Celebrated this year by the Cinémathèque de Toulouse and the Ombres Blanches gallery, Pasolini’s centenary comes in a box set, as do Kubrick, John Hughes and Jerry Lewis.
The Cinémathèque de Toulouse and several arthouse cinemas in France celebrated the centenary Pier Paolo Pasolini This year. A box allows you to come back to an abundant work, both borrowed from spirituality and full of pagan fury. In 1961, “Accattone” is a raw neorealist dive into an Italy struggling to get out of poverty. It’s about prostitution, exploitation, lives of theft. The same atmosphere between vitality and darkness in “Mamma Roma” which, in 1962, portrays an ex-prostitute (Anna Magnani) who fears seeing her son turn out badly. Christianity is there with the masterful “Gospel according to Saint Matthew” in 1964. The same year, Pasolini looks into the intimate secrets of Italians in “Survey on sexuality”. The jewel of this prosperous period is undoubtedly “Birds small and big” which, in 1966, brings two simple humans closer to the mystical epic of Saint Francis of Assisi. (box of 9 films, Carlotta).
Humor and delirium
Very active screenwriter in the 80s and 90s, John Hughes (1950-2009) only made 8 films, the best known being the second, “The Breakfast Club” which, in 1985, revealed a whole generation of young actors. This cult film does not appear in the box devoted to the American director, but two bittersweet comedies represent well what he brought to the fair and touching in the description of the adolescent world: “Rose bonbon”, which he wrote , and especially “The crazy day of Ferris Bueller”, where Matthew Broderick sows a furiously burlesque mess in a very neat family. See also the tender and funny “La vie en plus” and “La vie à l’envers” and the hilarious “A ticket for two”, bringing together Steve Martin and John Candy on the New York-Chicago route (Box of 5 Paramount films).
John Hughes was certainly influenced by jerry lewis (1926-2017), master of comic elasticity, archetype of the good little guy facing disasters. A box brings together 15 of the films he performed between 1952 and 1965, many with his favorite duettist Dean Martin. We never tire of seeing the masterpieces of delirious burlesque that are “Doctor Jerry and Mister Love”, “The heartthrob of these ladies”, “Artists and models” or “The kid in a kimono”, the first two made by Lewis, the others by a faithful accomplice, Frank Tashlin (Box of 15 Paramount films).
It is not the first but it is the most complete: the new “Collection Stanley Kubrick” brings together the 7 most significant films of the American director, from “Lolita” in 1962 to “Eyes wide shut” in 1999, the year of his death. Plus, of course, “2001”, “A Clockwork Orange”, “Barry Lyndon” , etc. In addition to the elegance of the red and black box, this “limited edition” offers a booklet of photos and postcards of the American posters. Without forgetting the essential, a Blu Ray quality essential to make the best of a work of absolute sophistication (7-film box set, Warner Bros.)