Besides Criterion putting out Lone Star today (which I just posted about) they're doubling down on awesomeness because it's the middle of the month and they're announcing their new releases! These releases are for April, and they kick off with (like Lone Star) a vastly underrated 90s drama -- Nancy Savoca's 1991 sweet-as-heck love story Dogfight starring River Phoenix and Lili Taylor. And also like Lone Star this is a movie I haven't seen since it came out so this will be a wonderful chance to refamiliarize myself with its wonders. Specifically River Phoenix with a buzzcut. I was young when this was out but this was the movie where I finally got River's dreamboat appeal. Boys in them 60s clothes and haircuts -- swoon. This hits disc on April 30th, check out all of the extra features (which includes a chat between Savioca, Taylor, and the great Marry Harron!) at the above link.
And April is a big month for 4K upgrades from our fave physical media label -- they're upgrading three masterpieces with new restorations of Matthieu Kassovitz' La haine (mmmm Vincent Cassel). Mikhail Kalatozov’s legendary 1965 portrait of revolution I Am Cuba, and Peter Weir's perfect sumptuous and haunting Picnic at Hanging Rock (which is one of my favorite movies of all time). You can literally never go wrong with Peter Weir. And then to top off the awesomeness on April 16th they're dropping a 4K restoration of Béla Tarr's hypnotic wonder Werckmeister Harmonies from the year 2000 -- this was the first Tarr film I ever saw and it is burned deeply in my brain. An incredible black-and-white astonishment, this one.
2 comments:
I've never heard of Werckmeister Harmonies. Thank you for the recommendation.
Dogfight was also one of the first musicals by Pasek and Paul, and a wonderful one it is. I saw it in a totally no frills local (New Mexico) production and by the end I was in tears. Very powerful.
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