In This Issue:

May 2010

What's New on DVD

Crude (2009)

Documentary. Brainy/Intense.
Color. 108 mins. Unrated. Directed By Joe Berlinger.
Berlinger's exposé takes us to the heart of the ancient Cofán nation, where lack of clean drinking water and an epidemic of cancer has caused untold misery for Indian natives. Leading the David and ... Read More >
 

Gomorrah (2008)

Drama/Foreign/Mystery/Suspense. Intense/Spine-tingling.
Color. 137 mins. Unrated. Directed By Matteo Garrone. Starring Tony Servillo, Salvatore Abruzzese, Gianfelice Imparato, Salvatore Cantalupo, Marco Macor and Ciro Petrone.
Shot in the grimy streets and bombed-out apartment flats of an Italian edge town, and based on a best-selling tell-all by Roberto Saviano (who was forced into hiding after the book's publication), ... Read More >
 

Ponyo (2008)

Family. Wholesome/Witty.
Animated. 108 mins. Rated G. Directed By Miyazaki. Starring Noah Lindsey Cyrus, Liam Neeson, Frankie Jonas and Cate Blanchett.
A fabulous, fantastical twist on Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid, Miyazaki's "Ponyo" tells the story of an enchanting goldfish whose desire to become human unleashes a tsunami of ... Read More >
 

Revanche (2008)

Foreign/Mystery/Suspense. Intense/Spine-tingling.
Color. 121 mins. Unrated. Directed By Gotz Spielmann. Starring Johannes Krisch and Irina Potapenko.
Two couples find their lives entwined in surprisingly cathartic ways in Gotz Spielmann's tense, Oscar-nominated dramatic thriller "Revanche," which effectively collides portraits of seamy city life ... Read More >
 

Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy: Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero (1948)

Foreign/Longer Films/Film Series/Collections/War/Westerns. Intense/Moving/Scenic.
Black & White. 302 mins. Unrated. Directed By Roberto Rossellini. Starring Aldo Fabrizi and Anna Magnani.
Italian master of neorealism Roberto Rossellini pioneered the use of location shooting, nonprofessional actors, and a meld of documentary and cinema techniques in his world-renowned and deeply moving ... Read More >
 

Seraphine (2008)

Drama/Foreign. Brainy/Moving.
Color. 125 mins. Unrated. Directed By Martin Provost. Starring Ulrich Tukur and Yolande Moreau.
"Seraphine" is a brilliant, moving, and incredibly absorbing biopic about a little-known "modern primitive" painter whose emergence from toil and obscurity is tainted by war and hints of mental ... Read More >
 

The Beaches of Agnes (2010)

Documentary/Foreign. Brainy/Offbeat/Scenic.
Color. 110 mins. Unrated. Directed By Agnes Varda.
Combining film imagery, still photographs, and symbolic, stylized recreations of important events in her always colorful, endlessly fascinating public and private life, Varda's "Beaches" is a ... Read More >
 

Up (2009)

Family. Moving/Wholesome/Witty.
Animated. 96 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Pete Docter. Starring Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer and Jordan Nagai.
The first 10 minutes of Pete Docter's instant Pixar classic "Up" is, quite simply, a masterpiece of emotional filmmaking, detailing Carl's long, happy life with his spouse, from childhood to old age, ... Read More >
 

Theme of the Month: Let's Dance!

Dancing around the maypole dates back to pagan times when northern Europeans danced around a fire to celebrate the onset of spring and fertility. By the Middle Ages, the fire had been replaced by a maypole and its observance, one of joy and merriment rather than ancient fertility rites. In America, the Puritans frowned on this tradition, so it never enjoyed the same popularity as in Great Britain. This month we're going to change that. We've selected 11 movies that are all about dance and the joy of movement. Let's dance!

An American in Paris (1951)

Musicals. Tuneful/Wholesome.
Color. 113 mins. Unrated. Directed By Vincente Minnelli. Starring Gene Kelly, Oscar Levant and Leslie Caron.
Set to an incomparable Gershwin score, this exquisite film still mesmerizes. Gorgeously photographed by John Alton, and invigorating from first song to last, "American" swept the 1951 Oscars, thanks ... Read More >
 

Ballets Russes (2005)

Documentary. Moving/Brainy.
Color. 118 mins. Unrated. Directed By Daniel Geller. Starring Yvonne Chouteau and Dayna Goldfine.
Geller and Goldfine's enthralling, transporting portrait of the epoch-defining institution pirouettes with some of dance history's biggest legends, including surviving alumni Yvonne Chouteau, ... Read More >
 

Billy Elliot (2000)

Comedy/Drama. Moving/Witty.
Color. 111 mins. Rated R. Directed By Stephen Daldry. Starring Jamie Bell and Julie Walters.
Anchored by Bell's soulful lead performance, "Billy Elliot" is an intelligent, often humorous coming-of-age drama by veteran stage director Daldry about masculine prejudice and the promise of escape ... Read More >
 

Dancemaker (1998)

Documentary. Intense/Tuneful.
Color. 98 mins. Unrated. Directed By Matthew Diamond. Starring Paul Taylor Dance Company.
As glimpsed by director-interviewer Matthew Diamond, Taylor is at once a brutal task-master, insecure about his work, and overall, a somewhat remote human being, owing to a solitary early life in ... Read More >
 

Mad Hot Ballroom (2005)

Documentary/Family. Offbeat/Tuneful/Wholesome.
Color. 105 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Marilyn Agrelo. Starring Graciela Daniele and Tara Devon Gallagher.
There's enough sizzle in this wonderful doc to power hundreds of preteen dance lessons, especially as the kids Agrela features-Dominican and Italian, uptowners and outer-borough residents-come from ... Read More >
 

Shall We Dance? (1997)

Comedy/Foreign/Romance. Moving/Witty.
Color. 135 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Masayuki Suo. Starring Koji Yakusho and Tamiyo Kusakari.
Delightful from head to heel, this sweet-natured comedy examines the liberation of a buttoned-down salaryman in a society where flamboyant self-expression is a kind of unspoken taboo, especially for ... Read More >
 

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Cornerstone Titles/Family/Musicals. Farr-cical/Tuneful/Wholesome.
Color. 103 mins. Rated G. Directed By Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly. Starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds.
An obvious choice, but it's hard to resist what is likely the best film musical of all time. The period music is delightful, the dancing routines sensational. Thanks to a golden Comden & Green ... Read More >
 

Swing Time (1936)

Musicals. Scenic/Tuneful/Witty.
Black & White. 103 mins. Unrated. Directed by George Stevens. Starring Fred Astaire, Victor Moore and Ginger Rogers.
George Stevens's classic Astaire-Rogers entry too often takes a back seat to the prior year's "Top Hat", and shouldn't, as it's every bit as good. The dancing sequences are ... Read More >
 

That's Entertainment (1974)

Musicals. Scenic/Tuneful/Wholesome.
Color. 135 mins. Rated G. Directed By Jack Haley, Jr.. Starring Fred Astaire and Bing Crosby.
What makes this dizzying whirl of spectacular montages so much fun is the mix of famous sequences with colorful lesser-known bits, like Clark Gable's rendition of "Puttin' on the Ritz," Jimmy ... Read More >
 

The Red Shoes (1948)

Musicals. Brainy/Tuneful/Scenic.
Color. 134 mins. Unrated. Directed By Emeric Pressburger. Starring Anton Walbrook, Marius Goring and Moira Shearer.
Close to sixty years after its initial release, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's best-remembered classic remains one of the most sumptuous Technicolor films ever made. The ballet sequences ... Read More >
 

Top Hat (1935)

Musicals. Scenic/Tuneful/Witty.
Black & White. 100 mins. Unrated. Directed By Mark Sandrich. Starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Finally, the long-awaited Astaire-Rogers classics are being released on DVD, and "Top Hat" (arguably the best of the series, along with "Swing Time") has never looked or sounded ... Read More >
 

Spotlight

• May 1st - At a private club in New York City, John hosted a screening of "California Dreamin'" followed by an interview with Armand Assante who plays Capt. Doug Jones.

• May 4th – John hosts a discussion with Peter Rosen and Byron Janis, the child prodigy pianist following a documentary about Janis' life at a private club in Manhattan.

• On May 26th, John screens "Funny Business", a documentary about that precious breed, the New Yorker cartoonist, followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Lyda Ely and cartoonist Arnie Levin, at a private event in New York.