Fighting the stereotype that documentaries must be dry and boring, First Run Features is preparing two new DVDs of some interesting and unusual films. Joseph Bullman visits the elusive and eccentric Lord Glenconner to learn about his follies in The Man Who Bought Mustique and Peter Fischli and David Weiss take viewers into their colossal and bizarre studio for a tour in The Way Things Go.

“The Man Who Bought Mustique” is a deliciously entertaining look at Lord Glenconner, a Scottish lord who bought the tiny Caribbean island of Mustique in 1956 for a song and turned it into a playground for the rich and famous, including Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Tommy Hilfiger, and various British Royalty such as Princess Margaret and Prince Andrew. But in the late ’70s the “Jet-Set Monarch” ran out of money, lost control of his island, and was banished to nearby St. Lucia. Director Joseph Bullman and producer Vikram Jayanti (When We Were Kings) follow the indomitable Glenconner as he visits Mustique for the first time in ten years. Equal parts high comedy and shock theatre, his return stirs up old animosities and creates new ones. Hilarious, pathetic, sly and charming, Lord Glenconner may be one man’s argument for reviving the guillotine and another’s swan song for “this blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.”

Coming with a 1.77:1 widescreen transfer, “The Man Who Bought Mustique” comes with biographies and a theatrical trailer gallery.

“The Way Things Go” begins inside a warehouse where artists Peter Fischli and David Weiss build an enormous, precarious structure 100 feet long made out of common household items – tea kettles, tires, old shoes, balloons, wooden ramps, etc. Then, with fire, water, gravity and chemistry, they create a spectacular chain reaction, a self-destructing performance of physical interactions, chemical reactions, and precisely crafted chaos worthy of Rube Goldberg or Alfred Hitchcock. Peter Fischli and David Weiss have collaborated since 1979. The Swiss artists, whose works have been seen in galleries and museums all over the world, take on big questions with humble materials and a tongue-in-cheek manner.
The new DVD of the film contains a newly restored print of the films original fullscreen presentation. Biographies and a bibliography are both included.

Coming on February 19th, these two documentaries will remind us of some of the unconventional people who share this world with us. “The Way Things Go” and “The Man Who Bought Mystique” will be priced at $19.95 and $29.95 respectively.