Film distributor Kino Lorber’s 2024 Spring Into Summer Sale (in the US; Summer Beat the Heat Savings is Canada) is on now until Monday, July 21. Here are five great films to buy at great deals. The US sale can be accessed here. The Canada sale can be accessed here.
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Kino Lorber’s semi-annual sale (Spring into Summer Sale in the US; Summer Beat the Heat in Canada) is a great way to pick up wonderful films at fire sale prices. As someone with limited floor space, my criteria for purchasing physical media can be pretty stringent. The first obvious reason is because it’s a film you love and want to watch over and over again. I’ll recommend films that fall into this category, but since I’m picking films that will give you a “film festival on your couch” experience, there’s a fair chance you won’t have seen them.
When it comes to blind buys, my top reason is because there’s no VOD option, the library and/or local video store (if you still have one!) won’t loan it to you, and you’d like to see the film. But I also think it’s worth owning the Blu-ray if it has noteworthy special features you can’t get elsewhere or the picture and image quality loss from streaming would be significant. I’m also a strong proponent of purchasing films (at reasonable prices!) when it’s the kind of film that is hard to make yourself rent (even for free off Kanopy) because you have to be in the mood for it and it might be a commitment. I picked up Last Year at Marienbad at last year’s sale, and I’m sure that’s the only reason I finally watched it after decades.
Most of the films I’ve picked here are recent releases or recent restorations. They’re under-the-radar films (even if they may have played major festivals) that, for the most part, I’ve previously extolled the virtues of. I’ll let you know why I like the film, and why I think this purchase is worthwhile.
Top 5 films on Blu-ray to buy in the Kino Lorber 2024 Summer Sale
1. Fabian – Going to the Dogs (Dominik Graf, Germany, 2021)
$9.99 CAD; $7.99 CAD
Why you should watch it
A three-hour period piece about life in Germany in 1930 might sound like a staid and boring affair, especially when you hear that it’s made by a titan of German cinema. That was my initial worry, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The hint I should have taken was that it was premiering the Berlinale Competition, which celebrates inventive auteurist cinema.
The film is based on Erich Kästner’s 1931 book, Going to the Dogs: The Story of a Moralist, which was sexually and politically provocative enough to be heavily edited before its initial publication, then banned and burned by the Nazis. Having read the book, I would never have imagined that it could be adapted to look like Graf’s film, but it’s nevertheless a fairly faithful adaptation.
This sharp, witty, political film mixes romance, formal invention, and a cast of unforgettable characters to tell the story of life after the crash just as the rise of Nazism was beginning. The hours slipped away, and what I found was a fast-paced, often very funny and politically sharp film with some incredible performances at its centre. It’s densely packed, sometimes bonkers, romantic, and a fun ride through a depressing time.
Listen to our podcast on Fabian- Going to the Dogs
Why I recommend the Blu-ray
To begin with, if you’re in Canada, it’s the only way to watch the film. It’s not on VOD or streaming; it is on VOD and Kanopy in the US. But beyond that, this is one of those films you’re liable to put on your “to watch list” and then never get to because the subject matter and length seem daunting — even though it flies by the way a Frederick Wiseman film would. If you own it, you don’t have to pick the perfect time to rent it and watch it. You can put it on (or change your mind!) as you see fit. The Blu Ray is just $7.99 USD and $9.99 CAD, so it’s essentially the cost of renting it twice, and the film is very much worth seeing at least twice.
2. I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing (Patricia Rozema, Canada, 1987)
$11.99 CAD, $7.99 USD
Why you should watch it
This inventive first feature from legendary Canadian filmmaker Patricia Rozema was a seminal work of New Queer cinema and the Toronto New Wave. It’s also a wonderful character portrait about a woman becoming an artist, but afraid to claim it — back when films about this were rare. There’s been an explosion in recent years of films about female artists, but this one was one of the first, holds up, and still feels new. Canadian stage legend Sheila McCarthy stars and gives a very funny and layered performance.
Why I recommend the Blu-ray
Kino Lorber released the film recently in a 4K restoration, which brings this beautiful film back to life. Before this, it was incredibly hard to find and the only copies were old DVDs that were out of print. Kino Lorber went on to restore and release Rozema’s When Night is Falling and White Room in 4K this year; the films are worth seeing and the restorations great. I wasn’t able to get copies of them in time to speak more fully about them. Kino Lorber also released Mouthpiece in 4K, our #3 film of the 2010s. (Only Mermaids is available at fire sale prices. The others are still regularly priced.)
One of the top reasons for getting the Blu Ray instead of just renting the restoration is for the special features! Sometimes, Kino really delivers on these, and this is one of those! Patricia Rozema provides a thoughtful audio commentary that is worth the price alone, as well as offering us some of her early short films and a Q&A on the film. And Patricia Rozema is always worth listening to! I’ve interviewed her twice about Mouthpiece: once for The Canadian Cinema Yearbook and once for a livestreamed Q&A. We recently published a career profile of her by Lena Wlison.
Read our career profile of Patricia Rozema
3. Arabian Nights Vol. 1-3 (Miguel Gomes, Portugal, 2015)
$9.99 USD; $13.99 CAD
Why you should watch it
I’ll let Brandon Nowalk’s words do the talking in this excerpt from the ebook Subjective Realities: The Art of Creative Nonfiction. He discusses how the film mixes fiction and documentary elements in a formally inventive, vibrant, and funny way.
“This film is too complicated for me,” director Miguel Gomes told Cinemascope at Cannes. “I think I’ll understand it better weeks from now.” He took the words out of my mouth. If not even the director can wrap his head around the undulating oobleck of Arabian Nights, what hope do I have? Not that it’s a daunting sit. It’s a funny, fantastical collection of stories. What’s hard is wrapping it in a bow.
Arabian Nights is the blind men’s elephant: miniseries and short story cycle, documentary and fantasy, proletarian and prohibitive. It’s an enormous six-hour movie split into three volumes, made up mostly of separate smaller stories, such as the trial of an antsy rooster and a meeting of merchants more focused on their dicks than the debt crisis they’re trying to resolve. The material for these stories comes largely from real life. Gomes employed a team of journalists to sift through Portuguese news for such strange but true stories from all over the country between the summers of 2013 and 2014.
Get your copy of Subjective Realities to read the full piece.
Why I recommend the Blu-ray in the 2024 Kino Lorber Summer Sale
I’ll start by saying I don’t actually own a copy so I can’t speak to the transfer or special features, but it’s one I’m eyeing myself in the sale. The film is in three three-hour volumes, which makes it a massive undertaking. So if you’re doing this for the first time, knowing you can start and stop, resume later, or devour them all in one day is one sure way to ensure you actually watch it.
I’ve only seen the films once, and I saw the first one under less-than-ideal conditions in Cannes (tired, dehydrated, boiling), and yet I can’t get the films out of my mind a decade later. They have some incredible, hilarious moments, some moments where you may be tempted to reach for your phone (don’t do it! they pay off!), and so much originality I can guarantee you’ve not seen anything else like it. It’s a film project worth doing. Also, these are getting increasingly hard to find streaming; in Canada it’s Kanopy or bust.
4. Murina (Antoneta Alamet Kusijanovic, Croatia, 2021)
$7.99 USD; $11.09 CAD
Why you should watch it
Antoneta Alamet Kusijanovic’s Murina is one of the best feature debuts I’ve seen in recent years. It’s a smart, beautifully shot film about a young woman coming into her own amidst abuse in Croatia. It won the Caméra d’Or (the award for best first feature among all first features at Cannes) after premiering in the Director’s Fortnight section.
Here’s an excerpt from my intro to my interview with Kusijanovic:
“Antoneta Alamat Kusijanovic’s debut film, Murina, is a gorgeous, thoughtful exploration of teenage girlhood, abuse, and finding your own way out of oppression. The film opens underwater, where seventeen-year-old Julija (the very talented newcomer Gracija Filipovic), and her abusive father, Ante (Leon Lucev), are hunting eels. It’s a bold sequence that takes its time, letting us revel in the rhythms of the sea before we even see any humans. By introducing us to this foreign underwater world from the start, Kusijanovic establishes the film as one that is also working on a metaphorical level, even as it has some social realist approaches and preoccupations.”
Why I recommend the Blu-ray in the 2024 Kino Lorber Summer Sale
As the film is widely available on VOD and streaming (on Kanopy), it’s not a necessity. However, watching it on Blu-ray will ensure you get the most out of Hélène Louvart’s gorgeous cinematography. And at this price, if you watch the film twice, it pays for itself, which is absolutely worth doing.
Read my interview with director Jusijanovic on Murina
5. Under the Sand (François Ozon, France, 2000)
$17.97 USD; $23.98 CAD
Why you should watch it
If you saw 45 Years and thought, what an incredible thing that Charlotte Rampling gets to star in a film about a woman over 50 having a mid-life crisis, Under the Sand is the precursor. Rampling’s first collaboration with François Ozon (they have made several films since) is ahead of its time as the story of a woman not-quite-grieving the loss of her husband. She refuses to accept his death and has imaginary conversations with him at all times. Come for the Rampling performance, stay for the largely thoughtful story, and thank the gods (Andrew Haigh) for giving us 45 Years, which takes a much more modern, feminist approach to the central woman’s story. Some of Rampling’s character’s preoccupations in Under the Sand really do date it to 2000.
Why I recommend the Blu-ray (even though it’s not in the 2024 Kino Lorber Summer Sale)
OK, so I’ve cheated. This one isn’t on sale. But it’s a film worth seeing that’s not on VOD in Canada or the US, so it’s worth bundling with your dirt cheap purchases. The Blu-ray has no special features, no bells or whistles, but I’m glad I got to see the film. And if you don’t have a library or local video store to provide you with it, it’s worth checking out and then rewatching for Rampling.
Honourable mentions
There are several wonderful films on sale that I haven’t recommended because I haven’t seen the Blu-ray and/or they’re only available in the US.
Like Murina, Scrapper is a vibrant coming-of-age film with beautiful cinematography by Molly Manning Walker (who directed How to Have Sex). It’s worth seeing, and for $9.89 CAD (cheaper than the DVD!)/$7.99 USD, that’s basically just the cost of the rental and a bit.
Among the films with major sales only available in the US are the climate change documentary Anthropocene and the Iranian road movie Hit the Road. I also highly recommend Gehrard Richter Painting, in which you literally watch Germain painter Gehrard Richter watch paint dry (and blur it again before it fully dries!). I admittedly took a little nap in it, but it’s a fascinating look into the artistic process that I’ve been recommending for a decade.
Finally, though not on sale (they’re only $15 USD though), I recommend picking up copies of the DVDs of Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago (one of our 50 best films of the 2010s) and Exhibition. We loved the films so much we knew we had to write a book on Joanna Hogg — on The Souvenir — even before we saw the film! You can’t buy them in the Canada sale, but Kino Lorber will ship them to you in Canada.
