Two years ago I put together my top 10 list of movies that needed to be released on DVD and I think it’s time for an update. Of that initial list, The Monolith Monsters, Action In The North Atlantic, and the Dragnet TV movie are completely unavailable with The Driver available only as a region 2 disc.
Anyway, this year’s most wanted is:
O Lucky Man – Lindsay Anderson’s surrealist triptych with coffee salesman Malcom McDowell. I’ve always wondered how the heck something like this got made and wish more movies were like this.
The works of Oskar Fischinger – Known probably for some of his early work on Disney’s Fantasia, Fischinger was a pioneer in abstract animated films. Seventy years later, his films are still a couple light years ahead of their time. Attention Criterion: how about a monster Fischinger DVD box like what you did for Brakhage?
Highway 61 – This kinda got lost in the shuffle of early 90s indie road trip movies, but it’s smarter than the rest and, well, extremely Canadian. One of the best representations of Satan in any movie ever, and hey – Jello Biafra plays a cop.
Rikky and Pete – This one got lost in the flood of late 80s Australian movies. It’s not spectacular and the “wacky Aussie humor” could be just as annoying as it is charming, but it’s just gentle enough to be the perfect thing to watch when you’re sick.
The Lively Set – 1964 teenage exploitation on wheels. Hokey as any Elvis movie but with lots of racing scenes and twangy guitar on the soundtrack. Worth it alone for all the scenes of Chrysler’s 1963 Turbine Car.
The Loved One – Hysterically absurd Terry Southern comedy about the funeral industry, Hollywood, and Los Angeles cliffside living. Ahem… Criterion again?
Ace In The Hole – Bleak and ultra-harsh movie about journalistic corruption with Kirk Douglas as an alcoholic reporter. Possibly my favorite Billy Wilder movie.
Nightmare Alley – Lurid film noir about carnys, nighclub fortune tellers with Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell
The Conformist – Again, attention Criterion! Why the HELL isn’t this available on DVD? We’re not talking some offbeat cult movie, but a cinema classic. WTF?
Ere Erera Baleibu Icik Subua Aruaren – Basque artist José Sistiaga’s seventy (yes, seventy!) minute abstract work of 100,000 individually painted frames. This is messy and swirly flipside to the precision of early computer graphics and the “stargate” sequence of 2001. No audio necessary, the only soundtrack necessary is the sound of your neurons being tuned up.
The Double Life of Veronique – Again, I’m stumped as to why this hasn’t been released on DVD yet. Almost all of Kieslowski’s other movies are available, what gives?
Angel’s Flight – Gritty and bleak film noir filmed in and around the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles before the city bulldozed the whole works down to put it out of it’s misery.
Ace In The Hole – Bleak and ultra-harsh movie about journalistic corruption with Kirk Douglas as an alcoholic reporter. Possibly my favorite Billy Wilder movie.
Play It As It Lays – Joan Didion adapted her own novel about the LA entertainment industry in the early 1970s.
Serial – Satire/sitcom of the baby boomer post-cocaine crash at the end of the 70s. Not a particularly great movie, but supposedly a lot got cut before it hit the theaters.
Dusty and Sweets McGee – Sort of the Los Angeles version of Panic In Needle Park which also came out around the same time. Terrific shots of the forgotten areas of early-70s Los Angeles.