If you're reading this on July 2 and live in the U.S., TCM's at this moment running a series on Sam Fuller, including a very good docu by Richard Shickel, with Fuller interviews. About four hours from now, they'll be showing a letteboxed SuperScope Run of the Arrow, a very hard to see, superior Sam Fuller Western.
Two reviews tonight. First up is another oddity from the folks at First Run Features, called The Legend of Paul and Paula. It 's a very different love story, set in East Berlin and fully informed by the problems of living in a Soviet bloc country. Young Paula has two kids, no husband and absolutely no scruples about taking away another woman's husband, if there's no love there. Paul doesn't know what he's doing but can't resist this force of nature. Funny, insightful, and really well-done, this was called the 'East German Love Story' when it came out.
From Warner/Turner comes the Peter O'Toole comedy My Favorite Year, a sharp look at the Golden Age of live television, where the anarchy in the Sid Caesar-like sketches spills over onto the life of a young writer. He's charged with keeping an Errol Flynn-like actor out of jail and sober enough to make the broadcast session. A great disc with a commentary by director Richard Benjamin.
Savant just finished an editorial assignment and is having fun looking at review discs. Along with the new movies, I'll be digging back into some older Criterion titles, to accompany the Sundance cable channel's classic series that will screen every weekend night this July and August. Thanks for the fun! Glenn Erickson
Posted by DVD Savant at July 02, 2002 06:26 PM