News: August 2006 Archives

Bill Chambers was kind enough to send me word earlier in the summer of an impending exhaustive, four-disc (!) version of Dust Devil coming from Subversive Cinema. (I wrote about this and its predecessor, Hardware, at Cinemarati in December.) You might think the last thing the world needs is a fuggin' four-DVD version of what amounts to a solid B horror movie, cult following or no. But it looks definitive -- sure, it's got the two versions of the film, with audio commentary and a "featurette." But it's also got several unrelated documentaries by director Richard Stanley, on the subjects of Afghanistan, Haitian voodoo, and the search for the Holy Grail. Of course it's possible they all suck. But maybe not. And it can't help but be a big upgrade from the German DVD I picked up at Mondo Kim's on St. Mark's last year. For $29.95, I think I'll take the chance. Scarecrow Video has it listed as a 9/26 release and is taking pre-orders.

Because I'm a big ol' geek, the best news I got all week is that The Double Life of Véronique — the first Krzysztof Kieslowski movie I ever saw (and, probably not coincidentally, my favorite) — is coming to DVD through the auspices of The Criterion Collection. It will have a boatload of extras. My heart leaped into my throat when I saw that someone at Criterionforum.org (second post on this page) had posted a frame grab from an existing (European) Véronique DVD put out by MK2 that had the color all wrong. (I saw it three times on its original theatrical release, and at no point was the image out-and-out green as it seems to be on the MK2 disc.) But I trust Criterion has got it right. (Thanks, Criterion! Usually, I have to break down and buy an import version of a favorite movie before you'll announce its domestic release.)