New on DVD

Once upon a time in Hungary

PETER KEOUGH — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 18:51:58 GMT

Béla Tarr’s epic arrives on DVD
Since its release in 1994, Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr’s 435-minute sui generis masterpiece Sátántangó has had the top critics grasping for superlatives.

ENTHRALLING FOR SEVEN HOURS? Can’t argue with Susan Sontag.

Since its release in 1994, Hungarian auteur Béla Tarr’s 435-minute sui generis masterpiece Sátántangó (“Satan’s Tango”) has had the top critics grasping for superlatives. The late Susan Sontag exclaimed, “Devastating, enthralling for every minute of its seven hours.” I never saw the film on the big screen, but after watching Facets Video’s shimmering, meticulous DVD version (the process took so long and was so laborious, they even made a DVD about making the DVD), I’d have to agree. Its opening scene — a 10-minute shot of the mud-filled yard of a dilapidated Hungarian collective farm that’s empty until some cattle make their inquisitive entrance — might sound forbidding. In fact, the film transfixes — witty, complex, and layered, this is a radiant and weighted detailing of a world. Only once did I think I might have to tune out. That was about halfway through, in a long sequence in which a feral little girl tortures a cat, and it wasn’t because I was bored.

Not that nothing happens in Sátántangó. Although the enigmatic Tarr has said that he hates stories, the film is filled with narrative bagatelles, and its overriding storyline, spread over a dozen chapters (or movements or steps), stops and starts again from new points of view. In this Beckett-like fable, some of the remaining inhabitants of the collective have hoarded some cash and are planning to divide it among themselves and leave. But the uncanny Irimiás (Mihály Vig, who also composed the film’s eerie music), a dreamy con man prone to pronouncements of gnomic nihilism, has returned after being reported dead. He says he has a plan to redeem these losers from their fetid futility, but it will cost them.

A messianic parable? An allegory about the death of the Marxist dream? Maybe so, but also much more and perhaps much less. Much of the film finds the camera following figures walking endlessly in the rain through trash-blown streets or toward empty horizons. (The eternal dinner guests in Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie come to mind.) At the hub of these repeated and unresolved movements revolves the tango of the title, a drunken dance that a child watches through the window of a tavern and that leads to an appalling event, a vision that both vindicates innocence and blasphemes it.

I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the '60s

JEFF TAMARKIN — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 22:32:02 GMT

Shout! Factory
By 1968, James Brown wasn’t merely “Soul Brother No. 1”; he was an African-American icon with the power to stop riots.

Frill rides

PETER KEOUGH — Thu, 22 May 2008 16:33:08 GMT

Getting an Indy history lesson on DVD
Looking back on a time when action sequences unfolded without the currently fashionable veil of rapid editing and CGI.

Numb Skull: Indiana Jones’s mild Kingdom. By Peter Keough

Interview: Indiana Jones and the Fortress of PR. By Rob Nelson.

Of all the attractions at the Disney MGM theme park when it previewed for the press back in 1989, the “Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular,” re-creating the rotating-airplane scene from Stephen Spielberg & George Lucas’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, impressed me the most. The physical logic of the sequence played out in “real” life exactly as it did on the screen (the propeller part somewhat grislier).

Looking back, I can see that this was a time when movies inspired theme parks rather than the other way around. It was a time when action sequences unfolded without the currently fashionable veil of rapid editing and CGI. They were laid out like the workings of a Rube Goldberg device or a silent-movie gag, or, as Spielberg himself put it in a recent interview, “the way Chaplin or Keaton would [shoot it], everything happening before the eyes of the audience, without a cut.”

And so the re-released DVD box set Indiana Jones: The Adventure Collection offers a refreshing, if nostalgic, experience. Although the films’ style hasn’t survived, some of the substance has. They represent the genre’s transformation from mere entertainment to “myth,” a process that was spawned by misguided readings of the works of Joseph Campbell and that continues to the present day with the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Narnia movies.

Thus Raiders aspires to more than just the cliffhanging thrills of the B movies that Spielberg claimed as his inspiration. It is also a quest story, with Harrison Ford’s Jones a hero in search of a talisman of patriarchal power, the Ark of the Covenant. US Army intelligence has asked him to track it down before the Evil Empire of the day (it’s 1936), the Nazis, can find it and conquer the world. A fitting allegory for 1981, the year of its release and the first year of the Reagan revolution, which would seek to restore America’s greatness and strengthen its resolve to fight Communism.

By 1984, however, that resolve had deteriorated into good old-fashioned American materialism, the pursuit of “fortune and glory,” as Jones puts it in The Temple of Doom. This time he’s searching for a nondescript rock, and the film is about as generic as the artifact, opening with a Busby Berkeleyish production number of “Anything Goes” and ending with a fracas in a set that looks like a cross between the Temple of Kali in Help! and a tacky Polynesian restaurant.

Robyn Hitchcock

JEFF TAMARKIN — Tue, 20 May 2008 15:03:50 GMT

Sex, Food, Death . . . and Insects | A+E
Robyn Hitchcock, in one of many illuminating moments of reflection during this 53-minute documentary, posits that his songs “don’t appeal to meatheads.”

Hollyhood wills

BEN WESTHOFF — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 20:55:51 GMT

Three 6 Mafia’s adventures in acting
Memphis rappers Three 6 Mafia were trailblazers in the genre of crunk, a species of hip-hop characterized by big and ugly club beats and chanted semi-sensical choruses.

DJ PAUL & JUICY JAY: In Adventures in Hollyhood, Three 6 get to be themselves — what more could you ask for?

Memphis rappers Three 6 Mafia were trailblazers in the genre of crunk, a largely forgotten species of hip-hop characterized by big and ugly club beats and chanted (or yelled) semi-sensical choruses. Although the group have been around in various incarnations since 1991, their fortunes rose with crunk’s in the early part of this decade. They even scored a 2006 Oscar for best original song for “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from Hustle and Flow. (You might remember host Jon Stewart’s commentary: “For those of you keeping score at home, Martin Scorsese, zero, Three 6 Mafia, one.”)

Three 6’s rise has also been tied to another trend in hip-hop: declining CD sales. But they were lucky enough to have MTV tap them for a reality series: Three 6 Mafia: Adventures in Hollyhood. And now the group, along with Sony, have cashed in again by releasing the entire eight-episode series on DVD.

The show chronicles the move by group members Juicy J and DJ Paul to LA and their largely unsuccessful attempts to break into the film industry. The guys are in way over their heads when it comes to acting auditions and pitching scripts, and the fish-out-of-water elements are played up, especially via Juicy J, the more naive of the pair. DJ Paul (who, like Juicy J, raps as well as produces) is the crew’s elder statesman, reminiscent of Bernie Mac in his deadpan delivery.

Also living in the bland rented house are Juicy J’s brother, rapper Project Pat (who barely speaks the entire season), and their assistants, Computer and Big Triece. Triece, we soon learn, didn’t finish high school until he was 21, and his sister is still a virgin at 34. Needless to say, we’re rooting for him from the start, and the most compelling episode sees him propose to his girlfriend. Nearly as large as Triece himself, she’s called Sugar Foot, and Paul and J buy her a Greyhound ticket from Memphis to surprise her lover.

“Can I touch your booty?” asks Triece when she arrives, glowing with happiness. “Maybe later,” she responds. Soon he gets down on bended knee and presents her with a ring (also paid for by the Three 6 guys). Later, we’re treated to night-vision shots of the pair in bed, and at one point Sugar Foot raids the refrigerator for love-potion ingredients. “That’s the first time in my life I’ve ever seen somebody mix sugar and ranch dressing together as a aphrodisiac,” comments Paul. Against all odds, it’s actually moving.

Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price

JEFF TAMARKIN — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:37:40 GMT

Last of the Breed | A+E
With a collective age of 225, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, and Ray Price live up to this concert DVD’s title, which it shares with an equally superb studio album released last year.

Eric Clapton: Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007

JEFF TAMARKIN — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 20:00:30 GMT

Rhino
Every so often in Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007 you can see the beaming host, Eric Clapton, behind a stack of amps shooting photos of his fellow performers.

Norman Granz Presents Improvisation

JEFF TAMARKIN — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 19:23:41 GMT

Eagle Eye
The 1950 footage is only part of the story: the program is fleshed out with equally dazzling later performances.

Dan Deacon and Jimmy Joe Roche: Ultimate Reality

BEN WESTHOFF — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 17:38:06 GMT

Carpark
Kind of like one long Rorschach test, Ultimate Reality is a collaboration between experimental music producer Dan Deacon and visual artist Jimmy Joe Roche.

Scene and heard

JEFF TAMARKIN — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:02:05 GMT

The year ahead in DVDs
Entertainment companies are pumping out music DVD titles by the hundreds, and 2008 will see a deluge of releases across all genres.

ABOUT A SON: The Kurt Cobain documentary comes to DVD in February.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the first three months of 2007 saw overall CD sales dropping by 20 percent from the same period a year earlier, the seventh year in a row that consumers spent less of their cash on the format. It’s not news that downloading — both legal and illegal — continues to skyrocket (some estimates claim an increase of as much as 50 percent in ’07 alone), but what’s not as well-known is that music-related DVD sales continue to rise, likely due to the boom in purchases of high-definition televisions and the peripheral equipment often sold along with those sets (such as “upconverting” DVD players). Although 2007 figures are not yet available, a 2006 article in the Hollywood Reporter stated that “suppliers last year sold 21.4 million music DVDs, up from 20.6 million in 2004.” A relatively small increase, perhaps, but it beats a 20 percent freefall any day.

It’s no wonder, then, that the entertainment companies are pumping out music DVD titles by the hundreds, and 2008 will see a deluge of releases across all genres. From live performances to documentaries, historical retrospectives and recycled films, the onslaught shows no sign of slowing down. So here’s a sampler of potentially spin-worthy standalone music DVDs (as opposed to CD/DVD combinations) for the first quarter of the year.

ROCK
RADIOHEAD: THE DVD BOX | Chrome Dreams | January 22 | Two documentary films about the band, Homework and OK Computer: Classic Album Under Review, are joined at the hip in this collection, which also features the usual rare footage and interview material.

INSIDE THE SMITHS | MAMS | January 22 | Don’t look for Morrissey or Johnny Marr to spill any beans here — they weren’t available. Given the DVD’s title, that may seem like a bit of a bait-and-switch routine, but the Smith’s oft-overlooked rhythm section of Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke were both there, too, and they’re more than happy to talk about what it was like working with their two more recognizable former associates.

ROXY MUSIC: THRILL OF IT ALL 1972–1982 | Virgin | February 5 | Remember, Roxy Music wasn’t just Bryan Ferry’s first band; the group is also where Brian Eno got his rock-and-roll start. This double-disc set includes promo videos, clips from various TV appearances, and live footage, including a complete 1976 Swedish performance.

Broadway's Best at Pops

LLOYD SCHWARTZ — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 22:46:53 GMT

WGBH Boston Video
This DVD represents some of the best of public broadcasting and a bit of the worst.

Eminem

BEN WESTHOFF — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:51:44 GMT

Live from New York City | Eagle Vision
There was a time, not so long ago, when rapping about raping your mother and strangling people with candy bars was au courant .

Cinematic blunders

MATT ASHARE — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 19:30:39 GMT

Getting through The Song Remains the Same
Led Zeppelin have rarely missed a promotional opportunity, and the occasion of their current reunion is no exception

VIDEO: Led Zeppelin, "Rock and Roll" (from The Song Remains the Same)

Led Zeppelin have rarely missed a promotional opportunity, and the occasion of their current reunion — one that brings Robert Plant and Jimmy Page back together with bassist John Paul Jones for the first time since their 1995 Hall of Fame induction — is no exception. With the December 10 London show set up to honor Atlantic co-founder Ahmet Ertegun fast approaching, Zep have reissued both the 1973 concert film The Song Remains the Same as a two-disc DVD (with a newly remastered soundtrack) and a brand new two-disc greatest-hits collection, Mothership, that also comes in a deluxe three-disc version with a 20-track DVD of live performances taken from the 2003 DVD set Led Zeppelin.

Unfortunately, The Song Remains the Same remains, after 25 years, one of the worst concert films ever. Or perhaps I should say it’s one of the more unfortunate advertisements for a rock band ever released as cinema, even if it has been responsible over the years for countless custom van paint jobs of wizards wielding mysterious lights at the top of a hill. That’s not to suggest that the film doesn’t have its redeeming moments: the performances of “Rock and Roll,” “Black Dog,” “Misty Mountain Hop,” and even the title track go a long way toward conveying the special power of Zeppelin’s fusion of American blues and British folk. And until the 2003 live set was released, The Song Remains the Same was one of the very few live documents of Zeppelin running through their classic repertoire. But by 1973, the year The Song Remains the Same was recorded on an American tour (mostly at Madison Square Garden, though the DVD provides no specific information), Zeppelin were a behemoth of a band — the very epitome of the sort of excess that punk-rockers would rise up against just a few years later. As Robert Plant remarks in an interview about the film that’s part of the bonus disc, “If we’re going to be self-indulgent, we might as well try to expend that indulgence a bit.”

Amy Winehouse

BEN WESTHOFF — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 22:00:03 GMT

I Told You I Was Trouble: Live in London | Republic
Let’s hope it wasn’t Amy Winehouse’s last great show.

In action

JEFF TAMARKIN — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 22:34:09 GMT

The ‘Jazz Icons’ DVDs
In the era of YouTube, we’re apt to forget that not every note of music ever played has been captured on film or video.

VIDEO: Duke Ellington live in 1958 (from the Jazz Icons DVD)

In the era of YouTube, we’re apt to forget that not every note of music ever played has been captured on film or video. Many artists whose key work predates the ’70s are sparsely represented in action during their heyday. So when a DVD series like “Jazz Icons” comes along to offer long-lost, high-quality, vintage live and in-studio performance footage of bona fide giants in the process of creating, it’s cause for rejoicing.

To date, Jazz Icons (it’s also the name of the label releasing the DVDs) has issued 16 titles, available individually or in two boxed sets, the first containing nine discs and the second seven (plus a short bonus disc). The first series, released in 2006, focused on 1957-’78: Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, Thelonious Monk, Buddy Rich, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, and Chet Baker. The new second volume, spanning 1958-’65, devotes a disc each to Duke Ellington, Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, Dave Brubeck, Wes Montgomery, and John Coltrane.

These are all true performances (all filmed in Europe), not compilations of MTV-like canned videos or one-off tracks from assorted television appearances. Filmed in black-and-white, the programs stick to the simplest of concepts: here are great musicians at work — let’s get up close, watch them, and see who they are.

There is no standard formula. The 80-minute Ellington performance, filmed at Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw in 1958, is a single show, the earliest known complete concert by the orchestra available. Sarah Vaughan, meanwhile, is seen in three separate sets, two from 1958 and another six years later. The difference is striking. In the earlier footage, a demure Vaughan is visibly nervous until she opens her mouth to sing. Then confidence washes over her — her timing and phrasing are impeccable, her voice is perfect as she runs through “Lover Man,” which she nonchalantly informs us she recorded with Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and “Over the Rainbow,” which she immediately owns. By 1964, her singing has become huskier and she’s sweating profusely, but she still leaves you wondering whether there’s anything the woman can’t do with that voice. She burrows deep inside the lyrics of the Mack Gordon/Harry Warren standard “The More I See You,” creating a stunning piece of interpretation without visible strain.

The Wes Montgomery disc is another kind of exercise. Recorded in Holland, Belgium, and England in 1965, it presents rare glimpses of the guitarist and his band hashing out tunes privately as well as in public. Close-ups of Montgomery’s hands traversing the fretboard should be required viewing for any aspiring jazz guitarist.

Bert Jansch

JEFF TAMARKIN — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 23:39:14 GMT

Fresh as a Sweet Sunday Morning | MVD
Jimmy Page admitted being “absolutely obsessed” with him.

20 to Life: The Life and Times of John Sinclair

JEFF TAMARKIN — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 19:59:19 GMT

MVD
John Sinclair was the poster boy for the radicalization of American youth in the ’60s.

Los Zafiros

JEFF TAMARKIN — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 21:15:10 GMT

Music from the Edge of Time | Shout! Factory
As with anything Cuban, politics is never far away.

The varied charms of a DVD magazine

JOE BERNARDI — Thu, 08 Feb 2007 16:33:51 GMT

Wholphin serves up aces
Wholphin , the DVD magazine from the creators of literary journal McSweeney’s and quarterly culture magazine the Believer , serves to provide the viewer with sights they had no idea they needed to see.

Coheed & Cambria

KEN MICALLEF — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:08:57 GMT

The Last Supper: Live at the Hammerstein Ballroom | Columbia
Fans of Coheed and Cambria’s fantastical hippie metal are given to proclamations like “They made their own style, no other band has ever been like them” and “Their shows are a life-changing experience.”