"Before the Rain" finally coming to DVD

I've been waiting for Milcho Manchevski's Balkan war drama Before the Rain to come out on DVD since I first saw it at the Miami Film Festival in 1995, when it became my favorite film of that year. My four-star review is no longer available online, but former New Times film critic Todd Anthony recommended it to his readers based on my excited babblings when I ran into him coming out of the press screening at the AMC Omni Theaters. Here's a clip from his astute non-review:

One such film was Before the Rain, the much-talked-about debut of Macedonian (part of the former Yugoslavia) writer-director Milcho Manchevski. A scheduling mixup (probably my fault) prevented me from viewing this Oscar entry for Best Foreign Language Film. Before the Rain falls into three sections: In "Words" a young monk who has taken a vow of silence in a twelfth-century Macedonian monastery must choose between his commitment to God and the love of a mysterious young woman; in "Faces" a London photo editor likewise must choose between two men: her estranged husband and a passionate, wildly quixotic war photographer; in "Pictures" the photographer returns to the civil war-ravaged Macedonian village of his birth.

Unfortunately I arrived at the the theater just in time to greet Miami Herald film critic Rene Rodriguez on his way out. Last year Rene and I were in near-unanimous agreement on the merits of the festival's films, so I feel relatively safe in recommending this film on the basis of the little scamp's eyes being wide as saucers as he told me what an amazing spectacle I just had missed.

I interviewed Manchevski for The Herald that year and expected him to become a major-league player, since Before the Rain was one of those rare debuts that felt like the introduction of a major talent. But the Macedonian filmmaker has directed only two films in the ensuing 13 years - Dust (2001) and Shadows (2007) - along with an episode from the first season of HBO's The Wire.

Manchevski has also directed a slew of short films and music videos (including the memorable clip for Arrested Development's Tennessee), but no other feature films. He was hired by Warner Bros. to direct Three Kings, and 20th Century Fox wanted him to make Ravenous for them, but he left both projects over creative differences with the studios.

I walked out of Dust, an insufferably pretentious and pointlessly violent western, during a screening at the Toronto Film Festival. I haven't seen Shadows, but the reviews have not been kind and it hasn't been picked up for distribution in the U.S.

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It is beginning to look like Manchevski is a one-hit wonder, but at least we'll finally be able to savor that hit on DVD. Universal Pictures, which owned the U.S. distribution rights, issued it on VHS but never bothered to release it on disc, even though the movie was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.

But the awesome folks at the Criterion Collection have once again stepped in and rescued another great film from oblivion. The label will release Before the Rain this June, accompanied by a commentary track from Manchevski and a few other supplements. I've only seen the film once and can't wait to watch it again to see if it is as good as I remember.

ADDENDUM: Turns out Manchevski archived my original review on his website. Click here to check it out. That line about him "never making another movie again" now seems strangely prescient.

27th isn't first, but it's better than 28th

Wikio, a new website that aggregates blogs from around the web, has ranked Reeling 27th in its list of top 100 film blogs. The rankings are based not on sheer traffic (whew!), but on the value and number of outside links pointing to each blog.

Check out the full list to discover some really cool blogs worth reading daily, including Matt Zoller Seitz's excellent The House Next Door, the unpredictable So Long VHS, and the review-driven Gareth's Movie Diary, which is the kind of blog I wish I could keep, but can't find enough time to pull off.

Must. Try. Harder.

Playing "Funny Games" with Michael Haneke

When directors decide to remake one of their own films, it is usually because there was something about the first version that they felt could be improved.

Alfred Hitchcock gave his 1934 black-and-white British thriller The Man Who Knew Too Much a Technicolor makeover in 1956, emphasizing the allure of Hollywood stars James Stewart and Doris Day. Dutch filmmaker George Sluizer retooled his 1988 arthouse hit The Vanishing in 1993 with a bigger budget, big-name stars (Kiefer Sutherland, Jeff Bridges, Sandra Bullock) and -- gasp! -- a happy ending.

But when Michael Haneke set out to remake his 1997 Austrian thriller Funny Games, he wasn't interested in changing a thing, other than using English-speaking actors. The new Funny Games (reviewed here), which stars Naomi Watts, Tim Roth and Devon Gearhart as the family held hostage in their vacation home by a pair of young psychopaths (Michael Pitt and Brady Corbet), is so similar to the first film it is practically a shot-for-shot remake, employing near-identical angles, sets and dialogue to the original.

''There really was nothing more to add,'' Haneke said via telephone about his decision not to tinker with what had worked the first time around. ``I wanted to remake it in English to attract a larger American audience, and because I have always felt this story is of the most relevance to the U.S. But the script felt just as relevant and timely today than it did 10 years ago, maybe even more so. I couldn't think of anything else I needed to say.''

Some preview audiences have had plenty to say about Funny Games: One Internet report claims a viewer stood up after an advance screening and yelled ''F--- you!'' at the screen. But Haneke takes that as a compliment, since the fiendish Funny Games accomplishes exactly what the original did: It seduces the thrill-seeking audience with a suspenseful tale about an innocent family subjected to psychological and physical torture, then throws the viewer's interest in this sort of material back at them, forcing you to contemplate why, exactly, we derive entertainment out of watching such sadistic pictures.

Watts, who also served as executive producer on Funny Games, said the film's violent nature initially gave her pause when Haneke contacted her about the project and told her he would make it only if she agreed to play the role of the distraught wife and mother.

''I was concerned how it would land in America,'' the actress said via telephone. ``So I had to talk to him to make sure that the reactions I had when I saw the original film were the same reactions he was going for. I think Michael uses Funny Games to have us question our role as an audience member and make us think about the things we crave. And I think he definitely succeeded. That's what makes him such a provocative filmmaker: His movies really get under your skin.''

Watts said it was a challenge to make Funny Games, because Haneke wanted to recreate the original so scrupulously that even her performance had to be a near-mirror reflection of Susanne Lothar's work in the first film (pictured above).

''I'm used to walking onto a set and discovering a scene with the director and the other actors in an organic way,'' Watts said. ``But that wasn't the case with this film, because since it was a shot-for-shot remake, the blocking was automatically dictated by the first film. Michael said this was the way he was making the movie, so I just had to go with him. But I don't think I could have done it with any other director. He is so consumed with every tiny detail and every piece of minutiae that you just trust him.''

The German-born Haneke has enjoyed increasingly larger audiences in the United States through his last few films, including The Piano Teacher and Cache (Hidden). But although both of those pictures were unsettling experiences, they don't begin to compare with Funny Games, a film of such intensity and harrowing power that it takes some people a while before they're able to formulate an opinion about it.

"'The first time I saw Funny Games, it angered me and got me very upset,'' said Pitt, who plays one of the two charming, boyish, demonic psychopaths terrorizing the family. ``It took me a day or two to realize that I thought it was really good. At first, the movie affects you so strongly that it feels brutal, almost like an assault. But once I started thinking about it, I couldn't get it out of my head.''

Brutal is one of the words most commonly used to describe the original Funny Games, and the same will be true for the new version. But a close viewing of the film reveals that despite the plentiful violence that transpires, there is barely any actual violence onscreen. Whenever blood is shed, Haneke always cuts away from the act, depicting only the emotional suffering and agony felt by the other characters in the film as one of their loved ones is harmed.

''Violent films have almost become chic among critics and audiences, even more so in the 10 years since I made the original,'' Haneke said. ``When you sell or depict violence as a consumer article, then you are showing the thrill of the perpetrator. But if you turn that around and show the suffering of the victims instead, it's not a lot of fun to watch.''

There is, however, one explosive act of violence in Funny Games that is shown onscreen and is usually greeted by a roar of approval from audiences. But the roar is short-lived. The most controversial moment in the original film, that scene is also duplicated in the new version, which works even better the second time around, because you can see how skillfully Haneke is toying with the viewer.

''You have to know what you're doing in order for the audience not to check out of the movie after that point,'' Haneke said. ``You're basically making the viewer aware of his role as a viewer and the artificiality of the film they're watching, but then you have to get them to immediately forget that and get lost in the film again. Basically, you're enticing the viewer to mistrust the verity of cinema as an art form, then asking them to trust it again. It's a neat trick.''

"Dirty Harry" is coming to Blu-ray

All five of Clint Eastwood's fascist popular crime-dramas featuring the badge-wielding vigilante Harry Callahan are coming on HD-DVD and Blu-ray on June 3, armed with loads of extras.

The five movies - Dirty Harry, Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact (aka The One Where He Says "Go Ahead, Make My Day") and The Dead Pool - will only be available as part of a lavish box set that includes a bonus sixth disc containing the previously-available documentary Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows.

Each film will be accompanied by commentary tracks, retrospective featurettes, trailers and the usual goodies. Dirty Harry will also be available as a standalone disc, packaged inside a book-type casing that Warner Bros. is going to be using on several of its classic-title releases this year.

The box set will also includes lots of useless neat Dirty Harry trinkets, such as a fake wallet with police badge. No word on how much this puppy will cost, but I'm getting one. Here's a shot of the contents of the box set.

(Some) Blu-ray discs just got a lot cheaper

In a move I hope other studios will emulate, 20th Century Fox has just permanently slashed the prices of a truckload of its catalog titles from $40 to $30. This means you can find them at online retailers for $15-$20.

Among the newly reduced titles are: The Fly (an excellent, excellent disc), Speed, Edward Scissorhands, The Devil Wears Prada, Cast Away and 28 Days Later. Click here for a complete list.

Michael Bay kidnaps "Rosemary's Baby"

Someone at Michael Bay's production company Platinum Dunes must have it in for me, since they keep announcing remakes of my all-time favorite horror films.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Bay has acquired the remake rights to Roman Polanski's 1968 classic Rosemary Baby, which never fails to raise my short hairs every time I watch it - and which is one of those all-too-rare movies I consider to be perfect.

Considering Platinum Dunes' previous hackery of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Hitcher, and its upcoming remakes of The Birds, A Nightmare on Elm Street and Near Dark, I have no choice but to conclude Bay is paying me back for my reviews of some of his past films. What's next, a remake of The Exorcist? Wait, on second thought, pretend I didn't mention that.

He's even planning a redo of Friday the 13th, which I know isn't exactly a good movie - OK, it's terrible - but still. Why, Michael Bay? Why do you hate me so much? I know I'm not the biggest fan of your work. But I have, on occasion, written some nice things about you. And I really liked Transformers.

So please, Michael, leave Rosemary's little devil baby alone. Wasn't making me sit through Armageddon and Bad Boys II punishment enough? Wasn't Pearl Harbor enough for two lifetimes? (Sorry, Cindi).

There's no such thing as too much Hitchcock

One of the marks of a great director is that their movies are endlessly repeatable, no matter how many times you've seen them before. That is certainly true of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, and the Rubell Family Collection will be screening four of the Master of Suspense's best films (and one of his most underrated) as part of its new film series, which kicks off this Saturday.

Here's the schedule for the retrospective, to be held at the RFC exhibition space at 95 NW 29th Street in Miami. The screenings are included with paid admission to the gallery, which is $10 ($5 for students and children under 18):

Rear Window: Saturday March 15, 1 and 3 p.m.

Spellbound: March 29, 1 and 3 p.m.

Marnie: April 12, 1 and 3 p.m.

Psycho: April 26, 1 and 3 p.m.

Vertigo: May 10, 1 and 3 p.m.

The trouble with "The Hulk"

Deadline Hollywood blogger Nikke Finke reports actor Edward Norton is clashing with executives at Marvel Comics over the editing of The Incredible Hulk, in which he plays Bruce Banner, the doctor with the severe anger management problem.

Executives at Universal Pictures, the studio releasing the $150 million movie on June 13, are hoping audiences pretend Ang Lee's The Hulk never existed and line up in large numbers for another big-screen encounter with the green-skinned antihero. But they will need Norton's help in promoting the film, especially since the creative tug-of-war that is transpiring implies the movie may be a little lacking.

Norton is widely credited with having rescued American History X in the editing room after director Tony Kaye abandoned the project over creative differences with distributor New Line Cinema. We'll find out if Norton can work his magic twice.

Miami Film Festival wrap-up

Here's my wrap-up story on the 25th edition of the festival, which ran in today's paper. I'm talking to Michael Haneke this morning about his Funny Games remake that opens Friday, and then I'm interviewing Michael Pitt at 5 p.m. about the film. In between, I'm hoping to spend the bulk of the day channeling Ferris Bueller.