Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints - BLU-RAY

Middle-aged musician Antoine suddenly decides to end his career. After several days' aimless wandering, he is hired as the caretaker of an old residential building in Paris. Mathilde is a recently retired resident, generous-spirited and deeply involved with the management of the building. After she discovers a crack in her living room wall, her worry gradually turns to panic; what if the building were to collapse? Slowly, Antoine develops a fondness for this woman he is afraid will slip into madness. Through a confusion of misfires and anxiety, the two develop an awkward friendship, funny yet solid, which might just get them through this difficult patch.

This compelling biodrama chronicles the fascinating, hardscrabble life of blues musician Huddie InchLead BellyInch Ledbetter (Roger E. Mosley). A gifted singer and talented 12-string guitar player, Lead Belly would have several brushes with the law-even serving multiple stints in prison and working on a chain gang-as he traveled the rocky road to musical success. Paul Benjamin, Madge Sinclair, Alan Manson, Albert Hall, Art Evans co-star; directed by Gordon Parks. 126 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack English LPCM mono; Subtitles English (SDH). Region Free

Soundies have been called the music videos of the 1940s, but that doesn't begin to describe their cultural importance. It's true that they feature a remarkable range of talent, from big-band luminaries like Duke Ellington and Count Basie to then-emerging stars like Doris Day and Ricardo Montalban, and lesser-known artists of the American nightclub circuit. But Soundies are also a rich, largely overlooked chronicle of American popular culture during and just after World War II. Produced for coin-operated jukeboxes in neighborhood bars and taverns, Soundies have an uncanny way of revealing what Americans were thinking about topics that weren't discussed openly, from sexuality to ethnicity and race. Curated by Susan Delson, author of Soundies and the Changing Image of Black Americans on Screen One Dime at a Time, this four-disc collection presents a diverse sampling of 200 shorts-jazz, country-western, folk, and the boogie woogie roots of rock 'n' roll-newly restored from 35mm and 16mm materials preserved by the Library of Congress and other archives. Never have so many Soundies been celebrated in one collection, or presented with such care thematically organized, accompanied by on-screen introductions and a booklet of essays, photos, and credits.