July-August 2019 | FILMCOMMENT| 7520 DISCS
TO WATCHAdam at 6 A.M. Robert
Scheerer, USA, 1970; Paramount
Amazing Grace Sydney
Pollack, USA, 2018; Universal
The Baker’s Wife
Marcel Pagnol, France, 1938;
The Criterion Collection
Between the Lines
Joan Micklin Silver, USA, 1977;
Cohen Media Group
Blood Paradise
Patrick von Barkenberg, Sweden/
USA, 2018; Artsploitation Films
Bob le Flambeur
Jean-Pierre Melville, France,
1956; Kino Classics
Buñuel x 2: Death in the
Garden, France/Mexico, 1956;
The Milky Way, France/Italy,
1969; Kino Lorber
Dead of Night Alberto
Cavalcanti, Charles Crichton,
Basil Dearden & Robert Hamer,
UK, 1945; Kino Lorber
Fragment of an Empire
Fridrikh Ermler, Soviet Union,
1929; Flicker Alley
Hail Satan? Penny Lane, USA,
2019; Magnolia Pictures
Hale County This Morning,
This Evening RaMell Ross, USA,
2018; Cinema Guild
Heroes Shed No Tears
John Woo, Hong Kong, 1986;
Film Movement
High Life Claire Denis,
UK/France/Germany/Poland/USA,
2018; Lionsgate
The Leopard Man
Jacques Tourneur, USA, 1943;
Shout! Factory
The President’s Lady
Henry Levin, USA, 1953;
Twilight Time
Shiraz: A Romance of India
Franz Osten, India/UK/Germany,
1928; Juno Films
Ten North Frederick
Philip Dunne, USA, 1958;
Twilight Time
Transit Christian Petzold,
Germany/France, 2018; Music
Box Films
Tu ff Tu r f Fritz Kiersch, USA,
1985; Kino LorberWhile the elegant Mitchell Leisen lacked Billy Wilder’s puckishness, he expertly navigates the melodramatic mine-
fields of suave Charles Boyer’s seduction-for-citizenship of ingenuous Olivia de Havilland in Hold Back the Dawn.The Edge of Democracy
Petra Costa, Brazil, 2019; Netflixtimely and globally relevant, Petra Costa’s The Edge of Democ-
racydocuments Brazil’s recent descent into right-wing authoritari-
anism by interweaving the Costa family’s rich relationship with
politics (on both sides of the spectrum) and in-the-trenches
reportage on democratic socialist President Dilma Rousseff ’s
impeachment by forces that paved the way for the Trump-esque Jair
Bolsonaro. Fueled by a heritage of activism, Costa covers several
decades of Brazil’s complex, tragic history, attempting to understand
how a country that took so long to climb out from under dicta-
torial rule would so willingly return to it. At times this makes
her—despite intense footage of street skirmishes and in-the-
moment interviews with Rousseff and her predecessor, the now
imprisoned Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—situate the realpolitik in
broad context. But it also allows her to insinuate connections to
similar phenomena across the world, especially in populism’s
appeal to the dispossessed and in the links between political par-
ties and big business.–michael joshua rowinHold Back the Dawn
Mitchell Leisen, USA, 1941; Arrow Academyit all started with acockroach—or, rather, without one. Charles
Boyer’s refusal to perform a scene co-scripted by Billy Wilder in
which his character, a Romanian gigolo, tells his troubles to a parasite
in his room—and director Mitchell Leisen’s capitulation to the star’s
misplaced sense of dignity—led the enraged Wilder to direct all his
own work thenceforth. But while the elegant Leisen lacked the Aus-
trian sprite’s puckishness, he expertly navigates the melodramatic
minefields of suave Boyer’s seduction-for-citizenship of ingenuous
Olivia de Havilland (eschewing mawkishness in a luminous turn).
This neglected gem, restored to former glory by Arrow’s extras-
packed Blu-ray, offers a timeless account of the resilience and for-
titude of refugees. As for Wilder’s roach, he proved as deathless as
urban legend attests, turning up years later as a fly in the cockpit
of Jimmy Stewart’s plane in The Spirit of St. Louis.–steven mearsThe Uncanny
Denis Héroux, Canada/UK, 1977; Severin Filmsthe 1977 british-canadian horror anthology The Uncanny resem-
bles similar Hammer and Amicus fare, but with one important twist:
all the tales of terror here involve cats. Peter Cushing plays an
apparently crackpot writer whose latest book contains “true” sto-
ries intended to expose felines as agents of evil. His publisher (Ray
Milland), a cat owner himself, is understandably dubious, and
Cushing sets out to convince him with three stories in which vengeful
felines plot, claw, bite, and kill: viciously protecting their inheritance
from would-be thieves, dabbling in witchcraft, and “dropping the cur-
tain” on a murderous movie star in tongue-in-cheek, EC Comics
fashion. The presence of screen gentlemen Cushing, Milland, and
Donald Pleasence (playing a scenery-chewing actor with glee) lends a
stately gravitas to the proceedings. Denis Héroux’s film turns out to be
genuinely creepy, thanks in large part to lonely locations and moody
photography, with enough gruesome violence to recommend it to
TH horror fans and give pause (or paws) to cat lovers.–chris shields
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