Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

In a career as fragmented as the mind of Split‘s central character, writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has gone from being hailed as the new Spielberg with his breakthrough films The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable to being shot to flames for disasters like The Last Airbender and The Happening. Split has now become one of his biggest successes, both commercially and critically. Is it the return to form we have been led to believe it is?

Well, you can breathe a big sigh of relief because the short answer is a resounding ‘yes’.

Split is great fun. It’s thrilling, frightening, threatening and tense, with enough scares and smarts to keep you on your seat’s edge and guessing right to the end. And it has a GREAT final moment – not really one of Shyamalan’s famous clever twists, more a delightfully playful and unexpected surprise.

Things get off to a bold start with little preamble, as three girls are kidnapped and held prisoner by Kevin, a man who is strange in more ways than one. Many more. About 23 more to be exact, as Kevin has multiple personality disorder. Locked up and terrified, the young girls fear the worst but react to their situation in different ways, the two close friends encouraging outsider Casey to join them in attempts to harm Kevin or escape.

Casey’s life experiences though, as told in disturbing flashbacks, have prepared her for a different approach and the lessons she learnt as the child of a keen hunter start to give her an advantage over her friends. But what becomes quickly apparent is that Kevin isn’t the only person inside his body. There’s Hedwig, a little boy, there’s posh Patricia, but only Kevin allows them their time ‘in the light’ .Once the girls are separated, it is Casey’s ability to play one internal character off another which gives her any means of finding an escape.

Meanwhile, Kevin’s visits to his long term psychiatrist reveal that a 24th character, as yet unseen, is coming. And it’s called The Beast…

Split has two main settings. One is the office of Kevin’s analyst, whilst the other is the underground lair where the girls are kept. With such confines, a snappy script and tense direction matter but, most of all, it’s the acting which needs to engage. And engage it does. Proving that the brilliant performance she gave in The Witch wasn’t a one off, Anya Taylor-Joy makes the initially awkward Casey a fantastic central figure, a former victim who isn’t going to take it any more. And it’s wonderful to see Broadway star (and the original Carrie‘s sympathetic teacher) Betty Buckley back on the big screen. But there’s just no getting away from the absolute genius of James McAvoy’s performance here. It’s quite astonishing how quickly he manages to convey Kevin’s different personas. At one point he plays one character pretending to be Kevin to throw his analyst of the scent and it’s such a brilliant piece of subtle acting that we know it’s happening without knowing how we know. It’s awards worthy.

If the last act veers a little too much towards horror, we can forgive it, so much fun has been had along the way. Plus, that final scene is a fanboy’s wet dream… no matter how much it splits the audience.

SPLIT / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN / STARRING: JAMES MCAVOY, ANYA TAYLOR-JOY, BETTY BUCKLEY, HALEY LU RICHARDSON, JESSICA SULA / RELEASE DATE: 5TH JUNE

Well…One can only hope that this is the last chapter. If you thought both the Underworld and xXx franchises were running on fumes, then you’ve seen nothing yet as the Resident Evil series reaches its sixth and (hopefully) final instalment. The Resident Evil video games are some of the best survival horror games ever made and brilliantly inventive and creative with their characters, stories and situations, which is a shame that hack-director Paul W. S. Anderson had to go and cause chaos with his movie “adaptations” since 2002, with each one getting progressively worse and worse, so you can probably tell where this one ranks in terms of worse to “best”. In fact, not only is this the worst in the franchise or the worst video game movie to date, but also quite possibly one of the worst movies ever made.

 

Everything in the movie fails across the board, and even though the previous movies established lore, it keeps getting ignored or retconned as they go along and this movie completely ignores all the important lore and backstory, as if Anderson was deliberately ignoring all the criticism and feedback he received. They even sideline Shawn Roberts’ Wesker in favour of resurrecting Iain Glen’s Dr. Isaacs due to Glen’s Game of Thrones popularity. Oh, and enough with the clones already! There are more holes in this plot than there are in many Swiss cheeses and logic is completely thrown out the window in favour of a something that has no signs of a plot or story structure in its body and even the action is completely devoid of tension.

 

The combination of cinematography and editing are utter garbage; everything looks dull and bland thanks to its pukey-brown/blue colour tint, whilst the editing is some of the worst seen in a movie yet. The film is incredibly littered with jump-cuts that you literally can’t take a breath or concentrate on what you are looking at, and add on to that the innocuous shaky-cam during the action sequences, it creates an uncomfortable movie-viewing experience. Occasionally, during the action sequences you don’t notice its horrific editing, but that’s only because some of those scenes are shot in complete darkness so you can’t see what’s happening and the muzzle-flashes will just leave you blinded and sick to your stomach. Plus, having random jump-scares doesn’t make it scary in any way possible.

 

Just as bad is the CGI, which looks even worse than the CGI seen in the likes of Gods of Egypt or the last Divergent movie and makes the graphics in a PS1/PS2 game look state-of-the-art. The music is generic filler action music that you’d skip over on a soundtrack, which is a shame considering that some of the music in previous movies had some solid tracks thanks to the likes of Marilyn Manson or tomandandy. As far as the acting talent is concerned, everyone frankly looks as though they have all just stopped caring and just want to collect their pay cheques and call it a day. It’s a real shame that Milla Jovovich went from being such a promising rising talent in The Fifth Element to just being a prisoner of her own husband’s movies.

 

In the end, it’s truly astonishing just how lazy and manipulative the filmmaking in this movie is, as if nobody cared or even bothered to put in any real effort. This could potentially be the final nail in the coffin for Paul W. S. Anderson’s career as a director, and any shred of talent they may have had in the previous movies is completely discarded, which only results in the worst instalment of a drawn-out, mediocre franchise that should’ve ended a long time ago. It really will be hard to find a film worse than this in 2017 since this is right down there with the equally abominable Fifty Shades Darker in terms of how much can something truly stink more than a very stinky thing indeed.

 

RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: PAUL W. S. ANDERSON / STARRING: MILLA JOVOVICH, ALI LARTER, SHAWN ROBERTS, RUBY ROSE / RELEASE DATE: 12TH JUNE

Young teacher Julia has spent years trying to break the destructive bond she has always shared with her unbalanced twin, Mary. To do this she severed ties with her sister and tried her hardest to put the trauma Mary caused in their childhood into the past. Julia’s uncle convinces her, against her better judgement, to come and visit Mary in hospital as she’s now gravely ill with a disfiguring condition that will probably kill her. Unlike Julia, Mary has no intentions of letting bygones be bygones and the bitterness and resentment that has festered in her since both women were girls is going to tip over into a murderous rage. Escaping the hospital Mary vows a bloody revenge on Julia for ruining her life simply by being born.

 

Released in 1981, the Italian-produced and American set Madhouse never made it to the UK during that first run, instead becoming part of the early ‘80s ‘video nasty’ set of films. Director Ovidio Assonitis had quite the career in movies. From co-directing the profitable Exorcist knock-off Beyond the Door to producing Piranha 2 and giving a certain James Cameron his first directing credit, it’s a filmography that leans towards the schlockier end of things. Madhouse at least initially seems to be trying to divert from this trend by presenting as a relatively straight horror thriller. If you’re expecting a slasher film it’s not that, but instead a slow, plodding and humourless movie that’s neither horrific or exciting and for the most part fairly dull. However, there’s two things that help Madhouse not be a total bust and still worth your time.

 

First the characters are genuinely likeable with Trish Everly as Julia being a winsome lead and a good surrounding cast that means the murders that take place have a real edge to them. The second thing is that Madhouse is slow, plodding and humourless only for the first hour of its runtime. Around that mark it gives in to Italian excess, ditches any pretence at class and with a healthy dose of black humour goes for a suitably over-the-top ending. It’s all the better for this, and makes that opening stretch worth it.

 

It’s been restored and is in great shape for this release, which also comes with a commentary by The Hysteria Continues podcast team, as well as interviews with cast, crew and Assonitis himself. It’s not a great film, being neither as out-there as the best Italian horror or as gaudy and enjoyable as the best the slasher golden age had to offer. Still, for fans this is a good package and if you’re new to it that ending is pretty damn good.

 

MADHOUSE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: OVIDIO G. ASSONITIS / SCREENPLAY: OVIDIO G. ASSONITIS, STEPHEN BLAKELEY, PETER SHEPERD, ROBERTO GANDUS / STARRING: TRISH EVERLY, MICHAEL MACRAE, DENNIS ROBERTSON, ALLISON BIGGERS / RELEASE DATE: 12TH JUNE

You know how it is: You’re editing together the latest in a long line of video nasties and suddenly you start losing your mind. Before you know it, you’ve tried to murder the delivery man, eviscerate your wife and daughter and are readying yourself for a blood-drenched final stand-off in a mental hospital. No? Well, that’s how poor hapless Edward handles the experience in this gore-filled mid-90s love letter to the genre that made Evil Dead and Peter Jackson household names.

 

To try and outline the plot in any orthodox way would be, not only almost impossible, but somehow inappropriate. This isn’t a film that was crafted for moviegoers to discuss the ins and outs of the main character’s psychosis or whether or not the monsters that we see on screen are real or inside his head. This was put together by a group of passionate horror fan filmmakers to see what they could put together with as little as possible. The result is… well, Evil Ed!

 

You can’t really classify a film like Evil Ed in the normal way. Is it poorly made? It’s no Scorsese, but the photography is capable and the effects and gore are every bit as accomplished as the other films of this genre and age. Is the acting awful? God yes, but then as the filmmakers explain in the documentary, they couldn’t care less. Acting wasn’t a priority, just as long as they could deliver the lines between each moment of horror. Does this do everything that the cover suggests it will? Yes, pretty much. Make-up, latex monster, sex, violence and buckets of blood are in full flow.

 

What Evil Ed does best is stand as a testament to a genre that simply doesn’t exist anymore (outside of the few hard-working no-budget filmmakers like MJ Dixon). While most modern horrors are more intent on having a hirsute ghoul stand in the corner to frighten you, Evil Ed reminds you that horror used to be a whole lot more fun. It also stands as a testament to any budding filmmaker that getting your friends together to make something that people will love over 20 years later IS possible.

 

The extra features are abundant: Two versions of the film are available – the original and extended cut (with two whole extra minutes). Deleted Scenes, Bloopers, Trailers and a Still Gallery can also be found, along with the excellent making of Documentary ‘Keep ‘Em Heads Rolling’ which features interviews with many of the original cast and crew. Reconstructing Edward is a smaller featurette on the creation of this new ‘never before seen’ version. If you still want more then grab a comfy cushion for the three hour making of documentary ‘Lost in Brainland’.

 

If, after working your way through that you don’t feel like you’re losing your mind then Director Anders Jacobsson and the Arrow Video team probably haven’t done their job right.

 

EVIL ED (3-DISC SPECIAL EDITION) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: ANDERS JACOBSSON / SCREENPLAY: ANDERS JACOBSSON, GÖRAN LUNDSTRÖM, CHRISTER OHLSSON / STARRING: JOHAN RUDEBECK, PER LÖFBERG, OLOF RHODIN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The terminally ill Count Herve de Kerloquen has vanished. Although he is almost certainly dead, his disgruntled heirs are told that – without his body – they must wait for five years before they can receive their inheritance. In the meantime, they have to find an ingenious way to keep the Count’s vast chateau running. They cannot sell the chateau, or any of its contents, so they attempt to overcome their differences by drawing upon the chateau’s tragic medieval past, transforming the gothic pile into an elaborate son et lumiere tourist attraction. All seems to be going well until, one by one, the heirs begin to die. Are their deaths really accidents, or is there a cunning assassin in their midst, stalking them through the chateau’s labyrinth of claustrophobic passageways and secret rooms? And, before they are all killed, can the son et lumiere cast its spotlight on a murderer?

 

Spotlight on a Murderer is one of French cinema’s hidden gems. It was Georges Franju’s third feature (Franju is probably best known for the superb thriller Eyes Without A Face) and its playful screenplay was written by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who also scribed the classic Les Diaboliques and Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Vertigo. Fans of those films will find much to admire in this little-known movie, which really exploits the connection between detective noir and the gothic novel and combines some terrific characters with a fantastic central premise. So what if it all feels like a gallic re-tread of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians / And Then There Were None? It is executed with such joyful panache that textual similarities to other books and films are quickly forgotten. The performances are all first-rate, the cinematography (courtesy of Marcel Fradetal) is exquisite and looks wonderful in this pin-sharp blu ray release, and there’s even a fun Maurice Jarre score to keep everything bouncing along. This is a classic suspenser that is all about the journey rather than the destination, and the journey is delightful.

 

The special features on this disc are minimal – just a trailer and an on-set production featurette – but the featurette is pretty special, as bright and breezy as the main attraction. Just check out the hosts flirty interviewing technique – they don’t make EPK’s like that anymore! This is a terrific offering from Arrow Academy – c’est magnifique!

 

SPOTLIGHT ON A MURDERER (1961) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: GEORGES FRANJU / SCREENPLAY: PIERRE BOILEAU, THOMAS NARCEJAC / STARRING: PIERRE BRASSEUR, PASCALE AUDRET, MARIANNE KOCH / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

No, it’s not about someone seeking vengeance on those who haven’t wronged her yet; the title of this comedy slasher, the directorial debut of Alice Lowe, is actually a portmanteau of ‘pregnancy’ and ‘revenge’.

 

Lowe plays Ruth, a woman left isolated after a tragic incident has taken the life of her partner. She’s not entirely alone, though; she’s pregnant, and hears her foetus talking to her. The doctors may not believe her, but Ruth’s unborn daughter is surprisingly intelligent. And, like many babies, she’s a complete bastard. From the womb, she encourages Ruth to track down and murder the six people involved in daddy’s death, even though some of them are ordinary people who really aren’t to blame. Ruth feels she has no choice but to comply – what baby wants, baby gets.

 

Prevenge follows Ruth as she works through this kill list, and we get a series of very different, yet all entertaining, murder sequences. The victims are played by actors you might recognise from British comedy TV, including Murder in Successville’s Tom Davis and Angelos Epithemiou himself, Dan Skinner, as well as two stars of Game of Thrones, Gemma Whelan and Kate Dickie.

 

They’re all sharply written characters who demand different tactics from Ruth, though the highlight is Davis’ performance as DJ Dan, a misogynist oaf with a high opinion of his own masculinity and a horribly cheesy afro wig. As he slimily tries it on with Ruth, it’s easy to believe the only reason anyone would want to go home with him would be to kill him, and all too cathartic to see that play out.

 

It’s all very deadpan in style, reminiscent of Sightseers, a similarly murderous comedy that Lowe co-wrote and starred in with Steve Oram. Scripting this one alone (yes, as well as directing and starring – she’s quite the multi-tasker), Lowe’s dialogue is just as darkly, subversively hilarious; murder has never been so fun.

 

However, the fact that, talking foetus aside, Ruth is on her own throughout the story does mean that it doesn’t reach the same heights as Sightseers; it has not got as strong a central dynamic and large parts of the plot feel like ticking targets off a list without much character development. Closer to the end, though, the inner conflict between Ruth’s human nature and the psychotic foetus supposedly controlling her does allow for some intriguing developments. Both direction and performance from Lowe are carefully balanced to keep us questioning whether Ruth is really under baby’s spell or just mentally unbalanced due to her trauma.

 

With a nastily enticing concept and a wicked sense of humour, Prevenge is a very assured debut from Lowe, and STARBURST can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

 

PREVENGE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ALICE LOWE / STARRING: ALICE LOWE, KAYVAN NOVAK, GEMMA WHELAN, TOM DAVIS / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 5TH

No, it’s not about someone seeking vengeance on those who haven’t wronged her yet; the title of this comedy slasher, the directorial debut of Alice Lowe, is actually a portmanteau of ‘pregnancy’ and ‘revenge’.

 

Lowe plays Ruth, a woman left isolated after a tragic incident has taken the life of her partner. She’s not entirely alone, though; she’s pregnant, and hears her foetus talking to her. The doctors may not believe her, but Ruth’s unborn daughter is surprisingly intelligent. And, like many babies, she’s a complete bastard. From the womb, she encourages Ruth to track down and murder the six people involved in daddy’s death, even though some of them are ordinary people who really aren’t to blame. Ruth feels she has no choice but to comply – what baby wants, baby gets.

 

Prevenge follows Ruth as she works through this kill list, and we get a series of very different, yet all entertaining, murder sequences. The victims are played by actors you might recognise from British comedy TV, including Murder in Successville’s Tom Davis and Angelos Epithemiou himself, Dan Skinner, as well as two stars of Game of Thrones, Gemma Whelan and Kate Dickie.

 

They’re all sharply written characters who demand different tactics from Ruth, though the highlight is Davis’ performance as DJ Dan, a misogynist oaf with a high opinion of his own masculinity and a horribly cheesy afro wig. As he slimily tries it on with Ruth, it’s easy to believe the only reason anyone would want to go home with him would be to kill him, and all too cathartic to see that play out.

 

It’s all very deadpan in style, reminiscent of Sightseers, a similarly murderous comedy that Lowe co-wrote and starred in with Steve Oram. Scripting this one alone (yes, as well as directing and starring – she’s quite the multi-tasker), Lowe’s dialogue is just as darkly, subversively hilarious; murder has never been so fun.

 

However, the fact that, talking foetus aside, Ruth is on her own throughout the story does mean that it doesn’t reach the same heights as Sightseers; it has not got as strong a central dynamic and large parts of the plot feel like ticking targets off a list without much character development. Closer to the end, though, the inner conflict between Ruth’s human nature and the psychotic foetus supposedly controlling her does allow for some intriguing developments. Both direction and performance from Lowe are carefully balanced to keep us questioning whether Ruth is really under baby’s spell or just mentally unbalanced due to her trauma.

 

With a nastily enticing concept and a wicked sense of humour, Prevenge is a very assured debut from Lowe, and STARBURST can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

 

PREVENGE / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: ALICE LOWE / STARRING: ALICE LOWE, KAYVAN NOVAK, GEMMA WHELAN, TOM DAVIS / RELEASE DATE: JUNE 5TH

After the Battles Without Honour and Humanity series, director Kinji Fukasaku remained with the Yakuza film and along with screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara and that series’ star Bunta Sugawara made the preposterously macho, fantastically bleak Cops vs Thugs. It tells of a war between different gangs that brought chaos to the streets of the city of Kurashima in the years following WW2. When things eventually settled into an uneasy cessation of rampant violence (as opposed to a truce) it took men like Detective Kuno (Sugawara) to understand the ever-shifting politics and honour of these criminals to keep things from exploding again. He has become friends with the lieutenant of the Ohara group, Hirotani (Hiroki Matsukata), an unrepentant scumbag. Hirotani manages the Ohara as they prepare for the release of their boss, who has been incarcerated.

 

In the lead up to this, the power struggle between the Ohara and Kawade gangs begins to escalate. The spoils of a land deal that could reap a fortune to the one who owns it leads to mayhem escalating on the streets of the city. When lieutenant Kaida (Tatsuo Umemiya) comes in from headquarters to lead the police action in stopping the war these two police officers clash over how to handle things. This is just the opening stretch of a film that mixes equal parts brutal action and backroom political machinations. It’s the type of movie where everyone either shouts or threatens.

 

In the world he lives and works in Kuno must negotiate the way in which personal honour and duty affects the decisions of everyone. It’s a hard job and Kuno is a hard man. As played by Sugawara it’s a tough, complex turn. Ostensibly corrupt, to Kuno it’s not about money but rather friends helping friends and allies standing by each other towards a common goal. He might enjoy the trappings of his friend’s lifestyle but he considers himself a cop above all. It’s a great performance in a movie full of them. Matsukata is great too as the unpleasant Hirotani, a man who lives by his own twisted sense of Yakuza honour.

 

Occasional flashes of humour here and there are the only respite from what is a grim, cynical tale. No one gets out unscathed and the violence littered throughout is frequently harsh. Also harsh is the treatment of women in this film, routinely abused as they are. Nevertheless, it remains a compelling and fascinating window into a different time and place. For the extras there’s a commentary, some interviews and as is traditional now, a booklet for early pressings. A difficult film to like, Cops vs Thugs is certainly gripping and interesting. Fans of the Yakuza genre should definitely pick it up.

 

COPS VS. THUGS (1975) / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR: KINJI FUKASAKU / SCREENPLAY: KAZUO KASAHARA / STARRING: BUNTA SUGAWARA, TATSUO UMEMIYA, HIROKI MATSUKATA, MIKIO NARITA / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

The Climber is from the period Joe Dallesandro spent in Europe during the 1970s making movies after the Dracula and Frankenstein films he did with Warhol and Paul Morrissey. It’s an Italian crime drama written and directed by Pasquale Squitieri that tells of the rise and inevitable fall of Aldo, a low-level hustler with a hunger to be more. When we first meet Aldo he’s delivering smuggled cigarettes to various vendors in Naples. Impatient, Aldo runs a dangerous game and attempts to skim from his bosses by upping the price. When they’re not too happy about this, Aldo is forced to flee to Rome. Here by chance he meets Luciana (Stefania Casini), an unhappy young woman yearning for adventure who thinks she can find it in Aldo.

 

Aldo can’t stay away from the criminal life and when an opportunity to make some real money comes his way, he determines to ruthlessly pursue it. It also offers Aldo the chance to take his revenge on everyone he thinks has wronged him and so begins that inexorable spiral down so beloved of innumerable gangster films. If you’re thinking this sounds like many a cautionary tale that went before and followed after you’d be right. The plot doesn’t provide anything in the way of surprises, but fortunately the film has enough to recommend outside of this to make it worthwhile, starting with the two main performances. Dallesandro has a strange character to play. Aldo even as written is selfish, unpleasant and unattractive. But here Dallesandro makes him such a tightly-wound mix of desperation, ambition and unravelling neurosis that even though he’s unlikeable, it’s fascinating. Casini meanwhile is the film’s heart, as Luciana’s dream folds as she realises whatever lost soul she hoped was in Aldo isn’t there and never was.

 

The other reason to recommend it comes from Squitieri who is also, oddly, one of the difficulties the film has too. The film’s languid pace is a problem, as scenes drag on too long and demonstrate there’s a fine line between trying to present realism and simply not knowing when to cut a scene, so his ambitions to be epic get in the way. But in the middle of all the drawn-out unnecessary noodling will come a remarkable moment of cinematic visual poetry that almost makes you forgive him the dangerously sagging middle portion of this film. The restoration here is great for a mid-70s low budget film. Extras-wise it’s mainly just an interview with Joe (which is well worth your time) and for early pressings a booklet with writing by Roberto Curti. Not essential, but fans of Dallesandro, Italian films or genre cinema will still find much to enjoy.

 

THE CLIMBER (1975) / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: PASQUALE SQUITIERI / STARRING: JOE DALLESANDRO, STEFAN CASINI, RAYMOND PELLEGRIN / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW

Described by Samuel Beckett himself as an “interesting failure”, the 21-minute Film is the Nobel Prize winning playwright’s only work for cinema, an almost completely silent, black and white experimental short on the theme of perception and self. It’s now available from the BFI in a three-disc set which includes a crisp, remastered version of the 1965 film, plus a host of other extras for the Beckett enthusiast. It’s a very impressive set, but one with limited appeal beyond devotees of the playwright’s work or aficionados of abstract cinema.

 

Film is the story, such as it’s a story at all, of O (Buster Keaton), a man haunted by his aversion to being noticed. We begin on the street and follow O – literally follow; the camera remains behind Keaton at all times during the production – as he creeps close to the wall at the side of the road, making his way towards the small stark room wherein the rest of the film unfolds. What we are seeing is that childhood fear of somebody being right behind you and yet always out of vision, made flesh. Here the camera is O’s nemesis, and after he bundles a pair of strangers out of the way in his haste to escape the camera’s all-seeing eye, they too become the objects of its focus; their response to its gaze foreshadows the reaction O will have when he finally comes face to face with it in the film’s dying moments.

 

As an exercise in maintaining the purity between Keaton’s O (or rather, “I” as in “me”) and the camera’s lens (or rather “Eye”), Film compromises itself slightly in order to establish the denouement, a moment that is obvious in its inevitability yet still quite chilling when it arrives. Rayner Clark’s 1979 colour remake is less ascetic in its aesthetic; Beckett wasn’t involved in its production, whereas he’d been on set with Buster Keaton and director Schneider for the original. There is comedy in both, the ostentatious silent film ambience particularly of the original, plus the use of Keaton (and later Max Wall) lending itself to allowing a little fun into the expressionist environment that Beckett had been developing on the stage and would later fine-tune on television. The sequence involving the dog and cat (out-takes were saved and appear on the discs) is classic pre-talky movie fare.

 

Lipman’s 2015 NotFilm is on the other hand an elegy to both Beckett and his collaborators, and to the interface between silent movies and the unconventional artistry of the writer, and stands up as a work of art in its own right. The comprehensiveness of this set makes it an absolutely essential purchase, but not one for the uninitiated.

 

Special Features: The Street Scene reconstruction / The Dog and the Cat out-takes / “What if E’s Eyes Were Closed?” audio recordings / Buster Keaton and FILM / Memories of Samuel Beckett / Memories of Alan Schneider, Beckett and Godot / galleries / trailer / booklet

 

FILM / NOTFILM / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: ALAN SCHNEIDER, DAVID RAYNER CLARK, ROSS LIPMAN / SCREENPLAY: SAMUEL BECKETT, ROSS LIPMAN / STARRING: BUSTER KEATON, MAX WALL / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW