http://dvdboutique.net At home with art cinema Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:33:18 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Directed by Gerard Corbiau    "Farinelli has surprised me so much that I feel as though I had hitherto heard only a small part of the human voice, and now have heard it all." Paolo Rolli, librettist, c. 1735      Carlo Maria Broschi, aka "Farinelli", was one of opera’s most celebrated castrati. Castrati were ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/07/06/il-castrato-farinelli-belgium-1994/ Directed by Remy Belvaux, Andre Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde       This film is what Natural Born Killers desperately wanted to be, but couldn't; this kind of dark and vicious satire is not possible when Hollywood studios and big names are involved.      Man Bites Dog centers on Benoit, (Benoit Poelvoorde), a serial murderer ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/06/10/man-bites-dog-belgium-1993/ (Denys Arcand, Canada, 1990, 118') Alongside David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan, Denys Arcand is Canada's best-known film director, a small club for sure but all of them creative forces to be reckoned with in the global film world. Arcand's post-modern and referential cinema, often sprinkled with wry, savvy sense ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/03/07/jesus-of-montreal/ (Dir: Andrzej Munk, Poland, 1961-1963, 58') Films about the Holocaust don't come much closer to capturing the horror of Auschwitz and the concentration camps than Andrzej Munk's 1961-1963 The Passenger. Munk died in a car crash at the age of 39 in the middle of producing his film. His friend ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/02/27/passenger/ (Maya Deren,U.S., 1943, 18') Like many art film pioneers, the work and legacy of Maya Deren (1917-1961) is often more talked about than actually seen. Fortunately, as rare films are increasingly available on DVD, a gem like Meshes of the Afternoon is more widely available and should help bring more visibility ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/02/22/meshes-of-the-afternoon/ (Jean Pierre Melville, France/Italy, 1969, 145') When L'Armée des ombres (Army in the Shadows) opens, we are immediately struck by Jean-Pierre Melville's style: the blue-grey colours that also dominate the Alain Delon-starred Le Samouraï (1967), the minimalist, elegant and unmistakably Gallic mise-en-scene and the references to the American gangster movie genre. ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/02/19/larmee-des-ombres-army-of-shadows/ (Werner Herzog, U.S., 2005, 103') Here's another example of how the documentary format currently often offers more than fiction as far as drama and humanism are concerned. Veteran German director Werner Herzog has always been fascinated by individuals with an obstinate sense of mission in the middle of nature and ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/02/17/grizzly-man/ (Tod Browning, U.S., 1936, 79') This is a must-see cult classic from Tod Browing, who also gave the world the truly wonderful Freaks (quoted by Robert Altman in The Player). Made in 1936 and starring Lionel Barrymore, Frank Lawton and Maureen O’Sullivan, The Devil Doll is a camp cacophony of mad ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/02/12/the-devil-doll/ (Marcel Camus, Brazil/France, 1959, 107') The Franco-Brazilian production Black Orpheus is a splash of color that paints on the screen some of the most postcard-y images that Rio de Janeiro ever got. It was also the film that introduced to the world the Bossa Nova and won the 1959 Palme ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/02/09/black-orpheus/ (Dir: Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France, 2004, 122') A very young girl arrives in a coffin at a same-sex school enclosed by woods. The place has a timeless feel about it, although the dress code bespeaks of the 1960s or even the 1950s. The girls have the posture of ballet dancers and ... http://dvdboutique.net/2008/02/06/innocence/