Topsy-turvy turned into a downer. "Princess Ida" came up short on charm. And so Gilbert & Sullivan's partnership neared collapse. Such is the setup for Mike Leigh's "Topsy Turvy," the delightful 1999 biopic about the masters of comic opera and the making of their "The Mikado." The Criterion Collection has rereleased "Topsy-Turvy" on Blu-ray … [Read more...]
‘Yi Yi’: Play it again, on Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection came to the rescue of "Yi Yi" in 2007, vastly improving on what by all accounts was a botched 2001 release by Fox Lorber video. Now, the cineaste label is back with a Blu-ray version of "Yi Yi," Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang's wonderful movie about childhood and family. The domestic epic is built around three … [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...]
Soderbergh’s ‘Che’: Rebel without a pause
In total, "Che" runs 4.5 hours. Too much for most moviegoers, but not for director Steven Soderbergh. He regrets not extending his guerrilla warfare chronicle to 10 hours -- "the miniseries route." In fact, Soderbergh regrets the whole thing. "I can't sit here and tell you it was worth it," the director says of "Che." "It made me wonder if … [Read more...]
