Saturday, November 9, 2024

Criterion Releases: August 2024

The dog days of summer continue with a slew of new films being added to the list and one film getting a re-release. A female director victim to Soviet censorship has two of her films being brought out into the light finally. She joins Albert Brooks with two movies of his own getting their Criterion release. Then, an independent breakthrough that spoke on a painful subject that resonates today is also being rescued from obscurity while one of the biggest sweeps in Oscars history continues to be celebrated with a 4K-UHD release. 

Brief Encounters / The Long Farewell: Two Films by Kira Muratova (1967, 1971)

Ukrainian director Kira Muratova dared to make movies to enrage Soviet censors but when faced with pushback, Muratova just pushed back more. Her debut feature, Brief Encounters, is a romantic drama which was banned for twenty years, yet still became a highly watched piece of entertainment. It follows a romantic triangle featuring two women told in ways that contradicted the socialist realist line. Her follow up, The Long Farewell, resulted in her suspension from directing for years due to her habitual defiance of Soviet guidelines. It follows a mother and her rebellious son and his wish to move out to be with his father. The mother’s reaction is hostile, just like the censors who took issue with Murtatova’s avant-garde style that was more Western and insulting to social norms in the Soviet Union. While also banned for a time, both films would be released at the end of the country’s existence and bring Muratova into foreign recognition years after making her features.  

Not A Pretty Picture (1975)Director Martha Coolidge made her debut with a docudrama story of her own personal experience of sexual assault by casting an actor to play a younger version of Coolidge. It goes into the circumstances and the aftermath of the act and discusses self-blame and traumatization that follows long after it has happened. A film barely seen at the time of its release (one of the few viewers was Francis Ford Coppola, who loved the movie), it was brought back to life in recent years and remains a living testament that the difference between then and now is almost none when discussing such a subject. 

Real Life (1979)

The first of two new Albert Brooks’ films is a satire of a family through the lens of a documentarian (a fictional Albert Brooks) who spends a year with them. Going off the successful An American Family series, considered the first reality TV show, Brooks dips into the fray of dysfunction with a “perfect” family who let out their personal displeasures openly. Charles Grodin and Frances Lee McCain star as the married couple while Brooks shows off the gadgetry of his cameras with silliness and gets handsy with the actual story itself. 

The Last Emperor (1987)

The only re-edition this month, Bernardo Bertolucci’s Oscar-winning epic on the life of Puyi, China’s last monarch, is an astounding triumph. With every technical skill being perfected, especially shooting inside The Forbidden City, Bertolucci’s vision carries an emotional impact that makes a perfect biographical film. Peter O’Toole may be the only recognizable star, but John Loan (as adult Puyi), Joan Chen, Victor Wong, and Ryuichi Sakamoto – who co-composed the Oscar-winning score with David Byrne and Cong Su – all are remarkable in playing their part of bringing back to life an era and a transformative life almost nearly forgotten. 

Mother (1996)

The second release by Albert Brooks this month co-stars him and Debbie Reynolds, who had not been in a film role in decades and was offered the part after Doris Day and Nancy Reagan passed. After his second divorce, a writer moves back home with his mother to regroup, even though her passive-aggressive behavior seems to get under his skin because her favorite son, his younger brother, has been more successful. The complex power-dynamic between mother and son is explored with charming effect and some consider this Brooks’ best film he’s made so far. 

Follow me on Twitter: @bsusbielles (Cine-A-Man)

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