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Also this week

Rating: NNNNN


THE BILLY WILDER COLLECTION (MGM, 1959-1972). Eight discs $150, single discs $25. Rating: NNNN the big news in this collection of Billy Wilder’s United Artists films is the four new DVD titles: the Cold War comedy One, Two, Three the director’s most controversial comedy, Kiss Me, Stupid the brilliant pastiche The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes and the late romantic masterpiece Avanti! The previously released titles ( The Apartment , Some Like It Hot , Irma La Douce and The Fortune Cookie ) are the unchanged original DVD releases.

Wilder is one of the great anomalous figures of the American cinema of the 50s and 60s. His was a bleakly cynical comic sensibility capable of deeply un-ironic romanticism. He created both the psychological Grand Guignol of Sunset Blvd. and the delicate slapstick of Some Like It Hot, the moral-compromise melodrama of The Apartment and the untrammelled sweetness of Avanti!

He’s remembered for his films’ acrid one-liners, so we might forget that they tend to be morality fables rather than straightforward comedies.

If the studios had gotten around to these discs a few years ago, Wilder might have been able to contribute. (Find my extended obituary at www. nowtoronto. com/issues/2002-03-28/movie_feature. php).

A commentary or two would have been nice, too, either by a critic or someone like Cameron Crowe, the director of Almost Famous (Kate Hudson’s Penny Lane in that film is an homage to Shirley MacLaine’s character in The Apartment), who did an interview book with Wilder. There’s little documentary supporting material.

To be completely honest, I was disappointed with the transfer of Avanti! This rare (for Wilder) colour location picture looks a bit shimmery. The crisp black-and-white transfers of One, Two, Three and Kiss Me, Stupid are much better.

The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes (1970) is particularly frustrating. The disc has about 40 minutes of deleted scenes, a weird mishmash of reconstruction, screenplay excerpts and soundtrack excerpts. The original material seems to be lost.

This release puts the Billy Wilder ball back in Paramount’s court. Where the heck are Double Indemnity, A Foreign Affair and Ace In The Hole? DVD EXTRAS Theatrical trailers on all titles, English and French versions, English, French and Spanish subtitles. Some Like It Hot: photo gallery, Tony Curtis interview. Sherlock Holmes: interviews with Christopher Lee and editor Ernest Walter, reconstruction of deleted scenes.

FRIENDS: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON (Warner, 1997-98) w/ Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry. Four discs. Rating: NNNNN watching a full season of friends over a weekend, you come to appreciate the astonishing level of craft at work in the top tier of television comedy, and the ongoing intricacy with which the creators of Friends have developed the Rubik’s Cube interactions of their cast. Season Four may well be the show’s best. It begins with Ross and Rachel at each other’s throats while Phoebe becomes a surrogate mother for her brother (the actor’s real-life pregnancy served as pure comic inspiration), and ends with Ross’s wedding in a guest-star-heavy two-parter in London. There are only two weak episodes, and the very best ones – The One With Chandler In A Box and The One With Phoebe’s Uterus – are as strong as anything on television in the last decade. Warner Home Video is continuing the season-by-season release as a unified edition – same-style box, menus and extras, with very good transfers. DVD EXTRAS Producer commentaries, trivia quiz, Guide To Chandler And Joey’s Apartment, video guide to the show’s guest stars, documentary on Friends’ overseas success. English, French, Spanish subtitles. LAUREL CANYON (Columbia/TriStar, 2002) D: Lisa Cholodenko w/ Frances McDormand, Christian Bale, Kate Beckinsale. Rating: NNN for fans of frances mcdormand, who stars as an L.A. record producer with a counterculture past and lifestyle, Laurel Canyon gets a mild recommendation. It’s a family drama that unfolds when McDormand’s son (Bale) arrives home with girlfriend Beckinsale only to find Mom encamped and in production with a rock band that includes her lover (Alessandro Nivola). Son has grown into a straitlaced conservative doctor who resents everything about his mother and the way she raised him. McDormand’s turn looks great in comparison with the film’s other performances.

If director Lisa Cholodenko’s commentary were any more even-toned, someone might have to check to see if she has a pulse. DVD EXTRAS Director’s commentary, theatrical trailers, making-of featurette, French subtitles. UMBERTO D. (Criterion/Morningstar, 1952) Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist classic about an old man and his dog.

FELICITY: COMPLETE SECOND SEASON (Buena Vista, 1999-2000) Or, Hey! Keri Russell Cut Her Hair!

THE AMERICAN FILM THEATRE: SET 2 (Kino) Five more titles from the 70s, with a classic production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, starring Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield.

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (MGM, 2002) New adaptation of Dickens’s novel from Doug McGrath, who did the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma. Also this week

UMBERTO D. (Criterion/Morningstar, 1952) Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist classic about an old man and his dog.

FELICITY: COMPLETE SECOND SEASON (Buena Vista, 1999-2000) Or, Hey! Keri Russell Cut Her Hair!

THE AMERICAN FILM THEATRE: SET 2 (Kino) Five more titles from the 70s, with a classic production of Edward Albee’s A Delicate Balance, starring Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield.

NICHOLAS NICKLEBY (MGM, 2002) New adaptation of Dickens’s novel from Doug McGrath, who did the Gwyneth Paltrow Emma. Wilder gems

= Critics’ Pick

NNNNN = excellent, maintains big screen impact

NNNN = very good

NNN = worth a peek

NN = Mediocre

N = Bomb

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