IF YOU DON’T MIND, IT DOESN’T MATTER
The best films on the big theater screen worth seeing are, as previously mentioned in this column: SAMSARA and THE MASTER. ARGO, unseen as of this writing, has great buzz.
As of this writing, nearly 150,000 titles have been released on DVD or Blu-ray. A very small percentage of them are actually entertaining, diverting or enlightening. After all, life’s short enough without wasting it on bad movies. Below are four new home theater titles worthy of consideration. They all toy with notions of a shifting reality.
LES VISITEURS DE SOIR
(THE VISITORS OF THE NIGHT)
This 1942 French film is a wonder. It is also known by the name: THE DEVILS’S ENVOYS. The story is based on a popular 15th century medieval legend in which the Devil, upset at the growing forces of goodness, sends his minions to earth to create despair. The Devil is played by Jules Barry and it’s hard not to notice the Hitler-like performance (remember the year the film was made). But the big surprise here is how Evil cannot thwart the power of true Love, even when two lovers are turned to stone for defying Satan.
This masterpiece, directed by Marcel Carné, is a classic example of world cinema that has something relevant — and radical — to say about the state of the world today. The Criterion Blu-ray edition is of course restored and among the extras is an interesting 2009 making-of documentary.
SACRED SCIENCE
I was fascinated by this short (75 minutes) documentary that follows eight ill persons who travel from our modern 21st century world to the jungles of Peru to seek naturalistic, shamanistic healing of their various distressing medical diagnosis.
This was an official selection for this year’s Environmental Film Festival. Although I felt there was no clear answer to the effectiveness of the primitive procedures for these most sympathetic patients, it was clear no harm was done. In some cases there seemed to be an improvement that defied traditional medical explanations. I was reminded that there’s a lot we don’t know and that the majority of prescriptive pharmaceuticals are extracted (or synthesized) from the 40,000 plus species of blooms, roots and leaves found in the remote rain forests of the world. In fact, many plants have yet to be identified for what may be cures to our worst illnesses (for more info, go to: sacredscience.com).
THE CABIN IN THE WOODS
Horror movie clichés are exploited and then turned upside down in this film that plays with our expectations and fears and especially our love of horror cinemas itself. At first, we get what we expect when five friends go to a remote cabin in the woods and bad things happen. But there’s a lot more going on and it’s not what you could ever predict. I laughed, I jumped and I was provoked to ponder the nature of why we like movies that frighten us. Writer Joss Whedon and director Drew Goddard mess with our minds and deliver a singular piece of entertainment worth finding.
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL
A popular film that had a long run in the CV arrives on disc in an even better looking transfer than on the big theater screen. The simple story revolves around a group of mature Brits who outsource their retirement in less expensive India at what they believe to be the restored — and exotic — Marigold hotel. Naturally, things are not what they seemed in the advert they originally perused.
The big draw here is watching the extraordinary cast do their thing as they discover that letting go of the past as well as expectations of the future allows life and love to blossom again.
Also new on home video is the 3D shark attack movie BAIT. This one‘s about a tsunami that floods a supermarket and traps grocery buyers who have to fight an infestation of sharks. It’s exactly what you think it is.
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