Random DVD and Blu-ray announcements

Started by wilder, November 01, 2011, 01:54:56 AM

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wilder

Just released

Bryan Forbes' Deadfall (1968) on blu-ray from Signal One Entertainment (UK). Blu-ray screencaps here.



From blu-ray.com:

"Elegant, a bit subversive, and unceremoniously refusing to play by the rules that other similarly themed films from the '60s followed. Years ago a lot of critics argued that it was a dud, but I think that it is amongst the best of its kind.

Professional burglar Henry Clarke (Michael Caine) is in an upscale sanatorium where he is trying to repair the damage that years of alcohol abuse has caused to his body. Here he is approached by the elegant Fe (Giovanna Ralli) who invites him to meet her husband, Moreau (Eric Portman), because he has a business proposition that may be of interest to him. Henry is immediately intrigued because he has been getting treatment in the sanatorium under a false name. Soon after, Henry meets Moreau in his chic home and he reveals to him that he is planning to steal a very expensive jewelry collection that belongs to a prominent statesman named Salinas (David Buck) and that he wants him to break into his lavish mansion so that he can crack his safe. The loot, Moreau explains, will allow them to leave the business for good and start enjoying their lives."


Deadfall (1968) - Amazon UK


Most reviews I've read are downright negative, but I'm seeing great things in this trailer. It looks gorgeous & strange








This one other review is on board:

Quote from: HEFILMBryan Forbes is an underrated director, almost forgotten today for a string of well reviewed films that ended with this one. The good reviews did that is. Perhaps at the time the direction seemed "overboard" but by today's standards of course it is merely stylish. It features lots of interesting camera angles, almost like a Joseph Losey film at times visually, and a lot of well written dialog.

Caine is very good. He played a series of almost expressionless villains and near-villains in the late 1960's. This role is one of those, crook who falls for the wrong woman, deals but he totally sells it. Even the tone of his voice is different than you'd expect. He also gets to display both surprise and rage towards the end which gives the character more of a place to go than in the more highly regarded say Harry Palmer films and the soon to be made and good but over rated GET CARTER. He really makes the film work.

The odd character relationships also help a great deal as does John Barry's music. Fans of his probably know the main robbery scene is inter cut with a specially composed piece of pseudo classical music he wrote and which the scene was edited to later. It's a fascinating sequence and not like anything else Barry ever composed and worth watching for any fan of film music, meaning music in a film connected and interacting with it, not just as a CD to buy and enjoy. The whole score has a touch of the Spanish setting the film lushly invokes. You do have to ignore the lyrics and slightly heard it before nature of the Title song.

This is not an action crime film, more of a corrupted souls and the crimes they commit type of approach with an interesting Spanish setting. It's disguised film noir with realistic occasionally funny dialog and cool oddball sinister angles and editing choices that maybe play better today than at the time. Well worth watching, but good luck finding it.

As obscure as it seems to be (nary 600 votes on IMDB) I'm betting my luck it hasn't found the right audience. Ordered it blind.

jenkins


wilder

#797
May 2018 TBD

Robert Downey Sr.'s Greaser's Palace (1972) on blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing, from a new remaster struck from the original camera negative



In a film that must be seen to be believed, the story of Christ's sufferings is set in the Old West. A zoot-suited drifter performs miracles and attracts a large following. But what he really wants to do is sing and dance! He finally gets to play The Palace, a saloon run by the ruthless Seaweedhead Greaser, and he's a big hit. But he's got more miracles to do...like restoring life to Greaser's son, killed by his father, and contending with Greaser's envious daughter Cholera.

PT & Jonathan Demme discuss the movie extensively


Summer 2018 TBD

Ida Lupino's The Bigamist (1953) on blu-ray from Kino, from a new 4K remaster



San Francisco businessman Harry Graham (Edmond O'Brien) and his wife and business partner, Eve (Joan Fontaine), are in the process of adopting a child. When private investigator Jordan (Edmund Gwenn) uncovers the fact that Graham has another wife, Phyllis (Ida Lupino), and a small child in Los Angeles, he confesses everything. In flashback, Graham tells of the strains in his marriage with Eve and how he found himself falling for the kind-hearted waitress Phyllis while on a business trip.   



wilder

May 29, 2018

Roger Donaldson's Smash Palace (1981) on blu-ray from Arrow



Premiering at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, Smash Palace was the second feature of Roger Donaldson following the success of Sleeping Dogs, a film which had heralded the arrival of the New Zealand New Wave.

Smash Palace concerns itself with the marriage of former racing driver Al (Bruno Lawrence, The Quiet Earth) and French-born Jacqui (Anna Jemison, Nomads). The pair had met when she nursed him back to health following a career-ending injury. They married, returned to Al's native New Zealand to take over his late father's wrecking yard business – the Smash Palace of the title – and had a child. But over time stagnation has set in, Jacqui's resentment of Al has grown, and things are threatening to spill over...

Playing out as a darker, more haunting New Zealand variation on such US separation movies as Kramer vs. Kramer or Shoot the Moon, Smash Palace offers a brilliant, vivid messy portrait of masculinity in crisis, driven by Lawrence's immense central performance – once again confirming his status as one of New Zealand's finest actors.


Smash Palace (1981) - Amazon



Ravi

https://www.flickeralley.com/classic-movies/#!/Early-Women-Filmmakers-An-International-Anthology/p/80085513/category=20414531

May 9, 2017

Early Women Filmmakers: An International Anthology



More women worked in film during its first two decades than at any time since. Unfortunately, many early women filmmakers have been largely written out of film history, their contributions undervalued. This necessary and timely collection highlights the work of 14 of early cinema's most innovative and influential women directors, re-writing and celebrating their rightful place in film history.

International in scope, this groundbreaking collection features over 10 hours of material, comprised of 25 films spanning 1902-1943, including many rare titles not widely available until now, from shorts to feature films, live-action to animation, commercial narratives to experimental works. Directors include Alice Guy Blaché, Lois Weber, Mabel Normand, Madeline Brandeis, Germaine Dulac, Olga Preobrazhenskaia, Marie-Louise Iribe, Lotte Reiniger, Claire Parker, Mrs. Wallace Reid (Dorothy Davenport), Leni Riefenstahl, Mary Ellen Bute, Dorothy Arzner, and Maya Deren.

These women were technically and stylistically innovative, pushing the boundaries of narrative, aesthetics, and genre. Going back to the beginning of cinema, this collection makes visible the tremendous directorial contributions women made all around the world. Beautifully restored in high definition, Early Women Filmmakers features new scores by Sergei Dreznin, Frederick Hodges, Tamar Muskal, Judith Rosenberg, and Rodney Sauer and the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

This anthology is dedicated to the memory of David Shepard (1940-2017), without whom these films – along with countless others – would simply not have been made available in such beautifully-restored editions. The collection represents one of David's final produced works, completed in collaboration with several film archives, including the French National Center for Cinematography and the Moving Image (CNC), the Film Studies Center at the University of Chicago, and the Library of Congress.

Bonus Materials Include:

Booklet Essay: By film scholar and Women Film Pioneers Project Manager Kate Saccone.
Audio Commentary: For Lois Weber's The Blot by author, professor, and expert on women and early film culture Shelley Stamp, courtesy of Milestone Film and Video.

Complete list of films

wilder

March 10, 2018

Alfred Sole's Alice, Sweet Alice (1976) on blu-ray from 88 Films (UK), from a 2K restoration from positive elements. Region free.



When ten-year-old Karen (Brooke Shields – in her first screen appearance) is killed in church on the occasion of her first communion, her seemingly innocent older sister Alice (Paula Sheppard) becomes the prime suspect. Matters become complicated as more of Alice's family members are attacked, along with residents of her apartment building. Can a twelve-year-old girl be capable of such mayhem, or is someone else with a vicious plan destroying her family?



wilder

March 5, 2018

Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990) on blu-ray from BBC/2 Entertain Video (UK)



Juliet Stevenson stars in a role especially written for her. Nina (Stevenson) misses her dead lover so much that he returns to her from the Other Side. But when a new relationship starts to blossom, will she betray the ghost she is still Truly, Madly and Deeply in love with? Oscar winning Anthony Minghella's debut film has become a classic love story of British cinema.

Truly, Madly, Deeply (1990) - Amazon UK






March 13, 2018

Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps (1956) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



"Ask mother," says the message scrawled in lipstick at a murder scene, written by an unidentified serial killer who preys on women. It's a sensational story — if it bleeds, it leads — and a news conglomerate offers a big promotion to any high-level company exec who solves the case. So begins the wheeling, dealing and backstabbing of the competing media hotshots as they vie to unmask the so-called Lipstick Killer. Fritz Lang (The Big Heat), whose early career expressionist works would strongly influence the film-noir genre, directs this stylistically understated noir that features an abundance of starpower rare for the genre: Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Sanders, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price, Ida Lupino and other notables.

While the City Sleeps (1956) - Amazon



March 13, 2018

Fritz Lang's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



After director Fritz Lang vaulted to prominence with such masterpieces of German cinema as Metropolis and M, he brought his art to Hollywood films, including Fury, Ministry of Fear, The Woman in the Window and more trenchant tales of innocents caught in a web of seeming guilt. His last U.S. movie is this intriguing film noir about a novelist (Dana Andrews) out to expose the injustices of capital punishment. Working with his fiancée's (Joan Fontaine) father, a newspaper publisher (Sidney Blackmer), he frames himself for murder, intending to produce exonerating evidence at the last moment.

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956) - Amazon



March 20, 2018

Roy Ward Bakers' Don't Bother to Knock (1952) on blu-ray from Twilight Time



After being dumped by his girlfriend, an airline pilot pursues a babysitter in his hotel and gradually realizes she's dangerous.



wilder

Available Now (but not for long!)

Joseph V. Mascelli's The Atomic Brain (1963) on limited edition blu-ray from Moth Inc, which was recently Kickstarted into existence. This film has a fascinating backstory (see Kickstarter campaign video).



A rich but unscrupulous old woman plots with a scientist to have her brain implanted in the skull of a sexy young woman.

The Atomic Brain aka Monstrosity (1963) - Amazon (less than 150 copies available)








Quote from: KickstarterMy name is Benjamin Solovey, and thanks to the support of Kickstarter backers like yourself, I had the pleasure of restoring Manos: The Hands of Fate from the surviving 16mm elements. It's now available on Blu-ray and DVD.

With your help, I'll next be overseeing a full 4K restoration of the classic B-Movie "The Atomic Brain", also known as "Monstrosity", from the original 35mm camera negative.

In the process, we'll compile supplemental material about the circumstances of the film's creation, and create a documentary about its director, Joseph V. Mascelli, ASC, one of the most influential yet unknown cinematographers in film history.


About The Director:

A highly active member of the American Society of Cinematographers in his day, Mascelli learned his craft at a time when camera crew from the silent era were not only still alive, but still working: his collaborator on the second edition ASC Manual had shot 1914's The Perils of Pauline.

Mascelli himself began as a cinematographer in the Armed Forces, and would shoot countless miles of newsreel and training footage before moving into TV and Film. Due to the ephemeral and anonymous nature of much of his work, a true survey of his credits has never been made.

He would become best known for condensing the collective knowledge of his field into one concise, informative book, 1965's The 5 C's of Cinematography, that is still used to teach students the visual vocabulary of film. Mascelli's book makes the case for the democratization of film teaching, urges readers to push the boundaries of the rules (the sixth "C", he writes, is "Cheating") and fosters the easy discussion of what was once very specialized, even unspoken knowledge. It's still in print today, and could be considered his most enduring contribution to filmmaking.

Our documentary will help paint a picture of Mascelli and the era in which he was working, an uneasy time when Corman and Cleopatra coexisted, a transitional decade that would give way to the "New Hollywood" of the 1970's. As one of the old guard looking to teach the new, how did Mascelli's educational work persist through the decades? In looking to the past, we might even find some good advice for the future.


ASC Manual: Second Edition, 1966


About "The Atomic Brain":

A year and change before The 5 C's of Cinematography was completed, Mascelli's name was conspicuously absent from the poster of Monstrosity. This B-Movie tells the story of Hetty March, a rich, somewhat vampiric old woman who conspires with a scientist to transfer her brain into a younger body through atomic fission. March employs three women in her mansion while she decides which one to kill and replace. Soon, a rejected candidate's brain is swapped with a cat's, causing her to eat a mouse and climb onto the roof.

Throughout, two other failed experiments, a zombie woman and a Moreau-esque dog man, loom nearby as if refugees from another movie. The situation deteriorates until the mansion, as well as March's plans, are obliterated in a bright atomic blast.

Monstrosity, in fact, had been directed by Mascelli in 1958 until funding abruptly fell through. Hastily finished by its producers in 1963, sleazily advertised (see above), re-titled The Atomic Brain on dreary-looking 16mm prints, rarely presented in its intended widescreen aspect ratio, destined to land on Mystery Science Theater 3000, the film was never given much attention. Yet, despite all obstacles, Mascelli's original footage is directed and shot with a professionalism and a keen visual sense that stands out from the reshoots. Even in his one foiled attempt at directing a feature film, he proved that the principles he'd write about in "The 5 C's" did not discriminate based on budget.

Monstrosity, AKA The Atomic Brain would be Mascelli's only directorial credit, and an incomplete one at that. But now, the original 35mm camera negative has been recovered, and with it comes a razor-sharp black and white image for both cult movie fans and students of cinematography to enjoy for the first time.



Public Domain Version



4K Sample Scan, Full Aperature


The film's public domain status has long made it a staple of bargain bin DVDs, sourced from muddy VHS transfers that drop many low-key scenes into total darkness. It also has discouraged major distributors, who would never be able to fully own the results, from investing in a proper video transfer for the film. We, the public that own it, now have an opportunity to restore The Atomic Brain in full 4K resolution, and make this once-obscure "Monstrosity" available in a condition far better than it's ever been seen.

wilder

May 15, 2018

Andrei Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice (1986) on blu-ray from Kino, from a new 4K restoration



As a wealthy Swedish family celebrates the birthday of their patriarch Alexander (Erland Josephson, Cries and Whispers), news of the outbreak of World War III reaches their remote Baltic island — and the happy mood turns to horror. The family descends into a state of psychological devastation, brilliantly evoked by Tarkovsky's arresting palette of luminous greys washing over the bleak landscape around their home. (The film's masterful cinematography is by Sven Nykvist, Ingmar Bergman's longtime collaborator).

For Alexander, a philosopher troubled about man's lack of spirituality, the prospect of certain extinction compels the ultimate sacrifice, and he enters into a Faustian bargain with God to save his loved ones from the fear which grips them. The director's last film, made as he was dying of cancer, The Sacrifice is Tarkovsky's personal statement, a profoundly moving, redemptive tragedy steeped in unforgettable imagery and heart-wrenching emotion.





wilder

May 8, 2018

Christopher Miles' The Maids (1975) on blu-ray from Kino. This looks and sounds batshit insane.



Two maids, Solange and Claire, hate their employers and, while they are out, take turns at dressing up as Madame and insulting her.

Jean Genet receives an unbridled, expertly cinematic rendering of his long unseen film based on his perverse play. THE MAIDS' volatile mixture of class confrontation, Freudian passion and criminal mischief frames an acid-etched portrait of two sisters whose hatred and desire twist their tortured lives together into a relentless downward spiral of guilt, degradation and freedom at any cost. Glenda Jackson and Susannah York play Solange and Claire, Paris maids who tend to cruel socialite Madame's (Vivien Merchant) unending domestic needs. Whenever Madame is away, the sisters obsessively act out a complex role-playing psychodrama of domination and control that feeds their powerful lust for revenge upon the haughty, disdainful mistress they serve. But after falsely denouncing Madame's lover to the police, Solange and Clarie's shared terror of arrest and the unchecked aggression with which they increasingly infuse their "ceremony" threaten to destroy them even as they perch on the threshold of ecstatic release.




wilder

May 21, 2018

Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott at Columbia, 1957-1960 from Indicator (UK), in a limited edition of 6,000 box sets. Region free.



Five classic, iconic and slyly subversive westerns collected on Blu-ray for the very first time. Containing a selection of new and archival extras – including interviews with director Budd Boetticher and an appreciation by film critic Kim Newman – this collectable five-disc box set also contains an 80-page book with newly commissioned essays and archival interviews.

Includes:

-THE TALL T (1957)
-DECISION AT SUNDOWN (1957)
-BUCHANAN RIDES ALONE (1958)
-RIDE LONESOME (1959)
-COMANCHE STATION (1960)

Five Tall Tales: Budd Boetticher & Randolph Scott at Columbia, 1957-1960 - Powerhouse Films










June 12, 2018

Val Lewton's The Curse of the Cat People (1944) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



Filled with "wonderful atmosphere [and] fine, moody fantasy" (Leonard Maltin), this continuation of 1942's Cat People follows Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), now remarried, living in idyllic Tarrytown, New York, and the father of six-year-old Amy. When Amy becomes withdrawn and speaks of consorting with a new "friend," Oliver worries that she may be under the influence of the spirit of his first wife. Is it just Amy's imagination that has manifested the enigmatic Irena (Simone Simon), who long believed herself to be descended from a race of Cat People?  Directors Gunther V. Fritsch and Robert Wise (making his directorial debut), co-helmed a gothic-laced mix of fantasy and fright so astute it was used in college psychology classes. And producer Val Lewton, given small budgets and lurid, pre-tested film titles by RKO, worked with rising filmmakers to emphasize the fear of the unseen, and turn meager resources into momentous works of psychological terror.






April 24, 2018

Leni Reifenstahl's The Holy Mountain (1926) on blu-ray from Kino, from a 2K restoration of the 35mm elements



A strange and beguiling romance that launched the career of actress/filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, The Holy Mountain is the greatest of Arnold Fanck's legendary "mountain films," in which dramatic intrigues are played out against the breathtaking backdrop of the German Alps.

Enthralled by the scenic majesty and heaving power of nature, an alluring dancer (Riefenstahl) seeks the man of her dreams in a small mountain village. There she encounters a reclusive climber (Louis Trenker) and a young skier (Ernst Petersen), who are each pursuing their own elusive ideals amid the intoxicating beauty and treacherous dangers of the Alps. Riefenstahl, who would later direct the controversial Triumph of the Will and Olympia, no doubt acquired her fascination with the bermensch while working on this lofty mortality tale, and developed an eye for the striking compositions for which she would later become famous.


The Hoy Mountain (1926) - Amazon






2018 TBD

Carol Reed's Trapeze (1956) on blu-ray from Kino



Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Gina Lollobrigida star as a triangle of lovers in this powerful drama set against the magnificent background of a European circus. Filmed on location in Paris, Trapeze has been acclaimed as one of the most spectacular and authentic circus movies ever made. Cinematography by Robert Krasker (The Third Man, Brief Encounter).

Trapeze (1956) - Amazon






April 3, 2018

James Ivory's Shakespeare Wallah (1965) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group, from a new 2K restoration



Elegiac and atmospheric, Shakespeare Wallah was the feature film that put Merchant Ivory Productions on the international movie map, winning them great critical acclaim, and is now recognized as a classic.

Starring Shashi Kapoor, Madhur Jaffrey, and a young Felicity Kendal, the film's inspiration lies in the real-life adventures of Ms. Kendal's family as a traveling theater group in India during the final days of English colonial rule. They try to uphold British tradition by staging Shakespearean plays but are unable to compete with the wildly popular Bollywood film industry. The film also traces the developing relationship between the acting troupe's young ingénue, Lizzie (Kendal), and Sanju (Kapoor), a wealthy Indian playboy. But their romance is beset by hindrances, not the least being the machinations of Manjula (Jaffrey), a fiery Indian film star who is also in love with Sanju.


Shakespeare Wallah (1965) - Amazon






April 24, 2018

Arnold Laven's Down 3 Dark Streets (1954) on blu-ray from ClassicFlix



When federal agent Zack Stewart turns up dead, his partner, agent John Ripley, vows to find the murderer and takes control of all of the cases that Stewart was on when he was killed. One investigation involves a ring of thugs who hijack cars, another deals with a mobster on the lam, and the third revolves around blackmail and kidnapping. Unfortunately for Ripley, each case is so dangerous that he may not live long enough to find the man who killed Stewart.

Down 3 Dark Streets (1954) - Amazon



June 11, 2018

Abraham Polonsky's Force of Evil (1948) on blu-ray from Arrow (UK)



A crooked lawyer tries to protect his numbers running brother from a ruthless crime boss.

Force of Evil (1948) - Amazon UK



June 25, 2018

Joseph H. Lewis' The Big Combo (1955) on blu-ray from Arrow (UK)



Far ahead of its time, The Big Combo takes a dark, disturbing look at the battle between Police Lieutenant Diamond (Cornel Wilde), a good and honest cop, Mr. Brown (Richard Conte), a sadistic crime boss and Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace), a cool and beautiful blonde who gets caught in the middle. With the help of the gangster's ex-girlfriend, Diamond is determined to bring down the cunning gangland kingpin. But the gangster and his henchmen are ruthless. They savagely pummel Diamond and conduct gut-wrenchingly brutal acts of torture that were unusual on screen at the time of the film's release.

The Big Combo (1955) - Amazon UK








June 25, 2018

Fritz Lang's Secret Beyond the Door (1947) on blu-ray from Arrow (UK)



In this Freudian version of the Bluebeard tale, a young, trust-funded New Yorker goes to Mexico on vacation before marrying an old friend whom she considers a safe choice for a husband. However, there she finds her dream man -- a handsome, mysterious stranger who spots her in a crowd. In a matter of days they marry, honeymoon and move to his mansion, to which he has added a wing full of rooms where famous murders took place. She discovers many secrets about the house and her husband, but what she really wants to know is what is in the room her husband always keeps locked. ...Secret Beyond the Door/

Secret Beyond the Door (1947) - Amazon UK



wilder

May 29, 2018

J. Lee Thompson's The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975) on blu-ray from Kino, from a new 4K restoration. Thompson's direction of the original Cape Fear is astounding.



Professor Peter Proud (Michael Sarrazin) keeps having a nightmare in which he watches a mysterious woman in a rowboat commit murder. He tries his college's dream lab for help, but the real breakthrough comes when he recognizes locations from his dream in a documentary about Massachusetts. He travels there and meets Marcia (Margot Kidder), the woman from his dream, and her daughter, Ann (Jennifer O'Neill), with whom he falls in love. Could he be the reincarnation of Marcia's dead husband?






October 29, 2018

Edmund Goulding's Nightmare Alley (1947) on limited edition blu-ray from Signal One Entertainment (UK)



Tyrone Power, cast against type -- at his own insistence -- gives the performance of his lifetime as handsome scumbag / carnival barker / con-man Stanton Carlisle. He seduces fellow sideshow performer Mademoiselle Zeena (Joan Blondell) to learn the secret of her once lucrative mind-reading act with her alcoholic husband (Ian Keith). Carlisle, a "born mentalist", secures the secret method and sets off with his new carnie wife, Molly (Coleen Grey) to milk the bigtime as a spiritualist in Chicago. As Carlisle's success grows, it's only a matter of time before his greed — and twisted involvement with femme fatale psychoanalyst Lilith Ritter (Helen Walker) — bring Stanton's world crashing down around him.

Nightmare Alley (1947) - Amazon UK




wilder

April 24, 2018

John G. Avlidesen's Joe (1970) on blu-ray from Olive Films



Peter Boyle stars as Joe Curran, the titular everyman and unabashed hippie-hater. Joe, who equates hippies with everything un-American, finds a kindred spirit in Bill Compton (Dennis Patrick, Chances Are), an advertising executive who makes Joe's acquaintance at a neighborhood bar, boasting that he killed a drug-dealing hippie (Patrick McDermott, The French Connection). Bill, pressed for facts by the intrigued Joe, recants saying that he was merely joking. But when a news report confirms the incident, vigilante justice akin to Taxi Driver is set in motion.

Joe (1970) - Amazon






Summer 2018 TBD

Byron Haskin's I Walk Alone (1948) on blu-ray from Kino, from a new 4K remaster



Bootleggers on the lamb Frankie (Burt Lancaster) and Noll (Kirk Douglas) split up to evade capture by the police. Frankie is caught and jailed, but Noll manages to escape and open a posh New York City nightclub. Years later Frankie is released from the clink and visits Noll with the intention of collecting his half of the nightclub's profits. But Noll, who has no intention of being so equitable, uses his ex-girlfriend Kay (Lizabeth Scott) to divert Frankie from his intended goal.






Spring 2018 TBD

George Cukor's Les Girls (1957) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Gene Kelly plays Nichols, and Mitzi Gaynor, Golden Globe® Best Actress winner Kay Kendall and Taina Elg are the femmes in this George Cukor-directed romp that won a Best Costume Design Oscar® and another Golden Globe® for Best Comedy/Musical. Among the highlights: a ribald "Ladies in Waiting" and a hepcat parody of The Wild One called "Why Am I So Gone About That Gal?" You'll be so gone about Les Girls.






May 29, 2018

Claude Berry's The Two of Us (1967) on blu-ray from Cohen Media Group



A comically bittersweet coming of age story, Claude Berry's The Two of Us is also a poignant drama of identity and heritage. When an 8-year-old Jewish boy (Alain Cohen) living in Nazi-occupied France is sent by his parents to live in the country with the Catholic parents of their friends, he is faced with a culture clash both religious and generational. As the grandfatherly Pepe, beloved character actor Michel Simon infuses the role with a gruff tenderness, his growing relationship with the boy a touching portrayal of connection in a broken world. Cohen Film Collection is proud to present a gorgeous new 4K restoration of this world cinema classic.




wilder

#808
June 25, 2018

Abel Ferrara's The Addiction (1995) on blu-ray from Arrow US and Arrow UK, from a 4K scan of the original camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by director Abel Ferrara and director of photography Ken Kelsch



Philosophy student Kathleen (Lili Taylor, The Conjuring) is dragged into an alleyway on her way home from class by Casanova (Annabella Sciorra, The Hand That Rocks the Cradle) and bitten on the neck. She quickly falls ill but realises this isn't any ordinary disease when she develops an aversion to daylight and a thirst for human blood...

Having made a big-budget foray into science fiction two years earlier with Body Snatchers, Ferrara's approach to the vampire movie is in a lower key. Shot on the streets of New York, like so many of his major works – including The Driller Killer, Ms. 45 and Bad Lieutenant - and beautifully filmed in black and white, The Addiction sees the filmmaker on his own terms and at his very best: raw, shocking, intense, intelligent, masterful.


The Addiction (1995) - Amazon

The Addiction (1995) - Amazon UK






April 30, 2018

Ivan Passer's Intimate Lighting (1965) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK), from a new remaster completed by the Czech National Film Archive. Region free.

This was one of Krzysztof Kieslowski's 10 favorite films.



This wonderfully subtle comedy of provincial life is the debut film of a great director and one of the signature works of the Czech New Wave. Ivan Passer s film concerns the dreams of two musician friends, one of whom, having left their small hometown to become successful, returns to visit the other who stayed behind to become a local music teacher.

Focussing on the humour of the ordinary and routine and stunningly shot by Miroslav Ondrícek (Loves of a Blonde, Amadeus), the film shows true affection and understanding for all its characters to become that very rare thing in comedy a work of great originality and universal acceptance. One of the most important films of the Czech New Wave, and ranked among the top ten domestic films of all time, Intimate Lighting is a beautifully observed drama of the everyday.


Intimate Lighting (1965) - Amazon UK






June 25, 2018

Peter Medak's The Changeling (1980) on limited edition blu-ray from Second Sight (UK), from a brand new restoration. Also coming from Severin in the US.



Following the tragic death of his wife and daughter in a car crash, composer John Russell leaves the city and retires to an old mansion in the hope of rebuilding his life. The peace and quiet he craves is soon disturbed however. Unexplained noises are just the beginning. Convinced there is a supernatural presence in the house he enlists the help a local historian. What they uncover is more shocking than he could ever have imagined.

The Changeling (1980) - Amazon UK

The Changeling (1980) - Amazon



jenkins

* DVD REVIEW * EXCLUSIVE *



hey internet it's los angeles again.

i watched this movie 1-2 month(s) ago and just remembered. i was amazed by remembering and decided to share about it.

first i'll summarize: child Jodie Foster and Martin Sheen. Martin Sheen is post-Badlands and The California Kid, pre-Apocalypse Now. Jodie Foster began professionally acting at 7 btw. she, Jodie Foster, was indeed on a Disney show as a child. this is post-Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and the same year as Taxi Driver. this came out after Taxi Driver. then she was in Freaky Friday for example, all leading up to Contact in 1990. she even, okay i'm mentioning this:



she played the daughter in the Paper Moon tv series, inspired by the movie Paper Moon yes. the father is Christopher Connelly, who is apparently, via imdb, best remembered for Manhattan Baby



so the thing about Jodie Foster is she as a child began to understand how to control a room. she figured out the process of acting. and in this movie as a child she teaches me how to become an adult. she teaches me how to make wise decisions and remain calm. this is while she's being such a gas, living without her father for some reason i can't remember and might be central to the entire movie, plus either Martin Sheen's mother or some shared neighborhood i forget who was in a cellar under a rug, and there's a side-romance with this loser guy who's a magician.

i've talked about this movie what i consider an appropriate amount. thanks internet