KING AND COUNTRY

Brilliant new 4K restoration of anti-war film King and Country (1964) by Joseph Losey

This mostly unknown British film by acclaimed American director, Joseph Losey, is another collaboration with renowned British thespian Dirk Bogarde. Their partnership bore great riches together and this is there little film but the one that speaks the loudest in terms of relevancy to today's modern age. 

The film follows the famous anti-war narrative familiar in literature from Journey's End and Catch-22, the futility of war is apparent for all to see, and in the depiction of Private Hamp (Tom Courtenay), a deserter from the front-lines during the Great War, you have another anti-hero. 

Dirk Bogarde portrays Captain Hargreaves, a lawyer, sent to defend Hamp as he faces court-martial for desertion with the threat of execution by firing squad. Hamp just wants to go home as many wanted to do no doubt, and yet the stigmatism of cowardice is thrown around by those in command, those who are not on the front-line.

Hamp has his reasons, he volunteered on a dare, he is the only survivor of his group remaining and his wife back home has been unfaithful in his absence; and yet the political machine chooses to use Hamp as an example before another futile offensive manoeuvre in the quagmire of the first world war somewhere in France. 

The film is set for the most part in real-time, and shares a lot of cinematic DNA with Kubrick's Paths of Glory where Kirk Douglas defended deserters and the squalor and downtrodden mess of the trenches is clear to see as rain constantly falls on young men fighting for their lives and freedom in or near No Man's Land.

The new restoration gives the film a real shine and sheen to these sad sights and Bogarde plays Hargreaves in a fine line between right and just and true and sceptic. When a superior officer questions the defence of mental health, stating, 'Is he a lunatic?' it puts a black mark on all proceedings and how nearly a hundred years later, male mental health only came to fruition when men were battened down in their households during a global pandemic with little or not much to do.

'I just wanted to get away from the guns sir'

Courtenay is quite astounding in the role of Hamp (he won Best Actor in Venice that year) and this was in the purple patch of his run of performances in the Angry Young Man era from The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner and Billy Liar to this performance. His heartfelt and honest portrayal reminded this viewer of Ed Norton's debut in Primal Fear when his role depicted a fugue like state in a post-traumatic stress event.

Bogarde holds court himself as the true star of proceedings akin to a George Clooney in those days as he cross-examines witnesses such as Leo McKern as the doctor who does not notice the effects of shell shock upon Hamp. Bogarde when facing a jury who have already made their decision in terms of Hamp's verdict shows that justice can be just as ineffective as war on occasion.

Timely and timeless, this film serves as a constant reminder that the real cost of war is the loss of innocence.

Special features include an interview with Tom Courtenay about the film; an archive interview with Dirk Bogarde from 1964 and Behind the Scenes stills

King and Country is released by Studiocanal UK on Blu-ray/DVD on 6th November

Rio Grande: Blu-ray review

Eureka Entertainment release RIO GRANDE, the final instalment of the Cavalry Trilogy starring John Wayne directed by John Ford

The last entry of the oft-forgotten 'Cavalry Trilogy' that featured John Wayne and was directed by John Ford; Rio Grande (1950) followed the hits Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore A Yellow Ribbon (1949) and is thought of as the most underrated collaboration between the illustrious pair.

The film marks the end of that trilogy, but also a new beginning to their partnership and the first film that Wayne would appear opposite Maureen O'Hara (The Quiet Man coming in 1952).

Wayne is Lt. Col. Kirby Yorke, attached to the Texas frontier in 1879 to protect settlers from attacks by Apaches. When Yorke's son – a West Point flunkee turned Army private – is assigned to his father's regiment, tensions flare upon the arrival of Yorke's estranged wife Kathleen (O'Hara), who wants their teenaged son out of Yorke's unit. After Apaches attack, the stakes of Yorke's mission escalate, and he must journey to Mexico where the Apaches are hiding out. With his son and two old recruits (Ford/Wayne regulars Ben Johnson and Harry Carey Jr.) as accompaniment, Yorke faces his toughest battle.

This back against the wall mentality comes out through Wayne's impressive lead performance, holding it all together with a strong ensemble around him. This role comes in the midst of a great purple patch of Wayne's iconic roles - in 1948 he played Tom Dunson in Howard Hawks' Red River, the role that prompted Ford to say, 'Damn, I did not know the sonofabitch could act' and in 1956 Wayne would play his most famous role of Ethan Edwards in The Searchers. Wayne was the biggest star in Hollywood stepping between war and western films regularly with great success.

When watching Rio Grande, it is another example of Ford's mastery of scene setting and action sequences - the vistas of Monument Valley provide Ford a virtual playground to enjoy with Wayne his main subject. The character of Kirby having to walk the fine line between a soldier of duty and that new found streak of parenthood that has been thrust upon him in the most stressful of situations.

Highly enjoyable and recommended for all western film aficionados, this is a beautiful 4K restoration on Blu-ray. 

The features include a video essay by Tag Gallagher, archival documentary featuring Maureen O'Hara with specific audio commentary also and a feature-length audio commentary by Stephen Prince.

Rio Grande is out now from Eureka as part of their Masters of Cinema series.

My thanks to them for the review opportunity.

Batman Ninja - DVD Review

Out on DVD from Monday 14th May, a new story featuring Gotham City's greatest hero, Batman Ninja

Incorporating the influence of Anime animation, Batman in the attempts to ward off an evil experiment, gets transported to feudal Japan where the Joker and the rest of the criminal masterminds have taken over various states of Japan as their feudal lords in the hope to make Japan one criminal world with Penguin, Poison Ivy, Two-Face all joining the party.

Batman is not entirely on his own, he has Catwoman as his ally - the plan to bring structure and normality to Japan before getting themselves and everyone back to the modern day world.

Whilst lusciously drawn in such detail, the film is also a satirical comment on the influence of western civilisation on eastern worlds with the Joker ploughing the land for coal bringing forward the industrial revolution by a few hundred years.  Ironically though the influence goes full circle with anime becoming an avenue for new storylines and narratives for the Caped Crusader.

Featuring good voice work led by Roger Craig Smith as Bruce Wayne and Tony Hale as The Joker, the film is a stunning piece of animation full of set pieces aplenty and colourful aplomb.

This new adventure away from Gotham is ripe for fans old and new; providing a good gateway for American comic book fans to find a route to enjoy the rich tradition of Anime movies.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is pleased to make available a brand new featurette for the incredible upcoming animation, BATMAN NINJA, out now on Digital and available on Blu-ray™ Steelbook, Blu-ray™ and DVD May 14.

Stronger

Released on Digital Download from 2nd April and available on DVD and Blu-ray from 9th April, the David Gordon Green directed Stronger starring Jake Gyllenhaal is released from Lionsgate.

Based on the true story of Jeff Bauman, a survivor of the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013, Gyllenhaal plays Bauman from the day prior to the attack to the brutal aftermath of the attack which left him with a double amputation of his legs above the knee; the story follows his journey to learn to walk again and the rekindling of a loving relationship with his on and off again girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany).

Bauman has to overcome many physical as well as emotional obstacles to regain the strength in his upper body to enable him to utilise the prosthetic legs available to him on his insurance plan.

Gordon Green has shot many films of independent spirit and about the outsider, and this kinship to the outsider holds him in good stead as we follow Bauman closely - not holding back on the difficulties Jeff has in his two bedroom flat he shares with his Mum, Patty (Miranda Richardson) from going to the toilet to the stairs up to the flat.

The film is shot through a gritty grey lense with little colour shown, Boston only coming to life during major sporting events and when there are big gatherings of people in a sense of community.  When Jeff is away from these large groups and alone with family or Erin, it is a grey lonely world he occupies.

Gyllenhaal does really well with the role bringing steel to the role with his matinee face being put to the test by extreme close-ups deployed by Green, and he has the expressive range to bring gravitas to the moments such as his breakdown in the elevator during a hockey game.

There are some trite moments that scream of patriotism and there is a bigger story to be told about the whole Boston Strong scenario that grew out of the rubble of the bombings, the symbol of the Red Sox winning the World Series that same year; yet it is the quieter stiller moments of this film that will stay with you such as the clash between Erin and Jeff in their car when she shares some good news.

Gyllenhaal seemed to be a front runner for an Oscar nomination but sadly he got lost, partly due to the weight of the film not being strong enough to support his performance. This, however, should not detract from a very workmanlike film that will keep you entertained nonetheless.

Stronger is released on 2nd April on Digital Download from Lionsgate

La Strada

Federico Fellini's "La Strada" (1954) tells a fable that is simple by his later standards, but contains many of the obsessive visual trademarks that he would return to again and again: the circus, and parades, and a figure suspended between earth and sky, and one woman who is a waif and another who is a carnal monster, and of course the seashore. Like a painter with a few favorite themes, Fellini would rework these images until the end of his life.

The movie is the bridge between the postwar Italian neorealism which shaped Fellini, and the fanciful  extravaganzas which followed. It is fashionable to call it his best work - to see the rest of his career as a long slide into over-elaboration.  However, the film won Best Foreign Language Academy Award in 1957.

In almost all of Fellini's films, you will find the figure of a man caught between earth and sky. You will find journeys, processions, parades, clowns, freaks, and the shabby melancholy of an empty field at dawn, after the circus has left. (Fellini's very last film seen in this country, 1987's "Intervista," ends with such an image.)

And you will hear it all tied together with the music of Nino Rota, who, starting with "I Vitelloni" in 1953, faithfully composed for Fellini some of the most distinctive film scores ever written, merging circus music and pop songs with the sadly lyrical sounds of accordions and saxophones and lonely trumpets.

The cast is exemplary from Anthony Quinn's loveable brute to Giuletta Masina's innocent ingenue and shot with some beautiful cinematography which transfers beautifully on this 2K restoration and is a perfect stepping stone to see where Fellini was years before his masterpiece La Dolce Vita just three years later.

The DVD from StudioCanal is released for £17.99 and £22.99 on Blu-ray and would be a welcome addition to any World Cinema catalogue.

Live By Night

Released to much critical derision the fourth film directed by Ben Affleck, Live By Night is adapted for the screen by the leading actor from a novel by Dennis Lehane, tells a fictional story of booze running during prohibition era America which starts in Boston (Affleck's home town) and ends in Tampa, Florida following Joe Coughlin who works for an Irish firm but after falling for the boss' girl he ends up in prison before turning to the Italian mafia which leads him to the South.

Following the lambasting aimed at Ben Affleck for taking on the role of Batman in the much reviled Dawn of Justice directed by Zach Snyder, there has been a slow step of backlash at Affleck who had become a darling after winning an Oscar for Argo.

Affleck does not do many favours with this adaptation, which could have done with perhaps a co-writer to help shape the script better and not have it become the Affleck show has he ticks off ladies man, charmer, good in a fight, good with a gun; he ends up as the gentleman who has to raise his son and will not kill someone who needs to be killed for his job because he all of a sudden grows a moral fibre.  Either Affleck had to give his character a little bit of nastiness or conflict instead of being able to leave the gang at film's end or he should have asked another actor to play the leading role.

It is a shame because the film is a victory as a production itself with gorgeous photography by Robert Richardson, vintage costumes and note perfect set design. This is married with some fine supporting work by Chris Messina as Dago and Elle Fanning who instills some real layers in her born again Christian envangelist Loretta Figgis becoming the performer her innocent self wanted to be.

Based on Dennis Lehane's novel

Running at close to two hours there is a sharper more efficient film somewhere here if Affleck had not been given the world to act, write, produce and direct, much like Orson Welles, Affleck has been given the world's biggest train set to play with but has failed to build up a significant head of steam on this occasion.

You cannot fault his ambition when movie making sometimes falls prey to remakes, rehashes and retreads in this age of instant gratification. Affleck aimed to make a film about failed ambition and belonging, following the box office failure of the film he finds himself ironically producing his own failure, which is a shame.

Live By Night is released on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Bros. on Monday 22nd May

ANOMALISA

This sterling work of stop-motion animation (a la Fantastic Mr. Fox) comes from the creative genius of Charlie Kaufman, who wrote the script and co-directs with Duke Johnson.

From the mind that brought surreal offerings as Being John Malkovich and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ... Anomalisa is a film about a male trying to find an understanding of his place in the world. Kaufman is a romantic writer, who wants the characters he starts with to end the film happy; this does not necessarily mean staying with the same partner they started the film with.

Michael (voiced by David Thewlis) is attending a conference in Cincinnati, Ohio where he is giving a speech on customer service. From the flight to the taxi ride to the hotel ride to the ex he calls, every person be it male or female is voiced by the same person, in this case Tom Noonan, a voice of soft banality and lacking emotion. This tells us Michael is suffering with disillusionment in his life, he wants to be alive and after he has a shower, he hears a new different voice.

The voice he hears is Lisa (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a young telesales operator attending the conference who has read Paul's book and is a fan. The sweetness of her voice is music to Michael's ears and he wants to hear everything about Lisa, which she finds surprising as she considers herself fat and ugly in comparison to her flirtatious friend Emily, who men Lisa says prefer generally.

This anamoly of their courting happening out of the blue coupled with her name gives the film its name. Perhaps Kaufman is critiquing a fear in society about how settling for your life can lead to mundanity and everything sounding the same, Lisa is a new sensation bringing a sense of solace to his ears and eyes.

Michael and Lisa share a night cap in his room and this leads to a sexual coupling between the two, which is done with a bit more sincerity than the marionette puppets in Team America. However, Michael wakes up from a mad dream where everyone has the same voice and they all love him. He wants to convince Lisa to runaway with him and he will leave his wife back in Los Angeles. 

Following a breakdown at his convention speech, Michael travels home to his mundane household. Again everyone has the same face and voice, even his young child Henry has the voice and his demands for a present shows how ungrateful a child he is and in effect symptomatic of the life Michael endures.

The animation couples well with Kaufman's witty script with good observational dialogue such as the taxi driver describing the Cincinnati Zoo, 'You should visit it. It's zoo sized'. The voice cast do excellent work across the board, and this is another worthy film into Kauffman's pantheon full of intellect undoubtedly and now with this film, one of unique charm.

This is a beautiful little anomaly of a film, insightful of the human condition stating how we deal with loneliness and project our insecurities towards the world. Both haunting and beguiling, Anomalisa is a cinematic treat that will stay with you long after you leave its dream like quality

Anomalisa is released from Curzon World cinema in DVD and Blu-ray from Monday 11th July. The discs feature a Q&A with Kaufman and Johnson, a total of 13 featurettes, photo gallery and theatrical trailer

Youth

Paolo Sorrentino is one of the most enigmatic filmmakers in Europe yet alone Italy incorporating a mixture of tales of an ageing man in Central Europe embraced by the performances of Toni Servillo in The Consequences of Love and The Great Beauty. 

Sorrentino has attempted English language film before with the Sean Penn vehicle This Must be the Place, a film using the oeuvre of David Byrne's Talking Heads back catalogue as a springboard. He returned for the aforementioned Great Beauty before this latest venture, Youth starring Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel.



They both play 80 year old veterans of entertainment who meet for their annual two week holiday at an elite spa in Switzerland. Caine plays a composer who could have been as great as Stravinsky yet is famous for a more popular composition he wrote for his singer wife from whom he is now estranged. Keitel is a film director who with two co-writers and an acting duo is attempting to create one last masterpiece to make with his ageing muse, played by a fleeting and glowing Jane Fonda.





Whilst we might be witnessing the twilight of these two men, they are surrounded by youth in terms of the young people who serve them or give them massages, Caine's daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz) who is going through a separation from her husband who has fallen for a younger woman. 

Paul Dano, an exciting young American actor portrays a young accomplished actor who is most famous for playing a robot in a science fiction franchise picture; he would prefer to take risks with roles and his career, which leads to him taking on a future role as a famous world leader to show his range and craft, which shows an over reach on his behalf.
This pervading sense of youth and innocence is in stark contrast to the ageing men and the manifestation of end of existing exhibited by the inclusion of a man resembling Diego Maradona. While Caine and Keitel's character can continue to exist in the popular culture through composing or directing which has no age restrictions only a restriction by an individual's ambition, whereas Maradona has a limited shelf life due to physical demands. Even the newly crowned Miss Universe is restricted, she may want to get into acting as she states but she unfortunately will only ever be Miss Universe.



Keitel is keen to point out that all you have are memories and the craving for creativity and embracing your strengths, not yo be pigeon holed by one piece of work. 



Sorrentino has moulded a film that is about celebrity - a subject that fascinates him - ageing, loss and friendship. Caine and Keitel are two titans of screen acting and cleverly have never suffered by such pigeon holing in their CV, and their depiction of friendship is portrayed effectively with genuine affection and emotion.

A wonderfully odd and eccentric film with laugh out loud moments it can be included in the great pantheon of hotel movies (Lost in Translation remains the top), a hotel allowing fleeting friendships and moments. The film is stylistically shot with a great sense of space and environment, at times you sense the people could even be there against their will in a dystopic world, yet Sorrentino has a sure hand over proceedings helped by an ensemble cast of a refined quality and an eclectic soundtrack to boot.

Youth is available on Digital download from 23rd May and on DVD and Blu-ray from 30th May from Studiocanal.

Ran - Akira Kurosawa - 30th Anniversary Re-release

Celebrating its 30th anniversary of release, Akira Kurosawa's final cinematic masterpiece RAN is being re-released on the big screen and enjoying a DVD and Blu-ray release in a new 4K restoration.

Based on William Shakespeare's King Lear, Ran is considered one of the greatest war films of all time. Fittingly the 4K release coincides with the 400th anniversary celebrations of William Shakespeare.

In the final years of Kurosawa's beautiful creative mind, he saw fit to create a colourful landscape within the Japanese hills as a small family dispute with far reaching scope takes over the country.

Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai – Yojimbo, Kagemusha) an ageing warlord who, after spending his life consolidating his empire, decides to abdicate and divide his kingdom amongst his three sons, Taro (Akira Terao - Letter from the Mountain, Dreams), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu – The Man in White, Red Shadow: Akakage) and Saburo (Daisuke Ryû - Tono monogatari, Gojo reisenki: Gojoe). When Hidetora’s youngest son Saburo voices concerns about the wisdom of his father’s plan, claiming that treachery within the family will be inevitable, Hidetora mistakes these comments for a threat and banishes him. This allows Taro and Jiro to take the reigns of power unopposed, leading to a brutal and bloody struggle to win absolute power.

The richness of the colour palette is on display from the first meeting of Hidetora as he decrees over his sons his wish to pass on his kingdom to Taro - while the warlord oversees all in his glorious white robe his three sons sit in the primary colours of blue, yellow and red. Saburo sits in red which is the
colour of red and anger, and his banishment prompts the kind of bloody that 16th century civil war is
renowned for.

Kurosawa was always known for becoming the first Eastern director to have his work transported and transplanted to the West and most especially the American Hollywood system in particular the western genre where his work was impressed upon John Ford and Howard Hawks. Famously, his film The Seven Samurai became The Magnificent Seven in 1960.

Yet perhaps the influence of Western Hollywood cinema came back to Kurosawa, in particular the huge epic sweep of films like David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia and Richard Attenborough's Gandhi.

Majestic in its scope and a finale to a tremendously creative career which proved that film language can be universal in garnering an international appreciation of his work, Ran stands a fitting monument to Akira Kurosawa's career.

Studiocanal/Independent Cinema Office (ICO) re-issue the film on a 4K restoration in UK cinemas on April 1st, with a Blu-ray/DVD release on May 2nd with a wealth of bonus features available
www.studiocanal.co.uk

Manakamana

Out on DVD and VOD from 9th February 2015 from Dogwoof, Manakamana is a stunningly original cinematic experience.  The film follows pilgrims as they make a journey to an ancient Nepalese temple by way of cable car to worship.

The journey up and down takes a total of 11 minutes, therefore the directors Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez, take the approach of positioning a stationary 16mm camera in front of the varying commuters.

 

From an ageing grandfather and his grandson, to a young married couple, to a trio of elderly women who tellingly comment on how much things have changed, 'It used to take me three days to get up here'; to a herd of goats.  The first half of the film follows people going up, and the second half follows travellers going down with an eventual selection of passengers to book end the film.

Some critics have commented on the cyclical nature of the cable car being documented in this film, whereas I would prefer the more appropriate gesture of the film being literally about how life can be up and down, and how easy it is to forget to enjoy the ride.

Reminiscent of artistic installations but another step forward in the work offered by James Bening (13 Lakes/ RR) this film is nevertheless just as meditative in forcing the audience to accept the period of quiet and contemplation in a dark space.

At the start of every 11 minute segment, there is a moment of dark when the cable car is being loaded up with next passengers and as it pushes out into the light we are blinded by the light and then have to adjust to the new characters presented towards us; these changes initiate a response in the audience to participate in the journey.  Sometimes though the journey is reward in itself.

This is an intelligent movie that coupled with stunning landscape cinematography must be seen to be believed.

Manakamana is out on DVD and VOD from Dogwoof from Monday 9th February

The Missing

The BBC drama The Missing starring James Nesbitt and Frances O'Connor garners a DVD release on 26th December from RLJ Entertainment.

The show gained a huge following when it aired through October to December 2014 on BBC One, gripping the nation with its tale about the abduction of a young British boy when in France from his parents during an idyllic vacation.

Written by brothers, Harry and Jack Williams and directed by Tom Shankland, the series successfully told the dual narrative as we had two timelines of the initial abduction in 2006 along with the re-opening of the case in the present day. The 2006 storyline shows the beginning of the grip the abduction of Oliver Hughes will have on his father Tom (played superbly by Nesbitt) and the eventual breakdown of the marriage to Emily, with O'Connor playing the desperation and despair to perfection.

While the series is ultimately something to remember for its acting with uniformly brilliant performances across the board, the writing at times does let the show down and the eventual denouement is one of lacklustre and frustration.

This is indicative of series in general, it draws an audience in but then does not know how to credibly render and end the series by giving a narrative a convincing finale without becoming sentimental or hokum.  The sort of story in real life does not usually have a happy ending, but for the characters you wish only a sense of closure and not the sight of Nesbitt marauding through Eastern Europe in constant anguish in attempt to chase away his demons.

This is not to dispel from the overall quality of the production, the differing tones of filming between the light and breezy 2006 and the colder, more sombre present day cinematography as if the past is but a dream for Emily and Tony.

The acting is of a truly superior standard especially from a career-best Nesbitt who never resorts to histrionics in his performance but special praise is reserved for Tcheky Karyo as Julien Baptiste, the French detective of the original case who goes through the biggest metamorphosis physically in the series from a close to retiring detective to a man clearly shaken by all that has happened in the case, now with a limp and greyer in his hair colour the years have not been kind to him.  When Karyo speaks, he speaks wisdom and you hang on every word.

The Missing is one of those rare drama series that had you gripped from the start and but for the less than pleasing ending (when in real life cases there are few happy endings), this is a series that deserves awards come the awards season.

The Missing is out now on DVD from RLJ Entertainment

Grand Central

 

GRAND CENTRAL stars two of France’s most exciting and talented actors - Léa Seydoux, winner of the Palme d’Or in 2013 for her stunning performance in Blue Is The Warmest Colour, and Tahar Rahim who received many accolades for his gripping performance in A Prophet including two César Awards and Best Actor from the European Film Awards. 

Gary (Tahar Rahim) is young, agile and a quick learner.  He's one of those guys who's never been promised anything.  After a succession of odd jobs, he’s taken on at a nuclear power plant.  There, amongst the reactors and their high doses of radioactivity, he finally finds what he's been looking for: money, a team, a family.  But the team also includes Karole (Léa Seydoux), the wife of his colleague, Toni (Denis Menochet), with whom he falls in love.

While the film may follow the familiar narrative arc of forbidden love and thou shall not covet thy neighbours wife, the film is elevated beyond the average by having two starlets such as Rahim and Seydoux, who are head and shoulders above the rest of French actors currently.  Menochet does well with the idiot husband role, Menochet starred in the brilliant French drama The Returned, which has provided a springboard to many a French actor in recent years.

At times beautifully shot when in the countryside, and the young director Rebecca Zlotowski (Belle epine) has an observant eye to relationships and garners electrifying performances from the actors involved, evoking passion and a certain enigmatic quality not to be missed.

The film is released on Home Entertainment DVD and Download on Monday 10th November by StudioCanal. 

www.studiocanal.co.uk

Computer Chess

 

Andrew Bujalski the supposed figure head of the New York film-making movement termed as Mumblecore and the director most likely to break out from that group into traditional narrative storytelling cinema, returns with his newest film, Computer Chess, a love letter to chess playing but more so a love letter to the computer programmers who achieved the systems and programs that allowed computers to beat master chess players by programming moves into the computer prompting the next move.

Bujalski takes an unusual approach of the process.  The film is set in the mid 1980s at the cusp of the boom of Silicon Valley and the start of home video gaming with Nintendos and Sega's around the corner for our recreational use.  If you wanted to play video games you had to go to specially built arcades to play Pac-Man or Donkey Kong.

Shot with PortaPak cameras of the era on analogue video and in black and white, this gives the whole film a sort of archival look as if you are watching a fly on the wall documentary or footage before it is processed into colour in post-production.

Bujalski accomplishes another mean feat by garnering some brilliant performances from his unprofessional cast, many have been cast either because they look like computer analysts or the fact that they can awkwardly when in a larger group; the naturalistic performances make you feel at times like this is a documentary.

Computer Chess has its own flow and speed which some viewers may find a bit unnerving and surreal, this reviewer found the film to have its own charm that was based around the affection portrayed due to the limitations of the equipment and the nostalgic tone with the melancholic feel of the black and white photography.

In this current day of age of society overcome by technological advances, where computers and tablets are becoming increasingly smaller and smaller, it is nice to harken back to a time when computers where as big as a dining room table.

Bujalski even affords his cast a chance to laugh about the future of computer programming such as when one says, 'You know what the future of computers is...dating' 'What computers are going to date each other?'  That sort of dry humour and wit runs throughout the film that allows you to draw your own affection to these oddball cast of characters, who may seem a bit silly on their own, but they are special individuals nonetheless.

Released as a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition as part of Eureka! Entertainment's award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series, Computer Chess will be available on home video from 20 January 2014.

http://www.eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/
Watch the trailer here

The Tunnel - DVD review

From the makers of Broadchurch, The Tunnel is a dual nation television production between French television and Sky TV, which was originally aired in this country on Sky Atlantic.  It is released on Blu-ray and DVD by Acorn Media.

The ten part series tells the story of a heinous murder committed in the Eurotunnel where two bodies are left astride the dividing line of the French and British sides.  The top half of the body is a French Member of Parliament and the legs belong to an English prostitute.  The criminal states, that there is no equality in the law when it comes to murder and both people have been lost even though one is not worried about.

The first detective we see is Elise Wassermann (Clemence Posey) closely followed by Karl Roebuck (Stephen Dillane).  They are a partnership due to the nationalities of the murder victims and they are distinct opposites with their juxtaposition apparent from the off; British versus French, male versus female, skeptic versus serious and old versus young.  There first interaction marks out the difficulty of their partnership at first, Elise wants the body as the head is on French territory, Karl happy to not bother with the case says, 'Don't worry Joan, not wanting to start a war over this.' 'My name is not Joan.' The humour of the line is lost in translation, a familiar problem between British people and mainland Europeans.

In the tradition of recent European dramas especially those from Scandanavia (Borgen, The Bridge), this series is similar in terms of slow burn but not afraid to show its hand early in proceedings such as video footage of the bodies being found and then being broadcast online - is the killer making a statement about hidden truths or stating everything should be in the open, where secrets carry so much weight.

The series draws its intensity from the drawn out dramatic sub-plots involving ministers, policeman and sinister subjects.  There is a clear design to hide details from the audience such as when a Frenchman falls in front of an oncoming train, the suspected persuers are out of focus (a technique seen in that other Gallic hit series The Returned) whilst the fear is clearly etched on his weary face.

The series is shot in this cold greyness with hues of blue deriding tension but also indicative of a continent under pressure with its moral objectivity being put into question by a mysterious invisible enemy. Not to be outdone, the two lead detectives also have personal demons in their collective closets dans la maison; Elise is a timid soul devoid of social skills and intimacy issues, whilst Roebuck is suffering from the scars of a vasectomy and the tension between him and his eldest son. Nothing is simple for a television character especially when a member of the police force.

The Tunnel is tremendously gripping and suspenseful and helped by some excellent acting from the leads especially Dillane as the experienced old hand who runs the gamut of emotions.

This stunning 10-part drama stars an impressive support cast including Keeley Hawes (Upstairs Downstairs) and Joseph Mawle (Game of Thrones) and comes to Blu-ray and DVD with some fantastic special features on 13 January 2014 from Acorn Media.