The 61st Cannes Film Festival Awards its Favorites

By Cole Smithey

CANNES, France May 25. At this year's Cannes Film Festival, the jury, presided over by Sean Penn, awarded the Palme d'Or to Laurent Cantet for his heavily work-shopped film about a French junior high school teacher in a tough neighborhood, whose teaching style is challenged by his difficult students.

The Palme d'Or award in the Court Metrages (Shorts Films) category went to director Marian Crisan for "Megatron," about a young Romanian boy whose single mother takes him, for his eighth birthday, to Bucharest where his father lives.

The Camera d'Or (First Film Prize) went to director Steve McQueen (no not that one) for "Hunger," about Bobby Sands' 1981 hunger strike in Northern Ireland's Maze Prison.

The Prix Un Certain Regard went to director Sergey Dvortsevoy for "Tulpan," about a young Kazakh naval officer who returns to the steppe to live a nomadic life.

The Prix Du Scenario (Best Screenplay) went to Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne for "Lorna's Silence," about a young Albanian woman (Arta Dobroshi) in cahoots with Fabio, a Belgian mobster, to make money so she can open a snack bar with her boyfriend. Lorna suffers through a fraud marriage to Claudy (well played by Jeremie Renier), a junkie that Fabio plans to kill in order to put Lorna in another sham marriage, this time to a rich Russian. If the plot sounds convoluted it doesn't impede an inevitable flood of surprising physical and emotional responses from the poker-faced Lorna. "Lorna's Silence" was one of the strongest films in competition.

The Prix Du La Mise En Scene award (Best Director) went to Nuri Bilge Ceylan for "Three Monkeys," about a father, mother, and son caught in a web of corruption, betrayal, and murder.

The Prix Du Masculine (Best Actor Prize) went to Benicio Del Toro for Steven Soderbergh's unconventional two-for-one Che Guevara biopic "Che."

"The Argentine" begins with Che's famous 1964 speech at the United Nations, and finishes with Batista's overthrow at the hands of Che's well-organized guerilla troops. The second half "Guerilla" picks up after Che's lost year in Africa when he slipped into Bolivia to help lead a doomed revolution. Problematically, the two films are scheduled to be released separately, drawing into question tonal differences between them. Soderbergh doesn't attempt to consolidate the story of Guevara's life, but rather to concentrate on the way the rebel leader attempted to build on his success in Cuba to spread revolution around the world.

The Prix Du Feminine (Best Actress Prize) went to Sandra Corveloni for her performance in Walter Salles' and Daniela Thomas' "Linha de Passe," about four brothers attempting to break out of limited opportunities in Sao Paulo.

The honors for the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) went to Matteo Garrone's "Gomorra," based on Roberto Saviano's tell-all mafia expose. Director Matteo Garrone weaves together five stories of mob-related corruption sucking dry the provinces of Naples and Caserta. A tailor, enslaved to his occupation since childhood, two would-be teen gangsters, a pair of illicit toxic disposal contractors, and a young boy living in a drug-infested housing project, make up the indelible characters in this devastating picture of social collapse.

New Values: Corruption and Death in Cannes

By Cole Smithey

The big movies at Cannes this year treated the subject of corruption, from betrayal of personal ethics for cash to systematic governmental abuse, with cinematic inoculations of hope for an equalizing justice for humanity. Films like Arnaud Desplechin’s “A Christmas Tale,” Steven Soderbergh’s “Che,” Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut “Synecdoche, New York,” and even Wim Wenders’ embarrassing “The Palermo Shooting” contributed context to the importance of death to life. Several days of rain on the usually sun-drenched Riviera beaches allowed the thousands of journalists and critics many hours of guilt-free screenings while the likes of Clint Eastwood and Robert de Niro brought Hollywood glamour to the ever-busy red carpet. If you came here in my skin, these are the films you would have seen.

Lorna’s Silence (In Competition)

Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne craft an evocative story about Lorna, a young Albanian woman (played flawlessly in the festival’s most impressive break-out performance by Kosovo-born Arta Dobroshi) in cahoots with Fabio, a Belgian mobster, to make money so she can open a snack bar with her boyfriend. Lorna suffers through a fraud marriage to Claudy (well played by Jeremie Renier), a junkie that Fabio plans to kill in order to put Lorna in another sham marriage, this time to a rich Russian. If the plot sounds convoluted it doesn’t impede an inevitable flood of surprising physical and emotional responses from the poker-faced Lorna. “Lorna’s Silence” was one of the strongest films in competition.

Waltz With Bashir (In Competition)

Writer/director Ari Folman adopted a graphic novel-like animated approach to address his haunting but vague recollections as a soldier in the 1982 Israeli Army invasion of Beirut, including the massacre of Palestinian civilians at the hands of the Christian Phalangist militia. Informed by confessional discussions with friends, the film gradually connects his abstract visions and short-circuited memory clips toward fleshing out Folman’s traumatic experiences. Visually inventive and viscerally sincere, “Waltz With Bashir” is a cathartic and unforgettable film.

A Christmas Tale ("Un Conte de Noel") (In Competition)

It wouldn't be Cannes without at least one French movie about familial angst, social ennui, and the specter of death. Arnaud Desplechin brought the goods this year with his irreverent, multi-layered story, set in his hometown of Roubaix, about Abel (Jean-Paul Roussllon) and his wife Junon Vuillard (Catherine Deneuve) whose loss of a son to lymphoma informs their existence. Now years later with three grown children-Ivan (Melvil Poupaud), a hopeless romantic, Henri (Mathieu Amalric), the family black sheep, and Elizabeth (Anne Consigny), who disowned Henri five years ago--reunite for Christmas. In need of a bone-marrow transplant, Junon has limited choices for a donor, but doesn't let the threat of death ruffle her Gallic feathers. There are no martyrs in this anti-sentimental ironic movie that nevertheless percolates with emotion and accepts its quirky characters for all of their flaws.

Che (“The Argentine” and “Guerilla”) (In Competition)

The biggest buzz of the festival was Steven Soderbergh’s unconventional two-for-one Che Guevara biopic that ran four hours and twenty minutes long. “The Argentine” begins with Che’s famous 1964 speech at the United Nations, and finishes with Batista’s overthrow at the hands of Che’s well-organized guerilla troops. The second half “Guerilla” picks up after Che’s lost year in Africawhen he slipped into Bolivia to help lead a doomed revolution. Problematically, the two films are scheduled to be released separately, drawing into question tonal differences between them. Soderbergh doesn’t attempt to consolidate the story of Guevara’s life, but rather to concentrate on the way the rebel leader attempted to build on his success in Cubato spread revolution around the world. Benicio Del Toro is predictably mesmerizing as Che, and however flawed the concept, “Che” was the most gratifying screening experience in Cannes.

Three Monkeys (“Uc Maymun”) (In Competition)

On first sight a strong contender for the Palme d’Or, Turkish director/co-writer Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s (“Les Climats”) film is about a father, mother, and son caught in a web of corruption, betrayal, and murder makes thoughtful use of its see no, hear no, speak no evil, metaphor. Troubles begin when Servet (Ercan Kesal) an ambitious politician kills a pedestrian at night with his car and bribes his regular driver Eyup (played by popular Turkish folk singer Yavuz Bingol) to take responsibility and serve the nine-month jail sentence that comes with it. Eyup’s lazy teenage son Ismael (Ahmet Rifat Sungar) talks his mother Hacer (Hatice Aslan) into requesting an advance on the bribe from Servet, and the family spirals down a self-perpetrating path of depravity. This sparsely-told story speaks volumes with a cinematic poetry that you would expect to find in Cannes.

 

Blindness (In Competition)

Director Fernando Meirelles’ adaptation of Jose Saramago’s allegorical novel about a society that goes blind loses all credibility in Don McKellar’s particularly naïve screenplay. Julianne Moore strives valiantly to single-handedly hold up the film as its only seeing character, but doesn’t stand a chance against implausible sequences of a group of quarantined blindness victims who can’t agree on where to evacuate their bladders and bowels. “Blindness” opened the festival as an embarrassment.

Adoration (In Competition)

Atom Egoyan’s latest film follows a 16-year-old boy’s (Devon Bostick) search for truth about his parents’ death from a head-on collision that occurred after a tense family gathering with his volatile grandfather. At his high school teacher’s (Arsinee Khanjian) provocation, Simon writes a fictional essay about how his middle-eastern father secretly planted a bomb in his pregnant girlfriend’s (Rachel Blanchard) luggage on her way to Israel, only to have it discovered and defused by airport security. Simon posts the story on his facebook page, and sets off an online discussion beyond his control. As with all of Egoyan’s films, “Adoration” is a forward-thinking exploratory work of cinema meant to invigorate audiences into social discussions past its narrative structure. Simon’s search for resolution comes with a symbolic personal gesture that seeks to sort out the present from the future with the dubious aid of modern-day technology’s social interaction. It’s all about the effort.

Gomorra (In Competition)

Roberto Saviano’s tell-all mafia expose provides rich narrative soil for director Matteo Garrone to weave together five stories of mob-related corruption sucking dry the provinces of Naples and Caserta. A tailor, enslaved to his occupation since childhood, two would-be teen gangsters, a pair of illicit toxic disposal contractors, and a young boy living in a drug-infested housing project, make up the indelible characters in this devastating picture of social collapse.

Two Lovers (In Competition)

After stinking up the competition at last year’s festival with “We Own the Night,” co-writer/director James Gray grinds gears switching from his typical predilection for crime genre stories to make an imitation love story. There isn’t an empathetic character to be had. Manic depressive thirty-something Brooklynite Leonard Kraditor (Joaquin Phoenix) still lives at home with his parents and works at his father’s dry cleaners. Leonard falls for Michelle (Gwyneth Paltrow in her first film role in two years), a romantically bemused girl dating a married man (Elias Koteas). It doesn’t help that Leonard’s parents have set him up with Sandra (Vinessa Shaw), the daughter of Leonard’s dad’s business partner. Sandra is to Leonard as he is to Michelle. Yawn.

The Exchange (AKA “Changeling”) (In Competition)

Based on a true story from Los Angeles, circa 1928, Christine (Angelina Jolie) is a hard-working single mother whose nine-year-old son Walter is kidnapped. Months pass before a corruption-embattled LAPD delivers to Christine an imposter child three inches shorter than Walter, and circumcised. Christine’s vocal protestations about the boy’s identity are met with impunity by a hostile police captain (Jeffrey Donovan) who has Christine institutionalized in a psych ward, while local radio talk show Presbyterian minister Rev. Gustav Briegleb (played by a miscast John Malkovich) jumps to her defense. Apart from a flashing neon light coda, Eastwood’s drama made for a respectable competition entry.

Synecdoche, New York (In Competition)

Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman’s (“Being John Malkovitch”) directorial debut is a profound, funny, and inevitably surreal love letter to death and its flesh-collapsing reality amid the hopes, fears, and desires of normal people. The ever-dependable Philip Seymour Hoffman plays community theater director Caden Cotard, whose family life with his wife Adele (Catherine Keener) and 4-year-old daughter in Schenectady is falling apart. Nagging health issues eat away at Caden as he uses a McArthur grant to build a sound stage version of Manhattan inside a gigantic warehouse to write and direct a second life version of his pained existence. Synecdoche (pronounced sin-ec-ta-tee) rhymes with Schenectadyand denotes a part of something used to refer to the whole thing, or the other way around. Kaufman’s high concept narrative is an evocative and empathic way of looking at the inevitability of death, and it features a concentrated use of great female actors (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Samantha Morton, Emily Watson, Michelle Williams, and Diane Wiest star).

The Palermo Shooting (In Competition)

Leave it to Wim Wenders to make the most beautifully shot and scored, but boring and unintentionally campy, suspense love story you’ve ever seen. Finn (played by Campino, the Pierce Brosnan-looking singer for “Toten Hosen”) is a hotshot German artsy photographer who slums by doing fancy commercial ads against bizarre backgrounds. Able only to sleep for brief naps, Finn is hunted by an invisible-arrow-shooting phantom (Dennis Hopper) that follows Finn from Düsseldorf to Palermo where he meets Flavia (Giovanna Mezzogiorno), a lovely art restoration specialist working on the famous death related fresco “Il Trionfo della Morte.” There would have been more boos at the film’s premiere, but many in the audience were asleep.

Tyson (Un Certain Regard)

Director James Toback leverages his twenty-plus year friendship with the former “Baddest Man on the Planet” to capture a warts-and-all documentary confessional from Mike Tyson that feels like the most candid therapy session you’ve ever witnessed. Whatever preconceptions you have about Tyson will be challenged in a modern story of self-destruction and renewal that is as much about one vulnerable man’s desperate need for guidance as it is a reflection on American society, the media, and the sport of boxing. “Tyson” is nothing short of magnificent.

   

Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Outside of Competition)

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a postcard trifle about two American girls (British newcomer Rebecca Hall as Vicky and Scarlett Johansson as Cristina) on a summer vacation complicated be the amorous attentions of local painter Juan Antonio (mischievously played by Javier Bardem) whose bi-polar ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) brings danger into the mix. The movie compulsively hits fast-forward every time Woody interrupts the action with voice-over narration from an extraneous male narrator, but is nonetheless an improvement over his last film, “Cassandra’s Dream.”

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (Outside of Competition)

It took a woman filmmaker (Marina Zenovich) to contextualize the behind-the-scenes horse-trading and injustices involved in Polanski's famous 1977-1978 trial for unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor that led to his self-imposed exile from America after serving a brief prison sentence. Zenovich blends a plethora of clips from Polanski's films with precise interview footage from attorneys on both sides of the case to outline judicial abuses by the presiding judge, Laurence J. Rittenband, whose career was shuttered due to his maleficent treatment of the case. Disturbing and informative, the film shows two highly egotistical men with a similar proclivity for young women (Polanski and Rittenband) in a media frenzied dual that neither could escape.

Surveillance (Outside of Competition)

From the looks of her latest cinematic abomination, it seems Jennifer Lynch is doomed to forever be regarded as David Lynch’s untalented daughter. Her first film in 15 years, after the unwatchable “Boxing Helena,” is the kind of slapdash gore-fest you’d expect from Rob Zombie, although even he might take offense at the comparison. A violent serial-killer-murder-sequence shifts to a pair of overly affectionate FBI agents (played by Bill Pullman and Julia Ormond) arriving at a desert town police station to interview impudent local cops about a highway massacre that left one cop wounded and his partner dead. Alternating flashbacks show an abusive pair of cops (played by French Stewart and co-writer Kent Harper) shooting out tires on passing cars before playing good-cop-bad-cop with their prey, that necessarily includes a vacationing family with a little girl and a pair of drug addicts. There’s a big twist at the end, but not a bit of competent writing or filmmaking to be had. If you ever wondered how one movie could discredit a festival’s programmer, “Surveillance” is it.

Chelsea on the Rocks (Outside of Competition)

Abel Ferrara combines archival footage and reenacted scenes from Sid and Nancy’s last days while staying at the Chelsea Hotel, with interviews of some of the famous hotel’s more colorful residents to elucidate the passing of one of Manhattan’s landmark havens for artists. Stanley Bard, the hotel’s well-loved manager and caretaker for 45 years, was pushed out by a new management company intent on raising profits with a Chateau Marmont-like renovation. The documentary is just one more reminder of the war on culture taking place on a vast scale all over the world.

What Just Happened (Closing Night Film)

Barry Levinson’s adaptation of producer Art Linson's tell-all "What Just Happened? Bitter Hollywood Tales from the Front Line" closed the festival with an appropriate bit of self-reflexive Hollywood satire. Robert De Niro plays Ben, a twice-divorced LA producer whose status as a key power broker is threatened by the outcome of his latest project, an “edgy” Sean Penn thriller directed by an ego-maniacal auteur (Michael Wincott). To make matters worst, the starting date of Ben’s next picture depends on whether Bruce Willis will agree to shave off six months worth of beard that he is ridiculously attached to keeping. Filled with inside humor about things like the importance of premiering certain kinds of films at Cannes, Levinson’s latest comedy confirmed the first rule of success in the film business; “Nobody knows nothing.”

 

The Palme d’Or award in the Court Metrages (Shorts Films) category went to "Megatron" (Marian Crisan).

The Camera d'Or (First Film Prize) went to director Steve McQueen (no not that one) for "Hunger," about Bobby Sands’ 1981 hunger strike in Northern Ireland’s Maze Prison.

The Prix Un Certain Regard went director Sergey Dvortsevoy for “Tulpan” (about a young Kazakh naval officer who returns to the steppe to live a nomadic life).

The Prix Du Scenario (Best Screenplay) went to Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne for “Lorna’s Silence.”

The Prix Du La Mise En Scene award (Best Director) went to Nuri Bilge Ceylan for "Three Monkeys."

The Prix Du Masculine (Best Actor Prize) went to Benicio Del Toro for Steven Soderbergh’s “Che.”

The Prix Du Feminine (Best Actress Prize) went to Sandra Corveloni for her performance in Walter Salles’ and Daniela Thomas’ "Linha de Passe," about four brothers attempting to break out of limited opportunities in Sao Paulo.

The honors for the Grand Prix (Grand Prize) went to Matteo Garrone’s "Gomorra."

The Palme d'Or was presented by Robert de Niro to Laurent Cantet for "Entre les Murs” (“The Class”), about a French junior high school teacher in a tough neighborhood whose teaching style is challenged by his difficult students.

Cannes So Far

Sean Penn’s 2008 Festival of Response
By Cole Smithey

CANNES, France -- Sean Penn has great taste in film. He championed Russian director Elem Klimov's 1985 "Come and See" long before most critics had ever even heard of it. So it's fitting that the virtuoso actor/writer/director should become the 9th American to preside over a Cannes Film Festival jury, behind such cinema greats as Kirk Douglas, Clint Eastwood and Martin Scorsese. As with any group, institution, or country, the President sets a tone that people respond to. So it's not surprising that an atmosphere of clear-eyed focus, aided by intermittent rain on the usually sunny Riviera, permeated screenings of films ranging from less-than-impressive (Fernando Meirelles' "Blindness" was a dud) to the sublime (Arnaud Desplechin's "A Christmas Tale," which hit nearly every note on its broad emotional range).

In recent years, Cannes has become a more consistent festival as opposed to its previous on-again-off-again years that swung between soaring highs and mediocre lows. There may never again be a Madonna moment, as in the '80s when the singer worked the red carpet with her Madonna/whore shtick that shocked and seduced the world, but then again the world seems much smaller these days.

Hollywood's annual dog-and-pony croisette show included Jack Black doing goofball kung fu poses for his enjoyable kids' movie "Kung Fu Panda." Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Cate Blanchett, Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeof, John Hurt, and Ray Winstone took up a day of everyone's attention with the surprisingly satisfying "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull," and its obligatory press conference where Harrison Ford got choked up about putting on the Indiana Jones costume once again.

There's been plenty of cinematic meat to chew on, as with James Toback's candid Mike Tyson documentary "Tyson." Greek tragedies don't play any better than watching and hearing the once-great boxer openly tell his warts-and-all-story to Toback's accompanied use of archive footage and home movies. Proud of 15 months free of alcohol and drug addiction, Mike Tyson and three of his children attended the film's premiere and were met with an ovation by its enthusiastic audience.

Woody Allen once again stormed the Palais in methodical fashion with a sultry if rushed romantic trifle set in Spain. "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" is a postcard romp about two American girls (British newcomer Rebecca Hall as Vicky, and Scarlett Johansson as Cristina) on a summer vacation complicated be the amorous attentions of local painter Juan Antonio (mischievously played by Javier Bardem) whose bi-polar ex-wife Maria Elena (Penelope Cruz) brings danger into the mix. The movie compulsively hits fast-forward every time Woody interrupts the action with voice-over narration from an irrelevant male narrator, but is nonetheless an improvement over his last film "Cassandra's Dream."

Although he didn't have a film at this year's festival, David Lynch lorded his enigmatic presence with this year's 2008 Cannes Festival poster image of a mysterious blond woman's slightly out-of-focus face made anonymous by a black rectangle covering her eyes, as if to signify a pornographic sin for which she will forever pay. 

The constant flood of production announcements included Oliver Stone's George Bush narrative "W," which began filming in Shreveport, Louisiana, and Michael Moore's revelation about his upcoming Fahrenheit/911 sequel. Moore promised a thoroughly researched documentary about America's path to its current state of fear and suspicion. Uniquely bizarre was the revelation about Werner Herzog's upcoming remake of Abel Ferrara's "Bad Lieutenant," set to feature Nic Cage in the role originally played by Harvey Keitel in a tour de force performance.

At the festival's halfway point, Palme d'Or contenders included Ari Folman's "Waltz with Bashir" (a graphic novel approach to his haunting recollections of an Israeli Army mission during the Lebanon War of the early '80s), and the Dardenne Brothers' "Lorna's Silence" (about a young Albanian woman's involvement in a Mafia plan to marry for Belgian citizenship and murder her junkie husband). It seems highly unlikely that James Gray's "Two Lovers" (starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Isabella Rossellini) will make a dent on the Jury's short list, while Clint Eastwood's "The Exchange" (a '20s era period drama about a woman (Angelina Jolie) whose kidnapped son returns as a different boy) meets with high expectations. Steven Soderbergh snuck in a two-for-one with "Che," a two-part, four-and-a-half-hour Che Guevara biopic (Benicio Del Toro does the honors) that promises to test the bladders and attention span of Cannes' ever-increasing number of film journalists, which increases by 6% every year.

It wouldn't be a proper festival without the selection of Cannes Classics that play in the Palais' "Salle Bunuel" screening room every night. This year's assortment of noteworthy treasures included David Lean's "This Happy Breed" (a Noel Coward drama about a lower middle-class family's feuds during three decades leading up to WWII), and Joseph Strick's radical vision of late '50s America as experienced through the eyes of a lonely divorcee who moves to Los Angeles.

Cannes is much more than an all-you-can-watch buffet of world cinema (more than 2300 films are shown during its 10 days), it's a bellwether of cinematic, economic, and global social values. But to weigh these new values, we have to wait until the climactic awards ceremony on Sunday, May 25th.

The 2008 Academy Award Results

BEST DIRECTOR:  Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

BEST PICTURE:   No Country for Old Men

BEST ACTOR:   Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

BEST ACTRESS:  Marion Cotillard, La Vie En Rose

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:  Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Diablo Cody, Juno

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:  Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men

BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM: Taxi to the Dark Side (Dir:  Alex Gibney)

BEST ANIMATED FILM:  Ratatouille (director/writer:  Brad Bird)

BEST FOREIGN FILM:  The Counterfeiters (Austria)

BEST ART DIRECTION: Art Direction: Dante Ferretti, Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo, Sweeney Todd

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

BEST COSTUMES: Alexandra Byrne, Elizabeth: The Golden Age

BEST MAKE-UP: Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald, La Vie En Rose

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Dario Marianelli, Atonement

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:  Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, "Falling Slowly", Once

BEST FILM EDITING: Christopher Rouse, The Bourne Ultimatum

BEST SOUND MIXING: Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis, The Bourne Ultimatum

BEST SOUND EDITING: Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg, The Bourne Ultimatum

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood, The Golden Compass

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: Freeheld (Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth)

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: Le Mozart Des Pickpockets (Philippe Pollet-Villard)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: Peter & the Wolf (Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman)

DVD Release Dates

June 10, 2008

7th Heaven: Sixth Season

American Gangster: The Complete Second Season

Anthony Warrior of God

Army Wives: Complete First Season

The Ballad of Narayama

Bedazzled

Boondocks - The Complete Second Season

The Bucket List

Cage Aux Folles & Birdcage

Catherine Deneuve Collection

Cheaper by the Dozen

Comedy Central's Home Grown

Comedy Central's TV Funhouse

Curse of the Devil

Dr. Dolittle

The Dukes of Hazzard Two Movie Collection (Reunion! / Hazzard in Hollywood)

Fantastic Four - World's Greatest Heroes - The Complete First Season

Flight of the Phoenix

The Fugitive: Season Two, Vol. 1

Glass

The Grand

Grindhouse Experience: American Gangstas

A Harlot's Progress

Hawaii Five-0: The Fourth Season

High Noon (1952)

Home Improvement: Complete Eighth Season

Icons of Adventure

Into Alaska with Jeff Corwin

John Adams

Jumper

The List

McLeod's Daughters: The Complete Sixth Season

Millions: A Lottery Story

My Boys: The Complete First Season

The Odd Couple: The Fourth Season

Omen

Organizm

The Other Boleyn Girl

Otis

Out of the Blue

Player 5150

The Rock: The Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment

Rollerbal (1975) (2002)

Shark

The Signal

Soap: The Complete Series

Sophia Lore 4-Film Collection

Summer 04

Thomas Crown Affair (1968) (1999)

Vinci's Inquest: Season 3

Waiting for God: Season Three

Werewolf's Shadow

What Up?

What's Happening: The Complete Series

Witless Protection (Widescreen Edition)

June 17, 2008

4 Months 3 Weeks & 2 Days

Alive or Dead

Bagboy

Be Kind Rewind

Boxes

Bullrider

Burn Notice: Season 1

Californication - Season One

Caramel

The Carmen Miranda Collection (The Gang's All Here / If I'm Lucky / Something for the Boys / Greenwich Village / Doll Face)

Classe Tous Risques

Cut Off

The Dead Pit

Doll Face

Dynasty: Season Three V. 1

ER: Complete Ninth Season

Fanny

Fool's Gold

Greenwich Village

If I'm Lucky

Inspector Gadget: Big Little Problem

It's a Boy Girl Thing

Jack and Jill vs. The World

Jericho - The Second Season

Joy Division

The Jungle Book 2

Love & Other Disasters

Meerkat Manor, Season 3

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

The Nude Bomb

Patriotism

Popeye the Sailor: 1938-1940, Vol. 2

Sabrina Teenage Witch: Fourth Season

Something for the Boys

Sonic Underground, Vol. 2

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody: Lip Synchin' in the Rain

Super High Me

The Sword in the Stone

Welcome Home Roscoe Jenkins

June 24, 2008

10,000 B.C.

2 Minutes Later

Before the Rain

The Big Easy: The Complete First Season

Birth Of Civilization

Bonneville

Caravaggio (Special Edition)

Careless

Catching out: A Film About Trainhopping and Living Free

Charlie Bartlett

Definitely, Maybe

Dick Tracy Returns

Dogfights: The Complete Season 2

Draniac

Early Edition: The First Season

An Erotic Werewolf in London

Evening Shade - Season One

The Eye 3

Firestorm

The Free Will

From the Ground Up by Su Friedrich

The Furies

Futurame: The Beast With A Billion Backs

Goodbye Uncle Tom

Hell's Ground

Heroes

Ice Road Truckers: On & Off The Ice

In Bruges

Journey to the Far Side of the Sun

Maid in Sweden

Man of a Thousand Faces

The New Adventures of Old Christine - The Complete Second Season

Raising Jeffrey Dahmer

Read You Like A Book

Solo Sunny

Soulstice

The Spiderwick Chronicles (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Spiderwick Chronicles (Widescreen Edition)

A Thing of Wonder: The Mind and Matter of Jerry Andrus

Till Death Do Us Part

War Crimes

Wholphin - Issue 1

Wholphin, No. 2: DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films

Wholphin, No. 3: DVD Magazine of Rare and Unseen Short Films

Wholphin, No. 5: A DVD Magazine of Unseen Things

Wholphin: Issue 4

Wittgenstein (Special Edition)

Xanadu - Magical Musical Edition (With Complete Soundtrack CD)

July 1, 2008

The 2007 Newport Music Festival: Connoisseur's Collection

The American Film Theater Complete 14 Film Collection (The Iceman Cometh / A Delicate Balance / The Man in the Glass Booth / Butley / Luther / Rhinoceros ... / The Maids / Jacques Brel)

Baby It's You

Batman: The Movie

Busy Body

City of Men

The Closer - The Complete Third Season

Daniel

Dead & Gone

Desert Punk: Box Set

Desperate Characters

Drillbit Taylor

French Postcards

Get Smart's Bruce and Lloyd out of Control

Girl on the Bridge

Heathers - 20th High School Reunion Edition

House of Payne, Vol. 2 - Episodes 21-40

Hurricane

The Legend of Bravestarr - Season 1, Volume 2

Lmtd Edition Hellboy 2 pack with Figurine

Mad Men - Season One

Man Woman & Child

Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters

Money From Home

My Blueberry Nights

National Geographic: Dogtown - Second Chances

Papa's Delicate Condition

Partners

Patriotism

Pied Piper

Rhubarb

Samurai 7: Box Set

Serial

Sex and Death 101

Streets of San Francisco: Second Season V.1

Till Death Do Us Part

Tori & Dean Inn Love Season 1

Tyler Perry's Meet The Browns

Vantage Point

A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory

Walker, Texas Ranger: The Fifth Season

Wide Awake

Won Ton Ton the Dog Who Saved Hollywood

Yankee Stadium: Baseball's Cathedral

July 8, 2008

The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet: Best of Ricky and Dave

Atheism Tapes

Bat Without Wings

Batman - Gotham Knight (Single-Disc Edition)

Batman - Gotham Knight (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Batman Begins

Blood Brothers

Bone Eater

Cannon: Season One, Vol. 1

Dance Me Outside

Don Camillo & The Return of Don Camillo

Dungeon Girl

Fastlane - The Complete Series

Flakes

The Future is Unwritten-DVD Documentary

Hard Times at Douglass High: A No Child Left Behind Report Card

I Dream of Jeannie - The Complete Fifth Season

Jake & The Fatman: Season One V.1

Jet Li's Fearless

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Little Chenier: A Cajun Story

Little Girls

Metropolis

Mon Oncle Antoine - Criterion Collection

Monk - Season Six

Mummy

The Mummy Returns

NHL - Stanley Cup Champions 2007-2008

Philosophy of a Knife

Philosophy of a Knife Limited Edition

Playboy: Great American Cybergirl Search

Psych - The Complete Second Season

The Ruins

Soul Food: The Final Season

Stargate Atlantis - The Complete Fourth Season

Stop-Loss

Superhero Movie

Teen Titans - The Complete Fifth Season

This Kiss

Toxic

The Tracey Fragments

Van Helsing

Welcome to Amish America

Wire In The Blood: The Complete Fifth Season

WWE: Nature Boy Ric Flair - The Definitive Collection

X-Files Revelations (With Movie Cash)

Yu Yu Hakusho: Season One Box Set

July 15, 2008

America's Test Kitchen: Season 8

Asylum

The Bank Job

Birds of Prey - The Complete Series

College Road Trip

The Curiosity of Chance

Dallas - The Complete Ninth Season

Eagle Shooting Heroes

Eureka: Season Two

Heavy Petting

Meet Bill

The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya: Complete Collection

Monsieur Vincent

Never Forever

Penelope

Poison Sweethearts

Reno 911 - The Complete Fifth Season

Roxy Hunter and the Secret of the Shaman

Saving Grace: Season 1

Shutter

Steel Trap

Step Up 2 The Streets

Trapped Ashes

Year My Parents Went on Vacation

July 22, 2008

'Round Midnight

21

American Slapstick 2

The Andre Techine Boxset

Big Dreams, Little Tokyo

Bird

The Boston Strangler

Bruce Nauman: Make Me Think

Case Closed: Season 1 Set

Case No. 2001

Clandestinos

Comedy Central's TV Funhouse

Death Valley

Follies of Miss Eva

Heartbeat Detector

High and Low

Johan Van der Keuken: Complete Collection, Vol. 3

L.A. Ink: Season 1

Las Vegas: Season Five

Last Winter

Maluala

Masters of Horror: Season Two Box Set

Mushrooms

NFL: In Just One Play

Pete Kelly's Blues

Picture This!

Robot Chicken: Star Wars

Room 314

Six Reasons Why

Spaced: The Complete Series

Steve-O: Out on Bail

The Superhero

Transformers Cybertron the Ultimate Collection

Troubadours

Turn the River

Twin Daggers

Two Tickets to Paradise

Vampyr

Without the King

July 29, 2008

Alice Upside Down

Antisocial Behavior

The Audience Strikes Back

Avatar The Last Airbender - Book 3 Fire, Vol. 4

The Band's Visit

Bears (IMAX)

Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad - The Complete Series

Beverly Hills, 90210 - The Fifth Season

Bloody Moon

Cannibal Terror

Centennial: The Complete Series

Challenge of The Masters

Classic British Thrillers

Cyxork 7

Dark City

Dark Shadows: The Beginning, Vol. 5

The Deal

Devil Hunter

Doomsday Unrated

Fire And Ice

Freakazoid: The Complete First Season

Ghostride the Whip

Girlfriends - The Fourth Season

Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay

The Hills - The Complete Third Season

History of Britain, A: The Complete Collection

Hopeville

The Houseboy

Inglorious Bastards

Inuyasha Season 5 Deluxe Edition Box Set

Joe Louis: America's Hero... Betrayed

Kirikou And The Wild Beast

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit - Seventh Year

Lips of Blood

Madame O

Man, Woman, and the Wall

Maria Watches Over Us - Season 1

Naruto The Movie 2: Legend of the Stone of Gelel

Never Back Down

Parking Wars: Best of Season 1

Phineas and Ferb: The Fast and the Phineas

Puzzle

Ranma - Season 7

Robin Hood - Season 2

Robin of Sherwood: The Complete Collection

Shine a Light

Stargate: Continuum

Tai-Chi Master

Tiny Toon Adventures: Season 1, Vol. 1

Virgin Witch

Wargames 2: The Dead Code

Wholphin, No. 5: A DVD Magazine of Unseen Things

Witchblade - The Complete Series

The Wizards of Waverly Place: Wizard School

Wolves (IMAX)

Young & Restless in China

Yu-Gi-Oh: The Complete Third Season