FastScans: Top Foreign & Indie Picks, October 15, 2010 

Fantômas. 3 discs. b/w & color tinted. 311+ min. Kino Intl. 1913–14. DVD UPC 738329069728. $34.95.
A decade after the birth of moving pictures, and following comparatively primitive silent works by fellow French filmmakers Louis Lumière and Georges Méliès, director Louis Feuillade made a series of thrillers about an extraordinarily resourceful Parisian criminal. Chameleon-like René Navarre cuts an eerily suave figure as the infamous Fantômas, an adept master of disguise whose exploits are met by a dogged police inspector. In decent shape for their era, the five titles in this exciting serial should find favor with avid film buffs.

I Am Love. color. 2+ hrs. In Italian w/English subtitles. Magnolia Home Entertainment. 2010. DVD UPC 876964003155. $26.98; Blu-ray UPC 876964003452. $29.98. Rated: R.
Tilda Swinton, who first made a splash in the wonderful Orlando (1992), can be the main reason for sitting through an otherwise iffy art-house work (Julia). A virtual force of nature on screen, the strawberry- blond actress is likewise the incentive for excusing the failings of Luca Guadagnino’s lush domestic drama, which deals with a wealthy Milanese family beset by conflict after the death of its patriarch. Swinton dazzles as the Russian émigré wife whose affair with her son’s best friend stirs the p(l)ot. For Swinton’s fan base.

The Leopard. 2 discs. color. 185 min. In Italian w/English subtitles. Criterion Collection, dist. by Image Entertainment. 1963. Blu-ray ISBN 9781604653014. $49.95.
The decline of mid-19th-century Italian aristocracy as embodied by an aging landowner resigned to change turns elegiac in Luchino Visconti’s gorgeous epic. Burt Lancaster lends imposing bearing to the title role despite having his voice dubbed—a demerit rectified in the otherwise inferior 161-minute English-language version thankfully included as one of numerous excellent extras (audio commentary, making-of doc, interviews, etc.). Its six-year-old standard DVD upgraded to Blu-ray, this classic is essential in either format.

OSS 117: Lost in Rio. color. 97+ min. In French w/English subtitles. Music Box Films. 2009. DVD UPC 705105743851. $29.99.
In this follow-up to the fitfully funny OSS 117: Cairo—Nest of Spies (2006), writer-director Michel Hazanavicius serves up a similarly hit-or-miss spoof of Sixties-era spy pics spawned by a certain agent code-named 007. A bemused Jean Dujardin fits the role of puffed-up Hubert Bonisseur de la Bath (aka OSS 117) like a glove in a plot about ferreting out fugitive Nazis, although the story primarily acts as a frame for lampooning racism, sexism, split screens, and other genre clichés. For Austin Powers devotees.

Red Riding. 3 discs. color. 308 min. IFC Films. 2009. DVD ISBN 9780788613180. $29.98; Blu-ray ISBN 9780788613197. $34.98.
Based on David Peace’s quartet of fact-based crime novels, the separate but interlaced films in this trilogy are set in 1974, 1980, and 1983 and directed, respectively, by Julian Jarrold, James Marish, and Anand Tucker. Inhabited by a stellar cast of British character actors (Sean Bean, Peter Mullan, David Morrisey, et al.), this riveting saga of serial murders abetted by establishment corruption exudes a convincingly lived-in feel to its Yorkshire environment. Gritty and brutal, with a dark milieu that offers a feast for serious crime-drama fans.