Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler

Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler Review

Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler Feature

• DR. MABUSE, THE GAMBLER-RESTORED AUTH ED (DVD MOVIE)

It's hard to imagine that the razor-sharp Kino DVD of Fritz Lang's first magnum opus fails to capture any of the visual electricity and heady atmosphere experienced by Berlin filmgoers in 1922. The film's historical importance to the crime-film genre and its thematic relevance to the director's later work have never been in dispute, but with only murky, choppy editions to go by, the movie has largely been paid lip service for its legacy rather than appreciated for itself. Now, thanks to this definitive restoration by the Murnau Institute, we can properly see it and experience it.

Dr. Mabuse the Gambler is actually two films in one--or, more precisely, one film in two feature-length parts totaling four-and-a-half hours and conceived to be watched on consecutive evenings. Its title character is a criminal mastermind with the power and the will to orchestrate complex capers, counterfeit national currencies, manipulate the stock market, and hypnotically bend anyone to play a role in his diabolical designs. The hand of Mabuse seems to reach everywhere--for the excellent reason that the Doctor himself, a master of disguise, turns out to be just about anywhere at just the moment his intervention will wreak havoc and wreck lives. (He's played by Rudolf Klein-Rogge, who would repeat the part ten years later in The Testament of Dr. Mabuse and also, in spirit if not in name, in Lang's dazzling 1928 film Spies; he was also the inventor Rotwang in Metropolis--as well as, offscreen, the former husband of Lang's screenwriter wife Thea von Harbou!)

The film's title in German is Doktor Mabuse der Spieler, and our supervillain is really less a gambler (all his games of chance are rigged) than a player: playing multiple roles, but even more importantly, playing with others' lives, playing with the very fabric of modern reality. The subtitles of the two parts are "A Picture of the Time" and "People of the Time"; the film is an artifact of the Weimar era when, as one character remarks, "We are bored and tired ... we need sensations of a very special kind to remain alive." Lang and his art directors, Otto Hunte and Karl Stahl-Urach, create a hallucinatory mise-en-scène in which the decor is at once stark and decadent, a playground for all manner of perverse spectacle and gamesmanship, a maze of corridors and doorways and streets where the modern and the gothic interlayer. This world ripe for Mabusian manipulation prefigured Hitler by a decade--and in one of his last declarations, the Doctor anticipates more contemporary visionaries of chaos: "I feel as a state within a state, with which I have always been at war." Fritz Lang continues to be a chillingly prophetic filmmaker. --Richard T. Jameson DR. MABUSE THE GAMBLER - DVD Movie

Eureka Seven - Box 3 (3DVD)

Eureka Seven - Box 3 (3DVD) Review

Il bocciolo splendente racconta la storia... che lega gli uomini e la terra. Il ragazzo e la ragazza decidono di intraprendere il viaggio in cerca del futuro. "Ascolta Nirvash da quando sei piombato in casa mia, noi siamo sempre stati in viaggio, non è vero? Abbiamo incontrato molte persone e ce ne siamo separati. Per me i ricordi sono estremamente importanti. Però durante questo viaggio ho sempre avuto Eureka al mio fianco. Io ti scongiuro, Nirvash! Non voglio che finisca tutto in questo modo! Io ho bisogno ho bisogno di Eureka al mio fianco!"

Bones: The Complete Fifth Season

Bones: The Complete Fifth Season Review

Dr. Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) and Special Agent Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz) are back for more mystery, murder, and mayhem in the fifth season of Bones. Relying on Brennan’s unparalleled scientific abilities and Booth’s street-wise instincts, the sexy, crime-solving duo and their team face everything from modern-day witches to murdered rock-n-rollers as they scramble for evidence to stop a gruesome serial killer. This spectacular new season brings a wedding, the show’s landmark 100th episode, and decisions Bones and Booth must make that could change their lives forever.

Castle: The Complete Third Season

Castle: The Complete Third Season Review

Famous mystery novelist Richard Castle and NYPD Detective Kate Beckett return for the suspenseful Third Season of ABC's brilliantly funny series, CASTLE. Enjoy every inspired idea and flirtatious moment as this fiery duo solve the strangest homicides New York has to offer. It's the most entertaining season yet as Castle's wildly funny storytelling skills work their way into every case. Between his mixed-up partnership with Beckett and his relationships with his diva mother and his clever daughter, Alexis, Castle is always on his toes. Crime fighting has never been this much fun! Get on the beat and relive every wild and witty moment in this 5-disc DVD set.

Eureka Seven, Volume 12 (Special Edition)

Eureka Seven, Volume 12 (Special Edition) Review

Deep within the Scub Coral Command Center, Renton is reunited with his long lost sister Diane. In a vast and mysterious library the origins of the Scub Coral and the history of mankind are revealed. Learning from the follies of the past can the two races create a future united? Dewey stands before the final precipices of his mad plan, prepared to destroy a world he has judged as beyond redemption. Using the suborbital super Weapon Oratorio #8 a hole is driven through the crust of the very world and Anemone is dispatched on one final mission. As The End descends upon the Command Cluster, Dominic follows through the rapidly closing hole in a desperate attempt to save not only the world, but the girl he loves.

The Complete Metropolis [Blu-ray]

The Complete Metropolis [Blu-ray] Review

The Complete Metropolis [Blu-ray] Feature

• Metropolis takes place in 2026, when the populace is divided between workers who must live in the dark underground and the rich who enjoy a futuristic city of splendor. The tense balance of these two societies is realized through images that are among the most famous of the 20th century, many of which presage such sci-fi landmarks as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Blade Runner. Lavish and spectacular,

Fritz Lang's Metropolis belongs to legend as much as to cinema. It's a milestone of sci-fi and German expressionism. Yet the story makes minimal sense, and the "theme" belongs in a fortune cookie; to experience the film's pagan power, you have to see the movie. But for decades we couldn't, not really--not with so many versions, all incomplete, often in public-domain prints like smudged photocopies. This Murnau Foundation restoration changes all that. Some shots, scenes, and subplots may be lost forever, but intertitles indicate how they fit into the original continuity and the characters' individual trajectories. Most crucially, the images are crisp, vibrant, and three-dimensional instead of murky and flattened. The composite sequences (the Tower of Babel, a sea of lusting eyes) have been restored to their hallucinatory ferocity. And there's one moment when you can see a bead of sweat roll down a man's cheek--in medium long-shot. --Richard T. Jameson Studio: Kino International Release Date: 11/23/2010 Run time: 147 minutes

Eureka seven DVD-BOX Limited edition

Eureka seven DVD-BOX Limited edition Review

Eureka seven DVD-BOX Limited edition Feature

• Eureka seven
• japan
• anime
• DVD

Eureka seven