Jeff Heinrich

At long last, the three feature films that made the name of director István Szabó outside his native Hungary in the 1980s — and earned him an Oscar — come together restored in 4K in a lovely Blu-ray boxset, one that's region-free, too, courtesy of British boutique distributor Second Run. The three movies — Mephisto (1981), Colonel Redl (1985) and Hanussen (1988) — are German-language period dramas starring Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer (Out of Africa), written by Péter Dobai (Sátántangó) and shot by cinematographer Lajos Koltai (Malèna). Winner of the Academy Award for best foreign-language film, Mephisto is based on the Klaus Mann novel about a German stage actor named Hendrik Höfgen (modeled on the real-life Gustaf Gründgens) who sheds his Bolshevik sympathies and sells his soul in a Faustian bargain with the Nazi party. Nominated for an Oscar and winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes and the BAFTA for best foreign-language film, Colonel Redl chronicles the rise and fall of Alfred Redl, a fictional chief of the secret police in pre-World War One Austro-Hungary whose ruthless efficiency hides a personal secret: he's gay. Hanussen returns to the Nazi period with the true story of Hermann (Herschel Chaim) Steinschneider, aka Erik Jan Hanussen, a self-promoting Moravian Jew whose powers of clairvoyancy help him predict the Reichstag fire of 1933, only see him assassinated by the Brownshirts a month later. On disc, this isn't the first time Mephisto and Colonel Redl have made it to Blu-ray (in the U.S., Kino Classics did it in 2020), but the new boxset marks the first time all three films have been issued as a package. Unlike Kino's Mephisto, there's no audio commentary on the Second Run release, nor is there on either of the other films, but the new edition does replicate one extra: an affectionate 2020 look at József Romvári, the three films' production designer, in which Romvári's granddaughter, the American filmmaker Sophy Romvari, interviews Szabó over the phone and ends with some sweet footage of her as a girl on her granddad's knee. There's a big bonus to this edition, too: four of Szabó's early short films: newly remastered in high-def, they range from the anti-war 'Variations on a Theme' (1961) and the love story 'You' (1963) to 'Concert' (1963), a silent comedy with sounds effects about a public piano on the banks of Budapest's Danube, and 'City Map' (1977), a love letter to Hungary's capital, the director's hometown. There's also a video interview in subtitled Hungarian with the director (including Hungarian-dubbed clips from his films); an examination of his Hungarian oeuvre entitled 'Szabó’s Central Europe'; and several trailers. Accompanying each disc is a booklet, and in them you'll find new writing by Hungarian cinema experts John Cunningham, Peter Hames and Catherine Portuges. If you remember seeing Mephisto and Colonel Redl on their release in cinemas four decades ago, as I do, screening them again now will bring new pleasures, not least of which is being amazed how, despite their length (146 minutes for Mephisto, 151 minutes for Colonel Redl) the time seems to fly by; the movies are that good. And if you're experiencing Hanussen for the first time, as I did with this Blu-ray, well, just enjoy the new ride.

Crowd-funding in the 1970s? Yes, it did happen ... in India. Half a million dairy farmers there put up two rupees each to finance Shyam Benegal's 1976 independent film Manthan, a 135-minute feature that developed out of India's 'White Revolution,' a massive government program to produce milk for the masses. Dramatizing issues of gender, class, and caste inequalities in the western coastal state of Gujarat, the movie was a milestone in India's Parallel Cinema movement, telling the tale of how the setting up of a milk cooperative transforms a rural village's economy and way of life. Cleaned up in 4K by India's Film Heritage Foundation, a new print of Manthan premiered last year at Cannes and now comes to Blu-ray via the British distributor Second Run, whose founder and owner is Mumbai-born Mehelli Modi. Besides new English subtitles for the Hindi dialogue, the all-region BD has two extras: 'Manthan Reborn,' a look at the the history and restoration of the film, including an interview with the late director, and 'Manthan at Cannes 2024,' in which Film Heritage Foundation founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and actor Naseeruddin Shah are interviewed by broadcaster Anupama Chopra. A 24-page booklet rounds out the package.

Danish filmmaker Bille August (Smilla's Sense of Snow, Night Train to Lisbon) broke through internationally in 1987 with his father-and-son picture Pelle the Conqueror, a rural drama set in the mid-19th century and starring Max von Sydow and Pelle Hvenegaard; it won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for best foreign-language film as well as the Palme d'or at Cannes. Before that, he co-wrote and directed a pair of coming-of-age dramas, Zappa (1983) and Twist and Shout (1984), that explored a very different variety of childhood — the awkward teenage years — in a more modern setting (1960s Copenhagen) but in a similarly bittersweet way. In Zappa, two teen boys invite a third to join their little gang, and things turn dark when their enthusiasms turn to bullying, burglary and violence. In Twist and Shout, one of the boys (again played by Adam Tønsbrerg), is now a drummer in a Beatles cover band who forms an awkward bond with another lad (Lars Simonsen) struggling to cope with a stern father and mentally ill mother. If you're a fan of August's compatriot, the filmmaker Nils Malmros (Tree of Knowledge), who too explores the cruel realities of early adolescence, you'll enjoy these two pictures. In a solid upgrade from the 2004 double-DVD set released by Home Vision Entertainment, they now come paired on Blu-ray by Altered Innocence, a small LGBTQ-themed U.S. distributor. Extras include a new half-hour interview with August, an 11-minute appreciation of the director's work, and a half dozen trailers. English (and Spanish) subtitles are optional.

Autumn 2025 on Blu-ray

12.2025

10.2025