Alphabet Video July
If... caused plenty of controversy on release but is now rightly regarded as one of the finest British films of the 60s
| 10 Jul 2007
A Guide To Recognising Your Saints (2 July)
Recalling Scorsese's Mean Streets, Saints is a coming of age drama told in flashback. Set in 1980s' and present day Astoria, Queens, this is an autobiographical piece by writer/director Dito Montiel with a powerful message. The central theme concerns the relationship Dito (Robert Downey Jr.) has with his father, whose illness brings him back to NY. Superbly acted throughout and definitely a director to look out for.
Flags Of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima (9 July)
A WW2 double-header from the man with no name (Clint Eastwood actually). Flags is the American story, focusing on the Marines pictured raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi and how the U.S. government used them for propaganda. Letters shows the Japanese perspective and is more a character study of men faced with imminent and inevitable death. The two leads deliver powerful performances and Eastwood draws out the humanity of these soldiers in the most inhuman of scenarios.
Iraq in Fragments (23rd July)
Edited from 300 hours of footage beautifully shot over two years, this is a raw, hard-hitting documentary which won't fail to move you; following the lives of three Iraqis (a Sunni, Kurd & Shiite) trapped in a country tearing itself apart. As in the director's previous film, Gaza Strip, there is little in the way of commentary, allowing the Iraqis to tell their own stories, and the calm, almost poetical cinematography offsets the mindless violence to stunning effect.
If... (23 July)
Lindsay Anderson's cult classic gets a DVD release at long last. A surreal, allegorical drama, it follows Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) as he leads a violent, anarchic revolution in an autocratic English boarding school. Funny, political, sometimes bizarre, it caused plenty of controversy on release but is now rightly regarded as one of the finest British films of the 60s. Part of a "loose" trilogy of films by Anderson & McDowell, hopefully O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital will finally get released too .
Recalling Scorsese's Mean Streets, Saints is a coming of age drama told in flashback. Set in 1980s' and present day Astoria, Queens, this is an autobiographical piece by writer/director Dito Montiel with a powerful message. The central theme concerns the relationship Dito (Robert Downey Jr.) has with his father, whose illness brings him back to NY. Superbly acted throughout and definitely a director to look out for.
Flags Of Our Fathers/Letters From Iwo Jima (9 July)
A WW2 double-header from the man with no name (Clint Eastwood actually). Flags is the American story, focusing on the Marines pictured raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi and how the U.S. government used them for propaganda. Letters shows the Japanese perspective and is more a character study of men faced with imminent and inevitable death. The two leads deliver powerful performances and Eastwood draws out the humanity of these soldiers in the most inhuman of scenarios.
Iraq in Fragments (23rd July)
Edited from 300 hours of footage beautifully shot over two years, this is a raw, hard-hitting documentary which won't fail to move you; following the lives of three Iraqis (a Sunni, Kurd & Shiite) trapped in a country tearing itself apart. As in the director's previous film, Gaza Strip, there is little in the way of commentary, allowing the Iraqis to tell their own stories, and the calm, almost poetical cinematography offsets the mindless violence to stunning effect.
If... (23 July)
Lindsay Anderson's cult classic gets a DVD release at long last. A surreal, allegorical drama, it follows Mick Travis (Malcolm McDowell) as he leads a violent, anarchic revolution in an autocratic English boarding school. Funny, political, sometimes bizarre, it caused plenty of controversy on release but is now rightly regarded as one of the finest British films of the 60s. Part of a "loose" trilogy of films by Anderson & McDowell, hopefully O Lucky Man and Britannia Hospital will finally get released too .