Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project No. 2

Martin Scorsese founded the World Cinema Project to help with the preservation and restoration of landmark films from countries all over the world. This follow-up to the initial 2013 boxed set (VL Online-3/14) spotlights six more films from a variety of countries and eras, featuring differing styles and subjects. The oldest movie in the set, Limite (Brazil, 1931), is a silent film by Mário Peixoto, a writer turned filmmaker who draws from other avant-garde filmmakers to present a poetic story full of dreamy flashbacks and symbolic episodes about three people adrift at sea. The most recent film is the debut of award-winning filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Mysterious Object at Noon (Thailand, 2000), an experimental, free-wheeling mix of documentary and fiction. Lütfi Ö. Akad's Law of the Border (Turkey, 1966), a stark crime thriller with elements of social commentary, is a landmark of Turkish cinema that was suppressed after a military coup was almost lost. Insiang (Philippines, 1976), a melodrama from Lino Brocka set in the slums of Manila, was the first Philippine film to play at Cannes. Taipei Story (Taiwan, 1985), the second feature from Edward Yang (acclaimed director of Yi Yi), is a portrait of urban malaise in modern Taiwan. And Ermek Shinarbaev's Revenge (Russia, 1989), a sprawling thriller set in the Kazakh region of the Soviet Union in Central Asia, is a founding film of the Kazakh New Wave. These films are not well known outside of film scholarship circles but should be, and the combined stamp of Scorsese and the Criterion Collection should help them find a wider audience. Extras include introductions by Scorsese, interviews with directors and film historians, and a booklet with critical notes on each film. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)