Online Viewing @ TheAuteurs

If Polanski: Unauthorized wasn't all you'd hoped and dreamed it'd be, you can go ahead and check out the director's first feature film (Polanski, not Damian Chapa, ha!), Knife in the Water [Nóż w wodzie], for free at The Auteurs, courtesy of Criterion's free monthly series on the site. Currently, the focus is on directors' first films. Check out one of my very favorite films, Lynne Ramsay's Ratcatcher, if you haven't already. The other films in this series: Jane Campion's wonderful Sweetie, Agnès Varda's La pointe-courte, Sam Fuller's I Shot Jesse James and Marco Bellocchio's Fists in the Pocket [I pugni in tasca] (the latter not being one of my favorites by any means, but hey, if you've already seen the other five...)

Sony Box-Sets, Fall 2009

As of right now, Sony has eight box-sets lined up for this fall. I already mentioned the New Hollywood set, as well as the Sam Fuller one. The other six include 2 Film Noir collections, 2 Screwball Comedy collections, a Rita Hayworth set, and a William Castle Collection. I included the titles for the Fuller and New Hollywood sets as well. Here are the titles (the ones in bold are making their R1 DVD debut):

Film Noir Collection, Volume 1, 3 November

- The Sniper, 1952, d. Edward Dmytryk
- The Big Heat, 1953, d. Fritz Lang, Remastered, w. Glenn Ford, Gloria Grahame, Lee Marvin
- Five Against the House, 1955, d. Phil Karlson, w. Guy Madison, Kim Novak
- The Lineup, 1948, d. Don Siegel, w. Eli Wallach
- Murder by Contract, 1958, d. Irving Lerner

Film Noir Collection, Volume 2, 3 November

- Pushover, 1954, d. Richard Quine, w. Fred MacMurray, Philip Carey, Kim Novak, Dorothy Malone
- Nightfall, 1957, d. Jacques Tourneur, w. Aldo Ray, Anne Bancroft
- The Brothers Rico, 1957, d. Phil Karlson
- City of Fear, 1959, d. Irving Lerner
- In a Lonely Place, 1950, d. Nicholas Ray, Remastered, w. Humphrey Bogart, Gloria Grahame

Rita Hayworth Film Collection, 3 November

- Tonight and Every Night, 1945, d. Victor Saville
- Salome, 1953, d. William Dieterle
- Miss Sadie Thompson, 1953, d. Curtis Bernhardt
- Cover Girl, 1944, d. Charles Vidor
- Gilda, 1946, d. Charles Vidor

William Castle Film Collection, 20 October

- Homicidal, 1961
- Mr. Sardonicus, 1961
- Zotz!, 1962
- The Old Dark House, 1963
- The Tingler, 1959
- 13 Ghosts, 1960
- 13 Frightened Girls!, 1963
- Strait-Jacket, 1964

Sam Fuller Film Collection, 29 September

- The Crimson Kimono, 1959
- Underworld U.S.A., 1961
- Scandal Sheet, 1952

New Hollywood, 15 September

- Drive, He Said, 1971, d. Jack Nicholson, w. Karen Black, Robert Towne, Bruce Dern, Henry Jaglom
- Five Easy Pieces, 1970, d. Bob Rafelson, w. Nicholson
- The King of Marvin Gardens, 1972, d. Rafelson, w. Nicholson, Dern, Ellen Burstyn
- The Last Picture Show, 1971, d. Peter Bogdanovich, w. Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Cybill Shepherd, Cloris Leachman, Ellen Burstyn, Eileen Brennan
- A Safe Place, 1972, d. Henry Jaglom, w. Tuesday Weld, Nicholson, Orson Welles
- Head, 1968, d. Rafelson, w. The Monkees
- Easy Rider, 1969, d. Dennis Hopper, w. Peter Fonda, Hopper

Icons of Screwball Comedy, Volume 1, 4 August

- If You Could Only Cook, 1935, d. William A. Seiter
- Too Many Husbands, 1940, d. Wesley Ruggles
- My Sister Eileen, 1942, d. Alexander Hall
- She Wouldn't Say Yes, 1945, d. Hall
- Ain't Love Cuckoo?, 1946, d. Jules White, short

Icons of Screwball Comedy, Volume 2, 4 August

- Theodora Goes Wild, 1936, d. Richard Boleslawski
- The Doctor Takes a Wife, 1940, d. Alexander Hall
- A Night to Remember, 1943, d. Richard Wallace
- Together Again, 1944, d. Charles Vidor

Some other DVD updates:

- The African Queen, 1951, d. John Huston, Paramount, Centennial Collection, 13 October
- Adventureland, 2009, d. Greg Motolla, Miramax, also Blu-ray, 25 August
- American Son, 2008, d. Neil Abramson, Miramax, 25 August
- The Class [Entre les murs], 2008, d. Laurent Cantet, Sony, also Blu-ray, 11 August
- Paris 36 [Faubourg 36], 2008, d. Christophe Barratier, Sony, 11 August
- Absurdistan, 2008, d. Veit Helmer, First Run, 18 August

Drive, He Said, Husbands and Fuller from Sony (plus Jeanne Dielman and more)

Partially due to my weekend cold and also in hopes they'd throw an additional something exciting our way today, I'm a little late in posting the August Criterions. Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, starring Delphine Seyrig, will make its home video debut in the US on DVD 25 August. Whit Stillman's The Last Days of Disco, with Chloë Sevigny and Kate Beckinsale, hits on the same date, as well as Blu-rays of Kurosawa's Kagemusha (18 Aug) and Tati's Playtime (18 Aug). The Eclipse set for August sounds promising, a collection of five Nikkatsu noirs (25 Aug): Koreyoshi Kurahara's I Am Waiting, Toshio Masuda's Rusty Knife, Seijun Suzuki's Take Aim at the Police Van, Takumi Furukawa's Cruel Gun Story and Takashi Nomura's A Colt Is My Passport. Eric has a few other titles that might be part of a later Nikkatsu set from Eclipse.

Sony's got a huge line-up for the late-summer and fall, which Eric has already pointed out. A Sam Fuller box set (29 Sep) which includes Crimson Kimono, Underworld USA and Scandal Sheet; Cassaevetes' Husbands (18 Aug), which doesn't appear to be part of their "Martini Movies" set any more; 2 film noir sets, one with a re-release of The Big Heat, and a Rita Hayworth box (all 3 November).

Not mentioned on Filmbo's blog are a few other Sony releases. They've got a set called The New Hollywood Box Set for 15 September. The set includes Jack Nicholson's Drive, He Said, with Karen Black, Robert Towne, Bruce Dern and Henry Jaglom; Bob Rafelson's Five Easy Pieces; Rafelson's The King of Marvin Gardens with Nicholson, Dern and Ellen Burstyn; Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show; Jaglom's A Safe Place, with Tuesday Weld, Nicholson and Orson Welles; Rafelson's Head with The Monkees; and Dennis Hopper's Easy Rider. This is the R1 debut of both Drive, He Said and A Safe Place. Sony also has Fred Dekker's Night of the Creeps (20 October) and James Hill's A Study in Terror (10 November) premiering on DVD.

Strand is releasing Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau's Born in 68 [Nés en 68], with Laetitia Casta, Yannick Renier and Yann Trégouët, on 11 August. Facets' website has been doing a remodel for the past few weeks, so I've only been able to uncover one of their August releases, another Ning Ying film For Fun on the 25th. PeaceArch has the supposedly dreadful Mysteries of Pittsburgh on 4 August.

Water Bearer is releasing two films in July. Christian Moris Müller's Four Windows [Vier Fenster] and Alessandro Avellis' Ma saison super 8 premiered at the 2006 Berlinale and will street on the 7th. If 80s T&A is your cup-of-tea, Severin will have Screwballs out on 25 August on DVD and Blu-ray, and Anchor Bay is releasing Spring Break, which I talked about in a previous blog about the films available on iTunes.

And finally, here are a few Blu-ray titles coming soon: Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys (28 July, Universal); John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China (4 August, Fox); Brian De Palma's Casualties of War (21 July, Sony); George A. Romero's Creepshow (8 September, Warner); Jim Henson and Franz Oz's The Dark Crystal (1 September, Sony); Phillip Noyce's Dead Calm (8 September, Warner); Peter Yates' The Deep (7 July, Sony); Takashi Miike's Ichi the Killer (11 August, Tokyo Shock); Henson's Labyrinth (1 Septmber, Sony); Alan Parker's Midnight Express (21 July, Sony); Patty Jenkins' Monster (1 September, First Look); Jonathan Lynn's My Cousin Vinny (4 August, Fox); the director's cut of Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (25 August, Warner); the extended cut of Terrence Malick's The New World (8 September, New Line); John Carpenter's Starman (11 August, Sony); Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (14 July, MGM); and Irwin Allen and John Guillermin's The Towering Inferno (14 July, Fox). The UK update should be coming at you later this week.