The Year In Home Video — The Best In DVD and Blu-ray 2012
It’s been a remarkable year in home video, with a number of long awaited films finally making their way to disc. As release patterns shift and regional art-house cinemas fall to the wayside, Blu-ray and DVD take on a position of growing importance.
Scroll down to discover what we’ve declared to be the finest home video release of 2012, and which label has been named as the best.
Die Nibelungen — We’ll start with what was perhaps our most anticipated DVD of all time. Eureka’s Masters Of Cinema initially revealed that Fritz Lang’s biggest epic would be joining the collection over five years ago, with restoration delays holding up the project. An extensive restoration from Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung saw its premiere at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin in 2010, and that’s the version of the film that’s on this disc. An hour-long documentary charting the ambitious restoration project accompanies the film, which is spread across the two Blu-rays necessary to house such a major project. Honourable mention goes to Kino’s release of Fritz Lang’s The Spiders: it’s just a shame they didn’t go the whole hog and put it out on Blu-ray too.
Chinatown — Paramount’s reissue of Roman Polanski’s best film as part of their anniversary celebrations features the best extra feature of the year in David Fincher and Robert Towne’s audio commentary. Having seen the film more times than we care to mention the disc proved a revelation even to us. It’s such a great release that it’s actually difficult to believe that it’s from a major studio, and not a boutique label, such is the care taken to appropriately celebrate Polanski’s masterpiece. A word of warning: avoid the UK disc. Criminally it features none of the extra material that makes the US disc so great. The US disc is region free and relatively cheap. Click here for an extensive look at the Chinatown Blu-ray.
Casa de Lava — Portuguese cinema really was brought to the forefront of the international cinema scene this year, thanks to Miguel Gomes’ Tabu, which proved to be one of the highlights of the big screen. For the second year running Pedro Costa makes an appearance on a Hope Lies DVD & Blu-ray list, with this release of Casa de Lava from Second Run. Second Run are something of a predictive when it comes to releasing works which will one day be looked to in force by the art-house mainstream: they handled a number of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s earlier films, prior to the large scale interest that Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives brought with it, and were also responsible for the British release of the aforementioned Gomes’ debut Our Beloved Month Of August. Now, as cinephiles look to the cinema of Portugal in the wake of Tabu, Second Run can offer up the largest selection of Pedro Costa titles on the UK video market.
Wings — While the film itself leaves a lot to be desired (ultimately the sheer spectacle of the work overshadows the melodrama), but to finally have William Wellman’s Wings on a digital medium of any kind served as one of 2012’s great moments in home video. The disc itself is fantastic, with a solid documentary backs up the beautiful restoration, a restoration which is itself examined in detail in a separate feature. Check out our extensive look at Wings here.
Rumble Fish — Francis Ford Coppola’s hyper-stylised film about gang culture made the leap to Blu-ray courtesy of The Masters Of Cinema, as a part of the boutique label’s deal with Universal Pictures. Blu-ray is the perfect medium with which to portray the nuances of Stephen Burum’s photography, which is essentially black and white, but features the occasional flash of colour. It’s probably our most watched disc of 2012.
Heaven’s Gate — Last week named as our favourite theatrical re-issue of the year, and the lone Criterion disc on our list (Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend almost made the cut) Heaven’s Gate is quite literally a revelation in this iteration, if not only because it contains director Michael Cimino’s definitive cut for the first time, some 30 years on from the films release. Cimino’s presence is felt on the overall package, with references to the film’s rough ride to redemption notable by their absence, yet it remains a fantastic disc. Over one hour of new interview footage from key members of the cast and crew, and an extensive booklet fill out the package, but it’s the opportunity to see the film properly for the first time that is the real draw here. Skating Cures Nervous Disorders, our in-depth analysis of Heaven’s Gate can be found here.
Zombie Flesh Eaters — We wrote over the Summer how Arrow Video’s interesting approach to B-movie classics had opened up a whole new world of cinema to us, with their application of Criterion-like treatment to films ordinarily frowned over hugely welcome. Zombie Flesh Eaters, released just two weeks ago might just be their finest release to date, with an extensive supplements package accompanying a pristine transfer of the film itself. Although there is one drawback to be had from experiencing a film like Zombie Flesh Eaters in such a fashion: we couldn’t help but find it borderline sacrilegious to be consuming it on anything other than a scuzzy old rented VHS!
Tarantino XX — A great box-set, that places one of the modern cinemas most interesting filmmakers in to a new context. So current is Tarantino’s brand of cinema, and such is his remaining influence that one has yet to sit back and take in his work as a historical construct, and this set affords the chance to do that, adopting Roman numerals to convey that this year marks Tarantino’s 20th. What better an opportunity then, for re-evaluation? While it’s unfortunate that The Whole Bloody Affair wasn’t included, two discs of exclusive extras almost make up for it.
Prometheus — The sole contemporary release of 2012 follows in the tradition of director Ridley Scott’s earlier work in the home video medium. Such a wealth of material does this package contain that the film itself could be mistaken for an afterthought (and we’re sure some would agree). An extensive disc produced by legend of DVD and Blu-ray special editions Charles de Lauzirika examines the years most curious blockbuster in as great a detail as one could long for. Our Monograph on Prometheus can be downloaded here.
Disc Of The Year
The Passion Of Joan Of Arc — Hands down the disc of the year, everything about this box-set is of a premium experience. From the beautiful transfer of the film, itself presented in several variations, to the extensive accompanying book, which reaches over 100 pages long, all of which are housed in a lavish box and steelbook combination. That the film itself had not been commercially available in the UK for a great number of years makes this definitive package all the more satisfying. Over the festive period we’ll be examining The Passion Of Joan Of Arc in great detail.
Label Of The Year
The Masters Of Cinema Series — Month after month this small group of British film enthusiasts have put out remarkable disc after remarkable disc, so much so that their ubiquity in our own Disc Of The Week section has almost fallen in to parody. We’ve already mentioned three of their 2012 releases above, with further highlights including their Limited Edition Billy Wilder Blu-ray double-bill of Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend, the latter of which contains Billy, How Did You Do It?, a notable three-hour film on Wilder by New German cinema director Volker Schlöndorff, as well as further releases from the likes of Leo McCarey, Cecil B. DeMille and Yasujiro Ozu. 2013 doesn’t look set to let up either, with January off to a barnstorming start, with Josef von Sternberg and Stanley Kubrick both joining the collection, and releases from filmmakers as diverse as Sacha Guitry, Michelangelo Antonioni and Yûzô Kawashima already announced for the first quarter.
