Susan Granger’s dvd/video update for week of Friday, Dec. 12th:
Back in 1974, Philippe Petit walked, even danced, on a wire some 1,350 feet in the air between the towers of the World Trade Center, inspiring Jordan Marsh’s documentary, “Man on a Wire,” focusing on how this intrepid Frenchman and his stealthy accomplices accomplished the daredevil stunt, utilizing vintage footage, recreations and interviews.
For family viewing, I recommend the wacky, wondrous “Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who,” one of Theodore Geisel’s most beloved tales, featuring the voice of Jim Carrey as Horton the Elephant, who firmly believes “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”
In “Anamorph,” Willem Dafoe plays an alcoholic NYPD detective haunted by memories of a serial-killer case and he’s on the trail of a copycat; it’s a tepid cat-and-mouse story cloaked in the artistic concept of “anamorphosis,” meaning paintings designed to have two radically different images when viewed from different angles.
A modern film noir set in post-Milosevic Serbia, a country in transition, Srdan Golubovic’s “The Trap” is a highly acclaimed drama about a dying child and how far a man is willing to go to save him.
For classic film buffs, the ultimate new “Casablanca: Ultimate Collector’s Edition,” starring Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart, includes seven hours of bonus features: an introduction by Lauren Bacall, reminiscences by Stephen Bogart and Pia Lindstrom, and collectibles, like replicas of actual props (Victor Lazlo’s “Letter of Transit”) as well as studio documents.
PICK OF THE WEEK: Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” features Heath Ledger as the dangerous, demented Joker, a cackling symbol of insane, unpredictable anarchy, who battles billionaire Bruce Wayne/Batman (Christian Bale), wreaking criminal havoc in Gotham City. DVD elements include “Gotham Uncovered,” tracing the development of the new Bat-suit and Bat-pod, along with special IMAX scenes.