4K UHD Review: The Umbrellas of Cherbourg / Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Criterion)
Released in 1964, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is a deceptively simple story of doomed romanticism told as a movie musical. By then, the movie musical was a genre on the wane, but director Jacques Demy tapped into the timeless appeal of stories about the frailty of love. Like an opera, the film is divided into […]
Mississippi Mermaid (Blu-ray)
Based on a Cornell Woolrich novel, Francois Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid was poorly received when released in the United States in April of 1970. This second homage to Hitchcock that Truffaut produced (after The Bride Wore Black), deserves a second look by those who see it as a lesser entry in the filmmakers cannon. The unbelievably […]
Blu-ray Review: Tristana
Relationships and the struggle for power within their framework is a consistent theme throughout Luis Buñuel’s films. A rather sadomasochistic director, Tristana, released in 1970, is Buñuel’s most explicit study of the subject. Made in the later stages of the director’s career, he tackles the issue of an older man obsessed with a young girl. […]