‘From the East’ to the West

DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD Highlight of the week is the impressive five-disc set, “Chantal Akerman: Four Films.” Among the many films that Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman (1955–2015, best known for her 1975 masterpiece “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels”) made over 40 years, four documentaries stand out. Beginning with “From the East,” filmed across […]

A ‘Candidate’ and a ‘Rage’

DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD Two wonderfully thrilling films are due this week, one each from The Criterion Collection and Arrow Video. Criterion’s release of “The Manchurian Candidate” (1962) does justice to this classic film (which, rumor had it, was removed from distribution by the film’s star, Frank Sinatra, after the John F. Kennedy assassination on […]

Varda, Rivette Belong to Us

DREAMSVILLE’S WEEK IN DVD “Jane B. Par Agnes V. and Kung-Fu Master!”: Agnes Varda is the unsung heroine of cinema, a masterful auteur and feminist director who shook up the world of cinema with her “Cleo From 5 to 7” in 1962 and has continued to shake the branches of filmdom with documentaries, fictions, biodramas […]