{"product_id":"melvin-van-peebles-essential-films-blu-ray","title":"Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films (BLU-RAY)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDirector, writer, composer, actor, and one-man creative revolutionary Melvin Van Peebles jolted American independent cinema to new life with his explosive stylistic energy and unfiltered expression of Black consciousness. Though he undeniably altered the course of film history with the anarchic \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e that pop-culture bombshell is just one piece of a remarkably varied career that has also encompassed forays into European art cinema (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eThe Story of a Three Day Pass\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e), mainstream Hollywood comedy (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWatermelon Man\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e), and Broadway musicals (\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDon’t Play Us Cheap\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e). Each facet of Van Peebles’s renegade genius is on display in this collection of four films, a tribute to a transformative artist whose caustic social observation, radical formal innovation, and uncompromising vision established a new cinematic model for Black creative independence. Also included in the set is \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBaadasssss!,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e a chronicle of the production of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eSweet Sweetback\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e made by Van Peebles’s son Mario Van Peebles—and starring the younger Van Peebles as Melvin.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"header_lvl2\"\u003eFILMS IN THIS SET\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-sets-contain\"\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"film-set\"\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"The Story of a Three Day Pass\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/criterion-production\/films\/868f3824e4fb1661f57b6dbd0e6cf92a\/Vs9AzREe1P9YLKGdfwecUn2PjBlTQg_small.jpg\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-content\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-title\"\u003eThe Story of a Three Day Pass\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-year\"\u003e1967\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-descrip\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMelvin Van Peebles’s edgy, angsty, romantic first feature could never have been made in America. Unable to break into segregated Hollywood, Van Peebles decamped to France, taught himself the language, and wrote a number of books in French, one of which,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLa permission,\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ewould become the stylistically innovative\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Story of a Three Day Pass.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eTurner (Harry Baird), an African American soldier stationed in France, is granted a promotion and a three-day leave from base by his casually racist commanding officer and heads to Paris, where he finds whirlwind romance with a white woman (Nicole Berger)—but what happens to their love when his furlough is over? Channeling the brash exuberance of the French New Wave, Van Peebles creates an exploration of the psychology of an interracial relationship as well as a commentary on France’s contradictory attitudes about race that is playful, sarcastic, and stingingly subversive by turns, and that laid the foundation for the scorched-earth cinematic revolution he would let loose just a few years later.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"film-set\"\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"Watermelon Man\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/criterion-production\/films\/0c501a3c29a18782d925bfd55fee19c3\/feNpxjpTQNQM7gYDZsB0KNItFGQASQ_small.jpg\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-content\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-title\"\u003eWatermelon Man\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-year\"\u003e1970\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-descrip\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMelvin Van Peebles’s only foray into Hollywood filmmaking,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eWatermelon Man\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis one of the most audacious, radically conceived works to be financed by a major American studio in the 1970s. Comedian Godfrey Cambridge delivers a virtuoso performance (initially in whiteface) as Jeff Gerber, a loudmouthed, bigoted white insurance salesman whose sitcomlike suburban existence is jarringly upended when he wakes up to discover, in a wild spin on Franz Kafka’s\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Metamorphosis\u003c\/em\u003e, that he has become a Black man. What ensues is a ferocious satire of society’s racist double standards that gradually transforms into an empowering portrait of awakening Black consciousness, executed with a mix of acerbic irreverence and deadly serious political commentary by a relentlessly subversive Van Peebles.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"film-set\"\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/criterion-production\/films\/95ebf87290f77e1410d8a873b03dc1b7\/0W8nS4IPFCEVH4hoZmxy3fa5RzjrTs_small.jpg\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-content\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-title\"\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-year\"\u003e1971\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-descrip\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA landmark of Black and American independent cinema that would send shock waves through the culture,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ewas Melvin Van Peebles’s second feature film, after he walked away from a contract with Columbia in order to make his next film on his own terms. Acting as producer, director, writer, composer, editor, and star, Van Peebles created the prototype for what Hollywood would eventually co-opt and make into the blaxploitation hero: a taciturn, perpetually blank-faced performer in a sex show, who, when he’s pushed too far by a pair of racist cops looking to frame him for a crime he didn’t commit, goes on the run through a lawless underground of bikers, revolutionaries, sex workers, and hippies in a kill-or-be-killed quest for liberation from white oppression.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c\/em\u003e’s incendiary politics are matched by Van Peebles’s revolutionary style, in which jagged jump cuts, kaleidoscopic superimpositions, and psychedelic sound design come together in a sustained howl of rage and defiance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli class=\"film-set\"\u003e\n\u003cimg alt=\"Don’t Play Us Cheap\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/criterion-production\/films\/27173c38907245b89d05bf30e69494fb\/czKr9S3bV9sJmjGbIPFXAjMlayWpVp_small.jpg\"\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-content\"\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-title\"\u003eDon’t Play Us Cheap\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"film-set-year\"\u003e1972\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"film-set-descrip\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMelvin Van Peebles’s film version of his own Tony Award–nominated Broadway musical is a bold blend of theater and nervy, New Wave–inflected cinematic invention. A cast of Black stage and screen luminaries including Esther Rolle, Mabel King, and Avon Long stars in this charmingly offbeat, fablelike fantasy in which a pair of mischief-making devil-bats dispatched by Satan assume human form in order to wreak havoc on a Saturday-night house party in Harlem—only to find their diabolical plan thwarted by their hosts’ infectious generosity of spirit. Staged with ebullience, the original blues- and gospel-infused songs by Van Peebles burst forth in a life-affirming celebration of Black joy, tenderness, resilience, and strength.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch4 class=\"header_lvl2 hideSmall\"\u003eSPECIAL FEATURES\u003c\/h4\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew 4K digital restorations of all four films, approved by filmmaker Mario Van Peebles, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks for\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Story of a Three Day Pass, Watermelon Man,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack for\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eDon’t Play Us Cheap\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eBaadasssss!,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ea 2003 fictional feature film based on director Melvin Van Peebles’s diaries from the making of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003edirected by and starring his son Mario Van Peebles, with commentary by father and son\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew conversations between Mario Van Peebles and film critic Elvis Mitchell; producer Warrington Hudlin and critic and filmmaker Nelson George; and scholars Amy Abugo Ongiri, Gerald R. Butters Jr., and Novotny Lawrence\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eAudio commentary by Melvin Van Peebles from 1997 on\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThree short films by Melvin Van Peebles:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eSunlight\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(1957),\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eThree Pickup Men for Herrick\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(1957), and\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLes cinq cent balles\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(1961)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eHow to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It),\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ea 2005 documentary on Van Peebles’s life and career\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eThe Story Behind “Baadasssss!”: The Birth of Black Cinema,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ea 2004 featurette\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003ci\u003eMelvin Van Peebles: The Real Deal,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003ea 2002 interview with the director on the making of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEpisodes of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eBlack Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003efrom 1968, 1971, and 1972, on\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Story of a Three Day Pass, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eDon’t Play Us Cheap\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eInterview from 1971 with Van Peebles on\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eDetroit Tubeworks\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eFrench television interview from 1968 with Van Peebles and actors Harry Baird and Nicole Berger on the set of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Story of a Three Day Pass\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eExcerpts from a 2004 interview with Van Peebles for the Directors Guild of America Visual History Program\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eIntroductions to all four films by Van Peebles\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTrailers\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eNew English subtitle translation for\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Story of a Three Day Pass\u003c\/i\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eEnglish subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePLUS: A book featuring essays by film scholars Racquel J. Gates, Allyson Nadia Field, Michael B. Gillespie, and Lisa B. Thompson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNew cover illustration by Emory Douglas, with design by Slang Inc.\u003c\/em\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Unobstructed View","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":41116292743368,"sku":"CC3299BD","price":165.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0598\/8486\/3688\/products\/melvinvanpeebles.jpg?v=1634259138","url":"https:\/\/videomatica.com\/es\/products\/melvin-van-peebles-essential-films-blu-ray","provider":"Videomatica Ltd (since 1983)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}