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Arts & Entertainment

New DVD Tuesday: Irish Gangsters, Hong Kong Gangsters, Suburbanites with Drug Habits, Brigitte Bardot's Bikini and more!

Elina Shatkin

Published Feb 12, 2007 11:00 PM

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Recommended
13 Tzameti - French movie with an Eastern European sensibility about a young handyman who decides to follow instructions intended for the owner of the house he's repairing. He ends up in a remote house, where he is forced to take part in a brutal game of Russian Roulette in which only one of the 13 participants will survive.

Bicycle Thieves - Criterion has released a DVD of Vittorio De Sica's 1947 classic of Italian neo-realist cinema, a simple but amazingly moving story set amidst the urban poverty of post-WWII Rome. Lamberto Maggiorani stars as Antonio Ricci, a humble man thrilled to have a job after two years of unemployment. But on his first day of work his bicycle is stolen, and with son Bruno in tow he wanders the city searching for the stolen bicycle he so desperately needs to earn his livelihood. I think this is the first American release to use the correct translation of the Italian title, Bicycle Thieves; the plural refers to the multiple thefts in the film. Beautiful and deeply emotional without being at all sentimental, there's a good reason this film is considered a masterpiece.

The Departed - Martin Scorsese has taken a slick but ultimately shallow Hong Kong action thriller (Infernal Affairs), lifted the best plot elements from it and transformed it into a profound examination of power, cultural identity, masculinity and personal ambition all wrapped up in a nail-biting crime drama. Leonardo DiCaprio plays an undercover cop who has infiltrated the ranks of a Boston Irish mafia clan led by Jack Nicholson. Matt Damon plays his polar opposite, a dirty cop who has risen through the ranks with impressive speed thanks partly to his covert activities with Nicholson. Alec Baldwin and Mark Wahlberg shine in their respective supporting roles as a blustering police captain and hard-ass rank-and-file flatfoot, and Vera Farmiga is great as a sympathetic psychologist. The DVD includes nines deleted scenes.

Down to the Bone - Vera Farmiga stars as a working class woman hiding a nasty drug habit.

Half Nelson - Ryan Gosling stars as an inner-city history teacher hiding a nasty drug habit.

Performance - 1970 film directed by Nicolas Roeg stars James Fox as a violent gangster who needs a place to lie low and ends up in a posh hippie enclave presided over by a reclusive former rock star (Mick Jagger) who lives a life of dissipation amidst an entourage of beautiful women that includes Rolling Stones alpha groupie Anita Pallenberg, who co-wrote the film with Donald Cammell. Drug use and kinky games abound as gangster and rocker gradually take on each other's identities.

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Documentary
F**K - A doc that explores the history of the expletive "fuck."
...So Goes The Nation - A doc that explores the Ohio's impact on the 2004 presidential election as well the American electoral process.
The U.S. Vs. John Lennon

Drama
The Quiet
Zelimo

Exploitation
Hercules and the Captive Women/Hercules, Prisoner of Evil

Foreign Comedy
Gentlemen's Relish
Ginger and Fred - 1986 Federico Fellini film starring Giulietta Masina and Marcello Mastroianni as Amelia and Pippo, a pair of dancers who are reunited after several decades to perform their old music-hall act, which imitates Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
Samoan Wedding - This huge New Zealand box office hit follows four thirty-something pranksters who must each find a respectable date for an upcoming wedding.

Foreign Drama
Butcher Boy - A young boy who murders his vicious neighbor and is then sent to a mental institution where he starts seeing visions of angel (Sinéad O'Connor). Directed by Neil Jordan.
Cave of the Yellow Dog - Documentary-esque Mongolian film about a nomad girl who adopts a lost dog.
Eliana, Eliana - Indonesian drama about a small-town girl looking for her roommate in bustling Jakarta while her mother tries to convince her to return home.
Fratricide - German film about Kurdish and Turkish exiles who turn to violence in their struggle to survive.
Hostage - A tense drama about Greek-Albanian relations based on real events about a group of Albanian immigrants who hijack a bus.
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner - 1962 British drama about a rebellious youth who discovers his skill as a long distance runner while stuck in a boy's reformatory.
My Mother's Courage - A woman escapes the deportation of 4000 Jews from Budapest to Auschwitz during WWII.
Wild Camp - Erotic French film about a precocious 17 year old girl who seduces a middle-aged sailor.

Hong Kong Action
Infernal Affairs 2 - In this prequel to Infernal Affairs, Edison Chen and Shawn Yue play the young versions of Andy Lau and Tony Leung. Directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak. Co-starring Carina Lau.
Infernal Affairs 3 - A true sequel set a few months after the original. Andy Lau is still a corrupt cop embedded in the police force, and once again he's being investigated.

Horror
Devil's Den - Zombie strippers try to recruit soldiers for their army of the undead. Motto: Avoid isolated strip clubs with no cover charge.
Doll from Hell - A dollmaker whose daughter Erika is brutally murdered creates a life-size doll that is possessed by Erika's spirit.
Masters of Horror: Pelts - The first DVD release from the second season of Showtime's Masters of Horror franchise. This hour-long movie is directed by Dario Argento and stars Meat Loaf in a story about a supernatural fur coat.

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