New releases on DVD: Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others (winner of the 2006 Best Foreign Film Academy Award), Zoey Cassavetes' Broken English (don't be surprised in Parker Posey picks up best actress later this year at the Indie Spirit Awards for her performance) and the Criterion Collection release of David Mamet's directorial debut, the tense thriller The House of Games.
1. The Lives of Others
With his Academy award-winning The Lives of Others, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck takes a hard look at a country where a mind-boggling one in fifty citizens spied on the rest. The film is set in 1984 East Berlin, five years before the downfall of the East German government. The outstanding cast includes the recently departed actor Ulrich Muehe as an intense Stasi officer who questions his convictions.
2. Broken English
Thirty-something New Yorker Nora Wilder (Parker Posey) has a terrific name and even better clothes, but she doesn't quite know how her life happened to her. Zoe Cassavetes's first feature film follows the ups and downs of Nora's love life. Gena Rowlands, Drea DeMatteo, Justin Theroux, and Melvil Poupaud co-star.
