JANUARY 9 — It’s now 2016, downloads (legal or illegal) and streaming or VOD (i.e. Video On Demand) platforms like Netflix, Hulu and MUBI are firmly entrenched in our lives, yet the much publicised death of physical media still shows no serious signs of happening just yet.
Because of the encroachment of downloads and streaming, physical media just got a bit more niche and specialised, so print runs are getting smaller and the releases can sometimes get a bit more limited and exclusive.
The tough economic realities that hit everyone hard in Malaysia in 2015, and is set to hit even harder in 2016 meant that I really had to pick and choose my purchases in 2015, meaning I had to miss so many great releases like Arrow Video’s massive and limited edition Hellraiser Trilogy boxset (which sold out really fast and now fetches ridiculous prices on eBay), the similarly long-awaited boxset of Jacques Rivette’s Out 1 and lots more. But of the ones that I did manage to check out, here are my favourites.
The Reflecting Skin (Blu-ray steelbook)
After years being ill-served by unavailability on home video and bad transfers when it is available for sale, Philip Ridley’s one-of-a-kind coming of age Gothic masterpiece finally gets the release it deserves by Soda Pictures in the UK. The newly-restored 2K high-definition transfer practically shimmers across the screen as Dick Pope’s achingly gorgeous cinematography is brought to glorious life here, doing full justice to Ridley’s painterly visual compositions. Stacked as well with Ridley’s early short films and highly informative retrospective documentaries, this beautifully-designed and packaged steelbook is a must-own for anyone who loves cinema.
The Immigrant (Blu-ray)
It’s really sad that it took almost two full years for an American film as stunning as this to get a proper home video release. When I first saw the film in 2014, it was on a bootleg of a French DVD where long passages of non-English dialogue went unsubtitled, which prevented me from including it in my favourite films of 2014 list as I couldn’t really be sure what actually transpired during those scenes. This Blu-ray release finally corrects that, and it’s quite simply an incredible film, one of the best of 2013 (where it first played at Cannes) or 2014 (where it got limited release in the USA).
A Day In The Country (Blu-ray)
It’s probably a bit funny that of all the 2015 releases by The Criterion Collection, my favourite turned out to be a 41-minute short film, shot in 1936 and finally released by its director Jean Renoir in 1946. But this is not just any short film, for I humbly think it’s one of the loveliest, if not the greatest, short film that the world has ever seen. Beautifully restored in 2K HD, the ravishing images enhances the ravishing story even further, and with bonus features that include an 89-minute compilation of out-takes from the film, this is one release that I keep on returning to time and time again.
The Colour Wheel (DVD)
This film first made an appearance in my favourite DVD/Blu-ray releases of 2013 list, where this overlooked but vital 2011 US indie got a precious DVD release in France, of all places. 2015 finally sees it getting a proper DVD release in the USA by a boutique label called Factory 25 (who’ve also released Frownland and a Caveh Zahedi boxset), and they’ve made this release even more valuable by also including director Alex Ross Perry’s first feature film, Impolex, which was almost impossible to see before this, in the package. Now that’s what real added value looks like!
Story Of My Death (DVD)
Alongside Pedro Costa and Lisandro Alonso, Spanish auteur Albert Serra is a total rock star in my eyes but despite winning the Golden Leopard at Locarno in 2013, his latest cinematic adventure Story Of My Death was impossible to get ahold of in an English-friendly edition, until this vital DVD release by UK label Second Run came along in 2015. Ridiculously beautiful and original, Serra’s imagining of a meeting between the ageing Casanova and Count Dracula will probably baffle some, but will be manna from heaven for fans like me.
The Apu Trilogy (Blu-ray)
Probably the most miraculous Blu-ray or DVD release of the year, Criterion’s meticulous restoration of Satyajit Ray’s immortal classic about the life of Apu will have fans of the trilogy weeping with joy as the 4K digital restoration hums with crystal clear images, and all this happening two decades after the films’ original negatives were burned in a fire. As Akira Kurosawa once famously said, “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon,” so now that we have this boxset as the trilogy’s most definitive release, there really is no excuse now.
Forty Guns (Blu-ray)
I love Samuel Fuller, so any new Blu-ray release of his films is a much-welcomed event. But Forty Guns is extra special for its great many visual delights, and Masters Of Cinema’s gorgeous new HD transfer gives all of that full justice. Like Johnny Guitar, Forty Guns is that rare Western where it’s a woman who holds the whip, and this new release will hopefully give plenty of new people a chance to get acquainted with this great little film.
Body Double (Blu-ray)
Brian De Palma may get a lot of flak for “only” making erotic thrillers, but any proper cinephile will have to admit that his level of craft and mastery of film language is quite simply insane. And outside of his latter-day masterpiece Femme Fatale, Body Double is probably one of his most jaw-droppingly awesome films, crafted with the kind of skill and confidence that would make Hitchcock proud. And this new 4K restoration, released in France by Carlotta Films, which comes with a lavish 200-page hardcover book, 1 Blu-ray and 2 DVDs is one that any De Palma fan would snap up in a heartbeat.
Dragon Inn (Blu-ray)
Arguably the film that shaped the Chinese martial arts film as we know it today, setting up all the archetypes and stylistic flourishes that we associate with the form now, King Hu’s dazzling and highly stylized film gets resurrected by a dazzling 4K restoration here in Masters Of Cinema’s new dual format release. Seeing it for the first time, you might wonder what the big deal is, but just like Stagecoach is to the Western genre (even though there have been Westerns before it), Dragon Inn is the same thing to the Wuxia genre. Absolutely essential.
Society (Blu-ray)
Just as icky and disturbing as it was in 1989, Brian Yuzna’s unforgettable body horror film gets a new lease of life courtesy of Arrow Video’s pretty lavish limited edition release of the film which comes in a new 2K restoration and armed to the teeth with plenty of bonus features and documentaries, including “Society: Party Animal”, the official comic book sequel to the film which is reproduced in its entirety in a perfect-bound book. Twenty-six years after its release, it’s still hard to describe the film to the uninitiated, as its literal interpretation of family being flesh and blood is taken to such extreme levels that it remains shocking viewing even today.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
