La piscine (aka The Swimming Pool) (Blu-ray) by Stuart Galbraith IV First released to DVD as part of a five-film Alain Delon set by Lionsgate, Criterion's new Blu-ray of La Piscine (1969, called The Swimming Pool on DVD) is a beauty, a gorgeous restoration of director Jacques Deray's outstanding psychological drama-thriller, with the disc chockful of intriguing extra features. The film was just wrapping production near St. Tropez along the Côte d'Azur when on October 1, 1968, one of Delon's bodyguards was found murdered. Delon's movements were investigated and he was held for questioning, though he was never charged with the still-unsolved crime. Nevertheless, the scandal was the talk of Europe for many months and never entirely went away, cementing Delon's dangerous image and forever blurring his offscreen life to film roles like Purple Noon (Plein Soleil, 1960) and this one.

Mommie Dearest (Blu-ray) by Ian Jane The Movieirected by Frank Perry for Paramount Studios in 1981 and based on the tell-all book of the same name by Christina Crawford, Mommie Dearest. The book, and subsequently the movie, tells the story of Joan Crawford (played by Faye Dunaway), the famous actress from the golden age of Hollywood and equally famous control freak. We see her, in the film's opening sequence, wake up at 4am and scrub herself clean before dunking her face in a bowl of ice water to close the pores of her face, before heading off to make a movie that same day. In addition to being a control freak, Joan is also a neat freak. She becomes very upset when she notices that her maid, Helga (Alice Nunn), missed a spot.When the movie begins, we learn that Joan is involved romantically with Gregg Savitt (Steve Forrest), a very successful lawyer. On top of this, we learn that Joan has always wa...Read the entire review »