DVD Digest for March 4, 2008

Paul Clark — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:00:00 GMT

After last week's release of the mammoth Criterion four-disc set of The Last Emperor, it was sort of inevitable that this week would be something of a letdown. Still, this week has a number of worthy releases it can call its own.

DVD of the Week: One of the most thought-provoking documentaries of 2007, Amir Bar-Lev's My Kid Could Paint That (Sony) tells the story of little Marla Olmstead, a four-year-old girl whose paintings won her acclaim as a modern-art prodigy until a segment on 60 Minutes II cast doubt on her authorship of the works. What began as a human-interest story about a little girl who enjoyed painting and turned out to be surprisingly good at it becomes a hornet's nest of issues — everything from how much of the value of art comes from the story behind it to the concept of modern art itself. Most relevantly, Bar-Lev takes the role of the media in building people up only to tear them down again, even addressing his own complicity in this process. Most impressively, the film does all this — and more besides — all in the course of eighty-three minutes. Also included on the DVD are an audio commentary with the director as well as several documentaries, one about the film, and the other featuring an interview with New York Times art critic Michael Kimmelman. A must-see for anyone interested in art or documentary filmmaking.

Other new releases coming to DVD this week include: Sean Penn's Oscar-snubbed Into the Wild (Paramount); Zack Helm's Roald Dahl ripoff homage Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (Fox); Susanne Bier's melodrama Things We Lost in the Fire (Dreamworks), which boasts a fine Benicio Del Toro lead performance; and of course Steven Seagal's latest direct-to-DVD release, Pistol Whipped (Sony). Keep your eyes peeled to Vern's site for his no doubt imminent review. Also, for anime fans, this week brings the R1 release of the Japanese animated series Blood+ Part 1 (Sony), comprising the first twenty-five episodes of the series, as well as Blood+ Volume 1 (Sony), which only includes the first five episodes.

On the classics front, the most notable release is TCM Archives: Forbidden Hollywood Volume 2, a three-disc set that includes five pre-Code classics — The Divorcee (1929), A Free Soul (1931), Three on a Match (1932), Female (1933), and Night Nurse (1931) — accompanied by a new TCM documentary about pre-Code Hollywood. This week also sees the release of new editions of 101 Dalmatians (Disney), 12 Angry Men (MGM), and Mrs. Doubtfire (Fox), as well as Magnum P.I. Season 8 (Universal), and Blu-Ray-only releases of Ice Age (Fox) and 2002's The Rookie (Disney).

Finally, back by popular demand is this week's Huddleston Corner, in which we spotlight films being released in the soon-to-be-defunct HD-DVD format. This week's new HD releases:
Into the Wild (Paramount)
No Reservations (Warner)
Things We Lost in the Fire (Dreamworks)

Condolences!

Will Gilliam’s Imaginarium Shut Down?

Scott Von Doviak — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:00:00 GMT

There are any number of tragic aspects to the sudden death of Heath Ledger, the very least of which is the effect his demise might have on films in production. But this is a film blog, after all, and it only took a couple of clicks at the IMDb to determine that at least one movie may be in jeopardy. No, it’s not The Dark Knight; as far as we can tell, Ledger’s much-anticipated turn as the Joker has been in the can for months. In a cruel twist of fate, it’s Terry Gilliam’s latest opus, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, which began shooting last month in London. Yes, the same Terry Gilliam who saw his production of The Man Who Killed Don Quixote grind to a halt when his star Jean Rochefort fell ill.

According to Variety, Imaginarium is not a sequel to Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, but rather “a characteristically convoluted tale of a travelling theater troupe led by the 1,000-year-old Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), whose magical mirror lets his audience escape into a universe of boundless imagination.” In the article, Gilliam acknowledges the troubled history of many of his productions, but insists “my problems have been no greater or less than anyone else's. I just talk too much, or there's always a documentary crew around.” One wonders if he’s changed his mind about that now. It’s not clear how large a role Ledger had in Imaginarium or how much of it had been shot; we do know that Tom Waits had been cast as the Devil, which sounds worth the price of admission in itself.

As noted earlier here on the Screengrab, Gilliam’s Quixote film may yet be revived. We’ll have to wait and see whether his latest production has been dealt a fatal blow.

The Screengrab : mr. magorium's wonder emporium

DVD Digest for March 4, 2008

Will Gilliam’s Imaginarium Shut Down?