Media Room

Moliere (Sony, $29.95) was one of 2007’s overlooked gems. Out on DVD next week, the French film seems even better on a second viewing.

It’s a frothy comedy in the vein of “Shakespeare in Love” and “Becoming Jane,” but much more insightful than either of those films on how artistic genius transforms life into art.

Director and co-writer Laurent Tirard imagines what might have happened in the months in 1645 when history shows the twentysomething actor-playwright went missing after spending some time in debtors’ prison after his theater troupe went bankrupt. A rich, social-climbing merchant (Fabrice Luchini), hoping to learn acting so he can win the heart of a witty but vain young widow (Ludivine Sagnier), bails Moliere (Romain Duris) out of prison to teach him. Instead, Moliere falls in love with the merchant’s wife (Laura Morante), who, herself, tries to teach the earnest young playwright that he can have more impact on society by entertaining his audiences with comedy than boring them with the tragedy he’s no good at performing.

There are only two special features on this disc, and, unfortunately, neither includes much background on the real Moliere and his influence. However, the extras we do have are top-notch.

A half-hour feature on the making of the film (in French with English subtitles) shows that the cast and crew had as much fun making the film as the audience has watching it. Observing that the movie is all about seduction in its various forms, Miss Sagnier says, “When actors are asked to seduce, they are happy.”

Mr. Duris notes that Mr. Tirard resisted what must have been a huge temptation to make the sexy young playwright a 17th-century rock star. “He made him humble; he made him doubt,” he says.

Mr. Tirard says he had to tread a fine line between comedy and drama, something Moliere himself did with genius. “Laughter is easier to fabricate, emotion is always a little magical,” Mr. Tirard says.

The director wanted to make a “contemporary comedy in costumes.” Expanding on his objective in a very helpful director’s commentary, he talks about the locations, provides some historical background, points out which plot points come from which plays and identifies the moment when the film goes from fact to splendid fiction.

The release of Family Guy: Blue Harvest (Twentieth Century Fox, $22.97) marks a first for the movie industry: It’s the first DVD to be released under the new Digital Copy for ITunes program. Customers who buy the “Blue Harvest” DVD will get an additional digital copy of the movie they can play on their computers, IPhones or video IPods. Fox and Apple say they plan to deliver more DVDs with the feature; the only one they mention for certain is the March release of the action film “Hitman.”

Not that you needed another reason to pick up “Blue Harvest” if you’re a “Family Guy” fan. Sure, you might be able to see the hilarious “Star Wars” parody, a special double-length episode of the Fox series, in reruns, but you’d be missing out on a slew of great extras. There’s a commentary by “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane and eight others who helped make the episode. There’s the “Family Guy Star Wars Clip Show,” which features the many “Star Wars” gags in the show before they did a full-length parody. There’s the obligatory making-of featurette.

The best feature, and one that will appeal to more than just “Family Guy” fans, is a 13-minute-long conversation between Mr. MacFarlane and “Star Wars” creator George Lucas. Mr. Lucas says that he doesn’t watch his own films too often but that sometimes he’ll come across one while channel surfing and watch it. Mr. MacFarlane, on the other hand, says he always watches a “Family Guy” rerun when he finds one. “Our TiVo is completely filled up with ‘Family Guy’” Mr. Lucas reveals. Mr. MacFarlane suggests he buy some of the DVDs instead.

“Star Wars” fans are legion, and it turns out they often know the films better than their creator. Mr. MacFarlane whistles a few tunes from the movies, and Mr. Lucas can’t identify which scenes they accompany.

Mr. Lucas also talks more generally about his film career. He’s raised three children by himself, he notes, and decided to stop directing when his daughter was born. Unlike many directors of his generation, such as Martin Scorsese, Mr. Lucas didn’t go to many movies as a youngster: His small town had only one theater. And he liked to chase girls. The two movies he does really remember? “The Bridge on the River Kwai” and “Dr. Strangelove.”

Saw IV (Lionsgate, $29.95 for DVD, $39.99 for Blu-ray) — The fourth installment of the successful horror franchise — “Saw V” will be out later this year — comes to DVD with a slew of extras. They include director Darren Lynn Bousman’s video diary, two audio commentary tracks (one with Mr. Bousman and actor Lyriq Bent, the other with four producers), a deleted scene, and some behind-the-scenes featurettes.

Most interesting is “The Traps of ‘Saw IV,’” a look at the murderous constructions of the killer Jigsaw. Apparently it’s not easy to keep coming up with these things. “There are only a certain number of ways you can maim someone or kill someone before it just becomes boring,” Mr. Bousman says. The writers talk about where they get their new ideas from — walking through Home Depot to look at tools and researching torture devices from the Middle Ages are two.

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