February––particularly its third week––is all about romance. Accordingly the Criterion Channel got creative with their monthly programming and, in a few weeks, will debut Interdimensional Romance, a series of films wherein “passion conquers time and space, age and memory, and even death and the afterlife.” For every title you might’ve guessed there’s a wilder companion: Alan Rudolph’s Made In Heaven, Soderbergh’s remake, and Resnais’ Love Unto Death. Mostly I’m excited to revisit Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, a likely essential viewing before Megalopolis.
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
February also marks Black History Month, and Criterion’s series will include work by Shirley Clarke (also subject of a standalone series), Garrett Bradley, Cheryl Dunye, and Julie Dash, while movies by Sirk, Minnelli, King Vidor, and Lang play in “Gothic Noir.” Greta Gerwig gets an “Adventures in Moviegoing” and can be seen in Mary Bronstein’s Yeast,...
- 1/11/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
No two ways about it: April’s a great month for the Criterion Channel, which (among other things; more in a second) adds two recent favorites. We’re thrilled at the SVOD premiere of Hamaguchi’s entrancing Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, our #3 of 2021, and Bruno Dumont’s lacerating France, featuring Léa Seydoux’s finest performance yet.
Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.
See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
—
3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926
Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...
Ethan Hawke’s Adventures in Moviegoing runs the gamut from Eagle Pennell’s Last Night at the Alamo to 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, while a 14-film John Ford retro (mostly) skips westerns altogether. And no notes on the Delphine Seyrig retro—multiple by Akerman, Ulrike Ottinger, Duras, a smattering of Buñuel, and Seyrig’s own film Be Pretty and Shut Up! That of all things might be the crown jewl.
See the full list of April titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
—
3 Bad Men, John Ford, 1926
Aar paar, Guru Dutt,...
- 3/25/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Hollywood acknowledges the existence of America’s proto- C.I.A. intelligence agency with this espionage tale of Yanks working with the resistance in occupied France. It’s basic cloak ‘n’ dagger action, with intrepid Alan Ladd and the daring Geraldine Fitzgerald risking life and limb to plant plastic explosive bombs. The details are fairly interesting: Ladd outwits the Gestapo by working with a turncoat inside their ranks. The outcome is grimly realistic, even if that old Paramount glamour is part of the package. The writer-producer is Richard Maibaum, who would later write almost thirty years’ worth of franchise James Bond 007 adventures.
O.S.S.
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1946 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 108 min. / Street Date August 10, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Alan Ladd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, John Hoyt, Gloria Saunders, Richard Webb, Richard Benedict, Harold Vermilyea, Don Beddoe, Onslow Stevens, Gavin Muir, Egon Brecher, Joseph Crehan, Bobby Driscoll, Julia Dean,...
O.S.S.
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1946 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 108 min. / Street Date August 10, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Alan Ladd, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Patric Knowles, John Hoyt, Gloria Saunders, Richard Webb, Richard Benedict, Harold Vermilyea, Don Beddoe, Onslow Stevens, Gavin Muir, Egon Brecher, Joseph Crehan, Bobby Driscoll, Julia Dean,...
- 7/13/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Today, a special Batman Day edition of the Hero Nation Index, our weekly report on news from Hollywood’s sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and superhero sectors.
Today is the fifth annual Batman Day, and this year also marks the 80th anniversary of the Caped Crusader’s first appearance in the pages of DC Comics back in 1939. That auspicious confluence will shine an impressively global spotlight on the character that now ranks as the widely recognized masked man in American pop culture and across all of Western entertainment.
The activities today include Batman comic book giveaways at hundreds of comic book shops and public libraries across North America, and elaborate tie-in events are planned by major specialty retailers, including Lego stores, Build-a-Bear shops, and Barnes & Noble locations. Amazon will be hawking limited-edition Bat-merch at the merchant’s special,...
Today is the fifth annual Batman Day, and this year also marks the 80th anniversary of the Caped Crusader’s first appearance in the pages of DC Comics back in 1939. That auspicious confluence will shine an impressively global spotlight on the character that now ranks as the widely recognized masked man in American pop culture and across all of Western entertainment.
The activities today include Batman comic book giveaways at hundreds of comic book shops and public libraries across North America, and elaborate tie-in events are planned by major specialty retailers, including Lego stores, Build-a-Bear shops, and Barnes & Noble locations. Amazon will be hawking limited-edition Bat-merch at the merchant’s special,...
- 9/21/2019
- by Geoff Boucher
- Deadline Film + TV
Fritz Lang’s third wartime anti-Nazi film is an Alfred Hitchcock-type spy chase taken from a psychological novel by Graham Greene, with the psychology angle transferred mostly to physical threats — ticking clocks, a mystery cake, and German bombs in the Blitz. Ray Milland is cool and collected for a man just released from a mental asylum, and proves up to the task of defeating a Nazi conspiracy.
Ministry of Fear
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Byron Foulger.
Cinematography: Henry Sharp
Film Editor: Victor Young
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Seton I. Miller from the novel by Graham Greene
Produced by Seton I. Miller
Directed by Fritz Lang
Why do we go for certain Region B Blu-ray imports, even...
Ministry of Fear
Region B Blu-ray
Powerhouse Indicator
1944 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 86 min. / Street Date August 27, 2018 / available from Powerhouse Films UK / £14.99
Starring: Ray Milland, Marjorie Reynolds, Carl Esmond, Hillary Brooke, Percy Waram, Dan Duryea, Alan Napier, Erskine Sanford, Byron Foulger.
Cinematography: Henry Sharp
Film Editor: Victor Young
Original Music: Victor Young
Written by Seton I. Miller from the novel by Graham Greene
Produced by Seton I. Miller
Directed by Fritz Lang
Why do we go for certain Region B Blu-ray imports, even...
- 8/28/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mubi is showing Max Ophüls' Liebelei (1933) from November 9 - December 8, 2016 in most countries around the world.While the primary players in Max Ophüls’ 1933 film Liebelei may be introduced at the same opera house, seeing the same performance of Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio,” the real drama is produced away from the stage, though it is rarely any less histrionic. As secretive private passions and illicit romances are revealed, so softly and elegantly in what would become the presentational norm for Ophüls, a genuinely pure, ultimately heartbreaking, relationship emerges from the scandalous furor. When philandering German Lieutenant Fritz Lobheimer (Wolfgang Liebeneiner) meets and falls for Christine Weyring (Magda Schneider), the daughter of an opera musician, he is commendably quick to break off his essentially lustful involvement with the adulterous Baroness von Eggersdorff (Olga Tschechowa). Unlike Arthur Schnitzler’s source play (Schnitzler, who would also provide the foundation for Ophüls’ excellent 1950 film,...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
Wow! Fritz Lang's second western is a marvel -- a combo of matinee innocence and that old Germanic edict that character equals fate. It has a master's sense of color and design. Robert Young is an odd fit but Randolph Scott is nothing less than terrific. You'd think Lang was born on the Pecos. Western Union Blu-ray Kl Studio Classics 1941 / Color /1:37 flat Academy / 95 min. / Street Date November 8, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Randolph Scott, Robert Young, Virginia Gilmore, Dean Jagger, John Carradine, Chill Wills, Slim Summerville, Barton MacLane, Victor Kilian, George Chandler, Chief John Big Tree, Iron Eyes Cody, Jay Silverheels. Cinematography Edward Cronjager, Allen M. Davey Original Music David Buttolph Written by Robert Carson from the novel by Zane Grey Produced by Harry Joe Brown (associate) Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Darryl Zanuck of 20th Fox treated most writers well, was good for John Ford...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Darryl Zanuck of 20th Fox treated most writers well, was good for John Ford...
- 11/1/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Guns! Bombs! Assassinations! Blackmail! Fritz Lang invents the escapist super-spy thriller! To seize a set of political documents the evil Haghi dispatches the seductive agents Kitty and Sonya to neutralize a Japanese security man and our own top spy No. 236. (that's 007 x 33,714.2857!) It's a top-rank silent winner from the maker of Metropolis. Spies (Spione) Blu-ray Kino Classics 1928 / B&W /1:33 Silent Aperture / 150 min. / Street Date February 23, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Gerda Maurus, Lien Deyers, Willy Fritsch, Lupu Pick, Hertha von Walther, Fritz Rasp, Craighall Sherry, Hans Heinrich von Twardowsky, Gustl Gstettenbaur. Cinematography Fritz Arno Wagner Art Directors Otto Hunte, Karl Vollbrecht Set Designer Edgar G. Ulmer (reported) Original Music Werner R. Heymann (original) Neil Brand piano score on this disc. Written by Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou from her novel Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did Fritz Lang...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
How did Fritz Lang...
- 3/19/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Oct. 22, 2013
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Ruth Hussey and Ray Milland investigate things that go bump in the night in The Uninvited.
The 1944 horror-mystery film The Uninvited, directed by Lewis Allen (Suddenly), was groundbreaking for the seriousness with which it treated the haunted-house genre.
A pair of siblings (Ministry of Fear’s Ray Milland and The Philadelphia Story’s Ruth Hussey) from London purchase a surprisingly affordable, lonely cliff-top house in Cornwall, only to discover that it actually carries a ghostly price. It doesn’t take too long before the two are caught up in a bizarre romantic triangle from beyond the grave.
Rich in atmosphere and such genre staples as a tragic family past, a mysteriously locked room, cold chills, and bumps in the night, the gothic-flavored Uninvited remains an elegant and eerie experience, featuring a classic score by Victor Young (Written on the Wind...
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Ruth Hussey and Ray Milland investigate things that go bump in the night in The Uninvited.
The 1944 horror-mystery film The Uninvited, directed by Lewis Allen (Suddenly), was groundbreaking for the seriousness with which it treated the haunted-house genre.
A pair of siblings (Ministry of Fear’s Ray Milland and The Philadelphia Story’s Ruth Hussey) from London purchase a surprisingly affordable, lonely cliff-top house in Cornwall, only to discover that it actually carries a ghostly price. It doesn’t take too long before the two are caught up in a bizarre romantic triangle from beyond the grave.
Rich in atmosphere and such genre staples as a tragic family past, a mysteriously locked room, cold chills, and bumps in the night, the gothic-flavored Uninvited remains an elegant and eerie experience, featuring a classic score by Victor Young (Written on the Wind...
- 7/30/2013
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Amazon is having a massive sale on Criterion Collection titles, virtually all of them listed at 50% off and I have included more than 115 of the available titles directly below along with a selection of ten I consider must owns. Titles beyond my top ten include Amarcord, Christopher Nolan's Following, David Fincher's The Game, Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and The Killing, Roman Polansk's Rosemary's Baby, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited and plenty of Terrence Malick. All the links lead directly to the Amazon website, so click on through with confidence. Small Note: By buying through the links below you help support RopeofSilicon.com as I get a small commission for the sales made through using these links. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your support. Top Ten Must Owns 8 1/2 (dir. Federico Fellini) 12 Angry Men (dir. Sidney Lumet) The 400 Blows (dir.
- 6/6/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Amazon is having a massive sale on Criterion Collection titles, virtually all of them listed at 50% off and I have included more than 115 of the available titles directly below along with a selection of ten I consider must owns. Titles beyond my top ten include Amarcord, Christopher Nolan's Following, David Fincher's The Game, Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and The Killing, Roman Polansk's Rosemary's Baby, Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited and plenty of Terrence Malick. All the links lead directly to the Amazon website, so click on through with confidence. Small Note: By buying through the links below you help support RopeofSilicon.com as I get a small commission for the sales made through using these links. Thanks for reading and I appreciate your support. Top Ten Must Owns 8 1/2 (dir. Federico Fellini) 12 Angry Men (dir. Sidney Lumet) The 400 Blows (dir.
- 6/6/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Ministry of Fear is a film that wouldn't work if not for insanity. The arc of the drama would be too haphazard, the explanations too unsatisfying, and the actions of its villains (to say nothing of its hero) too wildly irrational. But this is Europe in 1944, and irrationality is the order of the day. It's in the drone of planes overhead, the casual talk of blackout time, and the suspicious glances on the street. Because the world waiting for Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) when he gets out of the mental hospital has gone just as mad as him.
A wartime thriller from Fritz Lang (let's call it a noir), Ministry of Fear is generally regarded as one of the German director's more obscure American films, a status that will hopefully shift now that it has been released, and thus quasi-canonized, by the Criterion Collection. On the face of it, this...
A wartime thriller from Fritz Lang (let's call it a noir), Ministry of Fear is generally regarded as one of the German director's more obscure American films, a status that will hopefully shift now that it has been released, and thus quasi-canonized, by the Criterion Collection. On the face of it, this...
- 5/7/2013
- by Duncan Gray
- MUBI
Chicago – Slight on special features and not as instantly recognizable as some recent inductions into the Criterion Collection like “On the Waterfront” or “Badlands,” Fritz Lang’s “Ministry of Fear” could easily slip under the radar even for people who know and love the thriller. Lang is one of the most interesting filmmakers of his era, as he found ways to inject his seemingly traditional work with much-more-complex themes. Working in Hollywood during World War II, Lang made thrillers that were more than just thrillers. “Ministry of Fear” is one of his best.
Rating: 3.5/5.0
While it’s an entertaining thriller with top-notch production values and a surprisingly great performance from Ray Milland, part of the problem with the legacy of “Ministry of Fear” is the films with which it is easy to compare. Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” would touch on some of the same themes and is a vastly superior film,...
Rating: 3.5/5.0
While it’s an entertaining thriller with top-notch production values and a surprisingly great performance from Ray Milland, part of the problem with the legacy of “Ministry of Fear” is the films with which it is easy to compare. Carol Reed’s “The Third Man” would touch on some of the same themes and is a vastly superior film,...
- 3/25/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
And Then There Was… Badlands
By Raymond Benson
Terrence Malick fans will rejoice for the newly restored (and director approved, I might add—so apparently he’s not as reclusive as he’s been made out to be), marvelous release of the auteur’s first, and very low-budget, feature film. It was originally screened at festivals in 1973, and released to the public in early ’74. No punches pulled here—Badlands is a masterpiece, and its arrival immediately garnered a fan following for the enigmatic director who has made only five films in so many decades. But as producer Edward Pressman says in the exclusive video interview that The Criterion Collection included as one of several good extras, Badlands was not a success on its first release. Reviews were mixed—as would be the case for any Malick film—and the public didn’t go see it. Pressman also had to fight...
By Raymond Benson
Terrence Malick fans will rejoice for the newly restored (and director approved, I might add—so apparently he’s not as reclusive as he’s been made out to be), marvelous release of the auteur’s first, and very low-budget, feature film. It was originally screened at festivals in 1973, and released to the public in early ’74. No punches pulled here—Badlands is a masterpiece, and its arrival immediately garnered a fan following for the enigmatic director who has made only five films in so many decades. But as producer Edward Pressman says in the exclusive video interview that The Criterion Collection included as one of several good extras, Badlands was not a success on its first release. Reviews were mixed—as would be the case for any Malick film—and the public didn’t go see it. Pressman also had to fight...
- 3/21/2013
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Fritz Lang aficionados can rejoice this month with Criterion’s release of his 1944 title, Ministry of Fear, the first time it sees a DVD transfer. Long regarded as a minor entry in Lang’s prestigious filmography, the last of a successive trio of anti-Nazi themed films from the German émigré is finally available for rediscovery. Though it may never escape its current status in the pantheon of its director’s legacy, it certainly stands out as an oddly constructed creature, a fussy war time noir whose sinister narrative is occluded by a stagnant paranoia that stirs the proceedings into a twisty nightmare.
Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) has just been released from Embridge Asylum in England while World War II rages on. He’s been put away for two years and insistently plans on traveling directly to London, even though it’s being bombed continuously. On the way there, he innocently stops at a village fair,...
Stephen Neale (Ray Milland) has just been released from Embridge Asylum in England while World War II rages on. He’s been put away for two years and insistently plans on traveling directly to London, even though it’s being bombed continuously. On the way there, he innocently stops at a village fair,...
- 3/19/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In March, Criterion Collection Meets "The Blob", "Monsieur Verdoux", Colonel Blimp in the "Badlands"
Self-professed cinephiles the world over appreciate the Criterion Collection's mission to preserve classic and contemporary films deemed culturally or artistically important. Every month they select somewhere between 4 to 6 features and digitally remaster them for new Blu-ray and DVD releases to ensure that some of the world's best cinematic works survive the transfer to today's high-definition era. This March the releases include the horror classic The Blob (starring a young Steve McQueen), the celebrated British dramatic comedy The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Fritz Lang's war drama Ministry of Fear, the Charlie Chaplin comedy Monsieur Verdoux, Terrence Malick's directorial debut Badlands, and Robert Bresson's jailbreak drama A Man Escaped.
For all the details on each of these releases.
Read more...
For all the details on each of these releases.
Read more...
- 3/18/2013
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
With apologies, this week's column was delayed due to the whirling, queso-and-beer-and-movies dervish called the SXSW Film Festival. In fact, tonight in Austin there will be a special screening of Dave Grohl's rock-doc crowd pleaser "Sound City," which dropped on DVD and Blu-ray this week. Grohl and his Nirvana bandmates recorded "Nevermind" in that film's titular recording studio some 22 years ago, and three more before that? "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and "Willow" were released, both newly freshened up in 25th anniversary Blu-ray releases. But now on to the real treasures from this past Tuesday... "Ministry of Fear" (Criterion) Less expressionistic than he'd come to be known for, Fritz Lang's creepy 1947 espionage noir—a loose adaptation of Graham Greene's novel—may not prop up the cinematic canon like such pillars as "Metropolis," "M" or "The Big Heat," but it's still a ominously stylish and riveting piece of postwar pulp.
- 3/15/2013
- by Aaron Hillis
- Indiewire
Life of Pi I don't always include the 3-D Blu-ray version when I put together this column, but with Life of Pi that's sort of the whole point right? I mean, if anyone talks about this movie the first, and sometimes only, thing they talk about are the visuals. Personally it was only an "okay" movie that I didn't really think amounted to much, but I expect it will have a rather impressive life on the home video market following its Oscar wins.
The Blob (Criterion Collection) Blu-ray I watched this Blu-ray on Sunday night and listened to the commentaries yesterday on and off throughout the day. This isn't exactly a feature-rich release and we're talking about more of a classic sci-fi film from the late '50s with a nostalgia factor for some and a certain level of intrigue from cinephiles, but is it a "must buy"? The commentary...
The Blob (Criterion Collection) Blu-ray I watched this Blu-ray on Sunday night and listened to the commentaries yesterday on and off throughout the day. This isn't exactly a feature-rich release and we're talking about more of a classic sci-fi film from the late '50s with a nostalgia factor for some and a certain level of intrigue from cinephiles, but is it a "must buy"? The commentary...
- 3/12/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Moviefone's New Release of the Week "Life of Pi" What's It About? The best-selling novel about Pi, a 16-year-old boy who survives a shipwreck and is stranded in the ocean with a hyena, orangutan, wounded zebra, and Bengal tiger, is finally brought to the screen by Ang Lee. See It Because: While an ambitious undertaking, Lee's masterful storytelling and spellbinding cinematography made believers out of even the most devout "Pi" fans -- and it's easy to see why Lee and the movie's visual artists were rewarded with heaps of Oscars. Watch Ang Lee talk about working with a real tiger, in an exclusive clip from "Life of Pi" (video at the top of this post). Moviefone's Blu-ray of the Week "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" 25th Anniversary Edition What's It About? Disney's landmark Hollywood noir -- set in 1940s "Toon Town" -- is just as madcap and amazing to watch now...
- 3/11/2013
- by Eric Larnick
- Moviefone
A response to what's probably the best piece on Zero Dark Thirty, Ignatiy Vishnevetsky’s “The Monitor Mentality”.
And to a movie I'd like no one to see.
***
“Everybody likes cake,” says peppy girl-agent Jennifer Ehle, the kind of personality who likes to dish sex over cocktails at hotel bars Thank You For Not Smoking-style, as she dollops the last of the frosting on her little home-baked house-warming gift for an informant about to penetrate their chummy compound. A riposte: “Not everyone likes cake,” Jessica Chastain's wan CIA agent, Maya, warns a moment before, her note of caution sounded off with judicious regularity throughout the movie to more colorful personalities—all to make her ultimate confidence in the final operation ring with resounding pluck after two hours of trepidation. Not everyone likes cake? Any reference to Ministry of Fear aside, these are fighting words, a salvo for the sweet-toothed:...
And to a movie I'd like no one to see.
***
“Everybody likes cake,” says peppy girl-agent Jennifer Ehle, the kind of personality who likes to dish sex over cocktails at hotel bars Thank You For Not Smoking-style, as she dollops the last of the frosting on her little home-baked house-warming gift for an informant about to penetrate their chummy compound. A riposte: “Not everyone likes cake,” Jessica Chastain's wan CIA agent, Maya, warns a moment before, her note of caution sounded off with judicious regularity throughout the movie to more colorful personalities—all to make her ultimate confidence in the final operation ring with resounding pluck after two hours of trepidation. Not everyone likes cake? Any reference to Ministry of Fear aside, these are fighting words, a salvo for the sweet-toothed:...
- 1/1/2013
- by David Phelps
- MUBI
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: March 12, 2013
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds star in Ministry of Fear.
The 1944 crime drama film-noir Ministry of Fear is a Fritz Lang (Metropolis) adaptation of a 1943 novel by Graham Greene.
En route to London after being released from a mental institution, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland, Dial M For Murder) stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister underworld with possible Nazi connections.
Lang was among the most illustrious of the European émigré filmmakers working in Hollywood during World War II, of course, and Ministry of Fear is one of his finest American productions, an unpredictable thriller suffused with dread and paranoia—with style to spare.
The Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions of Ministry of Fear contain the following bonus features:
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the...
Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $29.95
Studio: Criterion
Ray Milland and Marjorie Reynolds star in Ministry of Fear.
The 1944 crime drama film-noir Ministry of Fear is a Fritz Lang (Metropolis) adaptation of a 1943 novel by Graham Greene.
En route to London after being released from a mental institution, Stephen Neale (Ray Milland, Dial M For Murder) stops at a seemingly innocent village fair, after which he finds himself caught in the web of a sinister underworld with possible Nazi connections.
Lang was among the most illustrious of the European émigré filmmakers working in Hollywood during World War II, of course, and Ministry of Fear is one of his finest American productions, an unpredictable thriller suffused with dread and paranoia—with style to spare.
The Criterion Blu-ray and DVD editions of Ministry of Fear contain the following bonus features:
• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the...
- 12/28/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Photos for Gangster Squad, Kill Your Darlings, The Hangover Part III and Red 2.
Posters for Parker, A Haunted House, and Escape from Planet Earth.
20th Century Fox has revealed the worldwide release dates for The Wolverine. There's also a trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Willow, and a new viral website for Star Trek Into Darkness.
"'Draft Day', the football-themed drama script with Kevin Costner attached, topped the annual Black List of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays…" (full details)
"Criterion have announced their March Blu-ray titles which include Terrence Malick’s 'Badlands,' Fritz Lang's 'Ministry of Fear,' Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped,' the Charlie Chaplin title 'Monsieur Verdoux,' the 50's version of 'The Blob,' and Powell and Pressburger's 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'…" (full details)
"The Weinstein Company has scrapped the L.A. premiere of...
Posters for Parker, A Haunted House, and Escape from Planet Earth.
20th Century Fox has revealed the worldwide release dates for The Wolverine. There's also a trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Willow, and a new viral website for Star Trek Into Darkness.
"'Draft Day', the football-themed drama script with Kevin Costner attached, topped the annual Black List of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays…" (full details)
"Criterion have announced their March Blu-ray titles which include Terrence Malick’s 'Badlands,' Fritz Lang's 'Ministry of Fear,' Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped,' the Charlie Chaplin title 'Monsieur Verdoux,' the 50's version of 'The Blob,' and Powell and Pressburger's 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'…" (full details)
"The Weinstein Company has scrapped the L.A. premiere of...
- 12/18/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Photos for Gangster Squad, Kill Your Darlings, The Hangover Part III and Red 2.
Posters for Parker, A Haunted House, and Escape from Planet Earth.
20th Century Fox has revealed the worldwide release dates for The Wolverine. There's also a trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Willow, and a new viral website for Star Trek Into Darkness.
"'Draft Day', the football-themed drama script with Kevin Costner attached, topped the annual Black List of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays…" (full details)
"Criterion have announced their March Blu-ray titles which include Terrence Malick’s 'Badlands,' Fritz Lang's 'Ministry of Fear,' Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped,' the Charlie Chaplin title 'Monsieur Verdoux,' the 50's version of 'The Blob,' and Powell and Pressburger's 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'…" (full details)
"The Weinstein Company has scrapped the L.A. premiere of...
Posters for Parker, A Haunted House, and Escape from Planet Earth.
20th Century Fox has revealed the worldwide release dates for The Wolverine. There's also a trailer for the upcoming Blu-ray release of Willow, and a new viral website for Star Trek Into Darkness.
"'Draft Day', the football-themed drama script with Kevin Costner attached, topped the annual Black List of Hollywood's best unproduced screenplays…" (full details)
"Criterion have announced their March Blu-ray titles which include Terrence Malick’s 'Badlands,' Fritz Lang's 'Ministry of Fear,' Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped,' the Charlie Chaplin title 'Monsieur Verdoux,' the 50's version of 'The Blob,' and Powell and Pressburger's 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'…" (full details)
"The Weinstein Company has scrapped the L.A. premiere of...
- 12/18/2012
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Below you will find our total coverage of the 2012 Vienna International Film festival by Daniel Kasman.
The Major and the Minor
On Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (both 1924), and Ministry of Fear (1944)
American Genres
On Fritz Lang's Man Hunt (1941), John Ford's Donovan's Reef (1963), John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), and Tony Scott's Unstoppable (2010)
The Unseen Guerrilla
On Fritz Lang's An American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
James Benning's the war
On James Benning's the war...
The Major and the Minor
On Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen: Siegfried and Die Nibelungen: Kriemhild's Revenge (both 1924), and Ministry of Fear (1944)
American Genres
On Fritz Lang's Man Hunt (1941), John Ford's Donovan's Reef (1963), John Carpenter's The Thing (1982), and Tony Scott's Unstoppable (2010)
The Unseen Guerrilla
On Fritz Lang's An American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
James Benning's the war
On James Benning's the war...
- 11/6/2012
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Hope or despair as one may, the experience of a film festival is a surprise sui generis creation born from a clash-overlap between what an audience member wants to see, what the programmers have chosen, and the confluence between the two via the Gods of Scheduling. In the case of the Vienna International Film Festival—the Viennale—what fell on my first day across the hatchmarks of mine, theirs, and that most frustrating of wild cards was not a single new film, but rather a requirement and an indulgence. The first was Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen, Siegfried and Kriemhild's Revenge (1924), which I had never seen, and the latter was a free slot opened up by an unexpected early arrival, allowing me to also catch Lang's Ministry of Fear (1944), which I had. Twenty years separate these two Fritz Lang films—part of the Vienna Film Museum's complete retrospective of the...
- 10/30/2012
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Above: Ruiz's La recta provincia (2007).
Notebook is unfurling a series of tributes to Raúl Ruiz entitled Blind Man's Bluff: along with some previously published articles, here in English for the first time, the bulk a compilation of new, shorter pieces from a few generous critics and Ruizians on favorite moments from a vast, subterranean filmography. For more from Raúl Ruiz: Blind Man's Bluff see the Table of Contents.
Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody (2002)
There's a scene in Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody, the series of documentaries (?) for which Ruiz returned to Chilean filmmaking in 2002, that seems fascinating to me for its strangeness. Without any rational justification, Ruiz, who acts in the film, takes a TV remote and talks into it as if it were a cordless phone. It's one of those scenes that seem to have been dreamt by the viewer, but turn out to be revealing of different aspects of Ruiz as filmmaker.
Notebook is unfurling a series of tributes to Raúl Ruiz entitled Blind Man's Bluff: along with some previously published articles, here in English for the first time, the bulk a compilation of new, shorter pieces from a few generous critics and Ruizians on favorite moments from a vast, subterranean filmography. For more from Raúl Ruiz: Blind Man's Bluff see the Table of Contents.
Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody (2002)
There's a scene in Cofralandes, Chilean Rhapsody, the series of documentaries (?) for which Ruiz returned to Chilean filmmaking in 2002, that seems fascinating to me for its strangeness. Without any rational justification, Ruiz, who acts in the film, takes a TV remote and talks into it as if it were a cordless phone. It's one of those scenes that seem to have been dreamt by the viewer, but turn out to be revealing of different aspects of Ruiz as filmmaker.
- 10/20/2011
- MUBI
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