Madman

Starring:Gaylen Ross, Tony Fish, Jan Claire (II), Harriet Bass, Seth Jones, Alexander Murphy Jr., Jimmy Steele, Carl Fredericks, Paul Ehlers, Michael Sullivan (IX)
Director: Joe Giannone
Studio: Anchor Bay
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
One of the better body-count knockoffs in the wake of Friday the 13th's screaming success, Madman starts out in familiar territory: a summer camp. The legend of berserk farmer "Madman Marz" is told in a campfire prologue. "It is said if you say his name above a whisper in the woods, he will hear you... and he will come for you." Needless to say, some idiot cries his name out and a hulking killer in overalls and a wild fright wig arrives with mayhem on his mind. He hacks his way through the camp counselors, lynching, chopping, beheading, and in general making a meat market of the twentysomethings. Director Joe Giannone executes it all with a little style and creativity, borrowing ideas from better-known productions: the ghost-story spookiness of John Carpenter's The Fog, a minimalist synthesizer score reminiscent of Halloween, a few nods to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and plenty of Friday the 13th-inspired stalk and slash. The film's only real weaknesses are its competent-at-best performances, but the effects are fine and the clichés are tweaked just enough to keep the audience guessing.

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Subtitles), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: This documentary follows several wandering bands of Gypsy musicians and dancers as they travel throughout Europe and parts of Asia. Unlike most documentaries, this one has no narration, preferring to let the images and the music speak for themselves. Starting in India, the film follows these bands through Egypt, Turkey, Romania, Germany and France and ends up in Spain. As they travel deeper in Europe -- especially into Romania and Germany, traditionally countries that are most hostile to Gypsies -- their music turns from light, romantic tunes into dark, bitter political dirges. SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Interactive Menu,

Average customer rating:

Love makes us do foolish things, Virginia
A CLASSIC !
blah
"I'll have your heart one way or another!"
Excellent Film

I, Madman
Starring: Jenny Wright , Clayton Rohner , Randall William Cook , Stephanie Hodge , and Michelle Jordan
Director: Tibor Takács
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00009PY3P
Release Date: 2003-08-26

Description

Gothic nightmares collide with gritty realism in this "stylish horror thriller [that] pulls you in and makes you pay attention" (Los Angeles Times)! Laced with sly humor, this "imaginative, scary" gem packs "a wow of an ending" (Leonard Maltin)! After a spine-tingling paperback captures the imagination of bookstore clerk Virginia (Jenny Wright), she seeks out the author's second book, I, Madman. But once she opens the cover, its eerie tale of obsessive love comes to life,catapulting a disfigured, scalpel-wielding killer from the world of fiction onto the streets of Hollywood with one demented goal: to win Virginia's love, one murder at a time!

Customer Reviews:

Love makes us do foolish things, Virginia.......2006-09-28

Bookstore clerk and aspiring actress, Virginia (Jenny Wright), has a taste for lurid pulp horror. Her latest bizarre book find, entitled "Much of Madness, More of Sin," spins the tale of an insane doctor and his mutant jackal boy creation. Virginia is so taken with the book that she sets out to find author Dr. Malcolm Brand's only other published work, a book called "I, Madman." Instead, the book finds her.

Waiting for just the right reader to release him from the pages of his 30-year-old book, the deranged Brand escapes into the real world to recreate the gruesome murders of the text. Virginia becomes Brand's primary witness to the murders and the focus of his obsessive love. Reality slips sideways as Virginia finds Brand stalking her at her bus stop and at the book store where she works--even gaining entrance to her apartment.

Malcolm Brand (Randall William Cook) is both a frightening and pitiful villain. In his book, Brand is obsessed with "Anna," a beautiful actress who will have nothing to do with him because she finds him so physically unattractive. Believing Virginia to be "Anna," Brand slices off his facial features so that he can replace them with more classically beautiful ones that he culls from Virginia's friends and acquaintances.

Trying to make sense of the madness she is witnessing, Virginia tracks down the small company that published the deranged doctor's books. Virginia discovers that the books were published as works of "nonfiction" at Brand's insistence. The author believed that the characters in his books were real and were acting independently by refusing to do what he told them to do. Brand wound up having a complete nervous breakdown and was committed to a psychiatric facility--where he later died. Some of the film's darkest humor comes from when Virginia tries to convince her boyfriend, Richard (Clayton Rohner), a reality-grounded police detective, that the recent spate of horrific murders are the work of Malcolm Brand, the long dead author.

The film has a retro/pulp comic book sensibility to it--with deep shadows, exaggerated camera angles and vivid paint box color gels--much like those in the "Tales from the Crypt" series or the "Creepshow" movies. I found the movie to be a lot of fun, with odd and imaginative twists throughout. The special effects may not be state of the art (the clay animation scenes looked downright funky), but the makeup prosthetics on the demented Malcolm Brand's butchered face will make your hair stand on end.

Special features on the DVD are minimal, consisting of the original theatrical trailer, scene selection and subtitles in French, Spanish and English.

A CLASSIC !.......2005-08-07

This is a very good & very underrated horror film! The madman in this movie is very creepy! Some of the efx are very out dated but nowhere near bad enough to ruin this awesome classic.

blah.......2005-03-28

This film had a good premise,but the bad acting and poor direction made this laughable and a bit boring for it to bring any chills or scares at all. If you want a better movie,get IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS. Avoid this one.

"I'll have your heart one way or another!".......2005-02-11

Growing up in the 70's and 80's I was constantly bombarded with television commercials that proclaimed `Reading is Fundamental', or RIF, for short...I suppose it was a concerted effort by some group of well meaning individuals to get us cartoon addicted youngins away from the magic box and into the library...but what they failed to mention is that, besides being fundamental, reading can also have serious detrimental effects to your health, possibly resulting in a slight case of death. Don't believe me? Then I would recommend watching I, Madman aka Hardcover (1989) for conclusive proof...you may be shocked at what you learn...directed by Tibor Takács (The Gate), the film stars Jenny Wright (The Wild Life, Near Dark), Clayton Rohner (Just One of the Guys, April Fool's Day), and Randall William Cook, who worked on all three of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films (not in the capacity of an actor, but as effects artist). Also appearing is Stephanie Hodge, whose face I recognized but couldn't place until I looked up her credits and learned she's not only a comedian, but also appeared on the Fox television show "Unhappily Ever After", along with the amply bosomed Nikki Cox, who does not appear in this film.

Wright plays Virginia, a literate, attractive woman and aspiring actress who makes ends meet by working in a used bookstore, and has an affinity for seedy pulp fiction novels from the 50's, particularly ones penned by an author named Malcolm Brand. The trouble begins as Virginia notices that the horrific events in the novel start to translate into real life, as fiction becomes fact, and she's somehow centered in the middle of it...soon she starts seeing the villain from the story, a skulking, darkly garbed killer (Cook) who wears a mask over the lower part of his face (looking much like The Shadow), is a whiz with the straight edge razor, and seems to have the ability to appear from nowhere. The police are baffled by a recent spate of strange and unexplained murders, but Virginia notices the similarities between the events in the book and those in real life, and believes she can predict the killer's next move. She offers this information to her boyfriend Richard (Rohner), who's a police detective, but Richard and his colleagues are a little skeptical (okay, a lot skeptical) and think her like a Snickers bar, you know, a bit nutty. As the police investigation eventually goes nowhere, they become more inclined to listen to Virginia, but it may be already too late, as the killer's motives and intentions are revealed, along with a few interesting facts about the now deceased author Malcolm Brand.

At a time when slasher films were run of the mill, I, Madman presented a clever and interesting story tinged with a bit of the gothic, but I think it ended up getting lost in the shuffle as the genre grew stale, as studios had bled it to the point of anemia (the lame trailer didn't help any). The movie has the slight feel of a Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street) film (the mixing of realities), but director Takács avoids Craven's style as a blueprint. He knows how to set up a scene and creates a level of tension and suspense that kept me drawn into the story throughout. I really liked how he handles the violence in the film, as it wasn't shown very often, but you always knew what was occurring. There is a good deal of violence in the film, but it is rarely shown on screen. An example of this is when Virginia is watching from her apartment window the killer stalking a victim in a building across the way. The killer draws the shades, but the silhouettes of him and his victim are clear, as is the subsequent actions, and the audience is left to fill in the rest in their imagination. There's another scene where a woman is getting attacked in her bathroom, and while we know what is going on, the violence is obscured as the scene is shot from behind the killer, but it's clear what's happening due to the killer's almost exaggerated movements. I really liked the use of color and atmospheric elements throughout the film, as they helped create a feel, a mood that other films in the genre lacked, or tried to develop but failed miserably. Also, his transitioning between time periods (the main character would often imagine herself as part of the stories she read) was flawless. I thought the actors all did very well, most all playing their roles within character, never really hamming it up or going overboard. The makeup on the killer (done by the person who played the role) was exceptional and quite gruesome, giving the character a realistic quality. Were the flaws in the film? There may have been, but I really didn't notice...I feel if the effort is there, and there's enough solid material and decent performances, I find myself willing to overlook certain superficial elements that may work against the movie. I suppose if I were to pick on something it might be the stop motion work. Most parts looked good, but there were one or two moments where it didn't feel entirely lifelike (given the probable limited budget of the film, picking on this would be an easy target). Takács usage of stop motion in his previous film, The Gate (1987), looked much the same as here, but since I liked that story as much as I did this one, it was easy to dismiss any perceived faults.

My only disappointment of this film was in its' lackluster DVD release. Presented is only the fullscreen format. Why MGM couldn't have dug up the original wide screen format and included it also is beyond me. The picture quality is decent, and the vibrant colors come through most of the time. The only extra is the lame theatrical trailer.

Cookieman108

Excellent Film .......2005-01-26

If only Tibor Takacs had done more like this film.
I saw this film in the VHS release as HARDCOVER. It retains the same superb tone as THE GATE, in which it seems that the same stop motion animator has been used.
Takacs seems to know how to go one step beyond, and the leading Lady is great; comments to the contrary are just sour grapes. Also, to have Nicole Kidman in this film would just destroy it, since Kidman is so horrible at acting.
The word was that the inventor of the Makeup for this film was so good, that Takacs decided to cast him as Malcolm Brand... could be film legend, but I don't think so.
I have lost count of how many times I have watched this film, and it is great each time. Very escapist, not much gore , despite the messy cuts in the actors, it is not a splatter fest. More of a superb fright fest.
I can't recommend this enough... its a real fun ride at every stage of the twisted, and wonderfully done , plot.

Moolaadé (Moolade) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

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Moolaadé (Moolade) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Ousmane Sembene
Manufacturer: Madman Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000LQMNG2

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: Arabic (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: Ousmane Sembene, the 81-year-old Senegalese filmmaker, is often refered to as the father of African cinema, but he is a patriarch with evident feminist sympathies. Set in a village in Burkina Faso, his latest film tackles the subject of female genital mutilation, but its political resonance is hardly limited to the parts of Africa where that custom is practiced. Colle (Fatoumata Coulibaly), the tough-minded second wife of a village elder, offers protection to four young girls who have fled the knives and starts a revolution. In chronicling her struggle with male power and deeply-rooted tradition, Mr. Sembene also paints a rich and complex tableau of village life, which gives the film, in spite of its harsh topic, a remarkable bouyancy of spirit. Unflinching both in its condemnation of genital mutilation and in its warm-hearted optimism, "Moolaade" is an example of humanist cinema at its finest, a movie that reminds you of the dignity and heroism of ordinary life. SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Interactive Menu,

Black Cat, White Cat [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]

Average customer rating:

This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!
Hilarious, rollicking raucous black comedy
When do we get a Region 1 release???

Black Cat, White Cat [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]
Director: Emir Kusturica
Manufacturer: Madman Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Life Is a Miracle (Zivot je cudo) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Black Cat White Cat

ASIN: B000A13M36

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o Dutch (subtitles) o English (subtitles) o French (subtitles) o Serbian (Dolby Digital 5.1) o Serbian (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: Brimming with life and propelled by an almost overwhelming manic energy, Emir Kusturica's unhinged comic fable breathes a welcome and much-needed burst of life back into art house cinema. For those who associate subtitled foreign films with benign and melancholy costume melodrama, Kusturica gleefully provides viewers with a surreal and poignant comic romp, one that has an unmatched love for life even amidst the ever-present inevitability of death. Few films have managed to effectively capture the energy and spectrum of emotion that life can bring, and here, with a rousing sense of passion and zeal, Kusturica does so with unmatched vivacity. A remarkably visual film, the decayed backdrop of Danube provides the perfect setting for a story concerned with lighthearted crime, and is full of audaciously grotesque and quirky characters. Though their actions and behavior often shatter the barriers of believability and realism, they are never questioned by the viewer because within the context they are entirely justified. Confounded viewers who may view Black Cat, White Cat as narrative chaos following its opening scenes will find that, in this case at least, the payoff is well worth it when the characters and situations all come together in one of the most remarkable wedding receptions ever captured on celluloid. With an inspired soundtrack consisting of high-energy Gypsy music, Kusturica has found the perfect auditory compliment to the film's quirky visual energy. This skillfully maintained energy will undoubtedly leave the viewers walking away with an unmistakable and infectious sense of punch-drunk euphoria. Special Features: o Interactive Menu o Trailer(s)

Customer Reviews:

This is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!.......2006-02-20

Apart from being these words another humbly homage to Casablanca, this film is a demolishing story, supported by an incisive script, but so well done and acted that becomes a true feats for your eyes under any point of view you may consider it.

After all, Federico Fellini has found his true younger artistic successor. Kusturica 's style is hyper kinetic, zealous, flamboyant, deliriously outrageous, permeated of fine irony and enrooted in the most loyal local humor.

A man good for nothing decides the time has come for renovating himself and finally to be a good man. After all, he has a son still to care, but he needs desperately money for participate in something big. On the road all kinds of specimens; his father and uncle, the astute vagrant, the Russian contrabandists will constitute the admirable frame in which this hilarious film will unfold.

You will see a true parade of reckless and very funny situations inside what you might call a surrealist journey. There is admirable winks to the mistake comedy with a smart resolution.

If you haven't dared to see it, it would be recommendable to acquire it. Kusturica shares honors - thanks a well sustained effort - with the great directors of the world. Come to the particular micro cosmos of this irreverent filmmaker and enjoy it.

Hilarious, rollicking raucous black comedy.......2005-07-21

A touch of magic and mystery runs through this 100% enjoyable, harmless, madcap farce. Ably acted by the most amazing assortment of motheaten gypsies, geese and two brilliant cats. And it all ends well. Everyone left the cinema smiling.

I forgot to mention the pig!

When do we get a Region 1 release???.......2005-06-29

Kidnap the Marx Brothers, get them really high, then crank everything up three or four turns beyond that and turn them loose on Danube Gypsy culture. What do you get? "Black Cat, White Cat" - a highjacked trainload of fuel, a walking tree stump, a collapsing outhouse, and the dead come back to life. How could you not love this film!?

Why doesn't someone release this insane, inspired Kusturica film in Region 1?? We've got "Underground" (almost as wonderful), "Do You Remember Dolly Bell?", and "When Father Was Away on Business", with "Time of the Gypsies" on the way. When do we get "Black Cat, White Cat"??

Two Girls for a Madman/Mr. Mari's Girls/Tortured Females

Average customer rating:

Fast forward review

Two Girls for a Madman/Mr. Mari's Girls/Tortured Females
Starring: Sharon Kent , Sam Stewart , Denine Dubois , Jud Barry , and Rita Penn
Director: William K. Hennigar , Arch Hudson , and Stanley H. Brassloff
Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Beautiful, the Bloody, and the Bare / Behind Locked Doors (Something Weird)
Cool It, Baby/Mini-Skirt Love/Venus in Furs
Indecent Desires/My Brother's Wife
Take Me Naked/A Thousand Pleasures
Flesh and Lace / Passion in Hot Hollows (Something Weird)

ASIN: B0002NRRT2
Release Date: 2004-09-07

Description

Dance students Toni and Sonya become Two Girls for a Madman when toothy psycho Frank Yeager sees sexpot Toni at a bizarre back-room orgy in Greenwich Village. Impressed, Frank pops up in the back of Toni's car and "teaches her some new ballet steps." Wanting seconds, Frank starts stalking Toni, quickly discovers her best friend Sonya, and ends up breaking into their dance school, anxious for a private performance.... Starring Arlene Farber ("Toni France"), star of such Jerry Gross faves as The Female Animal and Teenage Mother, here's psychotic sexploitation from the man who made Toys Are Not For Children! Plus: Meet Mister Mari's Girls, a diverse group of Women in Trouble -- ranging from a junkie-model in need of a fix, to a pregnant high-school girl, to a "hard-as-nails" lesbian eager to marry her blind girlfriend -- who come to millionaire Mari for help and advice, and stay around for the most malignant catfight ever put on film.... And: Unaware of the local Hooded Strangler lurking around her door, poor "Helen Doe" decides to visit her aunt but, instead, winds up at the "House of Horror on the hill." There, she and six other Tortured Females are held by white slavers and persuaded to accept "a glamorous life of easy virtue" through beatings, whippings, and being forced to watch go-go dancers (?!). Worse, adding to the madness is nothing less than -- are you ready? -- "a half-witted, monkey-chattering, Mongolian hunchback." Honest.

Customer Reviews:

Fast forward review.......2007-02-17

The first one is a zero, and I haven't seen the second one, so let's focus on "TF". There are a few things about this brief flick to enjoy, even though it's in black and white and probably makes little sense (I had the sound off). First, you have to like the model starting off the flick who runs around a lot and has calm conversations with a cop while one breast is hanging out. The following girl is especially interesting, one of those not quite fat but definitely pneumatic 50's types with "torpedos" topped with semi-puffies, a fave of mine. She rolls around with lingerie and takes a shower.

If that was all this would just be a brief amusement. But at the half way mark all of a sudden we get kind of a white slave angle, and whipped backs show up, nude girls in chains, that sort of thing. As the above built-in review mentions, in a very FFR (or John Bloom to be fair) sort of way, yeah, there's a dwarf, you have to cut around his appearance. There's some tied up nekkid chicks, as John might say, some strip dancing for the evil master dude as an interlude, before we get a whipping scene involving a very fleshy blonde girl that's pretty hot, though brief. Then's there some escape plot with the uni-breaster and that's all.

Okay, not much, but for these b&w SWV's that's not bad. "Two Girls" has some nudity and a grinning crazy guy waving a gun around for some reason, but zero sleaze scenes. We'll give "TF" 2 stars in sleaze context, a little generous given that there are some other nude scenes in the other two I suppose.

Kenny [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

Average customer rating:

"Kenny" needs to be released in the US

Kenny [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Clayton Jacobson
Manufacturer: Madman Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000N16208

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SYNOPSIS: From the biggest festival to the smallest church social, Kenny Smyth delivers porta-loos to them all. Ignored and unappreciated, he is one of the cogs in society's machinery; a knight in shining overalls taking care of business with his faithful 'Splashdown' crew. Follow Kenny as he tackles every septic challenge that comes his way, culminating in a pilgrimage to that Mecca of waste management, the International Pumper and Cleaner Expo in Nashville Tennessee - or as Kenny affectionately calls it, 'Poo HQ'. With fly-on-the-wall honesty and wit, 'KENNY' lifts the lid on one of Australia's roughest diamonds as he juggles family tensions, fatherhood and sewage with charm, humour and unflinching dignity. 'It takes a certain kind of person to do what I do... No-one's ever impressed; no-one's ever fascinated... If you're a fireman, all the kids will want to jump on the back of the truck and follow you to a fire. There's going to be no kids willing to do that with me. So, I don't do it to impress people - it's a job, it's my trade, and I actually think I'm pretty good at it.' - Kenny Smyth Part philosopher, part comedian and all heart, KENNY is living proof that in sewage, like life, the best will always rise to the top. SPECIAL FEATURES: Alternative Footage, Commentary, Interactive Menu, Trailer(s),

Customer Reviews:

"Kenny" needs to be released in the US.......2007-06-24

I simply fell in love with this movie. "Kenny" is without a doubt the best Australian film I have ever seen. In fact, in my opinion, it's one of the most entertaining films ever made anywhere. It's witty, touching and, most of all, inspiring. Shane Jacobson is my new hero. After seeing his fine performance in this marvelous picture, I'm now his biggest fan, at least here in the states. It is just so hard to believe this was his very first acting role. His portrayal of the likable, down to earth average working stiff Kenny Smyth is nothing short of brilliant. No wonder he won the AFI's Best Actor Award for 2006, Australia's equivalent of the Oscar. This movie just has to be released in the US. Wake up, America. You just don't know what you're missing.

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Madman
Starring: Madman
Manufacturer: Central Film Company
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Time for Drunken Horses (Zamani barayé masti asbha) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

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A movie on humanity
not the easiest film you'll ever watch, but quite memorable

Time for Drunken Horses (Zamani barayé masti asbha) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Manufacturer: Madman
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Turtles Can Fly
Nobody Knows
Children Underground
Kandahar
Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition)

ASIN: B000AQDPFQ

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o English (subtitles) o Farsi (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: Former assistant director to Abbas Kiarostami and star of Samira Makhmalbaf's Blackboards, Bahman Ghobadi makes his directorial debut with this gritty, documentary-like look at Kurdish orphans struggling to survive. Shot in the village where the filmmaker grew up, the film unsentimentally depicts how children are packed in trucks and driven to the city to perform such menial jobs as wrapping parcels or, more likely, carrying large boxes like pack mules. Though Ayoub is all of 12 years old, he has become the head of the household, which includes his severely disabled older brother -- who is also deathly ill. In order to pay for an operation that might prolong his life, Ayoub joins a group of smugglers who traffic truck tires to Iraq. Negotiating landmines and dodging border guards, they struggle to get their overburdened mules through snow covered mountains by plying them with alcohol. Later, the eldest sister agrees to marry an Iraqi Kurd, under the belief that the groom's family will pay for the operation. This film was screened at the 2000 Cannes and Toronto film festivals. Special Features: o Biographies o Interactive Menu o Scene Access o Trailer(s)

Customer Reviews:

A movie on humanity.......2006-06-04

Whilst this movie is set at the border of Iran-Iraq, it portrayed the life of a family without any means and of a boy barely in his teens having to take over the helm of the family after their father passed away. He had gotten three other younger siblings to look after and one of them, Madi was handicapped and the person who needed a surgery urgently. The doctor indicated that even after surgery, Madi would die prematurely anyway. Still, Ayoub vowed to take on extra jobs to enable his younger brother to take the surgery. Because the environment is harsh and that livelihood is hard to come by, Ayoub had to take his chances even though there's this possibility that he might work for nothing. It just happened that smugglers that he worked for were opportunistic by nature. The movie was never dull to watch and it made us appreciate what we are taking for granted. Those children depicted in the movie shouldn't be working at their age but they should be having a proper education to get ahead in lives. It was made six years ago and I'm sure that the situation would be worse now with the battles that are raging on in Iraq nowadays. Ultimately, foreign policy against Iran and Iraq would only worsen the plight of the common people. The movie ended abruptly but it gave us a glimpse of the other life that we heard and read about in the news but never lived through it. Even when the environment was hopeless, those selfless children that would give their everything and all to their loved ones showed us that there is afterall, hope. All we need is love, remember? We would appreciate the title better when we watch the movie ourselves. Highly recommended. By the way, there's an interview with the Director as an extra feature in the movie.

not the easiest film you'll ever watch, but quite memorable.......2005-12-21

Director Bahman Ghobadi's says this movie was made as a tribute to his people, the Kurds. Kurdish tribute is a theme running through each of Ghobadi's subsequent movies, including the very compelling "Turtles Can Fly", available now on DVD from Amazon. Please see that title also.

What's depicted in A Time For Drunken Horses is a way of life very much removed from my sitting here this winter in a warm home with little potential outside for war or any other major hardships. Major hardships seem to be the plight of the Kurds, and the children are not spared; this movie shines for it's lack of sentimentality in dealing with a difficult subject, the lives of the orphans of war.

The cinematography is gorgeous, the mountainous regions of Iran are varied and beautiful and seemingly made for the movies. Thus the entire film is beautiful in a severe and stark kind of way. Like many Iranian films, the ending is not resolved Hollywood-happy, but instead requires the viewer's own imagination.

Note: you can often find a NTSC Region free DVD of this on eBay, which will play on all North American players. However, it's a Chinese edition, and the English subtitles are uneven. A multi-region DVD player is a good investment that will allow you to enjoy discs such as this licensed Region 4 PAL edition.

Knock on Wood (La Chèvre) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]

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Knock on Wood (La Chèvre) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Director: Francis Veber
Manufacturer: Madman Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000II05GS

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: French (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), WIDESCREEN (1.66:1), SYNOPSIS: The film which brought director Francis Veber and comic duo Pierre Richard and Gérard Depardieu to fame, LA CHÈVRE introduces François, a man with seriously bad luck. When a businessman's daughter disappears in Mexico, François is sent to track her down. Why? She also has terrible luck and perhaps this shared trait might help to locate her. Assisted by private eye Campana (Depardieu), François' trail of destruction leads straight to hilarity. SPECIAL FEATURES: Trailer(s), Interactive Menu,

La Chinoise [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]

Average customer rating:

an historical piece of the highest caliber
Great but cheaper in Germany

La Chinoise [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.0 Import - Australia ]
Director: Jean-Luc Godard
Manufacturer: Madman Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Art House & International | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B000AV8ZMO

Product Description

Australia released, PAL/Region 4 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. Languages: o English (subtitles) o French (Dolby Digital 2.0) Synopsis: Director Jean-Luc Godard, whose advocacy of Maoism bordered on intoxication, infuriated many traditionalist critics with his swiftly paced satire La Chinoise. Godard's then-wife Anne Wiazemsky plays a philosophy student who commiserates with the four members of her campus Maoist group. They are so taken by the external trappings of their cause--the posters, the Little Red Books, the by-rote chantings--that they seem not to grasp the true meaning of their political persuasion. Nor do they give any thought to the long-range ramifications of their terrorist activities. Godard is obviously on the students' side throughout, though he balances their fanaticism with the comparative gentility of old-style revolutionaries. Nonfans of Godard were given migraines by the director's perverse refusal to film even the simplest sequence in a linear, logical fashion. La Chinoise quickly gained the reputation of a "head film", best appreciated when the viewer is stoned. In these PC days, the audience for this sort of film is generally "straight"...which may be why it has seldom been shown in recent years. Special Features: o Interactive Menu o Scene Access

Customer Reviews:

an historical piece of the highest caliber.......2006-06-21

I for one would like to know exactly what is holding up the USA release of this film (in a format that plays on our DVD players.) Could it be that the powers that be are afraid of a man with glasses who has spent his entire life thinking? La Chinoise is about thinking about film. This work in particular represents the intellectual achievements in cinema of days gone by and never to return. Jean-Luc Godard's artistic influence is beyond compare even by today's standards (maybe particularly by today's standards.)

Great but cheaper in Germany.......2005-08-28

This is a great film with wonderful political overtones. If you would like to see it for around 25$, get the German copy. The only drawback besides PAL is that it is dubbed into German!

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