Jerry Seinfeld Live on Broadway: I'm Telling You for the Last Time

• DVD Details: Actors: Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Barryte, Grace Bustos, George Carlin, Alan King
• Directors: Marty Callner
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC. Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1; Number of discs: 1; Studio: HBO Home Video
• DVD Release Date: September 28, 1999; Run Time: 75 minutes

Jerry Seinfeld is a working stand-up comic again. COMEDIAN is a candidly revealing, intimately observed, and often very funny look at what it takes to be a comedian. On-stage, Jerry delivers his hilarious brand of observational humor. Off-stage, he struggles with difficult material, confronts self-doubt, revels in small successes, and accepts help and support from friends and colleagues, including Colin Quinn, Ray Romano, Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, Jay Leno, and Bill Cosby. COMEDIAN also discovers the sharp wit of rising young comic Orny A! dams -- outspoken, insecure, and fanatical about becoming the "next big thing." What emerge are two fascinating journeys by two contrasting personalities who have some surprising parallels.If you see Comedian expecting a concert film with Jerry Seinfeld, you'll be disappointed. But if you're looking for an incisive--almost surgical--examination of the psyche of a stand-up comedian, this is your movie. Comedian zigzags back and forth between the hugely successful Seinfeld, who's trying to get back to his stand-up roots by developing an entirely new act, and an unknown comic named Orny Adams, whose naked craving for success is almost painful to behold. Adams lays bare his ego to an embarrassing degree; Seinfeld is more subtle but just as revealing about the fears and anxieties that drive him to go back on stage. By following these two through comedy clubs, festivals, and spots on David Letterman's talk show, the documentary cunningly explores how jokes are put t! ogether, the in-the-trenches camaraderie (tinged with competit! ion) of stand-ups, and the sheer existential terror of trying to make people laugh. --Bret FetzerStudio: Uni Dist Corp (music) Release Date: 04/27/2010 Run time: 90 minutesDVD Features:
Biographies
Interactive Menus
Interviews
Other:Audience Q&A
When Seinfeld wrapped up its ninth and final season in the spring of 1998, the popular show's namesake and cocreator decided to offer a symbolic gesture to his fans. Taped for HBO in August 1998, on the final date of Jerry Seinfeld's tour appearances at New York City's Broadhurst Theater, I'm Telling You for the Last Time presents the standup comedian's so-called "final" standup, or at least his final tour with the standup material that made him famous. The video opens with a great prologue in which Seinfeld's old material is literally laid to rest, with many of Seinfeld's comedy colleagues in attendance at the "funeral." (Jay Leno is there, but David Letterman is cons! picuously absent, and while it's a bit self-congratulatory to show Seinfeld's fellow comedians fighting like vultures over his abandoned jokes, it's worth it just to see Garry Shandling pilfering from the catering table like a homeless intruder.)

Whether he's talking about airline flights, cab drivers, or memories of Halloween and an ill-fitting Superman costume, Seinfeld's observational humor is as timeless and sharp as the day he first performed it. Even the most familiar routines (such as the one about pharmacists with a superiority complex) are like old friends who still haven't overstayed their welcome. Seinfeld's delivery is polished to a shine--he's a consummate professional--and an impromptu Q&A with his appreciative audience demonstrates that he's equally adept with a fast and witty comeback. This performance certainly wouldn't be the last we'd see of Jerry Seinfeld, but from the perspective of phenomenal fame and fortune, it's a fitting farewell to the classic! "bits" that took him to the top. --Jeff Shannon

Flight of the Red Balloon

• Inspired by Albert Lamorisse'sic 1956 Academy Award®-Winning short*, Flight of the Red Balloon is the latest masterwork from director Hou Hsiao Hsien (Three Times, Millennium Mambo). Expanding on the key elements of Lamorisse's short - a young boy, a red balloon and Paris - Hou weaves the tale of a boy, Simon (Simon Iteanu) dealing with the increased fragility of his loving yet preocc

One of the most famous short films ever made, The Red Balloon is a childhood fantasy with appeal for viewers of every age. It is the story of Pascal, a lonely French boy who befriends a wondrous red balloon which follows him everywhere--to school and church--and even hovers outside his window when he is in his room. Filmed entirely in the picturesque back streets and narrow alleys of Old Montmartre, the film has been acclaimed through the world as an immortal masterpiece of lyrical poetry. The Red ! Balloon is both a beguiling fantasy and a touching allegory on the magic powers of love and friendship. The late French filmmaker Albert Lamorisse made this classic, 1956 short work about a lonely little Parisian boy (Pascal Lamorisse) befriended by a large red balloon, which seems to have a will of its own. As with his preceding short, 1952's White Mane, Lamorisse took home a grand prize from the Cannes Film Festival for The Red Balloon, and the latter film also won an Academy Award. There have been some stimulating pieces of film criticism (some pro, some con) written about the aesthetics of this little movie over the years, but there's no question it makes for a touching, allegorical piece always certain to prompt conversations among viewers of any age. --Tom Keogh Inspired by Albert Lamorisse's classic 1956 Academy Awardr-Winning short, Flight of the Red Balloon is the latest masterwork from director Hou Hsiao Hsien (Three Times, Millennium Mamb! o). Expanding on the key elements of Lamorisse's short - a you! ng boy, a red balloon and Paris - Hou weaves the tale of a boy, Simon (Simon Iteanu) dealing with the increased fragility of his loving yet preoccupied mother, Suzanne (Academy Awardr - Winner Juliette Binoche of The English Patient, Cach‚). When a Taiwanese film student, Song (Fang Song), is hired to help care for Simon, a unique extended family is formed - utterly dependent on each other yet lost in separate dreams mirrored by a delicate, shiny red balloon.