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The top 50 DVDs of 2011

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  • 50
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    Father (Apa) 1966

    SecondRun

    Dir István Szabó

    Yet another exceptional rediscovery by the bods at SecondRun DVD, ‘Father’ (1966) is the second feature by Hungarian director István Szabó and is the fractured, expressionist tale of a boy trying to discover the truth about his doting (and recently deceased) pops in the rubble of post World War II Budapest. Untenable myths and memories inform the narrative construction, as the inquisitive Takó (András Bálint) must attempt to counterpoint the father he has created in his mind (a partisan resistance tough-guy, a maverick surgeon, a galvaniser of the working classes) with the grim realities of the situation.

  • 49
    Buy this film on Blu-ray

    Superman Anthology Blu-ray

    A mammoth eight-disc Blu-ray trawl through the Super-archives, including all the movies from Richard Donner’s 1978 reinvention through both cuts of the fantastic sequel (still, arguably, the best superhero movie of them all), two very ropey follow-ups and Bryan Singer’s slightly-too-serious reboot ‘Superman Returns’, plus endless docs, interviews and some classic ’60s TV episodes. The effects may have dated, but the enthusiasm and inventiveness of Donner’s first two chapters will never go out of style.

  • 48
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    A Man Vanishes (1967)

    Masters of Cinema

    Dir Shôhei Imamura

    Masters of Cinema resumes its commitment to exhuming the extraordinary back catalogue of Japan’s Shôhei Imamura. ‘A Man Vanishes’ (1963) beat Banksy’s ‘Exit Through the Gift Shop’ to the doc-hoax punch by some 45 years, following Imamura’s rambling investigation into the disappearance of a salaryman, which, as it moves forward, slowly mutates into a reflection on deeper subjects such as the nature of time, memory and language.

  • 47
    Buy this film on DVD or Blu-ray

    L’Age d’Or (1930)

    BFI

    Dir Luis Buñuel

    ‘One of the most extensive sets of demands proposed to human consciousness to this day’, is how the Manifesto of the Surrealists describes Luis Buñuel’s scandalous 1930 masterwork, ‘L’Age d’Or’, a film made in collaboration with his surrealist sparring partner and fellow University of Madrid alumnus, Salvador Dalí. The pair had already ruffled feathers in 1928 with their candid, eyeball-slicing short ‘Un Chien Andalou’ (also included on this Blu-ray disc) which instantly made them the toast of the avant-garde circles of jazz-age Paris. But with ‘L’Age d’Or’, the pair also fell out, as Dalí believed that the film betrayed the instincts of the true surrealist, that is to say it muffled the free-flowing voice of the unconscious in favour of more conventional modes. Perhaps a mark of the film’s success was that it was banned almost immediately, and with its mischievous scenes of toe-sucking, random facial bleeding and even splenetic violence towards the blind, you can see why.

  • 46
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    Susana (1951)

    Mr Bongo

    Dir Luis Buñuel

    ‘Susana’ sees Buñuel taking gleeful pot shots at a middle class Mexican family whose unity is torn to tatters when the eponymous buxom nymphomaniac (Rosita Quintana) takes refuge in their spacious abode after escaping from a rat-infested house of detention. As much as Susana is accused of using her sexuality to manipulate her many admirers, the film also scolds the family: the men for not taming their libidos; and the women for their violent bouts of jealousy.

  • 45
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    Maniac Cop (1988)

    Arrow

    Dir William Lustig

    William Lustig’s scuzzy ’80s cheapie – written by satirical horror master Larry Cohen – is a wonderfully sleazy slice of cheapo slasher sludge featuring a cast of legendary B-movie character actors including Bruce Campbell, Tom Atkins and Richard ‘Shaft’ Roundtree. Though the story may vacillate between nutty and nasty, the real treat here is the grim depiction of pre-Giuliani New York, a town of hustlers, thieves, madmen and murderers (and that’s just the cops...).

  • 44
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    Amer (2010)

    Anchor Bay Entertainment

    Dirs Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani

    It’s been argued that this frightening and erotic piece of experimental montage from Belgian directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani is all form and no feeling. It’s easy to see why, since its most easy pleasures derive from a cool juxtaposition and stylisation of sound and imagery. But there’s more to it: the film also functions as a knowing, lightly feminist homage to Hitchcock and the chief exponents of the giallo genre, Dario Argento and Mario Bava. As such, its ‘meanings’ may not be instantly traceable through a cosy linear storyline or densely wrought characterisations.

  • 43
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    Mamma Roma (1962)

    Mr Bongo

    Dir Pier Paolo Pasolini

    The volcanic performance of voluptuous Italian leading lady Anna Magnani is reason enough to pick up Pasolini’s salty and heart-wrenching ‘Mama Roma’, about an experienced prostitute desperately trying to preserve the future of her lackadaisical son.

  • 42
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    Fritz Lang’s Indian Epic (The Tiger of Eschnapur/The Indian Tomb) (1958)

    Masters of Cinema

    Dir Fritz Lang

    Made in 1958, after more than two decades in Hollywood and just two years before his swansong ‘The 1000 Eyes of Dr Mabuse’, Fritz Lang’s two-part Indian epic is a tough one to write about – and almost as tough to see, so Eureka’s typically meticulous release was extremely welcome. The plot, which takes in a lethal love triangle (a beautiful Indian dancer, a maharajah, and the German architect hired to work on his palace), dastardly dynastic intrigues, political power struggles and sadistic cruelty galore, is almost childlike in its seemingly subtext-free dynamics, while the execution – browned-up, mostly German actors speaking their native tongue in a fantastically exotic India that’s partly location-shot, partly studio papier-maché – might be seen as similarly ‘naive’. In fact, however, for all its scenes with subterranean caves and corridors, leper colonies, camels, crocs and cobras, the film succeeds as utterly adult fare. Watch it and be won over.

  • 41
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    Obsession (1976)

    Arrow

    Dir Brian De Palma

    Scripted with hard-boiled brio by Paul Schrader, De Palma’s 1976 film reworks the themes of Hitchcock’s ‘Vertigo’ – notably body doubles and erotic fixation – into an atmospheric and considerately crafted mystery-thriller in which Cliff Robertson’s introverted New Orleans business magnate has his wife (Geneviève Bujold) and daughter blown to smithereens when a blackmail payoff goes south. Years later, he sees a woman restoring paintings in an Italian church who bears an uncanny visual resemblance to his beloved late wife, and thinks he's being given a second chance at life. But as the plot unfolds, and the nefarious intentions of his strangely considerate business partner (played with moustache-twirling virtuosity by De Palma regular John Lithgow) become clear, the film goes into a violent tailspin and a series of unlikely twists are nicely submerged in the magnificent technical pyrotechnics.

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Comments

By Seb - Jan 8 2012

Thanks, but where is Roy Anderssons "A Swedish Love Story" (1970), one of the greatest Swedish films of all-time? Finally released on UK DVD 2011.

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By Stuart Durbin - Dec 30 2011

Great list - shame about the heavy-handed advertising on all sides.

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By Jaycee - Dec 24 2011

got throughthe first 20 and giving up - any actual films fom 2011 or even this centure here?

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