Best Movies By Farr Newsletter - January 2009
What's New on DVD
An Autumn Afternoon (1962)Drama/Foreign. Moving/Offbeat/Witty. Color. 132 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Yasujiro Ozu. Starring Chishu Ryu, Daisuke Kato and Shima Iwashita. Master filmmaker Ozu was, over his long career, a magnificently sensitive observer of family dynamics. "Afternoon," his last film and a rare excursion into color photography, is a touching, intimate, ... Read More >  |  |
Chop Shop (2007)Drama. Intense/Moving. Color. 84 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Rahmin Bahrani. Starring Alejandro Polanco and Isamar Gonzales. For this neo-realist urban drama, a follow-up to the acclaimed "Man Push Cart," Ramin Bahrani enlisted local and nonprofessional actors to enact a heart-rending story about poverty, ... Read More > |  |
Sabrina (1954)Comedy/Romance. Moving/Witty. Black & White. 112 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Billy Wilder. Starring Humphrey Bogart, William Holden and Audrey Hepburn. This new Centennial edition features a remastered print of the classic film. Perfectly suited to high-brow romantic comedies, Hepburn blossoms before our eyes as the world's most cultivated ... Read More > |  |
Sunset Boulevard (1950)Drama. Offbeat/Spine-tingling. Black & White. 110 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Billy Wilder. Starring William Holden and Gloria Swanson. Recently remastered by Paramount, Sunset Boulevard is finally getting its due. One of the all-time great Tinseltown satires, this noirish tale of an opportunistic, down-and-out young writer and the ... Read More > |  |
The Ballad of Narayama (1983)Drama/Foreign. Intense/Moving/Scenic. Color. 130 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Shohei Imamura. Starring Ken Ogata and Sumiko Sakamoto. Imamura's retelling of this feudal fable, based on a Japanese novel, spares nothing in the way of brutal realities or the forbidding environment in which his characters (a family of five) scrape for ... Read More > |  |
The Furies (1950)War/Westerns. Intense/Scenic/Spine-tingling. Black & White. 109 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Anthony Mann. Starring Walter Huston, Wendell Corey, Barbara Stanwyck and Judith Anderson. Dealing with revenge, obsession, racism, and hints of incestuous jealousy, Mann's dark, psychological Western was a fine showcase for Stanwyck, here a mix of fiery passion and resolute determination, ... Read More > |  |
Theme of the Month: Chinese New Year
On January 26th, the Chinese observe the year 4707 ushering in the Year of the Ox. This is the biggest holiday in Chinese culture celebrating a civilization close to five thousand years old. This month we have selected some outstanding Chinese titles that give us insight into this mysterious, powerful country.
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)Foreign Language/Comedy. Moving/Witty. Color. 124 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Ang Lee. Starring Sihung Lung and Kuei-Mei Yang. Though the film is Taiwanese, the emotions and issues feel universal, as captured by "Wedding Banquet" director Ang Lee. Exploring the conflicts and disappointments that arise in the daughters' ... Read More > |  |
Farewell, My Concubine (1993)Drama/Foreign Language. Moving. Color. 153 mins. Rated R. Directed By Chen Kaige. Starring Zhang Fengyi and Leslie Cheung. Bringing a panoramic historical sweep to this intimate, tragic tale of love and friendship, Chen Kaige creates a marvelous spectacle from exotic locales, lavish set design, and fabulous performances ... Read More > |  |
Mountain Patrol: Kekexili (2004)Action/Adventure/Foreign Language. Moving/Scenic/Spine-tingling. Color. 89 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Chuan Lu. Starring Duobujii and Zhang Lei. Based on a true story about a journalist who trailed armed volunteer patrols into China's Kekexili region and whose articles brought public attention to their plight, Lu's film is an adventurous ... Read More > |  |
Raise the Red Lantern (1991)Romance/Drama/Foreign Language. Scenic/Moving. Color. 125 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Zhang Yimou. Starring and Gong Li. Controversial upon its release in China, Yimou's lusciously photographed, Oscar-nominated "Lantern" tells the story of a trapped woman who learns to play a game of cunning domestic maneuvering and ... Read More > |  |
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles (2005)Drama/Foreign. Moving/Scenic. Color. 109 mins. Rated PG. Directed By Zhang Yimou. Starring Ken Takatura, Kichi Nakai and Shinobu Terajima. The great Zhang Yimou is best known in the States for his high-wire swordplay epics "Hero" and "House of Flying Daggers." But after these fantasy-laden odes to Chinese history, Zhang returns to ... Read More > |  |
Spring in a Small Town (1948)Foreign Language/Drama/Romance. Moving. Black & White. 90 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Fei Mu. Starring LI Wei and Wei Wei. Long regarded as one of the finest Chinese films of all time, Fei Mu's "Spring" is subtly acted, serenely photographed, and drenched in a melancholy atmosphere that hauntingly reflects the film's ... Read More > |  |
Summer Palace (2006)Drama/Foreign/Romance. Brainy/Moving. Color. 140 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Lou Ye. Starring Guo Xiaodong and Hao Lei. Sensual, slow-paced, and dreamily romantic, Lou Ye's "Summer Palace" is a vibrantly told epic about the struggle for personal and political identity. It also has the distinction of having been banned ... Read More > |  |
The 36th Chamber of Shaolin (1979)Foreign Language/Action/Adventure. Fast-paced/Spine-tingling. Color. 109 mins. Rated R. Directed By Chia-Liang Liu. Starring Lo Lieh and Gordon Liu. Thanks to its intense young star and a script that emphasizes the slow, painstaking development of a Shaolin warrior, Chia-Liang Liu's "36th Chamber" is regarded as one of the finest kung-fu movies ... Read More > |  |
The Emperor and the Assassin (1999)Drama/Foreign Language/Romance. Moving/Intense. Color. 161 mins. Rated R. Directed By Chen Kaige. Starring Zhang Fengyi, Li Xuejian and Gong Li. Kaige's "Emperor" is a lavish $15 million historical epic with a five-act storyline that concerns love and shifting allegiances in the third century B.C., when the Qin dynasty established China's ... Read More > |  |
Together (2002)Drama/Foreign. Moving/Scenic. Color. 119 mins. Rated Unrated. Directed By Kaige Chen. Starring Yun Tang, Peigi Liu and Zhiwen Wang. Beautifully photographed and acted by a talented cast (including real-life violin prodigy Yun Tang), Chen Kaige's sentimental coming-of-age drama examines changing lifestyles in modern China, as well ... Read More > |  |
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