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Sailor Moon is one of the most well-known anime from the last 30 years. Based on a manga that first launched in 1991, the series has been adapted into a beloved 200-episode anime, several films, a live-action drama, and more recently, an anime reboot called Sailor Moon Crystal. And if that legacy weren’t enough, we can now add another film to the franchise: Sailor Moon Eternal.

What Is Sailor Moon Eternal?

As previously mentioned, Sailor Moon Eternal is the latest addition to the Sailor Moon franchise. It’s a two-part anime film based on the Dream arc of the original manga. Despite this, the production has officially dubbed this portion of the Sailor Moon saga the Dead Moon arc, named after the antagonists the Sailor Guardians face.

The film was first announced in 2017 as part of the franchise’s 25th anniversary. It’s meant to be a direct continuation of Sailor Moon Crystal,...

The Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli unveiled a scorching new song, “Pantomima” — the first release from his debut solo album under his own name. Random Desire is out February 21st via Royal Cream/BMG.

“Pantomima” opens with a strong bass line, soft hi-hat taps and a prickly guitar lick that soon opens up into a scream and sets the pace for the rest of the track. The song flies forward with a clutched-fist tension that Dulli expertly controls with a vocal performance that swings between a wail and a soft falsetto.

Stars: Fabienne Tournet, Brett DelBuono, Jamie M Timmons | Written by Daniel Shafer | Directed by Ryan Graff

Black Moon is a horror short directed and with a story written Ryan Graff, who aside from working on a few short films, had done a ton of work as a sound mixer in film and television for over ten years. The screenplay was written by Daniel Shafer (a co-producer on the musical movie Rock of Ages). The film, which runs just over a short seven minutes, follows a young woman who is walking home under a black moon sky and is lured into a tunnel.

I loved the idea of this film, and thought that they nailed it in the short amount of time they had. Underpasses are creepy locations, and seeing them in horror films is, when they occur, usually very effective. I live not too far from an underpass and have...

Produced by Fandango, the new six-part series is directed by Francesca Comencini, Susanna Nicchiarelli and Paola Randi and is set to be released in early 2020. Shooting wrapped yesterday, 15 July, on Black Moon, the new, original Italian series bearing the name of Netflix and revolving around the witchhunts unleased in Italy in the seventeenth century. Directed by a trio of talented directors: Francesca Comencini (Stories of Love That Cannot Belong to this World and director of the TV series Gomorrah), Susanna Nicchiarelli and Paola Randi (Little Tito and the Aliens), and produced by Fandango, the fantasy genre series consists of six episodes which will be available to view on Netflix - in the 190 countries where the platform operates - from the beginning of 2020. Based on Tiziana Triana’s novel intitled “Le città perdute. Luna nera” [The Lost Cities. Black Moon], the first volume in a trilogy,...

Happy Monday, everyone! Before we head into Memorial Day, we have more horror and sci-fi Blu-ray and DVD releases coming our way that should definitely keep genre fans busy for the three-day weekend. Scream Factory is keeping busy with their Blus for The Seduction, The Hunted, and the recent psychological thriller A Dark Place. Shout Select is showing Earthquake some love with their Collector’s Edition this week, and Kino Lorber has two stellar-looking Special Edition releases on their docket as well: Black Moon Rising and Bitter Moon.

Other exciting titles coming home on May 21st include White Chamber, She-Devils on Wheels, A Brilliant Monster, and Crank in 4K.

Black Moon Rising: Special Edition

When master thief Sam Quint is hired by the government to steal top-secret data from a crime organization, he hides the stolen data in the experimental supercar, The Black Moon. But when the car is then...

Netflix has announced a new set of original shows from Europe, including a high-profile soccer origins drama written by “Downton Abbey” creator Julian Fellowes (pictured) and several series focusing on young people.

The shows were announced at a See What’s Next Netflix event in Rome. The projects include:

– from the U.K.: Netflix and London and Los Angeles-based production company 42 will make “The English Game,” a six-part drama “about the invention of modern [soccer] and how those involved in its creation reached across the class divide to establish the game as the world’s most popular sport,” said Netflix Vice President of International Originals Eric Barmack. “It’s part Etonians, part factory workers.”

– from the Netherlands, where Netflix is based: the streaming service’s first Dutch, still-untitled original, produced by Dutch company Pupkin. “It’s set in Amsterdam,” said Barmack, and “involves Dutch students who have it all: youth,...

A forgotten oddity from the early 1970s is Jacques Demy’s English language mounting of The Pied Piper, a rather bleak but mostly unequivocal version of the famed Grimm Bros. fairy tale about a titular piper who infamously lured the children of Hamelin to their assumed deaths after being rebuffed by the townsfolk when he similarly rid the town of plague carrying rats.

Set in the 1300s of northern Germany, this UK production blends bits of Robert Browning’s famed poem of the legend into the film, but the end result is unusually straightforward and unfussy, considering Demy’s predilection for inventive, colorful musicals, such as the classic confections The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort. The stunt casting of Donovan as the piper generates a certain amount of interest, although he’s whittled down to a supporting character amongst a cast of master character actors like Donald Pleasence, John Hurt, Peter Vaughan, and child star Jack Wild.

Notably, The Pied Piper is one of the few Demy films not to be built around a strong, beautiful female lead, which may also explain why there’s no center point in the film. Cathryn Harrison (daughter of Rex, who starred in Louis Malle’s Black Moon) and a gone-to-seed Diana Dors (though not featured as memorably as her swarthy turn in Skolimowski’s Deep End) are the tiny flecks of feminine representation. It was also not Demy’s first English language production, as he’d made a sequel to his New Wave entry Lola (1961) with 1969’s Los Angeles set Model Shop. So what compelled him to make this departure, which premiered in-between two of his most whimsical Catherine Deneuve titles (Donkey Skin; A Slightly Pregnant Man) is perhaps the film’s greatest mystery.

Cultural familiarity with the material tends to work against our expectations. At best, Donovan is a mere supporting accent, popping up to supply mellow, anachronistic music at odd moments before the dramatic catalyst involving his ability to conjure rats with music arrives. Prior to his demeaning, Demy’s focus is mostly on the omnipotent and aggressive power of the corrupting church (Peter Vaughan’s Bishop) and Donald Pleasence’s greedy town leader, whose son (a sniveling John Hurt) is more intent on starting wars and making counterfeit gold to pay his gullible minions than stopping the encroaching plague. Taking the brunt of their violence is the Jewish alchemist, Melius (Michael Hordern), who is wise enough to know the rats have something to do with the spread of the disease. Demy uses his tragic demise to juxtapose the piper’s designs on the children.

While Hurt and Pleasance are entertaining as a toxic father and son, Demy seems estranged from anyone resembling a protagonist. Donovan is instantly forgettable, and the H.R. Pufnstuf and Oliver! child star Jack Wild gets upstaged by a wild mop of hair and a pronounced limp (which explains why he isn’t entranced along with the other children), and the film plays as if Donovan’s role might have been edited down in post. The script was the debut of screenwriters Andrew Birkin (Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, 2006) and Mark Peploe (The Passenger, 1975; The Last Emperor, 1987) who would both go on to write a number of offbeat auteur entries.

Disc Review:

Kino Lorber releases this obscurity as part of their Studio Classics label, presented in 1.66:1. Picture and sound quality are serviceable, however, the title would have greatly benefitted from a restoration. Dp Peter Suschitzky’s frames rightly capture the period, including some awesomely creepy frescoes housing Pleasence and son, but the color sometimes seems faded or stripped from some sequences. Kino doesn’t include any extra features.

Final Thoughts:

More of a curio piece for fans of Demy, The Pied Piper mostly seems a missed opportunity of the creepy legend.

Film Review: ★★½/☆☆☆☆☆

Disc Review: ★★★/☆☆☆☆☆

The post The Pied Piper | Blu-ray Review appeared first on Ioncinema.com.

No one manipulated light like Sven Nykvist. Perhaps the greatest cinematographer of our time, the Swedish-born, two time Oscar-winner (“Cries and Whispers,” “Fanny and Alexander“) saw something in people and their surroundings that most of us can hardly fathom. He was a true master, working with notable directors such as Roman Polanski (“The Tenant“), Louis Malle (“Black Moon,” “Pretty Baby“), Philip Kaufman […]

The post 20-Minute Video Essay On The Brilliant Cinematography Of Sven Nykvist appeared first on The Playlist.

At the time of its production, Louis Malle’s 1978 title Pretty Baby (the title derived from the Tony Jackson song) was quite the scandal, a period piece frankly depicting child prostitution in turn of the century New Orleans. But like many provocative titles from the period (another being Richard Brooks’ Looking For Mr. Goodbar), decades of suppression has resulted in unavailability and a disappearance from modern cinematic conversations. Recently made available courtesy of the Warner Bros. Archive collection (solely on DVD) this is property begging for a more masterful restoration.

In the Red Lights district of 1917 New Orleans, legal prostitution is on the wane as a surge of conservative, religious rhetoric begins to sweep through the country. Nell (Francis Faye) owns a booming brothel in the famed Storyville district, and one of her most notable employees is Hattie (Susan Sarandon), whose twelve-year-old daughter Violet (Brooke Shields) has grown up within the house.

Melissa Rosenberg’s Tall Girls Production has sold drama Sleepless, based on the novel Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun, to Hulu, with Mike Cahill (I Origins, Another Earth) set to write and direct the adaptation. Sleepless is one of two series projects Tall Girls Prods. has set up at linear/digital networks, along with comedy The Mighty Camilla by newcomer Allison Keissling, which is in the works at TV Land. Both projects hail from ABC Signature, the cable division of ABC…...

From thrillers to sci-fi to horror, here's our pick of 20 films from 1986 that surely deserve a bit more love...

A fascinating year for film, 1986. It was a time when a glossy, expensive movie about handsome men in planes could dominate the box-office, sure (that would be Top Gun). But it was also a year when Oliver Stone went off with just $6m and came back with Platoon, one of the biggest hits of the year both financially and in terms of accolades. It was also a period when the British movie industry was briefly back on its feet, resulting in a new golden age of great films - one or two of them are even on this list.

As ever, there were certain films that, despite their entertainment value or genuine brilliance in terms of movie making, somehow managed to slip through the net. So to redress the balance a little,...

Read More: The Zellner Brothers Discover the Best Way to Relax During Sundance Filmmaking brothers Nathan and David Zellner were asked to pick any film from the Criterion Collection and reimagine it as a still-image narrative for the Summer/Fall 2015 issue of Bright Ideas, the independent film culture magazine. The duo chose Louis Malle's 1975 "Black Moon," a dark retelling of "Alice in Wonderland." For two weeks in June, the brothers explored the woods near their Austin, Texas homes and photographed what they found with only a Samsung Galaxy S6, and the results are nothing short of spectacular.  "What we like most about 'Black Moon' is the balance of grounded naturalistic qualities - pastoral setting on location, real animals - with a haunting, other-worldly fable," Nathan Zellner said. The collection of photographs, entitled "Black Something," will appear in the latest issue of Bright Ideas, debuting during Sundance's Next.

The 5th annual Oakland Underground Film Festival, which runs this year on Sept. 25-29, features their usual mix of socially and politically relevant films, challenging genre fare and loads of short films.

The fest opens on the 25th with two provocative documentaries. First up is Tia Lessin and Carl Deal’s Citizen Koch, which shines a spotlight on the behind-the-scenes machinations of the billionaire Koch brothers who have greatly influenced modern politics. (Citizen Koch is also screening for free, which you can RSVP for on the Oakuff website.) Also on the 25th is a profile of Riot Grrrl icon Kathleen Hanna in The Punk Singer, directed by Sini Anderson.

Other films in the fest include the martial arts action romp Death Grip by Eric Jacobius; the anti-bullying drama The Dirties by Matt Johnson; the quirky family shenanigans of Toastmaster by Eric Boadella; and the Closing Night lyrical documentary about life on the U.

Amazon.com are in the midst of offering the last of their DVD and Blu-ray sales deals for the holiday weekend and for Cyber Monday they seem to be doing something special for lovers of the Criterion Collection.

The prestige label offers its classic film titles on Blu-ray at a retail price of $40 and usually sell online for $35. Every now and then Barnes & Noble will hold half price sales with titles going for at least $20. Today, Amazon is selling various key ones for $18 and $21 a piece.

Amongst the titles on offer there's film classics like "8 1/2," "12 Angry Men," "The 39 Steps," "Antichrist," "Being John Malkovich," "Black Narcissus," "Blow Out," "Brazil," "Carlos," "Charade," "Che," "Cronos," "Days of Heaven," "Diabolique," "The Darjeeling Limited," "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas," "The Game," "Godzilla," "Hunger," "In the Mood for Love," "The Last Temptation of Christ," "M," "Night of the Hunter," "Paths of Glory," "Rashomon," "The Red Shoes,...

Travel Channel is getting in the Halloween spirit a little early by announcing its second annual "Weekends to Die For" featuring special Friday-through-Sunday night lineups running throughout the month of October.

From the Press Release:

This fall Travel Channel is the ultimate destination to satisfy your need for thrills and chills. The network kicks off the season with a collection of all-new programming sure to spook and entertain you, while showcasing a multitude of captivating destinations all over the world. The second annual "Weekends to Die For" programming event will anchored by new seasons of the original series “Ghost Adventures,” premiering Friday, September 14th, at 9:00 p.m. Et/Pt, and “Making Monsters,” premiering Sunday, September 30th, at 8:00 p.m. Et/Pt with weekly back-to-back premiere episodes. Additional premieres include the new original series “Paranormal Paparazzi,” beginning Friday, September 28th, at 7:00 p.m. Et/Pt; new episodes of...

When you walk into a Tim Burton movie, you know almost exactly what to expect. For more than the past decade, Burton’s walked a thin line between putting his personal stamp on every movie he makes and complete self-parody — at times managing to do both. As unique as we’re sure Burton would like to think his take is, he’s not the only one who likes making slightly Gothic-tinged movies with a baroque design. All of these movies share some of the same DNA as a Tim Burton movie, so much so that frequently the main distinguishing difference is fewer appearances by Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. And while no, they’re not all as good as Burton’s best work, we can say for certain that literally every one of them is better than Planet of the Apes, which isn't exactly an achievement worth bragging about.

The fourth annual Migrating Forms media festival, which will run May 11-20 at the Anthology Film Archives in NYC, is a compelling mix of political films, pop culture explorations, ethnographic exposés and collections of new media art.

The fest begins and ends with political films directed and curated by Eric Baudelaire. His latest work, The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and 27 Years without Images, opens the festival on May 11; while a pair of films – Masao Adachi & Kôji Wakamatsu’s Red Army/Pflp: Declaration of World War and The Dziga Vertov Group’s Ici et Ailleurs closes it on May 20.

Some of the special events sprinkled throughout the event include Ed Halter‘s survey of faux experimental films made for mainstream movies and TV shows that should prove to be an amazingly entertaining and enlightening discussion; a retrospective of the highly influential animation by Chuck Jones; the interactive...

The 8th annual Brakhage Center Symposium has been programmed by curator Kathy Geritz and will examine the concept of experimental narrative over three days of screenings and lectures on March 16-18 at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Geritz has pulled together a program in which experimental films explore notions of narrative through diverse means, whether combining with documentary or animated elements, or through nonlinear structure, or through the direct experience of time. As Geritz hopes: “In these different ways, the films presented will challenge and expand our expectations as they push the boundaries of storytelling conventions.”

Some of the filmmakers who will be present at the symposium are animators Stacey Steers and Chris Sullivan, experimental documentary filmmaker Amie Siegel and Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul, who will be screening his 1987 acclaimed feature film Syndromes and a Century and the more recent short film Emerald (2007).

Also, film critic and historian J.

Do heavy lower eyeliner and pouty lips make you think of waking up only to realize that you haven't washed off your makeup from the night before? It's a subtly sexy look! Nars lead makeup artist François Nars created this look for the Marc Jacobs Fall 2012 fashion show during New York fashion week. Keep reading to see what products were used to create the models' look. Face: Aqua Gel Luminous Oil-Free Moisturizer (New for Fall 2012!) Pure Radiant Tinted Moisturizer SPF30/Pa+++ Loose Powder Eyes: Pandora Duo Eyeshadow Bali Single Eyeshadow Black Moon Eyeliner Larger Than Life Lengthening Mascara Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara Is this a look you would try? Eden Univer [polldaddy poll=5942613]...

Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

What in the hell is going on with Reverend Cole? In the span of two episodes, he’s gone from a man on a mission of peace to a cold blooded killer, and all it took was a couple of slaps to the face from his estranged daughter and the sight of a few burned bodies to get him there. As far as character development goes, nothing has been handled as sloppily and as poorly as Reverend Cole – his 180-degree turn a consequence of Hell on Wheels’ continual failures with both organic storytelling and pacing. To make matters worse, Cole’s decision to kill in the final moments of “Timshel” is handled in the most over-the-top way imaginable – a violent beheading punctuated by a crazed look in Cole’s eyes.

“Timshel” is chock-full of these ridiculous moments. Black Moon copes with killing his own flesh and...

Did that really just happen? Did the Reverend really cut off that Union soldier's head?

I had a feeling something bad was gonna go down, especially with the Reverend acting like he's been taking a massive dose of crazy pills recently.

Not only does he seem to let his white hair grow out, he doesn't really get dressed anymore, and he stumbles around with a creepy grin on his face. The Revered is clearly off his rocker and I love it.

Tom Noonan is giving a fantastic performance as Reverend Cole and even though I still think the change in character was sharply drastic and immediate, it's turned into something oddly compelling. Who would have thought that a man of God would turn into an extreme danger and problem?

It looks as if the outside danger of the Cheyenne is shifting back toward the in-the-camp danger. Once again, I'm surprised...

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

It’s pretty apparent at this stage of Hell on Wheels’ first season that the show isn’t very good at being what it wants to be. It’s got big ideas on its mind, but has continually failed to put those big ideas to any sort of meaningful or compelling use. But when the show ditches its feigned depth and delivers something a little more straightforward, it’s actually a decent watch. This week’s episode does just that, returning to part of what made “Immortal Mathematics” work so well – a genuine, gritty face off between two characters.

The big fight between Cullen and Elam, a result of Durant’s desperate need to draw attention away from his inability to pay his workforce, was quite a thrill to watch unfold, even if everything else surrounding it was business as usual. It was brutal, unpredictable, and,...

Hell on Wheels, Season 1, Episode 2: “Immoral Mathematics”

Written by Tony and Joe Gayton

Directed by David Von Ancken

Airs Sundays at 10pm Et on AMC

After a lackluster pilot episode which, like many pilots, was used mainly as a broad set up for the entirety of the season, episode two of Hell on Wheels, “Immoral Mathematics,” starts to dig a little beneath the surface.

The show still has various flaws one would hope it can overcome. For instance, many of the characters are rather cliché and even stereotypical at times, but, the show has admirable energy and enthusiasm that keeps it (pardon my pun) chugging along.

“Immoral Mathematics” picks up on the following day when the pilot ended. The Foreman has been found murdered, and our star, Cullen Bohannan (Anson Mount) is the prime suspect. The chief of security for the camp, known as The Swede (Christopher Heyerdahl) plans...

Wilco: The Whole Love (dBpm)

The last two extra tracks on the deluxe version are "Speak into the Rose," a wonderfully propulsive Krautrock rip, and a less-plush alternate take of "Black Moon," a gently jangling ballad that delicately wafts the deluxe album to a beautiful, tender conclusion. Think about the contrast there, then imagine them combined in one song. You've basically imagined the whiplash-inducing opening track on the main album. I've had my problems with Wilco in the past: S/T was kinda boring, Sky formulaically pretty, the Jim O'Rourke-induced artiness of Ghost too stiffly self-conscious. Here, the beauty and the experimentation have been more organically merged, suggesting that Nels Cline has finally gelled as a member.

read more...

Wilco: The Whole Love (dBpm)

The last two extra tracks on the deluxe version are "Speak into the Rose," a wonderfully propulsive Krautrock rip, and a less-plush alternate take of "Black Moon," a gently jangling ballad that delicately wafts the deluxe album to a beautiful, tender conclusion. Think about the contrast there, then imagine them combined in one song. You've basically imagined the whiplash-inducing opening track on the main album. I've had my problems with Wilco in the past: S/T was kinda boring, Sky formulaically pretty, the Jim O'Rourke-induced artiness of Ghost too stiffly self-conscious. Here, the beauty and the experimentation have been more organically merged, suggesting that Nels Cline has finally gelled as a member.

Later tracks find their '70s rock fixation leading to some mildly psychedelic touches, some gritty garage-rock moves (even Mysterians-esque organ on "I Might"), a light-hearted update of The Band's sound...

“Black Moon Rising” is one of those rare 80′s films that’s a bit of an amalgamation– it’s a B list film with an A list pedigree. The leads are Academy Award winner Tommy Lee Jones, and veteran thespians Linda Hamilton, Robert Vaughan, William Sanderson, and Nick Cassavettes. Even better, the script was conceived by the legendary John Carpenter, a man revered in most cinematic circles. Yet it’s from Roger Corman’s New World Pictures, and helmed by a director who exchanged low budget films for television. So how does this cross pollination of differentiated talent bear out? Surprisingly well, presenting a diverting action film that’s the cream of the 80′s adventure genre. The Black Moon of the title is a hyper advanced automobile, designed by Nasa and capable of exceeding over 300 miles per hour. It’s also got an unexpected optional extra not factory installed–a...

'We wouldn't do a Black Moon album without that,' Buckshot tells Mixtape Daily of Da Beatminerz touch.

By Rob Markman

Black Moon

Photo: MTV News

Behind the Beats: Da Beatminerz

In 1993, Brooklyn rap trio Black Moon made their debut and stood right alongside New York rap titans like Nas, Method Man and the Notorious B.I.G. With boom-bap singles like "Who Got Da Props?" and "I Got Cha Opin (Remix)," Buckshot, 5ft. and DJ Evil Dee were torchbearers for East Coast hip-hop. After a six-year hiatus, the group would go on to release their second album, 1999's War Zone, and their third LP, Total Eclipse, in 2003.

Now that the group has once again joined together for the 2011 Rock the Bells tour, many fans are wondering if there will be another reunion album in the works. The answer is yes, but things may take a while.

"There's only one thing holding up the album: me,...

Mobb Deep, Slaughterhouse, Erykah Badu and more revisit classic material for a day of hip-hop celebration on New York stop.

By Rob Markman

Nas at Rock The Bells

Photo: MTV News

New York — Thousands of rap fans gathered in hip-hop's birth city for a daylong celebration of the genre's classics. Nas, Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Wu-Tang Clan's Raekwon and Ghostface Killah all performed at the Rock the Bells 2011 festival on Governor's Island in New York City on Saturday (September 3).

The musical tour was comprised of four stages, including the main Rock the Bells stage, the Wu-inspired 36 Chambers stage and the underground-themed Paid Dues stage. More than 20 acts, including Mobb Deep, Slaughterhouse, Black Moon, Big K.R.I.T., the Immortal Technique and Gza, performed, with some dedicating their sets to their own classic albums; others devoted their shows to just a gang of fan-favorites.

The festivities kicked off at approximately 2 p.

Once again, the Wndx Festival of Film and Video Art will be celebrating the best in new and classic Canadian avant-garde, experimental and underground filmmaking with a little flair for the international thrown in. Wndx’s 6th annual edition is set to run on Sep. 29 to Oct. 2 in the city of Winnipeg.

This year, Wndx is paying special homage to two great Canadian artistic filmmakers: The late Joyce Wieland and Guy Maddin. For Wieland, the fest is holding two special retrospectives of the experimental filmmaker’s works spanning from 1965 to 1984. (Wieland passed away in 1998.) The first retrospective on Oct. 1 is a collection of all short films, such as Cat Food (1969) and A&B in Ontario (1984), which was co-directed with he contemporary Hollis Frampton. The second retrospective on Oct. 2 includes Wieland’s feature film Reason Over Passion (1969), plus two shorts.

From Sep. 2 to Oct. 1, Wndx is hosting Guy Maddin‘s Hauntings installation at the Platform Gallery.

Time is an annoying thing, it ticks away, aging us all and leaving behind things we meant to do, but never got around to. This is a statement that can be related to just about anything in our short lives, but in this case it happens to be my opening for a large batch of Criterion Collection Blu-rays I, shamefully, never got around to fully reviewing after mentioning them in my weekly DVD and Blu-ray columns. For some of you that is enough, for others you would like more, this is my attempt to clean off the shelves and start anew.

Let's get started...

Diabolique

Thanks to my trip to the Cannes Film Festival I got so backed up with my Criterion reviews I was never able to recover, so I'm heading as far back as May 17, when Criterion issued brand new DVD and Blu-ray editions of Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique,...

For their 5th annual event, which is set to run Sept. 8-11, the Sydney Underground Film Festival is looking a little more demented than ever. And that’s saying a lot for this scrappy, still relatively young fest, which typically offers ample twisted cinematic offerings.

The fun kicks off with the Opening Night film, the demented superhero comedy Super, written and directed by former Troma go-to screenwriter James Gunn (Tromeo & Juliet); then ends with the Closing Night wallowing in Sydney’s seedy underbelly, X, by homegrown filmmaker Jon Hewitt.

Crammed between these two excursions into violence and depravity is a lineup filled with perverse visions, scandalous public figures, sickening horror, experimental pop culture remixes and more.

For Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, the highlight of the fest is Usama Alshaibi‘s Profane, a complex psychological, psychosexual, spiritual morality play about a Muslim sex worker who endures a “reverse...

Chicago – The Criterion Collection recently inducted two of beloved French filmmaker Louis Malle’s most surreal works, a great double feature given their thematic commonalities and the chance to view how a notorious director changed and challenged himself at two distinctly different points in his career. Neither are among Malle’s best work, but both films feature something most modern directors for hire don’t have the chance to do — playing with the limits of the form and their own ability. Both “Zazie Dans Le Metro” and “Black Moon” are now available on Criterion Blu-ray and DVD.

“Zazie Dans Le Metro” (1960)

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0

Synopsis: “A brash and precocious eleven-year-old (Catherine Demongeot) comes to Paris for a whirlwind weekend with her rakish uncle (Philippe Noiret); he and the viewer get more than they bargained for in this anarchic comedy from Louis Malle, which treats the City of Light as though it...

The post-apocalyptic landscape is a pretty familiar setting by this point, with most of us at least in part prepared for the day when rule of law has been replaced by the savagery of warring clans and 80s leather punk returns as the defining fashion of the era. It is a cruel, bleak place, where all pleasures are transient and all  victories are of a moral sort, insignificant in the larger scope of things. But what if, rather than devolutionary, the breakdown of society was a cathartic event, allowing us to express feelings and ideas that would never otherwise find traction in a world where people have to, you know, go to work and be responsible for each other? It's never clear exactly why any of the characters in Black Moon are doing any of the things that they're doing, but one thing is certain: no one would be going...

DVD Playhouse—July 2011

By Allen Gardner

The Music Room (Criterion) Satyajit Ray’s 1958 masterpiece looks at the life of a fallen aristocrat as a metaphor for an India that is not only becoming Westernized, but modernized technologically and culturally beyond recognition. When the beloved music room, where he has hosted lavish concerts in the past, starts falling into disrepair as attendance drops steadily, the man realizes his way of life is vanishing. Stunningly shot in black & white, one of Ray’s finest works. Bonuses: Documentary on Ray from 1984 by Shyam Benegal; Interviews with Ray biographer Andrew Robinson and filmmaker Mira Nair; Excerpt from 1981 roundtable discussion between Ray, critic Michael Ciment, director Claude Sautet. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.

Beauty And The Beast (Criterion) Jean Cocteau’s sublime adaptation of the classic fairy tale become a beloved classic upon its 1946 release, and hasn’t faded since.

Disc 2 episodes are bonus / supplement episodes of The Criterion Cast. Ryan Gallagher, James McCormick & Travis George are joined by Moises Chiullan to chat about the weeks new releases on DVD and Blu-ray, as well as what they’ve been watching. “Off the Shelf” runs through the week’s new releases on DVD and Blu-ray, while “On The Screen” is where they discuss what they’ve been watching over the past week. This is what they recommend to you, the listeners.

What do you think of the show? Send your feedback to CriterionCast@gmail.com or call their voicemail line @ 209-877-7335 or follow them on twitter @CriterionCast or comment on their blog, http://CriterionCast.com.

Thank you for listening. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast and leave your reviews in iTunes.

Our next episode they will highlight and discuss Criterion # 356 Jane Campion’s 1989 film, Sweetie.

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"Ah, the pungent odor, the fermented esprit, the sulfurous insanity of the New York Asian Film Fest!" exclaims Michael Atkinson, introducing his overview of the lineup in the Voice. "It's a new year for the city's favorite attack of the imported-irrational, and as always, the jejune state of the late-spring/early-summer box office gets a shot in the ass. The pulp is especially ripe this year, particularly from Japan, where manga-ness seems to have gone from a national pastime to a mass psychosis."

For R Emmet Sweeney, writing for TCM, "most of the revelations in this year's slate came in the Nyaff sidebar, Sea of Revenge: New Korean Thrillers, so I'll focus there." Michael J Anderson splits the difference, concentrating on Takashi Miike's Ninja Kids!!! and Na Hong-jin's The Chaser (image above). Time Out New York's got a slide of "titles worth cutting class for." Cinespect's Ryan Wells picks...

Rank the week of June 28th’s Blu-ray and DVD new releases against the best films of all-time:new Releasesthe Warrior’S Way

(Blu-ray and DVD | R | 2010)

Flickchart Ranking: #8698

Times Ranked: 631

Win Percentage: 39%

Top-20 Rankings: 0

Directed By: Sngmoo Lee

Starring: Kate Bosworth • Geoffrey Rush • Danny Huston • Tony Cox • Dong-gun Jang

Genres: Action • Fantasy • Martial Arts • Western

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Sucker Punch

(Blu-ray and DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #2081

Times Ranked: 4896

Win Percentage: 44%

Top-20 Rankings: 19

Directed By: Zack Snyder

Starring: Emily Browning • Abbie Cornish • Jena Malone • Vanessa Hudgens • Carla Gugino

Genres: Action • Adventure • Drama • Fantasy • Fantasy Adventure • Girls-with-Guns • Psychological Drama • Thriller

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Season Of The Witch

(Blu-ray and DVD | PG13 | 2011)

Flickchart Ranking: #9846

Times Ranked: 1288

Win Percentage: 36%

Top-20 Rankings: 4

Directed By: Dominic Sena

Starring: Nicolas Cage • Ron Perlman • Stephen Campbell Moore • Stephen Graham • Ulrich Thomsen

Genres: Action • Action Thriller • Adventure • Adventure Drama • Drama • Fantasy • Fantasy Adventure • Supernatural Thriller • Thriller • Witchcraft

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Louis Malle is an interesting name in the annals of cinematic history. Best known for films like Au Revoir, Les Enfants or Atlantic City, the French auteur also spent time doing a documentary mini-series in India, and even a series of documentaries here stateside. Toss in a few experimental films like Black Moon and this review’s topic Zazie Dans Le Metro, and you have a filmography that is as schizophrenic as the style of the man behind the camera.

Read more on Criterion Collection Blu-ray Review: Zazie Dans Le Metro...

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The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy (Extended Editions) I watched all three of these on Blu-ray over the course of last week and can tell you right now they are excellent transfers from the video on down to the audio. These transfers are light years ahead of the rather low rent, yet passable, theatrical Blu-ray versions that were released last April, but there are always factors to consider here.

First off, do you already own these extended editions on DVD? If so, perhaps you don't need to buy these just yet. The one thing I would mention that should probably be taken into consideration is to ask just how likely you believe you are to buy some sort of mega-Blu-ray set that includes not only the Lord of the Rings trilogy, but also the two...

We are half-way through 2011. This Tuesday marks the release of the last three June titles that Criterion is releasing: Zazie Dans Le Metro, Black Moon, and People On Sunday. We thought that we’d take some time out of our busy lives to reflect upon the past six months of releases (34 releases, not including the Eclipse sets) from the Criterion Collection, and share our thoughts on our favorite releases.

Top Ten lists are usually formed around the end of the year, but it’s a nice exercise to keep those titles that were released in the first half, so we don’t fall prey to our short attention spans and heap praise on those titles that were released closer to the winter.

When I proposed this assignment to the group, I just asked for their “X” favorite titles of 2011 so far, with very little direction given as to how many to choose,...

Your Weekly Source for the Newest Releases to Blu-Ray Tuesday, June 28th, 2011

Black Moon: The Criterion Collection (1975)

Directed by: Louis Malle

Starring: Cathryn Harrison, Therese Giehse

Criterion.com Synopsis: Louis Malle meets Lewis Carroll in this bizarre and bewitching trip down the rabbit hole. After skirting the horrors of a mysterious war being waged in the countryside, beautiful young Lily (Cathryn Harrison) takes refuge in a remote farmhouse, where she becomes embroiled in the surreal domestic life of an extremely unconventional family. Evocatively shot by cinematographer Sven Nykvist, Black Moon is a Freudian tale of adolescent sexuality set in a post-apocalyptic world of shifting identities and talking animals. It is one of Malle’s most experimental films and a cinematic daydream like no other.

Camille 2000: Extended Version (1969)

Directed by: Radley Metzger

Starring: Daniel Gaubert, Nino Castelnuovo

IMDb.com Synopsis: Marguerite, a beautiful woman of affairs, falls for the young and promising Armand,...

It’s another week which means another round up of all the titles Criterion has put up on their Hulu Plus page. And it’s a great smorgasbord of releases that will keep your eyes full until the next installment. Also, thanks again to everyone who has signed up for Hulu Plus via our referral page. Please sign up and let us know what you think of the service. Enough of this small talk, let’s get into the nitty gritty.

Last week’s article spoke about Louis Malle’s films being put up and sure enough, only a few days later they finally released Black Moon to their page, showing a film that will be coming out on June 28th. I love that they’re doing that with releases that are coming out, just to give their audience the film itself and if you like it, you’ll want to grab the whole package.

There are Tons of new releases this past week, and as my co-host and friend Travis George said, it was going to be a hell of a time to write these up for all of you people out there who want to know about Criterion’s blossoming Hulu Plus page. And as usual, I’m elated to tell you all about these films, especially if you want to join up to the service, which helps us keep this weekly article series going. I mean, come on, there’s an Ingmar Bergman film that’s not in the collection yet! More on that at the end of the article. So let’s get right to it then.

The epic film The Human Condition (1959) has been put up, separated into three videos. Parts 1 & 2, Parts 3 & 4 and Parts 5 & 6 are there for your ease of watching, so if you have 574 minutes to kill watching the...

Four-city festival, kicking off August 20, will feature several artists playing entire albums.

By Rob Markman

Lauryn Hill

Photo: Chris Kim

Lauryn Hill, Nas, Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep and Cypress Hill — this year's Rock the Bells festival looks to be a hip-hop fan's dream.

Last year Guerilla Union invited headlining artists to play their classic albums in full for concertgoers, and it looks land they are continuing the trend for 2011. During the four festival dates, which kick off in San Bernardino, California, on August 20 at the San Manuel Amphitheater, Lauryn Hill is scheduled to play her 1998 multi-platinum, Grammy-winning The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill from beginning to end. Nas is tapped to perform his 1994 classic, Illmatic.

"For years, people have been asking me to do Illmatic in so many ways, from stage plays to movies to books, but the time wasn't right. Where music is going now, the time is right," Nas said in a statement.

A new international metal supergroup (a lot of those seem to be cropping up lately) has appeared on the horizon – this time assembled by Cradle of Filth frontman (and FEARnet fave) Dani Filth, Anthrax guitarist Rob Caggiano, former Gorgoroth bassist King ov Hell, and former White Zombie drummer John Tempesta. Calling themselves Temple of the Black Moon, the quartet describe their sound as "music for an evil film noir," and they've already got nearly an album's worth of demos recorded. Find out more about the band's evil scheme, courtesy of Dani himself... "Imagine a cauldron bubbling over with the unsavory flavors of Tool and Celtic Frost and seasoned with the likes of Immortal and At the Gates,...

It’s so strange, writing this so long after the announcement yesterday. In today’s internet world of instant information, and twenty four second news cycles, yesterday’s August 2011 Criterion Collection new releases may as well have happened last week, or last month. I’m sure that the page views for this post will be markedly smaller than the usual, as I have tried consistently to have the new release post up within minutes of the pages going live on Criterion’s website. I know this all sounds like inside baseball stuff, but it’s on my mind, and darn it, this is my website.

I had a whole, several paragraph long, write up of the August titles, but since I’m finding myself writing this at 10pm on Tuesday evening, I think it’s better if I just scrap that whole thing and start over. I was going on...

The 6th annual Montreal Underground Film Festival presents 3 nights of wild and wooly short films from around the world at various venues around the city on May 12-14.

The fest kicks off with a lineup of 8 short films, plus the World Premiere of Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare’s Main Attraction, about a magician and his resident freaks fending off an eviction from their home. DeGiglio-Bellemare is a member of the Montreal media arts collective Volatile Works and features special effects by underground artist Rick Trembles and Andy Mauro. Also in the Opening Night kick-off is the not-to-be-missed hilarious music video Goths! On the Bus by Karen & Jaimz Asmundson.

Then, the fest continues on the 13th and the 14th with several programming blocks of short films hailing from Canada, the U.S., Germany, the Czech Republic, Serbia, Finland, the U.K. and other countries.

Some standouts in the fest include Zachary Epcar‘s...

Plastic Paper is Winnipeg’s celebration of animation, illustration and puppet films, organized by the Big Smash! filmmaking collective. Their second annual event will be held on May 4-8 at the Park Theatre.

The big score for this year’s edition is a special screening of Ralph Bakshi’s 1981 feature-length musical opus American Pop with the filmmaker in attendance for a post-screening Q&A. For this groundbreaking work, Bakshi utilized the innovative technique of mixing rotoscoping, water colors, computer graphics, live action shots, and archival footage. This screening and discussion will be a real treat for animation junkies.

But that’s not to say that the rest of the festival isn’t also filled with other amazing films.

Because, speaking of groundbreaking work, the fest kicks off with Brent Green’s simply astounding film Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then, the first full-length film utilizing real-life actors in amazing stop-motion animation.

Updated through 4/28.

La Semaine de la Critique, known in the English-speaking world as Critics' Week, is celebrating its 50th year, and festivals and institutions from all over — and we at Mubi are excited to be among them — are chiming in with special series and retrospectives saluting some the greatest film that have premiered at this parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival. Watch this space for upcoming details. Meantime, here's the lineup for Critics' Week 2011.

Feature Films

Hagar Ben Asher's The Slut. This debut feature "will tell of a woman (Ben Asher herself) drifting away from one sexual encounter to another," writes Eithan Weitz at Ioncinema. Tamar’s behavior is fixed. One man after another, a hand job, a blow job, and so on. But she is also the mother of Mika and Noa, 12 and 8. She no longer seeks redemption, until Shai arrives. He comes in order to handle his dead mother’s property.

The 50th edition of the Cannes Critics Week announced its lineup on Monday. War is declared by French director Valerie Donzelli will be the opening film of the Critics Week. Why are you crying? by Katia Lewcowicz will be the closing film of the selection.

The Special Session will include screening of Walk Away Renee by Jonathan Caouette (Etats-Unis/France/Belgique) and My Little Princess by Eva Ionesco (France).

Founded in 1962 by the Union of French Film Critics, the Critics Week is the oldest of the Cannes festival sidebars. Each year, a panel of international critics selects around a dozen shorts and features from first and second-time filmmakers to compete in this section.

This year, the event will take place from May12-20, 2011.

The complete lineup:

Feature films

Las Acacias by Giorgelli Pablo (Argentina / Spain)

Hail by Konstantin Bojanov (Bulgaria / France)

17 girls by Delphine Coulin, Coulin Muriel (France)

Sauna on...