Given the renewed attention that last year's Hugo brought to Georges Méliès, it is fitting that this week sees the Blu-ray release of the early-cinema pioneer's A Trip to the Moon, the silent classic that figured so prominently in Martin Scorsese's Academy Award-winning fable. However, Méliès' work transcends simple curio status through the enduring power of its visuals and narrative imagination, both of which turn a space expedition into something more akin to a lucid dream.
For years, audiences could only see A Trip to the Moon in black-and-white (as well as through the extensive references in the Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight" music video), making this new Blu-ray somewhat of a revelation. It includes a restored monochrome print, but the centerpiece is the 2010 restoration that reflects Méliès' original hand-tinting. Coupled alongside an idiosyncratic score from French electro-pop group Air, this "colorized" version has the power to delight and surprise even those cinephiles already familiar with the film.
While A Trip to the Moon may be the biggest draw for vintage film collectors, one should not disregard other such titles streeting on Tuesday, titles like Elia Kazan's landmark A Streetcar Named Desire. One of the most controversial films ever made, Kazan guided his adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play to two separate ends: a cinematic provocation before the censorious Legion of Decency, and a big-screen introduction to the world of Method acting, embodied most dramatically through Marlon Brando's vivid Stanley Kowalski characterization.
As Jeffrey Kauffman noted in his Blu-ray review, "A Streetcar Named Desire has lost little if any of its impact in the 60 years since its original release...Younger audience[s] who can't quite understand what the fuss ever was over Marlon Brando may be awestruck by the intense physicality of the actor at this early stage in his career, and the performances of Leigh, Hunter, and Malden...are the stuff of legend."
Among the week's standout contemporary titles is Werner Herzog's latest documentary, the chilling Into the Abyss: A Tale of Death, A Tale of Life. Taking into consideration the director's vehemently anti-death penalty stance, many people assumed that his film would serve as a simple condemnation of the practice. Unsurprisingly, Herzog deviates from the expected, delivering a moving and nonpolitical study of the complex emotions felt on both sides of Death Row: those condemned to die, and those their crimes have impacted.
In his Blu-ray review, Casey Broadwater reflects on this treatment, noting that "Herzog is far less interested in mounting a logical argument against the death penalty than he is in simply recounting a heinously pointless crime and showing its human ramifications. More than anything, this is just a plain old sad story - an all-around waste of human life."
Another upcoming Blu-ray, the Academy Award-winning The Iron Lady, offers a different brand of confounded expectations. The picture deserves attention despite some serious filmic shortcomings. As Margaret Thatcher, Meryl Streep is brilliant, and well deserving of the Best Actress Oscar she won last February; she elevates the performance past mere caricature. Nevertheless, the film surrounding her doesn't quite match the strength of Streep's work, providing a superficial examination of the incidents and objectives that defined Thatcher's life.
Martin Liebman's Blu-ray review sums up these issues best: "The film fails to prioritize its narrative, telling a story of an aged, senile, and hallucinatory Thatcher and only glossing over her political career and accomplishments...It's a shame because the movie is technically well made and the framework is in place for a compelling story, but for whatever reason the entire thing falls flat as it focuses on a battle with old age with a few snapshots of one of the most important historical figures of the 20th century...Cinema needs a more thorough telling of Thatcher's tale."