Today marks the launch of our new recurring column, which dives into the cream of the crop when it comes to this week’s home releases, including Blu-ray and DVD, as well recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best films one can take home. Note that every purchase you make through the links below helps support the site and is greatly appreciated.
Marketa Lazarová (Frantisek Vlácil)
Often cited as a towering Czech masterpiece, it would be disingenuous to call this film easily digestible. While some cinephiles might find the work of Terrence Malick or Andrei Tarkovsky “hard” and “difficult” to comprehend, Marketa Lazarová cannot even compare: in Tom Gunning’s essay on the film, he admits “it took me four viewings before I figured out the incidents of [the film’s] plot.” Even if the film is difficult, however, the filmmaking itself is astonishingly radical and breathtaking; Vláčil’s aesthetic approach is audacious, even when compared to his contemporaries like Jean-Luc Godard, Miklós Jancsó, and Andrei Tarkovsky. Cited as an attempt to create “Film-Opera,” Lazarová’s jarring editing patterns, constant change in focal / depth length, and unannounced shifts between objective & subjective points of view all make this work intensely baffling, but also compelling to watch — as if the director is reinventing cinematic language. – Peter L.
See Also: Marketa Lazarova Hits Criterion: Unpacking the Czech New Wave Masterpiece
Safety Last! (Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor)
After its iconic imagery was the driving force behind Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo, a restored 2K transfer of Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor‘s 1923 classic Safety Last! is finally coming to The Criterion Collection following a theatrical re-release. Featuring legendary silent film star Harold Lloyd, the film follows his character pursuit’s in the big city, leading up its remarkable skyscraper stunt. Also included on the disc is three restored Lloyd-centered shorts, Take a Chance (1918), Young Mr. Jazz (1919), and His Royal Slyness (1920), as well as a feature-length 1989 documentary on the screen talent, Harold Lloyd: The Third Genius. If one adores the works of Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin, but has yet to see a film featuring Lloyd, this release is the ideal primer. – Jordan R.
See Also: Safety Last! Hits Criterion: A Short Take On Three Rare Harold Lloyd Short Films
Stoker (Park Chan-wook)
Following a Sundance premiere and spring release, Fox Searchlight is bringing Park Chan-wook‘s English-language debut Stoker to Blu-ray this week. While I was lukewarm on the film in Park City, I’ve warmed up to the opinion that the Oldboy director’s lavish, constantly unsettling visual style more than makes up for Wentworth Miller‘s half-baked script. As Park Chan-wook has said before, he makes films that only exist in his own, twisted world and with extraordinary transitions and motivated camera movement, his jump to Hollywood meant losing none of his technique. Featuring a handful of scenes that will stick with you to the year’s end and beyond, this Mia Wasikowska-led (literal) coming-of-age tale is well worth your time. – Jordan R.
See Also: Stoker Director Park Chan-wook On Translation, VFX, Hollywood Remakes of His Films & More, The Vampire Mythos of Shadow of a Doubt and Stoker, [Sundance Review] Stoker, TFS Show Ep. 47 – Stoker
Things to Come (William Cameron Menzies)
Even after 13-plus years of putting titles on the DVD and Blu-ray market, it feels as if Criterion can still break new ground in more recent offerings. Such is the case with Things to Come, a highly ambitious (especially for its time) piece of speculative fiction that ventures into the sci-fi realm without once resorting to spaceship action or sacrificing genuine, tangible human conflict — by all means an example of what the genre should always aspire to. Its use of a century-long narrative still strikes in its ambition to sweep away — Things to Come even, on occasion, comes across as an unexpected prelude of sorts to Cloud Atlas — and, for this daring example of cinematic storytelling, it manages to pack the historical value we’d expect this company to provide in their releases. That it’s all rather fun is just icing on the cake. – Nick N.
Rent: The Brass Teapot, Jack the Giant Slayer, Quartet
Recommended Deals of the Weeks
The American (Blu-ray) – $4.99
Battle Royale (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Blu-ray) – $7.99
The Cabin in the Woods (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Chinatown (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Cool Hand Luke (Blu-ray) – $8.49)
Collateral (Blu-ray) – $6.16
Die Hard (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Departed (Blu-ray) – $9.56
The French Connection (Blu-ray) – $10.99
Goodfellas (Blu-ray) – $9.56
Haywire (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Inception (Blu-ray) – $9.56
Jack Reacher (Blu-ray) – $13.00
Lawrence of Arabia (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Man with No Name Trilogy (Blu-ray) – $19.73
Memento (Blu-ray) – $7.99
Miller’s Crossing (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Michael Clayton (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Once Upon a Time in the West (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Patton (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Pulp Fiction (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Seven (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Taxi Driver (Blu-ray) – $9.99
The Thing (Blu-ray) – $8.99
Trainspotting (Blu-ray) – $7.79
Young Frankenstein (Blu-ray) – $9.99
Zodiac (Blu-ray) – $9.99
What are you picking up this week?