RERELEASES

SHALLOW GRAVE 15

STAR WARS: EPISODE I – THE PHANTOM MENACE PG

From Edinburgh to Tatooine…

1994 ★★★★☆ OUT 10 MAY CINEMAS

1999 ★★★☆☆ OUT 3 MAY CINEMAS

Oddly parallel themes of trust/friendship aside, these two bookends of Ewan McGregor’s 90s run sit galaxies apart. Reissued, however, they offer dual proof that his light-speed lift-off was merited.

Aided by his Disney+ return to Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s largely McGregor who allows us to recall Menace with (guarded, mind) nostalgia. Beyond the prequel’s much-noted issues, McGregor’s winning on-screen presence helped offset George Lucas’ CG overload. And the three-way saber stand-off ranks alongside the saga’s finest dust-ups, especially seen in cinemas with John Williams’ Duel of the Fates blazing.

Rewinding five years, Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave climaxed with a bloodier three-person scrap. As three flatmates clash over a corpse and some cash, Grave holds up as a taut, stylish exercise in 90s suspense, acted to the hilt by Christopher Eccleston, Kerry Fox and McGregor. As Alex, McGregor is near-relatable yet boldly repellent, all laddish energy and callow cackle. Pity flatsharing hopeful Cameron, with his geekfriendly Forbidden Planet bag, who couldn’t know he was facing the Doctor and Obi-Wan. But you can’t miss the star wattage.

THE VERDICT Youthful Ewan brings warmth and wild-card vim to two 90s hits.

BIG BANANA FEET 12A

1977 ★★★★☆

OUT 10 MAY CINEMAS 20 MAY DVD, BD

EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Interview, Featurettes, Booklet

Rarely shown since its original release nearly five decades ago, this newly restored fly-on-thewall documentary follows Scottish comedian Billy Connolly on his 1975 tour of Dublin and Belfast at the height of the Troubles. What follows is a nimble portrait of the Glaswegian former shipyard welder on the brink of stardom. Wearing the outsized bananashaped footwear of the title, the banjo-playing stand-up displays his charm and comic prowess in front of expectant audiences.

MANSION OF THE DOOMED 15

1976 ★★☆☆☆ OUT 6 MAY BD

EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Documentary, Featurette, Booklet

Available in the UK for the first time, Michael Pataki’s 1976 video nasty is so tame it only warrants a 15 certificate these days. Featuring a stacked cast (Richard Basehart, Gloria Grahame, Lance Henriksen), plus future maestro ‘Stanley Winston’ on make-up, it follows an LA surgeon (Basehart) as he resorts to increasingly unethical means to restore his daughter’s sight. While the film itself looks great, and there are striking images of eyeless victims, the whole enterprise creaks like a dungeon door.

RAGING BULL 15

1980 ★★★★★ OUT 20 MAY 4K UHD, BD

EXTRAS ★★★★★ Commentaries, Video essays, Documentary, Featurettes, Interviews, Booklet

Scorsese’s bruising masterpiece comes out fighting on 4K Blu-ray. Not only does the restored blackand-white cinematography pack an almighty wallop, but when it comes to extras Criterion’s disc is a true heavyweight champ. On top of repackaged Blu-ray goodies, including a trio of commentaries and a four-part making-of, this upgrade adds a pair of perceptive visual essays and gives the real Vikki LaMotta her say (no matter how brief) courtesy of a vintage TV interview alongside actor Cathy Moriarty.

ROME, OPEN CITY 12A

1945 ★★★★★ OUT 17 MAY CINEMAS

Reissued as part of a two-month BFI Southbank season devoted to Italian neorealism, director Roberto Rossellini’s landmark Resistance drama was shot under exceptionally difficult circumstances in Rome in early 1945, while World War Two still raged in the north of Italy.

Blending fact and fiction, and using professional and nonprofessional actors, Rome, Open City documents the efforts of various Roman partisans (whether Christian or Marxist) to evade capture during the brutal German occupation. Nearly 80 years later, the film’s urgency and humanity remain undimmed.

DOGFIGHT 15

1991 ★★★☆☆ OUT 6 MAY BD

EXTRAS ★★★☆☆

Commentary, Interviews, Essay

A moment of casual cruelty leads to a young Marine and a coffeeshop waitress making unexpected connections on the night before he ships to Vietnam in Nancy Savoca’s bittersweet romance. As pat as it sounds, multifaceted performances from River Phoenix and Lili Taylor turn the story into something more complex and painfully uncertain. In the extras, Savoca, Taylor and Mary Harron address studio concerns over the film’s commercial prospects, with She’s Interesting (!) and Nice Personality (!!) seriously proposed as alternate titles.

THE DREAMERS 18

2003 ★★★☆☆ OUT 13 MAY 4K UHD

EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentary, Featurettes, Interviews, B-roll, Art cards

Sex and cinephilia are the driving forces of Bernardo Bertolucci and writer Gilbert Adair’s Paris 1968 story, a film more fixated on matters personal than political. The result is a mixed rumpus, most notable for Eva Green’s film debut as one third of a ménage à trois getting naked and talking shot – Keaton or Chaplin? – in a spiffy apartment. The fluid direction, handsome furnishings and fine song choices are easy on the eyes and ears, but the trio’s antics seem wearyingly selfabsorbed compared with what’s going on outside.

THE CAT AND THE CANARY PG

1927 ★★★★☆ OUT NOW BD

EXTRAS ★★★★☆ Commentaries, Visual essay, Interviews, Play extracts, Booklet

If not the first ‘old dark house’ movie, then Paul Leni’s silent horror comedy is surely the most influential (that familiar frightfilm standby of a corridor full of billowing curtains got its start here). This new 4K restoration reveals it to be among the most stylish, too, the German filmmaker mixing expressionist symbolism with a fluidity of camera movement. Even the film’s text cards refuse to sit still, thanks to Walter Anthony’s delightfully loopy animated intertitles.

FOOTPRINTS 12

1975 ★★★☆☆ OUT 29 APRIL BD, DIGITAL

EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Alt versions, Commentary, Intro, Interviews

Fitting in at the more outré end of 1970s Italian pop cinema, Luigi Bazzoni’s cult-ish oddity sees an amnesiac translator (played by Florinda Bolkan) chase after her double after being tormented by visions of Klaus Kinski; a puzzlelike yarn develops, marrying arthouse technique and mystery thriller expectations to surreal and atmospheric effect. This Shameless Films release comes with three cuts of the film, retrospective interviews and historian Rachael Nisbet’s commentary.

THE CROW 18

Back in black…

1994 ★★★★☆ OUT 6 MAY 4K UHD

EXTRAS ★★★☆☆ Commentaries, Featurettes, Interview, Profile, Extended/deleted scenes

The Crow is best known for the terrible fate that befell Brandon Lee on set. The 28-year-old actor and son of martial arts icon Bruce Lee was killed by a prop gun at the end of the shoot, and the film was released posthumously.

Watching the film 30 years later on this 4K Blu-ray restoration is a deeply sad experience, particularly given that Lee is a stunning on-screen presence; dynamic, haunting and possessing a balletic elegance even in the most brutal of scenes. He plays the titular Crow/ Eric Draven, a rock musician who comes back from the dead to seek revenge after a violent gang murder him and his girlfriend.

Based on the 1989 comic-book series, the film adopts its source material’s dark Goth aesthetic, which is further enhanced by an achingly cool soundtrack featuring The Cure, Rage Against the Machine and Nine Inch Nails. Much of the supporting cast is solid but Michael Wincott, as crime boss Top Dollar, steals scene after scene with a series of curled snarls and a voice so gravelly it sounds like he starts each day by gargling a bucket of rusty nails. With a remake on the way, it’s a perfect time to revisit the original, but time should be set aside afterwards to mourn one of cinema’s biggest tragedies.

THE VERDICT Thirty years on, The Crow remains one of the best films you’ll wish was never made.