INGMAR BERGMAN: VOLUME 1, Ingmar Bergman, director/BFI Admirers of the greatest director in the history of the cinema, Ingmar Bergman, will be pleased to note the appearance of this first box set collecting the director’s matchless contributions to film, featuring eight early Bergman films made from 1946-1950; the debut appearance of these films on Blu-ray in the UK. This box set is the first of four volumes that will collect 32 films from the filmmaker’s career. In Blu-ray transfers that do full justice to the striking cinematography (evident from the earliest films even before the advent of his favourite cinematographer Sven Nykvist), it is fascinating to watch the director’s utterly personal vision develop over his career. Volume One features 2K restorations of his debut film, Crisis (1946), Music in Darkness (1948), Port of Call (1948), Prison (1949) (his first film with his own screenplay), Three Strange Loves (1949) and To Joy (1950), alongside the Bergman-scripted Torment (1944) and Eva (1948). Those who know only the later masterpieces will be surprised just how many gems there are among his earlier efforts. Subsequent sets will collect such films as The Seventh Seal (1957), Persona (1966), Wild Strawberries (1957), Fanny and Alexander (1982) and Cries and Whispers (1972).
THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN, Mike Nichols, director/Indicator The director Mike Nichols was famous for his witty and stylish dramas and comedies which customarily featured superbly written screenplays. And if the moving and exhilarating The Day of the Dolphin is not typical fare from the director, it is nevertheless a highly unusual piece of work with its science-fiction oriented plot in which scientist George C. Scott effects an almost-human communication with dolphins, even teaching one a rudimentary form of human speech. The film changes pace of halfway through to become a kind of thriller when corrupt authority figures become involved, but few will complain given that both the earlier sections and a more straightforward thriller finale are handled with such aplomb. Scott, of course, was one of the great actors the American cinema and turns in a powerful performance here.
INVINCIBLE, Werner Herzog, director/ Indicator Also from Indicator, director Werner Herzog’s Invincible appears in a striking 2K restoration. When released in 2001, this was the German filmmaker’s first fictional film work in a decade. Evoking the life of Jewish strongman Zishe Breitbart, the film stars Tim Roth and Udo Kier.
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, Dario Argento, director/Arrow This new 4K restoration from the original negative in 4K (2160p) looks quite stunningly pristine. Argento’s feature film debut, the poetically titled The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L’Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo, 1970), augured well for his career – a commercial success in 1970, it looks a fascinating dry run for many ideas to be more fully developed in later films. Tony Musante plays an American writer in Italy who witnesses a murderous assault through glass (prefiguring David Hemmings in the later Deep Red (Profondo Rosso, 1976); he is trapped between sliding glass doors while attempting to aid the bleeding victim (Eva Renzi) – and this sequence seems to be the one people remember over the years – probably because Musante’s subsequent tracking down of the black leather-clad murderer is handled with rather less panache than Argento was to develop in subsequent films. There are of course visual delights galore – a marvellously Hitchcockian chase of a yellow-jacketed hired killer (one of several loose ends not really tied up) that ends with a joke worthy of North by Northwest: a murder by razor that utilises sound as chillingly as Polanski did in Repulsion (a word would be in order here about Ennio Morricone’s mesmeric score, cleverly used throughout) and the suspenseful siege of Musante’s girlfriend (Suzy Kendall) in her flat – the murderer’s knife cutting through the door invites another comparison: the demolition job done on a similar door in Hitchcock’s The Birds – but this doesn’t prevent the sequence from being claustrophobically pulse-racing. Complemented by a formidable list of extras.
SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS, WATCH ME WHEN I KILL, BEYOND THE DARKNESS, Various directors/88 films Still with gialli and other branches of the Italian macabre, there is another bijou Blu-ray label that has done sterling service for this genre: hard-working, enterprising 88 films, who have provided a bushel of very tempting items for the aficionado. What’s more, their Blu-ray issues are usually of the highest quality, with both 2K and 4K transfers and (mostly) both English and Italian audio options. A random selection of the label’s offerings might profitably include Seven Blood-stained Orchids, Umberto Lenzi’s colourful and edgy tale of a mysterious psychopathic killer at his gruesome work. The version here is completely uncut which, of course, means that it is not for the squeamish – but most definitely for admirers of the giallo. Similarly, Antonio Bido’s Watch Me When I Kill rings some imaginative changes, with the director of such favourites as Bloodstained Shadow here producing a key entry in the field from 1977. The 4K remastering here is exemplary. And Beyond The Darkness, directed by exploitation specialist Joe D’Amato (Aristide Massacessi), is a colourful riff on Hitchcock’s Psycho, and has all the energy and exhilarating crudity of his best work. Needless to say, the titles above only scratch the surface of 88 Films’ impressive roster.
THE KRAYS, Peter Medak director/ Second Sight There have been several films detailing the bloody rule of Britain’s most famous gangsters, the Kray twins – and even films which conflated the brothers into one character (Richard Burton’s gay criminal in Villain), so something unusual has to be added to the mix and distinguish any new film from its predecessors. In this definitive version, Gary and Martin Kemp of Spandau Ballet ably cope as Ronnie and Reggie Kray, supported by a heavyweight cast including a mesmerising performance by Billie Whitelaw as their much- adored mother. More than three decades after its premiere The Krays now appears in a collectable Limited Edition Blu-ray Box in a rigid slipcase with brand-new artwork, a perfect bound booklet and a host of special features.
THE HANDS OF ORLAC, Robert Wiene, director/Eureka Admirers of the finest silent cinema of the macabre have a checklist of key movies, and Robert Wiene’s The Hands of Orlac is high on that list. This is a boilerplate example of German Expressionism with its tale of a classical pianist (played by the always admirable Conrad Veidt) who loses his hands in a train crash and has the hands of a dead murderer grafted on. The chance to see the film in a transfer as impressive as this is not to be resisted. Crucial to the director’s vision is the delirious visual style, and that has never looked better than here. Impressive extras include contributions from genre maestros Kim Newman and Stephen Jones.
YEARS OF LEAD: FIVE CLASSIC ITALIAN CRIME THRILLERS 1973-1977, Various directors/Arrow Memorable for their energy, gusto and frequent crudeness of execution (not to mention their barefaced magpie borrowings from US models) are the Italian crime films of the 1970s, the violent and kinetic ‘poliziotteschi’ The genre began as series of rough-and-ready simulacra of American models (as so often in the trend-following culture of Italian popular cinema), but parleyed the elements borrowed from such US models as Don Siegel’s Dirty Harry and William Friedkin’s The French Connection into something different, sometimes injecting indirect social criticism into their borrowed raiment. Italian actors such as Franco Nero were employed, but past-their-best American stars were also hired. In non-Italian territories, poliziotteschi were only available in crudely English-dubbed versions, which did such films no favours whatsoever. This set, however, is a winner — curated by ace Arrow senior producer Michael Mackenzie, Years of Lead: Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977, collects several neglected crime thrillers – Savage Three (1975); Like Rabid Dogs (1976); Colt 38 Special Squad (1976); Highway Racer (1977), and No, the Case is Happily Resolved (1973) – all underscored with the political turmoil and the latent (and not so latent) violence in Italy during the 1970s. Transfers and extras are exemplary.
LINE OF DUTY COMPLETE SERIES ONE TO SIX, Various directors/Acorn Media International Certain television crime dramas move beyond the status of being merely accomplished pieces of work to becoming events – and that was very much the case with Jed Mercurio’s riveting crime series throughout its six series. This very collectable high-def box set (with the visuals much enhanced by the Blu-ray transfers) is the perfect way to re-experience the series with its impeccable performances, edgy direction, and — best of all – Jed Mercurio’s sharp and perfectly judged dialogue. A very cherishable collection.
THE BIG FIX, Jeremy Paul Kagan, director/Indicator The career choices for the actor Richard Dreyfuss were quirky (to say the least) after the success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Jaws, and while The Big Fix enjoyed mixed reviews on its first appearance, admirers of the film outnumbered the naysayers – and this Indicator issue will win it new friends. Utilising the actor’s particular blue-collar persona (some distance from standard film star territory), director Jeremy Paul Kagan grants his tale of a radical private eye a distinctly unusual timbre.
AGONY, Michele Civetta, director/Thunderbird Releasing There have been a variety of attempts over the years to recapture the panache and visual stylishness of the Italian giallo, the glossy murder thrillers that held sway for a couple of decades. Some of the results have been mixed to say the least, but the directorial debut of Michele Civetta is a stylish, albeit not fully realised, entry, and sports an intriguing international cast including Asia Argento, Jonathan Caoette and veteran Django star Franco Nero. Admirers of the genre should give it a try. The film was actually completed in 2017, and utilises both horror and giallo elements. Isidora (Argento) is a neurotic Italian artist living in New York with her husband and young daughter, haunted by visions of a strange ceremony, She finds that her mother, has bequeathed her a sprawling estate in Tuscany. At the estate to oversee her mother’s funeral, events take place which further shake her grip on reality.