Home Media Magazine - April 27 - May 3, 2008 - (Page 21) REVIEWS I THE RED BALLOON Street 4/29 Criterion, Family, $14.95 DVD, NR. Stars Pascal Lamorisse. as it really been 50 years since the debut of the timeless children’s tale The Red Balloon? The French short film first opened in 1956, came to America in 1957, and for many years was a staple in elementary school classrooms. It tells the simple story of young Pascal, who while walking to school finds a shiny red balloon. He discovers the balloon has a mind of its own and begins to follow him around Paris. A jealous mob of bullies hunts down the balloon to pop it. The sad destruction of innocence is quickly righted in a whimsical ending that finds Pascal rescued from his mundane existence by all the balloons in Paris. Despite its minimal dialogue and short (34-minute) running length, creator Albert Lamorisse won the Oscar for best original screenplay. I saw The Red Balloon several times growing up, and this new DVD version from Criterion and Janus Films looks as if it hasn’t aged a bit. The story of an inanimate object imbued with the force of life brings to mind another favorite film of my childhood, Disney’s The Love Bug, H BAFTA Award Nominee Best Costume Design Best Makeup and Hair Design which featured a magical car instead of a balloon. The ending of its sequel, Herbie Rides Again, with its legion of Volkswagen Beetles roaring to life, seems eerily reminiscent of the end of The Red Balloon, though not as awe-inspiring. For a Criterion release, however, the DVD, which coincides with the theatrical run of the featurelength Flight of the Red Balloon, is surprisingly devoid of extras. I would have expected at least a retrospective featurette, or perhaps Lamorisse’s 1960 sequel, Stowaway in the Sky. Or maybe the humorous 2000 parody sequel The Revenge of the Red Balloon, in which the balloon returns to seek vengeance against the now middle-aged bullies who popped it 40 years earlier (watch it at AtomFilms.com). Bare as it is, the DVD will have to do for collectors hoping to rekindle feelings of youth or share their childhood treasures with a new generation. – John Latchem (Infamous, Th (The Lion in Toby Jones Starring: e Painted Veil ) John Castle Winter, Blow-U p) 1731. Inside Lo ndon’s seedy sh adowlands, William Hogarth (Toby Jones) meets the begu iling Mary Collin s (Zoe Tapper), a yo ung prostitut e who becomes his muse, leading him to create “A Ha rlot’s Progress ” – the series of paint ings which brou ght him fame, wealth an d respectabilit y. KOC-DV-6535 • UPC: 7-41952-65359-2 • ISBN: 1-4172-3054-1 • SRP: $24.98 Running Time: 100 Minutes • British TV • English • Audio: Dolby Digital Aspect Ratio: 16x9/1.77:1 • Production Year: 2006 NATIONAL MARKETING AND PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN • Ads with British Weekly, Strand Magazine, Union Jack, DVD Talk and more • Extensive internet outreach to Anglophiles and art aficionados ster-harvesting movement explored in one segment, but Street 5/6 it’s definitely another way to Lionsgate, Documentary, B.O. $0.08 look at a society driven by million, $27.98 DVD, ‘PG-13’ for brief strong consumerism and marketlanguage. ing, and how we allow those things to distract us. nly in a Zen program It also bridges nicely to a would the first quarconsideration of what constiter of a film be detutes contaminated food. Are voted to bread. But it’s not just people who find fresh — if a about bread. It’s about learnlittle tired — vegetables in the trash ing to find the joy in life’s small, cook the food, the food cooks you.” This cooking is an introspective consuming more contaminants than seemingly ordinary acts. This trail of breadcrumbs is in- journey. Food and cooking tools are people who live on fast food and pretended to lead to awareness and sustenance, but also the metaphors servative-laden packaged goods? How to Cook Your Life is calm and happiness, and Zen priest and chef that illustrate ideas such as giving up Edward Espe Brown, as the tenzo the need to control, exploring positive humorous, but also very emotional and negative emotions, and especially and, for those who let it in, instruc(chief cook), is our guide. We meet him teaching a group of confronting emotions such as anger, tive. The camera work is beautiful: Shots that in other movies might be people to make bread at Tassajara, a frustration and disappointment. The film asks us to consider our just pictures of food are portraits of Buddhist sanctuary in Ventana, Calif. But How to Cook Your Life is about much affluence as a society, and whether natural splendor here. This film is for anyone who will more than just food: It’s about trans- we have too much (the Zen answer formation and how a simple act can is that if you throw away anything take the time to watch it; the lessons transform the one performing it. As one useful, you do). Many Americans are there for anyone who wants to of the residents tells us, “You don’t just would be appalled at the dump- learn them. – Holly J. Wagner I HOW TO COOK YOUR LIFE O ee (Star Wars, Sl Ian McDiarmid ) py Hollow Iain Glensident Evil) Starring: Heaven, Re (Kingdom of which is mainly outtakes of actors blowing lines and cracking up. There are a few deleted scenes as well as interviews with many of the series’ actors and both executive producers. The series’ creators and three actors are included on a commentary track. More interesting are scenes that flesh out what, as it appeared in the series, is an abbreviated storyline in which the owner of the local watering hole is diagnosed with breast cancer and can’t afford to have the surgery that would save her life. Of even more interest is a documentary in which actual Army wives talk about their experiences while their spouses are at war. Although the producers take the opportunity to include some gratuitous praise for the program from the women and men actually living the experiences the series explores, there are some very moving moments when the left-at-home spouses talk about their pride, their fears and their day to day struggles. – Anne Sherber ent of the excitem Combining e drama with crim contemporary aphic, events, this gr actual historical te llows magistra s fo five-part serie ing (Ian Henry Field and author up quest to clean iarmid) on his McD London. th century the streets of 18 VICE” FEATUR ETTE DVD EXTRA: “T HE MAKING OF KOC-DV-6534 • UPC: 7-41952-65349-3 • ISBN: 1-4172-3053-3 • SRP: $29.98 Running Time: 300 Minutes • British TV • Dolby Digital • Aspect Ratio: 16x9 Production Year: 2007 • 2 DVD Set NATIONAL MARKETING AND PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN • Ads with British Weekly, Strand Magazine, Union Jack, DVD Talk and more • Publicity outreach to Anglophiles and fans of crime drama April 27–May 3, 2008 Home Media Magazine 21 Pre-Book date: 5/13/08 • Street Date: 6/10/08 Watch CLIPS at WWW.KOCHCLIPS.COM • For more information WWW.KOCHB2B.COM http://AtomFilms.com http://www.kochclips.com http://www.kochB2B.COM
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