THE THIRD MAN, Carol Reed, director/StudioCanal; SLAP THE MONSTER ON PAGE ONE, Marco Bellocchio, director/Radiance Films; JAPAN ORGANISED CRIME BOSS, Kinji Fukasaku, director/Radiance Films; LOUIS FEUILLADE: THE COMPLETE CRIME SERIALS (1913-1918)/Eureka
THE THIRD MAN 4k Collector’s Edition, Carol Reed, director/StudioCanal The Third Man is a film that remains absolutely iconic – for its stylish, unsettling direction by Carol Reed, its superb performances (not least by Orson Welles in the title role – all the more surprising given how little screen time he is accorded), but most of all, perhaps for the contribution of its writer, Graham Greene. Had Greene not been the author of ‘serious’ novels (such as A Burnt Case and The Heart of the Matter) which marked him out as one of the greatest of all English writers, his ‘entertainments’ (as the author rather dismissively described them) would constitute a body of crime and thriller fiction almost without equal in the field. Despite the writer’s long association with the cinema, the number of first-rate films associated with his work is relatively few (The Third Man, of course, and Fritz Lang made a creditable stab at The Ministry of Fear). This new silver disc presentation is non-pareil, including an audio commentary with Guy Hamilton, Simon Callow & Angela Allen and a Guardian NFT Interview with Graham Greene. Back to post-war Vienna with Carol Reed!
SLAP THE MONSTER ON PAGE ONE, Marco Bellocchio, director/Radiance Films It has long been a characteristic of Italian genre directors that they possess a readiness to work in whatever field was energising the marketplace at a given time, emulating (in catchpenny fashion, but often with panache) foreign commercial successes. But there is a particular kind of Italian film which – while slotting into a commercial genre – is still capable of personal expression – and even political commentary. A prime example? Marco Bellocchio’s Slap the Monster on Page One, which is as much a balanced critique of Italian right-wing politics as it is a labyrinthine crime drama. With a general election due, a young woman is attacked and murdered. Energised by the incident, a newspaper editor (the ever-impressive Gian Maria Volonté) opts to utilise the incident to support the Conservative candidate supported by his paper. As a snapshots of the 1970s ‘years of lead’ in which church, state and criminal hierarchies are inextricably intertwined, this is nonpareil – and the film has assumed an even greater relevance in an era of politicians twisting stories (and manipulating the facts to their own end). Volonté is at his customary best, never inviting any easy sympathy for his character. This is a 4K restoration of the film from the original negative by Cineteca di Bologna under the supervision of director Marco Bellocchio.
JAPAN ORGANISED CRIME BOSS, Kinji Fukasaku, director/Radiance Films What would we do without labels such as Eureka constantly exhuming little-known films in a variety of genres? This is a powerful Japanese crime drama which will be unfamiliar to most viewers, and a film which handles its unsparing story with great panache. Two rival yakuza factions from Tokyo and Osaka are violently contesting for supremacy in*f Yokohama, manipulating local gangs as their proxies. Things come to a head when Tsukamoto (Koji Tsuruta, the chief of one of the gangs, is set free after a lengthy prison sentence. Japan Organised Crime Boss is the first film on which Kinji Fukasaku worked with Bunta Sugawara of Battles Without Honour and Humanity.
LOUIS FEUILLADE: THE COMPLETE CRIME SERIALS (1913-1918)/Eureka This is a very welcome package of the four crime serials that left their mark on popular culture (notably the superhero genre) throughout the world. Adapted from a series of novels by Allain and Souvestre that capture unerringly the incident-packed excitements of pulp serials, notably the machinations of super-criminals, such as fan favourite Judex. (later remade by Georges Franju). The various films were greatly influential on certain giants of the cinema, notably Alfred Hitchcock and Fritz Lang.
