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New DVDs: Terence Davies, 'Rake,' 'NYPD Blue' redux

Terence Davies is quite possibly the greatest filmmaker you've never heard of. Celebrated pretty much only by cinephiles, the British writer-director, whose films include The Neon Bible, The House of Mirth, and Of Time and the City, has never attracted a mass audience.

Terence Davies is quite possibly the greatest filmmaker you've never heard of.

Celebrated pretty much only by cinephiles, the British writer-director, whose films include The Neon Bible, The House of Mirth, and Of Time and the City, has never attracted a mass audience.

That will change, we hope, with the release of two of his films, the 2011 romantic drama, The Deep Blue Sea, and one of his greatest accomplishments, the 1992 masterpiece The Long Day Closes.

Based on the 1952 play by Terence Rattigan and set five years after the end of World War II, The Deep Blue Sea stars Rachel Weisz as Hester Collyer, the dutiful but unfulfilled wife of the much older Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale), a judge and a pillar of (repressive) society.

Hester finds an outlet for her passion - and in the process becomes unstuck - when she falls for the handsome Freddie (Tom Hiddleston), a former Royal Air Force pilot whose experiences in the war have left him emotionally numb. (www.musicboxfilms.com; $29.95 DVD; $38.94 Blu-ray; rated R)

Davies' extraordinary understanding of the human psyche and his exquisite dramatization of its most subtle shifts is evident in The Long Day Closes, which is due Jan. 28 from the Criterion Collection.

A semiautobiographical coming-of-age story set in Liverpool in the 1950s, the film delves into the inner life of an 11-year-old working-class boy exposed to bullying for the first time. It's an exquisitely restrained, beautiful piece. (www.criterion.com; $39.95 DVD/Blu-ray Combo; rated PG)

Other DVDs of note

Rake: Season One and Rake: Season Two. We suggest you do a little bit of homework before tucking into Greg Kinnear's new dramedy Rake, a remake of an Australian series, which premieres Jan. 23 on Fox. Watch the original show, which ran for two seasons. A minor work of genius, Rake stars Richard Roxburgh as Cleaver Greene, a dissolute defense lawyer who'd rather lose money at the track, get drunk, snort coke, and get into fights than deal with his ex-wife or his teenage son. Despite his many faults, Cleaver also is possessed of a brilliant legal mind, a strong sense of justice - and a yen for taking the most bizarre cases. (www.bfsent.com; $34.98 each; not rated)

NYPD Blue: Season Five. Don't you sometimes wish Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) was still part of your life? Watch him in action in the fifth season of Steven Bochco's 1990s megahit, which also featured Jimmy Smits, Kim Delaney, and Nicholas Turturro. It's due Jan. 21. (www.shoutfactory.com; $34.99; not rated)

Inch'Allah. Canadian filmmaker Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette's stirring drama stars Evelyne Brochu as a doctor with the Red Crescent working in the West Bank. She sympathizes with both sides when it comes to the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Which side is right? Which is more just? She's torn. Powerful, intelligent work. (http://entertainmentone.com; $24.98; rated R)