GATEFOLDING, Vol. 44
Impossible Truth
William Tyler
Windjammer (Blu-ray)
(Flicker Alley, 9.25.2012)Released on Blu-ray alongside This Is Cinerama, Windjammer is not a true Cinerama film. Originally released as the first film shot in Cinemiracle (a rival format that was quickly purchased by Cinerama), it was later re-released in Cinerama. The difference between these formats is negligible, having more to do with projection method -- unlike Cinerama, Cinemiracle could be projected from a single projection booth -- than audience experience. As a result, the visuals on this Smilebox Blu-ray are not dissimilar from those found in This Is Cinerama, once again bringing the format to home video in something approximating its original glory. Windjammer has a more muted, subdued color palette than This Is Cinerama, but it improves upon that film in several key ways.
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This Is Cinerama (Blu-ray)
(Flicker Alley, 9.25.2012)Cinerama was a major step forward in the technological history of cinema, giving the medium fresh life as it was starting to feel endangered by a new adversary: television. Shot with three interconnected cameras and projected (via three separate projectors) on a giant curved screen, Cinerama films updated the widescreen innovations of Abel Gance’s Napoleon for an era of color and sound. The first film made in this format, This Is Cinerama offered the kinds of sights and sounds that couldn’t be translated to the small screen, which might explain why it's been so difficult to see the film for the last five decades or so. Cinerama was designed to enhance the theatrical experience, but it was also designed to demonstrate the limitations of television. Therein lies the challenge Flicker Alley faced in making this Blu-ray. Can a film that is deliberately incompatible with television be translated to the small screen? Thankfully, the answer is a resounding yes.
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TIFF 2012 Re-cap
In 2009, 2010 and 2011, I posted Twitter reviews after every movie I saw at TIFF and compiled them here following the festival. That wasn't possible this year, as I was covering the festival for The Screening Room and many of the films I saw were embargoed when I screened them in the weeks leading up to the festival. On the plus side, this also made it possible for me to see more films than usual (56). Below you'll find links to the reviews I posted at The Screening Room, as well as belated, Twitter-style reviews of everything else I saw. I'm still feeling a bit scatterbrained after the heavy-duty cinema immersion of the past few weeks, but this should offer something approximating a coherent overview. -- JD
Anatomy of a Murder (Blu-ray)
(The Criterion Collection, 12.13.2011)Anatomy of a Murder is arguably the greatest courtroom film, edging out Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution and Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict. Featuring a unique blend of suspense, humor, character study and insight into changing American mores, this 1959 film is also the last unqualified masterpiece by Otto Preminger. In a small town on Michigan’s upper peninsula, folksy attorney Paul Biegler (James Stewart) defends Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara), an army lieutenant charged with the murder of a man who raped his wife, Laura (Lee Remick).
GATEFOLDING, Vol. 43: Beastie Boys
Paul's Boutique
Beastie Boys
Check Your Head
Beastie Boys
Ill Communication
Beastie Boys
GATEFOLDING, Vol. 42: The Band
Music From Big Pink
The Band
The Band
The Band
Before The Blood
Bob Dylan and The Band
The Basement Tapes
Bob Dylan and The Band
Branded to Kill (Blu-ray)
(The Criterion Collection, 12.13.2011)A film doesn’t have to make complete sense to be engrossing. Visual style and a striking central performance carry Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill despite the director’s pronounced indifference to clarity. Hanada (Joe Shishido) is Japan’s third-ranked hit man and not a bit happy about it. (Suzuki never explains who compiles such rankings.) In fact, he doesn't even believe that the number-one assassin exists. The film follows Hanada through several hits, leading to the inevitable showdown with his nemesis (Koji Nanbara). Along the way, he indulges in S&M with his wife (Mariko Ogawa) and meets a strange, mysterious young woman (Annu Mari).
