V.I. Pudovkin’s ‘Bolshevik Trilogy’ comes to Blu-ray and a new book on ‘Chinatown”

Since staying at home is the order of the day for even the most devoted of moviegoers, this is a great time to catch up on both new books and classic films newly reissued.

In the reissue department, the savvy folks at Flicker Alley have just come out with a Blu-ray edition of one of the glories of Soviet silent cinema, V.I. Pudovkin’s “The Bolshevik Trilogy.” Though little remembered today, the three films — 1926’s “Mother,” 1927’s “The End of St. Petersburg” and 1928’s “Storm Over Asia” — were once considered the pinnacle of film art.

For those who like their films more modern, there is no greater treat than Sam Wasson’s new book “The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood,” a completely fascinating account, filled with intriguing new information, of the making of one of the undeniably great films of the modern era.