The GreenCine Dispatch

#159 | November 14, 2006

New York Times film critic A.O. Scott has called 49 Up (arriving on DVD today) and Michael Apted's Up series as a whole "one of the most remarkable experiments in the history of cinema." To which Jonathan Marlow, introducing his career-spanning talk with the director, adds that the DVD format is "ideally suited for such a collection." Full article >>


	Special Promotions

For Your Consideration: A New Comedy from Christopher Guest, the Director of Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind. The film stars the regular ensemble, including Guest himself, co-writer Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Parker Posey, Harry Shearer, Jennifer Coolidge, Bob Balaban, Fred Willard plus Ricky Gervais and a bunch of people you’ll recognize. In some theaters November 17th. More theaters November 22nd.

In This Dispatch:

What's New: Brothers, heros and electric cars.
What We're Watching: Oldboy, Planet, and more.
Explore: Fur, Beethoven and books.
Special Events: Next screening and contest winners.


	What's New

Brothers of the Head Rent | Buy

Certainly one of the odder films in a while, Brothers of the Head is a mockumentary without the mock, a tale of conjoined twins who become a pop phenomenon. "More real and more artistically, morally, and spiritually honest than any dozen bedrock documentary films you'd care to name," wrote Marc Savlov in the Austin Chronicle. In a new interview for GC, Sean Axmaker talked with the film's risk-taking makers.

Sophie SchollRent | Buy
Joyeux Noel Rent | Buy

Two war-themed films nominated for Best Foriegn Film at the last Oscars come to DVD today. Sophie Scholl: The Final Days is the tale of the young woman executed by the German government for being a member of the anti-Nazi White Rose student movement - played vivldy by The Edukators' Julia Jentsch. Adds The LA Times, "her strong and graceful, quiet knockout of a performance is the film's most potent weapon." Also based on a real story, the moving Joyeux Noel ($22.45) is "an extraordinary film... vital, immediate and human." (SF Chronicle)

Also Out This Week:

Some movie called Da Vinci Code ($22.45); Who Killed the Electric Car? ($20.80); Strangers with Candy ($20.95) [article]; Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man ($20.95); Wild Blue Yonder ($13.26); Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 4 ($46.95); UFO Ultramaiden Valkyrie Season 2, vol. 1: Washing Up and Wigging Out ($21.45).

GreenCine's review blog: Guru | A complete list of this week's new releases and all titles coming soon is available here | Your Queue | Discuss!


	What We're Watching

Oldboy (Special Edition) Rent | Buy

For the past few years, writer/director Chan-wook Park has been treating audiences to thrilling and visually stunning cinema with his already legendary vengeance trilogy. Oldboy, the second part of the trilogy, now has a 3-disc collector’s edition DVD set ($29.45) boasting 350 minutes of bonus material, including a superb featurette, "Autobiography of Oldboy," and some unique collector’s items giving the viewer unprecedented access to one of the most exciting films of this decade.

More like this

Inexchange | Buzzsaw


	Explore

"How you feel about this film may depend on how you feel about using an imagined story to explain the life of a real person, or to explain anything else," writes David D'Arcy, introducing his interview with Steven Shainberg, whose new film, starring Nicole Kidman and Robert Downey, Jr., is entitled - pay attention - Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus.
Full article >>

Further reading:

As Agnieszka Holland's second collaboration with Ed Harris, Copying Beethoven, opens in theaters, Steven Jenkins talks with the director about true stories and spiritual dimensions. Also: don't miss GreenCine's Autumn-Into-Winter Reading Club. Our award-winning blog, GreenCine Daily, revisits Journey With George - doubly timely now with the director's mother soon to be Speaker of the House - and remembers Louise Brooks.


	Special Events

Coming December 6 to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco: GreenCine and and Cabinetic present Cabinet of Curiosities Revisited. More details about this special event forthcoming.

Congratulations to the winners of our Word Play contest: ClarySage & Erickstuart.

Lastly, a teaser: stop by GreenCine later this week for a major dose of Agent 007.