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Submitted by SHNS on Mon, 01/21/2008 - 17:02

(4 X AGNES VARDA1956-85. NOT RATED. CRITERION COLLECTION. $99.95. FOUR DISCS)Criterion gets 2008 off to a great start with this collection of four films by Agnes Varda, the first of the French New Wave filmmakers. The films included are Varda's first, "La Pointe Courte" (1956), made on a tiny budget when she was in her mid-20s; "Cleo From 5 to 7" (1961); "Le Bonheur" ("Happiness") (1965); and "Vagabond" (1985). Though Varda's art is eclectic, her films are characterized by an innate compositional sense and a concern with the moral underpinnings of everyday life."Cleo" and "Vagabond" are her best-known works in the United States. The former traces the actions of a sympathetic but superficial young woman over the course of two hours as she awaits crucial medical results."Vagabond" stars then-17-year-old Sandrine Bonnaire as a prickly, inscrutable teenager who flees society and lives as a filthy wanderer. These films are part of the canon, but I was particularly struck by "Le Bonheur," which wasn't released in the United States until the 1990s. Taking its color palette from the Impressionists and its morality from the modern era, it's about an idyllically happy married man who, nonetheless, starts a passionate romance with another woman. He's ecstatic, sees nothing wrong with his behavior and, in essence, sees the women as roughly interchangeable. The film remains controversial because Varda never tips her hand as to the movie's message, but this is clearly the most subtle and angry feminist statement you'll ever see on the screen. -- MICK LASALLE(TITANIC: 10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION. 1997. PG-13. PARAMOUNT. $19.99)Generally, the higher the number of the anniversary, the better the present that's expected. But for those wedded to the idea of James Cameron's "Titanic" as the be-all and end-all of disaster movies, the "10th Anniversary Edition" is like a regifted Cuisinart -- minus a third of the attachments.In 2005, Paramount rectified the bare-bones 1999 DVD release of the 1997 blockbuster with a three-disc "Special Collector's Edition." The sumptuously filmed movie with the occasionally creaky script filled two discs, with numerous "making of" backgrounders and three commentaries (a didactic one by the writer-director, a Leonard DiCaprio-free "cast and crew" pastiche and a compelling nerd/fan version by "Titanic" historian Don Lynch and artist Ken Marschall). A third disc contained more bonus material, including many deleted scenes.A scant two years later (it was released late in 2007) comes this version, minus the third disc. While it's not a catastrophe on the scale of cutting the number of lifeboats to the legal minimum, the repackaging strikes a similarly mercenary chord. On a less icy note, the much-less-famous-then Victor Garber (as shipbuilder Thomas Andrews) and Ioan Gruffudd (5th Officer Lowe) radiate a humanity that surfaces amid a sea of still-impressive special effects. Among those is the final plunge of the Titanic: Long expected, it nevertheless has the power to shock -- like the twin towers' collapse, which the ship's last convulsion eerily evokes. -- JEANNE COOPER(WHEN HARRY MET SALLY ...: COLLECTOR'S EDITION. 1989. RATED R. MGM. $19.98)In "When Harry Met Sally ...," Billy Crystal's character says that the best last line of a movie ever is "Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" from "Casablanca."Crystal himself would later suggest that one of the best lines ever in the middle of a movie ever is one from "When Harry Met Sally ..." that is spoken by director Rob Reiner's mother, Estelle. Of course, we're talking about "I'll have what she's having," uttered to a waiter in the diner where Sally (Meg Ryan) has just demonstrated to cynical Harry (Crystal) how easy it is for a woman to fake an orgasm.Funny, witty and sophisticated, "When Harry Met Sally ..." is an appealing romantic comedy that doubles as an homage to '80s New York. Nora Ephron's story about a friendship that turns into love over the course of 12 years is interspersed with documentary-style vignettes of older couples reminiscing about how they met and fell in love. This new "Collector's Edition" offers a number of bonuses, including deleted scenes and commentary by Reiner, Ephron and Crystal.Among the many featurettes is one describing the on-set fun created by Crystal's improvisations and Ryan's ability to go with the punches. When it comes to "When Harry Met Sally ...," I'll have what they're having, too. -- LEBA HERTZ(EL CID: LIMITED COLLECTOR'S EDITION. 1961. NOT RATED. MIRIAM COLLECTION. $39.95. TWO DISCS)Surely one of the best of the supercolossal costume epics of the 1950s and '60s, "El Cid" is finally out on DVD, in a restored version. You can take it straight as an example of a bygone day of outsize filmmaking or enjoy it as kitsch, but it's exhilarating either way.This extravagant tale of the warrior who drove the Moors from Spain in the 11th century was the product of a remarkable assemblage of talent, both onscreen (Charlton Heston and Sophia Loren) and behind the cameras: It was produced by Samuel Bronston, directed by Anthony Mann, co-written by Philip Yordan, scored by Miklos Rozsa, designed by Veniero Colasanti and photographed by Robert Krasker."El Cid" has it all: a cast of thousands, spectacular castles, epic battles, an intense hero and a completely over-the-top ending. This is how they defined extravagance in the days before computer graphics. In a printed essay included in this set, Martin Scorsese, a huge fan of the film, writes that Bronston's movies "had a refinement that was absent from many of the other epics of the time, a sort of gravity."Numerous extras include commentary by Bronston's son Bill; features on Bronston, Mann and Rozsa; radio interviews with Heston and Loren; and reproductions of the 1961 "El Cid" Dell comic book and the movie's original souvenir program (great color pictures!). A less expensive version of this set, with fewer extras, is also available. -- WALTER ADDIEGO(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)