Random DVD and Blu-ray announcements

[wilder]

January 23, 2018

Woody Allen’s Husbands & Wives (1992) on blu-ray from Twilight Time



Gabe (Woody Allen) and his wife, Judy (Mia Farrow), are shocked to discover that their best friends, Sally (Judy Davis) and Jack (Sydney Pollack), are splitting up. Not only did they not see the breakup coming, but it makes them start to question their own relationship. While Gabe flirts with the idea of dating one of his college students (Juliette Lewis), Sally and Jack discover that being single again isn't all its cracked up to be and contemplate getting back together.

January 23, 2018

Paul Mazursky’s Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) on blu-ray from Twilight Time



After returning to Los Angeles from a group therapy session, documentary filmmaker Bob Sanders (Robert Culp) and his wife, Carol (Natalie Wood), find themselves becoming vigilante couples counselors, offering unsolicited advice to their best friends, Ted (Elliott Gould) and Alice Henderson (Dyan Cannon). Not wanting to be rude, the Hendersons play along, but some latent sexual tension among the four soon comes bubbling to the surface, and long-buried desires don't stay buried for long.

January 23, 2018

Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Dragonwyck (1946) on blu-ray from Twilight Time



For Miranda Wells (Gene Tierney), moving to New York to live in Dragonwyck Manor with her rich cousin, Nicholas (Vincent Price), seems like a dream. However, the situation gradually becomes nightmarish. She observes Nicholas' troubled relationship with his tenant farmers, as well as with his daughter (Connie Marshall), to whom Miranda serves as governess. Her relationship with Nicholas intensifies after his wife dies, but his mental imbalance threatens any hope of happiness.



November 27, 2017

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) on blu-ray from Second Sight (UK) in the original 25fps broadcast format. Also includes the new feature-length documentary Fassbinder: To Love Without Demands (2015)



In late-1920s Berlin, Franz Biberkopf is released from prison and vows to go straight; however he soon finds himself embroiled in the city's criminal underworld.

Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) - Amazon UK

[wilder]

January 12, 2018

Robert Sigl's Laurin (1989) on blu-ray from Bildstoerung (Germany), restored in 2K from the original 35mm negative



Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. In a small coastal village a boy kills. In agonizing visions, little Laurin (Dora Szinetar) sees the criminal and his gruesome deeds. But how can she put him? Her mother is dead and the father at sea...

Laurin (1989) - Amazon Germany

[wilder]

November 7, 2017

Robert Mulligan’s Summer of ’42 (1971) on blu-ray from Warner Archive



The sensual, heartwarming and sentimental story of three 15-year-old boys who spend a pleasant but sometimes painful summer vacation in New England. While his friends fumble with girls their own age, one boy finds first love in the arms of Jennifer O'Neill ("Bare Essence"), a young war bride.

As well as being a commercial success, Summer of '42 also received rave critical reviews. It went on to be nominated for over a dozen awards, including Golden Globe Awards for "Best Motion Picture – Drama" and "Best Director", and five Academy Award nominations for Best Original Music Score, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Writing-Story and Best Screenplay. It counted among its fans Stanley Kubrick, who had the film play on a television in a scene in The Shining.

Summer of '42 (1971) - Amazon

[wilder]

January 2018 TBD

Martin Scorsese's Kundun (1997) on blu-ray from Kino



The incredible true story of one of the world's most fascinating leaders - Tibet's Dalai Lama - and his daring struggle to rule a nation at one of the most challenging times in its history.

December 12, 2017

Anthony Mann's Raw Deal (1948) on blu-ray from ClassicFlix



An escaped convict (Dennis O'Keefe) flees with his moll (Claire Trevor) and a social worker (Marsha Hunt) he loves.

Raw Deal (1948) - Amazon

[wilder]

January 9, 2018 TBD

Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger's Gone to Earth aka The Wild Heart (1950) on blu-ray from Kino. Anna Biller has mentioned liking this movie.



Hazel Woodus (Jennifer Jones) is a child of nature in the Shropshire countryside in 1897. She loves and understands all the wild animals more than the people around her. Whenever she has problems, she turns to the book of spells and charms left to her by her gypsy mother.

Local squire Jack Reddin (David Farrar) sees Hazel and wants her, but she has already promised herself to the Baptist minister, Edward Marston (Cyril Cusack). A struggle for her body and soul ensues.   

Full movie on youtube here

[wilder]

2017 TBD

Dario Argento's Suspiria (1977) on blu-ray from Synapse, from a new 4K restoration





Currently up for pre-order at Synapse Films

[wilder]

Q1 2018 TBD

Sergio Corbucci's The Great Silence (1968) on blu-ray from Film Movement, from a new 2K restoration



On an unforgiving, snow-swept frontier, a group of bloodthirsty bounty hunters, led by the vicious Loco (Klaus Kinski, Nosferatu) prey on a band of persecuted outlaws who have taken to the hills. As the price on each head is collected one-by-one, only a mute gunslinger named Silence (Jean-Louis Trintignant, The Conformist) stands between the innocent refugees and the greed and corruption that the bounty hunters represent. But, in this harsh, brutal world, the lines between right and wrong aren't always clear and good doesn't always triumph.

Featuring superb photography and a haunting score from maestro Ennio Morricone, director Sergio Corbucci's (Django, Companeros) bleak, brilliant and violent vision of an immoral, honorless west is widely considered to be among the very best and most influential Euro-Westerns ever made.   

December 12, 2017

David Greene's Hard Country (1981) on blu-ray from Scorpion Releasing



Kyle Richardson has a boring job in a chain-link fence factory, and cuts loose on the weekends with his friends at the local bar. Eventually, his girlfriend Jodie gets tired of Kyle's carousing and give him an ultimatum, either they get married or she leaves to pursue her dream of becoming a country western singer.

Hard Country (1981) - Diabolik DVD

October 31, 2017

José Ramón Larraz's Estigma (1980) / Emma Puertas Oscuras (1974) on blu-ray from Dorado Films



Estgima is about the possession of a young boy, Sabastian, who acquires the power to make his thoughts come true. A mind dictated by evil, a reincarnation of a past life destined to repeat itself all over again. Life after life?

Emma Puertas Oscuras - After a tragic accident which has mind altering consequences, Emma now becomes psychotic, endangering everyone close to her and anyone she meets.

January 9, 2018 TBD

Gregory Ratoff's Intermezzo: A Love Story (1939) on blu-ray from Kino



Renowned violinist Holger Brandt is delighted to be back with his family after a long tour. But when he meets his daughter's piano teacher, Anite, and hears her play, he is captivated. Despite the devastating toll on his family, Holger and Anita begin a musical partnership that quickly becomes a passionate romance. But are they meant to live in harmony forever...or is this merely an intermezzo?

[wilder]

November 7, 2017

Anthony Mann’s He Walked by Night (1948) on blu-ray from ClassicFlix



Roy Morgan (Richard Basehart) is a burglar who listens in to radio police calls, allowing him to stay one step ahead of the cops. After Morgan kills a police officer, Sergeants Brennan (Scott Brady) and Jones (James Cardwell) have little success in putting the clues of the case together. But when Jones is wounded in a shoot-out with Morgan, Brennan employs all facets of detective work, including forensics and informants, to find the elusive and clever criminal.

Visually stunning, cinematographer John Alton's brilliant use of light and shadows shine in this groundbreaking police procedural that paved the way for the TV series Dragnet -- which itself spawned an entire sub-genre of television crime-dramas that are still popular to this day.

He Walked By Night (1948) - Amazon

[wilder]

December 5, 2017

Jean Delannoy’s Maigret Sets a Trap (1958) on blu-ray from Kino



Inspector Maigret tries to trap a killer and discovers why a happily married, wealthy, and talented man should want to bump off women at night. Jean Gabin is perfect as Georges Simenon's secure and steady sleuth, and old-hand Jean Delannoy expertly keeps up the pace and suspense in this enjoyable whodunnit. Based on the novel by Georges Simenon.

Maigret Sets a Trap (1958) - Amazon

December 5, 2017

Jean Delannoy’s Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case (1959)



Inspector Maigret is summoned by the Countess to the Château de Saint-Fiacre, where she shows him a letter she has received predicting the day on which she will die. Based on the novel by Georges Simenon.

Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case (1959) - Amazon

[wilder]

January 9, 2018

The Witches aka La Streghe (1967) on blu-ray from Arrow US, from a 2K restoration of the original film elements



In the mid-sixties, famed producer Dino De Laurentiis brought together the talents of five celebrated Italian directors for an anthology film. Their brief was simple: to direct an episode in which Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice, Ludwig) plays a witch. Luchino Visconti (Ossessione, Death in Venice) and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini (Bicycle Thieves) open the film with The Witch Burned Alive, about a famous actress and a drunken evening that leads to unpleasant revelations. Civic Sense is a lightly comic interlude from Mauro Bolognini (The Lady of the Camelias) with a dark conclusion, and The Earth as Seen from the Moon sees Italian comedy legend Totò team up with Pier Paolo Pasolini (Theorem) for the first time for a tale of matrimony and a red-headed father and son. Franco Rosso (The Woman in the Painting) concocts a story of revenge in The Sicilian's Wife, while Vittorio De Sica (Shoeshine) casts Clint Eastwood as Mangano's estranged husband in An Evening Like the Others, concluding The Witches with a stunning homage to Italian comic books.

The Witches (1967) - Amazon

[wilder]

February 27, 2018 TBD

Howard Hughes’ The Outlaw (1943) on blu-ray from Kino, from a new 2K restoration



The life of legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, including his partnership with Doc Holliday and his clashes with lawman Pat Garrett. The film was notorious in its day because of producer/director Howard Hughes' concentration on newcomer Jane Russell's cleavage, and national release in America was delayed by some years.

The Outlaw (1943) - Amazon

February 13, 2018

Curtis Harrington’s Games (1967) on blu-ray from Scream Factory



A wealthy socialite couple find themselves in over their heads in the psychological thriller GAMES. After inviting a mysterious woman into their home, the couple discovers her psychic abilities and asks her to arrange some "mind games" for their amusement. The fun soon turns dangerous when one of the games goes horribly wrong in this edge-of-your-seat mystery that will leave you guessing until the very end.

February 20, 2018

William Castle’s The Night Walker (1964) on blu-ray from Scream Factory



Another frightening film from the mind of Robert Bloch, author of Psycho. Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor, reteaming for their first film following their divorce, star in this intense thriller about a wealthy widow who is haunted by her husband and seduced by a handsome stranger – all in her dreams.

Following the death of her millionaire husband, Howard (Hayden Rorke), Irene Trent (Stanwyck) endures dreams so real and terrifying, that she finds herself trapped in an eerie world existing between fact and fantasy. Isolated from the world by her husband's possessive nature, Irene feels there is no one she can turn to except for his personal attorney (Taylor), the only visitor Howard ever allowed to the house. But even as her dreams begin to take vivid shape, Irene begins to walk into a very real nightmare of deception, murder and betrayal.

January 22, 2018

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s The Mystery of Picasso (1956) on blu-ray from Arrow UK



Henri-Georges Clouzot, best known for his classic French thriller Les Diaboliques, took on a different mystery in 1956: the creative process and the essence of an artist, namely Pablo Picasso.

Utilising transparent canvases so the camera of Claude Renoir could directly capture an artwork's creation, Picasso created 20 artworks for the film. At first, these are simple sketches in marker, but each grows in complexity until the final reel, when The Mystery of Picasso switches to a CinemaScope ratio and bursts into color.

One of the greatest documentary portraits of an artist of work, this release is accompanied by two other films of Picasso: Paul Haesaerts' BAFTA-winning A Visit to Picasso from 1949 and a charming 'home movie' by fellow artist Man Ray.

[wilder]

February 6, 2018

Jess Franco’s The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966) on blu-ray from Kino/Redemption



Dr. Zimmer invents a mind control machine, and then dies from a heart attack after being insulted at a medical conference. His beautiful but deadly daughter, Irma, seeks revenge on the officials who stressed him out. At a club she sees the act of "Miss Death", a beautiful woman in a sheer body stocking whose act consists of seducing a mannequin in the center of a spider web. Inspired, Irma fakes her own death, performs plastic surgery on herself, kidnaps Miss Death, controls her mind via her father's machine, and then sends her out to seduce and slash her enemies with poison fingernails. Miss Death's boyfriend Phillip and a sleepy police inspector try to find her before she kills again... 

[wilder]

January 22, 2018

Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar (1978) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



After writing Taxi Driver for Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader made his directorial debut with this profane and profound drama about life on the factory floor of a Detroit car manufacturing plant. With explosive performances from the great Richard Pryor (Silver Streak, Stir Crazy), Harvey Keitel (The Border, Pulp Fiction) and Yaphet Kotto (Live and Let Die, Alien), Blue Collar presents one of the most authentic portraits of working-class life in all American cinema, and is one of the finest films of the 1970s.

January 22, 2018

Tony Richardson’s The Border (1982) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



Jack Nicholson (The Last Detail, Wolf) gives one of his finest and most subtle performances as a hard-working but deeply disillusioned Mexican border-guard in this tough thriller from renowned British filmmaker Tony Richardson (Look Back in Anger, A Taste of Honey).

January 22, 2018

Don Siegel’s Charley Varrick (1973) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau) is a former stunt-pilot who makes his living robbing small banks in the American Southwest. His latest heist sees him unwittingly steal from the local mafia, setting a psychotic hit-man on his trail and unleashing a maelstrom of violence and destruction. Directed by the great Don Siegel (Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Dirty Harry), Charley Varrick is one of the best thrillers of the 70s: action-packed, memorably lurid and gleefully unsentimental.

January 22, 2018

Mike Nichols' The Fortune (1975) on blu-ray from Indicator (UK)



This high-concept, big-budget screwball comedy directed by Mike Nichols (The Graduate, Wolf) stars Warren Beatty (Mickey One, Bonnie and Clyde) as a slick con man and Jack Nicholson (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, The Border) as his dim-witted sidekick trying to get their hands on the fortune of a hapless young heiress played by Stockard Channing (Grease, The West Wing). A commercial failure on its initial release, this buoyant and beautifully staged madcap comedy is ripe for rediscovery and reappraisal.

[wilder]

December 11, 2017

Juaraz Herz's The Cremator (1968) on blu-ray from Second Run (UK). Currently playing on Filmstruck.



The Cremator has been described in many ways – as surrealist-inspired horror film, as an expressionistic political allegory, a pitch-black comic satire and as a dark and disturbing tale of terror. This brilliantly chilling film, a unique mix of Psycho, Dr Strangelove and Repulsion, is set in Prague during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. It tells the story of one Karl Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrušínský), a professional cremator, for whom the political climate allows free rein to his increasingly perverse and deranged impulses for the 'salvation of the world'.

"In addition to the astonishing visual inventiveness there is also a ferocious sense of humour in the details... Disorientating, disquieting and darkly humorous, The Cremator remains one of the most richly resonant celluloid nightmares" Virginie Sélavy, Electric Sheep.

"The Cremator is one of the most memorable films of the 1960s Czechoslovak New Wave, though its macabre humour and lacquer-black sensibility have tended to set it apart from the movement's gentler films" Sight & Sound.

The Cremator (1968) - Amazon UK

February 20, 2018

Dick Richards' Farewell, My Lovely (1975) and Michael Winner's The Big Sleep (1978) on blu-ray from Shout Factory



Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum) is involved in a case of deception, double-cross and murder in Farewell, My Lovely. When Moose Malloy (Jack O'Halloran), a giant ex-con fresh from prison, asks Marlowe to find his missing sweetheart, Marlowe winds up lying unconscious on the floor with a dead man next to him. In his search for answers, Marlowe encounters a seedy collector, a seductive femme fatale and a former gangster. The case could very well cost Marlowe his life. Charlotte Rampling, Sylvia Miles, John Ireland, Harry Dean Stanton and Sylvester Stallone also star.

Philip Marlowe (Robert Mitchum), is caught in a deadly case of blackmail in The Big Sleep. General Sternwood (James Stewart), an aged and wealthy American, is being blackmailed over the antics of his two daughters, Charlotte (Sarah Miles) and Camilla (Candy Clark). Marlowe travels into the seedy underworld of crime beneath old London, through a dangerous web of murder and suicide and straight into the sinister world of gangster Eddie Mars (Oliver Reed). Joan Collins, Edward Fox and John Mills also star.

[jenkins]

Thunderbean started an imprint, Snappy Video. i don't necessarily recommend clicking those sites, these guys are total DIY and i adore them.

Snappy Video Presents "Explorers of the World" (1931). A fascinating compilation feature film comprised of footage from six major expeditions  from the late 20s and early 30s. This almost never seen documentary is Some of the first (and only) footage of various regions and tribes- and gives a real sense of what explorations in the 20s and 30s were like. Included are the Stoll-McCracken Siberian Arctic expedition, Borneo and Bali expeditions by Gene Lamb, African expedition by James L. Clark,  the Imperial-Trans-Atlantic Expedition under the guidance of Lieutenant Commander J. R. Stenhouse, the Byrd Antartic Expedition, shot by Dr. Laurence E. Gould, and the Tarlano Ethnological Expedition of the Amazon River by Harold Noice. The film is hosted by these various explorers, as noted filmed in "The jungle of skyscrapers that is New York City." It's understandable why this film was (and is) rarely seen, considering the nature of some of the footage, including Whaling, capturing a leopard (with ropes), killing a walrus, man-driven Elephant fights (with fighters on back) as well as various remarks on natives of various countries.  New digital HD scan restored from a rare film element; presented in its original aspect ratio and available for the first time on Blu-ray (or perhaps any home format). BDR disc.