DVD Releases

If you're a Vanity Fair subscriber, you're familiar with Dominick Dunne not just as a byline but as a media personality whose personal story has offered as much drama as the trials of the rich and famous that he's chronicled: O.J., Michael Skakel, the Menendez brothers. But if you only vaguely know of him from TV sound bites, plugs for his books, or an occasional waiting-room scan of his magazine work, you'll find an efficient biographical primer in Kirsty de Garis and Timothy Jolley's documentary "Dominick Dunne: After the Party" (2009). With the 2007 LA murder trial of music producer Phil Spector as its backdrop, the film captures Dunne, then 82, from all angles: He's by turns "on," openly self-critical , and genuinely unguarded. (His sister-in-law Joan Didion, son Griffin Dunne, and Vanity Fair's editors are among those helping to fill out the portrait.) We hear about Dunne's years as a glitterati-addicted TV and film producer and his ensuing flameout; his reinvention as a novelist; the devastating murder of his daughter, "Poltergeist" actress Dominique Dunne; and another reinvention, as a journalist, beginning with the trial of his daughter's killer. It's a journey that Dunne has already recounted, but the film offers perspective and a deliberate tendency toward contradiction that set it apart. While Dunne professes throughout to being a changed man from his celebrity-jonesing Hollywood days, gossip columnist and friend Liz Smith observes, "I don't think he changed any, really - he just got religion, so to speak, after Dominique was killed, [and wrote] about real things." (IndiePix, $24.95)

FOREIGN

THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957)

At the risk of overstatement, it's surprising how mainstream-accessible this Ingmar Bergman classic occasionally feels for a black-and-white Swedish art film revolving around a metaphorical (and literal) chess match between a Crusades-jaded medieval knight (Max von Sydow) and Death (Bengt Ekerot, inset). Many of Bergman's musings about God's existence are straightforwardly stated, and von Sydow's squire (Gunnar Björnstrand) has a Bill Murray snarkiness - and face. Extras: Journalist Marie Nyreröd's 2006 documentary "Bergman Island" is the featured supplement of the two-disc package, Criterion's first standalone reissue of the film in a decade. (Criterion, $29.95; Blu-ray, $39.95)

CRIME DRAMA

NOBEL SON (2008)

It's all about Alan Rickman in indie filmmaker Randall Miller's darkly comic thriller, which casts the actor as a Nobel Prize-winning chemistry professor and philandering egomaniac more annoyed than alarmed by the kidnapping of his grad school son (Bryan Greenberg, "October Road"). Rickman has a fine time telling the world to kiss his intellectually superior backside, and the ransom drop involves a Mini Cooper bit to rival "The Italian Job." But Miller can't seem to tell when one more twist is one too many, and the wicked story eventually turns disappointingly illogical. Extras: commentary by Rickman's castmates and crew; alternate ending. (Fox, $19.98; available now)

TELEVISION

LOST: THE COMPLETE FIRST AND SECOND SEASONS (2004-06)

The Blu-ray debut of these two sets has been a long time coming - and, seemingly banking on that anticipation, the distribution suits haven't loaded these packages with extras you didn't already catch on the standard DVD releases. Still, there's more than just hyperbole to their sales pitch that "the island has never looked this lush, nor have the roars of the unseen monster echoed as terrifyingly." Cast audition tapes and behind-the-scenes footage of the series pilot are among the highlights of the recycled bonus material. (ABC Studios, $69.99 each)

FRIDAY THE 13TH (2009)

The Jason franchise's grungy aesthetic gets a cynically slick makeover from director Marcus Nispel and producer Michael Bay, who pulled the same trick on "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." Another distributor piggybacks the release with Blu-rays of parts 2 and 3 of the original series and other reissues. Extras: extended (but still R-rated) cut. (Warner, $28.98; Blu-ray, $35.99)

THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK (1959)

Director George Stevens's adaptation of the Broadway drama gets a 50th-anniversary reissue complete with reminiscences from cast members. (Fox, $19.98; Blu-ray, $34.99) THE STRANGE ONE (1957) Ben Gazzara makes an intriguing screen debut as a military academy upperclassman playing bizarre Svengali to George Peppard and other cadets. The DVD restores scenes cut from the theatrically released version because of studio concerns about homosexual undercurrents. Extras: Gazzara interview. (Sony, $19.94)

SPRING BREAKDOWN (2009)

Amy Poehler, "SNL" castmate Rachel Dratch, and Parker Posey star in a straight-to-DVD comedy about uncool gal pals who hit the Gulf Coast party scene with vague notions of getting hip. Deserves its distribution fate, but Poehler fans will get a laugh or two. (Warner, $27.95; Blu-ray, $35.99; available now)

LAND OF THE LOST: THE COMPLETE SERIES (1974-76)

If the new Will Ferrell redo of the '70s Saturday morning fave doesn't float your raft, there's always the conveniently reissued original. This package lacks the extras with Wesley "Will" Eure and Kathy "Holly" Coleman from Rhino's re-releases of a few years ago, but it does come in a nifty vintage lunchbox reproduction. (Universal, $69.98; available now)

Titles are in stores Tuesday unless otherwise specified.