Henri-Georges Clouzot made his reputation as a director of coldly corrosive, meticulously-engineered thrillers, but he made his debut with the snappy, witty, screwball murder mystery The Murderer Lives at Number 21. You could call it a continental answer to MGM’s The Thin Man films — it has a sophisticated detective, a spunky girlfriend who joins him on his cases, and plenty of witty banter — but there is also a wry cynicism under the cheeky humor and a decidedly French attitude to sexual mores.

Clouzot had been working in the film industry since the early 1930s, apprenticing as an assistant to directors Anatole Litvak and E.A. Dupont and writing or co-writing scripts in both France and Germany. By the early forties he had become a specialist in French thrillers and among his successes was The Last One of the Six (Le dernier des six), a light 1941 murder mystery made for Continental, a German film company that established itself in France during the occupation. Adapted from a novel by Stanislas-André Steeman and directed by Georges Lacombe, the film starred Pierre Fresnay as Inspector Wenceslas Woroboyioetschik, aka Wens of the Paris police, and Suzy Delair as Mila Malou, aspiring singer and Wens’ saucy lover. Clouzot forged strong friendships with Fresnay (Clouzot once said that Fresnay helped him more than anyone else in his lifetime) and Delair, who became his companion during the production and even made suggestions to the script, over the course of production, and the film’s success led to a promotion for Clouzot — he was made head of Continental’s screenwriter department — and a chance to direct his first feature.

The Murderer Lives at Number 21, also based on a novel by Steeman, reunites Clouzot with Fresnay and Delair. Though Wens and Mila are not characters in the novel, Clouzot wrote them into the leading roles of the mystery of a serial killer who leaves his calling card with every corpse. The name Monsieur Durand becomes notorious on the streets, like a boogeyman, but in this case a very real one. While Wens goes undercover, moving into a rooming house where he believes the killer lives (thus the film’s title) under the guise of a minister, Mila embarks on her own investigation for purely professional reasons: Nabbing the killer would make her famous and kick-start her singing career. Clouzot writes Wens as a sly, quick-witted investigator, sharper than his bosses and more clever than his suspects, and Fresnay plays him as a man who spars with words like a fencer with a foil. Where Fresnay’s sophisticated Wens outmaneuvers his opponents with verbal dexterity and wit, Delair’s street-smart Mila is a dizzy force of nature who bowls them over by sheer force of personality and determination. Their lively relationship is defined by the sardonic byplay between the characters, who are not married but clearly live together.

Continue reading at Turner Classic Movies

Plays on TCM on Sunday, April 7.

New Releases:

“Hemingway & Gellhorn” (HBO) leads the new releases this week, and this smart and dynamic biopic wasn’t even made for theaters. Clive Owen and Nicole Kidman star as Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorne in this HBO original film, directed by Philip Kaufman for cable because films like this about and for adult audiences are a vanishing breed on theaters. Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“John Dies at the End” (Magnet), from cult filmmaker Don Coscarelli, sends two college dropouts on a drug-induced journey into another dimension where an invasion on Earth may be underway. It’s hard to tell when you’re under the influence of the designer drug known as Soy Sauce. Clancy Brown and Paul Giamatti co-star. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

“The Sweeney” (eOne) updates the seventies British cop show for the big screen with Ray Winstone as the bareknuckle leader of an elite crime-fighting squad (Blu-ray and DVD) and the redemptive drama “LUV” (Vivendi) stars Common, Charles S. Dutton, Meagan Good, and Danny Glover (DVD and On Demand).

Foreign films arriving this week include Pablo Trapero’s “White Elephant” (Strand, DVD) from Argentina, Takashi Shimizu’s “Tormented” from Japan (Well Go, DVD and Blu-ray, includes the 3D version on Blu-ray), and the documentary “Hitler’s Children” (Film Movement, DVD).

The B-Sides round-up of direct-to-disc and made-for-cable genre films, including horror, science fiction, and action, spotlights the new DVD line from Fangoria magazine along with dozens of other titles.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“The Bible: The Epic Miniseries” (Fox), from executive producers Mark Burnett and Roman Downey, retells the most familiar stories of The Bible, from Genesis to The Resurrection, in 10 episodes and seven-and-a-half hours. Created for The History Channel, it’s an odd and unsatisfying hybrid that blurs the line between history and myth with expensive but overwrought dramatizations and splashy (and often corny) digital effects, and it became the channel’s most watched program. Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Dirk Gently” (BBC) adapts the comic mystery novels of Douglas Adams for a screwy British series starring Stephen Mangan as Dirk and Darren Boyd as his “assistant partner” Macduff. Four episodes on two discs on DVD.

“Route 66: The Complete Fourth Season” (Shout Factory) presents the final trips of Tod (Martin Milner) and Linc (Glenn Corbett, who replaced George Maharis) in the original TV road show. 23 episodes on five discs on DVD.

“America Masters: Philip Roth Unmasked” (PBS) profiles the contemporary American author with candid interviews with Roth.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection – Romance” (Warner) continues the 90th Anniversary celebration with a new box set of 20 classic films, from 1938 to 2008 and spanning “Gone With the Wind” and “Casablanca” to “You’ve Got Mail” and “Night in Rodanthe,” on 22 discs. DVD. Reviewed in Videodrone here.

“Hello, Dolly!” (Fox), the splashy 1969 big screen adaptation of the Broadway musical, stars Barbra Streisand as the irrepressible matchmaker who sets her sights on a gloomy, tight-fisted merchant (Walter Matthau). Debuts on Blu-ray.

Also debuting on Blu-ray from Fox: “Panic in the Streets” (Fox), Elia Kazan’s unusual film noir thriller built on the search for a criminal infected with a virulent strain of the bubonic plague, and Tom Hanks’ “That Thing You Do!” (Fox), presented in both theatrical and extended cuts.

Available exclusives from Screen Archives are two more Blu-ray debuts: Brian De Palma’s “The Fury” (Twilight Time) with Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes and “The Song of Bernadette” (Twilight Time) with Jennifer Jones. Both limited to 3000 copies.

Released last week but featured this week is Robert Bresson’s “A Man Escaped” (Criterion), debuting on Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here. An overview of Robert Bresson’s films on home video and streaming video is here.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“Holy Motors” (2012), a visionary celebration of the imaginative possibilities of cinema from Leos Carax, even higher on my personal Top Ten list. It’s a film that almost defies description, a work of fantasy, comedy, music, drama, thrills, and surprising turns with every scene, but mostly there is wonder and invention and the sheer thrill of cinematic creation. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Citadel” (2012), winner of the Midnighters Audience Award at SXSW, is an indie horror film from Ireland about an agoraphobic single father fighting his illness and a hooded gang to protect his daughter. Michel Ocelot’s “Tales of the Night” (2011), a spirited French film about (appropriately enough) stories and storytelling, in an imaginative animated feature that plays out in the theater of the imagination.

Arriving days after disc release is “Bachelorette” (2012), a comedy starring Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher, Rebel Wilson and Lizzy Caplan, the animated feature “Tatsumi” (2011) from Japan, and “The Comedy” (2012), an indie feature with Tim Heidecker.

Two new Netflix Originals debut this week. The series “Bad Samaritans,” produced by Walt Becker, is a five-episode comedy about set in a group serving mandatory community service probation with David Faustino as their probation officer. “Shotgun Wedding” is a feature comedy set around (what else?) a wedding, and it makes it premiere on Netflix.

Two TV shows arrive on Netflix Instant before disc: “Awake: Season 1,” the high-concept cop starring Jason Isaacs, and “The Finder: Season 1,” a comic mystery series starring Geoff Stults. Both were cancelled last season and only 13 episodes were produced of each.

A whole bunch of Cartoon Network shows also arrive, from “Robot Chicken: Season 1” and the live-action “Children’s Hospital: Seasons 1-2” to “Adventure Time: Season 1,”

“Samurai Jack: Season 1,” and a batch of superhero shows.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“LUV,” a drama of redemption starring Common and Danny Glover, arrives same day as disc. The natural history documentary “One Life” premieres in advance of disc.

Debuting On Demand on Friday, same day as theaters, is the comedy “The Story of Luke” with Lou Taylor Pucci and Seth Green, and arriving in advance of theatrical release is the action film “Erased” with Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko and the documentary “Venus and Serena” about the famous tennis stars.

Available from Redbox this week:

Toplining a slow week of new releases at Redbox is the remake of “Red Dawn” (Fox) with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson (Blu-ray and DVD) and the martial arts meets steampunk thriller “Tai Chi Zero” (Well Go) from Hong Kong (DVD).

With such a small week of significant titles, they pulled another back out of the library, ostensibly to cash in on the dragons of HBO’s “Game of Thrones”: “Dragonheart” (Universal), the 1996 medieval fantasy starring Dennis Quaid and Sean Connery as the voice of the dragon.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” (Dreamworks) was one of the 2012’s biggest critical and commercial hits, a meaty historical drama that offers a different perspective on President Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for his moving portrayal) and the politics of abolition in the final days of the Civil War. This is a drama of statesmanship in the cause of freedom, and it is compelling. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, digital download and VOD. Videodrone’s review is here.

Brad Pitt is an underworld assassin in “Killing Them Softly” (Anchor Bay), Andrew Dominick’s adaptation of George V. Higgins’ novel “Cogen’s Trade.” James Gandolphini and Ray Liotta co-star in this stylized trip into the sleazy underworld of low-lifes and mob soldiers. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox.

“Parental Guidance” (Fox) is a family comedy starring Billy Crystal, Bette Midler, and Marisa Tomei (Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand) and Antonio Banderas and Frieda Pinot star in “Day of the Falcon” (Image), a war drama set in North Africa in the 1930s (Blu-ray and DVD).

“Easy Money” (Anchor Bay), an underworld thriller starring Joel Kinnaman as a business student who gets into organized crime to live the high life, was Sweden’s biggest hit of 2010 and played American theaters under its original title, “Snabba Cash.” DVD.

Also arriving from overseas is Oscar nominee “A Royal Affair” (Magnolia, Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand) from Denmark, an historical costume drama with a political message, and “Tatsumi” (Zeitgeist, DVD) an animated feature from Japan about manga pioneer Yoshihiro Tatsumi.

The IMAX natural history documentary “To the Arctic” (Warner) leads off the non-fiction releases this week. Blu-ray, Blu-ray3D, DVD, and On Demand.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Veep: The Complete First Season” (HBO) is the new HBO comedy starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the fumbling American Vice-President. British satirist Armando Iannucci, creator of “The Thick of It” and feature-film spin-off “In the Loop,” created this American version of his British satires of bureaucratic dysfunction and petty infighting in the corridors of power. 8 episodes on Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Continuum: Season One” (Universal), a mix of time-travel science fiction and urban cop, stars Rachel Nichols as a future cop transported back to 2012 along with band of revolutionaries determined to change the future. It arrived on SyFy from the Canadian channel Showcase and became a hit for the channel, which has picked it up for a second season beginning in June (it begins in April on Canadian TV). 10 episodes on two discs on Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

Debuting on Blu-ray is “Star Trek Enterprise: Season One” (Paramount), the fifth series in the “Star Trek” universe and a prequel to the original series. These are the first voyages of the Starship Enterprise with Scott Bakula as the helm as Captain Jonathan Archer. 25 episodes on six discs. Videodrone’s review is here.

Also debuting this week: “Men at Work: The Complete First Season” (Sony), the TNT original sitcom of four sex-obsessed best friends; the cult sixties series “Johnny Sokko and his Flying Robot: The Complete Series” (Shout Factory) from Japan; and “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: Series 1” (Acorn) from Britain. All DVD.

Plus new seasons of “The Borgias: The Second Season” (Paramount, Blu-ray and DVD) and “Mad TV: The Complete Second Season” (Shout Factory, DVD).

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“A Man Escaped” (Criterion) is a mesmerizing meeting of opposites: a prison escape thriller directed by the austere, introspective Robert Bresson. He defies expectations of action cinema by focusing on the patience and perseverance of the planning and the exacting details of the preparation. It’s beautiful, almost meditative, and strangely rousing. Blu-ray and DVD, with archival documentaries and a new visual essay among the extras.

Also from Criterion is a new edition of Charles Chaplin’s “Monsieur Verdoux” (Criterion), on Blu-ray and DVD with new and archival supplements. More at Videodrone here.

“From Beyond” (Scream Factory), the second feature from director Stuart Gordon, reunites the creative team from “Re-Animator” for another H.P. Lovecraft adaptation juiced up with modern science fiction flourish, horror-movie weirdness, and psycho-sexual energy. The Blu-ray+DVD Combo restored the unrated director’s cut and features new and archival supplements, including two commentary tracks and numerous interviews. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

Other cult items debuting on Blu-ray this week include “Phantasm II” (Shout Factory), with supplements, “Futureworld” (Shout Factory), and “Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XXVI” (Shout Factory), featuring four more movies getting heckled.

“China Gate” (Olive) marks the disc debut of Sam Fuller’s war 1957 drama, which is set in the early years of Vietnam War, and the first time it’s been presented widescreen in any video format. It’s classic Fuller pulp storytelling, filled with both anti-communist rhetoric and an anti-racism message, all in a platoon mission adventure. Blu-ray and DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

More classics from Olive this week: the romantic comedy “The Devil and Miss Jones” (Olive) with Jean Arthur, John Ford’s “The Sun Shines Bright” (Olive) with Charles Winninger, and Edgar Ulmer’s “Ruthless” (Olive) with Zachary Scott and Sydney Greenstreet. “McLintock!” (Olive), the knockabout western comedy with John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, also arrives in a new edition along with four early John Wayne westerns. All Blu-ray and DVD.

You could call the 1953 “Little Fugitive” (Kino Lorber) the original American indie film, a charming little tale shot on location with a tiny budget and a big heart. It debuts on Blu-ray.

More recent releases: Elia Kazan’s “Panic in the Streets” (Fox), Brian De Palma’s”The Fury” (Twilight Time), John Carpenter’s “Christine” (Twilight Time) and “The Song of Bernadette” (Twilight Time) will be included in next week’s column.

The MOD Movies roundup profiles collections of Philo Vance and The Falcon movies and a handful of film noirs and other crime films.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“Cosmopolis” (2012), David Cronenberg’s vivid adaptation of Don Delillo’s massive novel, is a savage satire of modern life under a cool surface of steel and glass and electronic screens, a bubble from which we watch the world disintegrate outside. One of the best and most challenging films of 2012. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Fat Kid Rules the World” (2012), the directorial debut of Matthew Lillard, adapts the young adult novel about a misfit kid who finds an identity when he forms a punk band.

“Keep the Lights On” (2012), from director Ira Sachs, is a drama of friends and lovers struggling through a relationship troubled by addiction, and Michael Moore earned an Oscar for his cage-rattling documentary “Bowling for Columbine” (2002).

Instant TV includes “Mad Men: Season 5,” arguably the best season to date of one of TV’s best shows (arriving mere weeks before Season 6 launches on AMC) and “The L Word: Seasons 1-6,” the complete run of the sexy Showtime series about the professional lives and love lives of a group of lesbian women and their friends.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“On the Road,” the Jack Kerouac adaptation starring Sam Riley, Garrett Hedlund, and Kristen Stewart, just opened wide in theaters across the country. Now it is available On Demand. MSN film critic Glenn Kenny describes it as: “a movie that is in a sense as much a movie about the book as it is a movie adapted from it.”

Arriving same day as disc is “Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s acclaimed drama that earned Daniel Day-Lewis his third Oscar for Best Actor, plus the crime drama “Killing Them Softly“ with Brad Pitt and James Gandolfini, the comedy “Parental Guidance” with Billy Crystal and Bette Midler, the Oscar-nominated foreign drama “A Royal Affair,” and the natural history documentary “To the Arctic.”

Arriving Friday, same day as theaters, is “Room 237,” a documentary on some of the more unusual readings of Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining,” and on Saturday, March 30 is “Welcome to the Punch” with James McAvoy and Mark Strong.

“Kiss of the Damned,” a drama starring Joséphine de La Baume and Milo Ventimiglia, and “The Numbers Station,” a thriller with Malin Akerman and John Cusack, arrive before theaters, and the comedy “Highland Park” with Billy Burke and Parker Posey is available before disc.

Available from Redbox this week:

Day and date with video stores: “Killing Them Softly” (Anchor Bay) with Brad Pitt (on Blu-ray and DVD) and the horror film “The Collection” (Lionsgate, Blu-ray and DVD).

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: the surf drama “Chasing Mavericks” (Fox, Blu-ray and DVD), the comedy “Bachelorette” (Anchor Bay, DVD), and the cable mini-series “World Without End” (Sony, DVD).

Revival of the week: “G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra” (Paramount, DVD) is back to cash in on the sequel that hits theaters this weekend. Director Stephen Sommers clutters the film with visual and narrative confusion (he crams in flashbacks with the same urgency as a high speed chase), but it’s at least more fun (and much shorter) than the last “Transformers” movie.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” (New Line), the first in Peter Jackson’s new film trilogy, transforms J.R.R. Tolkein’s novel from a colorful and fairly brisk fantasy adventure into a massive epic full of import and foreshadowing. Which is to say, he retrofits the tale as a prequel to his take on “The Lord of the Rings.” It didn’t get the same love from the fans as “LOTR,” but the lavish production was a worldwide hit nonetheless, and under the spectacle is a marvelous performance by Martin Freeman as Bilbo and superb first meeting with Gollum. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and digital and On Demand platforms.Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Zero Dark Thirty” (Sony), Kathryn Bigelow’s drama of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, has my vote for best American film of the year and the critics at MSN agree: it was the top pick in our Best of 2012 poll. Jessica Chastain stars as the CIA agent who doggedly followed the slimmest of leads and synthesized seemingly unrelated pieces of information into a map that led to Bin Laden. Blu-ray and DVD, on digital and On Demand platforms, and at Redbox. Videodrone’s review is here.

With those two dominating Tuesday, another pair of 2012 films have staked out Friday, March 22 as their release date: the musical “Les Misérables” (Universal), which stars Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, and Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway (Blu-ray, DVD, and digital and On Demand platforms) and Judd Apatow’s “This Is 40” (Universal) with Paul Rudd, Leslie Mann, and Albert Brooks (Blu-ray, DVD, and digital and On Demand platforms). Enter to win “This is 40″ film plus two other Judd Apatow films on Blu-ray.

Foreign films this week include “Rust and Bone” (Sony), a hard-edged romantic drama from France with Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts (Blu-ray, DVD, digital and On Demand platforms, and at Redbox) and “The Other Son” (Cohen), a French drama set in Israel about identity across the cultural divide between the Israelis and Palastinians (Blu-ray and DVD). More at the Foreign Affairs round-up.

And documentaries this week include the artist profile “Gottfried Helnwein and the Dreaming Child” (First Run, DVD) and a portrait of the author “Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness” (Docurama, DVD).

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Borgen: Season 1” (MHz), a political drama from Denmark and the creators of the original “The Killing,” is a fictional tale of Denmark’s first female prime minister trying to navigate the closed-door culture of the old boy’s club and a media hungry for controversy. It was a popular and critical hit all over Europe (where it ran for three successful series) and played in the U.S. on the satellite channel Link TV. Danish with English subtitles, 10 episodes on four discs on DVD.

“Jersey Shore Season Six: The Uncensored Final Season” (Paramount) brings an end to MTV’s hit reality show that spawned Snooki, Jwoww, and The Situation. 13 episodes plus supplements on four discs, DVD.

“Red Skelton: The Farewell Specials” (Mill Creek) presents four TV comedy specials starring the great television clown from the 1980s, and “The Return of the Beverly Hillbillies” (MPI) is a 1981 TV-movie reunion with three members of the original cast (Buddy Ebsen, Donna Douglas, and Nancy Kulp). Both DVD.

In the wake Daniel Day-Lewis’ third Oscar for Best Actor, his early BBC telefilms are coming to disc. “Daniel Day-Lewis Triple Feature” (BBC) presents three productions from the 1980s: “How Many Miles to Babylon?,” “Dangerous Corner,” and the Kafka-esque “The Insurance Man.” Released separately is “My Brother Jonathan” (BBC), a five-part mini-series from 1985.

Also from Britain comes the 1986 TV production of “Alice in Wonderland” (BBC) and the 1973 “Alice Through the Looking Glass” (BBC) and the complete run of “A Mind to Kill” (Acorn).

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp” (Criterion), an unconventional wartime drama from The Archers (director Michael Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger), was made against the wishes of the British government and went on to become one of the most beloved British films of all time. It is also one of Martin Scorsese’s favorite movies and in 2011 the Film Foundation (co-founded buy Scorsese) helped fund a new 4K digital restoration, which is the source of this new DVD edition and Blu-ray debut from Criterion. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Badlands” (Criterion), Terrence Malick’s assured debut feature, draws on the true story of spree killer Charlie Starkweather and his 14 year old girlfriend, played by Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek in this take. The new DVD and Blu-ray debut is newly restored and remastered and features numerous supplements.

The full title of the newly remastered “Nanook of the North” (Flicker Alley) is “Nanook of the North / The Wedding of Paolo and other films of Arctic Life” and it presents two feature, six short films, and a booklet with essays on the two features and notes on the shorts.

Also new this week: the Blu-ray debuts of “On Approval” (Inception), with Clive Brook and Beatrice Lilly, and “Timerider” (Shout Factory), a motorcycle western with Fred Ward.

And the MOD Movies roundup profiles the forgotten populist depression-era drama “Heaven With a Barbed Wire Fence” (20th Century Fox Cinema Archives), the feature debut of Glenn Ford. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

Richard Linklater made his feature debut with the devilishly clever and endlessly inventive “Slacker” (1991), a comic kaleidoscopic portrait of the quirky characters stuck in a college town, and Whit Stillman made his confident and witty feature debut with “Metropolitan” (1990), a low-key indie comic drama about a group upwardly-mobile, twentysomething college students in New York City’s debutante society.

Jim Jarmusch directs “The Limits of Control” (2009) in his distinctive idiosyncratic manner. Clare Danes and Vanessa Redgrave star in ”Evening” (2007), the second feature from Hungarian-born director Lajos Koltai. “LOL” (2012), starring Miley Cyrus as a teenage girl in the social media era, disappeared from theaters almost as quickly as it arrived.

TV shows include “Weeds: Season 8” (2012), Showtime’s dope comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker, and “The Killing: Season 2” (2012), AMC’s adaptation of the dark Danish murder mystery series (arriving in advance of disc).

And a small library of silent classics recently arrived from the Kino Lorber collection, including Buster Keaton’s comedy classics “The General” (1926) and “Sherlock Jr.” (1924) and Douglas Fairbanks swashbuckler “The Mark of Zorro” (1920).

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

The blockbuster fantasy “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” the first film in Peter Jackson’s new Tolkein trilogy, is available on standard and 3D versions. Less fantastical but more compelling is Kathryn Bigelow’s riveting real-life thriller “Zero Dark Thirty,” about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, and from France comes “Rust and Bone” with Marion Cotillard.

Available on Friday, March 22 is the sweeping musical drama “Les Miserables” and Judd Apatow’s “This Is 40” (in R and unrated versions).

The horror film “The Collection“ arrives On Demand before disc.

Available from Redbox this week:

Arriving day and date with video stores is Kathryn Bigelow’s riveting real-life thriller “Zero Dark Thirty” (Sony, Blu-ray and DVD) and the French drama “Rust and Bone” (Sony, DVD) with Marion Cotillard.

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week is 2012 Best Picture winner “Argo” (Warner), directed by and starring Ben Affleck, plus “Anna Karenina” (Universal) with Keira Knightly and Jude Law, “Atlas Shrugged: Part 2” (Fox), and “The Factory” (Warner).

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“Life of Pi” (Fox), Ang Lee’s gorgeous adaptation of Yann Martel’s novel of imagination and survival, won four Academy Awards, including Best Director for Ang and Best Cinematography. Lee utilizes a modern digital paintbox of colors and images and sophisticated special effects to bring the tale to life and it looks painted on screen in all the best ways. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, and On Demand. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Rise of the Guardians” (Dreamworks), an animated fantasy inspired by the books by author and illustrator William Joyce, reimagines the great mythical figures of childhood lore (Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy) as a team of superheroes that protect the innocence of the world’s children. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox. Reviewed on Videodrone here, along with an exclusive clip from the Blu-ray+DVD Combo.

“Hitchcock” (Fox) purports to tell the story behind the making of “Psycho,” a film that was a seismic shift for both the director and for Hollywood and arguably the godfather of modern horror movies, but it slides into conventional melodrama. Anthony Hopkins plays Hitchcock and Helen Mirren is his wife and collaborator Alma. Blu-ray+DVD Combo and On Demand. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“This is Not a Film” (Palisades Tartan), made by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi while under house arrest, is one of the bravest films of recent memory and a powerful study in censorship and creativity and the drive to express oneself. It is political art in the very best sense. DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Smashed” (Sony) is an addiction drama starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Aaron Paul (Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox) and “This Must Be the Place” (Anchor Bay) stars Sean Penn in one of the oddest road movies in recent history (Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand)

“Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” (Paramount) is the feature version of the most recent piece of acrobatic theater from the famed company (Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox) and documentaries this week include “Kumaré” (Kino Lorber) and “Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film” (Kino Lorber), both DVD.

Most releases are also available as digital download and VOD via iTunes, Amazon, and other web retailers and video services.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Ripper Street: Season One” (BBC) is another of BBC’s historical crime dramas, this one set in London’s Whitechapel district after the last of the Jack the Ripper killings in 1889 and starring Matthew Macfadyen as the leader of a forward-thinking team in a resistant department. It makes for a great atmosphere and setting for what is becoming a distinctive genre of British crime show. Eight episodes on Blu-ray and DVD.Videodrone’s review is here.

“Law & Order: Criminal Intent – The Final Year” (Shout Factory) ends with Vincent D’Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe back in the leads for 10 last cases of the Major Crimes Unit. DVD only. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“The Mob Doctor: The Complete Series” (Sony), one of the early casualties of the 2013 Fall Season, stars Jordana Spiro as a brilliant young Chicago surgeon who covertly works for the mob. 13 episodes on DVD.

“Foyle’s War: The Home Front Files” (Acorn) collects all six series and 22 episodes from the hit British mystery series set on the British homefront in World War II.

Also new this week: “Father Dowling Mysteries: The Final Season” (Paramount) with Tom Bosley, more classic “Doctor Who” (BBC), and documentaries on Vikings and dinosaurs, all DVD only.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Ministry of Fear” (Criterion), a wartime thriller starring Ray Milland as an innocent bystander tangled up in a Nazi spy ring, presents Fritz Lang directing a Hitchcockian screenplay. This is not Lang’s best film of the era, or even his most interesting portrait of paranoia and sinister forces, but it is a lively thriller with unexpected turns and a charming performance by Ray Milland. Blu-ray and DVD from a new 2K restoration and featuring an interview with film scholar Joe MeElhaney. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

Luis Buñuel’s “Tristana” (Cohen), starring Catherine Deneuve as a virginal orphan defiled by lecherous guardian Fernando Rey, is one of the director’s late career masterpieces. Never before on disc stateside, it debuts on Blu-ray and DVD in a 2K restoration of the Spanish language version, with commentary, an alternate ending, and a visual essay.

In the original 1958 “The Blob” (Criterion), the biggest helping of jelly ever imagined turns humankind into breakfast and only Steve McQueen (in one of his first starring roles) stands in its way. The cult artifact debuts on Blu-ray. Also debuting on Blu-ray this week is “Willow” (Fox).

The 1945 “Brewster’s Millions” (Hen’s Tooth), from director Allan Dwan and star Dennis O’Keefe, is still the best adaptation of this comedy chestnut about an inheritance and a very unusual stipulation.

“Samson and Delilah” (Paramount), Cecil B. DeMille’s 1949 Biblical epic with Victor Mature and Hedy Lamarr, makes its DVD debut. It’s something of a camp item today, but it won Academy Awards for costume design and art direction.

“Who Framed Roger Rabbit: 25th Anniversary Edition” (Disney) marks the Blu-ray debut of the inventive comedy about cartoon characters in the human world. It arrives in a Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack along with a number of other films, including the animated features “The Hunchback of Notre Dame / The Hunchback of Notre Dame II: 2 Movie Collection” (Disney) and “Mulan / Mulan II: 2 Movie Collection” (Disney), and the 1979 colonial war drama “Zulu Dawn” (Severin).

The new MOD Movies round-up digs into the five-disc set “Film Noir Collection: Volume 1” and other releases from the Sony Pictures Choice Collection.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“Deadfall” (2012), the snow-blind crime drama with Eric Bana and Olivia Wilder as sibling thieves on the run in the winter snows along the north border with Canada, arrives a month after its disc debut.

“Atlantis: The Lost Empire” (2001) is an animated Disney journey to the center of the earth that looks like a mix of Jules Verne sci-fi and Japanese space opera and moves like an “Indiana Jones” adventure.

New TV shows include “Call the Midwife: Series 1” (2012), the hit BBC series set in 1950s East London, and “Archer: Season 3” (2011), this animated cult hit from FX.

And recent cult movie arrivals include the atmospheric 1932 horror film “White Zombie,” Jess Franco’s “The Awful Dr. Orlof” (1962), and the kinky Hammer films update “Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde” (1971).

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“Life of Pi,” the visionary survival film that won four Academy Awards, arrives same day as disc.

Also available this week: the animated fantasy “Rise of the Guardians,” the biopic “Hitchcock“ with Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren, the addiction drama “Smashed” with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and the offbeat road movie “This Must Be the Place” with Sean Penn. The theatrical spectacle “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” is also available in 3D.

Arriving in advance of disc is Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” (reviewed by Glenn Kenny here) and the comedy “Somebody Up There Likes Me” with Nick Offerman and Jess Weixler.

Available from Redbox this week:

Arriving day and date with video stores is the animated feature “Rise of the Guardians” (Dreamworks) on both Blu-ray and DVD, plus the drama “Smashed” (Sony, DVD) and “Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away” (Paramount, Blu-ray and DVD), the feature version of their live performance.

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: the new James Bond film “Skyfall” (MGM) and its Oscar-winning theme song (on Blu-ray and DVD), plus the hip hop martial arts movie “The Man with the Iron Fists” (Universal, Blu-ray and DVD) and the drama “The Sessions” (Fox, DVD) with John Hawkes and Helen Hunt.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

The 2013 incarnation of Dennis Cozzalio’s perfectly subjective and maddeningly demanding SLIFR quiz is out. After answering on-site, I decided to put them here as well.

You can participate at Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule.

1) The classic movie moment everyone loves except me is:

Hey, what’s not to like?

2) Favorite line of dialogue from a film noir

“Va-va-va-voom! Boom! Pow”

Just kidding. I’ll cheat a little and use a brief dialogue exchange:

“Next time you wake up, Bart, look over at me lying there beside you. I’m yours and I’m real.”
“Yes, but you’re the only thing that is, Laurie. The rest is a nightmare.”

3) Second favorite Hal Ashby film

“The Last Detail”

4) Describe the moment when you first realized movies were directed as opposed to simply pieced together anonymously. *

I really cannot recall the a-ha moment. I must have snuck up on me somewhere between a late-night TV showing of “Bride of Frankenstein” and seeing “Excalibur” in the theater.

5) Favorite film book

“The Parade’s Gone By,” Kevin Brownlow. I was going to go with “The Phantom Empire” by Geoffrey O’Brien (which I’ve handed out as a present many times), but Brownlow’s book had a bigger effect on my than any film book before or since, and I still return to it for its information, its passion for its subject, and way all those voices combine to offer an evocation of an era.

6) Diana Sands or Vonetta McGee

Vonetta McGee

7) Most egregious gap in your viewing of films made in the past 10 years

Sadly, more gaps than I care to remember. The most glaring I guess is Bela Tarr: I’ve seen only two of his films, and only one from the last decade. And both of them, mind you, were amazing.

8 ) Favorite line of dialogue from a comedy

“Puht-in onna Ri-i-i-i-i-itz!” (It’s all in the delivery)

Read more »

The World War II spy thriller 13 Rue Madeleine (1947) is built around no less than the creation of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services). A newsreel-like prologue that recounts the origins of the military intelligence network that later became the CIA, put together from the ground up after the bombing of Pearl Harbor with military and civilian recruits alike, segues from documentary to docudrama to follow a team of agents from their initial training to a vital mission in Nazi-occupied France. The film takes its name from the address of Gestapo headquarters in the port city of Le Havre on the Normandy coast, a location that dominates the finale of the film, and builds its fictional mission on the real threat of the German V-1 missiles and the Allied campaign of misinformation in the lead-up to D-Day.

13 Rue Madeleine was the second feature from producer Louis de Rochemont, who previously spent a decade producing the “March of Time” newsreel series, the most widely seen non-fiction films on American screens. In many ways it is an unofficial sequel to his feature debut The House on 92nd Street (1945), a wartime espionage thriller based on the real-life case of the FBI tracking down a ring of German spies in New York City. De Rochemont’s background informed the film: it was based on a true story and largely shot on location, and the espionage drama, which was defined as much by the workaday procedure of the American agents as by the melodramatic storyline and the exotic danger of covert spies and double agents, was framed by authoritative narration. De Rochemont and director Henry Hathaway brought a realist aesthetic to the studio thriller and reunited with screenwriter John Monks, Jr., narrator Reed Hadley, and veteran cinematographer Norbert Brodine for 13 Rue Madeleine. Brodine’s mix of natural light, location shooting, and “you are there” docu-drama compositions with heightened, expressionist lighting and dramatic angles to build tension in key scenes helped define de Rochemont’s influential approach.

James Cagney plays Bob Sharkey, a founder of America’s new counter-intelligence agency. The character was originally modeled on OSS founder William “Wild Bill” Donovan, but Donovan objected to the film’s portrayal of the agency. The organization was renamed 077 in the film and similarities to Donovan were obscured in rewrites. Cagney had formed Cagney Productions with his brother, Bill, in 1942, and was still under contract to Warner Bros., but he took time out to take the lead in 13 Rue Madeleine for Fox, partly as a favor to Darryl Zanuck and partly for a generous paycheck to help float his struggling production company.

Continue reading at Turner Classic Movies

Plays on Thursday, March 14 on TCM

New Releases:

“Wreck-It Ralph” (Disney) takes a whole new approach to the video game movie, imagining a world where videogame characters have lives outside the game and sending one reluctant bad-guy (voiced by John C. Reilly) on an odyssey through other games to be a good guy for once. It’s a colorful film, filled with witty comic bits and strong, dynamic characters, and it earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, DVD, digital download, and On Demand. Read Videodrone’s interview with director Rich Moore and see a clip from the film here.

“The Intouchables” (Sony), France’s official entry to the Academy Awards this year (it didn’t make the final five), stars Omar Sy as a brash Senegalese man who becomes caregiver to the rich, cultured, and paralyzed François Cluzet. “They generate such fun and good will… that you can almost forgive the film’s breezy racial stereotyping, cheap comedy and phony-baloney attitudes toward art, culture, class, and quadriplegia,” writes MSN film critic Kat Murphy. “Almost.” Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, and at Redbox.

“Playing for Keeps” (Sony) is a romantic comedy starring Gerard Butler as a sidelined soccer star and co-starring Jessica Biel, Uma Thurman, and Catherine Zeta-Jones (Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, and at Redbox), and Rebecca Hall, Bruce Willis, and Catherine Zeta-Jones (again) star in the gambling comedy “Lay the Favorite” (Anchor Bay), directed by Stephen Frears (Blu-ray, DVD, and at Redbox).

Also new this week: the remake of “Red Dawn” (2012) (Fox) with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson and the found-footage environment horror film (Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand) and the found-footage environment horror film “The Bay” (Lionsgate) directed by Barry Levinson (DVD).

And the direct-to-disc titles from the past month, including new films with John Cusack, Sharon Stone, Danny Glover, Dolph Lundgren and more, are profiled in the monthly B-Sides round-up.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Thorne” (Anchor Bay), a British mystery series based on the novels of Mark Billingham, stars David Morrissey as the latest tortured, brooding police detective to chase serial killers and worse in cases that are unsettling even as the darkest of British murder mysteries go. The 2010 British production played on Encore in the U.S. in 2013. Two discs on DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Hit & Miss” (BFS) takes the British crime drama in a very different direction: Chloë Sevigny dons a prosthetic and a Northern Ireland accent to play a transgender assassin in the midst of hitman-to-hitwoman transformation who becomes guardian to her former’s lover’s orphaned kids. The six-episode series ends in the middle of the story with no idea if there’s a second series to come. Played in the US on the satellite channel DirecTV. Three discs on DVD.

“H2O Just Add Water: The Complete Season 1” (Flatiron) is an Australian family comedy about three teenagers who are magically transformed into mermaids. Also in separate volumes are “H2O Just Add Water: The Complete Season 2” and “H2O Just Add Water: The Complete Season 3.”

“The Reagan Presidency” (PBS) is a three-hour documentary on the two terms served by President Ronald Reagan, originally made for PBS. DVD.

Plus the British mini-series “Hidden” (BFS) with Philip Glenister and David Suchet and the British reality series “My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding” (New Video), both on DVD.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Schindler’s List” (Universal), Steven Spielberg’s labor of love drama, tells the true story of Oskar Schindler (played by Liam Neeson), the German businessman who saved the lives of over 1,000 Jews in WWII. It won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Steven Spielberg’s first Oscar for Best Director, and debuts on Blu-ray in a Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack with all the supplements of the previous DVD special edition. Videodrone’s review is here, along with an exclusive clip.

“A Nightmare on Elm Street Collection” (New Line) brings all seven original “Nightmare” films out on Blu-ray (previously only the first three of the original series were released on Blu-ray). Taken as a whole (they are a varied bunch), this is the most creative and adventurous horror franchise of the slasher-movie era, and it turned Freddie Kreuger into the most perverse screen icon of his day. Five discs on Blu-ray. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Beyond the Clouds” (Olive), the final feature by Michelangelo Antonioni, explores the elusive nature of love, lust and sex in four brief encounters woven together with the philosophical musing of narrator and Antonioni stand-in John Malkovich. DVD only.

“College” (Kino) completes Kino’s run of Buster Keaton’s great independent features and shorts, all remastered from archival elements in HD. This one sends him to college, where he tries to make his name as an athlete to impress a co-ed. Blu-ray and DVD.

Also arriving on Blu-ray and DVD: Jean Renior’s 1946 “Diary of a Chambermaid” (Olive), Anthony Mann’s early noir “Strangers in the Night” (Olive), and a pair of French crime comedies, “The Great Spy Chase” (Olive) and “Monsieur Gangster” (Olive), both with Lino Ventura and Bernard Blier.

And debuting on Blu-ray in time for Easter is “The Nativity Story” (New Line) with Keisha Castle-Hughes and “One Night with the King” (Fox) with Tiffany Dupont and Peter O’Toole.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“Friends with Kids” (2011) stars Jennifer Westfeldt and Adam Scott as the last two singles in their group of friends (Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Jon Hamm, Chris O’Dowd, Megan Fox, and Edward Burns), so they decide to have a baby together while dating other people.

Craig Brewer courted controversy on his debut feature “Hustle and Flow” (2005), starring Terrence Howard as a pimp who wants to be a rapper, and ramped up the controversy with “Black Snake Moan” (2007), a feverish piece of cinematic juju with Christina Ricci and Samuel L. Jackson. Both arrive on Netflix instant this week.

“Big Fish” (2003) is one of the sweetest films to come from director Tim Burton and “Nicholas Nickleby” (2002) condenses Charles Dickens’ 900 page classic into a feature film with Charlie Hunnam as the lionhearted young Nicholas.

Also arriving as part of the back catalog is Michael Mann’s “Manhunter” (1986), the film that introduced the world to Hannibal Lector, and “The Mask of Zorro” (1998) with Antonio Banderas and Catherine Zeta-Jones. And from Italy comes “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” (1963) and “Marriage, Italian Style” (1964) with Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

The hit animated feature “Wreck-It Ralph,” one of the five nominees for Best Animated Feature, is available same day as disc and digital.

Also arriving same day as disc: the romantic comedy “Playing for Keeps“ with Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel, the action thriller “Red Dawn” with Chris Hemsworth and Josh Hutcherson, and the French drama “The Intouchables.”

Arriving before theaters is the comedy “It’s a Disaster,” which milks the end of the world for laugh with David Cross and Julia Stiles, and the action film “Into the White“ with David Kross and Rupert Grint

Available from Redbox this week:

Arriving day and date with video stores is the romantic comedy “Playing For Keeps” (Sony), the gambling comedy “Lay the Favorite” (Anchor Bay), the French drama “The Intouchables” (Sony), and the horror sequel “Grave Encounters 2” (Tribeca).

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: the drama “A Late Quartet” (Fox) with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, and Catherine Keener and the comedy “Nature Calls” (Magnolia) with Patton Oswalt and Johnny Knoxville.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

In Hollywood of the early 1930s, no one epitomized the romantic charm of France and continental sophistication of Paris better than Maurice Chevalier. The popular singer and nightclub entertainer had made his American film debut in the early sound era, where his boulevardier persona and lilting accent helped make him a major star in Ernst Lubitsch’s witty musical comedies.

But Chevalier was getting tired of playing what he called “the same old fellow,” the seductive Frenchman sweeping women off their feet and into bed with a smile and wink, and he was battling Irving Thalberg over his MGM assignments when Fox producer Darryl F. Zanuck offered him the lead in Folies Bergre de Paris (1935), a musical comedy that moves from the Paris stage to the world of high society and high finance and back. Zanuck had negotiated the film rights for the legendary Paris show palace and developed the film (based on the play The Red Cat) for Charles Boyer. When Boyer declined, Chevalier took the part.

The film offered Chevalier the opportunity to play two different roles: Folies Bergre headliner Eugene Charlier, a singer famed for his impersonation of Parisian millionaire Baron Fernand Cassini, and the banker and notorious womanizer Cassini himself. British beauty Merle Oberon (in one of her earliest American films) co-stars as Cassini’s wife in “the perfect modern marriage” (they each go their own way) and Ann Sothern is Charlier’s pathologically jealous girlfriend. The two men flirt with one another’s partners, of course, but the play of mistaken and swapped identities gets comically complicated as identities are swapped back and forth and the women use the confusion to play their own games.

The choreography by Dave Gould is right out of the Busby Berkeley playbook, with sets that expand back from the proscenium arch of the physical stage into impossibly epic spaces, dancers that multiply into small armies, overhead cameras that look down on a chorus forming elaborate geometric patterns, and increasingly abstract and surreal sets. The opening number sends Chevalier dancing through a downpour that covers half the stage, and the film ends with the Academy Award-winning “Straw Hat” number, an elaborate set piece built around Chevalier’s trademark boater hat, which becomes the basis for crazy props and massive sets inspired by the texture of the simple straw hat.

Continue reading at Turner Classic Movies

Plays on Thursday, March 7 on TCM

New Releases:

The first release week after the Oscars doesn’t include any winners, but it does offer another kind of confluence: three films from MSN’s “Top Ten Films of 2012″ list arrive on disc. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master” (Anchor Bay), which placed third on the compilation list, boasts a fearless performance by Joaquin Phoenix, who was nominated along with co-stars Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams, and an intensely intimate direction. Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand and at Redbox. Videodrone’s review is here.

I placed “Holy Motors” (Vivendi), a visionary celebration of the imaginative possibilities of cinema from Leos Carax, at the top on my personal Top Ten list. It’s a film that almost defies description, a work of fantasy, comedy, music, drama, thrills, and surprising turns with every scene, but mostly there is wonder and invention and the sheer thrill of cinematic creation. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“How to Survive a Plague” (MPI), one of the five nominees for Best Documentary, chronicles the efforts of ACT UP. On DVD and streaming on Netflix Instant.

For another generation, this week is all about “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2” (Summit), the final chapter in the supernatural romance about vampires, werewolves, and mortals. It arrives on Blu-ray and DVD on Saturday, March 2, along with “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 – Extended Edition” (Summit), which offers eight-minutes of additional footage. MSN is giving away five Blu-ray+DVD Combo edition sets of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 & 2.” Enter here and see an exclusive clip from the disc.

Also new this week: the based-on-a-true-stor​y surf drama “Chasing Mavericks” (Fox) with Gerard Butler (Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand) and the indie travel drama “The Loneliest Planet” (MPI), with Hani Furstenberg and Gael Garcia Bernal (DVD).

Other foreign releases this week include the contemplative “Silent Souls” (Zeitgeist) from Russia (DVD), Ann Hui’s “A Simple Life” (Well Go) from Hong Kong starring Andy Lau (Blu-ray and DVD), and “Chicken with Plums” (Sony), a live-action film from “Persepolis” filmmakers Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud (DVD and On Demand).

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“The Client List: The Complete First Season” (Sony) is Lifetime’s new series starring Jennifer Love Hewitt as a middle-class mother of two who turns to providing a little extra service to her massage customers to make ends meet after her husband walks out on the family. It’s a racy melodrama with roots in real-life anxieties: a bad economy, a mortgage in danger of default, and holding a family together as a single mother. But for a show for women, it sure leans on scenes of Hewitt in lingerie. 10 episodes on three discs, DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Law & Order: The Twelfth Year” (Universal), the 2001-2002 season of the TV’s definitive procedural war horse, adds Elisabeth Röhm to the cast as ADA Serena Southerlyn (replacing Angie Harmon). She joins Sam Waterston and Dianne Wiest (in her final season) on the “order” side of the show, while Jerry Orbach, Jesse L. Martin, and S. Epatha Merkerson handle the investigations. 24 episodes on five discs, DVD.

“Africa: Eye to Eye with the Unknown” (BBC) is a six-part natural history series produced by the BCC and Discovery Channel and narrated by David Attenborough. Blu-ray and DVD.

Also new is “West Point: The Complete Series” (Timeless), a late-1950s series notable for multiple scripts by Gene Roddenberry, and “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of the Turtles” (Paramount) presents the first six episodes of the Nickelodeon’s new animated reboot. Both DVD.

Plus box sets of “Garrow’s Law: The Complete Collection” (Acorn) and “Maigret: Complete Collection” (Acorn) and the 1978 mini-series “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie” (Acorn) with Geraldine McEwan.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Sansho the Bailiff” (Criterion), Kenji Mizoguchi’s masterful 1954 film, follows the ordeals of the wife and children of a provincial governor after they are sold into slavery by a vindictive feudal lord. Mizoguchi is the poet laureate of Japanese cinema, gracefully exploring the battered but resilient souls in the cruel worlds of Japan’s feudal past and present, and this is one of his greatest films. Previously released on DVD by Criterion, it debuts on Blu-ray in an edition with commentary and bonus interviews. Videodrone’s review is here.

Also debuting on Bluy-ray is “Best in Show” (Warner), Christopher Guest’s mockumentary on the personalities around a national Kennel Club dog show. With commentary and deleted scenes.

“The Deadly Companions” (VCI), the debut feature from Sam Peckinpah, finally arrives on home video in a well-mastered edition that preserves its color and widescreen image. While not perfect, this is far and away the best version of the independently-produc​ed 1960 western starring Brian Keith and Maureen O’Hara released to date. DVD only.

“Chronicle of a Summer” (Criterion), the 1961 collaboration between filmmaker-anthropolo​gist Jean Rouch and sociologist Edgar Morin, is a pioneering work of cinéma verité that documents the culture of Paris in the summer of 1960. Blu-ray and DVD, with a new documentary and new and archival interviews.

The horror, the horror: “Oasis of the Zombies” (Kino), directed by Jesus Franco, and “Zombie Lake” (Kino), directed in part by Jean Rollin, debut on Blu-ray and newly remastered DVD editions featuring the original French soundtracks as well as English dub versions. Arriving on DVD only is the 1970 horror anthology film “The House That Dripped Blood” (Hen’s Tooth) from Britain’s Amicus Films. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” (2008) is both two films and a single, unified work, an epic starring Benicio Del Toro as Ernesto Che Guevara, the revolutionary leader turned martyred legend and cultural icon. Netflix Instant offers both films under a single entry as separate “episodes.”

“Nobody Walks” (2012), a romantic drama starring John Krasinski, Olivia Thirlby, and Rosemarie DeWitt, and the comedy “Nature Calls” (2012) with Patton Oswalt and Johnny Knoxville, arrive after recent disc releases.

New foreign films include Takashi Miike’s “Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai” (2011) from Japan, the Spanish horror film “[REC] 3: Genesis” (2012), and the Dutch coming-of-age drama “North Sea Texas” (2011).

There’s also a batch of new non-fiction films, including “The Imposter” (2012), the stranger-than-fictio​n story of a European con artist who assumes the identity of a missing Texas boy, “Bestiaire” (2012), about a safari park in Quebec, and “Side by Side” (2012), a look at filmmaking in the transition from celluloid to digital.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“The Master” didn’t take home any Oscars, but that doesn’t diminish the powerhouse performances of nominees Joaquin Phoenix, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams, or of Paul Thomas Anderson’s direction. Also arriving same day as disc is Leos Carax’s visionary “Holy Motors” with Denis Lavant, the surf drama “Chasing Mavericks” with Gerard Butler, and two French films, and “Chicken With Plums” with Mathieu Amalric.

Available on Saturday, March 2, same day as Blu-ray and DVD, is “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2.”

Available in advance of disc: “The Sweeney,” a big-screen reboot of the seventies British cop show starring Ray Winstone and Damian Lewis, arrives On Demand in advance of American theaters, and the thrillers “6 Souls“ with Julianne Moore and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and “Inescapable” with Alexander Siddig and Marisa Tomei, and the documentary “A Place at the Table” arrives same day as theaters. Available on Friday, March 1.

Also arriving in advance of theaters is the Oscar-nominated foreign language film “War Witch” from Canada and the comedy “The Brass Teapot” with Juno Temple and Michael Angarano.

Available from Redbox this week:

“The Master” (Anchor Bay), from Paul Thomas Anderson, is on Blu-ray and DVD.

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: the snow-blind crime thriller “Deadfall” (Magnolia) with Eric Bana and Olivia Wilde and the video game film “Silent Hill: Revelation” (Universal) (both Blu-ray and DVD), “The Awakening” (Universal) with Rebecca Hall and Dominic West, and the animated “Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, Part 2” (Warner).

Don’t forget to check out our guide  to Oscar winners on disc and digital here.

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“Argo” (Warner), the third feature from actor-turned-directo​r Ben Affleck, tackles the real-life drama about the stranger-than-fictio​n rescue of six Americans who escaped capture when Iranians stormed the U.S. Embassy It’s a savvy picture that takes a few liberties with the historical record to create a nail-biter of an escape thriller and it earned seven Oscar nominations. It arrives on Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand just in time to catch up before the Academy Awards are handed out on Sunday. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Anna Karenina” (Universal), Joe Wright’s stage-limned adaptation of the Tolstoy novel with Keira Knightly and Jude Law, also picked up four Oscar nominations (all in craft categories). Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand.

“Sinister” (Summit), the horror film from writer-director Scott Derrickson (“The Exorcism of Emily Rose”) and starring Ethan Hawke, and the family comedy “Fun Size” (Paramount) with Victoria Justice and Jane Levy, both arrive on Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, and at Redbox.

Also new this week: the indie drama “For Ellen” (Tribeca, DVD) with Paul Dano, the comedy “Small Apartments” (Sony, DVD and at Redbox), and “Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike” (Fox), the second film in producer John Aglialoro’s adaptation of Ayn Rand’s epic novel, arriving on Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand after a spectacular theatrical flop.

Foreign film releases include the energetic Russian musical drama “Hipsters” (Kino), a coming-of-age tale and adventure in youthful rebellion set in the underground youth culture of 1955 Moscow, and ”North Sea Texas” (Strand), a different kind of coming-of-age drama set on the coast of Belgium.

And non-fiction films this week includes last year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary, the high school sports documentary “Undefeated” (Anchor Bay), and Denis Côté’s “Bestiaire,” a portrait of the animals and human at a Quebec wildlife park.

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Game of Thrones: The Complete Second Season” (HBO) builds on the foundation of the compelling first season to build an increasingly complex narrative with characters that become more interesting with every challenge. And the biggest challenge: a civil war that brings the series to a thrilling climactic battle and an even more compelling denouement that whets the appetite for Season Three. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome” (Universal) is the TV-movie prequel to the SyFy series set early in the war first Cylon war and built around young William Adama (Luke Pasqualino) as a hotshot fighter pilot. Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Naked City: 20 Star-Filled Episodes” (Image) showcases some of the classic cop show’s most impressive and familiar guest stars in a five-disc set (DVD only), and “Hats Off to Dr. Seuss: Collector’s Edition” (Warner) collects five previously-released animated TV specials adapted from the most famous works of the good Dr. Seuss (Blu-ray and DVD).

Flip through the complete TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

Elia Kazan’s “On The Waterfront” (Criterion) won eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress (for Eva Marie Saint) and Marlon Brando’s first Oscar for Best Actor. It was the most successful film to date that erupted out of the Actor’s Studio “method” and Criterion’s new edition is a reminder that it’s also a beautifully-made film and a powerful drama. Blu-ray and DVD with a wealth of new and archival supplements. Videodrone’s review is here.

Douglas Fairbanks was the first action hero and “The Thief of Bagdad” (1924) (Cohen), a lavish adaptation of the Arabian adventure fantasy “A Thousand and One Nights” directed by Raoul Walsh from a script by Fairbanks, is one of the grandest and most glorious spectacles of the silent era. Blu-ray and DVD. Reviewed on Videodrone here.

Making their respective Blu-ray debuts are the silky 1944 film noir “Laura” (Fox) with Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, the 1948 musical “Easter Parade” (Warner) with Fred Astaire and Judy Garland, and Michael Mann’s 1999 “The Insider” (Touchstone) with Russell Crowe and Al Pacino, plus there’s a newly remastered edition of “The Terminator” (Fox).

That just scratches the surface of a big week of classic releases that includes the 1958 “Les Miserables” (Olive, Blu-ray and DVD) from France, the 1987 comedy “Bagdad Cafe” (Shout Factory, DVD), Robert Altman’s “That Cold in the Park” (Olive, Blu-ray and DVD), and the spy spook sequel “In Like Flint” (Twilight Time, Blu-ray) with James Coburn.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“Undefeated” (2011), the Oscar winner for Best Documentary last year, arrives on Netflix Instant the same day as Blu-ray and DVD.

The indie romantic comedy “Safety Not Guaranteed” (2012), starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass, also arrives after a recent disc release, while the Danish drama “Teddy Bear” (2012) just hit DVD last week.

Here are some of the more interesting older titles to arrive in the past couple of weeks. For comedy, there’s “About Adam” (2000) with Stuart Townsend and Kate Hudson, the silly “Nacho Libre” (2006) from Jack Black and “Napoleon Dynamite” director Jared Hess, and “Eagle vs. Shark” (2007) from New Zealand.

Foreign films include the eccentric drama “Home” (2008) with Isabelle Huppert, Andrzej Wajda’s Holocaust drama “Korczak” (1990), and Masaki Kobayashi’s samurai drama “Harakiri” (1962).

And there’s a collection of cult movies, including Curtis Harrington’s eerie psychological fantasy “Night Tide” (1963) with Dennis Hopper, the 1968 psychedelic odyssey “Girl on a Motorcycle” (1968) with Marianne Faithfull, and a handful of films from Italian horror stylist Mario Bava.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

Ben Affleck’s Oscar-nominated “Argo,” a nail-biter of a real-life escape thriller, arrives just in time to catch up with before the Academy Awards on Sunday. Another Oscar nominee, the Tolstoy adaptation “Anna Karenina” with Keira Knightly and Jude Law, arrives the same day. Also new this week: the family comedy “Fun Size,” the horror film “Sinister,” “Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike,” and the extended and unrated “Ted: Special Edition with Gag Reel.”

Arriving in advance of theatrical release are “Hunky Dory,” a British drama with Minnie Driver, and “Red Flag,” a comedy with Alex Karpovsky.

Available from Redbox this week:

Arriving day and date with online sales and video stores is the horror film “Sinister” (Summit) with Ethan Hawke and the teens and tweener comedy “Fun Size” (Paramount) with Victoria Justice (both on Blu-ray and DVD) and the indie comedy “Small Apartments” (Sony, DVD).

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: the cop drama “End of Watch” (Universal) with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña (Blu-ray and DVD) and female buddy comedy ”For a Good Time, Call” (Universal) with Ari Graynor and Lauren Anne Miller (DVD).

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here

New Releases:

“Skyfall” (MGM), the 23rd official Bond movie, arrives on Blu-ray and DVD just days after taking home BAFTA awards (the British equivalent of the Oscar) for Best British Picture and Best Score. That’s pretty much the final garland in the crown of the film many are calling the best Bond ever. I’m not part of that chorus, but I understand the praise. It’s a terrific Bond by any measure, smart and sinewy, filled with memorable action and inventive set pieces, and a significant improvement over the previous film. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand. Videodrone’s review is here.

“The Sessions” (Fox), a sincere and witty comic drama about romance, sex, and intimacy, stars John Hawkes as a poet with cerebral palsy and earned an Oscar nomination for Helen Hunt as a sex surrogate. Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand

Also on the smaller, more personal side are “Robot and Frank” (Sony), starring Frank Langella as a retired thief who goes back into business with a new robot protégé (DVD, On Demand, and at Redbox), and the coming-of-age drama “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (Summit), adapted by Stephen Chbosky from his own novel and starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson (Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, and at Redbox).

Hip-hip star RZA directs and stars in “The Man with the Iron Fists” (Universal), a martial arts movie with Russell Crowe and Lucy Liu (Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand), and “Silent Hill: Revelation” (Universal) is the second film based on the video game (Blu-ray, DVD, and On Demand).

“The Thieves” (Well Go), the top-grossing films of all-time in Korea, is an “Ocean’s Korea” heist movie where half the crew is out to rip off the other half, and the other half is just out for themselves. Blu-ray and DVD. Also arriving from foreign screens is the Belgian drama “The Kid With a Bike” (Criterion, Blu-ray and DVD) from the Dardenne Brothers, and “Teddy Bear” (Film Movement, DVD) from Danish director Mads Matthiesen. These and more reviewed at Foreign Affairs round-up.

“Bully” (Anchor Bay) , the acclaimed documentary about bullying in America arrives on Blu-ray, DVD, On Demand, and at Redbox. Other non-fiction this week: “Girl Model” (First Run, DVD) and Ross McElwee’s “Photographic Memory” (First Run, DVD).

Browse the complete New Release Rack here

TV on Disc:

“Weeds: Season Eight” (Lionsgate), Showtime’s comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker as a dope-dealing single mom with a dysfunctional life, ends its run by coming full circle to where it all began: the little boxes of suburbia. I tired of the series a while ago, but if you like its mix of whimsical crime antics with death threats and murder (all played with a gallows humor), this season won’t disappoint. 13 episodes (12 if you count the two-part, hour-long finale as one episode) on DVD and Blu-ray, plus supplements. Videodrone’s review is here.

“Gossip Girl: The Complete Sixth and Final Season” (Warner) of the nighttime soap opera of the flamboyant lives and social antics of the young and rich of New York’s Upper East Side, arrives on DVD along with the box set “Gossip Girl: The Complete Series” (Warner).

“Nurse Jackie: Season Four” (Lionsgate) gives pill-popping emergency room nurse Jackie Peyton (Edie Falco) two new challenges: sobriety and a new hospital administrator (Bobby Cannavale). Blu-ray and DVD.

“The Loretta Young Show: Best of the Complete Series” (Timeless) collects 145 episodes of the anthology series of the 1950s (more than half of the show’s run and most of the episodes starring Loretta Young) in a box set of 17 discs. DVD.

“Attenborough’s Life Stories” (BBC) the three-part series with naturalist Sir David Attenborough reflecting on the changes he’s witnessed in his lifetime.

Flip through the TV on Disc Channel Guide here

Cool and Classic:

“Best of Warner Bros. 20 Film Collection: Musicals” (Warner) continues the celebration of Warner Bros. 90th anniversary with another box set, this one collecting 20 landmark musicals from 1928 to 1988, from the original “The Jazz Singer” to John Waters’ “Hairspray,” with such classics as “The Wizard of Oz,” “Singin’ In the Rain,” the 1954 “A Star is Born,” and “Cabaret” in between. DVD. Videodrone’s review is here.

“The Late Mathias Pascal” (Flicker Alley), directed by Marcel L’Herbier from a Luigi Pirandello novel, is a fabulist epic from 1926 France starring Ivan Mosjoukine, one of the great French actors of the silent era, as a dreamer who bounces from a devastating tragedy to a new life as a rich man after he’s (incorrectly) pronounced dead. Blu-ray.Reviewed on Videodrone here.

“Sleepy Eyes of Death Collector’s Set Volume 3” (AnimEigo) presents the final four films of the 12-film series (known as “Son of the Black Mass” in Japan) starring Raizo Ichikawa is the deadly wandering sword-for-hire Nemura Kyoshi. DVD.

All of the Cool and Classic here

New on Netflix Instant:

“Compliance,” the button-pushing, “based on a true story” drama starring Ann Dowd as a fast food manager manipulated into abusive behavior, stirred aggressive reactions in both festival screenings and theatrical showing.

Also recently on disc and debuting in Netflix: the romantic horror “Jack & Diane” with Juno Temple and Riley Keough , the gruesome murder mystery “The Raven” with John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe, and the indie drama “Bringing Up Bobby” with Milla Jovovich.

“United 93” (2006), the first theatrical feature to deal with the events of September 11, pays tribute to the passengers aboard United 93, the lone flight that never reached its objective, with a respectful dignity.

New action films include “The Hunted” (2003), William Friedkin’s lean, mean manhunt thriller with Benicio Del Toro and Tommy Lee Jones, “Bad Boys” (1995) with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, and “Once Upon a Time in Mexico” (2003) with Antonio Banderas and Johnny Depp.

Plus Julia Sweeney’s one woman show “God Said, Ha!” (1999); the sweet, low key romantic comedy “Next Stop Wonderland” (1998), slapstick martial arts sports comedy “Shaolin Soccer” (2001) from Hong Kong, and the Oscar-nominated Spanish drama “The Sea Inside” (2004) with Javier Bardem.

Browse more Instant offerings here

New On Demand:

“Skyfall,” the latest James Bond movie with Daniel Craig returning to duty, arrives along with the comedy “Robot & Frank” with Frank Langella, the low-key drama “The Sessions” with John Hawkes and Oscar-nominee Helen Hunt, and the coming-of-age drama “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.”

Plus martial arts movie “The Man With the Iron Fists” (unrated version), video-game horror “Silent Hill: Revelation,” and the acclaimed documentary “Bully.”

Debuting before theatrical release is the drama “Love and Honor” with Liam Hemsworth and Theresa Palmer.

Available from Redbox this week:

Day and date with video stores is “Robot and Frank” (Sony) with Frank Langella (DVD), the coming-age-drama drama “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (Summit, Blu-ray and DVD) and the documentary “Bully” (Anchor Bay, Blu-ray and DVD).

Also arriving in Redbox kiosks this week: “Taken 2” (Fox) with Liam Neeson and Maggie Grace (Blu-ray and DVD) and “Won’t Back Down” (Fox) with Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis (DVD), and returning to Redbox is the Oscar-winning animated film “Rango” (Paramount, Blu-ray and DVD).

For a calendar of upcoming releases, click here