Claude Berri's wonderful 1967 film The Two of Us (Criterion) was inspired at least in part by Berri's own life story. In 1944, in occupied Paris, a Jewish boy is sent away to live with gentiles, who would claim him as one of their own and protect him from deportation and death. The film features one of the great French actors in one of his final performances, Michel Simon, as the anti-semitic old man who develops a fondness for the boy.

The (director-approved) special features on this new Criterion disc include:

New, restored high-definition digital transfer; Le poulet (1962), director Claude Berri’s Oscar-winning short film; New video interviews with Berri and actor Alain Cohen; Interviews from 1967 with Berri and Michel Simon; An excerpt from “The Jewish Children of Occupied France,” a 1975 French talk-show segment featuring Berri and the woman who helped secure his family’s safety during World War II; Original theatrical trailer; New and improved English subtitle translation.

Continue Reading The Two of Us

By Robert von Dassanowsky

This primer picks up where Austrian Film to 2000 left off.

By mid-decade of this century, Austrian filmmakers have reacted to the shifting identity values of their nation by exposing and rejecting artificial representations, particularly regarding national image and social construction. It appears to be the goal of most, if not all Austrian filmmakers of the era to put substance, no matter how discordant or unpleasant, back into the "product."

Barbara Albert's Falling.

While New Austrian Film has had several phases beginning in the early 1980s, it has become the "hot spot" internationally since the end of the 90s, when Barbara Albert's Nordrand (City Skirts, 1999) became the first Austrian production in decades invited to screen in competition at the Venice Film Festival. Nordrand focuses on two women whose lives attract other young people of different ethnic and sociocultural backgrounds. Seeking self-realization, emotional support, and concerned with bringing children into this world, they live in a housing project on Vienna's north side and flounder between memories of war in Yugoslavia, temporary jobs, and unwanted pregnancies until they finally drift apart.

Albert returns to the communal circle in Böse Zellen (Free Radicals, 2003), a film created around the idea of the "butterfly effect." Her film begins with a plane crash, whose sole survivor, Manu (played by one of the multitalents of the Austrian New Wave, Kathrin Resetarits), is later killed in an automobile accident. During her "stolen" time and after her death, Manu becomes the hub of several parallel stories involving her troubled surviving family and friends and their haunting symbol of the irony and unpredictability of life as they fight off abuse and loneliness. Albert's Fallen (Falling, 2006) focuses specifically on female friendship and the possibility of reinvention. Albert's lead as break-out director is but one example of the major role women are playing in this national cinematic resurrection.

Interviewed by Michael Guillen

Rory Kennedy's probing HBO documentary Ghosts of Abu Ghraib now debuts on DVD today. As David Courier wrote, introducing the film when it premiered at Sundance in January, Kennedy "explores how, given the right circumstances, typical boys and girls next door can commit atrocious acts of violence...."

Michael Guillen spoke with Rory Kennedy about the unique and unsettling experience of shooting at the Abu Ghraib prison facility in Iraq.

Continue Reading Rory Kennedy: Disturbing the Ghosts of Abu Ghraib

By David D'Arcy

"Yunis is 100 percent bulletproof."

Interview By Hannah Eaves

"If you think of debt collectors and sellers as sleazy hucksters with the morals of a used car salesman, James D. Scurlock's Maxed-out will do nothing but rev on your hatred. If you don't even know what a debt seller is, it's about time you saw this film. Lending is one part of the financial industry that touches nearly everyone, probably more so even than health insurance (especially if recent coverage studies are to be trusted). In fact, scary as it is, many people even buy their health coverage with credit."

If you liked this interview check out In Debt We Trust, another fine doc on the state of consumer debt in America.

Maxed-Out arrives on DVD today.

Continue Reading Maxed-Out: James D. Scurlock

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari: What's this? A remake of the silent German expressionist classic? David Lee Fisher didn't so much remake it as reshoot and reimagine the original, and "surprise!" says the NY Post's VA Musetto, it's "a remarkable achievement, technically and artistically." Adds Film Journal: "Fisher has enriched it with an added depth of which the original filmmakers, one can't help but think, would have approved." Pan's Labyrinth's physically gifted Doug Jones stars.

Continue Reading Cabinet of Dr. Caligari v.2.0

We've singled out separately a few of the more interesting titles releasing this week, a quiet one for "blockbusters" but still some good stuff. Also: The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (absurdist Japanese "pink" film and future cult item); Fail_Safe (George Clooney's recent live TV version adapting Cold War era thriller); Fired!; Ghidorah: Three-Headed Monster; The Messengers; Robin Hood: Season One. Click below for more!

Continue Reading New on DVD: June 5, 2007

Sergio Leone's largely neglected oddball socio-political Western Duck You Sucker had been chopped to bits in initial release but gets a new life in a restored DVD out today. The film starred Rod Steiger as a Mexican peasant (!; don't think about it too hard) who meets Irish revolutionary James Coburn; the two of them plot to rob a bank in Arizona, only to discover it's actually being used as a political prison. This handsome transfer restores the film to all its lengthy glory.

Continue Reading Duck You Sucker: a.k.a. A Fistful of Dynamite

Interview by Michael Guillen

Actor, producer and humanitarian Danny Glover has been a commanding presence on screen, stage and television for more than 25 years. As an actor, his film credits range from the blockbuster Lethal Weapon franchise to smaller independent features, some of which Glover also produced. Michael Guillen spoke with Glover about his production company's slate of progressive features and documentaries, including the recently released Bamako.

Continue Reading Danny Glover on Bamako

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

"I am proud of my early films because I was working with nothing."

You've taken a lot of care to document all your movies, the thoughts and processes that went into them and even the afterthoughts. Are you thinking of posterity, or perhaps inspiring more young filmmakers? In what way would you like to inspire someone?

I have kept production diaries of my films because I like to document the process. It is a complex one. If other filmmakers benefit from my experiences, that's a positive thing.

Which of your films will best stand the test of time?

I don't know which of my films will best stand the test of time because time does strange things.

Unlike most big-budget action movies, Sensitive New Age Killer has really exciting, well-shot action sequences. You have all the basics: a sense of space, clean editing and a snappy, sustained pace. Most directors can't seem to handle all that. Could you say something about how you pulled it off?