DVDIALOG   

The passing of three renowned celebrities over the past week several days certainly inspires the web’s bloggers and surfers to lean forward and open their eyes a bit wider than usual, if only for a short time. Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson—the final days of whom were quietly, tragically and mysteriously played out, respectively—were all well-represented in the home entertainment market and will no doubt be remember via the world’s DVD and VHS players. (And Youtube, naturally.)

McMahon, of course, can be seen primarily in R2 Entertainment’s Johnny Carson compilation releases, as well as in 1993’s Love Affair, playing himself, and in lively appearan...Read More

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The famed Isle of Wight Festival of 1970, held, not surprisingly, on the UK’s Isle of Wight, was by far the largest and most popular of the three Isle festivals, reportedly surpassing the attendance of Woodstock and including such performers as The Who, The Doors,  ...Read More

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Here’s the second half of my recent interview with Jesse Eisenberg, star of Anchor Bay’s upcoming The Education of Charlie Banks (Street June 23) and Disney’s Adventureland (Street: Aug. 25).

VB: You’re a native New Yorker and you currently live in Manhattan. Do you have frequent encounters with fans?
JE: I can usually tell when someone is approaching me what they’ve seen me in just based on who they are. It’s another incentive to do good movies—the better the movie, the more respectful the people are. Then again, if you do a movie that appeals to a lot of people, they’re usually a little louder when they approach you.

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The Strange One, a curious 1957 film directed by and co-starring Jack Garfein based on Calder Willingham’s novel and play (he also wrote the screenplay) isn’t as much a must-see as is the supplemental section featuring star Ben Gazzara. The 78-year-old actor is on-hand for a 10-minute interview about the film and its orgins—and it’s a pleasure to hear what he has to say. In his trademark gravelly voice, he discusses everything from performing in the stage version in downtown New York (he and his fellow Actors Studio colleagues rented a theater and put it up for a substantial run for only $2,000!!) to his discovery that his buddy James Dean was considered for his role in the film even though Gazzara himself had created it on stage.

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Jesse Eisenberg has been coming of age in films for nearly a decade now. He first made an impression on movie-goers as he was taken under his uncle’s wing and learned about life and love in 2002’s Roger Dodger. He did some more growing up in 2005’s The Squid and the Whale, 2007’s The Education of Charlie Banks, directed by Blink 182 frontman Fred Durst and scheduled for release by Anchor Bay on June 23 and this year’s Adventureland (out on DVD and Blu-ray from Disney on Aug. 25). I chatted with Jesse on the phone last week, mostly about his role in and as Charlie Banks, a middle-class, Seventies-era college student ...Read More

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Here’s the second half of my conversation with French filmmaker Jean-Jacques Beineix, whose films Locked in Syndrome (1997), Otaku (1994) and Mr. Michel’s Dog (1977) will be released on one disc by Cinema Libre on June 23. I was most interested in Locked in Syndrome, a TV documentary about the late French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby, who in 1995 at the age of 43 was paralyzed by a stroke and was only able to communicate with the outside world by blinking his left eyelid. Despite his condition, Bauby wrote the book  The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, which was about his life following the stroke. (Bauby wrote the entire book in his head and communicated it one letter at a time to his transcriber.)...Read More

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I caught up with the last couple of weeks of New York Magazine over the weekend and I really enjoyed Mark Harris’ piece on Woody Allen and Larry David and their new movie together, Whatever Works, which opens theatrically from Sony Classics on June 19. Via the two comic geniuses (IMHO, as they say on the net), Harris examines the history, life and apparent death (IHHO, etc.) of Jewish comedy. It’s a lengthy, well-thought out piece, that I don’t wholly agree with, though some valid points are raised. Most amusing (IMHO) is an aside where Allen and David riff on DVD supplemental materials (commentaries, outtakes and so on), which Woody has never included in any of his more than three-dozen films on disc. Check it out here or at the site (...Read More

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Jean-Jacques Beineix, the French filmmaker who is frequently credited with ushering in a new French New Wave back in the Eighties with his films Diva, Betty Blue and The Moon in the Gutter is about to make some waves on these shores again. On June 23, Cinema Libre will release the first disc in “The Jean-Jacques Beineix Collection,” an anthology of Beineix films that will be issued each month over the next several months. The first release will include the 1997 TV documentary Locked in Syndrome about the late French journalist Jean-Dominique Bauby (who was the subject of Julian Schnabel’s 2007 feature The Diving Bell and The Butter...Read More

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Last week, I spoke with Ivan Reitman, director of the wildly popular paranormal comedy Ghostbusters, the 25^th anniversary of which is being celebrated with the June 16 release of Ghostbusters Blu-ray from Sony and Ghostbusters: The Video Game from Atari.

VB: You helmed Ghostbusters, one of the highest-grossing comedies of all time and a movie that has become part of the world’s collective consciousness. Wow!

REITMAN: Thank you. And, yes, wow. Every filmmaker has a dream somewhere in the back of his head that he’ll make a movie that makes a serious impact and, what can I say, it certainly did.
VB: T...Read More

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I recently spoke with Jeremy Mitchell, a talented young guy who’s quietly making a nice name for himself in the “up-and-coming” actor/producer/writer category. Born in Van Nuys, California and raised in Texas and Florida, Mitchell pursued a career as a professional tennis player in his younger years, attending tennis training academies at the age of 12. After a couple of years of scattered touring in his late teens, Mitchell fell into a TV commercial gig (the casting director was seeking young athletes) and he quickly found himself hooked and began pursuing a full-time acting career.

"Musicians write songs that are perfect for them to sing. Why can't actors write scripts and characters that are perfec...Read More

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Here’s the second part of Gwen Cooper’s interview with Joss Whedon about his Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which will be issued on DVD on June 1 by New Video.

Well before the writer’s strike, Whedon had conceived Dr. Horrible as a full-scale online project and sought the backing of various online partners. “When I originally began pitching this to internet companies, I would always say, ‘Here’s the thing you’re not going to buy.’” Fortunately for Whedonites everywhere, the creative freedom unexpectedly offered by...Read More

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