Fast Scans
Top Foreign & Indie Picks
By Jeff T. Dick, Davenport, IA -- Library Journal, 02/15/2010
The Burning Plain. color. 107 min. Magnolia Pictures 2009. DVD UPC 8-76964-00194-6. $26.98; Blu-ray UPC 8-76964-00195-3. $29.98. Rated: R.
While not quite in a league with his scripts for 21 Grams and Babel, this, screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga's directorial debut, again proves his adeptness at nonlinear narrative and knowing a thing or two about where to put the camera. Plus, he provides a couple of challenging female roles gamely filled by Charlize Theron (as a troubled woman with a buried secret) and Kim Basinger (as a neglected housewife who finds solace in an affair). Their connection is revealed in a wrenching finale. Not for feel-good film fans.
Endgame. color. 101 min. Monterey Video. 2009. DVD ISBN 978-1-56994-397-7. $26.95.
Veteran British-TV screenwriter Paula Milne (The Politician's Wife) and fellow countryman Peter Travis (the assassination thriller Vantage Point) team up for this hyperkinetic adaptation of Robert Harvey's book The Fall of Apartheid. Twitchy handheld camerawork lends nervous energy to solid performances by William Hurt and Chiwetel Ejiofor, among others, which helps keep the protracted negotiations responsible for Nelson Mandela's jail release from testing the patience of viewers without sacrificing their complexity.
Gomorrah. 2 discs. color. 137+ min. In Italian w/English subtitles. Criterion Collection, dist. by Image Entertainment. 2008. DVD ISBN 978-1-60465-223-9; 1-disc Blu-ray ISBN 978-1-60465-224-6. $39.95.
Basing his work on the explosive exposé by Roberto Saviano that made the Mafia insider a marked man, director Matteo Garrone brings an unsentimental realism to his portrait of the insidious reach of the Camorra in Naples, Italy. Balancing a handful of interconnected story lines of crime syndicate involvement in areas including textile making, drug dealing, and waste management, this unflinching film navigates a milieu of casual amorality coupled with the constant threat of violence. Not for the faint of heart.
Salt of the Earth: Special Edition. b/w. 94 min. Organa Boutique, www.organa.com. 1954. DVD UPC 9-780970-70397-2. $19.95.
Based on actual events, blacklisted filmmaker Herbert Biberman's fictional account of a New Mexico coal miners' strike by Mexican Americans evokes The Grapes of Wrath with its elementary story of social injustice. It also presaged the women's movement by depicting the breadwinner-homemaker role swap needed for each family's survival. This digitally enhanced, extras-laden version of the public domain title, included in the Library of Congress's National Film Registry, should find appeal for more than its historical value.
Wings of Desire. 2 discs. b/w & color. 127+ min. In German & French w/English subtitles. Criterion Collection, dist. by Image Entertainment. 1987. DVD ISBN 978-1-60465-160-7; 1-disc Blu-ray ISBN 978-1-60465-159-1. $39.95.
Two solemn, sympathetic angels—Damiel (Bruno Ganz) and Cassiel (Otto Sandler)—faithfully watch over the citizens of Cold War-era Berlin until one of them decides he wants to become human. Having achieved modern-classic status, Wim Wenders's poignant meditation on loneliness and desire at last gets the deluxe treatment it deserves, starting with a high-definition transfer that (particularly on Blu-ray) makes its black-and-white and color cinematography glow. Foreign-film buffs will find their prayers answered.
