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Directors on Disk
Black Narcissus
(1947) Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Written, produced and directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger is how all the Archers films were jointly credited. The Archers of course being Powell & Pressburger's (P&P) production company. Responsible for some of the most beautiful and unusual films of all time, Powell and Pressburger's legacy is virtually unique in the history of film. Independent during a period when that was hardly known, (the '40s and '50s) they crafted a series of startling works that conspire to enthrall and steal one's breath even today when viewed from a distance of 50 years or more. (The Red Shoes - Life and Death of Colonel Blimp - Tales of Hoffman - A Matter of Life and Death - to name a few.) As Michael Powell himself says on the audio commentary, recorded in 1988 shortly before his death, accompanying Criterion's new issue of Black Narcissus - "I think the only reason the Archers are remembered today is because we were making Technicolor films at a time when everyone else was doing it in black and white. And if anyone came up to us and said, 'May I suggest that you...' we simply told them to 'f- off.' This both simplifies, with characteristic self-effacement, and complicates the matter. Martin Scorsese who sits with Powell and occasionally interjects on the track, sees P&P's influence as singularly wide-ranging: "Black Narcissus more than any other film influenced me in the matter and use of close-ups. I used the(se) techniques in The King of Comedy and The Color of Money." Black Narcissus is an undisputed masterpiece - adapted from Rumer Godden's novel it tells the story of a Nunnery in India at the time of the Raj; an exotic Himalayan locale that gradually unsettles the Nuns in various ways. The psychosexual underpinnings of the story were daringly brought forth and the movie courted controversy with the Catholic church. "We shot it all at Pinewood," says Powell, "because I didn't want one of those Korda films where it's half-shot in India and half at the studio. By doing it all in one place we could make a complete whole." Black Narcissus won an Oscar for cameraman Jack Cardiff for its sumptuous and unworldly color - and Criterion's sparkling new transfer does it dazzling digital justice. Also presented is a 27-minute documentary on Jack Cardiff that is adapted from a longer piece. As Scorsese notes at the end of his commentary - "This movie should be seen on the big screen, and by that I mean a bigger one than you find at the multiplex - but at least you're seeing it here, and that's good to learn and study." Thanks to Criterion for keeping Black Narcissus permanently in our sights.
-Nick Redman
The Cell
(2000) Directed by Tarsem Singh
"I went for this project because I saw it as opera," director Tarsem Singh says on one of the two audio commentaries on this New Line Platinum Edition disc of last year's hit. "There is no such thing as a subtle opera. It's a Hindi movie mixed with every other genre possible. So I thought, if I'm going to make it, I want to take it all the way." Which he certainly does in this tale of a
psychotherapist [Jennifer Lopez] who literally gets inside a serial killer's mind to find the location of his soon-to-be latest victim. It's a race against time through a weird hallucinatory landscape of violent and erotic images. Singh won the 1996 DGA Award for Commercial Direction. This is his first feature, and his unique visual eye is amply on display here. In addition to Singh's frequently amusing commentary, the disc features an isolated musical score, theatrical trailers and a documentary - Style as Substance, Reflections of Tarsem. "The story had a serial killer in it, and I thought, 'OK, that seems to be what the audiences want to see today.' But it was the visuals that interested me. They had no boundaries. I always say, 'If it's just ridiculous, it's bad. If it's RIDICULOUS, it's OK."
-Ted Elrick
Chang
(1927) Directed by Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack
Chang, a Siamese word for elephant, tells the tale of a Siamese family and how the jungle impacts their lives. Filmmakers Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, who would later create King Kong, traveled to Siam, living in a village so remote that it took six grueling weeks to get to it. They observed the people for three months before shooting any film. It would take nearly a year in the hot steaming jungle to capture the footage needed to complete the film. "We didn't sit down in the jungle and shoot everything we saw," Cooper tells film historian Rudy Behlmer in an interview conducted in 1965. "[The film] is as carefully constructed as anything made in a studio. We didn't create customs, but we chose what we wanted for the drama." This DVD features not only a beautiful transfer of this early silent film classic replete with man-eating tigers, vicious leopards and an elephant stampede, but also Behlmer's very detailed audio commentary and audio excerpts from his interview with Cooper. Considering how far films have come with CGI and trained animals, the commentary reveals just how dangerous Cooper and Schoedsack's filming was. Schoedsack, who worked the camera, was frequently within mere feet of wild tigers while Cooper stood by armed with a rifle in case anything went wrong. In one very thrilling sequence, a tiger charges up a tree after the cameraman. The filmmakers had been told tigers could only leap 11 feet and had constructed their camera perch at 13 feet. This tiger though leapt 12 1/2 feet, nudging the camera lens while Schoedsack pulled focus.
-T.E.
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
(1972) Directed by Luis Bunuel
This clever satire lampooning the antics of France's politically motivated wealthy classes, is a slice of well-cured ham that would slip down well with the cultivated table wines on display. The joke is though, that as often as these French elite dinner-party givers sit down to enjoy it - they are constantly interrupted by events both real and imagined. This is a film dominated by its radiant women - a stellar group of French actresses (Delphine Seyrig, Bulle Ogier, Stephane Audran among them) who delight, titillate, transfix and ultimately nullify their powerful suitors. The constant interruptus - coital, carnal and carnivorous - reduces the group to anonymity, metaphorically wandering an endless road. Perhaps Bunuel's last great work, Bourgeoisie has lovingly been rendered by Criterion on DVD; (art and Criterion is as neat a fit as any one of Stephane Audran's dresses) and here again the attention to detail and care for its subject shines through. Luis Bunuel, a surrealist par excellence since the earliest days of Un Chien Andalou, would doubtless have enjoyed seeing his work preserved on a shiny, hi-tech digital two-disc set that houses Bourgeoisie in tandem with two documentaries about its misunderstood creator. The first was made in 1970, (The Castaway on the Street of Providence) and is a close look at Bunuel from the perspective of friends, artists and colleagues - it contains fascinating glimpses of Bunuel at home, making martinis and generally being animatedly enigmatic. The second is contemporary, (Regarding Bunuel) and is a formal feature-length biography, painstakingly assembled from fragments of archival footage mixed with interviews and insights. Both docs are in Spanish and subtitled and are terrific examples of artistic portraits of artists. Bunuel may not be everyone's cup of tea or filet mignon, but the beauty of Criterion is they make all movies in their extensive collection collectible - and when stored on a shelf together, present a formidable library of the best world cinema has to offer.
-N.R.
Meet the Parents
(2000) Directed by Jay Roach
"What's great about having Robert De Niro play your father-in-law is that he has a kind of history," reveals director Jay Roach on the audio commentary of the Universal DVD release of his comedic hit from last year. "He's played killers in Mafia films, rogue cops and every dangerous thing you can imagine. So when you stick him in a father's role, it works on all these different kinds of layers. If De Niro plays it as serious and as dangerous as he possibly can, we can imagine that [future son-in-law] Ben Stiller is screwed when he steps into De Niro's world." De Niro's character is a former CIA agent who's very suspicious of people entering his children's lives. Roach, when he shot the dining-room sequence, estimates he shot enough film to make several independent films. "The actors had a hard time keeping straight faces." Some of that footage ends up in the plethora of hysterical outtakes and deleted scenes included on this well-stocked DVD.
-Craig Modderno
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