Starring: Sergei Dreiden Director: Alexander Sokurov Rated: M Distributor: If there were such a thing as Film Police you would be arrested for watching Russian Ark on DVD. This lavish, landmark, one-take wonder should really be seen on the big screen in order to soak up its incredible scope but now that it is available …

Starring: Russell Crowe, Daniel Pollack, Jacqueline McKenzie Director: Geoffrey Wright Rated: MA Distributor: Roadshow Entertainment Margaret gave it five stars. David refused to give it any. In fact, The Movie Show’s co- host even suggested that the negative of Romper Stomper be burned, according to the cosy commentary on the DVD of this decidedly uncomfortable …

Starring the voices of: Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop Director: Clive Smith Rated: PG Distributor: Siren Entertainment Adult animation is pretty much mainstream fare these days with studios like Disney in the States and Ghibli in Japan turning out block-busters hand over fist. But back in the early ’80s it was quite a novel …

Starring: Alain Delon, Renato Salvatori, Annie Giradot Director: Luchino Visconti Rated: M 15+ Distributor: Umbrella World Cinema DVD According to their mother, the five Parondi brothers are like the fingers on her very hand-only when they are together are they truly powerful. But Vincenzo, the eldest has moved to Milan and is about to shack …

Starring: Gregory Harrison, Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, Judy Morris Director: Russell Mulcahy Rated: M Distributor: Umbrella (aussie DVD) They called it ‘Jaws on trotters’, and even that was stretching the friendship. Producer Hal McElroy says he was flattered that his film was even mentioned in the same sentence as Spielberg’s palpitation-inducing blood bath because, if …

Starring: Kenneth Branagh, David Gulpilil, Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Laura Monaghan Director: Philip Noyce Rated: PG Distributor: Becker Entertainment What makes a fourteen year old girl walk over 1500 miles across the desert with her 10 year old cousin and eight year old sister in tow? Is it an unfathomable love for the mother she …

Starring: John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis Director: Quentin Tarantino Rated: R 18+ Distributor: Roadshow Entertainment Quentin Tarantino is an Elvis man, no doubt about it. Just like the leading man in his smash hit Pulp Fiction. On the new 10th Anniversary 2-Disc Collector’s Edition he introduces some deleted scenes including one …

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) Starring: Hugo Weaving, Terence Stamp, Guy Pearce, Julia Cortez Director: Stephan Elliott Rated: M Distributor: Roadshow Entertainment It was the post Mardi Gras sight of a head-piece tumbling off a drag queen and rolling down the empty street like tumbleweed in a Sergio Leone movie that …

Starring: Helen Morse, Anne Lambert, Rachel Roberts, Margaret Nelson Director: Peter Weir Cinematographer: Russell Boyd Rated: PG Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment The first words we hear in Picnic at Hanging Rock are from a poem by Edgar Allan Poe; What we see and what we seem Are but a dream A dream within a dream They …

Starring: Tom Burlinson, Martin Vaughn, Ron Leibman Director: Simon Wincer Extras: ‘The Mighty Conqueror’ (1931); ‘Agua Caliente: Phar Lap’s Last Race’ (1932) Rated: PG Distributor: Roadshow Entertainment Since Makyve Diva’s historic third Melbourne Cup win last Tuesday, comparisons have been made between the mare and that other horse racing legend Phar Lap, whose story was …

Starring: Louise Brooks, Fritz Kortner, Franz Lederer, Alice Roberts Director: Georg Willhelm Pabst Rated: M Distributor: Umbrella World Cinema DVD A silent film can speak a thousand words simply with looks, gestures and appropriate musical accompaniment. In German director Georg Willhelm Pabst’s 1929 black and white masterpiece based on Frank Wedekind’s stage play, not a …

Starring: Joy Dunstan, Bruce Spence, Gary Waddell, Michael Carman Director: Chris Lofven Rated: M Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment Reworking an all-time classic musical into a contemporary rock ‘n roll road movie could be viewed as a brave venture or downright lunacy, especially if that classic happens to be The Wizard of Oz. But this was the …

Starring: Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Marie Dea Director: Jean Cocteau Rated: PG Distributor: Madman director’s Suite The Surrealist French director Jean Cocteau once said that “film is a petrified fountain of thought”. Judging by his cinematic interpretation of the classical Greek myth ‘Orpheus and Eurydice’, his thoughts at the time were pouring over the meaning …

Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero, Harry Feist Director: Roberto Rossellini Rated: M 15+ Distributor: Umbrella World Cinema DVD It was Martin Scorsese who alerted me to Roberto Rossellini’s classic Open City featuring prominently, as it does, in his brilliant Italian movie master class My Voyage to Italy. In it, he remembers how, as …

Starring: Gregory Peck, Ava Gardener, Anthony Perkins, Fred Astaire Director: Stanley Kramer Rated: PG Distributor: MGM DVD Picture Melbourne, circa 1964, with no motor vehicles on the main streets – just bicycles, horses and the odd trusty tram. Petrol is scarce in the wake of a nuclear accident that has left life the northern hemisphere …

Starring: Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior Director: Lewis Milestone Rated: PG Distributor: Warner Brothers With Clooney, Pitt and Damon currently causing all sorts of havoc in Ocean’s 13, it’s worth taking a look at the team that started it all in the original Ocean’s 11. Frank Sinatra and his so-called Rat Pack were …

Starring: Winona Ryder, Roberto Begnini, Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller-Stahl Director: Jim Jarmuch Rated: M Distributor: Madman At exactly the same time in five different cities around the globe, a cabbie picks up a fare. For the next twenty minutes we enter into the lives of both driver and passenger to discover that human beings are …

Starring: Bryan Brown, Chris Haywood, Gerard Kennedy Director: Phillip Noyce Rated: PG Distributor: Roadshow Entertainment In the days before television, Australians were kept abreast of current events through the weekly newsreels of Cinesound Review and Movietone News. Each company had its own star cameraman – at Movietone it was Ross Wood and at Cinesound it …

Starring: John Belushi; Tim Matheson; Peter Riegert; Verna Bloom; Kevin Bacon Director: John Landis Rated: R Distributor: Universal Studio Schoolboy humour doesn’t mature much at college – it only gets R rated. That’s the distinct message you get while watching the 1978 cult comedy Animal House. At the oh-so-refined Omega House, home coming queens are …

Starring: Steve Buscemi, Joe Strummer, Masatoshi Nagase Director: Jim Jarmusch Rated: M Distributor: Madman Director’s Suite Jim Jarmusch has a penchant for discombobulation. His characters, while often appearing to be in charge, are really just being buffeted about by forces beyond their control. Luisa (Nicoletta Braschi) in Mystery Train articulates this confused state when she …

Starring: Raquel Welch, Mae West, John Huston Director: Michael Searne Rated: R Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Like a freakish time capsule from planet Hollywood, Myra Breckinridge is one of those notorious cinematic bombs that has to be seen to be believed. Based on Gore Vidal’s 1968 bestseller, this kooky film follows the warpath …

Starring: Henry Fonda, Linda Darnell, Victor Mature Director: John Ford Rated: G Distributor: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Brokeback Mountain might be responsible for a resurgence of interest in cowboy style but for some good old fashioned, way out western looks check out John Ford’s My Darling Clementine. Spurs, chaps, ten gallon hats – they’re …

Starring: Judy Davis, Sam Neill, Wendy Hughes, Robert Grubb, Max Cullen Director: Gillian Armstrong Rated: G Distributor: Madman Entertainment In 1897, one of the worst places in the world for a free-spirited teenage girl with aspirations of becoming a writer to find herself would have had to be Possum Gully. Drawn from the imagination of …

Starring: Noni Hazlehurst, Colin Friels Director: Ken Cameron Rated: M 15+ Distributor: AV Channel Sex ‘n drugs ‘n rock ‘n roll are not quite all Nora’s brain and body need. She’s a writer bringing up two kids in the late ’70s and although she’s surrounded by a bevy of actors, artists and musos, she needs …

Starring; Terence Donovan, Ed Devereaux, Bryan Brown Director: Bruce Beresford Rated: R 18+ Distributor: Umbrella Entertainment Back in the ’70s, Australian television was stocked with cop shows like Division 4, Homicide and Matlock Police and the stars of all these shows were familiar and much-loved faces. Director Bruce Beresford claims he was unaware of their …