Random DVD and Blu-ray announcements

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

0 Members and 2 Guests are viewing this topic.

wilder

November 15, 2016

Dario Argento's Phenomena (1985) on blu-ray from Synapse in a 3-disc limited edition



A young girl, with an amazing ability to communicate with insects, is transferred to an exclusive Swiss boarding school, where her unusual capability might help solve a string of murders.

Phenomena (1985) - Synapse








December 13, 2016

David Miller's Sudden Fear (1952) from Cohen Media Group, from a new 2K restoration



After an ambitious actor insinuates himself into the life of a wealthy middle-aged playwright and marries her, he plots with his mistress to murder her.

Sudden Fear (1952) - Amazon




wilder

December 13, 2016

Frank Llloyd and Joseph Von Sternberg's Children of Divorce (1927) on blu-ray from Flicker Alley, from a 4K restoration



The film begins in an American "divorce colony" in Paris after the First World War, where parents would leave their children for months at a time. Jean, Kitty, and Ted meet there as children and become fast friends. Years later, in America, when wealthy Ted (Gary Cooper) reconnects with Jean (Esther Ralston), the two fall deeply in love, vowing to fulfill a childhood promise to one day marry each other. But true love and the most innocent of plans are no match for the scheming Kitty-played by the original Hollywood "It" girl, Clara Bow-who targets Ted for his fortune. After a night of drunken revelry, Ted wakes up to find he has unwittingly married Kitty. This unfortunate turn of events, however, carries with it the traumatized pasts of the three players, whose views of marriage have been shaped as children of divorce.

Children of Divorce (1927) - Amazon



wilder

Cohen Media: Ten Jacques Rivette Films and Recently Discovered Shorts Acquired for U.S. Distribution
via blu-ray.com

U.S. label Cohen Media has announced that it has acquired the distribution rights for ten films directed by Jacques Rivette. The label has also secured the rights to three early, recently discovered shorts.

The newly licensed films will be digitally restored by Celluloid Dreams. Theatrical screenings are also planned for 2017.

Complete list of titles:

1. La Belle Noiseuse (1991)
2. The Beautiful Troublemaker (1991), re-edited shorter version of La Belle Noiseuse
3. The Gang of Four (1989)
4. Jeanne la Pucelle I - Les batailles a.k.a. Joan the Maiden: Part I (1994)
5. Jeanne la Pucelle II - Les batailles a.k.a. Joan the Maiden: Part II: The Prisons (1994)
6. Up, Down, Fragile (1995)
7. Secret Defense a.k.a. Top Secret (1998)
8. The Story of Marie and Julien (2003)
9. Love on the Ground (1984)
10. Wuthering Heights (1985)
11. Aux Quatre Coins (1949) - short, newly discovered
12. La Quadrille (1950) - short, newly discovered
13. La Divertissement (1952) - short

The label has also confirmed that it is working with Universal Studios on a brand new 4K restoration of James Whale's film The Old Dark House (1932), starring a very young Boris Karloff.

Another recent acquisition for the label is acclimated French helmer Philippe de Broca's film King of Hearts (1966), starring Alan Bates, Geneviève Bujold, and Pierre Brasseur.

wilder

Quote from: wilder on April 06, 2016, 05:50:19 PM
October 25, 2016

Joe Sarno's Sin You Sinners (1963) and Vampire Ecstasy (1973) on blu-ray from Film Movement



Vampire Ecstasy (1973) / Sin You Sinners (1963) - Amazon


It's incredible how much difference a restoration can make in the perception of a film having production value or not:
















Jeremy Blackman

For some reason I can't get enough of these restoration comparisons.  :bravo:

wilder

#605
May 23, 2017

The Coen Bros. Barton Fink (1991) on blu-ray from Kino



Set in 1941, an intellectual New York playwright Barton Fink accepts an offer to write movie scripts in L.A. He finds himself with writer's block when required to do a B-movie script. His neighbor tries to help, but he continues to struggle as a bizarre sequence of events distracts him.

Barton Fink (1991) - Amazon



January 17, 2017

Michael Mann's Ali (2001) on blu-ray from Sony






Joseph von Sternberg's The Salvation Hunters (1925) and The Case of Lena Smith (1929) on DVD from German Filmmuseum



Before making (sound) film history with The Blue Angel, Viennese-born filmmaker Josef von Sternberg directed a series of thematically and stylistically daring silent films. This DVD presents the first and last of his surviving silents, digitally restored from archival 35mm elements and supplemented by a new video essay by film historian Janet Bergstrom. The Salvation Hunters, von Sternberg's self-financed, socially conscious directorial debut, won praise from Charles Chaplin, among others, and is featured here with a new score by award-winning Austrian composer Siegfried Friedrich. The sole extant fragment of The Case of Lena Smith brings the director's youthful memories of fin de siècle Vienna vividly to life.

The Salvation Hunters / The Case of Lena Smith - German Filmmuseum

polkablues

My house, my rules, my coffee

wilder

March 20, 2017

Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974) on blu-ray from BFI (UK)



A recently widowed woman on the road with her precocious young son, determined to make a new life for herself as a singer.





Martin Scorsese's Who's That Knocking at My Door? (1967) on blu-ray from BFI (UK)



A young man struggles with the fact that his girlfriend was once raped.

wilder

November 21, 2016

Abel Glance's Napoleon (1927) on blu-ray from BFI (UK)



This ambitious silent film, renowned for its groundbreaking camerawork and editing, portrays the early life of French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte (Albert Dieudonne), beginning with his childhood and ending with a successful military campaign in Italy. A native of Corsica, Napoleon becomes a staunch supporter of his island home, but eventually flees due to conflicts with its leadership. Once settled on the French mainland, Napoleon begins his climb up the military ranks.

Napoleon (1927) - Amazon UK












wilder

January 31, 2017

Ken Russell's The Lair of the White Worm (1988) on blu-ray from Vestron Video / Lionsgate



James D'Ampton (Grant) returns to his country castle in England. Legend has it that James' distant ancestor once slayed the local dragon- a monstrous white worm with a fondness for the sweet flesh of virgins. The young Lord dismisses the legend as folklore, until archaeology student, Angus Flint, unearths a massive reptilian skull and the ancient worship site of a pagan snake god on James' property. When James' virtuous girlfriend, Eve (Oxenburg), suddenly disappears, he and Angus set out to investigate the foreboding cavern said to be the worm's lair where a centuries-old mystery begins to uncoil.

The Lair of the White Worm (1988) - Amazon






Bob Balaban's Parents (1989) on blu-ray from Vestron Video / Lionsgate



Meet the Laemles- and taste the terror in this black comedy, Dad's (Randy Quaid) got a great job, Mom (Mary Beth Hurt) hasall the modern conveniences a happy homemaker could ask for, and ten-year-old Michael (Brian Madorsky) has neat new friends and two parents that kill him with kindness. They're the all-American family of 1954...with one small exception.

Parents (1989) - Amazon



wilder

February 13, 2017

Charles Vidor's Cover Girl (1944) on blu-ray from Masters of Cinema (UK)



John Coudair (Otto Kruger) was wounded long ago when his fiancée called off their engagement, and when he spots the woman's granddaughter, comely stage performer Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth), he's reminded of what he lost. A publishing mogul, he decides to put the naive young beauty on the cover of his magazine. Although he might lose her, Rusty's boyfriend, Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly), refuses to interfere with her path to success. Ultimately, she must decide between riches and romance.

Cover Girl (1944) - Amazon UK



wilder

Available Now

Ian Sellar's Venus Peter (1989) on blu-ray from Panamint Cinema (UK)



Young Peter's world is populated with magical thoughts and fantasies, as he grows up with his elderly sage-like grandfather (Ray McAnally),  a fisherman, in the Orkney Islands during the 1950s. Based on the novel A Twelvemonth and a Day by Christopher Rush.

QuoteVenus Peter is a 1989 British drama film directed by Ian Sellar and produced by Christopher Young for Young films. The film is an adaptation of the novel A Twelvemonth and a Day by Christopher Rush. It was screened in the Un Certain Regardsection at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.

In 1999 Richard Mowe, curator of film at the National Museum of Scotland, chose the film as one of his top twenty Scottish films of the century.

Venus Peter (1989) - Amazon UK



wilder

Q1 2017 TBD

Peter Del Monte's Etoile (1989) on blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing from a new 2K remaster



The beautiful American ballerina Claire Hamilton (Jennifer Connelly) travels to Hungary to join a prestigious ballet school. The school is haunted by the spirit of a ballerina that died in a carriage accident that possesses Claire.



wilder

January 17, 2017

John Sturges' Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



Folks in Black Rock have their own way of welcoming mysterious, one-armed stranger John J. Macreedy. He's welcome to leave. Or they'll make sure he leaves in a pine box. Two-time Academy Award(r) winner* Spencer Tracy (a 1955 Best Actor Oscar(r) nominee for this film) plays World War II veteran Macreedy, who keeps his own counsel about why he's come to Black Rock and who keeps his wits about him when confronted with threats and violence. Director John Sturges (The Great Escape) ramps up the tension while revealing Macreedy's mission and the town's grim secret. Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are among the town's thugs and lap dogs. "I'm half horse, half alligator," one says. They'll find Macreedy is even tougher stuff. This timeless classic makes exceptional use of the then-new CinemaScope screen, set to a pulsating musical score by the great Andre Previn.



wilder

February 13, 2017

Frank Clarke's Blonde Fist (1991) on blu-ray from Network (UK)



Liverpudlian legend Margi Clarke stars in this cult classic as a single mum who walks out on an unhappy domestic life – and into an unexpected career. The third feature from Letter to Brezhnevdirector Frank Clarke, Blonde Fist co-stars Oscar-nominated Carroll Baker and Straw Dogs' Ken Hutchison. It is featured here in a brand-new High Definition transfer from the original film elements, in its original theatrical aspect ratio.

Fleeing problems at home, Ronnie O'Dowd heads to New York to track down her bare-knuckle-fighter father. Finding a burnt-out drunk instead of a big-time boxer, she has an immediate and pressing need to find hard cash! When a nightclub hosting a female boxing match has a no-show competitor, the offer of a thousand dollars to any woman who can last three minutes in the ring against their trained fighter proves too much for Ronnie to resist...


Blonde Fist (1991) - Amazon UK


Trailer for Frank Clarke's earlier film, Letter to Brezhnev (1985):





March 13, 2017

Walerian Borowczyk's Story of Sin (1975) on blu-ray from Arrow Academy (UK), restored from the original camera negative



The life of a beautiful, young and pious woman is thrown into chaos when her parents takes in a dashingly handsome lodger. Having embarked on a torrid affair, the lodger goes off to Rome to seek a divorce from his estranged wife. Unable to live apart from her beloved, our hero leaves home only to fall prey to the infatuations and lusts of a band of noble admirers, unsavoury criminals and utopian do-gooders. The only feature Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne) made in his native Poland, Story of Sin transforms Stefan Zeromski's classic melodrama into a deliriously surrealistic meditation on l'amour fou.