With some regularity we invite various people, usually university students, over to the house to watch films. Several of them come regularly and we’ve developed something of a disorganized film-studies class. Not that I am qualified to teach such a class but we have great fun, and learn a great deal, watching these films and then discussing them together. Usually these films are of the foreign variety. I’m rather proud of my foreign-film collection actually. We own over 200 foreign films and are constantly buying more.
Again, I don’t consider myself an expert but rather an ever-learning student. One of the main reasons I think of myself as a student is that I’m regularly finding films, both classic and modern, that I’ve never heard of and never seen. This week’s pick of the week is a great example of this.
Martin Scorsese is not only one of the greatest living directors, but he is something of an encyclopedia of film knowledge. A few years ago he created the World Cinema Project with a mission to preserve and present smaller, marginalized, and rarely presented films from around the world. In conjunction with the Criterion Collection, he is presenting six films this week in a very wonderful looking collection.
The six films are Touki Bouki, Redes, A River Called Titats, Dry Summer, Trances, and The Housemaid. They come from all over the world and while I’ve only heard of The Housemaid before a recommendation from Scorsese and the Criterion people makes this collection easily my Pick of the Week.
Also out this week that looks interesting:
Mary Poppins: 50th Anniversary Edition: The practically perfect film gets a Blu-ray upgrade, but is sorely lacking in the new extras category. You can read my full review here.
Big: 25th Anniversary Edition: Another delightful film with an anniversary Blu-ray upgrade. This one comes with lots of fun-looking extras.
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty: There is a new film based on the same story coming to theaters very soon so no doubt this 1947 film is trying to cash in on it.
Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special: The Day of the Doctor: I’m not sure this special featuring three incarnations of The Doctor quite lived up to all the hype, but it was still a lot of fun.
Adore: Naomi Watts and Robin Wright play friends who wind up having affairs with each others sons. That sounds a bit icky, but I like the actresses enough to be interested.
A Serbian Film UNCUT: The apparently edited version was one of the most graphic, disturbing films I’ve seen in recent memory. I don’t want to imagine what they’ve possibly added back in that was considered too much for the original release.
Despicable Me 2: The first one was really kind of wonderful, but the sequel got killed by critics.
