Waterworld
Waterworld
Upon its release in 1995, Waterworld sank under bad press and budget overruns. And yet, its premise of Earth after the polar ice melts seems prescient today, and the rigged-up steampunk civilization that emerges is imaginatively constructed. Kevin Costner is memorable as a swashbuckling mutant-hero in this Road Warrior-on-water epic. The new limited-edition Blu-ray includes all three cuts (long, longer, longest) and an informative, photo-packed booklet. It’s time for another look at Waterworld.
Lee Scratch Perry, The Revelation of Lee Scratch Perry
Lee Scratch Perry is reggae music’s most fascinatingly eccentric figure. The Revelation is Steve Marshall’s documentary on the making of Perry’s Grammy-nominated album of that same name. Perry moves to the rhythm of his own reality and links the album’s 12 tracks to his interpretation of 12 biblical prophets. His idiosyncratic exegesis underlines his word spinning over the album’s already recorded bed tracks. For the most part, Marshall points the camera and watches what happens.
The Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion
Ennio Morrione’s breezy score sets a deceptive mood for the tension to come. We first see the protagonist, Minou (Dagmar Lassander), in her steamy bathroom mirror—a beautiful woman about to becomes the victim of a twisted blackmail scheme. Italian director Luciano Ercoli’s 1970 film is disturbingly glib on sexual violence but is visually fascinating and gorgeous to look at with interior designs to die for. Deathless line: “Everyone has his price, even a maniac.”
Peppermint Soda
In French director Diane Kurys’ Peppermint Soda (1977), life is a string of episodes that gradually reveal characters and a sense for their life’s direction. The protagonists are a pair of teenage sisters coming of age in the early 1960s. Newly restored and out on Blu-ray, Peppermint Soda follows the siblings through rebellious incidents at school, sisterly spats, rivalry between divorced parents and the difficult dawn of political awareness in the face of peer apathy.
