Film directors have lionized killers as long as there has been film. With time comes absolution and insulation for directors who discover the misunderstood romantic heroes inside serial murderers. No better example than "Bonnie and Clyde." In the past three years we've seen exhaustive -- and excellent -- works on revolutionary Che Guevara, … [Read more...]
‘Epitafios’ returns with a new face of evil
"The gates of hell are wide open tonight," says the coroner, the busiest man in Buenos Aires. The soaring body count signals the return of "Epitafios," the brilliant and gruesome crime miniseries from HBO Latin America. The pay channel's video unit just released the sequel in the U.S. as a four-DVD set. "Epitafios: The End Now Has Two Faces" … [Read more...]
‘High and Low’ and hard-boiled
Akira Kurosawa wasn't known for film noir or crime thrillers, but he did do a genre drive-by back in 1963. Of course, it's killer. The Criterion Collection has reissued to Blu-ray "High and Low," the Japanese master's tale of a hardworking factory chief whose life is ruined after his son is targeted by kidnappers. Toshiro Mifune plays shoe … [Read more...]
Basil Dearden: Up from the ‘Underground’
Quick, name four Basil Dearden movies. Anyone? Congrats if you came up with one -- even if it was "Khartoum." British director Dearden made a swarm of films from 1940 to 1970, almost all forgotten outside his native land. The overdue DVD set Basil Dearden's London Underground shines the Criterion Collection spotlight on a quartet of the … [Read more...]
‘Night of the Hunter’: beauty and the beast
"The Night of the Hunter" director Charles Laughton, born in England, found old weird America a poetic place, one caught between the polarities of love and hate. The hate came from Robert Mitchum's deadly preacher man, one of the great movie villains. The love? It flowed like the river from a shotgun-toting Lillian Gish. Criterion's … [Read more...]
