Recent DVDs

Here are some DVDs from zip.ca that I've recently seen.

BRIAN SEWELL'S GRAND TOUR OF ITALY:  A British documentary series in which art critic Brian Sewell retraces the journeys of eighteenth-century English gentlemen on the "Grand Tour" in search of Italy's cultural sophistication.  Father considers Sewell an insufferable twit, but for me the show has historical interest.

ONCE IN A LIFETIME:  THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF THE NEW YORK COSMOS:  A documentary about the 1970s New York pro soccer team--part of the Warner Brothers empire--which created a brief sensation after hiring Brazilian star Pele.

ROSAMOND BERNIER:  PARIS BY DAY AND BY NIGHT:  A filmed lecture at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art about the impressionist movement in the key decade of the 1870s.

MILDRED PIERCE:  Not the classic Joan Crawford potboiler but the miniseries remake with Kate Winslet.  Still pretty fun, though it omitted the murder that was central to the movie. (Was it in James Cain's novel or not?)

NORTHWEST FRONTIER:  An entertaining adventure movie about Brits in the Raj transporting a young prince to safety on a train during a rebellion, directed by J. Lee Thompson (who went on to make lots of Charles Bronson movies).

MARTHA GRAHAM:  DANCE ON FILM:  Three half-hour films of modern dance by Martha Graham's troupe, from the '50s, produced by a pre-PBS station.  They include Aaron Copland's APPALACHIAN SPRING and a ballet based on the Oedipus myth called NIGHT JOURNEY.  Graham was still in fine form for a dancer in her fifties.