FastScans, September 15, 2011 

Black Moon. 100+ min. 1975. DVD ISBN 9781604654417. $29.95; Blu-ray ISBN 9781604654400. $39.95. [See Trailers, LJ 5/1/11]
Zazie dans le métro. 93+ min. 1960. DVD ISBN 9781604654394. $29.95; Blu-ray ISBN 9781604654387. $39.95. ea. vol: color. In French w/English subtitles. Criterion Collection.
Louis Malle, whose later movies include Pretty Baby, Atlantic City, and My Dinner with Andre, cut his teeth in France with adventurous fare most curiously represented by Moon’s surrealistic mix of fantasy and reality centered on the apparent dream life of a mixed-up teenage girl. Metro takes a more conventional route with its giddy story about the exploits of a potty-mouthed gamine frolicking around Paris with her beleaguered uncle (the wonderful Philippe Noiret) in tow. For avid French-cinema devotees.

Buster Keaton: The Short Films Collection 1920–1923. 3 discs. b/w & color tinted. 390+ min. Kino Intl. DVD UPC 738329075521. $34.95; Blu-ray UPC 738329075620. $49.95.
The Great Dictator. 2 discs. b/w. 125+ min. Criterion Collection. 1940. DVD ISBN 9781604654233. $29.95; Blu-ray 9781604654226. $39.95. [See Trailers, LJ 4/1/11]
Nineteen two-reel shorts make up ­Keaton’s silent-film output over a three-year period during which he raised pratfalls to the level of art. Remastered but not restored, the film displays a picture quality that is the best ever for home video though showing the effects of time. In his first full-fledged talkie, Charlie Chaplin in Dictator takes on the dual role of a Fascist dictator and the Jewish barber who could be his twin. While often funny, Chaplin’s caricature is mitigated by ensuing revelations of the extent of Hitler’s evil. Both are musts for respective fans.

Potiche (Trophy Wife).color. 103 min. In French w/English subtitles. Music Box Films. 2010. DVD UPC 736211212252. $29.95; Blu-ray UPC 736211212351. $38.94.
Gracefully aging screen icon Catherine Deneuve brings her classic graceful yet potent touch to François Ozon’s (The Swimming Pool) satirical look at sexual and class politics in a provincial French town. Set in the 1970s and looking like a period film—with split screens, gaudy colors, and overused music—this diverting farce mines the upheaval caused when an umbrella factory strike leads the wife of the firm’s manager to assume control with the help of an old flame (Gérard Depardieu). An unassuming charmer.

Queen to Play (Joueuse). color. 97+ min. In French w/English subtitles. Zeitgeist Films. 2009. DVD UPC 795975113632. $29.99.
Much to the initial chagrin of her husband and teenaged daughter, a bored hotel maid (Sandrine Bonnaire) takes a quick interest in chess, honing her talent in frequent games with an adept player (Kevin Kline) for whom she works as a cleaning lady. In her feature-film debut, director (and cowriter) Caroline Bottaro doesn’t make any errant moves in an inspiring but not-too-sentimentalized tale of an ordinary woman transformed by her newfound passion. Both foreign-film fans and the subtitle-anxious will get caught up.

Two in the Wave. b/w & color. 92 min. In French w/English subtitles. Lorber Films. 2009. DVD UPC 705105266213. $29.95.
Directors Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut forged a deep friendship while contributing to the cineaste magazine Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1960s, supporting each other’s work, and sharing actor Jean-Pierre Leaud as their preferred leading man. Effectively a primer on the watershed French New Wave, Emmanuel Laurent’s instructive documentary blends film clips and interviews with the movement’s principal practitioners, whose relationship tanked over the role of politics in art. For foreign-film buffs and students.