Kenneth Turan’s DVD pick of the week: Sometimes something truly different finds its way into release
Kenneth Turan’s DVD Pick of the Week: Unexpected, Unusual and Wonderful; The House of Mystery, and Beyond Zero: 1914-1918.
Often DVD releases fall into expected categories, like films that were in theaters only months before or golden age material featuring Hollywood stars we know and love.
But every once in awhile something truly different finds its way into release. For instance: “The House of Mystery.” Part art film, part deep dish melodrama, this six-and-a-half hour, 10-part silent serial released in France in 1923 (and now put on disc by the folks at Flicker Alley) has wild plot twists galore. This new restoration is so epochal it won the “Best DVD” award at Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival.
Equally impressive is Bill Morrison’s “Beyond Zero, 1914-1918,” released by Icarus Films. Morrison is known for editing together largely unseen and often beautifully decayed 35 mm nitrate footage to stunning effect, as he does here with World War I footage. The evocative Aleksandra Vrebalov score is played by the Kronos Quartet.
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