DVDs, 2/24.

By David Hudson on 02/24/2009

The French Connection (1971) and "The French Connection II (1975) are out in a Blu-ray edition today; for the New York Times, Dave Kehr accompanied William Friedkin as he revisited the original's locations to shoot some of the supplementary material: "Walking his young crew members through the setup to the chase scene Mr Friedkin effortlessly remembered exactly where he'd positioned his camera all those years ago. Here, he said, is where Popeye [Doyle, Gene Hackman] enters the courtyard; here's where he takes cover behind a tree when a bullet meant for him strikes a bystander; here's where he jumps a railing to climb the stairs to the roof; where he sees the sniper (Marcel Bozzuffi) already at ground level, running for a train."

"A time capsule of the anti-Vietnam War movement, 'FTA' is also a vivid flashback to a world-famous movie star's stint as a political radical," writes Dennis Lim in the Los Angeles Times. "With government agents and the news media watching her every move, [Jane Fonda] led a vaudeville troupe on a tour of US military bases in 1971 - a trip chronicled in this fascinating documentary, largely unseen since its brief, abortive release and finally available on DVD this week." More from Dave Kehr in the NYT: "There is a self-congratulatory air to some of the proceedings, but Ms Fonda's antiwar speech before the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo may be one of the most powerful performances of her distinguished career."

And Dave Kehr reviews one more title this week: "Anime might have emerged in part to give shape to the big-canvas ambitions that Japanese filmmakers continued to harbor but could no longer realize in live-action form. 'Akira,' like many of the great anime that came after it (Mamoru Oshii's 'Ghost in the Shell,' Satoshi Kon's 'Paprika'), is literally cosmic in scale, ranging from an intricately realized urban environment into abstract spaces both outer and inner."

"A combination crazy chase movie, 'Easy Rider'-esque examination of 'America,' and a one-part-existentialism/one-part-mystic philosophical statement, 'Vanishing Point' remains both compelling... and breathtakingly beautiful." Glenn Kenny talks with director Richard C Sarafian. Also, revisiting "Raging Bull": "Of course the film's imagery and sound cast an incredible, irreproducible spell... but I think what finally moves me so about the picture is something I can't put into words, or perhaps am too afraid to put into words."

"Because of the way [Dario] Argento's films look, fans have longed for the day when his movies would make the transition from standard home video formats to the latest high definition developments," writes Bill Gibron at PopMatters. "Blue Underground's treatment of 'The Bird with the Crystal Plumage' has always been stellar - but this new Blu-ray release is something else all together. It's like stepping back in time and revisiting the film for the first time during its theatrical run."

"One of last year's the most under-distributed and underseen major European imports, Jirí Menzel's 'I Served the King of England' (2006) is lovely, silly, damnable antique, willfully pre-feminist and hopelessly out of fashion." In a good way, of course. Michael Atkinson here at IFC.

"Correctly heralded as one of the giants of cinema, David Lean simply knew where to put the camera - to tell stories through images that convey a sense of mood, place, character, and conflict." Four out of five stars for "Hobson's Choice" from Jeremiah Kipp in Slant. Related: Graham Fuller in Criterion's Current on Charles Laughton.

"For a good portion of its lean 90-minute running time, 'Frozen River' seems like it's going to go the way of a number of similar beautifully photographed, award-winning, festival/art house-friendly, indie mega-downer semi-thrillers, and the largely acoustic guitar-driven score makes it seem depressingly familiar at times," writes Bob Turnbull at Bullz-Eye. "Fortunately, a tart sense of irony and a second act plot point spins the film's emotional trajectory into an entirely different place, setting the stage for a conclusion that more than rewards our attention."

"In documenting the more than 30-year relationship between author Christopher Isherwood and artist Don Bachardy, 'Chris & Don: A Love Story' makes people question their assumptions and prejudices about love," writes Gary Barlow for In These Times. More from Josef Braun: "It's among the most daunting challenges in movies, a medium saturated with romance but often adverse to romantic complication: to convey with empathy and insight the nature and functionality of different kinds of love, especially those easily dismissed or judged. That romance between men is but the least provocative kind of love considered in 'Chris & Don: A Love Story' is a tribute to how bravely and sensitively this documentary assumes this challenge." Also: Dreyer's "Day of Wrath."

"Those looking for a smart laugh at the expense of the geniuses who steered us into the economic ditch might like to have cinematic wit Luis Buñuel back from the dead," writes Seth Colter Walls in Newsweek. "And in a way, we do. The Criterion Collection has just given two of his long-unavailable films new life on DVD, and they couldn't have come at a better time. The more essential work, 'The Exterminating Angel' (1962), is downright prescient." More from José Teodoro in Stop Smiling: "To call it satire would be woefully insufficient, yet it is keenly observant of bourgeois faux sophistication and faux pas, and of the absurdity of euphemisms.... And the film is indeed extremely funny in that mercilessly dry, rhythmically strange manner that distinguishes the work of this mischievous old Surrealist."

Alexander Coleman has the Noir of the Week: "Frank Tuttle's early film noir, 'This Gun for Hire,' made Alan Ladd a star in the role of Philip Raven, a mentally unhinged, and psychologically disturbed contract killer. As Raven, Ladd would employ the particular assets that he would continue to bring to his best roles: a laconic mysteriousness and nuanced, cerebral lethality of presence that distinguished him as a rara avis among the quotidian ordinary."

The Independent lists the "50 Best Boxsets."

Online viewing tip. "You can watch the entirety of 'Hitler: A Film from Germany (in German or English, with or without subtitles) at Hans Jürgen Syberberg's website," notes Kevin Lee. But it's also on DVD from Facets; Kevin: "Lauded by the likes of Susan Sontag as one of the greatest works of 20th century art, while reviled by many both in Germany and abroad as a work of depraved reactionary nostalgia, Hans Jurgen Syberberg's epic rumination of Germany's Nazi past remains as troubling and troublesome today as it was thirty years ago.... Syberberg takes the old adage of confronting the mistakes of the past lest they be repeated and puts it to an extreme test, immersing its audience in seven-plus hours of Naziana drawn out to such length and breadth that it suggests a morbidly intractable fixation with its subject."

DVD roundups: Sean Axmaker, DVD Talk, Mark Kermode (Observer), Harry Knowles (AICN), Peter Martin (Cinematical) and Noel Murray (LAT).

[Photos: "The French Connection," 20th Century Fox, 1971; "Vanishing Point," 20th Century Fox, 1971; "Chris & Don: A Love Story," Zeitgeist Films, 2007; Hitler: A Film from Germany," WDR, 1977]

Tags: Dario Argento, DVDs, Hans Jürgen Syberberg, Jane Fonda, Jiri Menzel, Luis Buñuel, Richard C Sarafian, William Friedkin