{"id":399,"date":"2014-06-08T22:08:31","date_gmt":"2014-06-08T21:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/?p=399"},"modified":"2014-06-08T22:08:31","modified_gmt":"2014-06-08T21:08:31","slug":"violent-saturdays-and-killings-in-copenhagen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/?p=399","title":{"rendered":"Violent Saturdays and Killings in Copenhagen"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"5839924-high-inspector-de-luca\"<\/a><\/p>\n

INSPECTOR DE LUCA <\/strong>(Arrow) Arrow Films\u2019 commitment to quality international crime thriller shows from various European territories and beyond continues under their newly launched sub-label \u2018Noir\u2019. Having already seen massive success with their Bafta winning series The Bridge<\/em>, The Killing<\/em> and Borgen<\/em>, the company has released Inspector De Luca<\/em>, an unusual crime series set between 1938 and 1948, from the height of Italy\u2019s Fascist regime to the end of the tumultuous post-war period, Chief Detective De Luca investigates and solves crimes in the City of Bologna and along the Adriatic coast. With little or no regard for those in power, whoever they happen to be, his solitary, uncompromising character often lands him in trouble, but his respect is reserved for truth and justice alone. In the four TV movies of the series \u201cUnauthorised Investigation\u201d, \u201cCarte Blanche\u201d, \u201cMurky Summer\u201d and \u201cGoose Way\u201d – each taken from a novel by best-selling mystery writer Carlo Lucarelli \u2013 Chief Detective De Luca always ultimately gets to the bottom of his cases, though what he finds often leaves a bitter aftertaste.<\/p>\n

VIOLENT SATURDAY <\/strong>(Eureka) is a stripped-down, machine-tooled crime saga from director Richard Fleischer, looking terrific in dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD). This important but neglected 1950s heist tale drama was an influence on Kubrick\u2019s The Killing<\/em> and Tarantino\u2019s Reservoir Dogs. <\/em>Reliable Hollywood professionalFleischer (The Boston Strangler <\/em>and 10 Rillington Place) <\/em>delivers his tough noir outing against sun-drenched Arizona landscapes. Three criminals arrive in the small mining town of Bradenville, planning on robbing its only bank. But as they start scouting the area and gathering the information they need, the lives of others in the town threaten to get mixed up in their scheme, in a tangle that could lead to disastrous consequences. Utilising the different acting styles of Victor Mature and Lee Marvin (with the matchless Ernest Borgnine in strong support), Violent Saturday<\/em> is a real find, from its powerful performances to its impressive Cinemascope imagery. This release includes new special features, including an interview with fan William Friedkin (The French Connection, To Live and Die in LA<\/em>).<\/p>\n

MIDSOMER MURDERS: THE KILLINGS IN COPENHAGEN<\/strong><\/strong> (Acorn). The audience-grabbing Midosmer Murders<\/em> is regarded with wry affection (and an equal amount of wry disdain) in the UK, but has a massive (and surprising) following in Demark (home of the infinitely more gritty The Killing<\/em>), so perhaps a multi-national cross-fusion was always on the cards; here it is, mild fare enlivened with several stars of the key Scandicrime shows. A genuine curiosity.<\/p>\n

SEVEN SAMURAI<\/strong> (BFI) Akira Kurosawa\u2019s imperishable 1954 epic Seven Samurai<\/em> has reached its 60th<\/sup> anniversary and the BFI has released the film on Blu-ray and also on DVD, newly re-mastered in High Definition. Starring Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura, this is one of the greatest films ever made; Kurosawa\u2019s epic adventure Seven Samurai<\/em> (originally issued in 1954) has influenced the work of directors from George Lucas to Steven Spielberg, and spawned remakes including John Sturges\u2019 western The Magnificent Seven<\/em>. First released on DVD in 1999, it is the BFI\u2019s No.1 all-time best-selling title. With their village raided every year by vicious bandits, a group of peasants in 16th<\/sup> century Japan hire seven warriors to protect them. Initially met with suspicion, the samurai eventually gain the trust of the peasants and they join forces to face the bandits.<\/p>\n

THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT<\/strong><\/strong> (Second Sight). If you’re curious about the director Michael Cimino\u2019s first film (before the debacle \u2013 and rediscovery — of Heaven\u2019s Gate<\/em>), here is an excellent chance, with this highly watchable Clint Eastwood heist yarn spruced up and looking impeccable on Blu-Ray. Clint doesn\u2019t try too hard, but there\u2019s a star-making turn by Jeff Bridges as Clint\u2019s irritating (and none-too-bright) fellow thief .SPARKS<\/strong><\/strong> (Image) As crime-fighting superheroes reign supreme at the box-office, a slew of spoof was perhaps inevitable; this frequently inventive efforts doesn’t rival Mystery Men<\/em> in these stakes, but has its moments.<\/p>\n

ACE IN THE HOLE <\/strong>(Eureka) is one of the essential films made by Billy Wilder, the writer-director of Double Indemnity<\/em>, The Lost Weekend<\/em>, Sunset Boulevard<\/em>, and Some Like It Hot. <\/em>What\u2019s more,the film is generally acclaimed as Kirk Douglas’ finest screen performance besides that in Kubrick’s Paths of Glory. <\/em>The Blu-ray is part of Eureka\u2019s Masters of Cinema Series. Since re-emerging in the 2000s, Wilder’s cynical classic now seems even more ahead of its time in the 1950s with its acidic and unflinching examination of journalistic ethics and human morality, and has taken its place alongside Double Indemnity<\/em>, Sunset Boulevard <\/em>and Some Like It Hot <\/em>as among the director’s key works. Douglas plays Chuck Tatum, a newspaper reporter who stumbles upon a potentially career-making story in Albuquerque, New Mexico (nearly sixty years later, the setting for Vince Gilligan’s Breaking Bad<\/em>). When Tatum begins to influence the story’s outcome, things take a dark turn.<\/p>\n

KIND HEARTS AND CORONETS\/THE LAVENDER HILL MOB\/THE MAN IN THE WHITE SUIT <\/strong>(Studio Canal)\u00a0 <\/strong>Ealing’s greatest comedies captured the essence of post-war Britain, both in their evocation of a land once blighted by war but now rising doggedly and optimistically again from the ashes, and in their mordant yet graceful humour. They portray a country with an antiquated class system whose crumbling conventions are being undermined by a new spirit of individual opportunism. In the delightfully wicked Kind Hearts and Coronets<\/em>, a serial killer politely murders his way into the peerage; in The Lavender Hill Mob<\/em> a put-upon bank clerk schemes to rob his employers and The Man in the White Suit<\/em> is a harshly satirical depiction of idealism crushed by the status quo. <\/em>A cherishable box set of some of Sir Alec Guinness\u2019s best work, and together for the first time on Blu-Ray, these are three of the finest Ealing comedies. A perfect introduction for newcomers to the Ealing Classics collection, this trilogy is also a tempting purchase for all British comedy, Ealing film and Alec Guinness fans.<\/p>\n

SISTERS<\/strong><\/strong> (Arrow) The UK Blu-ray debut of Sisters<\/em> reminds viewers that this is the first true Brain De Palma suspense thriller. Following the recent release of The Fury<\/em> and the more problematic Phantom of the Paradise<\/em>, Sisters<\/em> has been treated to an all-new restoration. Complementing this dual-format Blu-ray and DVD edition are a host of brand new extras. Before 1973, Brian De Palma was impossible to pigeonhole: he made comedies, political satires and openly experimental pieces. But with Sisters<\/em> (originally released as Blood Sisters<\/em> in the UK) he turned to the suspense thriller and discovered his natural home \u2013 and a style that would lead directly to later masterpieces like Carrie, Dressed to Kill <\/em>and Blow Out<\/em>. When Danielle (Margot Kidder) meets potential boyfriend Philip (Lisle Wilson) after appearing on the TV show Peeping Toms<\/em> (a nod to the Michael Powell shocker), she invites him home, only to attract the ire of her twin sister Dominique. From across the courtyard, Rear Window<\/em>-style, reporter Grace (Jennifer Salt) witnesses Philip being murdered by one of the twins \u2013 but the police find no body or any physical evidence. Naturally, Grace takes things into her own hands, and discovers more about the sisters\u2019 relationship than she bargained for\u2026 Strongly influenced by Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski, and with a score by the great Bernard Herrmann, Sisters<\/em> was the first true \u201cBrian De Palma\u201d film.<\/p>\n

MAN OF MARBLE <\/strong>(Second Run) A welcome a 2-Disc Special Edition of Andrzej Wajda\u2019s epic, iconic 1976 film often described as \u2018the Polish CITIZEN KANE\u2019, Wajda\u2019s dazzling 1976 film Man of Marble<\/em> functions as both an electrifying political saga and a compelling dissection of the nature of cinema itself. It tells the story of a determined young filmmaker Agnieszka (Krystyna Janda) who sets out to make a documentary about \u2018Worker\u2019s Hero\u2019 Mateusz Birkut, who in the early days of the Communist revolution became as famous as any film star, only to disappear from the record books in 1952. Delving into that recent past, Agnieszka determinedly pursues Birkut\u2019s story. Birkut\u2019s rise and subsequent fall from favour and disappearance into obscurity provides Wajda with a framework for a brave reassessment of the times. The film is not only regarded as one of the most important films in the history of Polish cinema, it is also one of the key films of the 1970s.<\/p>\n

THE NEW (IN)COMPLETE COMPLETE AND UTTER HISTORY OF BRITAIN <\/strong>(Network) Before Mo<\/em>nty Python<\/em> and Ripping Yarns<\/em>, there was The Complete and Utter History of Britain<\/em>. Written by and starring comedy legends Michael Palin and Terry Jones, The New (In)Complete Complete and Utter History of Britain<\/em> (12) includes the two surviving episodes, along with unseen footage. For the first time, the two existing episodes can be seen as recorded and as transmitted, plus a new 50-minute feature with brand new linking material by Palin and Jones, and unseen series footage from Terry Jones\u2019 personal archives. Shown in 1969, the same year that Python became part of the national consciousness, this series takes a typically skewed look at British history \u2013 and reports it as if television had been around to cover it at the time. A notable influence on television comedy, this series fed directly into the work they did for Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus<\/em>.<\/p>\n

THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM<\/strong><\/strong> (Arrow). Roger Corman\u2019s film of Edgar Allan Poe\u2019s The Pit and the Pendulum <\/em>is the 1961 follow-up to The Fall of the House of Usher<\/em>, once again directed by Corman and starring a neurasthenic Vincent Price alongside the dark British Queen of Italian horror Barbara Steele. On release, the film became an instant hit with both critics and audiences alike. Certainly Corman succeeded in crafting one of the most arresting openings in any Gothic horror film, balancing it at the end with a wildly extravagant finale and bolstering the body of the picture with eerily tinted flashbacks and a creepily effective tomb-rising for Steele. Introducing the action, rivulets of luridly coloured paints bleed into each other to the accompaniment of composer Les Baxter\u2019s sombre atonalities, suggesting nothing so much as the interbreeding blood vessels of the mind. In the words of screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, The Pit and the Pendulum<\/em> had a big influence on Italian horror films. Everybody borrowed from it.\u201d To take just three examples, two of them scripted by Gastaldi \u2013 the conspicuously diseased family dynamic of Riccardo Freda\u2019s L\u2019orribile segreto del Dr. Hichcock [The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock] <\/em>(1962), Christopher Lee thundering on horseback through sunset-dappled surf at the beginning of Mario Bava\u2019s La frusta e il corpo [The Whip and the Body]<\/em> (1963) and the protracted, candlelit corridor wanderings featured in Antonio Margheriti\u2019s Danza macabre [Castle of Blood] <\/em>(1964).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

INSPECTOR DE LUCA (Arrow) Arrow Films\u2019 commitment to quality international crime thriller shows from various European territories and beyond continues under their newly launched sub-label \u2018Noir\u2019. Having already seen massive success with their Bafta winning series The Bridge, The Killing … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=399"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dvdchoices.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}