Film Movement tells MARIE'S STORY (review)

Based on a true story, a turn of the century French nun at a convent school for the deaf takes on the momentous challenge of teaching a blind and deaf young girl how to connect with the outside world.

REVIEW LINK: Film Movement (US) Region 1 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

MARIE'S STORY DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen
• French Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles and English Closed Captioning
• English Descriptive Audio Track
• Making-of
• Theatrical Trailer
• Short Film 'Motherly' by Navid Nikkhah Azad
• Previews 

Film Movement studies the STATIONS OF THE CROSS (Review)

A member of a fundamentalist Catholic sect, fourteen year old Maria is estranged from her classmates and is told by her religion to look inwards for the blame for the torments she feels when met with experiencing the new feelings of a teenage girl just a week before her confirmation as a "warrior of Christ."  With visions of self-sacrifice in her heart, young Maria may be on her way to sainthood sooner than anyone expected.

REVIEW LINK: Film Movement (US) Region 1 NTSC (DVDBeaver)

STATIONS OF THE CROSS DVD specs: 

• 16:9 anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen
• German Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles and English Closed Captioning
• Audio Commentary by director Dietrich Brüggemann
• Theatrical Trailer
• Bonus Short Film "One Shot" by Dietrich Brüggemann
• Previews

Marty Gross Films visits KYOTO: HEART OF JAPAN (review)

Kon Ichikawa's memorable, unclassifiable art film documentary KYOTO, commissioned by Olivetti Arte as a goodwill present to Japan, is memorable less for its informative content than for the director's visual exploration of the Kyoto landmarks and cultural traditions accompanied by the scoring of famed composer Toru Takemitsu.

REVIEW LINK: Marty Gross Films (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

KYOTO: HEART OF JAPAN DVD specs:

• 4:3 non-anamorphic 1.33:1 fullscreen
• English, Japanese, or Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 mono narration tracks
• Kyoto and Tokyo Premiere Footage

Arrow Films counsels DAG: SEASON ONE (review)

In this dark Norwegian sitcom, Dag is a marriage counselor who has come to the conclusion after a hundred patients that people are better off alone.  Nine out of ten of his patients have divorced and his secretary - whose kink is other people's misery - has him counseling more unconventional couples.  Meanwhile, his best friend is trying to escape the wrath of his ex-girlfriend's family of Serbian butchers and his sister is trying to set him up with eligible women who range from the quirky to he unstable.  When his sister's bed friend Eva comes home after being a hippie for ten years in Goa, she sees Dag as a challenge, and both find themselves exploring new relationships even as their friends give them plenty of evidence that couplehood is more miserable than loneliness.

REVIEW LINK: Arrow Films (UK) Region 2 PAL DVD (DVDBeaver)

DAG: SEASON ONE DVD specs:

• Ten episodes on two discs
• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• Norwegian Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 stereo
• Optional English subtitles

Oscilloscope Laboratories explores LA CIUDAD (THE CITY) (review)

Shot between 1992 and 1997, LA CIUDAD was an intimate attempt by filmmaker David Riker to tell the stories of Latin American immigrants in New York City in their own words.  A day laborer meets a tragic end at a job site, a young man far away from home falls in love with a girl also from his village, a homeless puppeteer tries his best to raise his daughter, and a seamstress in a sweatshop discovers that her daughter is in a hospital back in Mexico and needs $400 for treatment.

REVIEW LINK: Oscilloscope Laboratories (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVDBeaver)

LA CIUDAD (THE CITY) DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• Spanish/English/Korean Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo
• Optional English, English SDH, and Spanish subtitles
• Making-of featurette (in English with optional Spanish subtitles)
• Fifteen Years Later: Director and Cast discussion (in Spanish with optional English subtitles)
• Theatrical Trailer

Vinegar Syndrome's THE EXECUTIONER PART II and FROZEN SCREAM (review)

Vinegar Syndrome's latest Drive-in Collection volume showcases two works by producer/actress Renee Harmon.  In THE EXECUTIONER, PART II (from DON'T GO IN THE WOODS' James Bryan), Chris Mitchum hunts a masked vigilante blowing up pushers, pimps, and punks with live grenades.  Aldo Ray also stars.  In FROZEN SCREAM, a detective investigates the connection between a series of grisly murders and a doctor's extended consciousness experiments.

REVIEW LINK: Vinegar Syndrome (US) Region 0 NTSC DVD (DVD Drive-in)

THE EXECUTIONER, PART II/FROZEN SCREAM DVD specs:

• 16:9 anamorphic 1.78:1 widescreen
• English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono
• THE EXECUTIONER, PART II mastered in 2K from the original 35mm negatives
• FROZEN SCREAM mastered in 2K from the original 16mm negatives
• "The Executioner's Song" interview with director James Bryan
• Theatrical Trailer for THE EXECUTIONER, PART II

Film Movement seduces THE MARQUISE OF O (review)

In Eric Rohmer's mannered by gorgeous adaptation of Heinrich von Kleist's tale of "forced seduction" a widowed marquise is rescued by a Russian count from being dishonored by soldiers only to find herself pregnant without knowing how it occurred.  Although the marquise is thrown out of her father's home, she is shocked when the count proposes marriage to her.  Bruno Ganz stars.

REVIEW LINK: Film Movement (US) Region A Blu-ray (DVDCompare)

THE MARQUISE OF O... Blu-ray specs:

• 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.33:1 fullscreen
• German LPCM 2.0 mono
• Interview with Eric Rhomer
• Interview with actor Bruno Ganz
• Original and 2015 Theatrical Trailers
• Booklet by critic David Thomson