DVD Reviews
Issue 231 / March 2008 More from this Issue
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Caravaggio
Rai Trade
Street: 2008
There's been a serious trend over the last decade of making bio-pics about artists. The last few years have produced biographies about Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi, Gustave Klimt and Jackson Pollock. Sometimes the films have been wonderful, but often the result has been completely half-assed. Thankfully, the Italians understood the importance of 17th-century painter Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio enough to make the film themselves. The result is a charming Italian-language period piece spanning the life of Caravaggio as he pushed the envelope of art and proper society-using prostitutes as models for the Virgin Mary, painting flesh and death realistically and murdering people who looked at him funny. Add in the depth of story created by award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and you end up with a film that is as beautiful as it is gritty. James Bennett
d'Annunzios Hhle
(d'Annunzio's Cave)
Heinz Emigholz
Filmgalerie 451
Street: 1.29
Remember the movie Ghost World? You know the part where the art teacher shows off her ridiculous video that keeps repeating the line, "Mirror, father, mirror"? Imagine that, but about an hour longer, with your Macintosh computer from 5th-grade narrating and you've got d'Annunzios Hhle. The film is a documentary (take that term lightly) about Italian architect and artist Gabriele d'Annunzio's mansion. It takes you through 15 rooms of the mansion and talks a little bit about each room, as-well-as showing off the decorations in the room. Sounds neat, huh? I thought so, too. It's not. This film suffers technical problems that turn out to be its ultimate downfall. First of all, the narration is done by computer programs (one of which, on room 11, gets really angry with the viewer and starts name calling) that are almost always hard to understand. Often, the voice shifts from the left to right speaker or back behind your TV into the wall or just gets quieter altogether. I don't know what they were trying to achieve here, but if they were trying to frustrate the viewer, they managed nicely. Secondly, in direct contradiction to the info the studio has publicly released, there are no subtitles on this DVD. You're stuck with the difficult-to-understand cyborgs. If you just want to see pretty things in a mansion, sure, check it out. Otherwise, move on. You'll find little else here. Aaron Day
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox
Ghost Robot
Street: 11.20
Like all religious fanatics, I receive my scriptures from fortune cookies and product labels, and Dr. Emmanuel Brunner's legendary soap bottles satisfy the latter. Wrapped in Bronner's manifesto, the Moral ABC's, the bottles display the doctor's principles of a unified planet and an eco-friendly lifestyle. Wonder Hippie Powers Activate! First-time director Sara Lamm attempts to capture not only the life and death tale of Dr. Bronner, but parallels the film with his son, Ralph, as he transports his father's legacy to an off-off-Broadway production. Did you know that not only can you wash your hands with this soap, but you can also use it for cleaning grease stains and performing enemas? Send me an entire case! While both narratives are undeniably amusing, neither is capable of preserving the viewer's attention for the full 90 minutes. Each account would be better off in separate 30-minute shorts. Now, where's that case of soap? Jimmy Martin
Dresden
Koch Vision
Street: 02.05
While a romance between a German nurse and a British bomber pilot set in the days surrounding the infamous World War II decimation of the German city by British and U.S. forces might seem problematic and contrived, in this case it works. Not so much for the love story, which is rather simple, but because of the atmosphere that surrounds it. This German-produced Television Mini-Series (think HBO rather than NBC) presents an unflinching look into the psyche of the German people (rich, poor, corrupt and somewhere in between) as the war they were destined to win lunges towards defeat. There is anti-Semitism, paranoia, brutality, betrayal, kindness, love and just enough CGI battle sequences spliced with archived footage to keep the 3 hour running time paced perfectly. For someone like me, who is obsessed not so much with the statistics but the sociological element of World War II, Dresden proved quite enlightening. The fact that it is also the most-watched German program of all time also says volumes about a culture trying to come to terms with itself. ~ryan michael painter
Rai Trade
Street: 2008
There's been a serious trend over the last decade of making bio-pics about artists. The last few years have produced biographies about Frida Kahlo, Artemisia Gentileschi, Gustave Klimt and Jackson Pollock. Sometimes the films have been wonderful, but often the result has been completely half-assed. Thankfully, the Italians understood the importance of 17th-century painter Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio enough to make the film themselves. The result is a charming Italian-language period piece spanning the life of Caravaggio as he pushed the envelope of art and proper society-using prostitutes as models for the Virgin Mary, painting flesh and death realistically and murdering people who looked at him funny. Add in the depth of story created by award-winning cinematographer Vittorio Storaro and you end up with a film that is as beautiful as it is gritty. James Bennett
d'Annunzios Hhle
(d'Annunzio's Cave)
Heinz Emigholz
Filmgalerie 451
Street: 1.29
Remember the movie Ghost World? You know the part where the art teacher shows off her ridiculous video that keeps repeating the line, "Mirror, father, mirror"? Imagine that, but about an hour longer, with your Macintosh computer from 5th-grade narrating and you've got d'Annunzios Hhle. The film is a documentary (take that term lightly) about Italian architect and artist Gabriele d'Annunzio's mansion. It takes you through 15 rooms of the mansion and talks a little bit about each room, as-well-as showing off the decorations in the room. Sounds neat, huh? I thought so, too. It's not. This film suffers technical problems that turn out to be its ultimate downfall. First of all, the narration is done by computer programs (one of which, on room 11, gets really angry with the viewer and starts name calling) that are almost always hard to understand. Often, the voice shifts from the left to right speaker or back behind your TV into the wall or just gets quieter altogether. I don't know what they were trying to achieve here, but if they were trying to frustrate the viewer, they managed nicely. Secondly, in direct contradiction to the info the studio has publicly released, there are no subtitles on this DVD. You're stuck with the difficult-to-understand cyborgs. If you just want to see pretty things in a mansion, sure, check it out. Otherwise, move on. You'll find little else here. Aaron Day
Dr. Bronner's Magic Soapbox
Ghost Robot
Street: 11.20
Like all religious fanatics, I receive my scriptures from fortune cookies and product labels, and Dr. Emmanuel Brunner's legendary soap bottles satisfy the latter. Wrapped in Bronner's manifesto, the Moral ABC's, the bottles display the doctor's principles of a unified planet and an eco-friendly lifestyle. Wonder Hippie Powers Activate! First-time director Sara Lamm attempts to capture not only the life and death tale of Dr. Bronner, but parallels the film with his son, Ralph, as he transports his father's legacy to an off-off-Broadway production. Did you know that not only can you wash your hands with this soap, but you can also use it for cleaning grease stains and performing enemas? Send me an entire case! While both narratives are undeniably amusing, neither is capable of preserving the viewer's attention for the full 90 minutes. Each account would be better off in separate 30-minute shorts. Now, where's that case of soap? Jimmy Martin
Dresden
Koch Vision
Street: 02.05
While a romance between a German nurse and a British bomber pilot set in the days surrounding the infamous World War II decimation of the German city by British and U.S. forces might seem problematic and contrived, in this case it works. Not so much for the love story, which is rather simple, but because of the atmosphere that surrounds it. This German-produced Television Mini-Series (think HBO rather than NBC) presents an unflinching look into the psyche of the German people (rich, poor, corrupt and somewhere in between) as the war they were destined to win lunges towards defeat. There is anti-Semitism, paranoia, brutality, betrayal, kindness, love and just enough CGI battle sequences spliced with archived footage to keep the 3 hour running time paced perfectly. For someone like me, who is obsessed not so much with the statistics but the sociological element of World War II, Dresden proved quite enlightening. The fact that it is also the most-watched German program of all time also says volumes about a culture trying to come to terms with itself. ~ryan michael painter
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Posted on September 12, 2008 by isabel miquel arques
where I can buy the dvd caravaggio from the rai?
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