Audio Video News

You can watch it in France, you can watch it in Spain but you can’t watch one of America’s greatest masterpieces on DVD in America — not unless you import it and buy a multi-region player too. Where the heck is my The Magnificent Ambersons DVD?

Overlooked?? In legal limbo? DVD has been around for more than ten years. Other titles have been released in four or five different editions already. But no show yet for Orson Welles’ masterpiece. Go figure. Below are a few other titles I’d like to see on disc before the DVD format goes away. Many are classics, many just personal favorites. I’m sure I’m missing a lot of other titles that should be on DVD, so please come up with your own list and post it here. Maybe someone in the right place will take your suggestion to heart. —Josef Krebs

36 Films That Need To Be On DVD

The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
The African Queen (John Huston, 1951)
Montparnasse 19 (Modigliani of Montparnasse) (Jacques Becker, 1958)
Bigger Than Life (Nicholas Ray, 1956)
The Naked Night (Sawdust and Tinsel) (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)
Macbeth (Orson Welles, 1948)
Brighton Rock (1947, John Boulting)
Summer with Monika (Ingmar Bergman, 1953)
Partie de campagne (Jean Renoir, 1936)
Journey Into Fear (Orson Welles, 1943)
Our Man in Havana (Carol Reed, 1959)
The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache, 1973)
Sympathy for the Devil (Jean-Luc Godard, 1968)
The Fugitive (John Ford, 1947)
Party Girl (Nicholas Ray, 1958)
The Prize (Mark Robson, 1963)
The Rebel (Robert Day, 1961)
The List of Adrian Messenger (John Huston, 1963)
Ministry of Fear (Fritz Lang, 1944)
Lady Be Good (Norman Z. McLeod, 1941)
The Green Room (François Truffaut, 1978)
Confidential Agent (Herman Shumlin, 1945)
Lisztomania (Ken Russell,1975)
Every Man for Himself (Slow Motion) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1980)
La Chinoise (Jean-Luc Godard, 1967)
Providence (Alain Resnais, 1977)
The Music Lovers (Ken Russell, 1970)
Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (Jean Renoir, 1936)
Under the Volcano (John Huston, 1984)
Savage Messiah (Ken Russell, 1972)
Tristana (Luis Bunuel, 1970)
Le Déjeuner Sur L’Herbe (Jean Renoir, 1959)
Lucky Luciano (Francesco Rosi, 1973)
The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971)
The Heart of the Matter (George More O’Ferrall, 1953)
Freud (John Huston, 1962)