by Pete Timmermann

Despite the fact that DVD is still a relatively new format, great old films never before released on DVD, or prior releases in better, more bonus feature-laden formats, come out on an almost weekly basis. These DVDs are often overlooked in favor of the never-ebbing crop of new films so, as a sort of holiday gift-buying guide, here is a list of the best releases of obscure older movies of the past year.

The single best DVD release of this type of the year is The Errol Morris DVD Collection (IFC Film/MGM, $49.96), which compiles three early documentaries of Morris’ (who won an Oscar in 2004 for The Fog of War): The Thin Blue Line, Gates of Heaven, and Vernon, Florida. The Thin Blue Line is about a man wrongly accused of killing a cop; upon the original 1988 release of the film, the defendant was exonerated as a result of evidence presented in the film. Gates of Heaven is a documentary about pet cemeteries that is improbably affecting—Roger Ebert has said on many occasions that he feels it is one of the ten best films of all time. And Vernon, Florida is a lighthearted doc about the very weird denizens of the title town, including a man who has a pet turtle that he thinks is a gopher, and a husband and wife with a jar of recreating sand. Both Vernon and Gates had been out of print on VHS for over a decade (a few years ago, I paid $50 for a used copy of Gates on VHS and $100 for Vernon), so it’s especially nice that these odd films are much more readily available now. And if this box set doesn’t sate your appetite for Morris’ exceptional films, the release of his television series, First Person (IFC Films/MGM, $39.98) is good, too.

Another great, long-unavailable documentary to find release this year is Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills (Docurama, $26.95). (The sequel has been readily available for some time now by the same distributor.) I guess the marketability of Bruce Sinofsky and Joe Berlinger has been upped after the success of last year’s Metallica: Some Kind of Monster.

One of my favorite Jean-Luc Godard films, Weekend (New Yorker, $29.95), finally saw its release after the distributor presumably sat on the rights for several years (they released it on video a handful of years ago). Now if they can be coerced into releasing a lot of the other great things in their back catalogue—especially Jacques Rivette’s Celine and Julie Go Boating—I’d be very happy.

The most fertile land for really unique movies right now is East Asia, and a handful of the best films from this area have found release in recent months. The three-disc Hanzo the Razor box set (HVE, $59.95) is a welcome addition to any samurai film collection (the inimitable tagline on the back of the box is, “He’s dirtier than Harry and shaftier than Shaft!”). Tropical Malady (Strand, $24.99), the winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes 2004 and one of my favorite films of recent years, was rarely shown in theaters, but has been recently made available on DVD. Another great film that never quite saw wide distribution is Save the Green Planet! (Koch Lorber, $29.98), a screwy South Korean sci-fi comedy.

A new presence on the international film scene is Tartan Video, who have long had a name in England, but just recently infiltrated the U.S. market. While they are probably best known for bringing Chan-wook Park’s Oldboy to theaters, they do a good job of releasing cultural oddities on DVD, including Catherine Breillat’s appalling Anatomy of Hell ($24.99). In Tartan’s Asian Extreme line of DVDs, you’ll find such winners as Tetsuo: The Iron Man ($24.99) and A Tale of Two Sisters ($24.99).

A more lasting presence in the U.S. market has been Zeitgeist, who released both Kirby Dick’s (2005 Oscar nominee for Twist of Faith) SLIFF 2002 alumnus Chain Camera ($29.99) and the 2004 Webster Film Series alumnus Cowards Bend the Knee ($29.99), which is one of Canadian weirdo Guy Maddin’s (The Saddest Music in the World) best films yet.

Finally, no list of the best DVD releases of any given year is complete without mentioning the work of the Criterion Collection, whose work is no secret to film buffs. The best Criterion releases of the year have been My Own Private Idaho ($39.95), The Man Who Fell to Earth ($39.95), and Le Samouraï ($29.95). The former two come with nicely bound books, with Earth—which has had a number of incarnations on DVD—especially notable as it resurrects David Bowie’s commentary on the film, last heard on the Criterion laserdisc release.

Of course, this is just skimming the surface of the DVDs released this year, as I completely ignored TV-on-DVD releases as well as new films. Still, hopefully it will offer a good starting point for tracking down the best weird shit that came out on our favorite home video this past year.