Oof. While some weeks are overloaded with new home video goodness (ahh, remember back to this magical Tuesday just a few weeks ago?), there are other Tuesdays such as these, when I struggle to come up with anything definitive to recommend on the home video front. I’m afraid this is all that caught my eye on today’s slate:
M (Criterion) — Fritz Lang’s definitive classic, which features a landmark performance by Peter Lorre, appears to be premiering on Blu-ray today. That is certainly news. If you’ve never seen it, you must. Or if, like me, your last viewing was back in college several decades ago, that means it’s past time to revisit it once again.
North Face (Music Box Films) — I was unable to catch up with Philipp Stolzl’s period suspense drama when it arrived in theaters, but have heard good things. From the description—German mountain climbers try to reach the top of the Alps as Hitler’s Nazi party begins its own ascent—I can’t help but envision a mash-up of Touching the Void meets Zentropa. Or maybe that’s my imagination getting the better of me. I guess there’s only one way to find out. Buy it on DVD or Blu-ray.
One Deadly Summer (Bayview Entertainment) — Movies with the word “summer” in the title always make me perk up. As does earlier era Isabelle Adjani. Conveniently for me, this 1983 multiple Cesar Award winner from director Jean Becker has both. It also has the type of premise—small town thriller about characters with dark pasts—that I have a soft spot for, whether that premise results in an art film classic or a made-for-TV schlock drama. The fact that this film appears to be arriving for the first time on NTSC DVD in 2010 makes me a tad suspect, but we can all list dozens of great titles that have yet to find distribution in this country. I’d love to hear from any readers out there who have seen this thing and want to shed some light on which type of result it actually is. Classic? Schlock? Neither? Buy it on DVD.
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