DVD Christmas Gift Guide
A DVD isn't just for Christmas, it's for life (or at least until all physical media becomes completely obsolete). Don't just make a mad dash to HMV's bargain bucket this year – consider below the cream of the crop of DVD and Blu-ray releases in 2013
The World’s End (for childmen living in the past)
Christmas is a time of misplaced nostalgia. That’s why this wise and witty comedy – part Mike Leigh, part Invasion of the Body Snatchers – about a group of adult friends reenacting a pub-crawl from their teen-years will make such an enlightening watch over the festive period.
On Blu-ray and DVD from Universal Pictures
Late Mizoguchi (for anyone looking for an antidote to Hollywood machismo)
Of the big three post-war Japan directors, Kenji Mizoguchi remains the least well known. Mizoguchi’s films, particularly his humanist ghost story Ugetsu Monogatari, which is included in this boxset, are certainly a match for those from his more celebrated peers, Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu. As Jean-Luc Godard once said, ‘poetry is manifest in each second, each shot filmed by Mizoguchi.’ As ever, JLG was bang on the money.
On Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment
Early Hal Hartley (for people who think Garden State is the pinnacle of indie cinema)
Talking of Godard, here’s the connective tissue that links the mercurial Frenchman to the likes of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach. With their screwball dialogue, stylised performances and offbeat rhythms, Hal Hartley’s films are instantly recognisable. Unfortunately, though, Hartley seams to have fallen through the filmmaking cracks. The DVD releases of three of his early, spiky features (Amateur, The Unbelievable Truth, Simple Men) should hopefully help in the fight to make sure Hartley’s significance endures.
On Blu-ray and DVD from Artificial Eye
Red period De Palma (for thriller seekers)
When it comes to the Scarface director, there seems to be only two camps: in one is the small band of critics and film-fans who think he’s one of America’s finest filmmakers; everyone else thinks he’s a hack. Arrow Video are clearly in the former. In the last twelve months they’ve lovingly released four of De Palma’s great ‘red period’ movies (Blow Out, Dressed to Kill, Obsession and The Fury) with more to come in 2014.
On Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Video
Bachelorette (for anyone thinking of getting married)
Set mostly over the drug and alcohol-fuelled night before their dumpy high-school friend “pigface” ties the knot, a trio of unmarried bridesmaids the wrong side of 30 (Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Lizzy Caplan) lose it in a torrent of toxic resentment. Its succession of acid one-liners makes Bachelorette destined for cult classic status.
On Blu-ray and DVD from Lionsgate UK
The Sun in a Net (for young lovers and fatalists)
Every New Wave has one. La Nouvelle Vague had Le Beau Serge; for New Hollywood it was Bonnie and Clyde. The watershed film of the Czechoslovak New Wave was Stefan Uher’s beguiling, freewheeling tale of young love in Prague, which plays out in a dreamy, non-linear fashion.
On DVD from Second Run
Big Trouble in Little China (for B-movie nuts)
John Carpenter has made better films, and he’s made more successful films, but he hasn’t made anything more joyous than this 'mystical, action, adventure, comedy, kung-fu, monster, ghost story!' which sees Kurt Russell’s brutish truck driver embroiled in a scheme to rescue two green-eyed women (one of them Sex and the City’s Kim Cattrall) from James Hong’s 2,000-year-old spirit.
On Blu-ray and DVD from Arrow Video
The Tarnished Angels (for doomed romantics)
Douglas Sirk took a break from Technicolour in 1957 to bring this monochrome adaptation of a minor William Faulkner novel (Pylon) to the screen. It’s Sirk’s own favourite of his films and one of his most bravura efforts: the black and white imagery and haunting expressionism makes it feel closer to film noir than the lush melodramas (All That Heaven Allows, Imitation of Life) for which Sirk is famous.
On Blu-ray from Eureka Entertainment
Living Apart Together (for lovers of the slosh)
Musicals seem to be all the rage in Scottish cinema (see Sunshine on Leith and Stuart Murdoch’s hotly-anticipated God Help the Girl). Perfect time then to revisit this oddity from 1982, a shaggy musical where BA Robertson plays a Glaswegian pub-singer made good.
On DVD from Park Circus
Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (for anyone on a downward career trajectory)
On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me... Alan Partridge on DVD.
On Blu-ray and DVD from StudioCanal