Godly Fincher brightens up the week

They used to refer to Eric Clapton as God. Not a god, or The God but simply “Clapton is God.” He used to be that good on the guitar.

Some film fans refer to David Fincher with the same tone of reverence. One blog is even titled “The Works and Genius of David Fincher.” Not God, exactly, but still pretty reverential.

I mention Fincher because his multi-Oscar-nominated film, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” is available on DVD this week. It’s one of several intriguing potential rentals – though not necessarily films that are freshest from theatrical runs.

Here are some recommended rentals:

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” : I wasn’t one of those who believed that Fincher’s film deserved to win an Oscar. Similar to most of his films, which range from “Se7en” to “Fight Club,” “Benjamin Button” is a visual delight. From the reverse aging of Brad Pitt to the sequence of the gun-fighting tugboat, Fincher’s film certainly deserved the three Oscars it won (for art direction, makeup and visual effects). The problem is the “Forrest Gump”-like script, which essentially says nothing more than, say, “Forrest Gump” did (not that much of a coincidence, since Eric Roth wrote both films). DVD, which is available in Blu-ray, includes a commentary by Fincher and cast members Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Tilda Swinton and others, making-of featurettes. (2:46; rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language, smoking)

“Last Chance Harvey” : There is no reason at all to suspect that any sort of chemistry at all should exist between Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson. Yet it does. Hoffman plays a writer of jingles who, in the midst of a career and personal crisis, befriends Thompson’s spinsterish character and romance sparks. What works best about the film is the interplay between two wounded people who find in each other a kindred soul. This is a romance for adults that actually works. DVD, which is available on Blu-ray, includes commentary by writer-director Joel Hopkins, plus Hoffman and Thompson, making-of featurettes. (1:32; rated PG-13 for brief strong language)

“Le Fond de l’Air est Rouge” (“A Grin Without a Cat”): Dave Kehr, writing for the New York Times, called French filmmaker Chris Marker’s film “a work of extraordinary journalism, but it is also a work of deft and subtle poetry, visual (in the rhyming of gestures and shapes across images and sequences) as much as verbal.” A three-hour documentary split into two equal parts, and, Kehr explains, “tells the story of the New Left, from the movement’s birth as a byproduct of the Vietnam War to the ouster of Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973.” Some film fans would rather gouge out their eyes than sit through a three-hour documentary in French. I, however, am always a sucker for something different. (3:00; not rated)

“Look” : Adam Rifkin’s ensemble film uses the conceit of security cameras to tell several stories, ranging from teenage shoplifters to cop killers. (1:38; rated R for strong sexual content, pervasive language, violence, brief drug use)

“TCM Greatest Classic Films Collection Wave 2” : If you’re buying these sets for your permanent collection, there are six of them with four films each. Among them you’ll find some of the greatest movies ever made.

Musicals: “Singin’ in the Rain,” “Easter Parade,” “The Band Wagon,” “Meet Me in St. Louis.” Musicals 2: “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Show Boat,” “Kiss Me Kate.”

Westerns: “Jeremiah Johnson,” “Train Robbers,” “The Wild Bunch,” “McCabe & Mrs. Miller.” Westerns 2: “The Searchers,” “Stagecoach,” “Rio Bravo,” “Cowboys.”

War: “Kelly’s Heroes,” “The Dirty Dozen,” “Where Eagles Dare,” “Battleground.” War 2: “The Green Berets,” “Destination Tokyo,” “Bataan,” “Back to Bataan.”

“The Ultimate Charles Dickens Collection”: This 10-disc set features five Public Television “Masterpiece Theatre” productions of the British novelists’ greatest works, “Bleak House,” “Great Expectations,” “Oliver Twist,” “The Old Curiosity Shop” and “Little Dorritt.”

Happy viewing.