Recently released on Blu-ray and DVD: Birdman of Alcatraz, Curse of the Mayans, The Paris Opera, Joan of Arc.
Birdman of Alcatraz
Based on a true story, Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) stars Burt Lancaster as Robert Stroud, a federal prisoner for nearly all his life. His hardness and hostility softens, his humanity is recovered, through raising a menagerie of birds in his cell. Filming in stark black and white, director John Frankenheimer (The Manchurian Candidate) takes full advantage of the medium’s inky blackness and long shadows to critique American penology. Even the reformers are shown to be blind.
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Curse of the Mayans
The Mayan calendar predicted apocalypse on Dec. 21, 2012. In Curse of the Mayans, the end began on that date with the emergence of evil entities from the Pleiades entombed in an underwater labyrinth. Working with a modest budget, Mexican director Joaquin Rodriguez follows a Hispanic team of explorers led by an arrogant American archeologist. The bilingual story’s moral is that unsophisticated locals know best when they warn not to open doors to the unknown.
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The Paris Opera
In real life, the setting for The Phantom of the Opera is a venue for 400 performances each year of music and dance. In his documentary, French director Jean-Stéphane Bron takes us behind the scenes, not into the catacombs but the offices and rehearsal rooms where productions are organized. The Paris Opera is edited in a musically flowing rhythm. Wisely, Bron picks a protagonist, a young Russian newbie, and follows him through a performance season.
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Joan of Arc
A teenager in 1400s France, Joan of Arc, guided by voices, rallied her people against the English usurpers and commanded a victorious army. She was centuries ahead of her time. The classic cinematic telling of her story remains Carl Theodor Dreyer’s The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928). Some will also remember this 1948 Technicolor version starring Ingrid Bergman as Joan. She is what holds up best: her face expressing fervor, prayerfulness, anguish and determination.
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