Viva

Paris, Texas

Something like a perfect artistic union is achieved in the major components of Paris, Texas: the twang of Ry Cooder's guitar, the lonely light of Robbie Muller's camera, the craggy landscape of Harry Dean Stanton's face. In his greatest role, longtime character actor Stanton plays a man brought back to his old life after wandering in the desert (or somewhere) for four years. He has a 7-year-old son to get to know, and his wife has gone missing. The material is much in the wanderlust spirit of director Wim Wenders, working from a script by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson. If the long climactic conversation between Stanton and Nastassja Kinski renders the movie uneven and slightly inscrutable, it's hard to think of a more fitting ending--and besides, the achingly empty American spaces stick longer in the memory than the dialogue. Winner of the top prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. --Robert Horton

After four years' absence a social dropout reappears in L.A. to claim his abandoned son and then heads for Texas to reunite the boy with his mother.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 024543130741 Manufacturer No: 2223074

Ciao! Manhattan

Fact and fiction collide in the cult classic Ciao! Manhattan, which was billed as "the film that wrote itself." The unexpectedly poignant tale is based on the life of "Superstar" Edie Sedgwick, who plays a drugged-out former model named Susan. In Southern California, she lives in her wealthy, pie-obsessed mother's swimming pool and recounts her glory days in Manhattan to a Houston drifter (Wesley Hayes). John Palmer and David Weisman began filming in New York in 1967 and kept shooting for the next five years, even as Sedgwick moved West, grew out her hair, got breast implants, and spent time at a variety of mental institutes. The 1970s present is in color; the 1960s flashbacks are in luminous black and white. John Phillips, Richie Havens, and others provide the period-perfect soundtrack. Confusing at times, but always entertaining, Ciao! Manhattan is a must for fans of Head, Trash, and all things weird, wiggy, and Warhol. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Ciao! Manhattan parallels Andy Warhol Factory star Edie Sedgwick's glory days in the late 60's through her inevitable downfall and the tragic addiction that would take her life only weeks after filming wrapped in 1971. The DVD includes never-before-seen bonus footage of Edie, interviews, a photo gallery of Edie's life, and much more.

Play It Again, Sam

Written for the stage and coherently opened up for the screen by veteran director Herbert Ross, Play It Again, Sam is closer to a conventional comedy than Woody Allen's more self-contained films, but his smart script and archetypal hero-nebbish achieve a special charm aimed squarely at movie buffs. Allen is Allan Felix, a film critic on the rebound after his wife's desertion trying to brave the choppy waters of born-again bachelorhood and struggling to reconcile his celluloid obsessions with the hazards of real-world dating. His apartment is a shrine to Humphrey Bogart, and it's none other than Bogey himself who materializes at strategic moments to counsel Allan on romantic strategy. He gets more corporeal aid from his married friends, Linda (Diane Keaton) and Dick (Tony Roberts), who try to orchestrate prospective matches and reassure him when those chemistry experiments explode. When Allan finds himself falling in love with Linda, the dissonance between fantasy and reality proves both funny and poignant--a precursor to the deeper emotionalism missing from the star's earlier directorial efforts that was soon to inform Allen's most affecting '70s comedies. It's also the start of his onscreen relationship with Keaton, further underscoring Allen's evolution toward a more satisfying contemplation of the friction between head and heart. --Sam Sutherland

The Man Without a Face

A boy struggling to pass the entrance exam to his late father's alma mater and virtually ignored by his mother and two sisters asks Justin Mcleod a solitary ex-teacher with a tragic past to tuter him. as thetwo apply themselves to the task at hand they build a friendship with the power to heal the wounds of their past.Running Time: 116 min.System Requirements:Running Time 116 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085393354121

Making this movie represented a rather risky venture for Mel Gibson--it was his first effort at directing, and the role demanded that he deliberately obscure his sexy matinee-idol looks. Gibson seems to truly relish his Lon Chaney Jr.-esque turn as Justin McLeod, a reclusive former teacher with half his face and body badly scarred, and a dark, secret past. The folks in McLeod's postcard-pretty Maine town have dubbed him "Hamburger Head" and exchange malicious gossip about him. But one boy is needy enough to dare to penetrate the fortress McLeod has built against the outside world. Fatherless Chuck Norstadt (Nick Stahl) is so anxious to escape his dysfunctional family that he pesters McLeod into becoming his mentor. Their relationship for the most part avoids the sort of sticky sentimentality one might expect from Hollywood. Chuck is a real, credible kid, a petulant pain with a chip on his shoulder, and McLeod is no Mr. Chips. It's fun, and quite moving, to watch these two cranky misfits battle their way toward a friendship that will change both their lives. Margaret Whitton (Major League) gives an unaffected performance as Chuck's narcissistic mother. "I'm just not cut out for this mothering racket," she tells her rudderless children, as she flits from man to man. Gibson's own personal code of honor, we suspect, is very much in evidence in this movie's message: One must take responsibility for what one wants in life. --Laura Mirsky

Cisco Pike

Just released from prison for drug-dealing Cisco Pike (Kris Kristofferson) dreams of making a comeback. A once-famous rock singer he finds his music contacts are more interested in his dope connections than his new songs. Pike's plans to go straight however go somewhat awry when he's blackmailed by a crooked narc (Gene Hackman) into selling $10000 worth of stolen marijuana. Forced back into a business he thought he was out of Pike drops in on friends groupies and musicians as he tries to move a 100 kilo stash in just 53 hours. Co-starring Karen Black Harry Dean Stanton Doug Sahm Joy Bang and Warhol superstar Viva! CISCO PIKE is a revealing look at the LA music scene of the early '70s off-beat unique and "surprisingly good. ***" (Leonard Maltin).System Requirements:Run Time: 94 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396132276 Manufacturer No: 13227

Nico Icon

A striking and harrowing documentary about fame, drugs, pop culture, and celebrity, Nico Icon casts a harsh light on the underground world of pop art and music in the 1960s and 1970s through the prism of a girl who lived too hard and died too young. The German-born Nico is presented as someone who never fit in, no matter what she was doing, from her career as a fashion model in the 1950s (including an appearance in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita) to her tenure in the 1960s as one of the cast of characters in artist Andy Warhol's "Factory" to her stint as a backup singer for Lou Reed and the Velvet Underground. Most of the film concentrates on her sordid relationship with her son with French actor Alain Delon and her decline into heroin addiction and obscurity. This visually innovative and challenging documentary doesn't judge her but uses her life to illustrate the excesses of the world around her. Nico Icon will be a revelation for those interested in the world it depicts. --Robert Lane

Paris, Texas [Region 2]

Something like a perfect artistic union is achieved in the major components of Paris, Texas: the twang of Ry Cooder's guitar, the lonely light of Robbie Muller's camera, the craggy landscape of Harry Dean Stanton's face. In his greatest role, longtime character actor Stanton plays a man brought back to his old life after wandering in the desert (or somewhere) for four years. He has a 7-year-old son to get to know, and his wife has gone missing. The material is much in the wanderlust spirit of director Wim Wenders, working from a script by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson. If the long climactic conversation between Stanton and Nastassja Kinski renders the movie uneven and slightly inscrutable, it's hard to think of a more fitting ending--and besides, the achingly empty American spaces stick longer in the memory than the dialogue. Winner of the top prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. --Robert Horton

Born to Win/Sam's Song

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Andy Warhol

In this lively documentary (produced less than a year after his death in 1987), the life and artistic career of Andy Warhol is examined by family members, friends, and business associates. The essential question about Warhol has always been whether he was an artist or a con man, and in a number of typically subdued yet hilarious interview clips Warhol himself does nothing at all to defend his reputation. In a cheerfully weird interview filmed in the 1960s, Warhol goes so far as to befuddle an interviewer by suggesting that the journalist simply tell him what to say, and he'll repeat it. Frequently amusing interviews with Warhol insiders detail particular periods in his life, with extensive use of photographs and film clips documenting in particular the crazy times at "The Factory," his famed midtown Manhattan studio in the 1960s. A lively discussion of Warhol's foray into making underground films features mercifully brief clips from such bizarre cinematic experiments as Sleep and Chelsea Girls. And some who knew Warhol well do speak judgmentally about his final years, when he eagerly cashed in by painting portraits of those who were both vain and wealthy enough to afford his services. With its suitably ironic sense of humor, this is a fascinating look at a controversial public figure. --Robert J. McNamara

"This is the first major profile of Andy Warhol's life and work since his death in 1987 and includes some previously unseen footage of the artist, shot in London shortly before his death. Warhol's was the classic American rags to riches story: he was born in the industrial slums of Pittsburgh the child of poor Czech immigrants. He grew up dreaming of Hollywood stars and eventually became a star himself, famous for his pop art, his bizarre underground films and for being the celebrity who for twenty years attended every party in town. This program shows Warhol performing for the media in interviews ranging over 25 years and examines his artistic achievements in a career which spanned painting, film, publishing, rock music and television. It also includes clips from films such as ""Chelsea Girls,"" ""Lonesome Cowboys"" and ""Women in Revolt,"" archival material, newsreel footage and contributions from many of Warhol's closest associates and superstars, including Ondine, Viva, John Giorno and Brigid Berlin."