Click on small photos for larger views
"Far from Heaven"
This much-acclaimed movie is one of the oddest you've ever seen, and I'm not even sure it's all that good. But it is definitely different and food for thought. Set back in the Technicolor 1950s when everything looked better than it was, it follows the break-up of what on the surface is an ideal marriage and a family living in the sunshine with no shadows. But the husband (Dennis Quaid) turns out to be gay, and the too-good-to-be-true wife (Julianne Moore) rebounds by having strong feelings for her black gardener (Dennis Haysbert). The wrinkle is, none of those things were part of the reality of the 1950s. The movie is a satire of Douglas Sirk and other directors' melodramas of that decade which were beautiful to look at, but there was seldom any meat in the sandwich. The satire has meat, but it's kind of hard to chew. And if you don't watch it knowing it's satire, you'll miss the 8:45 commuter train.
Max's rating: two paws up and a tail wag.

Best Foreign Film of the Month

 

"The Crime of Padre Amaro"
A handsome young priest at a small parish in rural Mexico becomes (saints preserve us!) the object of affection of a beautiful young woman, and vice versa. Okay, it's not a new plot, but it's well-handled in this drama that got a 2002 best foreign language film Oscar nomination. A large part of its appeal and success is Gael Garcia Bernal, star of "Y Tu Mama Tambien," who plays the young priest. From Columbia Tri-Star.
Max's rating: Two paws up and several tail wags, but go to confession Saturday.

Recommended British Imports

"The Bretts"
Looking for something entirely different? No car chases, blood, or vampires? How about stepping back in time to the London stage of the 1920s. This Masterpiece Theater series looks behind the curtains of a fictional London stage family in that kinder, gentler period that still had a lot of intrigue and drama. Period costumes and sets alone are worth the price of admission, but there also is a multi-layered story with wit and sophistication. Created by playwright Rosemary Anne Sisson who wrote some of the classic "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "A Town Like Alice". The 5-disc set is from Carlton and BFS Entertainment.
Max's rating: Two paws up and some "Woo Woo's!"

"The Trench"
Lest we forget how brutal wars were and can still be, despite how short they can be today, this is a dramatization of the Battle of the Somme, one of World War II's bloodiest. It's July 1916 France, and young British soldiers, some of them only 17, are in the trenches, awaiting the whistle sending them out to rush the German army. Even many of those who survive wish they hadn't. Take a look at this one, as an antidote for the latest war.

"The Piglet Files"
There have been dumb detectives, but maybe none who is as unlikely a candidate for an intelligence agent as the hero of this British comedy TV series. Nicholas Lyndhurst bungles his way through seven episodes on two discs as an agent whose code name is Piglet. Just don't tell his wife he's leading a double life. From Granada and BFS Entertainment.
Max's rating: Two paws up.

Two Modern Classics

"Das Boot"

War movies about World War II may seem a little dated today, but not this one inside a Nazi submarine . The director's cut of Wolf Petersen's acclaimed drama gets the Superbit treatment from Columbia Tri-Star, in high-resolution picture and sound. The Wall Street Journal's movie critic called it "Spectacular," and that gets it right.

"Ran"
Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece retells Shakespeare's King Lear with a 16th century Japanese spin. A father torn apart by treachery among his sons is played against high drama and fantastic pageantry in as unusual a war movie as you're likely to see.
The scene of the massed army with red battle flags is unforgettable. The DVD is an experience. From Wellspring.

 

TV Repeat

"The Jeffersons, Season Two"

Television comedy whiz Norman Lear satirized white America in "All in the Family," and spun off some characters into "The Jeffersons," a groundbreaking satire on black families of the 1970s and 1980s. All 24 episodes from the second season are on three DVDs, remastered for high quality sound and picture. Sherman Hemsley, Marla Gibbs, Zara Culley, and others are perfectly cast and perfectly funny. From Columbia Tri-Star.

Kid Stuff

"Jay Jay, the Jet Plane: Good Friends Forever"
These five new adventures of the popular PBS-TV preschool series is for kids, but parents can find the five live-action and animation adventures good for family discussion afterward.

"The World of Baby Animals"
Four delightful Discovery Channel adventures about baby animals are compiled on one DVD to keep kids informed, entertained, and amused. The babies are from all over the world - orangutans, cheetahs, polar bears - shot in natural habitats. Not just for kids, but for animal lovers of any age. From American Home Treasures, a division of BFS Entertainment of Canada.

Two French Classics

"Les Liaisons Dangereuses"
Roger Vadim put the steamy 18th-century novel on film in 1959, transporting the drama to 1950s Paris, and it is by far the best of the various remakings since then. But then, the pale imitations didn't have this stellar cast: Jeanne Moreau, Gerard Philipe, and Jean-Louis Trintignant, nor the taut direction of one of the French cinema masters, or the jazz score by Thelonious Monk. A beautifully remastered black and white print in French with English subtitles, from Wellspring.

"The 400 Blows"
Francois Truffaut's first feature film, also a 1959 release, follows a 13-year-old boy as he turns to small-time crime after feeling neglected by his parents. Highly-acclaimed, the film prompted one critic to write: "Its lyrically realistic and totally unsentimental portrait of adolescence has never been matched in the cinema." Fully restored in black and white and widescreen, in French with English subtitles, from the World Classics Cinema DVD series of Fox Lorber, a Winstar company.

Also worth seeing this month are these remastered DVD releases of a variety of better-than-average films from the 1940s to 1960s, all from Columbia Tri-Star:

"Commandos Strike at Dawn"
Movie legends Paul Muni and Lillian Gish star in this taut World War II drama about a Norwegian fishing village invaded by the Nazis. From a story by C.S. Forester and screenplay by Irwin Shaw, directed by Tarzan's wife's husband, John Farrow (did you follow that?), it's been digitally remastered in high definition for DVD.

"King Rat"
GIs in World War II trying to survive as prisoners of war in a Japanese prison camp sometimes wonder who's their biggest enemy - their guards or one of their own, ably played by George Segal. Five exceptional Brit actors - John Mills, James Fox, Tom Courtenay, James Donald, and Denholm Elliott - lend strong support. Digitally remastered, in black and white and widescreen.

 

"Hellcats of the Navy"
Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis met during filming of this WW 2 submarine drama in 1957, otherwise she might never have become First Lady even if he became President.
But the picture isn't about that, it's based on a true incident in which the submarine commander (Reagan) leads his crew on a dangerous mission to sever a vital link between the Asiatic mainland and the Japanese home islands. Davis plays a nurse. Digitally remastered in high definition and widescreen.

"It Came from Beneath the Sea"
The science-fiction thriller pits men and a woman against a giant octopus that rises from the depths after an H-bomb explosion and goes after everything in sight including the Golden Gate bridge. Special effects by Ray Harryhausen will make you wonder why anyone was afraid of sharks, since this was made years before "Jaws." It's pretty exciting remastered and in widescreen, even if it is in black and white.

"Walk, Don't Run"
Even minor Cary Grant is a lot better than most major comedies by today's Hollywood multi-million-dollar so-called comics. He plays a British businessman (Grant was born in England, don't forget) in Japan on business who can't find a hotel room because the Olympic Games are in town. He talks beautiful Samantha Eggar into letting him share her apartment, then invites an American member of the Olympic team (Jim Hutton) to join them, and plays matchmaker for the two young people. Filmed in Japan, remastered in high definition, and in both widscreen and full screen.

I bet you didn't know, but besides reviewing movies, I sing opera. Click here to see and hear me rehearsing the Barcarolle from "Tales of Hoffman."

Maybe you would like to visit my master's web site with highlights of his huge collection of old movie magazines, Bijou Follies
Two more web sites I recommend are: Errol Flynn and Jeffrey Hunter