Still Life (China, 2006), Jia Zhang ke
Watcher in the Attic (Japan, 1976), Tanaka Noboru
Il Divo (Italy, 2008), Paolo Sorrentino
Gomorra (Italy, 2008), Matteo Garrone
Cinema 16 World Short Films (collection)

I caught Still Life the other evening. It was about as exciting as watching paint dry.

Il Divo was one of the best films I saw at PIFF this year, and an English-subtitled DVD from Italy should be waiting for me when I arrive at work this afternoon. Many people at the festival told me they’d seen Gomorra and that it was great, but I didn’t have a chance to watch it. The websites didn’t mention anything about English subs, but I took a chance anyway and ordered the DVD.

As for Tanaka Noboru’s adaptation of Edogawa Rampo, I love me some roman porno

UPDATE: I just received the two Italian films and both do indeed say English subtitles on the DVD case. Yeah! (I thought I’d have to wait till February for the UK release!)

Azur & Asmar R3 Korean LE
Tekonkinkreet R3 Korean LE

and caught some old R1 Blu-rays
Pan’s Labyrinth
Hellboy 2 LE
(didnt see it in theaters, so i figured i’d buy another del toro even if i was hearing bad things about the movie)
Mad Men Season 1
Dark City

Hunger (UK, 2008), Steve McQueen
Let The Right One In (Sweden, 2008), Tomas Alfredson
Fighter (Denmark, 2008), Natasha Arthy

I’m a little surprised that there has been so little interest in the upcoming UK DVD of Hunger. It sounds like one hell of a picture. Or that readers have shown little interest in the already released titles Il Divo and Gomorra(h). Il Divo was easily among the best films I’ve watched this year, and even though it’s been outshone by the mafia film in terms of awards and reviews, it is hands-down the better film, IMO. The visuals, the rocking soundtrack and the performance by Toni Servillo make this one a must-see. The transfers on both Italian (English-subtitled) discs look great, at least as near as I can tell on the crap TV I’m using here. That’s my little rant for today.

Speed Grapher complete collection
My Dear Enemy
Paranoid Park
I’m a Cyborg BR
Nowhere To Turn
Milky Way Liberation Front
The Dark Knight BR

After watching the outstanding collection of shorts, “World Cinema 16” and the somewhat less satisfying “European Cinema 16”, I decided to go ahead and check out a few feature films by some of the directors included in the sets. Maybe readers can help me out here: one of my favorite shorts in the European collection was by Spanish director Javier Fesser, but I couldn’t decide which film of his to pick up. Any suggestions?

Moolaade (2004), Ousmane Sembene
Red Road (2006), Andrea Arnold
Flickering Lights (2001), Anders Thomas Jensen

Other DVDs I ordered:

The Saragossa Manuscript (1965), Jerzy Has
Memories Of Underdevelopment (1968), Tomas Alea

Wondering what’s taking so long for Hong Sang-soo’s excellent Night and Day and Kim Ji-woon’s hallucinatory The Good, the Bad and the Weird to hit shelves? Not that it’ll be much fun watching Kim’s movie on the tiny t.v. I’ve been using anyway :( 

I’ll be picking up a few Korean titles this week:

Taxi Blues (Choi-ha Dong-ha, 2005)

Choi-ha directed the zany documentary Patriot Games (2001), which was included in KOFIC’s admirable collection True Heart Toward the World (2005), which, if you’ve seen it, would be all the reason you need to run out and pick this one up. For this documentary (shot on video), the director gets behind the wheel of a taxi for one year to show us what it’s like on the streets of Seoul.

My Dear Enemy (Lee Yoon-ki, 2008)

Starring Ha Jung-woo (The Chaser) and Jeon Do-yeon, Lee Yoon-ki here directs his most accomplished feature yet. Unlike his previous films This Charming Girl, and Ad-Lib Night, where most of the “action” takes place indoors, this one takes us out on the streets, allowing for some beautiful visuals, particularly reflections in glass, and some fine overhead shots.

The Last Witness (Lee Du-yong, 1980)

Park Chan-wook has for some time now been at the forefront of a group of filmmakers whose goal is to promote earlier Korean movies. Thanks to the efforts of Park and Ryoo Seung-wan (whose latest, Dachimawa Lee, is an hommage and spoof of Korean films of the 60’s thru 80’s), KOFA has released this 1980 murder mystery, restoring some 30% of footage that was deleted by censors. The disc comes with two audio commentaries, both with English subtitles.

Jon Pais - January 5, 2009, 11:16pm

After watching the outstanding collection of shorts, “World Cinema 16” and the somewhat less satisfying “European Cinema 16”, I decided to go ahead and check out a few feature films by some of the directors included in the sets. Maybe readers can help me out here: one of my favorite shorts in the European collection was by Spanish director Javier Fesser, but I couldn’t decide which film of his to pick up. Any suggestions?

Moolaade (2004), Ousmane Sembene
Red Road (2006), Andrea Arnold
Flickering Lights (2001), Anders Thomas Jensen

Other DVDs I ordered:

The Saragossa Manuscript (1965), Jerzy Has
Memories Of Underdevelopment (1968), Tomas Alea

 
 
I didn’t see “Red Road”, but it scored VERY high in the audience price on the 2007 International Film Festival Rotterdam. And I believe it won some awards at several other festivals including Cannes.

Red Road is a pretty interesting little film, it was shot about 10 miles down the road from me - hopefully you don’t need the subs on to understand the accent haha.

The Vanguard
My Blueberry Nights
Starfish Hotel

Haven’t ordered DVDs in a dogs age, but Jan-March is a particularly painful time at the cinema (Paul Blart, The Unborn, Bedtime Stories, yay Crap!) so I did put in an Amazon purchase:

Savage Grace
King of the Hill
Silent Light

BtoFu - January 7, 2009, 8:49am

Red Road is a pretty interesting little film, it was shot about 10 miles down the road from me - hopefully you don’t need the subs on to understand the accent haha.

The Vanguard
My Blueberry Nights
Starfish Hotel

Your comment brings up an interesting issue I had with the Cinema 16 releases: when selecting the English subtitle option, the English-language shorts don’t have any subtitles. Very frustrating, as the accents can be very difficult to understand.

Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (Uli Edel, Germany, 2008)
La Madre Muerta (Juanma Bajo Ulloa, Spain, 1993)
Ip Man (Wilson Yip, Hong Kong, 2008). I absolutely loved SPL, hope this one’s as entertaining.

Jon Pais - January 24, 2009, 10:02pm

Your comment brings up an interesting issue I had with the Cinema 16 releases: when selecting the English subtitle option, the English-language shorts don’t have any subtitles. Very frustrating, as the accents can be very difficult to understand.

Yeah isn’t it interesting that English itself can come across as a foreign language - Scottish in particular seems to be pretty hard for the untrained ear to decipher, films lke Sweet Sixteen and My Name Is Joe (bless Peter Mullen) required subtitles on their cinema outings.

Juno (waited for the buzz to die down before picking this up)
In Bruges
Kiltro

Jon, I too ordered LA MADRE MUERTE and am counting the days till it arrives in my hands. Also ordered Il DIVO based on this forum’s recommendation by you and others. I just got in the Region 2 uncut edition of Michael Powell’s classic fantasy, GONE TO EARTH (195O). Most importantly…I succumbed to my sixties nostalgia 3-Dementia and pre-ordered the 40th Anniversary Edition of THE STEWARDESSES!!!

I, Claudius (BBC mini)
The Apple
Sam Fuller’s White Dog
Private Practices

At the Height of Summer
Afro Samurai: Resurrection
Ip Man
Desert Punk complete collection
JCVD
Rab C. Nesbitt Series 1-5
Ashes of Time Redux