Browse archives: 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | 1997 | 1996 | 1995

Published on 05/22/1995 All articles from this issue

Video Review

printer friendly version

By Don DeNevi

Special to the Town Crier

Good news for foreign video fans: restored classic films now on the market

Home Vision Cinema of Chicago, one of the nation's leading foreign film video distributors, is releasing a number of re-mastered and restored classics.

For example, the spectacular "San Joro," directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring the great Toshiro Mifune, sells for $29.95.

Now available in a letterboxed version, this offbeat samurai spoof, made in 1962, is the immensely successful sequel to "Yojimbo." Anyone serious about collecting the world's greatest foreign classics will want to add "San Joro" to their video library.

"That Obscure Object of Desire," directed by Luis Bunuel, and starring Fernando Rey and Carole Bouquet, has a May 3 street date. This tantalizing tease was voted best foreign film of 1977 by both the Los Angeles film critics and the National Board of Review. Digitally re-mastered in a wide screen letterbox version, the French language classic also sells for only $29.95.

Meanwhile, Home Vision Cinema's "Best of George Bernard Shaw on Film" includes the unabridged "Major Barbara," Pygmalion," with Leslie Howard and Wendy Miller, and that star-filled satire of Ancient Rome, "Androcles and the Lion," with Jean Simmons, Victor Mature, and Maurice Evans. While "Pygmalion" retails for $24.95, and "Major Barbara" for $39.95, the digitally re-mastered "Androcles" retails for just $29.95. All three can be purchased for $79.95.

In the dazzling, entertaining animated classic "Allegro Non Troppo," all the live action sequences are now subtitled. Starring Maurizio Nichetti, the star of "The Icicle Thief" and directed by Bruno Bozzetto, "Allegro Non Troppo," rivals Disney's "Fantasia" in its wonderful animations. The $29.95 spoof of Walt Disney's classic, brilliantly visualizes six popular works by Debussy, Dvorak, Ravel, Sibelius, Vivaldi, and Stravinsky. The street date for this 85-minute frenzy is May 3. Incidentally, Joseph Losey's film noire classic "Time Without Pity" and the Hitchcock-inspired British mystery "The Clouded Yellow" have never appeared on video and will be available in June for $39.95 each.

Home Vision Cinema has numerous outstanding features to select from. To order a catalog, or any of the videos listed above, call (800) 826-3456. The mailing address in Home Vision Cinema, 5547 N. Ravenwood Ave., Chicago Ill. 60640-1199.