Be prepared for a true movie treasure chest hitting DVD this week. The fine folks at Kino have released a boxed set of the work of F.W. Murnau, including “Nosferatu,” “Faust,” “The Last Laugh,” “Tartuffe,” “The Haunted Castle” and “The Finances Of The Grand Duke.” Within Murnau’s work, you’ll find the early traces of the modern cinematic vocabulary, as its almost a joke how far he was above most contemporaries- and if you’re a nerd who isn’t really intrigued with movie history, perhaps you’ll take a peek based on the legend that “The Last Laugh” strongly inspired the look of the Joker in the early “Batman” comic books. All films have been remastered from their original 35mm prints, and the entire six film set features four 40+ minute making-of documentaries, a historian audio commentary on the never-released-in-America “Duke” and a number of extensive galleries.
Oh, but don’t worry, there’s no shortage of populist shit to pick through either. Expect “Twilight” and “Bolt” to be big sellers at retail chains, while Keira Knightley costumes it up for “The Duchess” and Ray Stevenson scowls through the ludicrously violent “Punisher War Zone.” Underlooked in theaters, Isabele Coixet’s “Elegy” features a miraculous performance by Sir Ben Kingsley, while Richard Burton and Victor Mature star in the new-to-DVD Jesus saga “The Robe.” Blu-Ray brings us another release of “The Princess Bride,” “Quo Vadis,” Neil Jordan’s due-for-a-revival “The Company Of Wolves” and Roger Avary’s “Rules of Attraction.”