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Title Director Publisher Price
The Falcon and the Snowman John Schlesinger $12.77
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Read more and comment... 		Based on a true story, this film delves deeply into the cold war nexus of defense industries, the CIA, the KGB, and the underground world of drugs, and in the process demonstrates the parallels and linkages between them.
Warner Gangster Collection Raoul Walsh $59.92
($69.92 list)
OUT OF STOCK!

Read more and comment... 		This follow-up collection to last year's well-received Noir Collection is now in stock.  Six great gangster pics at one great price -- but that's not all!  This time around each film is accompanied on disc by an original Warner Brothers cartoon, a newsreel, a short film, and a trailer reel -- thereby replicating the viewing experience of this bygone era. The six films are: •Angels with Dirty Faces •Little Caesar •The Petrified Forest •The Public Enemy •The Roaring Twentiesand... •White Heat!  Click here for details!
A Woman Is a Woman (Une Femme Est une Femme) Jean Luc Godard $25.47
($29.95 list)

Read more and comment... 		1961; Godard; w/early Godard short
Absolute Beginners Julien Temple MGM $12.77
($14.95 list)
Absolutebeginners
Read more and comment... 		This is one of the most overlooked films of the 1980s.  An absolute masterpiece, Absolute Beginners attempted the impossible:  to single-handedly revive the Hollywood musical, and from England, no less!  While, clearly, it did not achieve the impossible, you can, if you try, trace a line from this film that goes slowly-but-surely, step by step, straight through to Moulin Rouge, and, more recently, Across the Universe and a generally more favorable environment for flashy, spectacular cinéma entertainments that, Lord knows, we could all use more of these days.  This is a film where, clearly, everyone involved gave their all, and everything fell into place, just right.  Click on the box to read our full length review.
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer Ian McCrudden, Robbie Cavolina $25.00
($29.98 list)
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Read more and comment... 		Years in the making, this definitive documentary film portrait of one of the all-time great jazz singers is now here.  It's a two-disc marvel with a bonus disc that includes what all true aficionado's crave:  90 minutes of uninterrupted live performances!  Make sure to get a taste here, at the official Anita O'Day website.
By Brakhage Stan Brakhage Criterion Collection $35.00
($39.95 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This is it!  The definitive Brakhage DVD collection. Two DVD set includes the films: The Act of Seeing with One’s Own Eyes Black Ice Cat’s Cradle Commingled Containers Crack Glass Eulogy The Dante Quartet The Dark Tower Delicacies of Molten Horror Synapse Desistfilm Dog Star Man Eye Myth For Marilyn The Garden of Earthly Delights I…Dreaming Kindering Love Song Mothlight The Stars are Beautiful Stellar Study in color and Black and White Three hand-painted films: •Nightmusic •Rage Net •Glaze of Cathexis Wedlock House: An Intercourse Window Water Baby Moving The Wold Shadow New high-definition digital transfers of all films, approved by Stan Brakhage Interview with the filmmaker Essay by Brakhage expert Fred Camper   Film Info 243 minutes Color/Black and white 1.33:1 Dolby Digital Mono 1.0 Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition To learn more about Stan Brakhage, the films that he has made, and his writings on film and other topics, the best web resource is Fred Camper's Stan Brakhage on the Web.
By Brakhage, Volume 2 Stan Brakhage Criterion Collection $34.95
($39.98 list)
Bybrakhage2
Read more and comment... 		By Brakhage, Volume 2 << • >>  Here we have it:  a whopping seven and a half hours of work by the undisputed master of independent American experimental cinema, selected by his widow, Marilyn Brakhage, and expertly transferred to digital media by the Criterion Collection Crew.  While most movie-goers have never even heard of him, it's hard to over-estimate Brakhage's impact on the history of film.  Beginning in the 1950s, he opened up a whole new way of thinking about and working with film.  It could be said (and so, we will) that what Einstein was to Newton in the realm of physics, Brakhage was to Eisenstein in the realm of film.   Learn quite a bit about what's on this 3-disc set by reading this in-depth essay by Ms. Brakhage. 
Cartune Xprez: A Collection of Contemporary Animated Videos from the USA and Canada Various $12.00

Read more and comment... 		This is an amazing, eye-popping new DVD anthology of, for the most part, new school, lo-fi, DIY animations that we're pretty confident you won't be seeing anywhere else anytime soon.  Not only that, you'll be hard pressed to find this disc anywhere else.  So we're working overtime to bring this disc to your attention as there's some really creative and original work here, the likes of which you may not have previously encountered, at least not on a purchasable DVD.  Artists on this disc include Paper Rad & Peter Burr (both Pittsburgh-connected), Amy Lockhart, Takeshi Murata, Phillippe Blanchard, Michael Bell-Smith, Christopher Doulgeris, as well as Hooliganship and Slow Dance Recyttal.   Get more details here. PLEASE NOTE:  One of the shorts (Gretchen Hogue's Where's My Boyfriend?) is composed of a rapid-fire montage of still images -- most appear to have been cut out of magazines --  that includes quite a few that are pornographic in nature.  The on-screen time of these images is generally under one second, they are all employed to humorous effect, and one would be hard pressed to find anything of prurient interest here, but, nevertheless, it renders this collection inappropriate for unsupervised children and anyone who would be offended by this type of material.  You have been warned.
Coffee and Cigarettes Jim Jarmusch $12.77
($14.98 list)

Read more and comment... 		Looking for the heppest film of the year?  Look no further:  this is it.  Not that many people even know about this film, let alone have seen it.  It played here in Pittsburgh for a week at the Oaks, and then was gone.  But now it's back, on DVD.  Fifteen years in the making.  Filmed in glorious black and white, featuring performances by Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Roberto Begnini, Joie Lee, Cinqué Lee, Cate Blanchett, Meg White, Jack White, Alfred Moline, Steve Coogan, Renée French, GZA, RZA, Taylor Mead, Bill Rice, and Bill Murray!
Darling John Schlesinger $12.77

Read more and comment... 		If any film can said to be the sequel to Fellini's La Dolce Vita, this is it.  Sumptuously filmed in B & W in a style that at times deliberately echoes Fellini, this film captures the ennui that lies at the center of striving after success and the concomitant materialistic cravings that such a lifestyle engenders and so deepened the reflective mood of reprioritization that characterized the 1960s.  A penetrating and beautiful masterpiece, this film took the 1965 Oscar® for Original Screenplay (by Frederic Raphael) and Christie took Best Actress -- rare wins for a British production.  Yet, like the next film on our list, it is a film for today as well.
Devo: The Complete Truth About De-Evolution Devo Rhino $13.77
($14.95 list)
OUT OF STOCK!
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Read more and comment... 		Featured Videos: Devo Corporate Anthem In the Beginning Was the End: The Truth About De-evolution Satisfaction Come Back Jonee The Day My Baby Gave Me a Surprise Worried Man Whip It Girl U Want Freedom of Choice Through Being Cool Love Without Anger Beautiful World Time Out for Fun Peek-a-Boo That's Good Disco Dancer Post Post-Modern Man Post Post-Modern Man (Rocky Schenck remix) plus * Three never-before-seen clips from early DEVO gigs * A comprehensive history of DEVO through photos, memorabilia, and anecdotes * Interview with DEVO music director/producer Chuck Statler * Extra bonus video: Mongoloid, directed by Bruce Connor * Commentary by Gerald V. Casale and Mark Mothersbaugh While there's no denying the fact that some of the later material is pretty forgettable, and that the quality and production values of this disc leave something to be desired, it still contains work that is absolutely and undeniably brilliant and extremely influential.  In other words: a true classic.
Encyclopdedia Destructica: Volume Bumba, Issue the Fourth Gordon Nelson Encyclopedia Destructica $15.00
($15.00 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This, the final installment of "Volume Bumba," is the film and video issue.  It comes with its own DVD containing a whopping 38 original film and video works running a mind-bending three and a half hours ensconced in a 118-page illustrated catalogue that is hand bound in a hand-silk-screened hardcover.  Produced in a limited edition of only 500 copies, this is an excellent survey of the great variety of talent working in film and video in Pittsburgh, and an amazing value that you won't want to miss.  While, yes, some of the works here are amateurish and some are obviously student films, others are totally amazing.  We are still reeling from the experience of watching Gordon Nelson's 15-minute and 48-second "Sixties Teen Dance Party," which contains what is quite possibly The Greatest Found Footage of All Time, footage which has, in turn, been artfully optically printed by Mr. Nelson, who has also added an original soundtrack which itself was recorded live (although, you might find yourself unable to resist the temptation to turn down the volume on your TV and put some classic '60s dance music on the hi-fi and crank it up while you watch this amazing film).  "Sixties Teen Dance Party" alone is, in our humble opinion, easily worth the price of the entire package.  But there's so much more.  Other highlights include Suzie Silver's "Peggy Love 101," in which the lyric "love" has been excised from the catalogue of Peggy Lee songs and rhythmically edited along with found footage (yes, we seem to have a predilection for this...) of her performances to create an abstraction of pop love.  "Sports and Diversions" by Bum Lee, a series of black and white animations inspired by Eric Satie's Sports et Diveritissements, a series of short piano pieces that are performed (and quite well, too!) here by Pei Wei Lin, is quite a marvel and might very well be the single most original piece you'll see this year.  Watching Jessica Fenlon's "Crossroads" provides a meditative three and a half minutes that will lower your blood pressure.  And, we can't leave off without mentioning John Allen Gibel's "Pleromadromadhatu (trailer)" which is either a parody of or an homage to -- or both -- the films of Dusan Makavejev and Alejandro Jodorowsky.  We could go on and on here as there are still over  thirty pieces we haven't even mentioned yet, many of which we'd like to tell you about.  Suffice it to say that this is something that you'll kick yourself (hard) if you miss out on it.  So don't!
End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones Rhino $11.77
($19.99 list)
Ramonesendofthecenturydvd
Read more and comment... 		If ever there was a band whose career testifies to the saving grace of Rock 'n' Roll -- it was the Ramones.  They forged an original ethos out of the chaos of their upbringing, and then proceeded to relentlessly preach this gospel of Punk Rock for two decades, in the process sacrificing their worldly existences to their spiritual legacy.  As a result, their music has entered into the lives of literally millions of people around the world, winning countless converts to the Punk Way, and, perhaps most importantly, inspiring a huge number of these converts to grab some amps and start up a band of their own -- The Clash and The Sex Pistols, just for starters -- and in so doing changed the face of Rock itself.  How exactly this band from Queens managed to accomplish all this remains -- despite the close-up and personal look at the band provided by this DVD -- a mystery for the ages.  As this documentary makes abundantly clear, Jeffrey Hyman, John Cummings, Douglas Colvin and Thomas Erdelyi -- aka Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy --  were a bunch of "losers" if ever there was one (although Tommy comes off as relatively well adjusted), yet these same four guys -- with a little help from Marky (well, in his case, a lot), Ritchie and C.J. --  went on to become one of the most influential bands of their era, and in the process were transformed into the patron saints of the outcast.  That they managed to get together and do what they did is -- to paraphrase Joe Strummer in an interview segment that was inexplicably deleted from the theatrical release, but, thankfully, is here on the DVD -- so unlikely as to be comprehensible only by being seen as the result of some sort of divine intervention.  In short, the Ramones were, in their own way, a sort of miracle.  Hallelujah!  Watch this DVD and feel your faith renewed, in all its manifest complexity.
Eureka Nicolas Roeg MGM $17.77
($19.99 list)
Eurekadvd
Read more and comment... 		Eureka is our candidate for the single least appreciated film of all time.  This film, the crowning achievement of 1970s auteur Nicolas Roeg (Performance, The Man Who Fell to Earth), so baffled the powers that be at United Artists that they sat on it for years before finally deciding... not to release it!  With the exception of a single print, which showed briefly in NYC, LA and Toronto, it never saw the light of a North American movie projector bulb.  (It may have played Europe, however) It sat on the shelves for years more, before grudgingly being transferred to video, where it was released to zero fanfare and disappeared.  Now, at last it’s on DVD, and the story repeats itself.  The company that owns this film simply has no idea what it has. The film is, admittedly, extremely difficult to define and describe, but, hey, we’re going to try.  And yes, it wouldn’t be overly difficult to make the case that Roeg himself got lost while making it, but, y’know, we’re not.  Read our long description to see what lengths we will go to defend this film.
Funky Forest the First Contact Hajime Ishimine, Katsuhito Ishii Viz $25.00
($29.98 list)
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Read more and comment... 		This film is SO far out that we are not yet ready to do it justice.  Suffice it to say that fans of cinema that strays from the beaten path should consider checking this out – as long as they are prepared for the possibility that they might get lost deep in the woods.   Those true believers that are already there and consider it home should consider this an absolute must see.  THIS is a one of a kind film.  Here's its homepage.  Or just go straight to its trailer on YouTube.  This is a film that you will want to watch more than once and will enjoy turning your friends on to and watching their jaws drop (presuming, of course, that your friends' cinematic tastes – as well as your own, we hasten to add – can handle the intensely bizarre flavors contained in this big bento box of a film).