Must see DVDs

Yeah ok- try as I might to blog about real things that happen in my life, I always end up getting really excited about films instead. Anyone that saw Will & Grace on Friday night- (an episode in which Jack & Karen mourn the passing of Sex & The City, Friends & Frasier and realise that without their favourite TV shows they have nothing to talk about) -may well have thought of me and understandably so- I did.
BUT that said- here are three films now available on DVD you must must watch. I'm not just talking small-fry-something-to-pass-the-time-it'll-make you smile/cry/laugh type movies... I'm talking GREAT film-making.

• BEFORE SUNRISE & BEFORE SUNSET: (Ethan Hawke/ Julie Delpy, 1994/2004). Now available in a limited edition box set! (oooh). More like plays than movies, these two films, incredibly intelligently and insightfully written are funny, poignant, moving and wildly romantic but totally free of Hollywood tripe. All the action lies in the wonderfully 'real' performances of Hawke and Delpy, which are so truthful and subtle, they have a sort of transparency to them- I find them to be more inspired and inspiring than any other dramatic screen performances I've ever seen. It is also a rare treat to see screen characters age (the second film is set, and was filmed, ten years after the first)-and it is fascinating to see the way the writing team (of Hawke, Delpy and director Richard Linklater) create boundaries and fortresses, some real/practical, some emotional or imagined for their older characters...there's just such truth in it all. It also makes me laugh to watch Jesse on the train having the great idea of a 'reality' TV show ("The poetry of everyday life...like National Geographic- but for humans!") long before they became the bread and butter of TV. I have bought the boxset and will be watching it again and again.
• STRINGS: From the real to the anti-real... Strings, which boasts an entirely Marionette cast, uses the world's finist string-puppeteers to tell a story which could only be told with string-puppets. I don't want to tell you too much- but this epic and magical resurrection of an art-form, will have you questioning politics, power, love and the meaning of life. And wondering: how on earth did they do that?