CSB is back this week with our roundup of important DVD releases from around the world.

Without any doubt, the headline this week on DVD is that after a long, long wait, the works of celebrated French director Chris Marker have finally arrived here in the United States! Marker has long been known, especially in film school circles, for his short film La Jetee (famously the inspiration for Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys). Until recently, the short was all most film fans had to go on, and even that was hard to come by until The Criterion Collection released it alongside Sans Soleil last year. But until today, those were the only Marker films available on Region 1. This week, Icarus Films released all of the following Marker films: The Sixth Side of the Pentagon, The Embassy, Remembrance of Things to Come, The Case of the Grinning Cat, The Last Bolshevik and Happiness. A big round of applause for Icarus films!

Also up this week are two new titles in the popular Fox Film Noir series: Road House and Moontide. Although he is uncredited, Fritz Lang was a director on Moontide according to IMDB, though I am most looking forward to Road House, which features the talented Richard Widmark in a leading role.

I’d also like to note another recent exciting release from Benten Films: Team Picture. A deadpan comedy from director Kentucker Audley, the pacing and feel of the film is not altogether dissimilar from Benten’s recent release of The Guatemalan Handshake (see my review here). While the patient pacing of the film will not appeal to everyone, the critics are on to something here, and for those who enjoy the new wave of American “mumblecore” films, Team Picture is definitely worth checking out.

There are several interesting festival titles out this week. Beyond Belief was a selection at the Tribeca Film Festival, Lagerfeld Confidential played at Berlin in 2007, Water Lilies screened at both Cannes and Toronto, and the Sri Lankan film Forsaken Land won the Camera D’Or at Cannes.

One of the hidden gems this week comes from samurai film specialists Animeigo, who are back this week with the classic yakuza (Japanese gangster) film The Wolves. Featuring the chemistry of talented director Hideo Gosha and actor Tatsuya Nakadai, the film has been available for several years now on Region 2 dvd in the UK, though knowing Animeigo, I’m sure the picture quality on this release of the DVD will be a stunning improvement. The film also stars real-life gangster-turned-actor Noburo Ando, which is exciting by itself as so few of Ando’s films are available on DVD. Highly, highly recommended.

I’m also intrigued by the release this week of the war film The Boys in Company C. While admittedly not a particularly well-known film, it has a cult following among those who remember it. The film is by Sidney Furie, director of the classic spy film The Ipcress File starring Michael Caine (though most will know the director better for his films Superman IV and the Iron Eagle series). Many of Furie’s films have never been released (I’ve always been surprised his films Purple Hearts and The Lawyer never came out, even if they are somewhat dated), so I’m intrigued that this, lesser-known title is getting a release.

It’s a pretty quiet week on Region 2 this week, with the highlight being the UK release of the new film by Alex de la Iglesia: The Oxford Murders (previously available with English subtitles in Spain). I liked the film fairly well, though it is only fair to note that the film was received by most as a disappointment, no doubt coming with high expectations in light of the director’s fantastic previous films such as 800 Bullets and Day of the Beast. The Oxford Murders is not as good as those films, but then few movies are, and seeing as this was Iglesia’s first English-language film, I’m inclined to cut him a break. The film stars Elijah Wood and John Hurt.

The UK this week saw the release of Doomsday, the latest film by Descent director Neil Marshall (released on DVD and Blu-ray in the USA in July).

According to CSB’s Dave Austin: Doomsday is a bit of an odd duck, a clear step backward from The Descent but a fun mish-mash of Escape from New York and Mad Max without a brain in its head. Marshall fails to make the material his own, as Tarantino did so successfully in Kill Bill, but genre fans will still find much to enjoy in mayhem and silliness.

Also out this week in the UK is the excellent Sundance film festival favorite The Puffy Chair (highly recommended) and a box set of Walter Hill films.

Alright, enough of my babbling. A full listing of this week’s releases is included below. Enjoy!

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Released This Week On DVD and Blu-ray in the USA (September 2, Region 1, NTSC):

Asian Stories (Cinema Epoch)
2006, USA, Director: Ron Oda

Beyond Belief (Alive Mind)
2007, USA, Director: Beth Murphy (official selection, Tribeca Film Festival)

The Boys in Company C (Henstooth Video)
1977, USA/Hong Kong, Director: Sidney Furie, Starring: Stan Shaw

The Case of the Grinning Cat (Icarus Films)
2004, France, Director: Chris Marker

Derek (Kino International)
2008, UK, Director: Isaac Julien (a film about Derek Jarman)

The Devil’s Dominoes (BFS Entertainment)
2008, USA, Director: Scott Prestin, Starring: Daniel Baldwin, Vincent Pastore

Forsaken Land (New Yorker Video)
2005, Sri Lanka, Director: Vimukthi Jayasundara (won the Camera D’Or at Cannes)

Genghis Khan: To the Ends of the Earth and Sea (Funimation)
2007, Japan, Director: Shinchiro Sawai, Starring: Takashi Sorimachi (not to be confused with Mongol)

The Genius Club (Cloud Ten Pictures)
2007, USA, Director: Tim Chey, Starring: Stephen Baldwin

Honey West (VCI)
1965, Complete Series, Starring: Anne Francis

How to Rob a Bank (IFC Films)
2007, USA, Director: Andrew Jenkins, Starring: Nick Stahl, David Carradine

Lagerfeld Confidential (Koch Lorber)
2007, France, Director: Rodolphe Marconi, Starring: Nicole Kidman, Karl Lagerfeld

The Last Bolshevik/Happiness (Icarus Films)
1993, France, Director: Chris Marker & Alexander Medvedkin

Married Life (Sony) (Availalble on DVD and Blu-Ray)
2007, USA/Canada, Director: Ira Sachs, Starring: Pierce Brosnan

Moontide (Fox Film Noir)
1942, USA, Director: Archie Mayo/Fritz Lang (uncredited), Starring: Gertrude Astor, Arthur Ayleswofth

The Office: Season 4 (Universal)
2008, the American adaptation of Ricky Gervais’ show

The Promotion (Weinstein Co.)
2008, USA, Director: Steve Conrad, Starring: Sean William Scott, John C. Reilly,

Quark: the Complete Series (Sony)
1978, USA, Director: Hy Averback

Remembrance of Things to Come (Icarus Films)
2001, France, Director: Chris Marker & Yannick Bellon

Road House (Fox Film Noir)
1948, USA, Director: Jean Negulesco, Starring: Ida Lupino, Cornel Wilde, Richard Widmark

The Sixth Side of the Pentagon/The Embassy (Icarus Films)
1967, France, Director: Chris Marker

Water Lilies (Koch Lorber)
2007, France, Director: Celine Sciamma (Official selection at Cannes and Toronto)

The Wolves (Animeigo)
1971, Japan, D: Hideo Gosha, Starring: Noburo Ando, Tatsuya Nakadai

Also available on Blu-ray: Transformers, Every Which Way But Loose, Jet Li’s Black Mask, Eraser, Outbreak, Under Siege 2, Then She Found Me, Robotech, The Gauntlet

More in TV: Supernatural Season 3, Desperate Housewives Season 4, Big Bang Theory Season 1, Life Season 1, Ghost Whisperer Season 3, Eli Stone Season 1, Cheers Season 10

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Released This Week On DVD and Blu-ray in the UK (September 1, Region 2, PAL):

Day of the Dead (Optimum)
2008, USA, Director: Steve Miner

Doomsday (Universal) (Available on DVD and Blu-ray)
2008, UK, Director: Neil Marshall

Fool’s Gold (Warner Home Video) (Available on DVD and Blu-ray)
2008, USA, Director: Andy Tennant

The Oxford Murders (Contender Home Entertainment)
2008, Spain, Director: Alex de la Iglesia, Starring: Elijah Wood, John Hurt

The Puffy Chair (Scanbox)
2005, USA, Director: Jay Duplass

The Richard Dawkins Collection (Channel 4 DVD)
UK, Includes: The Genius of Charles Darwin, The Enemies of Reason, The Root of All Evil

The Walter Hill Collection (Optimum)
Includes: The Warriors, Southern Comfort, Johnny Handsome, Extreme Prejudice, The Long Riders, The Driver

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden (Optimum)
2008, USA, Director: Morgan Spurlock

Also available on Blu-ray: Erin Brockovich, Jerry Maguire

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Released Recently On DVD and Blu-ray in China/Hong Kong (Region 3, NTSC) (All are believed to have English subtitles unless otherwise noted):

Because it’s been a while since we posted a This Week in DVD Column, rather than limiting this section to only DVDs that came out this week, I will go ahead and note a few of the bigger titles from the last couple months in Hong Kong.

Help (Megastar)
2008, Hong Kong, Director: Chang Qi, Starring: Song Jia, Shi Liang (Horror)

The Invincible Eight (Joy Sales) (Region 0)
1971, Hong Kong, Director: Lo Wei, Starring: Angela Mao, Pak Ying

Ironside 426 (Joy Sales) (Region 0)
1977, Hong Kong, Director: Lam Kwok Cheng, Starring: Mai Sit, Pat Biau (Triad film)

Kung Fu Hip Hop (Tai Seng)
2008, Hong Kong, Director: Fu Huayang, Starring: Oedan Chan, Fan Bingbing

Red Cliff: Part 1 (Zoke Culture) (Region 0)
2008, China, Director: John Woo, Starring: Tony Leung, Takeshi Kaneshiro (with English subtitles)
Note: the Region 3 dvd is set for release on 9/15/08, though this Region 0 DVD and the Region 6 DVD came out August 18 and they at least claim to have English subtitles, though that info is sometimes wrong and we have yet to secure a copy, so fair warning)

Shamo (Tai Seng)
2007, Hong Kong, Director: Soi Cheang, Starring: Shawn Yue

Sparrow (Tai Seng)
2008, Hong Kong, Director: Johnnie To, Starring: Kelly Lin, Simon Yam

Vice Squad 633 (Joy Sales) (Region 0)
1979, Hong Kong, Director: Wah Yan, Starring: Hon Kwok Choi, Lam Fung (Comedy)

You Bet Your Life (Joy Sales) (Region 0)
1991, Hong Kong, Director: Leung Ka Shu, Starring: Sandra Ng, Lowell Lo (Comedy)

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Additional Links:
::: DVD Calendar — a Look at What’s Coming Up
::: Discuss This Week in DVD with Others in the Movie Forum Lounge
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“Are you speaking in code? What do you mean by saying some DVDs are Region 2, PAL or NTSC?

DVDs are encoded by region — there are 6 Regions for DVD. A Region 2 disc will not play in a Region 1 country and vice-versa unless you have a special “all region” DVD player. If you’re not sure if you have an “all region” DVD player or not, then don’t worry about it, you don’t have one. These are not things you stumble across by accident, so you would only have one if you had sought it out.

Generally speaking, Region 1 is the USA and Canada, Region 2 is most of Europe and Japan. Hong Kong and South Korea fall under Region 3. Mainland China has Region 6 all to itself (and to date I’ve never been able to find a Region 6 DVD that wasn’t actually a VCD or Region 0 bootleg), and the rest of the world chops up Region 4 and 5 (Australia is Region 4). As an added twist, a DVD that is not region coded is marked Region 0 and in theory can play everywhere (but see the PAL/NTSC explanation below).

Whether you can play DVDs that are “PAL” vs. “NTSC” is another potential hurdle — most of Europe is PAL and most other countries release in NTSC. The actual difference is a technical one and relates to the number of frames per second that the film is recorded at. Almost all of the “all region” players also convert between PAL and NTSC (they wouldn’t be much use otherwise), but if you don’t have such a player, then you will likely only be able to play either PAL DVDs or NTSC DVDs, depending on where you live (or bought your TV), even if the DVD is Region 0.

By the way, these problems all potentially apply to high definition format releases as well, but exactly how they will apply is still in flux (they have the ability to be region coded, but to date many have not been, and in any case I have not yet heard of an all-region Blu-ray player).

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“Why aren’t you listing films from the country of _________”

We love international movies from all over the world, and if I had my way, everything from popular Nigerian action movies to Taiwanese television dramas would be on here each week. But often release information is not available to us in advance (or at all), and truth be told we sometimes run out of time to cover what we do know. As a result, many hugely important film industries too often are not covered above (including for India, Iran and much of Europe, to name just a few). Please do not interpret this as an affront to you, your country, your mother or anything else. On the contrary, if you have any helpful information or links, please email us — we’re dying to know more.

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“Hey! This isn’t a full list of this week’s titles! Where’s my Tae Bo exercise video!!!!”

Here at Cinema Strikes Back our goal is to sift through the masses of dvd information so you don’t have to — to cut straight to the good stuff, or at least what us handful of film geeks think is the good stuff. That means that many dvd releases are left off the list, either because they suck or more likely because we don’t know better. Although I can’t promise we’ll include everything sent to us (”ARRGH, How could you not include Postnatal Rescue or Topless Fight Club in this week’s lineup!”), we always welcome feedback, and I invite you to email me here if I’ve forgotten any important releases this week.