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In the home release Balanchine: Jewels The Ballet of the Opéra national de Paris performs George Balanchine's Jewels ballet, live on stage. Balanchine choreographs the work to featured music by classical composers Gabriel Fauré, Igor Stravinsky, and Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky. Paul Connolly handles musical direction, with set and costume design by Christian Lacroix. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Thomas Stewart and Brigitte Fassbaender co-star in this filmed 1978 stage production of Richard Wagner's opera Das Rheingold, mounted by the Salzburg Festival and the Metropolitan Opera. The Berliner Philharmoniker, under the baton of Herbert von Karajan, provides symphonic accompaniment. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This production of Carl Maria von Weber's romantic opera Der Freischutz features conductor Leopold Ludwig leading the Hamburg State Philharmonic Chorus as they support performers including Edith Mathis, Arlene Saunders, and Ernst Kozub. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Nonfiction filmmaking pioneer Robert Flaherty's first sound feature elaborates on themes presented in his two previous major works, Nanook of the North and Moana. In all four of his major features, including Louisiana Story, Flaherty explored the relationship of man to his natural environment. This film was shot between 1931 and 1933 on the Aran Islands, west of Ireland's Galway Bay. Flaherty's screen "family" was actually composed of three unrelated islanders chosen for their photogenic appeal: Colman "Tiger" King is the title character, a no-nonsense fisherman, Maggie Dirrane plays his wife, and Michael Dillane his young son. Flaherty is more interested in recording the natural beauty of the islands, which are largely rock, and the surrounding sea than in presenting any formal information on the lives of the islanders. Life here is as elemental as it was for the Eskimos in Nanook and the South Seas islanders in Moana. Though the film came under fire from some critics at the time of its release for not presenting the social conditions that hampered the lives of the islanders -- many of them renting from absentee landlords indifferent to their economic well-being -- it has come to be accepted as work of film poetry rather than a social document. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Marlene Dietrich became an immediate international star on the strength of her performance as the temptress Lola Frohlich in Josef von Sternberg's classic tale of love and obsession. Professor Immanuel Rath (Emil Jannings) is a strict and humorless schoolmaster who is shocked when he discovers the boys in his class have been spending their time at a sleazy cabaret called The Blue Angel, where an entertainer named Lola (Dietrich) keeps the men in thrall and sells suggestive postcards of herself. Rath goes to the club in hopes of catching his students and giving them a severe dressing-down, but he instead finds himself entranced by the carefree atmosphere of the club, and is struck by Lola's earthy, sensual beauty. Rath finds himself strongly attracted to Lola, and she later entertains him in her dressing room. When word of Rath's infatuation with Lola spreads to his students, he is taunted mercilessly, and eventually Rath is dismissed from the school. While Lola agrees to marry Rath, she shows little affection for him and delights in humiliating him, making him her servant and forcing him to play a clown in her stage show. The Blue Angel was shot in both German and English language versions; the German is preferable, as most of the cast were obviously more expert in that tongue. Dietrich introduced her theme song, "Falling In Love Again", in this picture. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A very early Vittorio De Sica effort, The Children Are Watching Us was originally released in Italy as I Bambini Ci Guardano. Director De Sica collaborated with another neorealist pioneer, Cesare Zavattini, on the screenplay. The film, a real tearjerker, concerns a young mother (Isa Pola) who can't stand the pressures exerted on her by family responsibilities. She deserts her husband (Emilio Cigoli) and her brood, permanently ruining the life of her four-year-old son, Prico (Luciano de Ambrosis). Avoiding the rococo gestures and dramatic overstatement that might have attended this film had it been made in Hollywood, De Sica fashions a subtle tale about real people caught up in a real situation. De Sica's sensitivity toward the younger cast members of The Children Are Watching Us would manifest itself in many of his formative films, notably Sciuscià and The Bicycle Thief. Made in 1942, the film was not released in Italy until 1944. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Maurice Ronet plays an alcoholic writer, Alain Leroy, who is on the verge of suicide (his character is based on writer Jacques Rigaut, who killed himself in 1929). The psychiatrist assigned to Leroy is no help, advising his patient to seek a reconciliation with his wife, who is still smarting from Leroy's recent liaison with Lydia (Lena Skerla). Still obsessed with the notion of taking his own life, Leroy plans to stage his demise on July 23. A last-ditch effort to jolly himself out of his doldrums fails, and Leroy, with a picture of Marilyn Monroe at his side, snuffs himself out. Though a case study of a man victimized by his own isolationism, The Fire Within has some surprising random optimistic moments. The French title for The Fire Within is Le Feu Follet, which was also the title of the novel by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle (another suicide!) from which this film was adapted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clash: Tory Crimes and Other Tales offers an unauthorized biography of the influential punk band. The filmmakers interview a number of people who were associated with the band at some point including road manager Johnny Green and fellow musician Terry Chimes. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide