July 30

Diary For My Children (Naplo Gyermekeimnek) (1984) - Marta Meszaros 

Description

From one of the worlds most accomplished women directors, Mszros film connects the personal with the political, portraying the impact of individuals upon history and of historical forces upon individual lives. Autobiographical, and the first in her trilogy of renowned Diary films.

Released by Secondrun.

Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) - Terence Davies 

Description

The second film in Terence Davies' autobiographical series (Trilogy, The Long Day Closes) is an impressionistic view of a working-class family in 1940s and 1950s Liverpool, based on Davies' own family. 

The first part, Distant Voices, opens with grown siblings Eileen (Angela Walsh), Maisie (Lorraine Ashbourne) and Tony (Dean Williams), and their mother (Freda Dowie) arranged in mourning clothes before the photograph of their smiling father (Pete Postlethwaite). Soon after, the family poses in a similar tableau, but for a happier occasion - Eileen's wedding. While relatives sing at her reception, Eileen hysterically grieves for her dad, and recalls happy times of her youth. Tony and Maisie's memories, however, are more troubled. 

Davies intermingles and contrasts scenes like the family peacefully lighting candles in church with the brutal man beating his wife and terrorising his young children. In Still Lives, set (and filmed) two years later, the siblings are settled in life, but not all happily. 

Released by BFI

Love In The Strangest Way (Elles n'oublient jamais) (1994) - Christopher Frank 

Description

A Hitchcockian thriller in which married debt collector Julien has a fling with a beautiful, mysterious woman while his wife is away. The one-nighter is over before it even begins - or so Julien would like to believe, but Angela, his pick-up, is after revenge and calmly begins to dismantle his career, home and sanity. 

Released by Bluebell films

Rien Sur Robert (1999) Pascal Bonitzer

Description

An assured French comedy of morals in which the life of superficial, middle-class, paranoid critic Didier starts to fall apart after writing a damning review of a film he hasn't seen. Michel Piccoli enjoys himself in his cameo as Ariel Chatwick-West, who lambasts the hapless critic.

Released by Bluebell films

All of these are old friends barring For My Children, but judging by Secondrun's previous dvds this should be at the least, an interesting release.

Cheers Trev.