Yves Montand

LE CERCLE ROUGE Criterion Blu-ray Review

by Andre Dellamorte    Posted: April 28th, 2011 at 12:23 pm

Jean-Pierre Melville is a director that has probably been loved more by directors and filmmakers than general audiences. John Woo swears by him. Quentin Tarantino adores him. Walter Hill was hip to him in the 1970’s, and made The Driver partly as an homage to Le Samourai. When I talked to Roger Deakins, he said that he constantly returned to the master. Le Cercle Rouge (“The Red Circle”) has been bouncing around for a while as something that may be possibly remade. But who could give the modulated cool of Alain Delon or Yves Montand? Unknown. But thank god Criterion put out the original on Blu-ray. Check out our review after the jump.

Z Criterion DVD Review

by Andre Dellamorte    Posted: November 1st, 2009 at 8:34 am

Costa-Gavras’s Z is the ultimate political thriller. Much like the earlier Battle of Algiers (1968)  it takes a real event, and uses it as fodder for cinema. And as a paranoia piece, 1969′s Z is a masterpiece.  It’s an angry film, spurned by the events of 1963, where a Greek politician was assassinated, and was murdered partly by the police, and the regime at the time. It’s a film that can make you angry about events of nearly a half century ago, and yet the echoes of the actions are still resonant. My review after the jump.

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