Mirror is Tarkovsky's fourth of seven feature films and proceeds in a non-narrative, stream-of-consciousness form. The director mixes flashbacks, historical footage and original poetry to illustrate the reminiscences of a dying man about his childhood during World War II, adolescence, and a painful divorce in his family. The story interweaves reflections about Russian history and society.
Mirror has relevancy being numerically "central" in Tarkovsky's oeuvre also marking itself as, by the director's own account, 'My most openly autobiographical, daring, and self-revealing film'. Infused with dense, personal references from memory and an inaccessible use of time, space and performances, this is considered the director most artistically bold work being steeped in layered constructions. In examining his entire body of work this tends to be a catalyst of his vision of transcendency.

Note: different rips of Mirror are available on avaxhome, but none of that quality. The russian Lizard DVD beats all the other releases (Artificial Eye / Spectrum / MK2 / Kino).

With A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents "a neorealist musical—that is, a contradiction in terms." Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of popularity, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard's signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession: the cinema.

These versions of Blind Husbands, Foolish Wives and Queen Kelly are the most comprehensive to date. The recent restorations of these films are remarkable although numerous scratches remain (you can't work miracles on masters as damaged as Foolish Wives), but Queen Kelly is remarkably clean for a silent film. Through their innovative style and incredible visual originality, Blind Husbands, Foolish Wives and Queen Kelly are still surprisingly modern today as when they were created by the director of Greed. And each of these classics still carry an unique scent of scandal.

Nous voici ici en présence des versions de ces trois films (Maris aveugles, Folies de femmes et Queen Kelly) les plus complètes à ce jour. De plus, les restaurations effectuées dernièrement sont vraiment très réussies et si demeurent d'innombrables scratchs et rayures en tous genres (on ne peut pas faire de miracles non plus, surtout pour des masters aussi abîmées que celui de Folies de femmes), les copies ont retrouvées une belle jeunesse (surtout en comparaison de celles ignobles, et à bannir de toute urgence, proposées dans une collection de DVD vendue sur Cdiscount, Ciné Club Hollywood), celle de Queen Kelly étant même remarquablement propre pour un muet. Bref, pour ces films des années 20, je ne vois pas comment il aurait été possible de faire mieux ; et pour ne rien gâcher, la compression s'avère parfaitement bien gérée. Du très bon travail.

In 1929, F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu, Faust, Sunrise), one of the greatest of all film directors, invited leading documentarist Robert Flaherty (Nanook of the North, Man of Aran) to collaborate on a film to be be shot on location in Tahiti, a Polynesian idyll in which Murnau imagined a cast of island actors would provide a new form of authentic drama and offer rare insight into their "primitive" culture. The result of their collaboration was Tabu, a film that depicts the details of indigenous island life to tell a mythical tale that is rich in the universal themes of desire and loss.

Loin de son pays natal et de son pays d’adoption, les Etats-Unis, Murnau tournera Tabou en Polynésie. Co-réalisé avec le documentariste Robert Flaherty, ce film ultime d’une sensualité inouïe chante en une célébration homo-érotique les corps cuivrés et lisses sous le soleil des tropiques. Mais dans ce lieu paradisiaque rôde la tragédie, fait retour l’angoisse propre à son cinéma.

Gus, Harry, and Archie, three husbands with families in suburban New York, are shaken when their best friend suddenly dies of a heart attack. Unable to return to work after the funeral, they take off on a weekend-long debauch, with way too much drinking and loose women. In the process, they have lengthy heart-to-hearts about the nature of friendship, manhood, and marriage, among other things.
As strong an example of Cassavetes's improvisational art as any of his films, this film may test your patience with his indulgent treatment of actors, allowing them to explore their characters on film. Sometimes they come up empty, but more often, they find precious moments and revelations. And these three guys play off each other like long-time partners in a high-wire game of chicken in which they all emerge as winners. — Marshall Fine

French New Wave writer/director Jacques Demy, best known for his stylish musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, reunites with French star Anouk Aimée (their first pairing, 1961's Lola) to direct his first film in America. Gary Lockwood (2001: A Space Odyssey) plays shiftless but innocuous George Matthews, who can't seem to get himself worked up about anything: the girlfriend he is about to lose, his soon-to-be repossessed car or even his draft notice. Until one day, he sees a beautiful but detached model (Aimée), and he begins to follow her. From Malibu Beach to Beverly Hills mansions to Santa Monica Boulevard's cheap strip joints, Los Angeles is critically examined...

A skeptical American psychologist comes to England to investigate and disprove the concept of the supernatural. But before long he finds himself cursed by the leader of a witch cult and disbelief becomes terrifying reality.

This is the extended British cut of the film under its original title "Night of the Demon" and not the shorter U.S. cut renamed "Curse of the Demon".

Produced at the height of the Vietnam War (at a time when the majority of Americans still supported it), Emile de Antonio's Oscar-nominated 1968 documentary chronicles the war's historical roots. With palpable outrage, De Antonio (Point of Order, Underground) assembles period interviews with journalists, politicians, and key military personnel and international newsreel and archival footage to create a scathing chronicle of America's escalating involvement in this divisive conflict. The savage and horrific images speak for themselves in perhaps the most controversial film of de Antonio's career, and the film he cites as his personal favorite.

Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni's only American film, is an epic portrait of late Sixties America, as seen through the portrayal of two of its children: anthropology student Daria (who's helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert) and dropout Mark (who's wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot).
Antonioni's nonrealistic approach to American counterculture myths, his loose and sluggish narrative, and the dialogue caused Zabriskie Point to be poorly received when it was first released. The score features songs from Pink Floyd, The Grateful Dead, Kaleidoscope, The Rolling Stones, John Fahey, The Youngbloods and Patti Page.

This new dvd edition respects the original anamorphic ratio of the film and looks significantly better than any other dvd edition available.

In November 1936, at a nursing home in Nottingham, England, two middle-class women, Margaret Wheeler and Blanche Rylatt, gave birth to two daughters. Through a mix-up in the files, each woman was presented with the wrong baby afterward—a fact confirmed only in 1957 after strenuous efforts by Margaret, who had suspected something was amiss from the beginning and retained a rudimentary contact with the Rylatts as a consequence. At this point, each 20-year-old daughter—Peggy, who had grown up with the Rylatts, and Valerie, who had grown up with the Wheelers—discovered that she had a different set of parents.

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Parmi les documentaires les plus remarquables et les plus inventifs jamais réalisés, le film de Françoise Romand suit la véritable histoire de deux Anglaises qui, bébés, ont été échangées par erreur à la maternité, et découvrent, à 20 ans, qu’elles n’ont pas été élevées par leurs vrais parents. Romand embarque les survivants des deux familles dans une étrange enquête entre passé et présent, pour reconstituer les faits mais surtout revivre ces scènes clés de la vie émotionnelle des deux filles. (...) Un extraordinaire premier film. — Jonathan Rosenbaum

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Francoise Romand's 1985, 63-minute Mix-Up, as densely packed as a 500-page novel, has the French title Meli-melo, which my dictionary defines as a "jumble (of facts, etc); hotchpotch; medley (of people, etc); clutter (of furniture)"—all of which describes the film's startlingly original method as well as its fascinating, evocative subject. — Jonathan Rosenbaum

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Director Jane Campion's 1989 debut feature plumbs the dysfunctional depths of one Australian family. Thin and mousy Kay works in a factory and lives a dreary existence with her well-meaning boyfriend, Louis. One day, her sister Dawn arrives with her so-called manager, Bob. Nicknamed Sweetie, Dawn is everything Kay is not: boisterous, impulsive, and overweight. Kay is consumed with uptight phobias, while Dawn hangs on to her unrealistic childhood dreams of show business. Meanwhile, their parents, Gordon and Flo, are involved in a strange separation. Kay, Louis, and Gordon trick Dawn so they can visit Flo at a ranch in the Australian outback. Everyone gets together back at the family home where Dawn pulls an immature stunt, exposing the psychological realities of the situation.

Who was she? Sometimes she was a child skipping rope. Sometimes she was a woman with a passionate hunger. And one day the woman and the child came together...

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Rachel, Rachel is a moving, mature meditation on loneliness and existential angst, best remembered as the directorial debut of Paul Newman. Newman intentionally chose this small-scale, dramatic story to make his entrée into filmmaking. Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward, is convincing as the title character determined to change her life. Though acclaimed –the picture won New York Film Critics awards for both Joanne Woodward and Paul Newman, and an Oscar nomination for Joanne Woodward– the film suffered a quick death at the box office and is, regrettably, largely forgotten. Rachel, Rachel was released on DVD for the first time on February 2009.

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Individualistic and idealistic architect Howard Roark is expelled from college because his designs fail to fit with existing architectural thinking. He seems unemployable but finally lands a job with like-minded Henry Cameron, however within a few years Cameron drinks himself to death, warning Roark that the same fate awaits unless he compromises his ideals. Roark is determined to retain his artistic integrity at all costs.

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Although Hollywood is finally breaking new ground it doesn't make films like this anymore... and aside from The Fountainhead, truly never did. Looking back today, I found it such a refreshing and unique change. — Gary W. Tooze, DVD Beaver

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King Vidor réalise avec "Le Rebelle" (The Fountainhead) le film le plus emblématique de ses préoccupations de cinéaste. — Olivier Bitoun, DVD Classik

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Lem goes to Chicago to sell the wheat his family has grown on their farm in Minnesota. There he meets the waitress Kate. They fall in love and get married before going back to the farm. Kate is accepted by Lem's mother and kid sister but is rejected by his father, who believes she married for the money.
Long available only in soft 16-millimeter prints, City Girl now possesses a contrast and detail that suggest a pristine 35-millimeter source, and perhaps the dramatically improved image quality will contribute to the rehabilitation of what has long been Murnau’s most underrated film.

Marlene Dietrich, Herbert Marshall and Cary Grant star in Josef von Sternberg's classic social drama about a young mother who lives an unsavory life to support her family. Loving mother and devoted wife Helen Faraday works as a showgirl at a tawdry nightclub to earn her family's living. Her frail husband Edward suffers from radium poisoning, a degenerative malady that requires an expensive European cure. When Helen meets wealthy Nick Townsend, a handsome and admiring playboy, she's seduced by him. Unfortunately, their scandalous affair sets off a chain of scandalous reactions that force Helen into hiding. Running from the authorities who want to take her child, Helen confronts a society that's turned its back on her.