In the film’s opening sequence, Michael Keneely (Gould) and Patrick Farrel (Blake) bust a high-end hooker named Jackie Faraday. Keneely is the smirking smartass while Farrel is the tough guy. These guys are a tad unorthodox as evident by the way a routine undercover assignment in a gay bar erupts into chaos when one guy (Fargas) gets too fresh with Keneely. The Faraday bust seems like a pretty open and shut case until their boss tells them that she got released thanks to a phone call from someone with juice.

Something about the hooker case doesn’t sit well with Keneely and when he checks out Faraday’s client book after it’s been entered into evidence he notices it’s missing all the pages with her clients. Naturally, the case is dismissed for lack of evidence and the two vice cops know something is rotten. They decide to pursue it further by digging deeper despite the opposition that mounts, including smug local crime boss Carl Rizzo (Garfield).

Elliott Gould and Robert Blake make an intriguing team with their contrasting acting styles. During the ‘70s, Gould epitomized disheveled cool and continues that look with the bushy mustache, unkempt hair and rumpled attire that he sported in Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H (1970). He adopts a laidback attitude and is always ready with a joke. Much like his take on Philip Marlowe in Altman’s The Long Goodbye (1973), Gould’s cop treats everything as a joke on the surface but underneath he cares about doing his job, especially when it comes to the corruption he and Farrel uncover. In contrast, Blake, with his tight t-shirts and muscular build, is all intensity and no bullshit attitude. They play well off each other and adopt a shorthand that makes them believable as long-time partners. They have a nice scene together in an empty bathroom where their characters reassess what they’re doing and if they should continue to pursue a case where the odds are clearly stacked against them.

Journeyman cinematographer/director Peter Hyams has had a checkered career with the unnecessary sequel 2010 (1984) and generic thrillers like The Presidio (1988) littering his filmography but Busting may be his best film. He does an excellent job juggling the shifting tones throughout, bouncing back and forth between comedy and drama. Hyams adopts long takes during the action sequences that are very effective and come across as refreshing in this day and age where action films are so heavily edited. For example, there is a sequence early where Keneely and Farrel chase three crooks through an apartment building, on the street and engage in a tense gun battle in a crowded farmer’s market that is comprised of a series of uninterrupted long takes. Unlike William Friedkin’s edgy hand-held camerawork in The French Connection, Hyams employs smooth, gliding tracking shots and yet still manages to convey an urgency and excitement during the action sequences. Hyams is one of those Hollywood filmmakers able to adapt to prevailing trends. With Busting, he made a gritty ‘70s buddy cop film and then more than 10 years later made the kind of buddy cop film that was popular in the 1980’s with Running Scared (1986).

Special Features:

Theatrical trailer.

Allen establishes his ambitious intentions right from the start with a grandiose montage of the city scored to George Gershwin and photographed in gorgeous black and white by Gordon Willis. This is the Big Apple as seen through Allen’s eyes as he presents rarefied social strata of well-educated, neurotic people entangled in messy relationships with each other. Still stinging from a bitter divorce, Isaac Davis (Allen) is now dating Tracy (Hemingway), a 17-year-old girl (“I’m dating a girl who does homework.”). His best friend Yale (Murphy) is having an affair with a journalist named Mary (Keaton).

Isaac and Yale’s lives are a mess with the former writing for a television show he loathes and the latter trying to finish a book and start up a magazine. The last thing they need is to complicate their romantic lives. Isaac realizes that Tracy is too young for him (“You should think of me as a detour on the highway of life.”) and gets involved with Mary after Yale introduces them. At first, Isaac and Mary can’t stand each other, arguing over an art exhibit and several artists she feels overrated but he thinks are great, however, he likes her unflinching honesty and she’s attracted to his sense of humor.

Woody Allen and Diane Keaton continue their undeniable on-screen chemistry playing so well off each other. She is allowed to tone down the more exaggerated comedic gestures she used in Annie Hall to create a more nuanced character in Manhattan. Mary is torn between her love for Yale, even though she knows its wrong and her attraction to Isaac. Allen is more than a neurotic joke machine as Isaac wrestles with his own moral dilemmas – his love for Tracy, even though he knows she’s too young for him, and his attraction to Mary who is much more compatible.

While Manhattan features an abundance of Allen’s funny one-liners, the screenplay he co-wrote with Marshall Brickman tempers it somewhat with the characters’ messy personal lives, like the resentment Isaac feels towards his ex-wife (Streep) for leaving him for another woman, or Yale cheating on his perfectly lovely wife (Byrne) with Mary. Allen expertly shifts gears from comedy to drama from scene to scene and sometimes even within the same scene.

Allen takes us through a guided tour through the city with key scenes taking place at famous establishments, like Elaine’s and the Russian tearoom, or tourist spots like the Hayden Planetarium, in such a way that New York becomes a character unto itself. It also doesn’t hurt that Willis’ gorgeously textured black and white cinematography makes everything look so good. Sadly, several of the places the characters frequent no longer exist making Manhattan a historical document of sorts. Allen’s film is arguably the best representation of his worldview: highly educated people with very little common sense when it comes to their personal lives, making bad decisions even when they realize it. But like the rest of us, they keep on trying, hoping that the next relationship is the one.

Special Features:

The Blu-Ray presentation of Manhattan is the best Allen’s film has ever looked and sounded, showing off Willis’ incredible cinematography. This is definitely worth upgrading if you own the DVD.

In keeping with Allen’s wishes, there are no extras on this disc except for the requisite theatrical trailer.

We meet Severine Serizy (Deneuve) and her husband Pierre (Sorel) as they take a horse-driven carriage ride through a forest. He professes his love for her and she icily rebuffs him. Upset, Pierre stops the ride and has the two drivers forcibly drag Severine into the woods. They tie her hands to a tree and proceed to whip her while Pierre coolly looks on. As the one driver starts to kiss her, she wakes up. Pierre asks Severine what she was dreaming about but she isn’t entirely truthful, omitting the masochistic acts. They appear to love each other yet sleep in separate beds while she keeps him at a slight distance.

Severine’s rather perverse dream offers some insight into what motivates her to decide to become a part-time high-class prostitute despite being married to a handsome and loving man. Her best friend mentions that someone they know has become one and as they wonder aloud if brothels still exist the cab driver operating their taxi cab assures them that they do. Severine seems mildly intrigued and even asks Pierre later if he frequented such places before they met. The rest of Belle de jour follows Severine’s journey through the world of underground brothels as she searches for something she can’t get from her husband or her comfortable bourgeois existence.

Yet again, Bunuel criticizes the complacent upper class for their decadent ways and superior attitudes by presenting a woman so unable to love and be happy with her husband that she has sex with strange men for money. Is she bored? Looking for kinky thrills? Unhappy? Fulfilling a need to be dominated and punished? All of the above? Catherine Deneuve delivers a brave performance as she portrays a woman who initially is shy and reserved but over the course of Belle de jour finds that her detached behavior is perfectly suited for prostitution. Bunuel has fun presenting Severine’s various clients and their odd fetishes, like the man who dresses her up as deceased daughter complete with a coffin! The director is unflinching in his depiction of her walk on the wild side and Deneuve is equally fearless in her portrayal of this complicated character. It must’ve been a difficult job as the actress endures all kinds of humiliating acts that are performed on her character. Deneuve’s uninhibited performance anticipated future ones by the likes of Isabella Rossellini in Blue Velvet (1986) and Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary (2002) – just two examples of films that examine women that punish themselves via sex.

Special Features:

There is an audio commentary by Michael Wood, author of the BFI Film Classics book on Belle de jour. He starts off by placing this film in the context of Bunuel’s career at the time. Wood points out that Belle de jour was based on a novel, reads passages from it and talks about the differences and similarities between the two. Naturally, he talks about Deneuve’s career at the point when she had done this film. Wood offers insightful analysis on the film’s style and themes on this informative track.

“That Obscure Source of Desire” is an 18-minute featurette that examines the representation of feminine sexuality and fantasy as well as the themes of masochism, power and desire. Bunuel’s film is described as a study of psychopathology. This extra features quite in-depth analysis of Severine, her motivations, behavior, actions, and so on.

Screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere is interviewed. He collaborated with Bunuel on several occasions and talks about how he got involved in adapting Belle de jour into a film. Carriere talks about their working methods including the research they did, which involved going to an actual high-class brothel.

Also included is a segment from the French television program Cinema that aired in December 1966 with on the set interviews with Carriere and Deneuve. The writer tells an amusing story about how he first met Bunuel. Deneuve talks about her character and working with Bunuel.

Finally, there are three different trailers: French, American and a re-release one.

Lumet begins the film with a solemn opening shot of the impressive pillars of the hall of justice in New York City. In a court room, a Puerto Rican teenager has been charged with murdering his father. If the 12-man jury can find him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, then he could be given the death penalty as is the case with first-degree murder. And so, the rest of the film plays out in a small room on “the hottest day of the year,” with no air-conditioning as these men must decide the fate of another.

Before they get started, the men engage in idle chit-chat – getting to know you stuff as their various personalities begin to emerge. During a preliminary vote, everyone says the kid is guilty except for one man (Fonda) who doesn’t want to condemn him to death until they talk about it. As he points out, suppose they’re wrong. Each man says why they think the teenager is guilty and some range from flimsy (“I just think he’s guilty.”) to logical (Marshall) to opinionated (Cobb) but no one can convince the dissenting juror who makes some pretty good points. The juror isn’t saying that the boy is guilty, just that he’s not sure that he did it. The longer they stay sequestered in that hot room, the more tempers flare up as their prejudices come to bear and the dissenting juror begins to garner support with his rational dissection of the evidence and the testimony from the case.

As the film progresses, this impressive cast of actors really impress as they bounce off each other in the small room, from the quiet, reserved juror played by Jack Klugman to the bluster of the juror played by Lee J. Cobb to the unwavering decency of the juror played by Henry Fonda. Lumet is able to keep our interest in the story that unfolds by maintaining the focus on his brilliant cast. He doesn’t try to get fancy with the camerawork or manipulate us with music. He lets the actors do their thing with the first-rate screenplay by Reginald Rose that results in a film that epitomizes the phrase, “hard-hitting drama.” 12 Angry Men is a powerful statement about the American judicial system – one that hasn’t changed much since this film was made except maybe it’s gotten worse – and how personal views and prejudices can influence a jury.

Special Features:

The first disc starts off with “The Television Version” that was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner and which first aired on September 1954 for the series Westinghouse Presents Studio One. It obviously doesn’t feature the star-studded cast of the film but is a pretty solid adaptation in its own right. Ron Simon, curator at the Paley Center for Media in New York City, introduces it and puts the program into context, talks about the director, cast and so on. He points out that it was experiment to see if theater could work on T.V.

“12 Angry Men: From TV to The Big Screen” features film scholar Vance Kepley talking about how it went from a teleplay to film. Rather fittingly, he briefly gives the origins of 12 Angry Men and its numerous adaptations over the years. He talks about the challenges of working in live T.V.

Also included is a trailer.

The second disc includes “Lumet on Lumet,” a collection of archival interviews with the director who talks about his long career. He talks about getting into show business as a kid. He also discusses his work ethic and how he applied it to his films. Lumet also shares some of his interesting life experiences.

“Reflections on Sidney” features friend and collaborator Walter Bernstein sharing some of his observations of Lumet, like how he enjoyed working with actors. Bernstein also talks about how they became friends and tells some good stories.

Ron Simon returns to talk about the importance of writer Reginald Rose who wrote 12 Angry Men. He points that among the great early T.V. writers Rose is the least known and explains the reasons why.

Also included is Tragedy in a Temporary Town, a teleplay written by Rose and directed by Lumet. It aired in 1956 and features a few of the actors who would go on to appear in the film version of 12 Angry Men.

Finally, cinematographer John Bailey talks about fellow cinematographer Boris Kaufman’s visual style and work with Lumet. He gives a brief biographical sketch of the man. Bailey talks about Kaufman’s early, groundbreaking work with French filmmaker Jean Vigo. He also examines Kaufman’s work on 12 Angry Men.

Nona Bruce (Hutton) is a professional photographer and one day she takes a picture of a lonely woman by the name of Karen Hood (Chaplin), a lonely housewife. Linda Murray (Spacek) is a housekeeper that works for Ann Goode (Kellerman), a realtor, and is having an affair with Karen’s husband, Ken (Keitel), a businessman who doesn’t love her anymore. Carroll Barber (Carradine) is a vagabond musician (i.e. a Tom Waits wannabe) who crosses paths with several of the characters in the film, inexplicably bedding most of the women he encounters despite his bemused, often emotionless attitude. Eric Woods (played by real-life recording artist Richard Baskin) is recording an album written by Barber and the songs act as a Greek Chorus commenting on key moments during the course of the film. Too bad they sound like glorified elevator music guaranteed to lull you to sleep, much like this film.

Welcome to L.A. follows a large ensemble of character in one city that is reminiscent of Altman’s Nashville (1975), an obvious influence on this one. Rudolph and his talented cast do an excellent job of capturing how people converse with each other in such a believable way that it often feels like we’re eavesdropping on their personal lives. While one admires Rudolph’s attempt to dramatize the day-to-day lives of a diverse cast of characters, your interest really hinges on how fascinating you find their lives. The eclectic cast of actors he has assembled certainly do their best with the material they’re given but by the end of the film you find yourself wondering, what was the point? I can see what Rudolph is aiming for with Welcome to L.A. – that the spread out geography of the city isolates everyone and despite the dense population a lot of people feel alone. So, the characters in this film try to connect with one another, through friendships or love affairs. However, they aren’t all that interesting and neither are their problems.

Special Features:

Theatrical trailer.

When her husband and daughter are killed in an automobile accident, which she survives, Julie (Binoche) is understandably devastated. She shuts herself off emotionally, never wanting to feel anything again after such a traumatic experience. In the opening scenes of Blue, actress Juliette Binoche displays an incredible range of emotions as her character tries to comprehend her world, which has been shattered. She ends up suppressing raw emotion with detachment.

Over the course of Blue, Julie experiences a series of epiphanies as symbolized by bursts of the color blue and a loud swell of classical music, which acts as an emotional Greek chorus. Music is her voice, channeling the emotion she keeps in check most of the time. As the film progresses, she finds a way to free herself from her past and from the revelations about her husband’s life. She puts herself through a series of exercises to test her feelings – is she ready to face the world without emotion? Julie has shut herself off from the world but eventually learns how to become a part of it again.  Kieslowski draws us into this world so that we become invested in its inhabitants, in particular Julie who endures unimaginable tragedy and must find a way to continue.

If Blue is ostensibly a tragedy, then White is a darkly comic revenge story. Karol Karol (Zamachowski) is a Polish hairdresser who lives with his beautiful young bride Dominique (Delpy) in Paris but she divorces him early on in the film for failing to consummate their marriage. She takes him to court and coldly tells him that she doesn’t love him anymore. Karol soon finds out that his bank account has been frozen and he becomes homeless, which leaves him wondering if he has the strength to go on. Dominique has completely destroyed him and so he goes back to his native Poland where he rebuilds his life and plans an elaborate revenge plot.

Actor Zhigniew Zamachowski has an incredibly expressive face that he uses to make Karol instantly sympathetic but it isn’t too hard after all the horrible things Dominique does to him. Your heart really goes out to Karol just as Julie Delpy’s cold, cruel character really makes you hate her and hope that she gets her well-deserved comeuppance, but as with Kieslowski’s films, it’s never that simple and the ending is surprisingly hopeful.

The first third of White is utterly heartbreaking as poor Karol deals with one soul-crushing injustice after another. In the second third, he rebuilds his life in Warsaw in an inspirational turn of events as he is employed as a bodyguard for a local criminal while cutting hair for his brother on the side. Karol is a quiet, unassuming guy. As a result, people, like his wife and the local crooks, underestimate him. They don’t realize just how clever he is and this is used to his advantage. Finally, the last third of the film is Karol’s payback on those who wronged him. In White, the traditional roles are reversed as Karol is the ingénue while Dominique is led by her sexual drive. Over the course of the film, we see him reassert his own identity while refusing to lose his optimism or romantic nature.

Red concludes the Three Colors trilogy with a moving examination of the notions of fate and chance as a beautiful runway model named Valentine (Jacob) crosses paths with Joseph (Trintignant), a bitter retired judge, when she accidentally hits his dog with her car. She lives in Geneva and maintains a long distance relationship with her irrationally jealous boyfriend over the phone. There is also subplot concerning a young man studying to be a judge and who is also having relationship problems.

Joseph spends his time eavesdropping on his neighbors’ phone calls, an odd hobby for a retired judge. Valentine is struck by his honesty and fascinated with his outlook on life, shaped by years of his profession. Now, he is a voyeur, listening to other people’s conversations while he has no life of his own. She believes that people are basically good while he believes the opposite, which was no doubt cultivated over years of seeing the worst of humanity paraded in front of him. Valentine inspires Joseph to reconnect with humanity while he inspires her to be more independent and proactive in her relationships.

Initially, Valentine comes across as a ditzy model with no common sense (especially in regards to the dog) but Irene Jacob’s soulful performance suggests that there is more to her character and this becomes apparent over the course of the film. Like Julie in Blue, Joseph is emotionally disconnected from others and seems not to care about Valentine hitting his dog with her car. Jean-Louis Trintignant is excellent as the jaded ex-judge and it is fascinating to watch his character go from an indifferent observer to someone that can reconnect with the rest of humanity. Trintignant has wonderful chemistry with Jacob and it is fascinating to see the relationship develop between their characters during the course of the film. With Red, Kieslowski reminds us of the importance of being connected with others and with humanity. By that extension, the entire trilogy is an epic treatise on the strengths and weaknesses of humanity.

Special Features:

Those of you who own the Miramax box set might want to hold onto it as not all of the extras have been carried over to the Criterion Collection edition. For example, the audio commentaries film scholar Annette Insdorf did for each film have not been included. Also omitted are the selected scene commentaries that actresses Julie Delpy and Irene Jacob did for White and Red respectively. While some of Kieslowski’s student films have been included on this new set, Concert of Wishes, Trolley, and The Office have been omitted. Completists will want to hold onto the Miramax edition.

New to this set is “On Blue,” a video essay by film studies professor Annette Insdorf where she gives a brief background to the Three Colors trilogy before examining the themes explored in Blue. She also analyzes the film’s striking style as well as the moving classical score.

“Kieslowski’s Cinema Lesson” sees the filmmaker discussing a specific scene from Blue and the importance of close-ups in the film.

Also included is a selected scenes commentary by actress Juliette Binoche. She talks about meeting Kieslowski for the first time and how they talked about philosophy. She turned down a role in Jurassic Park (1993) to do Blue. The actress gives her impression of the director and what it was like to work with him.

There is a new interview with composer Zbigniew Preisner. He had worked with Kieslowski on several films, including the Three Colors trilogy. By the time they did Blue together the two men had a very familiar shorthand and knew what the wanted. Preisner recalls first working with Kieslowski and talks about his working methods.

“Reflections on Blue” takes a retrospective look at the film with critics and historians talking about the production and offering analysis. They point out that Kieslowski avoided making an overt political statement with these films by focusing on the personal: the tragic life of a woman. The film’s cinematographer, editor and Binoche also offer their thoughts on the film.

Another new extra is “On White,” a video essay by film scholar Tony Rayns. He provides backstory to the film. It was the first film Kieslowski had made since The Decalogue (1989). Rayns also provides details on the socio-political conditions in Poland at the time. In White, Kieslowski confronted the changes to the country since the fall of Communism.

“Kieslowski’s Cinema Lesson” features the director’s views and he talks about the opening scene of the film. He also explains why he included shots of the suitcase and how it ties in with the opening scenes of the other two films.

There are new interviews with actors Zbigniew Zamachowski and Julie Delpy. They talk about how they met Kieslowski and were cast in White. They both talk about working with the director and how he was very exact in his methods with no improvisation.

Another new extra is an interview with co-writer Krzystof Piesiewicz where he talks about working with Kieslowski. They first met in 1982 and Piesiewicz noticed that the director was lost in life having gone through some personal ordeals. They became friends and worked together over 15 years on 17 films.

“The Making of White” features some excellent behind the scenes footage of Kieslowski making the film in Poland. He describes White as a “lyrical comedy” and also a “sad comedy.”

Yet another new extra is “On Red,” a video essay by film critic Dennis Lim. He discusses the film’s themes, chief among them the notion of isolation. He also analyzes Red’s style, in particular, the use of color.

“Kieslowski’s Cinema Lesson” features the director discussing a scene with Valentine and the dog she accidentally hit with her car. He says that it is the film’s first critical moment. The ever eloquent director explains his intentions with this scene and why it was shot the way it was.

There is a new interview with actress Irene Jacob and she talks about her experiences working with Kieslowski on Red. She also discusses her first meeting with him and how that led to her being cast in The Double Life of Veronique (1991). Jacob talks about working with her Red co-star Jean-Louis Trintignant and comes across as a smart and engaging person.

Producer Marin Karmitz talks about the making of Red and tells a story about an elaborate shot that was achieved and the difficult logistics involved. He also recounts a story of how the film received three Academy Award nominations as an American film!

Editor Jacques Witta talks about why certain scenes in Red were cut and his impressions of working with Kieslowski. There are excerpts of this footage which are quite interesting but one can see why they were removed.

“Kieslowski Cannes 1994” is a short documentary about Red’s world premiere at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival where the director famously announced his retirement. There are interviews with the two lead actors who came to the festival to help promote the film. This is a nice snapshot of Red’s debut.

“Kieslowski: The Early Years” takes a look at the director’s early life with interview soundbites from film scholars and collaborators. He moved around a lot as a child and didn’t dream of being a filmmaker but rather fell into it. This featurette provides insight into what motivated Kieslowski to become a filmmaker and how it shaped his later films.

Also included are two student films, The Tram (1966), about a boy flirting with a pretty girl, and The Face (1966), where he played a tormented artist.

There are two short documentaries, Seven Women of Different Ages (1978), which looks at several ballet dancers, each one on a different day of the week, and Talking Heads (1980), a fascinating film where 40 different people of various ages are asked the three same questions.

Also included are trailers for all three films.

“Behind the Scenes of Red” features footage of Kieslowski directing the film juxtaposed with the actual scene as it appeared in the film. This featurette provides some insight into how he worked.

Finally, a new addition to this set is “Krzysztof Kieslowski: I’m So-So,” a 55-minute documentary made in 1995 shortly after he retired from filmmaking. He talks about his life and films. As always, Kieslowski speaks eloquently and thoughtfully about a variety of topics in this fascinating portrait.

It’s been ten years since Vic (Wright) and Kat (Parker) played together in an alternative rock band. Their last gig ended in a messy breakup that occurred on stage, which McDonald does a nice job of conveying through a montage of images during the opening credits. They have since gone their separate ways and pursued their own careers: Kat is a music advisor for the Lifetime television channel while Vic is still making music. The two women are reuniting for a women in rock benefit show and meet for dinner beforehand. Sure enough, old grudges come to surface in no time: Vic’s drug addiction and Kat’s drinking problem.

Tracy Wright plays a bit of a prickly character that isn’t afraid to speak her mind and from her heart. For Vic, she adopts a bit of a Patti Smith look, complete with disheveled hair and black jacket with jeans. This is in sharp contrast to Molly Parker’s softer, prim and proper look. Kat reeks of a successful West Coast lifestyle. The two actresses have excellent chemistry together and once their characters break the ice created over ten years, we see the familiar shorthand that existed between them re-emerge. Their dinner conversation starts off awkward and then shifts into small talk that has the ring of honesty between two long-time friends. It feels like an actual conversation between two women and not contrived movie dialogue.

It is refreshing to listen to interesting characters talk about their lives in a way that only indie films can do. Trigger is an excellent character-driven drama about how the love for making music reunites two women after several years. Director Bruce McDonald has spent a good chunk of his life around musicians and he knows how they act and talk around each other as well as around non-musicians. He understands that when musicians get on stage, all the personal baggage that makes life messy goes away and it’s all about the music – the synergy that exists while they are performing. He also gets extraordinary performances out of Parker and Wright who dig deep and really create fully realized characters that resemble actual people as opposed to movie creations that don’t resemble anyone we might know.

Special Features:

Theatrical trailer.

Also include are brief excerpts from a table reading where we get to see Molly Parker and Tracy Wright going over the screenplay. This is a nice enough extra I suppose but it is way too short to provide any kind of real insight into how doing this translate into the final product.

Adapted by Richard Ford from a collection of his own short stories, Bright Angel is a road movie about a young man from Montana by the name of George (Mulroney) who escapes from a troubled home with Lucy (Taylor), a girl who needs to go Wyoming and bail her brother out of jail. It’s pretty easy to see why George wants out. He lives out in the middle of nowhere farmland, USA with no real future prospects. His parents (Shepard and Perrine) don’t get along and actually split up early on in the film. He’s attracted to Lucy at first sight, drawn to her exotic looks and outgoing nature. It’s safe to say that she’s unlike any girl George has ever known. He sees her as his ticket out of a humdrum existence and a chance at a new life full of unpredictable turns that come largely in the form of colorful characters they meet on the way to Wyoming. There’s his aunt and her wheelchair-bound gun crazy husband (played with paranoid flair by Delroy Lindo) and a scuzzy criminal lowlife (a typically eccentric Bill Pullman).

Dermot Mulroney plays George as a soft-spoken guy trying to figure out what he wants in life. He has good chemistry with Lili Taylor and the growing attraction between their characters is believable. They complement each other – Lucy being George’s spontaneous side and he proves to her that not all guys are interested in her only for sex. She sports the big hair, black leather jacket look of a vintage 1980’s rock chick with the attitude to match. The film’s best scenes are between them as they get to know each other.

Director Michael Fields has a good eye for locations, setting much of the action in the same wide-open vistas as another road movie, Terrence Malick’s Badlands (1973). Like that film, Bright Angel immerses us in America’s heartland and how the environment shapes the attitudes of its inhabitants. This is one of those character-driven slice-of-life films that exist on the margins just waiting to be discovered and hopefully will with the release of this new DVD.

Special Features:

Theatrical trailer.

Drained from such a harrowing ordeal and frustrated over the whole mess, Lynch took some time off to develop a more personal project that he had been working on while filming Dune. Surprisingly, De Laurentiis decided to give Lynch another chance, but only with the stipulation that he take a cut in his salary and work with a reduced budget of only $6 million. In return, the young director could have total artistic freedom and control over the final cut of the film. Lynch surprised everyone with his hauntingly beautiful ode to small-town America, Blue Velvet (1986).

The brilliance of this film is apparent right from the opening montage that begins with the image of blood red roses in front of a stark white picket fence and continues with a fireman waving from his truck, to a crossing guard motioning children across a street. Everything is heightened in color and slowed down to an almost surreal level, which invokes the feeling of being in a dream. Lynch reinforces these romantic images of 1950′s Americana with Bobby Vinton’s classic version of “Blue Velvet” playing on the soundtrack. By using colors and music to create a dreamy, nostalgic mood, Lynch draws us into his strange world.

Jeffrey Beaumont (MacLachlan) has returned home from college after his father suffers a stroke. While walking home from the hospital one day, he finds a severed ear lying in a field. The ear draws Jeffrey into a mysterious world of intrigue and dangerous characters. There is Dorothy Vallens (Rossellini), an exotic looking singer who is involved in a bizarre, sadomasochistic relationship with local psycho, Frank Booth (Hopper), a man of truly frightening proportions. To aid Jeffrey in his adventure, he enlists the help of Sandy Williams (Dern), the beautiful girl next door, whose father just happens to be the detective in charge of investigating the severed ear. As the film progresses, Jeffrey is torn between the dark, seductive world of Dorothy and the safe, wholesome world that Sandy represents. The mystery culminates when these two worlds inevitably collide.

Blue Velvet clearly demonstrates Lynch as an artist at the top of his form. This is due in large part to the exceptional crew he assembled for this film. Long time collaborator, Alan Splet (who had worked with Lynch ever since Eraserhead) contributed the complex sound scheme that ingeniously complements Lynch’s images. This is evident in the unsettling “moaning hallways” of Dorothy Vallens’ apartment building that seem almost organic in nature due in large part to Splet’s disturbing soundscape. Splet also shines in the film’s surrealistic montages where sound and image are distorted to a nightmarish level.

Frederick Elmes’ lush cinematography is also a crucial element to the unique look that permeates Lynch’s films. This look is Lynch’s trademark style and harkens back to his other fascination: painting. His background lies in the fine art of painting and as a result Blue Velvet contains scenes that have a still life quality to them. In contrast, Elmes’ technique evokes classical Hollywood cinema in the way scenes are lit and staged and yet they effortlessly slip into surrealism with the aid of Lynch’s often absurd situations. The perfect example of this blend is the famous “joyride” sequence where Frank takes an unwilling Jeffrey and Dorothy to Ben’s (Stockwell), a place where obese women sit passively while Ben, complete with Kabuki white make-up and “suave” demeanor, lip-synchs to Roy Orbison’s “In Dreams.” In this scene, Elmes combines film noir lighting with a dark color scheme that enhances and establishes the eerie, dream-like mood synonymous to all of Lynch’s films.

Blue Velvet also marked the first time Lynch worked with composer Angelo Badalamenti who provides a seductively lavish score. To complement Elmes’ classical Hollywood look, Badalamenti’s score mimics the melodramatic soundtracks of Douglas Sirk’s films with its dramatic swells during intense moments and calm lulls with romantic interludes. Blue Velvet would mark the beginning of a long-lasting partnership with Badalamenti who has since composed the music for every subsequent project that Lynch has done.

It has been twenty-five years since Blue Velvet shocked and divided audiences with its peculiar vision of America. Many critics loved the film, some declaring it one of the best films of the 1980′s. Almost the same number hated it. For every Pauline Kael who gave it a favorable review, there was a Rex Reed who thought it to be “one of the sickest films ever made.” Yet for such vehemence, Blue Velvet has endured. Its legacy is widespread. Many articles and essays have been written about Lynch’s film since its release in an attempt to unlock many of the film’s mysteries and symbols that are buried throughout. Its look and mood has influenced many films since. One only has to look at Lynch’s own career with Twin Peaks, a tamer, televised version of Blue Velvet, to see the auteur’s continuing fascination with perverse, small-town mysteries. Blue Velvet established Lynch as a masterful director with the ability to create an atmospheric world with fascinating characters that eerily mirrors our own.

Special Features:

Good news for fans of this film, Blue Velvet has never looked or sounded better than on this new Blu Ray version with the transfer personally approved by Lynch himself. All of the extras from the previous special edition have been included as well as several hidden Easter Eggs that featured additional interview soundbites not included in the documentary under the title, “Vignettes.”

“Documentary: Mysteries of Love” is a fantastic, in-depth 70 minute retrospective documentary that takes us through the making of the film, from its origins to its enduring legacy. It mixes archival interviews with David Lynch with new ones with MacLachlan, Dern, Rossellini and Hopper who all talk about how they were cast and what it was like working with Lynch. Hopper, in particular, talks about how, at the time, he had just come out of rehab and had no career. His agent even warned him not to do it but he wanted to work with Lynch. This is a detailed look at the various aspects of the movie, including the texture cinematography and the layered sound design with all sorts of great anecdotes told by cast and crew who are clearly proud of this being involved in this masterpiece.

 “Siskel and Ebert ‘At the Movies’ 1986” features the two famous film critics sounding off on the film. Ebert hated it and felt that it was cruel to the actors, in particular Isabella Rossellini while Siskel defends it, comparing it favorably to Psycho (1960).

Arguably, the greatest addition to this edition and the Holy Grail for Lynch fans is a collection of deleted scenes that run 50 minutes. Long thought lost with only stills surviving, they were included in the last DVD incarnation. However, this footage has recently been discovered and included. There is a lot of fascinating stuff, here, including more of Jeffrey’s backstory and more of Frank’s weird habits. One can see why they were cut but it is great to finally see them and how much more light they shed on this mysterious film.

There is a photo gallery of behind-the-scenes pics and posters.

Finally, there are two T.V. spots and a trailer.

Niccolo Farra (Milian) is a film director whose wife leaves him. So, he starts an affair with a woman named Mavi (Silverio), a patient of his sister’s. One of her other lovers sends a man to warn Niccolo to stop seeing Mavi but he continues to do so. He is trying to get another film going but all he has is a vague idea and is struggling to find that creative spark that will get things going. Niccolo meets another woman named Ida (Boisson), a down-to-earth actress who he fancies as possibly the muse for his next film. She’s much more comfortable in her own skin than Mavi and he finds her confidence attractive.

The film’s show-stopping sequence involves Niccolo and Mavi escaping into the country and getting lost in a thick fog. At one point all that is visible is an ominously blinking traffic light. There’s a dream-like quality to this sequence as we see Niccolo disappear and reappear in the fog. This weather acts as a metaphor for his relationship with Mavi.

It’s tough to feel any kind of sympathy towards Niccolo – he’s a bored rich guy dealing with his own issues that aren’t all that compelling. His interactions with other affluent people aren’t all that interesting, including his affairs with women that lack the eroticism they are supposed to have. Too often it feels like Antonioni is coasting, going through the motions in a largely unengaging film, which is too bad because the actors do a good job but they have little to work with.

Special Features:

A rather long-ish theatrical trailer.