10 Years of Rialto Pictures [10 Discs] [Criterion Collection]10 Years of Rialto Pictures [10 Discs] [Criterion Collection]

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MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

    Since 1997, Rialto Pictures has been helping to keep classic cinema alive and invigorated by bringing the world's greatest films to theaters across the United States, in phenomenal restored 35 mm prints. This special gift box set, in celebration of Rialto's tenth anniversary, features ten films that display the breadth of its collection, including works by Rialto favorites, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Bresson, Luis Bunuel, and Jean-Pierre Melville. The ten films included are: Army Of Shadows, Au Hazard Balthazar, Band Of Outsiders, Billy Liar, The Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeousie, Mafioso, Murderous Maids, Rififi, The Third Man, and Touchez Pas Au Grisbi.

DVD FEATURES:
  • Region: 1
  • Number of Discs: 10
  • Subtitle: Eng
  • Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
  • Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
AWARDS
  • Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
  •     Won Best Foreign Language Film - 1972 (Luis Buñuel)
  •     Won Best Black and White Cinematography - 1950 (Robert Krasker)
  •     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 1972 (Jean-Claude Carrière, Luis Buñuel)
  •     Nominated Best Director - 1950 (Carol Reed)
  •     Nominated Best Editing - 1950 (Oswald Hafenrichter)
  • American Film Institute
  •     Won 100 Greatest American Movies - 1998
  • British Academy of Film and Television Arts
  •     Won Best Actress - 1973 (Stéphane Audran)
  •     Won Best Screenplay - 1973 (Jean-Claude Carrière, Luis Buñuel)
  •     Nominated Best Picture - 1973 (Luis Buñuel)
  •     Nominated Best Film - Any Source - 1963 (John Schlesinger)
  •     Nominated Best Film - Any Source - 1949 (Carol Reed)
  • Cannes Film Festival
  •     Won International Prize- Best Director - 1955 (Jules Dassin)
  •     Won Grand Prix - 1949
  • Directors Guild of America
  •     Nominated Best Director - 1949 (Carol Reed)
  • French Academy of Cinema
  •     Won Best Female Newcomer - 2000 (Sylvie Testud)
  •     Nominated Best Director - 2000 (Jean-Pierre Denis)
  •     Nominated Best Female Newcomer - 2000 (Julie-Marie Parmentier)
  •     Nominated Best Picture - 2000
  • Hollywood Foreign Press Association
  •     Nominated Best Foreign Film - Foreign Language - 1972
  •     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1964
  • Los Angeles Film Critics Association
  •     Won Special Citation - 2006
  • National Board of Review
  •     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1972
  •     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1956
  •     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 1950
  • National Society of Film Critics
  •     Won Film Heritage Award - 2006
  •     Won Best Director - 1972 (Luis Buñuel)
  •     Won Best Picture - 1972
  • New York Film Critics Circle
  •     Won Special Award - 2000 (James Dassin)
  • New York Film Critics Society
  •     Won Best Foreign Language Film - 2006
  • Telluride Film Festival
  •     Film Presented - 2005
  • Venice International Film Festival
  •     Won Volpi Cup for Best Actor - 1954 (Jean Gabin)
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
REVIEWS:
  • Alberto Lattuada's Mafioso (1962) was a movie so far ahead of its era, that -- looking at it 45 years after its release -- it seems at times as though it had been made in a time warp. After all, who made comedies about the mob -- even the Sicilian mob -- in 1962? And in a neo-realist style, to boot? The basic plot is simple enough, about Nino (Alberto Sordi), a man of Sicilian birth who has made good in northern Italy as an auto plant foreman in Milan, who decides it's time for his wife and their two young children to meet his parents and family -- and also his friends from the little town in Sicily where he grew up, who also constitute "family." And gradually, as he falls back in with his boyhood companions and family acquaintances, Nino's blissful, "holy fool" approach to life brushes up against the harsher aspects of the social order in his Sicilian town -- he must take a long trip and then a short trip, spirited away one night to do a favor for the mob chieftain who controls his town and the surrounding area; a favor that is contingent upon his wartime experience using weapons. The movie is a quietly, subtly sly and knowing as its hero is naive and oblivious, and therein lies its center -- the disconnect between Nino's wide-eyed innocence, perfectly embodied by Sordi, and Lattuada's darkly, comically sinister vision, in which even a plate overflowing with fat-encrusted red meat takes on darkly threatening overtones. The black-and-white photography by Armando Nannuzzi only enhances the shadows and the humorously ominous, comical little touches that decorate Nino's Sicilian sojourn. Given an important section of the shooting that comes up late in the movie -- which we will not reveal here -- which was shot separately from the rest of the picture (and under near-siege conditions), there is some credit due, past that deserved by Lattuada, that will probably never be properly accorded. The movie was released in 1962 and barely seen in the United States, where distributors didn't have a clue about how to handle its dark humor -- before disappearing for 45 years, until its re-release in 2007. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
  • Audiences coming to Jean-Pierre Melville's Army Of Shadows with the expectation of typical war movie action, suspense, and heroics will be in for a disappointment -- though they may also be pleasantly surprised and downright enlightened by what they do find in place of those attributes. It is, to be sure, one of the finest movies ever made about war -- and specifically World War II, and especially about the role in which France found itself cast -- from the civilian point-of-view, and perhaps the best movie ever made about the wartime resistance movement in France. But its very accuracy and understated realism will probably surprise and disappoint audiences raised on the notions of such movies put forth by Hollywood. This is principally because the movie's focus is on the psychological aspects of that underground war, and mostly the film's mood is one of isolation and caution, while its tone is somber and dark. And considering the ominous tone over much of what we see -- and death does appear on screen here, quickly and brutally when it comes, even when it is referred to -- we also see surprisingly little of the enemy for much of the movie. Melville (who was involved with the resistance during the war) understood that the reality of such underground work was that one didn't have any more contact with the enemy than was absolutely necessary. It's all a far cry from the heroics and bold statements of patriotism that one usually expects in movies on this subject, but the resulting tension results in an engrossing, often spellbinding cinematic experience across 140 minutes of screen time -- this reviewer (who never has the time for such indulgences) went back to see it three more times. As to the cast, Lino Ventura gives the performance of a lifetime as the operational head of a highly effective resistance cell, and his work is matched by the entire cast, which includes Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse, Jean-Pierre Cassel (in an unusual and highly effective dramatic performance), Christian Barbier and Jean-Marie Robain, all doing extraordinary work. Ironically, for all of its many cinematic virtues, Army of Shadows was totally neglected in France when it opened in 1969 -- the French had just come off of two years of political strife growing out of a massive student strike, which seemed to render the events of the Second World War very distant in most people's minds, and Charles De Gaulle, the French leader and political figure most closely associated with the war, had just stepped down as president at the time. Additionally, the movie was overlooked entirely in the United States. Indeed, it wasn't even seen until 2006, following extensive restoration to replace worn and faded source materials, when it opened for what ended up being a three-month sell-out run at New York's Film Forum, an occasion for it was greeted by many US critics -- with no loss of irony -- as one of the best movies of the year. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
  • Bande a part is the story of three alienated French youths (Odile, Arthur, and Franz) who attempt an ill-fated burglary. Bande a Part is one of the easiest Godard films to follow because its story is presented linearly and without disruptive montage. Although the film does not generate much narrative tension, it does capture the atmosphere among Odile, Arthur, and Franz. Bande a part contains two of the most memorable and exciting scenes of the French New Wave: a scene in which Odile, Arthur, and Franz run through a museum, and a scene in which they dance to a jukebox in a cafe. The dance scene has been borrowed in many films, including Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Rio Das Mortes and Hal Hartley's Simple Men. Bande a part is driven by its actors and the chemistry among them. It uses their interactions to document the feeling of being young and French in the early 1960s. ~ Louis Schwartz, Rovi
  • Carol Reed's The Third Man is one of the odder successes among international films of the late 1940s: at a time when movies were supposedly getting dulled-down, in keeping with audience sensibilities, here was a quirky movie from England, with Hitchcock-like touches and an odd sense of humor, that manages to be grim, topical, and wryly witty, while retaining, even augmenting, a good bit of author Graham Greene's sensibility. For all the film's virtues, its making was a tale of compromises turned into inspiration. Producer Alexander Korda wanted Noel Coward to play the mysterious Harry Lime, but, once Orson Welles was cast in the part, the movie became a testament to his presence and impact; he's only on screen for about a quarter of the movie, but he's the actor that everyone remembers. In fact, Welles was off shooting another movie, reporting to The Third Man only late in the shooting, and he was doubled for many scenes: that was Carol Reed's assistant, future Goldfinger director Guy Hamilton, in the black trench coat running down Vienna's darkened streets, and those were director Reed's fingers reaching through the sewer grating at the chase's end. Recasting Joseph Cotten's Holly Martins as an American in turn allowed Greene to bring to the screen for the first time his antipathy toward Americans and their bright-eyed, bushy-tailed innocence in approaching the world's problems, a theme that would manifest itself even more directly in relation to Vietnam in The Quiet American. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
  • In this surrealist satire reminiscent of his earlier L'Age d'Or (1930) and The Exterminating Angel (1962), Luis Bunuel leavens his attack on class privilege with light comedy. With a narrative that interweaves flashbacks within dreams within a dream, Bunuel interrogates the absurdities of bourgeois ceremony and hypocrisy, as two well-heeled couples and their two friends, including a drug-running South American ambassador, can't conduct a dinner party in peace. Foiled by (among other things) botched scheduling, sexual desire, a theater audience, an untimely funeral, and armed revolutionaries, the sextet's inability to eat increasingly suggests a manifestation of their innermost fears, while Bunuel's repeated interruptions of the story cheekily defy movie conventions and straightforward interpretations. Eschewing both a musical score and anything resembling closure, Bunuel renders the film as unsettling as it is funny, as the bourgeoisie soldier on towards a meal they never have. Internationally acclaimed for its sharp wit and technical virtuosity, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie won the National Society of Film Critics' Best Picture Prize and the 1972 Best Foreign Film Oscar, confirming once again Bunuel's place as one of cinema's greatest experimental artists and satirists. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
  • Nancy Meckler's Sister My Sister turned the story of the infamous Papin sisters into a stylized, claustrophobic treatise on the emotional savagery of the domestic sphere. The identical incident inspired Jean Genet to write the play The Maids, a farcical examination of social hierarchies. This far more realistic treatment of the same subject seeks to uncover the true-crime details hidden behind all such explanations. By moving outside the ritualized world of master and servant, Les Blessures Assassines gives a broader portrait of provincial France in 1933, a time of economic disparity and shifting class roles. Labor reform had given servants such as Christine Papin (Sylvie Testud) the freedom to demand their rights, but economic conditions still required working-class mothers such as Clemence Papin (Isabelle Renauld) to send their convent-trained daughters into service to support them. Screenwriter Michele Halberstadt and writer/director Jean-Pierre Denis weave such sociological details into a dramatic structure that finds Christine constantly scheming to attain the privileges afforded to her monied employers: leisure time, beautiful clothing, family equilibrium, and emotional freedom. The sexual relationship between Christine and sister, Lea (Julie-Marie Parmentier), is treated frankly, as a sane reaction to emotional isolation and male predation. But it's Christine's seething resentment and Lea's guilelessness -- both brought meticulously to life by the lead actresses -- that ultimately precipitates a brutal double homicide. By situating the Papin sisters within a real family and authentic French society, Les Blessures Assassines offers an interesting but no less harrowing variation on a tale that's been inspiring storytellers for seven decades. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
  • Robert Bresson is one of the few directors in the history of world cinema who worked entirely on his terms and turf without interference from anyone, resolutely insisting that his vision of the world was nearer the mark than his contemporaries, and pursuing a directorial style which is so uniquely his own that there is no mistaking a Bresson film for a work by any other director. A devout Catholic, Bresson made only 14 films in his 50-year career as a director, a measure of how seriously he planned each next project. Au Hasard Balthazar is, like most of Bresson's films, a religious parable. Here, the lead character is a donkey, christened Balthazar early in the film, who endures endless punishment from a variety of cruel masters and crueler circumstance, until, at the end of the film, he finally and peacefully dies, and, by implication, is welcomed into paradise. As in all his films, Bresson uses his actors (whom he habitually referred to as "models") in the sparest possible manner. Much is told through gesture alone, and speech and music are kept to a minimum. In his direction of the players, Bresson strips down their mannerisms until they disappear, and only the essence of their humanity appears on the screen. Balthazar's life is one of unrelieved pain and sadness, yet one gets the sense that the donkey stoically accepts this sad lot as his predestined fate without complaint, certain of his eventual spiritual salvation. Much has been written about this film, and it remains as powerful today as when first released; it is a reminder of a time when films of considerable artistic ambition could still be assured of reasonable returns at the box office, unlike today. In the blockbuster climate of 21st century cinema, Au Hasard Balthazar seems like a miracle, a breath of fresh air from another time and place, in which both artistic originality and the human spirit were equally valued. Compelling, humbling, and stunning in its visual construction, Au Hasard Balthazar is a one-of-a-kind film from an absolutely unique filmmaker. ~ Wheeler Winston Dixon, Rovi
  • The pinnacle of heist movies, blacklistee Jules Dassin's Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes (1955) is not only one of the best French noirs, but one of the top movies in the genre. Crafting an archetypal noir story about how human weakness can sabotage the best-laid plans, Dassin masterfully emphasizes the skill and nerve-shredding delicacy that it takes for the central band of thieves to execute those intricate plans (without making a sound) in the classic half-hour heist sequence. The air of seediness and inevitable doom that lingers over the proceedings -- shot on location in Paris -- adds an existential weight to the suspense, turning Rififi into more than just a caper. Though Rififi's all-too-clear primer on how to rob a jewelry store and its then-excessive violence and decadence got the film in trouble in some countries, Rififi became an oft-imitated international hit and Cannes prizewinner for Dassin's direction. Barely seen in the U.S. since its original release, Rififi was restored to its full 35 mm visual glory in 2000, complete with new, more explicit subtitles (done in collaboration with Dassin) and a translation of the title song. The restoration received a special citation from the New York Film Critics Circle. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

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