Son of Saul (Sony, Blu-ray, DVD, VOD) drops the viewer into the horror of the Holocaust with its first images. Saul (Géza Röhrig) is a Sonderkommando, chosen from the prisoners of a concentration camp to work in the gas chambers, and we are plunged into his crushing routine: moving the prisoners through the dressing rooms, sifting and sorting the belongings after they are locked in the gas chamber, then dragging the bodies out and clearing way for the next group. Serving as a Sonderkommando didn’t save the men from death, it only postponed it, and Saul knows he hasn’t long.
But Son of Saul doesn’t linger on the horror. Rather Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes shoots it entirely in close-up, with a handheld camera uncomfortably close and constantly in motion as it follows Saul through the grind of his routine. We remain locked on Saul throughout the film. Nemes shoots in a squarish format, similar to the pre-widescreen era of movies, with a short lens that keeps only Saul’s face and his immediate orbit in focus. Everything else is blurred and indistinct if not completely out of frame, suggested more than seen. It’s not just to keep us from seeing it clearly, but it suggests his own state of mind: detached out necessity, numb and exhausted, going through the motions of living, focused only on the activity.
When Saul sees a young boy—perhaps his son, perhaps a boy the same age—who somehow survived the gas chamber. Barely alive, he is smothered by a doctor. Saul’s detachment is broken. It’s the first stranger he has let into his consciousness, that he even really sees, and it becomes his entire world. He is driven to give this boy a proper burial.
Röhrig is not an actor by training—he’s a poet, a filmmaker, and a theologian—and he carries an almost impenetrable expression throughout the film. We can’t know what’s going through his mind, we can only observe his actions, and this new quest changes his bearing. He now moves with purpose, his momentum focused on a goal that risks the success of a planned revolt within the camp. There’s no logic to it, but then reason has no place in such a nightmare.
Son of Saul is an overwhelming, numbing, confusing experience by design. The unmeasurable evil of the Holocaust is beyond explication so Nemes (with screenwriting partner Clara Royer and cinematographer Mátyás Erdély) tries to express a sense of uncertainty and disconnection, an existence where the horrors are a silent scream driven to the margins of consciousness out of pure will (the dense, layered soundtrack hints at what he can’t see) and time dissolves. It is a haunting and devastating attempt to confront an ordeal beyond our ability to truly comprehend.
It won the Academy Award for Foreign Language Feature, Grand Prize of the Jury at Cannes, and numerous critics’ awards for Best Foreign Film and Best First Feature.
Blu-ray and DVD, in Hungarian with English subtitles, with commentary by director László Nemes, cinematographer Mátyás Erdély, and actor Géza Röhrig.
Exclusive to the Blu-ray is a Q&A at the Museum of Tolerance with Nemes, Erdély, and Röhrig, and an Ultraviolet Digital HD copy of the film.
Son of Saul [DVD]
Son of Saul [Blu-ray]
Ip Man 3 (Well Go, Blu-ray, DVD) brings Donnie Yen back for one more portrayal of the real-life martial arts master who kept Wing Chun alive during the Japanese occupation in World II and went on to mentor a generation of students, including Bruce Lee. This third chapter is set in late 1950s Hong Kong, where he runs a celebrated martial arts school, and pits him against a ruthless gangster named Frank and played by Mike Tyson. Tyson is only in a few scenes and he sends his thugs out to do his dirty work, specifically to strong arm the principal of the local elementary school into selling out to him. When Master Ip (whose son attends that school) and his disciples drive them off, they kidnap the students and threaten to sell them into slavery.
Directed by Wilson Yip, it’s a handsome production and busy film with plenty of activity and complicated plot. There’s a corrupt British commander in league with Frank, a rival Wing Chun teacher (Jin Zhang) who is alternately an ally and an enemy to Ip, and a fatal illness that prompts Ip to drop out of public life to care for his ailing wife. This last story is at least loosely inspired by real life events. The rest of pure dramatic invention and mostly just busy work to give the film lots of spectacular fight scenes, from impressive collisions of gangs to Ip taking on a brigade of thugs singlehandedly (one fight in a shipyard in the skeleton of a boat frame is particularly inventive) to a private showdown with the rival master.
Yen remains the main attraction here as the aging Ip. He invests the character with modesty and integrity and brings grace and precision to the fight scenes. In contrast to the furious movements of the younger thugs in the criminal gang, Yen’s movements are a model of minimal effort for maximum effect. He embodies the philosophy of Ip in his every dimension, which is surely part of the reason these films are such popular screen incarnations of the legendary martial artist.
The Blu-ray and DVD feature original Cantonese and English, Spanish, and French dubbed soundtracks, plus featurettes and interviews.
Also new and notable:
Phoenix (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD), directed by Christian Petzold, is a powerful portrait of a disfigured Holocaust survivor (Nina Hoss) who returns to Berlin after World War II to find husband her (Ronald Zehrfeld), who may have betrayed her to the Nazis. The film has been on Netflix for a few months but makes its stateside debut on Blu-ray and DVD in a Criterion edition.
River of Grass (2015 Restoration) (Oscilloscope, Blu-ray, DVD), the first feature by Kelly Reichardt, is an American Indie take-off of the road movie crime genre from 1995. Lisa Bowman and Larry Fessenden star as shaggy slacker outlaws who never get around to actually committing any crimes but go on the run anyway.
Dillinger (Arrow, Blu-ray+DVD), the 1973 gangster film starring Warren Oates as depression-era bank robber and public enemy #1 John Dillinger, is the directorial debut of John Milius. It was one of the many period gangster films that poured out in the wake of Bonnie and Clyde and made anti-heroes of outlaws. This is one of the better examples and Oates brings an easygoing charm to Dillinger, the first celebrity bank robber. Newly restored, with commentary and new interviews. Review to come.
Dolemite (Vinegar Syndrome, Blu-ray) stars X-rated comic and “godfather of rap” Rudy Ray Moore as a street hustler, pimp, and all around ghetto superhero who is released from prison to get revenge on the man who put him there, with support from his own private all-girl army of kung-fu killers. It’s the baddest and maddest Blaxploitation film ever made. Newly restored for disc, it’s presented in both proper widescreen and full frame “boom mic” versions (the latter, which shows the microphones at the top of the frame, was the only version previously available) and features the new documentary “I, Dolemite,” two featurettes, and commentary. Review to come.
Classics and Cult:
Brief Encounter (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Kennedy Films of Robert Drew & Associates (Criterion, Blu-ray, DVD)
What? (Severin, Blu-ray, DVD)
Sssssss (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray, DVD)
Death Becomes Her (Shout! Factory, Blu-ray)
The Million Eyes of Su Muru / The Girl From Rio (Blue Underground, Blu-ray)
TV on disc:
19-2: Season One (Acorn, DVD)
Royal Pains: Season Seven (Universal, DVD)
Hot in Cleveland: Season Six (Comedy Central, DVD)
The Inspector (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
The Ant and the Aardvark (Kino Lorber, Blu-ray, DVD)
Wabbit. Season One, Part One (Warner, DVD)
More new releases:
Ride Along 2 (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD)
Krampus (Universal, Blu-ray, DVD)
Jane Got a Gun (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray, DVD)
Backtrack (Lionsgate, DVD)