The Magician: The Criterion Collection

The Magician: The Criterion Collection Review

The Magician: The Criterion Collection Overview

THE MAGICIAN (Ansiktet), directed by Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander), is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow (The Virgin Spring, The Exorcist) stars as Dr. Vogler, a mid-nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test by a small town’s cruel, eminently rational minister of health, Dr. Vergerus (Wild Strawberries’ Gunnar Bjornstrand). The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.

The Magician: The Criterion Collection Specifications

Ingmar Bergman spent a glorious film career exploring themes of death and redemption (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries), and his lesser-known gem The Magician fits perfectly into this genre. The Magician, shot eerily in crisp black and white, is one of Bergman's most unsettling films, and one that stays with the viewer long afterward. Several of Bergman's regular actors are featured, and all, as usual, are splendid: Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot (who would go on to play Death memorably in The Seventh Seal), and Ulla Sjöblom. The plot is involving and a bit creepy on its own. The Magician follows von Sydow as Dr. Vogler, who leads a traveling group called Vogler's Magnetic Health Theater, which goes from town to town selling magic potions and performing feats that defy logic. Yet the members of the troupe are as reviled and persecuted by local authorities as they are embraced and fixated upon by their audiences. Bergman's direction keeps the tension between belief and fantasy, death and eroticism, as taut as a murder mystery--and perhaps with good reason. The viewer is kept guessing about the reality of the feats of the troupe and the motives of Dr. Vogler; the actors speak in unsettling and oblique riddles. Ekerot's character, Johan, muses to no one in particular, "I've prayed one prayer in my life: 'Use me, O God!' But He never understood what a devoted slave I'd have been. So I was never used… But that too is a lie. Step by step you go into the dark. The movement itself is the only truth."

While The Magician is gripping on its own merits, the Criterion Collection includes several extras that shed additional light on the film. Peter Cowie, a Bergman expert, narrates an excellent mini-documentary about The Magician, saying he believes Bergman made the film in response to his many critics, especially from his days as a theater director in the '50s in Sweden. Cowie's feature is an essential accompaniment to viewing The Magician in its context. Other rich extras include a mini-biography of Bergman, an interview with Bergman from 1967, and a booklet with an essay by film scholar Geoff Andrew. The Magician is an absolutely essential film for any Bergman fan. --A.T. Hurley

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Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection)

Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection) Review

Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection) Overview

America, 1976. The last day of school. Bongs blaze, bell-bottoms ring, and rock and roll rocks. Among the best teen films ever made, Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused eavesdrops on a group of seniors-to-be and incoming freshmen. A launching pad for a number of future stars, Linklater’s first studio effort also features endlessly quotable dialogue and a blasting, stadium-ready soundtrack. Sidestepping nostalgia, Dazed and Confused is less about "the best years of our lives" than the boredom, angst, and excitement of teenagers waiting . . . for something to happen

Dazed & Confused - (The Criterion Collection) Specifications

You remember high school? Really remember? If you think you do, watch this film: it'll all really come racing back. After changing the world with the generation-defining Slacker, director Richard Linklater turned his free-range vérité sensibility on the 1970s. As before, his all-seeing camera meanders across a landscape studded with goofy pop culture references and poignant glimpses of human nature. Only this time around, he's spreading a thick layer of nostalgia over the lens (and across the soundtrack). It's as if Fast Times at Ridgemont High was directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The story deals with a group of friends on the last day of high school, 1976. Good-natured football star Randall "Pink" Floyd navigates effortlessly between the warring worlds of jocks, stoners, wannabes, and rockers with girlfriend and new-freshman buddy in tow. Surprisingly, it's not a coming-of-age movie, but a film that dares ask the eternal, overwhelming, adolescent question, "What happens next?" It's a little too honest to be a light comedy (representative quote: "If I ever say these were the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself."). But it's also way too much fun (remember souped-up Corvettes and bicentennial madness?) to be just another existential-essay-on-celluloid. --Grant Balfour

On the DVD
With a perfect combination of awesome '70s-era packaging and a totally rockin' selection of bonus features, the Criterion Collection's director-approved special edition two-disc release of Dazed and Confused instantly qualifies as one of the very best DVDs of 2006--the 30th anniversary of the Bicentennial, man! That's what I'm talkin' about! As a sublime companion piece to Criterion's release of Richard Linklater's previous film Slacker, the set comes in a slipcase (complete with "Physical Graffiti"-like picture-windows) festooned with Flair-pen high-school "doodling" (just like you'd scribble on your Pee Chee folders, back in the day), and the features get off on a high note (kinda like Slater, y'know?) with writer-director Linklater's feature-length commentary, which offers all aspiring filmmakers an important lesson protecting your vision and knowing when not to compromise. In recalling the many struggles he endured during production, Linklater covers a lot of territory (notes from the studio, the fantasy abundance of muscle cars, selection of music, and his acute disappointment when Robert Plant--but not Jimmy Page--refused to allow Led Zeppelin songs to be used in the film), and his engaging, good-humored perspective (and appropriate sense of vindication) clearly arises from his film's eventual acceptance as a classic. (For all you film buffs out there, Linklater quite rightly recommends Tim Hunter's Over the Edge and Lindsay Anderson's If... as "great teenage films" that defined the genre before Dazed.) The film itself never looked or sounded better (Linklater and cinematographer Lee Daniel supervised the high-def digital transfer), and a generous selection of deleted scenes will be welcomed by the film's legion of loyal fans.

The Disc 2 supplements are highlighted by Making "Dazed", filmmaker Kahane Corn's decade-in-the-making 50-minute documentary, chronicling all aspects of the production from casting to the Dazed tenth-anniversary celebration in Austin, Texas, in 2003. "Beer Bust at the Moon Tower" allows random viewing of a 118-minute compilation of behind-the-scenes footage, on-set interviews (with cast members both in and out of character), audition footage, and recollections from the anniversary bash. The accompanying 72-page booklet is a Criterion master-stroke: Designed like a small-scale high-school yearbook, it's filled with more "doodling" artwork, lots of photos, three appreciative mini-essays (the best being by journalist/author Chuck Klosterman), recollections by cast and crew, and humorous "Profiles in Confusion" portraits of the characters in Dazed, reprinted from the film's similarly designed companion book. It's all topped off by a miniature reproduction of the film's original poster, designed by Frank Kozik. In terms of capturing "The Spirit of '76" and the film's celebratory sense of anti-nostalgia, this is surely one of Criterion's finest releases to date. --Jeff Shannon

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The Red Balloon (The Criterion Collection)

The Red Balloon (The Criterion Collection) Review

The Red Balloon (The Criterion Collection) Overview

Newly restored and available for the first time on DVD, Albert Lamorisse s exquisite The Red Balloon remains one of the most beloved children s films of all time. In this deceptively simple, nearly wordless tale, a young boy discovers a stray balloon, which seems to have a mind of its own, on the streets of Paris. The two become inseparable, yet the world s harsh realities finally interfere. With its glorious palette and allegorical purity, the Academy Award winning The Red Balloon has enchanted movie lovers, young and old, for generations.

The Red Balloon (The Criterion Collection) Specifications

Stills from The Red Balloon (Click for larger image)

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Paris, Texas (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Paris, Texas (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Review

Paris, Texas (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Overview

German New Wave pioneer Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard. Paris, Texas follows the efforts of the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis (a magnificent Harry Dean Stanton, whose face is a landscape of its own) to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles, and his missing wife (Nastassja Kinski). From this simple setup, Wenders and Shepard produce a powerful statement on codes of masculinity and the myth of the American family, as well as an exquisite visual exploration of a vast, crumbling world of canyons and neon.

Stills from Paris, Texas (Click for larger image)

Paris, Texas (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Specifications

Something like a perfect artistic union is achieved in the major components of Paris, Texas: the twang of Ry Cooder's guitar, the lonely light of Robbie Muller's camera, the craggy landscape of Harry Dean Stanton's face. In his greatest role, longtime character actor Stanton plays a man brought back to his old life after wandering in the desert (or somewhere) for four years. He has a 7-year-old son to get to know, and his wife has gone missing. The material is much in the wanderlust spirit of director Wim Wenders, working from a script by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson. If the long climactic conversation between Stanton and Nastassja Kinski renders the movie uneven and slightly inscrutable, it's hard to think of a more fitting ending--and besides, the achingly empty American spaces stick longer in the memory than the dialogue. Winner of the top prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. --Robert Horton

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Black Orpheus (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

Black Orpheus (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Review

Sometimes, a film's genius rests not in its thematic originality, but rather in how an older story - in this case, the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice - is told a in a new and exciting way, enabling the viewers to realize all its shimmering facets, and all its cultural and symbolic complexity. Some of these films that come immediately to mind are Cocteau's "Orphee" (1950) and Kurosawa's "Rashomon" (1950). Camus' "Black Orpheus" belongs on that list.

Based on the play written after reading an eighteenth-century Italian language version of the ancient Greek myth, Vinicius de Moraes got his idea when he had the vision of Orpheus as a sambista. He said that he wanted to pay homage to the indispensability of the black experience and their organic contributions to the passions of Brazilian culture. Unfortunately, Moraes grew disenchanted with Camus' vision when he visited the set one day, and claimed that his project was merely a romanticized view of the Brazilian people. Since then, many other critics have noted a perceived romanticizing of poverty and a sort of virulent Orientalism which treats the foreign Other as a mystically essentialized caricature.

The film begins when Eurydice arrives via trolley in Rio de Janeiro to visit her cousin Serafina, and to escape Death, a character that chases her relentlessly throughout the film. Unfamiliar with the city, she asks for directions to her cousin's house, which the stationmaster - named Hermes - kindly provides her. Later, we learn that Serafina lives next to Orfeu, the local Lothario stuck in an unhappy engagement with the proud, haughty Mira. Orfeu, a sensualist who would rather play his guitar than spend time with his fiancée, quickly falls in love with Eurydice. During Carnival, they grow closer and closer. Eventually, Eurydice sees that Death has found her again, and she runs to hide, while Orfeu's pursuit of her only ends in tragedy. His journey to find her in the Department of Missing Persons finds him angst-ridden, face-to-face with a Kafkaesque bureaucracy. His last chance to get Eurydice back, when Eurydice's spirit inhabits a Umbanda worshipper and speaks through her, fails when he feels compelled to look back and see if it really is Eurydice.

The way Camus alludes to mythological themes throughout the movie is subtle yet sustained. The characters live on the side of a precipitous mountainside, which consciously calls to mind Mount Olympus. Orfeu is a sambista whose guitar-playing the local children believe make the sun rise in the morning. Symbols of the sun frequently occur in the film, including children flying a sun-shaped kite and Orfeu wearing a sun costume for the celebrations. Eurydice owns a scarf with the signs of the Zodiac on it. At the end of the movie when he wanders through the city searching for Eurydice, he exits the Department for Missing Persons via a monumental, winding staircase (symbolizing his descent into the Underworld), and encounters a vicious, drooling dog (who, while not three-headed, is meant to be Cerberus.)

The cinematography blends European primitivism and aspects of the Negritude movement. Set during the celebration of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, the film is visually dominated by the joyousness of African-influenced exuberant dance and polyrhythmic music. Like the smell of petrichor in a desiccated landscape, Camus' film beautifully illustrates how music and dance are central to mythic understanding of human experience.

Black Orpheus (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Overview

Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus was a cultural event, kicking off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning.

Black Orpheus (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] Specifications

Marcel Camus's 1959 update of the Greek myth features an all-black cast and a story set in the frenetic energy of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Orpheus, a trolley car conductor and superb samba dancer, is engaged to Mira but in love with Eurydice. For his change of heart, Orpheus and his new doomed lover are pursued by a vengeful Mira and a determined Death through the feverish Carnival night. Camus at once demystifies and remystifies the old story, shifting not only its location but its tone and context, forcing a reevaluation of the legend as a more passionate, pulsing, sensual experience. The film is really one-of-a-kind, an absolute whirl that barely needs words. --Tom Keogh

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Rashomon - Criterion Collection

Rashomon - Criterion Collection Review

As the week of Akira Kurosawa's 100th birthday celebration has came and past, I decided that it was appropriate to watch a Kurosawa film and what best than a film he created 50 years ago, "Rashomon". A film written and directed by Akira Kurosawa and based on two stories "Rashomon" and "In a Grove" by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and featuring cinematography by Kazuo Miyagawa.

Many consider "Rashomon" to be the first film that American and Western audiences were exposed to a Kurosawa film and with the film winning an Italian Critics Award and the highly coveted Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and an Academy Honorary Award, there was quite a bit of interest in the film. Needless to say, the film was an influence to many filmmakers and even received a loosely-based remake in 1964 titled "The Outrage" starring Paul Newman.


VIDEO & AUDIO:

"Rashomon" is presented in black and white (1:33:1). It is important to note that the film has received major restoration in Japan by Kadokawa and the version featured by Criterion Collection on DVD as released years before the restoration was completed. But the version shown on the DVD is good for a 50-year-old film and has its share of dust and specks but at the time of this DVD's release, the Criterion Collection did feature the film with a new HD digital transfer and restored image.

The transfer was created from a 35mmm fine-grain master positive on a high definition Spirit Datacine. The MTI Digital Restoration was used to remove thousands of instances of dirt, debris and scratches.

Some scenes look very good such as closeups where we can see the beads of sweat on the characters. But also various cuts during the forest and in many ways, Kurosawa's admiration for silent film is used in "Rashomon" as there are minimal sets and kept things simple. Also, the film utilized really technological uses of contrasting shots courtesy of cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa.

With the Criterion Collection dedicated in releasing Kurosawa's films on Blu-ray, fans can only hope that this new restored version of "Rashomon" will be considered for Blu-ray release sometime in the near future.

AUDIO & SUBTITLES:

Audio for "Rashomon" is presented in Dolby Digital Monaural. Dialogue is primarily center channel driven but for a more immersive soundscape, I chose to watch "Rashomon" via my receiver set on stereo on all channels. According to the Criterion Collection, the HD transfer of the film includes restored sound.

According to the Criterion Collection, the MTI Digital Restoration System was used to remove thousands of instances of dirt, debris and scratches. The soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from the original audio magnetic tracks. Audio restoration tools were used to remove clicks, pops, hiss and crackle.

It is important to note that the main Japanese soundtrack is included but also the original English dubbed soundtrack. Personally, I didn't watch much of the film with the English soundtrack as it was very reminiscent to watching old Kung Fu, Shaw Brothers films in the early '80s. But for those who can't stand subtitles, at least they have the option to select an English dubbed soundtrack.

Subtitles are in English.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

"Rashomon - THE CRITERION COLLECTION #138 comes with the following special features:

* Audio Commentary by Donald Richie - Film historian Donald Richie provides the commentary of "Rashomon". As a film critic well-versed in Japanese cinema, Richie goes into depth about the filmmaking of the film.
* Video Introduction by Robert Altman - (6:39) Filmmaker Robert Altman ("Mash", "Shortcuts", "Gosford Park") talks about his love for the film and Kurosawa's symbolic use of light.
* Excerpts from "The World of Kazuo Miyagawa" - (12:32) A Japanese documentary (with English subtitles) based on Akira Kurosawa's longtime cinematographer Kazuo Miyagawa who talks about working with Akira Kurosawa and gives viewers insight to the director and the their professional relationship. Most importantly, the techniques used to film "Rashomon".
* Trailer - (3:27) The original theatrical trailer for "Rashomon".
* 28-Page Booklet - Featuring the an essay on "Rashomon" by Stephen Prince (Author of "The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa"), "Akira Kurosawa on Rashomon" (from "Something Like an Autobiography) and excerpts from Ryunosuke Akutagawa's "Rashomon" and "In a Grove" novel (both translated in English).

JUDGMENT CALL:

I first watched "Rashomon" while I was a young college student and was very surprised by how the film was much different from "The Seven Samurai", especially when it came to the number of characters featured, the emotion of the characters especially the crazy Tajomaru and also taken aback by the reaction of the samurai's wife Masako.

Needless to say, the concept of seeing flashbacks and finding out that these flashbacks were either truth or fabrications, one can't deny of how this film captures your attention as you want to know who committed the crime.

I was impressed how Kurosawa was able to film "Rashomon" despite receiving a low budget and keeping things to a minimalist set. Just to see how the camerawork came about, how meticulous the editing was since Kurosawa likes to shoot a scene with several cameras and of course, the character performances which were quite important in the development of the film. In fact, prior to the film, the actors and staff lived together temporarily and it was a system which Kurosawa felt worked in bringing harmony to the set.

As mentioned, there has been restoration done on "Rashomon" with the source material being extremely in bad condition despite the 35mm print from 1962 being in very good physical condition. So, each scene was digitally restored and cleaned up courtesy of the Academy Film Archive, the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and Kadokawa Pictures, Inc. The film has been shown throughout the world in 2009 and one can hope that with Kurosawa's films making it to Blu-ray, the Criterion Collection considers the new restored version of "Rashomon" for Blu-ray release.

But for now, those who find "Rashomon" can be content with the Criterion Collection's DVD release for now. A good number of special features, solid picture and audio quality as one can expect from a 50-year-old film on DVD and an informative booklet and a few bonus features included. "Rashomon" is definitely a Kurosawa masterpiece worth watching and having in your collection.

Rashomon - Criterion Collection Overview

Brimming with action while incisively examining the nature of truth, Rashomon is perhaps the finest film ever to investigate the philosophy of justice. Through an ingenious use of camera and flashbacks, Kurosawa reveals the complexities of human nature as four people recount different versions of the story of a man's murder and the rape of his wife. Toshiro Mifune gives another commanding performance in the eloquent masterwork that revolutionized film language and introduced Japanese cinema to the world.

Rashomon - Criterion Collection Specifications

This 1950 film by Akira Kurosawa is more than a classic: it's a cinematic archetype that has served as a template for many a film since. (Its most direct influence was on a Western remake, The Outrage, starring Paul Newman and directed by Martin Ritt.) In essence, the facts surrounding a rape and murder are told from four different and contradictory points of view, suggesting the nature of truth is something less than absolute. The cast, headed by Kurosawa's favorite actor, Toshiro Mifune, is superb. --Tom Keogh

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