As much fun as I had giving my home theater system a work-out with Batman Begins and The Incredibles, you won't find either of those state-of-the-art discs on this list of the year's best DVDs.
Good as those discs were, there were just too many others that were even better.
This was the year that the industry brought out the really big cinematic guns, presenting us with sparkling DVD editions of masterpieces gleaned from a century-plus of cinema. It was almost as if the powers that be, all-too aware of the next big thing (Blu-Ray or HD-DVD) waiting impatiently in the wings, were trying to cram as much of cinema's glorious past onto DVD before the format becomes — forgive me for uttering the unutterable — obsolete.
This was such a classic-heavy year for DVD that there was scant room on our list for modern sound-and-fury extravaganzas like Revenge of the Sith, and even many of our favorite guilty pleasures fell by the wayside. Much as it pains me to tell you this, you won't find the vintage sci-fi mind-melter Matango (Attack of the Mushroom People) on this list, nor that ultra-groovy Pinky Violence Collection box set of Japanese girl-gang flicks from the '70s. That doesn't mean you shouldn't drop everything you're doing, and run out to grab copies of both.
In any event, we all know by now what DVD can do, so it's no longer enough for a disc to simply look and sound fabulous. We expect to be dazzled by sound and image and all sorts of great extras — but the bottom line, as always, is the film itself. And that's where the 20 DVDs on this year's list succeed in spades.
1. Ugetsu One of the greatest of all films finally gets the DVD it deserves. Cinephiles have been waiting forever for legendary director Kenji Mizoguchi's output to hit DVD — and although this is only one of the maestro's many astonishing films, it may very well be his best. A disarmingly poetic ghost story that succeeds on the level of the highest art, Ugetsu is as sublime an observation of human nature as you'll find, and Criterion's beautiful DVD does it full justice. Among its many revelations, this handsomely packaged 2-disc set includes a fascinating feature-length documentary on Mizoguchi, a commentary track by Japanese film expert Tony Rayns, and an indispensable 72-page book.
2. The Val Lewton Horror Collection A stunning collection of what might just be the best B-movies ever made. This affordable 5-disc set includes the nine films produced by Lewton (and directed, most notably, by Jacques Tourneur) for RKO during the early to mid-1940s — and each movie is a small but nearly perfect gem. From the original Cat People to I Walked with a Zombie to The Seventh Victim (devil worshipers in Manhattan, yeah!), each of these minimalist masterpieces makes the most of its limited budget, eschewing special effects and shock tactics for a brooding and infinitely subtle atmosphere that gets under your skin and into your dreams. An excellent documentary and some thoughtful commentaries (including one by Exorcist director William Friedkin) are the icing on the cake.
3. King Kong In a year when Peter Jackson's larger-than-life remake is making history, the original 1933 Kong — the one single movie that fans have clamored for above all others since the advent of the DVD format — finally appeared on disc. And whether you spring for the stand-alone 2-disc set or the full box set (including Son of Kong and Mighty Joe Young), King Kong was worth the wait. The digital restoration here is a labor of love, with a full disc of extras highlighted by a two-and-a-half hour documentary, a history-making commentary track with Ray Harryhausen and Fay Wray, and Peter Jackson's reconstruction of the lost spider pit sequence.
4. Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant-Garde Cinema 1894—1941 Proof positive that history doesn't have to be boring. Curator Bruce Posner (who previewed some of this material in Tampa a few years back) has put together a monumental collection (155 films spread across seven discs) of bizarre and beautiful experiments that sheds new light on the nature of so-called outsider filmmaking and its relationship to the Hollywood mainstream. The films presented here are abstract but rarely obtuse, with offerings arranged both thematically (surrealism, dance, etc) and chronologically. The directors range from heavy hitters like Orson Welles, Man Ray and D.W. Griffith to complete unknowns, and the results are 19 hours of intriguing images you'll want to return to again and again.
5. Pickpocket/Au Hazard Balthazar These two masterpieces by French auteur Robert Bresson, long considered a holy grail for cinephiles, both finally arrived on DVD this year in the form of typically magnificent special editions from the Criterion Collection. The most meticulous and austere of filmmakers, Bresson was working at the height of his powers in these carefully crafted tales of characters brushing up against the possibility of grace in an amoral world. The black and white photography is positively luminous in the new transfers presented here, and each disc is complemented by introductions by filmmaker Paul Schrader (on Pickpocket) and critic Donald Ritchie (on Balthazar), as well as extensive interviews with Bresson and others.
6. The Harold Lloyd Comedy Collection Everybody knows Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, but you can't talk about the silent cinema's comedy pantheon without mentioning Harold Lloyd. A comedy genius whose films have long been out of print or absurdly hard to come by, Lloyd finally gets his due with this massive, 7-disc set that includes nearly his entire output (15 feature films, including his masterpiece Safety Last). As if that weren't enough to restore Lloyd to his rightful place in cinema's holy trinity of clowns, this definitive collection includes dozens of featurettes, commentaries, interviews and even some galleries of those cool 3-D photographs that Lloyd began taking when he stopped making movies.
7. Fox Film Noir Series I'm cheating a little by lumping this entire series into one spot on our list, but how can you really choose between great stuff like Nightmare Alley, Whirlpool, Kiss of Death, Where the Sidewalk Ends and the numerous other fabulous film noirs Fox released this year? Film noir is as significant an American treasure as jazz or Twinkies, and these DVDs — with their sparkling transfers, lively commentaries and budget-line prices — have gone a long way to making folks aware of that. (And while we're noir-ing it up here, let me just mention our runner-up: Kino's DVD of Fritz Lang's immortal Scarlet Street.)
8. Le Samourai John Woo's all-time favorite film (and an acknowledged influence on The Killer), Le Samourai is one of the grand classics of French cinema, and quite possibly the classiest gangster movie ever. Director Jean-Pierre Melville infuses what in lesser hands might have been a run-of-the-mill pulp-crime flick with elegance and existential weight, while star Alain Delon projects an icy charisma that burns like cold fire. Melville and Delon are featured extensively in the many supplements that round out this great package.
9. The Astaire/Rogers Collection Gorgeous digital transfers of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers tripping the light fantastic in Top Hat, Swingtime, Shall We Dance, Follow the Fleet and The Barkleys of Broadway — plus loads of extras specially created for this box set. Is there any way you can resist?
10. Raging Bull: Special Edition Long relegated to a pathetic, bare-bones DVD release, Scorsese's 1980 masterpiece finally gets the deluxe digital treatment it's been crying out for. MGM's beautifully produced 2-disc set features a stunning transfer and comes complete with extensive extras including breakdowns of the film's fight sequences and no less than three commentary tracks, including one by Jake LaMotta himself.
11. Ran Kurosawa's marvelous retelling of King Lear has already had several DVD incarnations, but Criterion's new 2-disc set renders them all obsolete. The film's spectacular visual scheme is finally presented properly framed and with impressive depth and clarity, and the extras are incredible, even by Criterion's high standards. Besides the first-rate interviews, commentaries and making-of's, we get a rare look at Kurosawa's original paintings for the film (they're wonderful) and, best of all, A.K., a feature-length documentary by Chris Marker that is alone worth the disc's asking price.
12. The Greta Garbo Signature Collection Although I have a particular fascination for the three early silent films on this monumental 10-disc set (Flesh and the Devil is a particular favorite), the other, later movies included here are nothing to sneeze at. One of the most magnificent presences to ever appear on a movie screen, the mythic Garbo struts, sways and sashays her way through meticulously restored versions of Anna Karenina, Grand Hotel, Ninotchka and other legendary offerings. The set is bolstered by hours of special features that put us up close and personal with the legend.
13. Tales of Hoffman After The Red Shoes, Powell and Pressburger extended their marriage of film and dance with this opulent version of Offenbach's opera, and the results — one of the most sumptuously colorful visual extravaganzas ever to grace the screen — are presented beautifully here. The copious extras include an appreciation from zombie guru George Romero (!) and a Martin Scorsese commentary ported over from Criterion's old laserdisc, still one of my favorite cine-chats.
14. Punishment Park New Yorker made great strides with their DVD line this year, releasing solid editions of fantastic films like Sembene's Black Girl, Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach and Landscape in the Mist — but this is the one to get. Peter Watkins' too-little-seen what-if tale of young dissidents hunted and imprisoned in a fascist future America was shot in 1971, but is timelier than ever. New Yorker's outstanding DVD edition places the film in its historical and cultural context with text essays, an insightful commentary track and a 30-minute introduction by the elusive Watkins himself.
15. Danger: Diabolik Although some will see this one as a pure guilty pleasure, Mario Bava's 1968 heist flick could well be the best-ever big-screen adaptation of a comic book. Bava's delirious colors look fabulous here, and the extras include a nice documentary and a commentary with star John Philip Law and Bava authority Tim Lucas.
16. Sin City: Recut, Extended, Unrated A phenomenal 2-DVD set that includes the original theatrical cut on one disc, with a second disc that allows us to watch expanded versions of each of the film's interwoven story strands separately. More extras than you can shake a bloody stump at, including director Robert Rodriguez's coveted recipe for breakfast tacos.
17. Cowards Bend the Knee Madman-genius Guy Maddin is Canada's greatest gift to the cinema (you hear that, Cronenberg?) and this latest outpouring of insanity is one of his strangest and best yet. A typically delightful Maddin commentary is the highlight of the abundant extras.
18. The Big Red One Sam Fuller's grandly nihilistic WWII masterpiece, butchered by studio hacks upon its release, gets an additional 47 minutes and a radical reconstruction in line with the director's original intentions. The result is one great war movie, presented here on a 2-disc set with a wealth of supplemental material.
19. Lifeboat Another cinematic holy grail, Hitchcock's gloriously claustrophobic thriller finally arrives on DVD, complete with an informative documentary and commentary. Among the film's many glories is Tallulah Bankhead's finest moment.
20. No Shame A collective award to our favorite new DVD company of the year: No Shame, which specializes in Italian cinema of all stripes. From its beautiful collectors' editions of crime dramas like Almost Human, to classic giallo thrillers like The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, to high art like Bernardo Bertolucci's Partner, Marco Bellocchio's Devil in the Flesh, and Antonioni's Story of a Love Affair, No Shame has it all.
This article appears in Jan 11-17, 2006.