DVD

Secret Sunshine — A Hammer to Nail Review

(Secret Sunshine is available on DVD and Blu-ray through The Criterion Collection.) The history of Lee Chang-dong’s extraordinary Secret Sunshine is a textbook case of both the problems and the miracles at play in the current marketplace for international cinema here in the United States. The film, which premiered at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival (winning the Best Actress award for Jeon Do-yeon’s devastating performance), was featured in the U.S. that same autumn at The New York Film Festival. But despite critical accolades (the film won indieWIRE’s 2007 Best Undistributed Film poll in a landslide), Secret Sunshine remained in limbo […]
by Tom Hall on Aug 25, 2011
Criterion: The Killing

It’s extremely difficult to type the words “my favorite Kubrick film” because I honestly feel I could put that down while writing about any of them. But what I can say about Stanley Kubrick’s Hollywood calling card The Killing is it’s the one film of his that I’m most nostalgic about. Film noir. Jim Thompson’s words. Sterling Hayden’s “when men were men” bravado. The contract studio picture was on the way out and the New Hollywood of Bogdanovich, Ashby and Nichols were breaking down the doors. But before that (and likely escalating the emergence of New Hollywood) there was Kubrick. […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 16, 2011
SONY DISTRIBUTION CENTER DESTROYED DURING LONDON RIOTS

As the riots in London continue, with statistics including 563 people arrested, one man shot, emergency services attacked and multiple police officers injured in the last three days, last night the Pias/Sony distribution center in Enfield, London was set on fire by looters (see video below). Hundreds of thousands of CDs and DVDs were destroyed. Reports say independent filmmakers and music producers will be hit the hardest as the building was Sony’s only depot for CDs and DVDs in Britain.
by Jason Guerrasio on Aug 9, 2011
“BLOW OUT”

The ending of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out hits you in the chest like a hammer. It’s not supposed to be this way; American studio movies don’t end like that. But of course it’s the heartbreaking denouement that has partially helped to make the film endure in the 30 intervening years since its commercially disastrous release, though one can certainly fathom how it alienated audiences at the time (for the record, some critics were passionate defenders; it’s just that most viewers don’t savor being implicated in the spectacle of violence as it is quickly transformed into tragedy). As De Palma […]
by Travis Crawford on Apr 26, 2011
THE BROKEN WINDOW THEORY PART TWO

Below we linked to a Hollywood Reporter article about the momentum in the industry towards collapsing the traditional theatrical/home video/pay television windows that have governed when new motion pictures are released to the public. Today on his blog, Mark Cuban, whose 2929 Productions and HDNet films are at the forefront of this experimental distribution, has a cogent explanation of his strategy. Make sure to read the postings from readers below his blog as well. Hollywood may not like it, but it’s clear that he is on to something. From the piece: “Why not price a DVD or the PPV at […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jun 5, 2005
THE YEAR’S MOST DANGEROUS INDEPENDENT FILM?

Somehow, I don’t think the folks at Apple promoting iMovie had this in mind. From today’s New York Times comes this very disturbing article by Fox Butterfield about the methods by which youth gangs are threatening grand jury witnesses. (Times registration required.) The article talks about a two-hour DVD doc entitled Stop Snitching being distributed “grass-roots style” in local neighborhoods which puts out a threatening message to witnesses of violent crime. After detailing several instances where witnesses around the country have been murdered because of their grand jury testimony, the article notes: “And in each city, CD’s and DVD’s titled […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 16, 2005
BLACK-MARKET BANGKOK

Former Filmmaker editor Chuck Stephens penned this engaging report from Soi Thonglor, the street he lives on “deep in the heart of Bangkok… where intellectual property rights aren’t exactly chief among local law enforcement’s concerns.” His “Ten Best” list (Number 1: Tropical Malady) includes a number of titles seen on bootleg DVDs Stephens picked up at his local grocery store. In the article, Stephens points out that apathetic distributors worldwide are causing dedicated cineates to rely on cheap black market DVDs just to keep up with the artform. Also great reading, although not on the web, unfortunately, is Wired‘s cover […]
by Scott Macaulay on Dec 29, 2004
HIGH ON HI-DEF

David Poland’s Moviecity News links to this interesting interview with Mark Cuban in Business 2.0 in which the Broadcast.com, 2929, and HDNet founder (and Dallas Mavericks owner) concisely lays out his long-term vision as a digital distributor and content supplier. It’s a good read as it clearly lays out in one short article the thinking that informs Cuban’s business ventures, which include the producer of low-budget indie HD films, HDNet. Cuban disparages the DVD format (he believes they’ll be replaced by higher quality presentations delivered via satellite and broadband and stored on hard drives) and, in one great quote, dismisses […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 19, 2004
THIS DVD WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN…

In a blog entry below we reported on “window-busting” release of Chazz Palminteri’s film Noel, which will appear in theaters, on cable and on DVD all within the same month. It’s part of a marketing strategy designed to score Noel some ink in the press — perhaps to divert attention away from the reviews, which Rotten Tomatoes scores only 18% positive. In our entry we were intrigued by the release strategy, but the folks at The Movie Blog linked to this USA Today piece which describes it in more critical terms. Some of the comments in the piece, like the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Nov 15, 2004

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