Random DVD and Blu-ray announcements

[wilder]

omfg

Q2 2016 TBD

José Ramón Larraz's Symptoms (1974) from Mondo Macabro

In this somber horror gem, Helen (Angela Pleasance, daughter of Donald) brings Anne (Lora Heilbron, star of Freddie Francis’ THE CREEPING FLESH, 1973) to her family’s creepy, rarely used forest estate where they can unwind from the stress of city life and focus on their writing. The woods may be lovely, dark, and deep, but the promises they keep lead to sex, murder, and insanity!

From Jose Ramon Larraz, the director of the vampire cult classic VAMPRYRES (1974), comes SYMPTOMS (1974), part-Lewis Carroll forest fantasia, part-erotic thriller, part-Bergman-esque chamber of trauma, and 100% mental mindfuck. SYMPTOMS fits into a loose series of films by Larraz made in the early 1970s that includes the aforementioned VAMPYRES, as well as WHIRLPOOL (1970), DEVIATION (1971), and THE HOUSE THAT VANISHED (1974), all of which revolve around a small core cast of characters who venture into the woods and find themselves in a surreal, sexual, and psychotic nightmare.

Striking sustained notes of quiet unease that crescendo into madness, SYMPTOMS epitomizes the minimalist narrative, pastoral beauty, ethereal ermines, and genre revisionism that characterized Larraz’s work in this period.

For years only viewable as a blurry bootleg derived from an early 80s British TV broadcast, this haunting thriller can now be seen as it was intended with a brand new HD transfer of the recently discovered negatives. It's taken us more than 15 years of searching and negotiating to get here, but with the indispensable assistance of the BFI Mondo Macabro can finally bring this film to the world on Blu-ray and DVD.

Symptoms is an intense and claustrophobic study of a woman's descent into madness and murder. Made in the same years as Larraz's better known Vampyres with much of the same crew and a similar vibe, Symptoms is more atmospheric and ambiguous, and less exploitative. But it casts a powerful spell and is perhaps the most potent example of director Jose Larraz's unique style.

Starring Angela Pleasance (From Beyond the Grave) in what is probably her best ever role, Symptoms is a film whose time has finally come. After premiering at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival as the official UK entry and a brief theatrical run, the film sank into almost complete obscurity until being rescued from oblivion by books like Tohill and Tombs' Immoral Tales and the ever-diligent video underground. With this stunning new Blu ray release Symptoms can now be seen as the masterpiece of 70s horror that it truly is.

Special Features:
-The 2011 documentary on Jose Larraz, ON VAMPYRES AND OTHER SYMPTOMS
-FROM BARCELONA to TUNBRIDGE WELLS, a 1999 TV documentary on Larraz, part of the EUROTIKA! series
-New interviews with stars Angela Pleasence and Lorna Heilbron and editor Brian Smedley-Aston

The retail version of this release will be preceded by a limited, numbered version (500 copies only) with exclusive extras, only available through MondoMacabro.BigCartel.com

Symptoms - Spectacle Theater Trailer

[jenkins]

the ever-diligent video underground.

"brands come and go but the underground is forever."

[jenkins]

wilder (or anyone) do you know what's going on with Drafthouse blu-ray releases for Wake in Fright and Miami Connection? curious what this means about the overall nature of Drafthouse blu-ray releases. Wake in Fright appears OOP and currently sells at $68 on Amazon. that gave me such anxiety i watched with a friend his copy last night. now i still have anxiety, but i've seen the movie more recently (i should own it, it's so good). Miami Connection i already own because i'm like that, it currently sells for $62 new.

i admit i'm being lazy and performed a cursory google search, hoping someone can give me facts.

[wilder]

Seems they're both still in print, or are officially but for all intents and purposes seem OOP due to the following reasons...

It's very common for boutique titles to go out of stock between pressings; in the absence of any announcement from Alamo Drafthouse I assume more will be pressed (so NOT out of print). I'm thinking the same about Miami Connection. Granted anything is possible but I wouldn't break the bank on obtaining these titles just yet.

I think Alamo was changing their distributor, and their older titles were supposed to have switched over to their new distrib, but that never seemed to happen for who knows why. But the titles were still avail on Alamo's site. If they are out-of-stock there right now, maybe they are just in-between print runs so no need to rush and pay exorbitant ebay prices. Maybe an e-mail inquiry to Alamo will get an answer about this?

Miami Connection and Wake in Fright can be ordered for $10 each directly from Drafthouse but shipping will set you back another 10.

[jenkins]

[wilder]

May 23, 2016

Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BBC on blu-ray from BFI (13 discs)



Includes all surviving BBC TV productions directed by Alan Clarke, extensive extra features, a comprehensive book with new essays and full credits, and an exclusive bonus DVD containing the seven surviving Half Hour Story episodes directed by Clarke: Shelter (1967), The Gentleman Caller (1967, previously considered lost), George's Room (1967, previously considered partially lost); Goodnight Albert (1968), Stella (1968), The Fifty Seventh Saturday (1968) and Thief (1968, previously considered lost).

Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BBC - Amazon UK

Read more about Clarke's work in this thread at Criterion Forum

[wilder]

May 2016 TBD

Takeshi Kitano's Kids Return (1996) on blu-ray from Third Window Films (UK)



Masaru and Shinji are two high school juvenile delinquents who spend their time extorting classmates for small change. After Masaru is beaten up by a former victim, the pair go to a local gym to learn how to box. Shinji, however, proves to have much more innate talent than Masaru, who abandons the sport to join the local yakuza gang. After Masaru's departure, Shinji falls in with Hayashi, an older boxer whose unhealthy influence pulls the youth down. Meanwhile, Masaru's arrogant behavior is getting him into trouble with his gang. Eventually, the two friends' downward spirals of life meet again at their old school.

Kids Return was the first film from acclaimed Japanese director Takeshi Kitano (Sonatine, Hana-Bi) following his near-fatal motorcycle accident in 1994. Kitano was to undergo a long and painful physical rehabilitation, and Kids Return reflects his struggle in the question at its heart: Which is more difficult, to die or to go on living? Featuring a beautiful music score by Joe Hisaishi (Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, Sonatine), Kids Return is a minimalist masterpiece filled with irony and melancholy.

May 2016 TBD

Takeshi Kitano's A Scene at the Sea (1991) on blu-ray from Third Window Films (UK)



Shigeru is a deaf-mute teenager who works as a garbage collector. When he happens upon a battered surfboard, it plants in him the dream of becoming a surfing champion. He also meets Takako, a young deaf-mute woman who becomes his girlfriend and lends him her constant support during the difficult practice sessions and competitions. Throughout the summer, their profound expression of love transcends their silence.

This lyrical masterpiece from acclaimed Japanese actor and director Takeshi Kitano (Kids Return, Sonatine, Hana-Bi) reminds us that images are often as powerful as words. A heartbreakingly romantic departure from Kitano's usual subject matter of gangs and criminals, A Scene at The Sea also features a beautiful music score by Joe Hisaishi (Princess Mononoke, Kiki's Delivery Service, Sonatine).   

May 30, 2016

Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition Trilogy (1959-1961) on blu-ray from Arrow Academy (UK)



The Human Condition Trilogy - Amazon UK

Criterion upgrade in the works?

[wilder]

Harmony Korine on Alan Clarke, posted by Criterion Forum member Antarctica

Harmony Korine has cited Alan Clarke as a major influence.

From an interview Korine did with Mike Kelley in 1997

"Korine: You know who I love and who no one really knows about? Alan Clarke, the British director. He’s a real influence. He did Scum, Made in Britain, and this film Christine about a girl growing up in council flats with size 14 feet. She walks around with a cookie tin under her arm and hooks her friends up with dope. She’ll go into houses and kids will be there with a box of Ritz crackers on the television. You’d have these really long tracking shots of her walking. The film was just sort of about what her days were like. And he used real people or people who seemed right. He did this other film I like, Elephant, which is just 16 separate executions, one after the other. There are all these steadicam shots. You see a hit man walking through a gymnasium, walking up stairs and corridors –

Kelley: Are these first-person POV shots?

Korine: Exactly. And then [the hit man] would shoot the janitor, and he’d fall on a pile of jockstraps. But the intention wasn’t comedy. After he died in 1988 of cancer, there was a retrospective of Clarke’s work at MOMA. There were only about ten people in the audience. I was watching Elephant, and in the beginning it was a little disturbing. And then I started to find humor in the repetition – watching some Indian carwasher get his hand blown out on a squeegee. I start cracking up, and this British bastard in front of me turns and says, “Don’t you know what this represents? This is the IRA, you son of a bitch!” He wanted to kill me. I liked that idea. He thought it was about the IRA, and I thought it was about Ritz crackers."


From Dazed & Confused, 1998

Dazed: How did you come across Alan Clarke, because he’s quite obscure in America?

Korine: If someone said to me who is the greatest director or my favorite, I would say Alan Clarke without hesitation. His stories, without ever being derivative, and without ever having a simple ABC narrative are totally organic, precious and amazing. It was nothing but him. In a strange way I don’t even like talking about him in the press or to people because he is the last filmmaker or artist that is really sacred. But especially in America no one knows who he is, even in England there is very little attention.


From Sight & Sound Magazine, April 1998 (Posted on Nick Wringly's site)

By the way, Nick, I'm looking forward to exploring your work about Alan Clarke on that site. I just saw Contact the other night and now consider it one of my favorite films. I love how he boiled everything down. The lack of music is powerful. Thanks for this great resource on an amazing director.

[wilder]

April 18, 2016

José Ramón Larraz's Symptoms (1974) (coming from Mondo Macabro in the US in mid-March) is also coming to blu-ray from BFI in the UK, with the exact same disc specs



Symptoms (1974) - Amazon UK


And more shit stolen from Criterion Forum:

[wilder]

Created a blu-ray.com collection with all the titles in this thread, divided into the following categories (distribution territories):

-USA
-USA - Noir
-USA - Foreign
-USA - Horror / Exploitation / Trash
-UK
-UK - Foreign
-France
-Germany
-Other

DVD titles are omitted. The first post of this thread has the link.

[wilder]

April 5, 2016

Kathleen Collins' Losing Ground (1982) from Milestone



A philosophy professor (Seret Scott) prides herself on being liberal but is jealous of her artist husband's (Bill Gunn) gorgeous model (Maritza Rivera).

Losing Ground (1982) - Amazon

I really liked this film, and its depiction of how people can use their "artistic soul" as an excuse to be just as self-serving as they want to be... The existential crisis as an excuse to be selfish is so spot on.

Losing Ground (1982) is one of the few independent films made in the 1980's by a Black woman director. Kathleen Collins was a brilliant, highly talented professor of film. Unfortunately, she directed only this one commercial film, and tragically, she died when she was just 46 years old.

The movie itself was largely ignored, and would have been truly lost except for a fortunate event. Collins' daughter found the negatives, and Milestone has remastered the film for theatrical release.

[wilder]

New Restoration of Fritz Lang's Destiny Acquired for North American Distribution   
via blu-ray.com

Kino Lorber have acquired the North American distribution rights to director Fritz Lang's film Destiny (1921), starring Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, and Bernhard Goetzke.

The film, which was recently restored and screened at this year's edition of Berlinale Classics, will have a limited theatrical release in late spring. A home video release is expected at a later time.

Synopsis: When a woman's fiancé disappears, Death gives her three chances to save him from his fate.

Restoration information courtesy of Berlinale Classics:

"The digital restoration of Der müde Tod (Destiny) by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation was made possible with the support of Bertelsmann, and with funds from the digitisation initiative by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, and through the support of the development association "Freunde und Förderer des deutschen Filmerbes e.V." (Friends and Associates of German Film Heritage). The material basis used for the digital restoration of the film is a 35mm black-and-white duplicate negative from the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Individual shots were taken from a black-and-white copy from the Cinémathèque de Toulouse. The intertitles are reconstructions from the Munich Film Museum, using "blitz titles" from a copy in the Gosfilmofond of Russia in Moscow as the foundation. Missing titles were reconstructed and supplemented with the help of material from the Národní filmový archive, Prague and the Cinémathèque Royale, Brussels. The lost film tints of individual scenes were simulated using contemporary distribution copies from other Decla productions from the same period. The scan and digital image reconstruction in 2K resolution were completed by L'Immagine Ritrovata, Bologna."

[wilder]

April 12, 2016

Too Late for Tears (1949) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley



Through a fluke circumstance a ruthless woman stumbles across a suitcase filled with $60,000, and she is determined to hold onto it even it if means murder.

Too Late for Tears (1949) - Flicker Alley

Woman on the Run (1950) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley



Frank Johnson flees police after becoming an eyewitness to murder. He is pursued around scenic San Francisco by his wife, a reporter, the police, and... the real murderer.

Woman on the Run (1950) - Flicker Alley

A couple of interviews with film noir historian/preservationist Eddie Muller of The Film Noir Foundation in San Francisco, who helped rescue these films.

One

Two

P.S. pretty much everything put out by Eddie Muller on noir is worth reading/watching/listening to. He's a very laid back, casually conversational guy - easy to learn from and entertaining. Lots of interviews and film introductions by him are up on youtube. Most recently he recorded a short video essay on Gilda for the Criterion edition, and he's recorded many commentary tracks for other films.

P.P.S. The Film Noir Foundation also puts out an in-depth quarterly magazine / e-mag called Noir City - extremely worth reading (the last issue was 112 pages and featured an editorial on Dorothy B. Hughes, author of the novels Ride the Pink Horse and In A Lonely Place were based on) - which can be subscribed to via a $20 donation to the foundation by Paypal.

[jenkins]

P.S. pretty much everything put out by Eddie Muller on noir is worth reading/watching/listening to. He's a very laid back, casually conversational guy - easy to learn from and entertaining. Lots of interviews and film introductions by him are up on youtube. Most recently he recorded a short video essay on Gilda for the Criterion edition, and he's recorded many commentary tracks for other films.

P.P.S. The Film Noir Foundation also puts out an in-depth quarterly magazine / e-mag called Noir City - extremely worth reading (the last issue was 112 pages and featured an editorial on Dorothy B. Hughes, author of the novels Ride the Pink Horse and In A Lonely Place were based on) - which can be subscribed to via a $20 donation to the foundation by Paypal.

you're a local phenomenon.

maybe i just like how you said Ride the Pink Horse. that's currently a seduction code for my movie tastes.

[wilder]

March 14, 2016

Philip Ridley’s The Reflecting Skin (1990) on blu-ray from Soda Pictures



A young boy tries to cope with rural life circa 1950s and his fantasies become a way to interpret events. After his father tells him stories of vampires, he becomes convinced that the widow up the road is a vampire, and tries to find ways of discouraging his brother from seeing her. He must deal with an abusive mother, a father with a charge of molestation, a band of youths creating havoc, and an unforgiving environment in general.

The Reflecting Skin (1990) - Amazon UK