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Video / DVD: New Releases
The padre's passion
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 24, 2003
The Crime of Padre Amaro (R)
[Photo: IDP]
Ana Claudia Talancon, right, and Gael Garcia Bernal star in The Crimes of Father Amaro.
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The sins of the errant young priest in The Crime of Padre Amaro probably pale in comparison to the molestations committed, then covered up, by too many actual men of the cloth in America.
This well-crafted Mexican drama nevertheless has stirred controversy and broken box office records at home -- becoming the highest-grossing domestic film ever released in Mexico -- with the story of a dashing, recently ordained young man, Padre Amaro (Gael Garcia Bernal, of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Amores Perros), assigned to work in a small town.
Faced with hypocrisy and corruption embodied in the practices of a senior priest (Sancho Gracia) given to casually breaking his vow of chastity and accepting bribes, Amaro soon gives in to temptation, in the form of a deeply religious 16-year-old girl (Ana Claudia Talancon) whose passions are easily redirected.
The Catholic Church threatened the stars with excommunication, apparently viewing the film as a direct attack on the institution. But Carlos Carrera, whose film was based on a 125-year-old Portuguese novel, seems more interested in painting a portrait of human fallibility than in placing blame. On that level, the downbeat movie is effective.
Rent it if you enjoy: Priest; Monsignor; The Last Temptation; other movies starring Bernal.
DVD extras: Commentary by Carrera and Bernal; making-of-the-movie feature.
Real Women Have Curves (PG-13)
[Photo: Newmarket]
America Ferrera is Ana in Real Women Have Curves.
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Patricia Cardoso makes an impressive directorial debut with this funny, gently told tale of intergenerational conflict in East Los Angeles.
Ana (newcomer America Ferrera), a bright high-school senior from a low-income family, might be interested in college. But her overbearing mom (screen veteran Lupe Ontiveros), overweight herself but critical of her youngest daughter's body size, has other plans in mind: She wants Ana to work in a garment factory managed by her older sister, Estela (Ingrid Oliu).
Several sequences, and one over-the-top set piece, are rather hokey. But Real Women is largely a warm, affectionate coming-of-age story, driven by fine performances.
Rent it if you enjoy: Mi Vida Loca; The Perez Family; My Big Fat Greek Wedding; ethnic comedies.
DVD extras: Two commentaries; behind-the-scenes features in English and Spanish.
Standing in the Shadows of Motown (PG)
The Funk Brothers, the talented jazz and R&B session musicians (including bassist James Jamerson) heard on countless singles by Marvin Gaye, the Supremes, the Temptations and other 1960s hitmakers, are celebrated in Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The fascinating documentary, marred only by several stilted restaged sequences, has the surviving Funk Brothers joined by Joan Osborne, Chaka Khan, Ben Harper, Bootsy Collins, Meshell Ndegeocello, Montell Jordan and other contemporary stars on classic Motown singles.
Rent it if you enjoy: Motown music; Buena Vista Social Club and other music documentaries; concert films.
DVD extras: Commentary; trivia track; music-video montage; conversation with the Funk Brothers; behind-the-scenes features, and biographies.
Bloody Sunday (R)
Impending doom is almost palpable in writer-director Paul Greengrass' emotionally wrenching, controversial retelling of the events of Jan. 30, 1972, in the Northern Irish city of Derry. A civil rights march, with Protestant MP and peacemaker Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) leading a group of Catholics protesting British policies, led to bloody violence: Government forces opened fire on the unarmed protesters, killing 14 people and wounding 13 others. The film, based on Don Mullan's book Eyewitness Bloody Sunday, looks and feels like a documentary, with herky-jerky handheld footage and often grainy images. But it plays like an epic tragedy. Sunday Bloody Sunday, the U2 hit inspired by the massacre, is heard during the end credits.
Rent it if you enjoy: In the Name of the Father, Michael Collins, The Boxer and other movies about Irish politics.
DVD extras: Commentary by Greengrass and Nesbitt; commentary by writer Mullan, also the film's co-producer; interviews with cast members.
Merci Pour Le Chocolat (Unrated)
Claude Chabrol, a French New Wave pioneer still working in his 70s, has crafted an elegant, exquisitely paced murder mystery centered on Mika (Isabelle Huppert), a chocolate heiress who may or may not be using her famous cocoa concoctions for wicked purposes.
Mika is married to kindly concert pianist Andre (Jacques Dutronc), whose son, Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauly), according to an old rumor, may have been switched at birth with budding classical musician Jeanne (Anna Mouglalis), Andre's beautiful new protege.
Huppert, for her sixth Chabrol film, gives a sterling performance as a woman whose veneer of cool covers a core of bad intent, and rookie Mouglalis turns in breakthrough-caliber work.
Rent it if you enjoy: Hitchcock films; Chabrol's other movies; Huppert's work.
Darkness Falls (PG-13)
Oops, there goes another childhood fantasy. The Tooth Fairy, or at least the one residing in Darkness Falls and the New England town (actually, Australia) of the same name, is the avenging spirit of a woman hanged after being falsely accused of murder.
Back in the day, 150 years ago, she gave gold coins to little kids in exchange for their baby teeth. Now, the former Matilda Dixon has returned to grab a little boy (Lee Cormie), and, along the way, scarf up a man (Chaney Kley) who barely eluded her terror as a child.
So, the moral: Don't lose those baby teeth. Or, if you're about to, get out of town. This horror wannabe offers impressive special effects, in the form of its freaky flying villain, but few true frights. Consider us scared silly.
Rent it if you enjoy: Cheesy horror flicks.
DVD extras: Commentaries; deleted scenes; storyboard-to-film comparisons; a behind-the-scenes documentary; and the option of widescreen or full screen viewing.
Music on DVD
Pianist Ellis Marsalis and his famous sons -- saxophonist Branford, trumpeter Wynton, trombonist Delfeayo and drummer Jason -- played their first public concert together in 2001, on the occasion of father Marsalis' retirement from his job as head of the jazz program at the University of New Orleans. The performance was caught on The Marsalis Family: A Jazz Celebration, adapted from the PBS broadcast.
Musical revelations don't abound, but it's a treat hearing the simpatico Wynton and Branford on the front line once more and observing youngest, and perhaps most musically individualistic sibling, Jason, in action. Marsalis associate Roland Guerin is the top-shelf bassist for the concert, and guests include family friends Harry Connick Jr. on piano and vocals and trombonist Lucien Barbarin. Caravan, Saint James Infirmary and Ellis Marsalis' Swinging at the Haven are among the set's familiarities. Extras include insightful interviews with the Marsalises and Connick.
Classics on DVD
Whether the Oscar-grabbing Chicago results in an avalanche of movie musicals remains to be seen. Meanwhile, fans of the genre may check out the old-school approach, with Warner Bros. "Classic Musicals" collection, a slate of high-energy feelgood productions from the 1940s and 1950s, featuring music and lyrics by Cole Porter.
Now out with new digital transfers and loads of DVD extras are High Society (Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong); Silk Stockings (Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse); Broadway Melody of 1940 (Astaire, Eleanor Powell); Kiss Me Kate (Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller); and Les Girls (Gene Kelly, Mitzi Gaynor). Also available is The Great American Songbook (Warner, $24.98), a clips-filled anthology with singer-pianist host Michael Feinstein.
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