DRAGON INN — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

 

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Actor turned writer/director King Hu opened a new chapter of action cinema when he moved from Hong Kong to Taiwan in 1967 to make Dragon Inn, a groundbreaking wuxia film that retains its stunning vitality to this day.

“The carriage, the boat, the road, the inn; you cannot escape these things without getting murdered.”

You can see traces of Dragon Inn in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.

King Hu’s influence extends to Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon.

Hu contrasts traditions of Chinese opera with Japanese action Cinema, think of Kan Shimozawa’s phenomenal Zatoichi franchise, to form a stylistic foundation upon which to layer his arsenal of cinematic tricks. The carefully choreographed swordplay is believably deadly. 

Fluid camera work and Kin Hu’s innovative action techniques elevate beautifully edited sequences acted out with impressive gymnastic skill by Hu’s amazing actors.

Dragon Inn is a classic martial arts film by all standards. This is an exquisite movie you will not soon forget.

Not Rated. 111 mins.

THE BALLAD OF GREGORIO CORTEZ — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

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Robert Young’s filmic adaptation of Américo Paredes’s 1958 book “With His Pistol In His Hand: A Border Ballad and Its Hero” represents the centerpiece of Chicano Cinema.

Although criminally unseen, due largely to the misdeeds of film distributor Larry Sugar, “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” is essential viewing for its innovative storytelling form. Not the least of this unforgettable picture’s many strengths rests with Edward James Olmos’s pitch-perfect portrayal of America’s first Latino hero, Gregorio Cortez, a Mexican-American farmer who set off the biggest man-hunt in American history prior to 1901.

This film informed the Cinema of Robert Rodriguez, John Sayles, Gregor Nava, and Luis Valdez, among others. The United States Historical Society proclaimed it the most authentic Western ever made in American film history.

This 1982 movie is an indisputable masterpiece. Criterion’s 2K restoration finally gives “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” the respect it deserves.  

Rated PG. 105 mins.

DAGUERRÉOTYPES — THE CRITERION COLLECTION

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Welcome!

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Equality. Recognition. Artistic and personal truth.

I’ve watched all of Agnès Varda films while discovering Criterion’s lush celebration of the French New Wave’s progenitor. If you could only have one filmmaker’s oeuvre on your private desert island, Agnès Varda’s films are the right choice to last you the rest of your life.

In Varda-approved random fashion I begin my slight review of Varda’s supremely personal, transgressive, and satisfying films with Daguerréotypes, a documentary film that fully expresses Agnès Varda’s confidence and openness to the world around her.

In this case that meant the 90 meter distance of cable that her camera could reach from her floor-level apartment to the shops and locations in the Rue Daguerre district of Paris. Varda was raising her two-year-old son at the time, so she needed to stay close to home. Varda's catlike curiosity pours through every second of this truly delightful movie.

The magician who appears at the film’s opening credits returns during a public performance in front of an audience of (Parisian) neighborhood regulars. Everything from the magician’s formal approach to his audience and their delightful reactions to his Grand Guignol-inspired tricks, Varda captures a dynamic personal immediacy to time and place. Think Les Blank. There's boldness in Varda's subtle simplicity. Agnès Varda retained this transparency throughout her spectacular career as a filmmaker of the first water.     

The film's title comes from Rue Daguerre, the street that Varda lived on. The street was named after Louis Daguerre, "inventor of the Daguerreotypes of photographic printing."

Naturally this movie is a time capsule of French life, by virtue of Agnès Varda's generous and willing ability to reach out to her neighbors in a cinematic way. There is much to enjoy, relish, and learn from the elderly subjects in this treasured movie. Taken with the joy that Varda captures and inspires, "Daguerréotypes" is a social study for all time. What love. What magic. What a celebration of life.