Video Picks Archive

January 12, 2000
This Week's Video Picks
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This week my picks are Crna macka, beli macor (Black Cat, White Cat) (1998 - ) and Notorious (1946 - ).

The first film this week come from Yugoslav director Emir Kusturica, who has almost single-handedly brought Serbo-Croatian cinema to the world with such films as When Father Was Away On Business and Time of the Gypsies. The plot of this film revolves around a Gypsy man named Matko (Bajram Severdzan), who is raising his 17-year-old son, Zare (Florijan Ajdini), and has dealings with Dadan (Srdjan Todorovic), a gangster that he grew up with. Matko owes Dadan a lot of money, and in return he promises that Zare will marry his sister. Meanwhile, Zare has fallen in love with another girl (Branka Katic). Black Cat, White Cat (named for the two constant feline observers) is a warm, exuberant comedy. Most amazing is that the cast is largely amateur, but they perform with great energy.
Full review from September 29, 1999

Finally, a new video pick can lead me to The Master: Alfred Hitchcock. The second film stars Cary Grant as an intelligence agent who has Ingrid Bergman marry a Nazi spy (Claude Rains), even though he has fallen in love with her. Notorious, written by Ben Hecht, is one of Hitchcock's absolute best films. The suspense is tight, with ironic twists throughout. However, the film is equally famous for a prolonged make-out session between Grant and Bergman that pushed the rules of the production code. Everything comes together beautifully, but that should be expected with such brilliant people working together. For some reason that I'll never understand, it was remade as a TV movie in 1992.

Here's some merchandise for sale at

Black Cat, White Cat (1999)	-- VHS
Notorious (1946)	-- VHS
Notorious (1946)	-- DVD

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