stars Alec Baldwin and Penelope Ann Miller, production designer Joseph Nemec, III., director of photography Stephen H. Burum and writer David Koepp.
Hysteria (Cult Epics, Blu-ray), the 1997 thriller of madness and mayhem in an insane asylum, features the final starring role by Patrick McGoohan, playing the psychiatrist in charge. Features a conversation with director Rene Daalder and co-star Amanda Plummer.
The Secret Policeman’s Ball USA (Eagle Rock, Blu-ray, DVD) is the first American version of the live show created in Britain to raise money for Amnesty International. This 2013 show includes appearances by Jon Stewart, Ben Stiller, Pual Rudd, Eddie Izzard, Russell Brand, Rashida Jones, Sarah Silverman, John Oliver, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Chris O’Dowd Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Kristen Wiig and Seth Meyers (among many, many others) and musical performance by Coldplay and Mumford & Sons, plus special appearances by Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones explaining why they cannot appear. Feature two commentary tracks of heckling and a skit created for the disc release written by Michael Palin and Martin Lewis and starring Robert De Niro, Whoopi Goldberg, Kyra Sedgwick and Annette O’Toole.
More releases:
The Agony and the Ecstasy (Fox, Blu-ray)
The 300 Spartans (Fox, Blu-ray)
Boiler Room (Warner, Blu-ray)
Somewhere In Time (Universal, Blu-ray)
Bloodlust (Film Chest, DVD)
Calendar of upcoming releases on Blu-ray, DVD, Digital, and VOD