DVD Roundup 2006

Due to the large number of dvds Ive seen and/or purchased during 2006, Ive had to place quite a few restrictions on what to include in my roundup:

Ive cut everything that wasnt released during 2006, so despite how good the films or dvds are, theyve been omitted, chief amongst these are films such as Naked Island which I thought was an excellent film and an outstanding dvd.

Next I cut US releases, tough I know but there were far too many, again the overall result suffers as I had to discount dvds like Mad Hot Ballroom plus many more indie and mainstream films.

This has still left me with a long list of over 100 dvds to work from, many of these will not be mentioned again simply because theyre pretty average, hopefully though I wont have left anything out.

The qualifying dvds are:

36 (aka Quai des Orfevres)
4 (Chetyre)
Ab-Normal Beauty
Address Unknown
After Midnight 
Les Amants Reguliers
Ashura
Atomised
Battle In Heaven
Bear Cub
The Beat That My Heart Skipped 
Beautiful Boxer 
Bicycle Thieves
A Bittersweet Life
Black Cat, White Cat 
Blind Beast
Blissfully Yours
Brief Crossing
C.R.A.Z.Y.
Cave Of The Yellow Dog
La Crmonie
The Child 
Christ Stopped At Eboli
The Coastguard
Come And See
Crush
Crying Fist
The Death Of Mr Lazarescu
Do You Remember Dolly Bell? 
The Double Life Of Veronique 
Dumplings
Exterminating Angel
Familia Rodante 
Fantomas 
Fausto 5.0
Free Cinema
Frozen (Jidu hanleng)
Funeral Parade Of Roses
Ghost In The Shell 2 Innocence
Godzilla
Le Grand Voyage
La Grande Bouffe
The Green Butchers
Haibane-Renmei
La Haine Ultimate Edition
Haze
Heading South
The Heirloom
Hidden 
The Hidden Blade
Howl's Moving Castle
I Am Curious Yellow/Blue
Infection
Innocence 
Innocent Voices
Joyeux Noel
The Ketchup Effect
Lady Vengeance
Lemming 
Little Fish
El Lobo
Loulou 
Lower City
Manderlay 
Marebito
Melissa P
Monsieur Hire
My Neighbours The Yamadas
Night Of Shooting Stars
Noce Blanche
Offside
One Night In Mongkok
Only Yesterday
The Ordeal (aka Calvaire)
Ozu - Vol. 3 - Tokyo Twilight / Equinox Flower / Good Morning
Le Paltoquet
Paradise Now
Passenger (Pasazerka)
Pavee Lackeen
Pom Poko
Porco Rosso
Premier Desirs
Premonition
Princess Raccoon
Pulse
Quo Vadis, Baby?
R-Point
Reincarnation
Renaissance
Rien Ne Va Plus
The Road To Guantanamo
Rome Open City
Saraband
Satantango 
Secuestro Express
Shooting Dogs
Slow Motion 
Sophie Scholl
Steamboy
Strayed
The Sun 
Survive Style 5
Tell Me Something
Tickets 
Time To Leave 
Tony Takitani
Toto The Hero
Tsotsi
Les Valseuses
Vital
The Wind That Shakes The Barley
Woman Of The Dunes

I should be glad there are so many dvds I havent seen or purchased but I am still pretty annoyed that the constant war between Choices and Blockbuster, the two biggest rental chains in the UK has meant a drop in the number of foreign films available for rental.

How have the UK distributors fared in 2006?

Before Id actually gone through my lists I couldnt help but think that Tartan Video hadnt had a good year, it was only while trying to build this list that I realised that apart from some very average Asian horror films they had released a few excellent films. One of the biggest problems is that they appear to be concentrating on the US arm of the business while the UK wing is left dragging behind. Among their best UK releases Id have to include:

Vital
Saraband
Ozu - Vol. 3 - Tokyo Twilight / Equinox Flower / Good Morning
The Death Of Mr Lazarescu
Marebito 
The Hidden Blade

You also have to admire the fact that theyre still sticking their necks out with releases like "Battle in Heaven" and each release is given the best possible treatment in terms of visual and audio quality.

Despite the changes at Artificial Eye they have kept to a good standard of releases, again a few excellent features including:

The Double Life Of Veronique
Innocence
Hidden
Offside
Stntang

Unfortunately Ive only had the pleasure of seeing one of the Eureka MoC range from 2006, Funeral Parade of Roses but once again it is a great film on a superb dvd. This is the distributor to watch with a superb quality catalogue and what should be an outstanding 2007.

Great to see some of the newer companies really getting it together as well, Soda and Yume have had good years and look as though they have bright futures:

Strayed and
Heading South from Soda
Princess Raccoon and 
Blind Beast from Yume are all above average films and for the most part very good dvds.

Other companies such as Pathe and Optimum have had a steady year, again though 2007 has a lot of promise, though it would be nice to see them giving each release as much care as some of the above mentioned distributors.

A good year for France, a quiet year for South Korea, Japan had quite a few of my favourites and a few of the stinkers as well. 

The difficult part now is picking just 10 for a best of 2006.

Cheers Trev.