The week’s DVDs begin and end in Victorian England:
DVDs for April 15 by Boo Allen
This week, we begin and end in Victorian England:
The Invisible Woman (***)
Ralph Fiennes directs and stars as Charles Dickens in this rich new mini-bio-pic that illustrates how genius comes with mixed rewards. Abi Morgan supplied the script based on Claire Tomalin’s book, and it shows Dickens struggling with fame while still turning out his numerous classic novels. As in any film about an artist, it proves easy to capture the actual physical process but not the inspiration. Dickens’ early inspiration came from his wife, Catherine (Joanna Scanlan), the mother of his ten children. In middle-age, Dickens began an affair with eighteen year-old Ellen Ternan (Felicity Jones), which serves as the movie’s main plot. Dickens and his best friend Wilkie Collins (Tom Hollander) meet Mrs. Frances Ternan (Kristin Scott Thomas) and her three daughters while rehearsing a play. From there, Dickens and Ellen become close, a budding relationship captured delicately by director Fiennes. At the time, Dickens was England’s first great celebrity, hounded whenever in public, so he had pre-knowledge on how to hide. Fiennes also shows some of Dickens’ less admirable traits, as in one heart-breaking scene in which Dickens actually walls off his wife in their home. Fiennes keeps his cameras tightly focused on his characters and avoids costly crowd scenes and elaborate period costumes. Unfortunately, this tightness, of camera and pocket, results in a near colorless film, with abundant scenes in shadows and darkness. The late 19th century Oscar-nominated costumes and settings might be created on film, but the rendering of genius will forever remain out of reach.
Rated R, 111 minutes.
DVD extras: commentary with Fiennes and Jones, a 21 minute featurette filmed at a Toronto Film Festival press conference, and a 27 minute Q&A at the Screen Actors Guild with Fiennes and Jones.
Riot in Cell Block 11 (***)
The Criterion Collection has rescued and given a Blu-ray debut to this taut 1954 prison film directed by Don Siegel. In one of his first films, Siegel, who went on to influence a generation of filmmakers (particularly Sam Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood), delivers a lean rendering of Richard Collins’ screenplay about a group of prisoners in a California facility who riot against their conditions. One of the surprises comes in the blatant yet repeated advocacy for better treatment. The Warden (Emile Meyer) repeats his line to outsiders that “The men are intelligent men, but some are psychopaths.” Despite the pleas, Siegel weaves together a story of officials arguing while inmates hold four guards hostage. The riot’s leader, and default star, Dunn (Neville Brand, a Silver Star recipient in World War II), must juggle his own lust for vengeance with a need for succeeding in the quest. Siegel moves his story along with several action sequences but with a surprising minimum of blood or graphic violence. The all-male cast includes a full roster of familiar 1940s and 1950s character actors—Frank Faylen (Dobie Gillis’ father), Whit Bissell, Alvy Moore and the always memorable Leo Gordon as “Crazy Mike” Carnie.
Not rated, 81 minutes.
DVD Extras: the remastered new disc, available in combo packs with regular DVD, offers commentary from film scholar Matthew Bernstein. Plus: Siegel’s son Kristoffer Tabori reads excerpts, with appropriate visual accommodation, from his father’s 1993 autobiography, as well as from Stuart Kaminsky’s 1973 book on Siegel. Also: an audio excerpt from the 1953 NBC radio documentary series “The Challenge of Our Prisons.” The set also holds a 30 page booklet, with an essay from film scholar Chris Fujiwara, a short testimonial from Sam Peckinpah, and a 1954 Look magazine article by the film’s producer Walter Wanger.
Performance (**1/2)
On Demand Warner Archives releases on Blu-ray this cinematic oddity from 1970 co-starring, in his second screen appearance, a strangely androgynous Mick Jagger. He plays Turner, a semi-retired London musician who accidentally plays host to Chas, a gangster on the run, played by James Fox (seen in the latest season of Downton Abbey pursing Shirley MacLaine as Lord Aysgarth). Cinematographer-turned-director Nicholas Roeg and Renaissance man Donald Cammell shared directing duties for the fast-cutting, chaotic story that often goes over the edge in its 1970s era predilection for drug scenes, group sex, and gangster violence. A highly entertaining mess of a film.
Rated R, 105 minutes. Debuting on Blu-ray.
DVD extras: a 2007, 25 minute “making of” featurette with interviews with several behind-the-scenes participants, and a five minute promotional short.
Bella Sara: Emma’s Wings
In this full length animated film, Emma (voice of MacKenzie Porter) and her friend Sara travel to “North of North,” a magic land filled with horses. There, the two young ladies must confront evil Ivenna in order to rescue the horses.
Not rated, 75 minutes.
DVD Extras: The feature is based on the trading trading card series and the disc includes a “Bella Sara” trading card pack.
And, finally, from this week’s TV offerings:
The Carol Burnett Show: Carol’s Crack Ups
This six disc set holds seventeen uncut episodes chosen specifically by Carol Burnett for their abundant hilarity. They include vignettes with series’ cast members Lyle Waggoner, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, and plenty with Vicki Lawrence as Mama. Dick Van Dyke also shows up, and George Carlin does his routine as a dentist. Some well known episodes include “Alice Portnoy,” “The Charwoman,” “The Old Folks,” “The Family,” and others.
Not rated, approximately 17 hours.
Extras: five new featurettes on various topics such as Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, bonus sketches, an interview with Conway.
Ripper Street: season two
The eight sophomore season episodes of this popular British series, now arriving from BBC Home Entertainment, boasts a wide array of villains for the intrepid detectives of London’s Metropolitan H division, which includes the feral East End district of Whitechapel, known best for being Jack the Ripper territory. This well written series could rightfully be called a “cop show,” even if it is 1890 and the precinct’s chief officers, Edmund Reid (Matthew Macfadyen) and Bennet Drake (Jerome Flynn), not only must confront the appearance of a new drug called heroin, but also bombers, dangerous circus show performers, a gang of abused women who kidnap men, a Chinese martial arts master, and other dangers. Even Joseph Merrick (Joseph Drake), better known as The Elephant Man, figures into the intrigue. Every episode has its own drama, but together they connect to an overall theme of capturing a corrupt chief inspector (Joseph Mawle).
Not rated, 485 minutes.
DVD extras: a 13 minute “making of” featurette with cast and crew interviews.
Also on DVD: The End of Time, Date and Switch, The Suspect, The Trials of Muhammad Ali, Wrong Cops.