Albert Brooks’ 1996 film, Mother, now on 4K UHD and standard Blu-ray from Criterion is, if not a masterpiece, the closest thing to one the comedian-actor-writer-director has yet to come up with.

Born Albert Einstein in 1947, he changed his name for obvious reasons. His father, who collapsed and died at a Friar’s Roast for Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in 1958, was comedian Harry Einstein better known by his stage name, Parkyakarkus. His mother was actress-singer Thelma Leeds who retired from the screen after marrying his father. She was 85 when Mother was made and lived to 95. The film is about her relationship with Brooks and his brother, their names changed to Henderson.

Brooks began the film with his character in Los Angles and his mother in Sausalito so that he could repeat the drive Dustin Hoffman takes at the end of The Graduate on his way to see her.

The then-49-year-old Brooks had written Mother several years earlier with Doris Day in mind to play his mother. Day strung him along to the point that she invited him to visit her at her home in Carmel only to tell him at their meeting that she had no intention of acting ever again.

He then took the property to Esther Williams who worked on the script with him but for whatever reason he decided she wasn’t right for the part. He then took it to Nancy Reagan who wanted to make the part about herself even to the point of saying she wouldn’t wear such-and-such an outfit, ultimately realizing that she didn’t want to act again either.

Brooks next flew to Massachusetts to interview Maureen Stapleton who loved the script and was eager to make the film. There was just one catch. The then-70-year-old Stapleton, who was afraid of flying, did not want to leave Massachusetts and asked him to make the film there. He refused.

Finally, Brooks asked his friend Carrie Fisher if her mother would play the part. She responded with “why not?” Enter Debbie Reynolds giving her best on-screen performance since her Oscar-nominated role in 1964’s The Unsinkable Molly Brown.

The 63-year-old Reynolds was a bit young for the part but all she needed was a gray wig to convey her senior citizenry. Thankfully they didn’t do anything with her still beautiful face.

The screenplay is a comic gem featuring some very funny stuff about an aging parent who keeps food too long and other intergenerational annoyances that crop up during the film. It won both the New York Film Critics Circle and National Society of Film Critics awards for Best Screenplay.

Debbie Reynolds was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress – Comedy or Musical and won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actress – Comedy or Musical. Her failure to receive an Oscar nomination may have been that they couldn’t figure out which category to nominate her in.

The film had a previous release on DVD but never made it to Blu-ray until now. It looks really stunning on 4K UHD and the extras on the accompanying Blu-ray, while skimpy, are interesting. They only consist of two separate interviews with Brooks and Rob Morrow who plays Brooks’ younger brother, his mother’s presumed favorite.

Kino Lorber has released a 4K UHD edition of Alain Resnais’ enigmatic 1962 film, Last Year at Marienbad.

The disc is sourced from Studio Canal’s 2018 restoration of the film with audio commentary from Tim Lucas.

The film, considered by many to be one of the greatest of all time, was also listed among the 50 Worst Film Ever Made in Michael Medved’s 1981 book of that name. It’s that kind of movie, beautiful to look at, but impossible to figure out. A man meets a woman at a German resort hotel in the years prior to World War II. He tells her that they met there the year before and vowed to meet in the present. She denies having ever met him. Is he lying, or is she? There is another man who is attracted to her. Who is he? There’s a murder, or is there?

The guests at the hotel play a strange game. Is the film a part of the game? It’s intriguing and beautiful to look at, like a walk through an art museum, but it’s also quite baffling. The viewer is left to figure it out on his or her own.

This was Resnais’ second narrative film. It followed the internationally acclaimed Hiroshima Mon Amour and preceded La Guerre Est Finie in the director’s filmography. The film’s stars were Giorgio Albertazzi as the man, Delphine Seyrig as the woman, and Sacha Pitoeff as the other man.

A second disc in standard Blu-ray features several extras including an interview with filmmaker Volker Shlondorff.

Kino Lorber has also released a Blu-ray rendition of the 1947 British version of Charles Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby directed by Alberto Cavalcanti (Dead of Night). Made at the height of Britain’s Dickens revival that included David Lean’s Great Expectations in 1946 and Oliver Twist in 1948, this version gives top billing to Cedric Hardwicke as Nicholas’ greedy uncle. Derek Bond plays Nicholas, a compassionate young man struggling to save his family and friends from the cold and heartless Hardwicke. Aubrey Woods gets just one scene as Nicholas’ friend, the crippled Smike.

Other versions of the work, including Douglas McGrath’s 2002 film, put the emphasis on Nicholas and Smike, memorably played in that version by Charlie Hunnam and Jamie Bell. Chrsitopher Plummer played the villainous uncle.

The distinguished supporting cast in Cavalcanti’s version include Stanley Holloway, Bernard Miles, Sally Ann Howes, Fay Compton, Sybil Thorndike, Athene Seyler, and Cathleen Nesbitt.

Extras include a 1903 short film of Nicholas Nickleby as a young schoolteacher.

Happy viewing.