Godard July

July happens to be the month of my birthday, so I might actually be able to get hold of everything I want from Criterion for a change. Well that's if I've been a particularly good boy this year. It's a helluva of a month to be sure, Criterion's latest newsletter has informed me of some cracking new titles... No-one made movies as beautiful as Godard. Made in the U.S.A., a movie I haven't seen, will make it's debut on American home video release via Criterion DVD, some 43 years after it first played in theatres in 1966. Just look at those beautiful, bright colours. Godard's movie borrowed heavily from Donald Westlake's crime novel The Jugger, but because Godard denied it and didn't bother picking up the rights to the novel, copyright blocked any home video release for decades. The movie existed in an odd Chandler-esque universe, as if Philip Marlowe was a woman and played by a very fashionable Anna Karina. Or at least that's what I hear, as I say I haven't seen it just yet but I'm definitely picking this one up. Shame it's not getting a Blu-Ray release. Godard shot Made in the U.S.A. at the same time as he made Two Or Three Things I Know About Her, which also gets a release in July for the first time... Is every movie Godard ever made not in the Criterion Collection by now? Last year, I saw one of my favourite documentaries of recent years with In the Shadow of the Moon, made by the British no less, that chronicled the American man missions to the moon from the late 60's to 70's. The greatness of the documentary came in the beautiful footage of the moon missions, along with talkative discussions with the god-like figures of Buzz Aldrin and Jim Lovell, who were remarkably honest and open about how they were really feeling during those historical days. I haven't seen For All Mankind, Al Reinert's 1989 Oscar nominated documentary that beat In The Shadow of the Moon by nearly two decades, but I'll certainly be picking this up... Man, this is going to be a tough month for the wallet isn't it? Also on release is Roman Polanski's awesome psychological thriller Replusion and finally a movie I have seen...