GreenCine Best of 2006
Giving Thanks: Top 10 Formerly MIA DVDs

By Craig Phillips

Sex and Fury is right!

Sex and Fury and Female Yakuza Tale. Panik House rocked our world this year with the release of several Japanese exploitation classics, including these two, both starring Reiko Ike. The titles really say it all. Twisty plots and twisted sex, gory, pulpy and glorious.

The Good: Oh, it's all so dirty, in a good way.
The Bad: Oh, they're all bad, honey. But, oh my, that early bath scene...
The Ugly: That "comic relief" brothel dork.


Hail the Conquering Hero. Preston Sturges' screwball comedy classic was released as part of the delightful Sturges Collection box set, which was a mix of several previously unreleased films along with some already-out classics. Sturges was one of the few directors to lampoon the concept of hero worship and patriotism right in the middle of World War II (though it wasn't exactly edgy), but audiences ate it up. Eddie Bracken and William Demarest are among the Sturges regulars helping keep up with the film's extremely hectic pace.


The Passenger. Michelangelo Antonioni's film was out of U.S. release for almost two decades because star Jack Nicholson bought the rights to it and refused to release it. The film has seen several cuts of varying lengths and has long been unavailable, so this DVD release was particularly thrilling. The plot is not the thing here; it's as obtuse and existential as much of Antonioni's work, but also sophisticated, intelligent and, ultimately, unforgettable.

The Good: The last shot is brilliant.
The Bad: Only if a desert full of existentialism isn't your thing at the moment.




Delicatessen. Long high atop my MIA DVD list, Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's bizarro post-apocalyptic circus of a film is practically indescribable, except it involves a cannibalistic butcher, an apartment full of potential victims, each with their own quirks, and the acrobatic clown (Jeunet-Caro favorite Dominique Pinon) who may (or may not) save the day. An absolute original delight - if dark comedy can be delightful.

The Good: The whimsical, hilarious bedsprings sequence and all of Pinon's comic skills.
The Bad: Nothing unless you watch while eating.
The Ugly: The room full of snails.

High Honorable Mention: Metropolitan; Werckmeister Harmonies; 1900 and The Conformist (arrived too late for press time); Double Indemnity (returned to print after a long hiatus, though the second disc - with the made-for-TV remake - is a bit of a gyp); Map of the Human Heart; and certainly many more - a follow-up to this list may be in order.