Orlandi

Historic Print (S): Elevazione aereobatica eseguita da Francesco Orlandi in Bologna nei pub. i Giardini, li This is a museum quality, reproduction print on premium paper with archival/UV resistant inks. Date: [1828?]Subject: Orlandi, Francesco, aereonauta--Associated objects. Balloons (Aircraft)--Italy--1820-1830.SOURCE: Library of Congress

The cover photo to this disc shows a woman ripping the clothes off her lover. That's how we know that the Adagio Sostenuto from Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 is about sex. So goes the logic here. But the disc's droopy account of the Entr'acte to Act III of Bizet's Carmen by Lorin Maazel and Orchestre National de France lights no fire. The Adagio from Vivaldi's Mandolin Concerto in D major has been piped into shopping malls for too many years for it to awaken much beyond the urge to buy shower curtains and blue jeans. Pianist Rudolf Buchbinder is pretty convincing in his account of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, Op. 27, and much has been made of the work's dedication to the lovely 17-year-old Countess Giulietta Giucciardi. As to the Adagietto from Mahler's Fifth Symphony, I always thought it was about something other than sex. Silly me! --Gwendolyn Freed

Humphrey Bogart's final screen role was in this 1956 film by Mark Robson (Home of the Brave), about a cynical sportswriter who becomes a press agent and sees firsthand how badly boxers are used and manipulated by crooked managers. The story finds Bogart's character waffling about the ethics surrounding the exploitation of an overrated fighter who will earn money for his handlers in the short term, then be tossed onto the scrap heap. This is a very tough tale written by Budd Schulberg and shot with determined unromanticism; the boxing sequences are among the most striking and violent ever committed to film. Jan Sterling plays Bogart's wife, who watches him vacillate about whether to expose the fight syndicate as a racket. --Tom Keogh

Walter Hill's colorful directorial debut has quite a cult following for its toughness and violence; it may well be his best film, in fact. Charles Bronson plays a silent street fighter in New Orleans in the '30s managed by the cool James Coburn. Jill Ireland, Strother Martin, and Michael McGuire costar in this spare existential Depression dirge. It owes a lot to its noir origins that Hill adores so much, yet there's something very fresh and vital about its subject and approach. That's really what made so many of these films from the '70s so endearing. An added bonus is the love and affection displayed by the real-life husband and wife team of Bronson and Ireland. --Bill Desowitz

Peter Yates's 1968 cop drama has its existentialist pretensions, but there is something seductive about its strained seriousness and Steve McQueen's intentionally stoic performance as a San Francisco police detective on the trail of a murderer. A couple of key action sequences boost the film's stature, the most memorable of which is a vertiginous car chase that Yates almost approaches as a dance. Jacqueline Bisset provides window dressing as Bullitt's girlfriend--worried about how much his job strips away his humanity--and Robert Vaughan is almost reptilian as an opportunistic politician. --Tom Keogh

San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon

San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon

San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon

Bluray Disc