THE MAN FROM MAJORCA, Bo Widerberg, director/Radiance
A very welcome disc from Radiance (to which, for full disclosure, I contributed an extra). Unlike director Bo Widerberg’s better known arthouse fare, this is a powerfully persuasive police procedural in the Nordic Noir genre. (Radiance has already released Widerberg’s 1976 film The Man on the Roof.) It’s based on a novel by the celebrated Leif Persson, whose ambitious state-of-the-nation novels used the mechanics of crime fiction to expose the fault lines in Scandinavian society. The Man from Majorca utilises the broadest national perspective and employs a variety of different techniques – from detailed, gritty police narrative to cool documentary perspective – to create a compelling and idiosyncratic novel. This UK Blu-ray premiere begins with a post office robbery and two detectives uncovering high-level institutional corruption. Features include archival TV interviews with Widerberg, behind-the-scenes footage, interviews with assistant director Harald Hamrell, a limited edition booklet and my piece on the film.
THE USUAL SUSPECTS, Bryan Singer, director/Arrow
Praise for this innovative and complex crime film is redundant – anyone with the slightest familiarity with the genre will know that this is one of the key triumphs of the modern era, with a massively accomplished screenplay matched by acting performances of the highest rank. And while some films are not enhanced by a 4K iteration, The Usual Suspects is very much a beneficiary of the process and looks better here than it has ever done before.
MONSTER, Patty Jenkins, director/Second Sight
While the career of the director Patty Jenkins seems to be in something of a hiatus at present after her third Wonder Woman film was struck down when the new James Gunn DC regime came into play, she still has some highly impressive work on her CV, including that first outing for the Amazon princess and this riveting study of America’s most famous female serial killer, Aileen Wuornos. But it isn’t just Jenkins’ insightful direction that makes this film so powerful; there’s also the playing: revelatory turns from Christina Ricci and, in particular, a remarkable transformative turn from Charlize Theron, in which cleverly applied make-up creates a very different appearance for the actress. With its scenario of a woman murdering a series of men, the film echoes Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45, in which the first victims are brutal types who the audience may feel invite their own destruction. However, a series of ever-more vulnerable and even likeable males are murdered by Wuornos here – with the always mesmerising character actor Scott Wilson as the last victim, a man who tries to help the woman who will kill him. In this new Second Sight spruced-up disc, the film has never looked better.
YOKOHAMA BJ BLUES, Eiichi Kudo, director/Radiance
The Japanese director Eiichi Kudo is best known for his films in the Samurai genre, but this is a confident and stylish entry in the neo-noir field, with an acute sense of urban Japan. Drug-dealing mobsters and corrupt cops are stirred into the criminous mix here, with low-rent private eye BJ attempting to clear his name. The package includes interviews with actress Mari Hemmi and writer Shoichi Maruyama, a filmed location tour, and a limited edition booklet featuring new and archival writing.
EYEBALL (4K/Blu-ray dual format, Blu-ray and 4K release), Umberto Lenzi, director/88
While the names of directors such as Bava, Argento and Martino have acquired the patina of a certain respectability, that of Umberto Lenzi has more notoriety attached to it, notably for such films as Eaten Alive and Cannibal Ferox, grisly entries in the cannibal stakes that so upset the censors back in the 1980s. But while Lenzi’s career remained hit and miss, there is much to be said for his work, and the recent re-emergence of such films as The Killer Must Kill Again, a tortuous giallo played out with real gusto, has reawakened interest in his immensely prolific career. Also made with a craftsmanlike skill was Spasmo (1974), and this new issue, Gatti Rossi in un Labirinto di Vetro (Eyeball, also 1974), is a lively outing that approaches the achievement of the uncrowned king of the giallo, Dario Argento.
KNIFE UNDER THE THROAT (LE COUTEAU SOUS LA GORGE), WATCHER IN THE ATTIC and MADAME CLAUDE, various directors/88
88 Films remains one of the most adventurous of bijou Blu-ray producers, and recent additions to their catalogue have shown their increasing readiness to showcase some neglected – but very worthwhile – films. Take, for example, the unusual trio of Knife Under the Throat, Watcher in the Attic and Madame Claude: all three are accomplished genre entries that refuse to conform to the tropes of any one category. And as usual with 88, the transfers are impeccable.
CREEP, Patrick Victor Brice, director/Second Sight
The filmmaker Patrick Brice here demonstrates that he is something of a triple threat, directing, co-writing and starring in this unusual outing as an impoverished videographer who responds to an online ad for a gig in a isolated mountain town. His new employer, however, is to make him deeply regret saying yes. Chilling and sardonically funny, this is an unusual piece.
