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2009 | 2008

4 articles from 2009

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Kurosawa's 'Ran' Will Still Find Its Way to Blu-ray

24 November 2009 3:38 PM, PST | Rope of Silicon | See recent Rope Of Silicon news »

Those upset (myself included) that Criterion had to withdraw their planned Blu-ray edition of Ran due to a rights issue can cheer up as the holder of those rights was making the same plans. Lionsgate Home Entertainment in cooperation with StudioCanal are set to release Ran as well as 1955's The Ladykillers starring Alec Guinness and Peter Sellers and Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (Le Mepris) on Blu-ray on February 16, 2010.

Unfortunately there isn't any box art available yet, but below are the list of features for each:

Ran 1080P High Definition Widescreen format with Japanese, English, Spanish, French, German and Italian DTS Master Audio "A.K." - the acclaimed feature-length documentary on the making of the film "Akira Kurosawa: The Epic and the Intimate" - documentary on the director Portrait of Akira Kurosawa by Japanese cinema expert and interpreter Catherine Cado "The Samurai" - documentary on Samurai art "Art of the Samurai »

- Brad Brevet

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Topics/Questions/Exercises Of The Week—13 November 2009

13 November 2009 8:45 AM, PST | The Auteurs | See recent The Auteurs news »

On The Evolution Of CinemaScope: Or, of you're going to be a stickler about names of formats and such, "The 2.35:1 Or So Aspect Ratio."

Above: The Robe (Henry Koster, 1953).

Above: Bonjour Tristesse (Otto Preminger, 1958).

Above: Le Mepris (Contempt) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963).

When CinemaScope was introduced in 1953, the first film in the widescreen format was in the then au-courant sand-and-sandals quasi-Biblical-epic genre. The Robe still plays, in its silly way, as a study in gargantuan production value. And the gargantuan dimensions of the CinemaScope screen were seen as something of a novelty, a piece of showmanship rather than cinema per se, Zanuck's would-be blowback at television in an attempt to shore up the notion that movies were still going to be your best entertainment value.

What, though, had 'Scope to do with the art of cinema? And/or what director was going to be able to use 'Scope artistically? The answer came reasonably quickly, »

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Can Sexual Provocation Still Sell?

28 October 2009 6:15 AM, PDT | ifc.com | See recent IFC news »

Barring some epic year-end bombshell, Lars von Trier's "Antichrist" is sure to walk away with the designation of year's most provocative movie -- with its sadomasochistic sex, penis smashing and spontaneous clitorectomy, it rivals Nagisa Oshima's 1976 cinema scandal "In the Realm of the Senses" in its efforts to shock and offend.

It's a useful comparison. Over the years, international art cinema has often been inextricably tied to our most prurient desires. In the 1960s, foreign masterpieces were as much about championing auteurs as glimpsing a choice piece of European ass. Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" was marketed with blonde bombshell Anita Ekberg dancing around in Dionysian ecstasy, while Jean-Luc Godard's "Contempt" and Luis Bunuel's "Belle De Jour" were literally sold off the naked backsides of Bridget Bardot and Catherine Deneueve. But do such depictions of outré sex still sell challenging foreign cinema today?

As recently »

- Anthony Kaufman

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Criterion to bring Pierrot le Fou to Blu this September

24 June 2009 3:37 PM, PDT | Twitch | See recent Twitch news »

That’s right, you can soon set up those ebay auctions for your less than six month old copy of Criterion Collection’s Pierrot le Fou to make way for its high def counterpart. On September 22nd, the acclaimed company will release the sure to be pristine copy of Godard’s classic Pierrot le Fou on Blu-ray. While the original press release for their first wave of Blu discs mentioned the Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt as their first foray into high definition, I can’t really complain much with this news. As far I know, this will be the first film from the famed French director to hit the format.

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- Aaron Fowler

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2009 | 2008

4 articles from 2009

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