November '21 Digital Week I

4K/UHD Release of the Week 

The Suicide Squad 

(Warner Bros)

Since Suicide Squad—the 2016 version—flopped, this semi-reboot—with the definite article in the title—semi-resuscitates the franchise, as James Gunn’s bloated, jokey super-antihero epic occasionally scores with its flashy, action-filled camaraderie. There’s a handful of chuckles to be had by none other than Sylvester Stallone as King Shark but, let’s face it, Harley Quinn—once again played by the magnetic Margot Robbie—is the only one of the squad who deserves her own franchise…which she has. The immaculate 4K image pops off the screen; the accompanying Blu-ray disc includes several extras: featurettes, interviews, deleted scenes, gag reel and director commentary (on both discs).

In-Theater Releases of the Week

Only the Animals 

(Cohen Media)

In Frederik Moll’s cynical and unpleasant crime drama, the death of a woman named Evelyn is the springboard to glimpses of the lives of five people she’s—mostly peripherally—connected to, from young Marion whom Evelyn has a brief affair with to farmer Michel who thinks he’s been flirting with Marion online to Michel’s wife Alice who’s carrying on an affair with another man, Joseph: he finds Evelyn’s body. Moll adroitly moves among these people, but the utter contrivance of their relationships—I don’t know how much is in the underlying novel—make the film risible from the get-to, despite its self-seriousness and extremely capable acting, especially by Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Marion) and Laure Calamy (Alice).

Speer Goes to Hollywood 

(Realworks LTD)

Using transcripts of interviews British writer Andrew Birkin had with Hitler’s favorite architect in 1971, when there was talk of a biopic (which was never made), director Vanessa Lapa has created a tantalizingly eye-opening documentary. The arrogance and hypocrisy of Albert Speer (who only served 20 years in prison for being a large part of the Nazi war machine) is on full display as he almost gleefully recounts his importance in Hitler’s circle while simultaneously trying not to implicate himself. It’s a fascinating, if disgusting, balancing act that Lapa teases out expertly.

13 Minutes 

(Quiver)

This earnest dramatization of a tornado’s devastating effects on a small Oklahoma town works efficiently if blatantly, from the “before”—when many folks, even the most hardened, don’t take the warnings seriously, betting (hoping?) it’s another false alarm—to the “after,” when the area is all but obliterated and survivors must both fend for themselves and worry about their missing loved ones. Director-writer Lindsay Gossling specializes in obviousness, but there are strong moments too, mainly provided by a cast that includes Paz Vega, Amy Smart and Thora Birch.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Children of the Damned 

Eye of the Devil 

(Warner Archive)

“Children,” the 1963 not-really-a-sequel to the classic “Village of the Damned,” is admirably understated as it follows several children who may or may not be from a superior alien race and the mainly clueless responses of various authority figures; too bad it’s never as thrilling or exciting as its predecessor. Similarly, 1966’s “Eye of the Devil,” which posits David Niven as the latest ancestral pagan in his family’s chateau in an eerie precursor of “The Wicker Man,” has unnerving moments but doesn’t cohere satisfyingly, despite J. Lee Thompson’s lean direction. Both B&W films look wonderfully sharp in HD; “Village” includes screenwriter John Briley’s commentary.

Dinner at Eight 

(Warner Archive)

Based on the witty play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, George Cukor’s 1933 cinematic version of the relationships among a group of Manhattan’s upper-crust—all invitees to a stylish bash that evening—has its static and stagy moments, but the cast is triumphant. Among a starry ensemble of John and Lionel Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Marie Dressler and Billie Burke, none other than Jean Harlow steals the show. This is supreme B&W entertainment that looks spectacular in hi-def. Extras are the 1993 documentary Harlow: The Blonde Bombshell, hosted by Sharon Stone, and a related vintage short, Come to Dinner.

The Hidden Life of Trees 

(Capelight/MPI)

German forester Peter Wohlleben is the focus of this illuminating documentary about how the natural world is more than just the “environment” that is always talked about but rarely understood. Director Jorg Adolph has created a splendid portrait of Woglleben who understands trees and their “language” as well as the “wood wide web” alongside a beautifully-shot nature documentary whose astonishing visuals make an persuasive case for the mostly unknown complexities of the natural world. The images, unsurprisingly, look rightly dazzling in hi-def.

Mary Stevens MD 

(Warner Archive)

In this 1933 pre-code melodrama, premarital sex and out-of-wedlock pregnancy are the outcomes of an affair between a female doctor—still handicapped professionally by her sex—and the man she has eyes for, even though he marries someone else. At 72 minutes, no one can say this is padded, but its dramatic thinness is only partly compensated for by Kay Francis’ bravura lead  performance. The B&W film looks exceptionally good on Blu.

DVD Releases of the Week 

Sisters 

(Distrib Films)

Writer-director Yamina Benguigui’s often trenchant study of a trio of French-Algerian sisters  still dealing with the decades-old fallout of their father leaving France and returning to Algeria with their young brother is an unflinching exploration of family dysfunction triggered by outdated political and cultural traditions against women. These women are powerfully enacted by ageless superstar Isabelle Adjani, tough-minded Maiwenn and forceful Rachida Brakni, who get to the heart of a fractured relationship that, after many years and thousands of miles, is difficult to heal.

Tiger 

(HBO)

The Tiger Woods saga—from the highs of his superstar status seemingly cemented while he was still an amateur golfer to the lows of his messy personal life (car wrecks, highly publicized affairs, divorce from his Nordic goddess wife) is recounted in thorough and even-handed fashion. Interviews with many people who have been part of his life over the decades, from his first love in high school to fellow pros on the tour, but there’s a hole at the center of not having Tiger himself, even if he’s been interviewed enough to use dozens of clips interspersed throughout.

Walker—Complete 1st Season 

(CBS/Paramount)

In this reboot of the ’90s series starring Chuck Norris, a longtime Ranger volunteers for a lengthy undercover operation after his beloved wife is murdered, and when he returns to discovers that he has to balance dealing with his estranged teenage daughter with his dangerous professional life. While this isn’t designed to appeal to everyone—the cutesiness slathered onto the sentimentality is a bit much—this should do very nicely for fans of straightforward action and melodrama, anchored by Jared Padalecki as Walker and Lindsey Morgan as his new partner. All 18 episodes are on 5 discs; extras are featurettes, deleted scenes and a gag reel.

CD Releases of the Week

César Franck—Hulda 

(Naxos)

Belgian composer César Franck (1822-90) was probably a more valuable teacher than composer: among his students were Vincent d'Indy, Ernest Chausson, Louis Vierne, Guillaume Lekeu and Henri Duparc. But Franck’s music, attractive if conventional, still holds interest, even if his opera output is barely heard. Indeed, Hulda was never performed until after his death. It’s too bad, for—at least on the evidence of this excellent recording by Germany’s Freiburg Theatre—it makes a worthy addition to the Gallic stage repertoire, with a great title role for a first-rate soprano (Meagan Miller does the honors here).

Alfred Schnittke/Sergei Prokofiev 

(Cleveland Orchestra)

Soviet composers whose works were written a half-century apart are featured on the latest recording by the Cleveland Orchestra, which has under conductor Franz Welser-Möst become a fearsome advocate for 20th and 21st century music. First, there’s the 1979 Concerto for Piano and Strings by Alfred Schnittke (1934-98), which effortlessly alternates between sheer bombast and utmost delicacy; pianist Yefim Bronfman is the formidable soloist. The year 1925 saw the premiere of the Symphony No. 2 by Sergei Prokofiev (1881-1953), a remarkable display of breakneck rhythms and brilliant orchestration, which Welser-Möst and the orchestra play with a controlled fury that harnesses the wild surges in Prokofiev’s always audacious score.

Bard Summerscape 2021: Chausson Opera, Boulanger Concert

Bard Music Festival/Summerscape 2021

Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

July 8-August 15, 2021

fishercenter.bard.edu

DVD: Women Composers (Film Movement)

After its COVID cancellation last summer, Bard College’s annual Summerscape returned to the bucolic campus two-plus hours north of New York City for live performances, both indoors and outside, in front of real audiences—along with the livestreaming that all of us have gotten used to over the past 18 months.

French pedagogue Nadia Boulanger—an important teacher to countless prominent European and American composers—was the centerpiece of this year’s Bard Music Festival, after having been the one to be feted last summer. Although “Nadia Boulanger and Her World” included a few pieces by Nadia, it was mainly filled by dozens of works by composers in her orbit for decades, including her talented sister, Lili Boulanger, an accomplished composer in her own right who died at age 25 in 1918. (Nadia died at age 92 in 1979.)

Ernest Chausson's opera King Arthur (photo: Maria Baranova)

Summerscape’s centerpiece was King Arthur, a grand lyric opera by Frenchman Ernest Chausson, another tragic case of a composer dying young (he was 44 when he crashed his bike into a brick wall in 1899). Since I was unable to attend live performances of the opera, I did the next best thing, which was watch the livestream—professionally shot, edited and subtitled for maximum viewer enjoyment—at home.

Chausson’s gorgeous opera unashamedly bows to the temple of Wagner—in sound and story there are hints of Tristan and Parsifal, for starters—but its decidedly French delicacy tempers the weightiness of subject and music. Louisa Proske’s illuminating production was realistic and mystical by turns, the leads—Norman Garrett (Arthur), Sasha Cooke (Genièvre), Matthew White (Lancelot) and Troy Cook (Merlin)—were in magnificent voice, and Leon Botstein led the American Symphony Orchestra and the Bard Festival Chorale (director, James Bagwell) in a transcendent musical performance, highlighted by the opera’s magisterial finale.

Nadia Boulanger

I attended one of the Bard Music Festival concerts. As usual, it was a superbly curated program, nearly three hours long—almost too much despite the rich music and performances we heard. Titled Remembering Ethyl Smyth and Boulanger’s Circle at Home and Abroad, it was just that—beginning with a concert version of Smyth’s delightful one-act opera Fête galante, followed by a 90-minute second half. (In fact, the evening could have been shorn of the Smyth opera and still would have been musically fulfilling.)

First there was a lovely reading of Lili Boulanger’s elegant Theme and Variations, newly arranged for orchestra by Richard Wilson. Then came a propulsive performance of Walter Piston’s Symphony No. 4 and a scintillating solo turn by Luosha Fang in underrated Polish composer Grażyna Bacewicż’ Violin Concerto No. 5. Finally, Aaron Copland’s patriotic Lincoln Portrait provided a rousing finale, with Patrick Gaspard intoning the 16th president’s immortal words and sending everyone home sated.

                                                                               ***

Lili Boulanger—along with Fanny Mendlessohn-Hensel and the previously unknown to me Mel Bonis—is profiled in Women Composers (Film Movement DVD), an informative if too short documentary by pianist Kyra Steckeweh and Tim van Beveren. Steckeweh started researching female composers when she was looking for new and different repertoire to perform in a classical world dominated by dead European males. The film briefly examines these women’s personal and musical histories, which provides opportunities for Steckeweh to perform their works without stigmatizing them. Bonus features on the DVD are a Q&A with the directors and a performance of Bonis’ piano work “Ophelie” by Steckeweh.

July '21 Digital Week II

In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 

Roadrunner—A Film About Anthony Bourdain 

(Focus Features)

When Anthony Bourdain committed suicide in 2016, it was a shock but not really a surprise—he  was a man who always lived by his own rules, and although he had a gregarious appetite for knowledge, travel and food, there was also a dark side, as Morgan Neville's powerful documentary shows. There are many clips of Bourdain filming his various TV shows, along with glimpses of him interacting with friends and colleagues, sometimes generously, other times petulantly. And some of those close to him point to his final relationship with actress Asia Argento as a kind of breaking point (especially after she supposedly, and brazenly, cheated on him)—but there's no denying that despite his zest for living and fatherhood, he left it all behind and left many people (his daughter, ex-wife, colleagues and friends like Josh Homme, Eric Ripert and Rod Lurie—and millions of fans around the world) bereft. Roadrunner might not explain why Bourdain killed himself, but it does explain him—to an extent.

Ailey 

(Neon) 

One of the most influential choreographers of the 20th century, Alvin Ailey was important in many ways: as the first Black American to found his own company, he and his legacy stretch far beyond modern dance. Director Jamila Wignot shapes Ailey’s story (filled with innovation, originality, creativity, and also—almost inevitably—tragedy and sadness, since he died of AIDS in 1989 at age 58—through the prism of his singular achievements. But this is no hagiography: it’s an honest and accessible look at Ailey, the man and the artist. Including interviews with his colleagues, friends and admirers (in many cases, all three), Ailey leaves one feeling exhilarated.

Casanova, Last Love 

(Cohen Media)

The life of the irascible seducer Casanova is perfect fodder for the movies, as directors like Federico Fellini and Lasse Hallstrom have told his story as either psychological fantasia or costume romp; now French director Benoit Jacquot enters the fray, with typically uneven results. As usual with Jacquot, the film looks sumptuous, and Vincent Lindon is a perfect Casanova, a middle-aged libertine desperate to relive past glories with one final conquest, irresistibly played by the winning Stacy Martin. But Jacquot’s gaze is nearly always unsteady, and what might have been an incisive and even touching portrait of old age remains blurry, gauzy, distant.

Mama Weed 

(Music Box Films)

Isabelle Huppert might be taken for granted since she always brings her A game, even to less original creations—which is not to say that Jean-Paul Salomé’s grittily involving comic policier about a police translator embroiled in an illegal drug trade right under the nose of her boyfriend the police chief is second-rate. Huppert works hard and often hilariously to bring off this borderline implausible and densely plotted film, helped by Salomé’s assured and stylish direction, which hints at socioeconomic complexities that the inevitable American remake will most likely jettison.

Masquerade 

(Shout! Factory)

I don’t remember the last time I saw a movie so disingenuous and cynical that it enraged me, but this forgettable piece of masochistic filmmaking displaying sheerly irrational behavior—no one in this movie is remotely believable, not even the teenage heroine—did it. In only 80 minutes, writer-director Shane Dax Taylor is so intent on being brutally awful to the victims (even allowing the young daughter of the couple whose home is invaded by a trio of art thieves to be tortured) that it seems 80 hours long. Poor Bella Thorne once again gives a credible performance in a lousy movie.

4K/UHD Release of the Week

Spiral 

(Lionsgate)

The latest entry in the Saw franchise starts with an intriguing premise—corrupt cops are being offed by a copycat killer—but instead of making a twisty and clever thriller, director Darren Lynn Bousman follows earlier Saw flicks by wallowing in risible, gory deaths-by-torture that include cut-off tongues and fingers, skinned bodies, suffocation by scalding wax and being slowly bled to death. It’s too bad, for Chris Rock’s confident jokiness works well in this context and his interactions with Max Minghella (his new partner) and Samuel Jackson (his retired police chief dad) are entertaining. Bousman and writers Josh Stolberg and Peter Goldfinger are more interested in the blood quotient than in credibility or originality. The film looks great on UHD; extras include commentaries and a making-of on the 4K disc and other featurettes on the Blu-ray.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Mirror 

(Criterion Collection)

In many ways, Andrei Tarkovsky's often inscrutable but always compelling 1974 memory piece is his most fully-realized film: rarely have the innocence of childhood and difficulties of aging been so powerfully evoked, especially in the Russian director's typically unbroken long takes and dream-like images. The Criterion Collection's superb package comprises a first-rate hi-def transfer and a plethora of contextualizing extras that include Tarkovsky’s son Andrei A. Tarkovsky’s 2019 documentary, Andrei Tarkovsky: A Cinema Prayer; new documentary The Dream in the Mirror; 2007 documentary Islands: Georgy Rerberg, about Tarkovsky’s cinematographer; new interview with composer Eduard Artemyev; and archival interviews with Tarkovsky and screenwriter Alexander Misharin.

Objective Burma 

(Warner Archive)

Although it takes liberties with the historical facts—like having U.S. armed forces as heroes instead of what was mainly a British and Indian force—this 1945 World War II film effectively dramatizes the dangerous heroics by soldiers stranded in Burma with the Japanese right behind them. Led by a gritty Errol Flynn as their leader, the men are portrayed as realistically as possible given the fact that director Raoul Walsh made the film (shot in California, of all places, by the distinguished cinematographer James Wong Howe) very soon after the events it depicts happened. The B&W images look terrific on Blu-ray; extras are two vintage wartime shorts: 1941’s The Tanks Are Coming with Gig Young and 1943’s The Rear Gunner with Burgess Meredith.

Rolling Stones—A Bigger Bang Live on Copacabana Beach 

(Mercury Studios)

As part of its over-the-top 2006 A Bigger Bang tour, the Rolling Stones played one of the most massive concerts of their decades-long career on the famed Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro to an audience of more than 1.5 million, by some accounts. Mick and the boys are in fine fettle throughout the nearly two-hour performance, with highlights being a powerhouse "Wild Horses," a chugging "Miss You" and a stirring "You Can't Always Get What You Want." This set includes the entire concert on two CDs and one Blu-ray, with deluxe surround sound on the latter disc; both hi-def video and audio look and sound great.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game 

(Warner Archive)

Apparently, although this frothy 1949 musical comedy about turn of the century vaudevillians who moonlight as players on the world champion baseball team the Wolves was nominally directed by the legendary Busby Berkley, it really was helmed by Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. The latter also engagingly plays one of the stars alongside Frank Sinatra, who outsings Kelly but is outclassed in the dancing department. Rounding out the romantic foursome are Esther Williams and Betty Garrett, both game but sadly underused. The colorful musical looks bright on Blu; extras are two deleted musical numbers and a vintage cartoon.

Wrath of Man 

(Warner Brothers)

Fast-paced—almost dizzyingly so—Guy Ritchie’s latest testosterone-fueled caper is filled with so many dead bodies that it may set some sort of record for shootings and amount of ammo used, which seems an obvious ruse to make viewers ignore the repetitious plot about armored vehicle thefts that are inside jobs which go spectacularly wrong. Ritchie plays around with showing the events from various points-of-view, but to little avail; the main problem is Jason Stratham’s usual granite personality masquerading as nonchalance. There’s a fine hi-def transfer.

DVD Releases of the Week

Inside the Met 

(PBS)

The year 2020 was supposed to be a banner one for New York’s jewel, the Metropolitan Museum of Art: it was its 150th birthday, after all, and director Ian Denyer’s cameras were welcomed inside the institution to record the celebrations and commemorations as well as to see what makes the Met tick. Then COVID-19 hit and the Met was forced to shut its doors for months for the very first time, and this engrossing three-part documentary follows along as various strategies are put into place to deal with the initial shutdown and the gradual reopening. It might not have been a year worth celebrating, but 2020 became one of the most memorable in the Met’s storied history. 

Unforgotten—Complete 4th Season 

Professor T 

(PBS)

The fourth season of the intelligent crime series Unforgotten follows investigators Cassie and Sunny as they attempt to break a 30-year-old murder case that involve four current police officers—including one about to be promoted; Nicola Walker (Cassie) and Sanjeev Bhaskar (Sunny) give persuasive portrayals of exasperated but laser-sharp detectives. Professor T, while yet another series about a crime-solver with OCD, transcends its now-clichéd limitations in the character of Jasper Tempest, a Cambridge criminologist who solves cases in each episode, and played by Ben Miller with serious wit. Both discs include several making-of featurettes.

CD Releases of the Week

Lennox Berkeley—Nelson 

(Lyrita)

British composer Lennox Berkeley’s 1954 opera about the great British naval hero, Admiral Lord Nelson, contains much lovely music but isn’t the “grand opera” audiences might expect from such a titanic historical subject—instead, Berkeley has composed something akin to a chamber opera, as Alan Pryce-Jones’ libretto concentrates on the married Nelson’s scandalous love affair with the married Lady Emma Hamilton. This excellent 1983 BBC recording commendably spotlights the complicated relationships involved through subtle orchestral playing and notable vocal portrayals by tenor David Johnston as Nelson and soprano Eiddwen Harrhy as Emma. 

George Gershwin—Porgy and Bess Highlights 

(Pentatone)

Soprano Angel Blue has already shown she can meet—and exceed—the vocal and dramatic demands of playing Bess in the recent Metropolitan Opera production, and so it’s not surprising that her lovely voice is the highlight of this disc of excerpts from George Gershwin’s emotionally powerful opera. Not only does Blue own Bess’ classic songs but she also sings Clara’s “Summertime” and Serena’s “My Man’s Gone Now” with equal parts power and finesse and an ability to grab the listener from the get-go. Lester Lynch’s Porgy and Chauncey Packer’s Sportin’ Life provide superb vocal support and Marin Alsop conducts an expertly-chosen group of excerpts, strongly performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra and Morgan State University Choir. 

June '21 Digital Week I

In-Theater/Streaming/Virtual Cinema/VOD Release of the Week 

Undine 

(IFC Films) 

Director Christian Petzold collaborated with that extraordinary actress Nina Hoss on several films, but without Hoss, he seems lost: his last film, Transit, was a disappointment, and he continues that trend with his newest, which is Petzold’s take on the mythic tale about a water spirit, here in the modern world and falling in love with an ordinary man. He reteams his Transit costars, Paula Beer and Franz Rogowskis to middling returns: although Beer is no Hoss histrionically, she more than holds her own in a borderline ridiculous role (especially as filmed by Petzold), but Rogowski, a basically inexpressive performer, remains a disastrous cipher. Petzhold proves to have little affinity for fantasy, wasting the elegance of his visuals.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week 

Athena 

(Warner Archive)

One of the mildest romantic comedies of any era, this original 1954 musical is pretty much a dated relic in its story of two men, in love with two sisters, discover five more at home along with grandparents who have them all follow a strict health regimen. Although ahead of its time in the “healthy” angle, but otherwise director Richard Thorpe doesn’t do much that’s original or interesting; despite likable performances by Vic Damone and Edmund Purdom as the guys and Debbie Reynolds and Jane Powell as their gals, the movie meanders around to tunes by Hugh Martin and Ralph Blane. There’s a superb hi-def transfer; extras are three outtake musical numbers.

La bohème 

Cosi fan tutte 

(Opus Arte)

Two towering operas are given new life by terrific performers starring in Royal Opera House (London) stagings. In a 2020 performance of Puccini’s La bohème, Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva is a terrifically appealing Mimi and American tenor Charles Castronovo an equally fine Rodolfo who embody the tragically youthful romance of the story. Mozart’s best opera, Cosi fan tutte, in director Jonathan Miller’s modern update—seen at a 2010 performance—is more a clever lark than a seriously comic exploration of relationships and their ambiguities, but the half-dozen cast members give it their all, led by the redoubtable Thomas Allen as Don Alfonso. Both discs have first-rate hi-def video and audio; Bohème has brief interview extras.

Escape from Fort Bravo 

(Warner Archive)

The American Civil War is the backdrop for this tidy 1953 western set in a Union prison camp in in the desert lands of the Arizona Territory: when a woman named Carla (Eleanor Parker) visits, Union camp commander Roper (William Holden) falls for her, not realizing she’s in cahoots with the Confederate prisoners, led by their leader Marsh (John Forsythe). Efficiently directed by John Sturges and superbly shot in the rugged confines of Monument Valley and Death Valley, the colors of Escape look bright and sharp on Blu-ray.

Romeo and Juliet 

(Opus Arte)

Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet, one of the greatest ever created, is a masterly demonstration of how music is as powerful as Shakespeare’s own words in telling the timeless tragic tale of the “star-cross’d lovers.” The 2019 revival of choreographer Kenneth MacMillan’s classic production—filmed at London’s Royal Opera House—is highlighted by the wonderfully agile Juliet of Yasmine Naghdi and the tough but tender Romeo of Matthew Ball; their dancing, along with the glorious playing of the Opera House Orchestra under conductor Pavel Sorokin, makes this a must for all ballet and Prokofiev fans. Hi-def video and audio are excellent; extras are short interviews.

The Tender Trap 

(Warner Archive)

In the mid ‘50s, Frank Sinatra was a heartthrob with chart-topping songs and movies to his credit: this 1955 comedy, based on a routine stage play, relies on his charm to put across this tired tale of a bachelor who finally falls for a woman (Debbie Reynolds) but realizes it will end his single lifestyle. The supporting cast—including David Wayne, Celeste Holm and Carolyn Jones—prods this along into watchable territory, and Sinatra and Reynolds are good if not combustible together, but in director Charles Walters’ hands, this never becomes anything more than competent and occasionally amusing. The film looks great on Blu; extras comprise Frank in the Fifties featurette and The MGM Parade excerpts.

DVD Release of the Week 

Frida Kahlo—Exhibition on Screen 

(Seventh Art Productions)

The latest entry in this invaluable art series surveys the path-breaking Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, who was unafraid to put her own physical and psychological difficulties on canvas—subtlety and softness be damned. As director Ali Ray juxtaposes her paintings—awash in blood, dead bodies, and other uncomfortable images—with details of her eventful, too short life, Kahlo’s artistry in all its daring nakedness is intelligently displayed. It’s too bad that another Exhibition on Screen release isn’t on Blu-ray; hi-def would really show off her art in all its vividness and complexity.

CD Releases of the Week

Walter Braunfels—Orchestral Works 

(Capriccio)

Although Walter Braunfels (1882-1954) wrote a memorable opera, The Birds, that was so popular upon its 1920 premiere that, for awhile, he was the most performed opera composer in Germany after Richard Strauss, he’s nearly forgotten today, despite labels such as Capriccio recording much of his repertoire in recent years. The latest Capriccio release collects four of his works for orchestra written between 1910 and 1930, and they make up a fine overview of his style: attractively scored, heartfelt and Romantic with a capital R. His 1929 Divertimento even shows hints of American jazz with the presence of two saxophones. Gregor Buhl leads the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra in marvelous performances of these winning works. 

Lisette Oropesa— Ombra Compagna: Mozart Concert Arias 

(Pentatone)

She’s already shown off her golden voice in starring roles in Mozart operas, so this new recording by Cuban-American soprano Lisette Oropesa is a no-brainer for her to tackle: a series of standalone arias penned by Mozart, all shaped for the specific singers he had in mind to perform them. In spans of 8 to 15 minutes, Mozart poured everything he had into these pieces, turning them into vocal showcases as virtuosic as they come. Oropesa dives into these arias unafraid of their torturous twists and turns, especially the stunning “Ah lo previdi,” easily the emotional high point of the album. Oropesa’s gorgeous singing is wonderfully accompanied by the Il Pomo d'Oro ensemble, led by the estimable Antonello Manacorda.

February '21 Digital Week IV

VOD/Virtual Cinema/Streaming Releases of the Week 

The Mauritanian 

(SFX Entertainment)

Mohamedou Ould Salahi’s 2015 memoir about his time locked up in Guantanamo accused of recruiting the 9/11 hijackers despite never being charged is memorably if drily dramatized by writer/director Kevin MacDonald. Tahar Rahim’s powerhouse performance as Salahi, whose humanity never wavers despite being imprisoned and tortured for more than a decade, is complemented by Jodie Foster and Shailene Woodley as the lawyers working on his behalf and Benedict Cumberbatch as the officer who discovers his conscience in this at times devastating exposé of how America conducted the war on terror. 

Minari 

(A24)

Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung’s lovely reminiscence of his Korean family’s difficulties realizing their own American dream skirts—and at times unabashedly embraces—sentimentality while following a father, mother, their two young children and, later, grandmother arriving from Korea to help them out after they move from California to Arkansas to begin anew. Although he gets far too melodramatic with a series of pitfalls and disasters, especially near the end, Chung has his heart in the right place, and his film is beautifully acted by all, especially Steven Yeun as dad and Youn Yuh-jung as grandma. 

Sin 

(Corinth Films)

Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky—who’s made his share of duds—has a late-career renaissance underway with 2020’s Dear Comrades and this 2019 biopic of the great artist Michelangelo, made on actual Italian locations in an almost neorealist manner that recalls the Pier Paolo Pasolini’s classic The Gospel According to Matthew and the historical dramas of Roberto Rossellini. Alberto Testone is a believably protean Michelangelo, which has the effect of making him more authentically human, even when his gargantuan artistic ego causes the death of a worker while a massive block of marble is being moved for one of his outsized sculptures. 

Test Pattern 

(Kino Lorber)

After an evening out with her friend and a couple of men whom they meet at a bar, Renesha awakes in the morning in a strange bed, which is only the beginning of her nightmare in writer-director Shatara Michelle Ford’s provocative if dramatically diffuse exploration of how the inefficient bureaucracies of the health care system and, by extension, law enforcement are a double burden for black women. If Ford’s rage often blurs her focus, Brittany S. Hall’s electrifying portrayal of Renesha keeps the drama on track, for the most part. It’s too bad that, as Renesha’s boyfriend Mike, Will Brill gives a flat, mannered performance that mitigates the crucial sense of this interracial couple’s slowly shifting relationship despite what he sees as a sympathetic response to her assault.  

The United States vs. Billie Holiday 

(Hulu) 

Director Lee Daniels and screenwriter Suzan-Lori Parks never find the proper tone for their biopic about the great blues singer Billie Holiday, whose controversial lynching song “Strange Fruit” propelled the government to repeatedly go after her for her drug use: so this 130-minute drama fluctuates wildly between intense character study and meandering montages that mute the power of Lady Day’s voice and her story. Still, all is forgiven when Andra Day’s Billie takes center stage: Day is as captivating as Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues and Audra McDonald in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill were, and is also unafraid to be so emotionally—and physically—naked onscreen, which makes her Billie a uniquely memorable creation.

Blu-ray Releases of the Week

My Dream Is Yours

On Moonlight Bay 

(Warner Archive)

Two of Doris Day’s earliest starring roles in lesser-known musicals are out on Warner Archive. On Moonlight Bay (1951), which finds her as a teenage tomboy in love with a college man (Gordon MacRae), soars when Day sings such tunes as “Cuddle Up a Little Closer” and the title song. My Dream Is Yours (1949), in which she plays an up-and-coming singer who must decide between an established—but declining—crooner (Lee Bowman) and the agent who steered her to stardom (Jack Carson), is memorable when Day performs the title song and “Someone Like You.” These Technicolor productions looks lovely on Blu; extras are period live-action shorts and cartoons.

Resurrection 

(Dynamic)

Italian composer Franco Alfano (1875-1954), best-known for his realization of Puccini’s unfinished opera Turandot, was an accomplished opera composer in his own right: along with his adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, his 1904 version of Leo Tolstoy’s novel Resurrection makes for a compelling experience, particularly in its bizarre but joyful ending. This 2020 Florence, Italy, production is kept aloft by Rosetta Cucchi’s spry direction, the excellent leads—soprano Anne Sophie Duprels as the heroine Katyusha and Matthew Vickers as her love Dmitri—and the sparkling musical direction of Francesco Lanzillotta, who leads the orchestra and chorus. The hi-def video and audio are quite good.

Show Boat 

(Warner Archive)

If George Sidney’s film of the classic Kern-Hammerstein musical lacks dramatic propulsion due to deracinating the pivotal subplot (this was 1951, after all), there’s still much to enjoy: the dancing duo Marge and Gower Champion hoofing it up, William Warfield’s rendition of “Ol’ Man River” and the delightful Kathryn Grayson as the young and impressionable Magnolia. The colors look terrific in Warner Archive’s hi-def transfer; extras comprise Sidney’s commentary, audio tracks of Ava Gardner’s own vocals on two songs (in the film, her singing voice was dubbed by Annette Warren), the 1952 radio theater version and the opening sequence from a 1946 stage production.

DVD Releases of the Week 

Collective 

(Magnolia)

Alexander Nanau’s insightful and engrossing documentary recounts the aftermath of the terrible fire that swept through a Bucharest nightclub in 2015, which killed dozens and severely injured dozens more. By showing how dogged journalists uncovered how crass and uncaring incompetence on the part of the local government and a pharmaceutical company were responsible, not for the disaster but for the fact that so many of the injured were dying despite supposedly superior medical treatment, Nanau has made a timely tribute to the need for a free and independent press.

Sun Flames 

(Marco Polo)

German composer Siegfried Wagner (1869-1930) was nowhere near his father Richard Wagner’s equal as a musical dramatist, as his Sonnenflamen (Sun Flames) shows—it has some gorgeous music but much static plotting, which end up canceling each other out, unfortunately. The most interesting thing about Siegfried’s opera is the production, staged last summer in his father’s famed Bayreuth, Germany, during the Covid lockdown: the barebones set is filled with energetic singers and musicians, who bring this tragic tale of a deserter during the Crusades to fleetingly vivid life.

CD Releases of the Week 

British Music for Strings 

(Chandos)

It might be a coincidence, but Great Britain has had its share of 20th-century “B” composers who are anything but second-rate. This disc collects music for string orchestra by four of them—in chronological order of composition, Frank Bridge, Arthur Bliss, Benjamin Britten and Lennox Berkeley—the latter three of which are major works, written between 1935 and 1939. The short, mournful Lament is by Bridge, Britten’s teacher; Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, a tribute to his teacher, is stylish and witty. Both Bliss’ Music for Strings and Berkeley’s Serenade for Strings provide ample opportunities for the players to shine, individually and together; John Wilson leads the Sinfonia of London in idiomatic and attractive readings of these seminal works. 

Dmitri Shostakovich—Symphonies 9 & 10 

(LSO Live)

After living through the brutality of World War II under the thumb of dictator Joseph Stalin, Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich penned two of his greatest symphonies, the relatively compact but forceful Ninth and the long, languidly powerful Tenth. Conductor Gianandrea Noseda’s deeply committed performances with the London Symphony Orchestra catch all the subtle nuances in these deeply personal works, from the brutality that’s never far from the surface to the often blackly humorous episodes that permeate these often dynamic scores.