Foreign Films on DVD

Gloomy Sunday, winner of major German film awards and an art-house favorite that ran 70 weeks in Boston, hits all the right notes with its poignant, glowingly shot tale set in Budapest during the Holocaust and, like Schindler's List and The Pianist, filled with the passion and pain of that tragic era. The song itself - recorded by Billie Holliday and other greats - is the stuff of legend, reportedly having a fateful real-life impact similar to that shown on screen. But it's love's power that is ultimately at the heart of this acclaimed film. And from the opening scene to the deft twist ending, that power is extraordinary.

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Media Type: DVD<br><b>Artist: PRINCESS & THE GOBLIN<br><b>Title: PRINCESS & THE GOBLIN<br><b>Street Release Date: 03/06/2007
Domestic
Genre: CHILDREN'S VIDEO

When young Anna Holz (Diane Kruger), a Viennese music student is asked to transcribe scoring notes for the great Ludwig van Beethoven (Harris), she eagerly accepts, despite warnings about his volatile behavior. Part maestro, part mentor and part madman, Beethoven reluctantly relies on Anna to help him realize the culmination of his art.

Ralph fiennes superbly plays three roles in this acclaimed epic about a jewish family caught up in the war-swept 20th century. A story of courage love and faith and the three generations of men who fought for it all. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 03/28/2006 Starring: Ralph Fiennes Rachel Weisz Run time: 180 minutes Rating: R Director: Istvan Szabo

The Budapest subway system, the world’s oldest, is a dark labyrinthine netherworld as vast and various as the city above. Hordes of people pass through on their way to better, brighter places. There are some who spend most of their lives underground- the ticket inspectors or "Controllers" who are assigned in teams to sections of the system and whose thankless job is to ensure that no passengers ride without paying… Deployed by those in control- they are a much-despised lot…who on his way wants to be stopped and asked for a receipt by petty officers that represent power at its most powerless.

Don’t miss this unforgettable story of a child who had the courage to come home. <P>Set in 1944, as Hitler’s Final Solution becomes policy throughout Europe, Fateless is the semi-autobiographical tale of a 14 year-old Jewish boy from Budapest, who finds himself swept up by cataclysmic events beyond his comprehension. A perfectly normal metropolitan teen who has never felt particularly connected to his religion, he is suddenly separated from his family as part of the rushed and random deportation of his city’s large Jewish population. Brought to a concentration camp, his existence becomes a surreal adventure in adversity and adaptation, and he is never quite sure if he is the victim of his captors, or of an absurd destiny that metes out salvation and suffering arbitrarily. When he returns home after the liberation, he missed the sense of community he experienced in the camps, feeling alienated from both his Christian neighbors who turned a blind eye to his fate, and the Jewish family friends who avoided deportation and who now want to put the war behind them.

Two friends, each champion marksmen, are on opposite sides in war. One turns sniper for the enemy. One remains their town's last line of defense. In a terrible battle for power, two best friends must pull the trigger. Only one will feel the bullet - but both will feel the pain.

Over a hundred years after his death, Richard Wagner remains an enigma. His was a rags-to-riches saga with a fairy tale ending. He was loved, yet hated; admired, yet despised. He was a heroic villian who was worshipped and whose fame and exploits were the gossip of Europe. Above all, he was an incurable romantic whose affair with Liszt's illegitimate daughter rivals that of Romeo and Juliet. But he was also a dangerous political revolutionary whose influence penetrated the fabric of German society in the nineteenth century. He was a legend in his own lifetime, and he was one of the greatest composers to ever live. Only an actor of the stature of Richard Burton could measure up to the titanic character of Wagner, and this proved to be his final film role. Academy Award winner Vanessa Redgrave co-stars as Cosima, Wagner's second wife, a woman who had a dramatic impact on German history until her death in 1930. The incredible supporting cast also includes screen legends Sir Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson and John Gielgud. Filmed in wide screen 35mm Dolby Stereo, this major drama production is one of the largest East West co-productions ever undertaken.

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 03/09/2004 Run time: 108 minutes Rating: R

Hungarian auteur Bela Tarr's 7-hour, black-and-white epic based on the novel by Laszlo Karsznahorkai took two years to film. The complex story follows a group of people living in a dilapidated village in post-communist Hungary. Tarr examines their standstill lives through a series of episodes told from each person's point-of-view. Winner of the Caligari Film Prize and the Ecumenical Jury Prize Special Mention at the 1994 Berlin International Film Festival. In Hungarian with optional English subtitles. Includes Macbeth (1982, 64 mins.), Tarr's rarely seen interpretation of Shakespeare's tragedy famously captured in two shots; Journey on the Plain (1995, 34 mins.), in which actor-composer Mihaly Vig revisits the Satantango locations; Prologue (2004, 5 mins.), the director's stunning contribution to the omnibus Visions of Europe; About the Restoration (5 mins.); and a Facets Cine-Notes booklet.