76 | FILMCOMMENT| July-August 2019
20 TITLES
TO STREAM
All Is Well Eva Trobisch,
Germany, 2018; Netflix
The Card Ronald Neame,
UK, 1952; The Criterion Channel
Cuadecuc, vampir
Pere Portabella, Spain, 1971;
Amazon & Kanopy
Friendship’s Death
Peter Wollen, UK, 1987; BFI
Player Classics on Roku
The Hours and Times
Christopher Munch, USA, 1991;
The Criterion Channel & Kanopy
I Am Mother Grant
Sputore, Australia, 2019; Netflix
Mid-Century Loves
Mario Chiari, Pietro Germi,
Glauco Pellegrini, Antonio
Pietrangeli & Roberto Rossellini,
Italy, 1954; Amazon
The Nightshifter
Dennison Ramalho, Brazil,
2018; Shudder
Old Boyfriends
Joan Tewkesbury, USA,
1979; Kanopy
The Perfection Richard
Shepard, USA, 2018; Netflix
Pool of London
Basil Dearden, UK, 1951; The
Criterion Channel
Prairie Trilogy
John Hanson & Rob Nilsson,
Prairie Fire, USA, 1978; Rebel
Earth, USA, 1980; Survivor,
USA, 1980; OVID.tv
Red Cow Tsivia Barkai,
Israel, 2018; Kanopy
Rough Aunties
Kim Longinotto, UK/South
Africa, 2008; OVID.tv
Sarah Plays a Werewolf
Katharina Wyss, Switzerland/
Germany, 2017; MUBI
Los silencios Beatriz
Seigner, Brazil/France/
Colombia, 2018; HBO Go
The Titfield Thunderbolt
Charles Crichton, UK, 1953;
BFI Player Classics on Roku
True Warriors Niklas
Schenck, Ronja von Wurmb-
Seibel & Lukas Augustin,
Germany/Afghanistan, 2017;
Pantaflix
Vivian Ostrovsky: Plunge
16 films, 1982-2014; Re:Voir (PAL)a compelling presentation of Vivian Ostrovsky’s prolific career
in experimental moving image, the aptly titled Plungedives deep
into the artist-curator’s singularly playful mode of collage filmmak-
ing. Through 16 newly remastered shorts, Ostrovsky sculpts hypnotic
timescapes out of archival material and her own Super 8 footage,
quoting sources as diverse as Cukor, Tati, and Deleuze. In titles like
Ice/Sea (2005) and Eat(1988), Ostrovsky’s multicultural upbringing
comes to the fore; the filmmaker displays an uncanny ability to track
routine gestures as they circulate and tessellate, resonating in multiple
languages and transmuting across species. The collection’s second vol-
ume is dominated by her 21st-century digital work, including richly
textured biographical films. Across events and mediums, Ostrovsky
remains devoted to multidimensionality, building complex sound-
scapes on top of a Deren-esque fragmented cartography, creating
films that chuckle wryly at their own acrobatics.–madeleine collierWhen They See Us
Ava DuVernay, USA, 2019; Netflixa large part of the impactof When They See Us—Ava DuVernay’s
four-part miniseries about the five wrongfully convicted youths in
the 1989 “Central Park Jogger” case—is durational. Instead of a
feature-length TV movie to shock and dismay us in one sensational
package (and, in fact, one does exist), DuVernay’s treatment takes
us through multiple, torturous phases of the story: the night of the
assault and the overnight NYPD interrogation of Kevin Richardson,
Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, and Raymond Santana;
the compromised court trial; the jail sentences and post-release
adjustment; and the aftermath when the actual guilty party was
ID’ed in 2002. Despite weak points elsewhere, in Wise’s solitary
confinement the series stares into the abyss, as time—and life—are
cruelly wasted. Restoring the young men’s POVs (without
sidelining brutalized jogger Trisha Meili), DuVernay carries out
an overdue corrective to a notorious public drama of injustice
and racism.–nicolas rapoldThe Wild Heart/Gone to Earth
Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger, UK, 1952/1950; Kino Lorberpowell and pressburger’sGone to Earthis distinguished by rap-
turous Technicolor photography of the Shropshire countryside, as
well as a reaffirmation of Powell’s allegiance to the powerfully
metaphorical filmmaking of silent movies. The story plays as a North
Country variation on Duel in the Sun, which might explain why
David O. Selznick thought it an appropriate vehicle for Jennifer Jones,
always his obsession. Jones plays a country girl whom a lusty squire
(David Farrar) wants, and whom a gentle vicar (Cyril Cusack) loves
so much he can’t bear to take her to bed even after they’re married.
Guess who gets the girl. Selznick had the contractual right to re-edit
the film for America, and after canvassing King Vidor, William Wyler,
and Josef von Sternberg, he got Rouben Mamoulian to direct retakes
written by Ben Hecht, and made some cuts in the original. The result,
The Wild Heart, rendered an original film full of circumspect story-
telling too blunt by half. Kino Lorber has put both films on one disc
that could have the umbrella title Anatomy of a Murder.–scott eymanThrough 16 newly remastered short works, Vivian Ostrovsky sculpts hypnotic timescapes out of archival material
and her own Super 8 footage, quoting sources as diverse as Cukor, Tati, and Deleuze.
WHEN^THEYSEEUS:ATSUSHINISHIJIMA/NETFLIX;^ THEWILD^HEART:^MARY^EVANS/RONALDGRANT/EVERETTCOLLECTION