Blu-rays of the Week

The biggest superstar in the opera world, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko combines intense musicality with the sheer force of her personality to dazzle audiences in any number of dramatic and comedic roles, and this set brings together a trio of her flavorful performances in productions from Austria's long-running summer Salzburg Festival, all of which show off her range.

 

There's her sexy Violetta (in that oh so stunning dress) in 2005's La Traviata, her charming Susanna in 2006's The Marriage of Figaro and her sympathetic Mimi in 2012's La Boheme. The hi-def transfers and surround-sound audio are top-notch on all three releases. 

 

Astral City: A Spiritual Journey 

Brazilian medium Chico Xavier's 1944 novel Nasso Lar became this 2010 film, about a doctor who finds himself in a 'spiritual city" after his death, that was among Brazil's most expensive and popular.

 

Director Wagner de Assis visualizes the afterworld with lushness and pomposity, befitting the new age sensibilities of the book, while Philip Glass's retread score pounds away at your brain mercilessly. The visual beauty is the Blu-ray's main attraction; lone extra is a making-of featurette. 

 

 

 

 

Eric Clapton—Planes, Trains and Eric 

Filmed during his recent Mid and Far East tour, Eric Clapton plays his patented blend of blues-rock that's been his musical bread and butter since the 60s: just a few examples of his artistry are "Tell the Truth," "Key to the Highway," "Cocaine" and "Hoochie Coochie Man" (although I wish he'd put that sleep-inducing acoustic "Layla" to bed).

 

Most interesting, though, are interviews with Eric and his band members, who ruminate on his decision to retire from performing to spend more time with his family: he sounds  indecisive, the others are crushed; we'll see if he goes through with his promise. Hi-def visuals and audio are terrific; extras are two songs and featurettes. 

 

Justified—Complete 5th Season 

Based on Elmore Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole," the fifth season of Justified finds its brooding protagonist, U.S. Marshall Raylan Givens, not divulging a secret that could threaten both his career and his life.

 

Timothy Oliphant gives Givens gravitas, while Michael Rappaport also scores as a ruthless crime family head. The hi-def image looks flawless; extras include commentaries, deleted scenes and a making-of featurette, with added Blu-ray exclusives comprising eight more featurettes.

 

 

 

 

The Picture of Dorian Gray 

Oscar Wilde's classic horror tale of a rake who stays young while his portrait ages instead became a very effective 1945 film adaptation by director Albert Lewin, who smartly keeps the horror psychological, like Wilde.

 

In the title role, Hurd Hatfield is perfectly smarmy, as is George Sanders as the man who eggs him on, while Harry Stradling's B&W photography (with color inserts during the painting sequences) is appropriately ominous. On Blu-ray the movie looks smashing; extras are a commentary with costar Angela Lansbury and two unrelated shorts.

 

Terry Gilliam's first solo extravanganza behind the camera—his co-directing debut with fellow Monty Pythoin alum Terry Jones, 1977's Jabberwocky, is best forgotten—is this delightfully demented 1981 fantasy about a young boy and group of dwarves who fall through holes in time, meeting historical characters like Napoleon (Ian Holm) and Agamemnon (Sean Connery).

 

Gilliam's imaginative movie is a wondrous prelude to even more extravangant fantasies Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Criterion's hi-def transfer is luminous; extras comprise a commentary, a new featurette, 1998 Gilliam interview and 1981 Shelley Duvall appearance on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show.

 

 

 

DVDs of the Week

The eighth volume in Warners' collection of Hollywood "pre-code" dramas (made before the motion picture industry began enforcing the Hays code in 1934) comprises a quartet of films probing the seamy side of sex, drugs, crime, etc.

 

The four films are Blonde Crazy, Strangers May Kiss, Hi Nellie and Dark Hazard, and they feature such luminaries as James Cagney, Ray Milland, Norma Shearer, Paul Muni and Edward G. Robinson; whatever they lack in polish they more than make up for in star wattage.

 

A Life in Dirty Movies 

Joe Sarno, who made several successful sexploitation flicks until hardcore porn went mainstream in the mid '70s with Deep Throat, is lovingly remembered in Wiktor Ericsson's documentary.

 

Sarno (who died in 2010 at age 89) comes across as earnest and sincere, and those who talk about him—mainly his wife and former lead actress Peggy Sarno, and a few film historians—discuss him with reverence and appreciation in equal measure. Extras include expanded interviews with adult-film stars Annie Sprinkle and Jamie Gillis and featurettes.

 

 

 

Marius & Fanny 

It's hard to equal Marcel Pagnol's 1930s trilogy of films—Marius, Fanny and Cesar—which tell engrossing, heartwarming stories of a hardheaded old man, his equally headstrong son and a beautiful young woman, but damned if Daniel Auteuil doesn't resurrect Pagnol's humanist spirit in his sturdy remakes of the first two films, which deal with Marius and Fanny's courtship, separation and reunion.

 

Auteuil himself makes a tough-as-nails Cesar, Raphael Personnaz is a handsome, dashing Marius and newcomer Victoire Belezy is an even better Fanny (beautiful, smart, irresistible) than Orane Demazis in the original. Too bad Auteuil didn't remake Cesar: maybe that's next? Extras are short featurettes.

 

A Summer's Tale 

Eric Rohmer's 1996 entry in his Tales of the Four Seasons series—the others were made in 1990 (Spring), 1992 (Autumn) and 1998 (Winter)—is less irritating than usual, thanks to a lightness of touch the director is usually at pains to create, but here it works effortlessly in a story of a young man juggling three women, unsure of whom to decide on.

 

Melvil Poupaud, Amanda Langlet, Gwenaëlle Simon and Aurelia Nolin are all beguiling, while Rohmer's dialogue is witty and realistic; the attractive landscapes of Brittany seal the deal. But why is there no Blu-ray, when all of Rohmer's films have been released in hi-def in Europe?

 

How unfortunate that Heidi Schreck's Grand Concourse closed after a relatively short run, for this modest but insightful character study deserved an extension. But that seems to be the way of things: when engrossing works like this or Adam Bock's A Small Fire a few seasons back deserve a second life—or even a longer first life—in New York, they rarely get their just due.

 

It's too bad, for Schreck's play, set in a Bronx soup kitchen and revolving around four characters—Shelley, a nun who runs the place; Emma, a confused 19-year-old and a new volunteer; Oscar, the kitchen's handsome handyman; and Frog, one of the elderly men who frequent the place—is a low-key, eloquent look at how disparate people come together, and explores whether they are selfless or selfish: most likely a combination of the two.

 

That's not to say that Grand Concourse is perfect—there's a finale that feels tacked on, especially coming after a penultimate scene which seemed to say all that needed to be said about these characters, and especially about the volatile relationship between Shelley and Emma—but there's an economical precision to Schreck's mostly believable dialogue. Kip Fagan resourcefully directs a magisterial quartet—Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Shelley), Bobby Moreno (Oscar), Lee Wilkof (Frog) and Ismenia Mendes (Emma), fast becoming an essential performer on New York stages, and who is well on her way to being one of our best actresses—that pours added compassion and humor into Schreck's already excellent script.

 

The plays of Sam Shepard, from Curse of the Starving Class to The Late Henry Moss, often deal with Oedipal issues of absent or abusive father figures. His latest, A Particle of Dread (Oedipus Variations),declares its intentions in its subtitle, but the rather trite updates to and borrowings (to say it as nicely as possible) from the enduring Greek myth suggest that Sheaprd doesn't have too much to say whatever continuing relevance Oedipus might have today.

 

Instead, a playwright who has made virtues of structural disjointedness and violent outbursts among his often crudely drawn characters here goes so far over the edge that it's difficult to take anything that occurs onstage seriously (or even comedically). Taking place in what looks like the remains of an asylum, A Particle of Dread—a typically resonant Shepard title—radiates out from the central murder to encompass dual characters like Oedipus/Otto, Jocasta/Jocelyn and Antigone/Annalee, along with a ludicrous pair of forensic detectives and two onstage musicians.

 

Sheaprd's dialogue is portentous and ponderous in equal measure, while Nancy Meckler's staging—except for a vividly realized hanging (for which Michael Chybowski's striking lighting design deserves a lion's share of the credit)—can't harness the essential shallowness in Shepard's concept, and so resorts to putting Frank Conway's evocative set awash in blood both literal and figurative. Of a game cast, only Stephen Rea makes an impression as Oedipus and Otto, but there are times when he seems as confused as the rest of us. 

 

Based on Truman Capote's classic short story, A Christmas Memory is a perfectly pleasant holiday musical set in Alabama in 1933 and 20 years later, where we meet adult Buddy, returning as a successful writer to the old—and now vacant, except for the loyal black servant, Anna—family home. Memory is a series of flashbacks to young Buddy's last Christmas with the trio of eccentric cousins who are raising him, notably Sook, with whom he bonds by making annual Christmas fruitcakes, one of which is even sent to the new President, FDR. The adult Buddy looks on, narrates and even enters scenes with his younger self.

 

The two-hour show is a sometimes sleepy but sweet concoction that will warm the hearts of those in the mood for sentimental holiday fare, agily directed by Charlotte Moore and containing several polished songs by composer Larry Grossman and lyricist Carol Hall. Ashley Robinson and Silvano Spagnuolo memorably play Buddy as a grown-up and a young kid, and Alice Ripley is heartbreaking as cousin Sook, even if she tends to sing to the back row as if she's in a large Broadway theater, compromising her naturally beautiful voice. She should tone it down as effectively as the rest of this small-scale but engaging production does.

 

Blu-rays of the Week

The lazy formula for an increasingly turgid series of action-adventure yarns has calcified: in addition to those graying and/or balding actors who have been around since the first two—Stallone, Lundgren, Statham, Jet Li, Schwarzenegger—is another batch of over the hill vets like Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas and even Kelsey Grammer: but for my money, the biggest loss is the lack of Charisma Carpenter. 

 

Even by the shallow standards of the first two movies, E3 comes across as explosions and gunplay in search of something remotely resembling a story. The Blu-ray image is fine; extras include a gag reel, featurettes and on-location documentary.

 

The Giver 

Lois Lowry's mega-popular young-adult sci-fi novel has become a movie that feels like an outline, as all of the original story's beats are hit, but without much resonance: you feel like a character in the movie after seeing it because it's erased from your memory immediately. Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep look uneasy as The Giver and The Chief Elder, respectively, while Brenton Thwaites is adequate as Jonas, the young man being trained as the new Giver. 

 

Philip Noyce cleverly shoots in B&W then gradually changes to color, but that's about the extent of the originality on display in the direction (or the script, for that matter). The hi-def transfer is first-rate; extras are featurettes, a deleted scene and a script reading by Lloyd Bridges (whom son Jeff wanted as The Giver way back when).

 

 

 

Jeff Beck—Live in Tokyo 

One of the all-time great blues-rock guitarists, Jeff Beck is still going strong at age 70, as demonstrated by his scintillating fretwork in a Tokyo concert from this past April: Beck's effortless style trumps all on well-chosen covers like Hendrix's "Little Wing," the Beatles' "A Day in the Life" and even Benjamin Britten's "Corpus Christi." 

 

Beck's equally superb band—comprising guitarist Nicholas Meier, bassist Rhonda Smith and drummer Jonathan Joseph—keeps up with him throughout, as the concert culminates in an unforgettable rendition of Beck's own "Why Give It Away." The image and sound are excellent; extras are interviews and song list commentary. 

 

The Paradise—Complete 2nd Season 

The second season of this stylish costume drama co-produced by PBS' Masterpiece and the BBC centering around a large department store in 1870's London was also its last, mainly because it didn't bring in as many viewers of the more successful (and entertaining) Mr. Selfridge. 

 

Perhaps if the creators had kept their adaptation of Emile Zola's novel The Ladies' Paradise in its original French setting, it would have worked better; at least the cast—Joanna Vanderham, Emun Elliott, Sarah Lancashire and Elaine Cassidy, for starters—is top-notch. On Blu-ray, the visuals look sensational.

 

 

 

 

What If 

Daniel Radcliffe has certainly proven there's life after Harry Potter with interesting performances in several hit-or-miss movies; unfortunately, this fey rom-com about friends who try to remain platonic despite their mutual attraction is less romantic, funny and charming than it could have been. 

 

For that, blame Zoe Kazan, an actress who in the right part can be forceful but an irresistible young woman is beyond her. If Megan Park—who plays Kazan's sexy sister—starred opposite Radcliffe, we might have had something. The hi-def transfer is good; extras are featurettes and deleted scenes.

 

DVDs of the Week

Catherine Breillat, who had a stroke 10 years ago at age 56, made this bitter, self-pitying drama about what happened afterward, when she was bilked by a charismatic “bad boy.” Played by the fearless Isabelle Huppert, director Maud Schoenberg (Breillat’s stand-in) won’t allow a stroke to slow her down, despite a limp and hand curled into a claw. 

 

The stroke itself is harrowing, and Breillat continues in that vein by showing a talented artist giving herself up to a man she knows will ruin her. Portuguese rapper Kool Shen is good as Breillat/Huppert/Schoenberg's nemesis, but Huppert is impossible to look away from, especially in that final unyielding close-up that peers into the depths of her soul.

 

 

 

Apaches 

Exploring bored young people on crime sprees like Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers and Bertrand Tavernier's far subtler L'Appat (Fresh Bait), Corsican director Thierry de Peretti, follows local kids who casually break into a home and, after swimming and partying, take off with valuable jewelry that leads them to a showdown with a local crime boss. 

 

Unfortunately, neither the performers nor the characters are differentiated enough, the situations are all too familiar, and director-writer de Peretti provides little insight. The lone extra is a short film from Italy, Margerita.

 

Austin City Limits Celebrates 40 Years 

One of TV's longest-running music series, Austin City Limits has for four decades presented the best contemporary pop, rock and country music, and this all-star celebration concert—hosted by Jeff Bridges and Sheryl Crow, both of whom also perform—features an array of artists for jam sessions, from Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson to Bonnie Raitt and Emmylou Harris. 

 

Highlights are guitarist Gary Clark Jr. doing a blistering "Bright Lights" and the Foo Fighters knocking Roky Erickson's "Two Headed Dog" out of the park. Extras include additional performances and two making-of featurettes. 

 

 

 

The Fan 

In the aftermath of John Lennon's murder, Edward Bianchi's 1981 thriller about a famous movie star stalked by a deranged fan while starring in a Broadway musical seemed a victim of bad timing and bad taste; three decades later, it's simply awful moviemaking, as veterans Lauren Bacall, James Garner and Maureen Stapleton come off particularly badly, and younger names like Michael Biehn (overdoing the murderous fan) don't make much of an impression. 

 

This is best as a time-capsule of Manhattan—particularly the theater district—during its pre-Disneyfication days.

 

Penance 

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa made his name with creepy but stylish tales of horrific behavior, and this five-part mini-series for Japanese television is no different: it follows four women many years after one of their friends was brutally murdered by a maniac when they were young children. 

 

Psychologically penetrating but painfully slow—its barebones plot fleshed out to 4-1/2 hours—Penance will appeal mainly to fans of Kurosawa's other work, although it is far better than his recent deadly feature Real. Extras comprise interviews with Kurosawa and his performers.

 

 

 

 

For their 2013 holiday concert in their hometown of Seattle, Ann and Nancy Wilson of the band Heart host an enjoyably eclectic selection of holiday tunes and Heart hits, many with well-chosen guest singers who help out on this festive occasion. 

 

There are Sammy Hagar, Richard Marx, Train lead singer Pat Monahan and Shawn Colvin, the latter of whom sings a lovely "Rocking" and duets with Ann on "Love Came Down at Christmas." Ann's vocals, of course, remain incomparable, whether on Joni Mitchell's opening "River," a stately, choir-driven "Stairway to Heaven" or Heart's own "Barracuda" and "Even It Up." (The latter only shows up on the CD, not the DVD, a surprising omission.)