The Actuality Dramas of Allan King (5-DVD)

As one of the most historically vital and yet least-known documentarians to emerge after the Second World War, Canadian filmmaker Allan King pioneered the form of cinema direct - standing at a distance from his subjects, camera-in-hand, and unobtrusively shooting raw, unrehearsed human interaction. This resulted in a body of work known for being as emotionally uncomfortable and shocking as it was candid and genuine. King peaked as a craftsperson in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but remained prolific for several decades, right up through his death in June 2009; appropriately enough, then, the five documentaries in this Criterion Eclipse package span 38 years - 1967 through 2005. The set begins with the legendary WARRENDALE (1967), King's tour of an experimental home for disturbed youths, then includes the director's A MARRIED COUPLE (1969), a no-holds-barred chronicle of a Toronto couple (Antoinette and Billy Edwards) whose marriage is violently splitting at the seams. The package then moves ahead to 1971, for King's COME ON CHILDREN, which finds the director inviting a clique of disaffected, alienated teenagers to live on a farm (independently of their parents) for ten weeks. The last two films in the package examine various issues surrounding the end of life: DYING AT GRACE (2003) observes the final days of five terminally ill patients, while MEMORY FOR MAX, CLAIRE, IDA AND COMPANY (2005) studies several nursing home residents afflicted by various forms of dementia.