Fast Scans: Top Foreign & Indie Picks, August 2011 

Diabolique. b/w. 116+ min. In French w/English subtitles. Criterion Collection. 1954. DVD ISBN 9781604654158. $29.95; Blu-ray ISBN 9781604654141. $39.95.
Cheated on by her abusive husband (Paul Meurisse), the frail-hearted owner of a French boarding school (Vera Clouzot) conspires with his not-so-secret lover (Simone Signoret) to murder the beast by drowning him in a bathtub. Not to be confused with the lame Hollywood remake starring Sharon Stone, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s (The Wages of Fear) original film shocked more than mere art-house audiences with its devious plot and unforeseen twist ending. Scintillating in this remastered edition, this devilish thriller is a must-have.

The Housemaid. color. 107+ min. In Korean w/English subtitles. IFC Films, dist. by MPI Media. DVD ISBN 9780788611605. $24.98.
Hired as a nanny for the precocious daughter of a wealthy businessman and his pregnant wife, a naïve young woman (Jeon Do-yeon, Secret Sunshine) accepts the sexual advances of her new boss, which leads to a pregnancy she plans to continue despite concerted pressure to abort. Remaking the original 1960 film of the same title, writer-director Im Sang-soo switches the tycoon to predator instead of victim while indicting exploitation by the callous upper class. A relatively restrained pot-boiler for thriller aficionados.

Insignificance. color. 108+ min. Criterion Collection. 1985. DVD ISBN 9781604654318. $29.95; Blu-ray ISBN 9781604654301. $39.95.
Four unidentified but obvious historical figures—Marilyn Monroe (Theresa Russell), Joe DiMaggio (Gary Busey), Albert Einstein (Michael Emil), and Joe McCarthy (Tony Curtis)—intersect on one fateful evening in New York City. Basing his work on Terry Johnson’s play, Nicolas Roeg (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Don’t Look Now) brings his usual time-fracturing editing style to this fanciful scenario, offering a pensive and funny if finally sad commentary on celebrity and the meaning of life in Cold War America. For open-minded viewers. [Previewed in Trailers, LJ 5/1/11.]

My Dog Tulip. b/w & color. 82+ min. New Yorker Films. 2010. DVD ISBN 9781567304961. $29.95; Blu-ray ISBN 9781567304978. $44.95.
Based on British writer J.R. Ackerley’s 1956 memoir about a bachelor and his devoted German shepherd, this film from animators Paul and Sandra Fierlinger evokes sort of an antiquated impressionism, with computers in lieu of pen and ink. A suitably droll Christopher Plummer provides able first-person narration, with the late Lynn Redgrave and Isabella Rossellini supplying additional voices, in a touching story about loneliness ameliorated by man’s best friend. Alas, a preoccupation with defecation and reproduction rules this out for children.

The Romantic Englishwoman. color. 116+ min. Kino Intl. 1975. DVD UPC 738329072728. $24.95; Blu-ray UPC 738329076825. $29.95.
Back in the post–French New Wave period when a certain ambiguity was de rigueur, films like this rather intriguing British curiosity from Joseph Losey (The Go-Between, The Servant) could be enjoyed for obscuring the line between fantasy and reality. At his chillingly detached best, Michael Caine plays a successful writer who imagines his wife (Glenda Jackson) is having an affair with a self-described poet (Helmut Berger) who is actually a dope-smuggling gigolo. Suitable for all except stubbornly literal-minded viewers.