Showing Soon; The Best of The Rest… July 17, 2008
Posted by John Hodson in : DVD News & Info, Showing Soon , 7 commentsFollowing Showing Soon’s BFI and Optimum round-ups of what’s on the horizon for fans of (mostly) classic film in the UK, here’s the best of the rest…
The train bound for ‘Goodtimes, Classicfilmsville’ (it’s on my Satnav…) has well and truly hit the buffers, as the majors, at least, have decided there is simply not enough profit in their lesser known yet to be released back catalogue titles. There have been big cut-backs across The Pond, though that appears to be nothing compared to the lack of interest shown by the Hollywood players in older film releases on DVD in the UK. In some cases, grinding to a halt could be read as progress. Read ‘em and weep, gentle reader…
First up, and Warners has a busy looking third quarter schedule, though it’s light on genuinely new stuff - at least, however, those Brothers Warner appear to be keeping the pot boiling. Upcoming at the end of this month, a Frank Sinatra: The Golden Years boxset, which seems to replicate the US R1 version with one major exception - the box contains Marriage On The Rocks, None But The Brave, Some Came Running, and The Tender Trap…but not The Man With The Golden Arm.
Into August with Warner, and the first of the month sees a raft of releases, a few re-releases, some completely new, some which were previously only available in box sets. I have no information regarding extras, but the rrp of only £9.99 means you’ll be able to pick them up quite cheaply - titles are (deep breath); Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man, I Confess, Stage Fright & Dial M For Murder (unlike the R1, the R2 is anamorphic widescreen), Tracy and Hepburn in Woman of The Year, Pat & Mike & Keeper Of The Flame, Humphrey Bogart’s The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, High Sierra, Dark Passage & To Have And To Have Not, Cagney’s White Heat, Public Enemy, The Roaring Twenties & Angels With Dirty Faces, Flynn’s They Died With Their Boot On, The Sea Hawk, The Private Lives Of Elizabeth & Essex, Dodge City & Captain Blood.
Released from the Garbo set, Queen Christina, Camille, Mata Hari, Anna Christie, Anna Karenina & Ninotchka, Crawford’s Possessed, The Damned Don’t Cry & Humoresque, a brace of Cary Grants, Night & Day & Destination Tokyo, Garland and Rooney in Love Finds Andy Hardy, Judy Garland’s In The Good Old Summertime & The Harvey Girls, Garland and Kelly in For Me & My Gal.
August 11 sees a five disc set for V: The Complete Original Series, the Stones Gimme Shelter, animation includes Vol. 4 of Top Cat and Thundercats The Complete Series 2. Look out too for The Neverending Story, Get Smart: Series 1 (five discs). The end of August and National Velvet, with Elizabeth Taylor, gets a release, The Lost Boys make it to Blu-ray, and there are simultaneous SD and BD releases in September for the Cool Hand Luke Deluxe Edition we mentioned a while back.
The same month sees R2 get a couple of sci-fi classics; Westworld and Logan’s Run, and classic TV includes The Dukes Of Hazzard: Complete Season 7 (6 DVD), Dallas: Complete Season 9, Chips: Season 2. How The West Was Won, presumably replicating the R1 releases, comes in SD and BD, though no accompanying ‘Ultimate Edition’ as per the US release (no surprise there). The end of August sees an Errol Flynn Westerns set, unlike the R1 counterpart this contains only Montana, Rocky Mountain and San Antonio - no sign of Virginia City (dammit - and I have an inkling the box may be a HMV exclusive; we’ll see).
October and there’s a Singin’ in The Rain Limited Edition on the cards, though we don’t quite know what makes it an LE, and I doubt it will be anything exciting given the rrp of £8.99. There’s also another Judy Garland title Meet Me In St Louis (rrp £7.99), Blue-ray releases for LA Confidential, A Christmas Story, Interview With The Vampire, Gremlins, Beetlejuice, Michael’s Keaton Batman, Batman Returns, Val Kilmer’s Batman Forever, George Clooney’s be-nippled Batman & Robin and The Goonies. Warners also list 2-DVD SEs for Gigi and An American in Paris, which is rather exciting.
The news from the other major studios is rather less so. The highlight of Paramount’s third quarter releases may well be their August 18 release of Up The Junction with Dennis Waterman, Suzy Kendall and Maureen Lipman. Classic TV the same date includes The Untouchables Season 1: Part 1, The Streets Of San Francisco Season 1: Part 1, Perry Mason: Season 1 and The Fugitive: Season 1: Volume 1. At the end of August, Paramount dip back into their already released titles for a number of triple sets at economy prices - Serpico / The Untouchables / Chinatown, Naked Gun / Airplane / Top Secret, True Grit / The Sons Of Katie Elder / The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Gunfight At The OK Corral / Hud / Once Upon A Time In The West, GI Blues / King Creole / Blue Hawaii, Breakfast At Tiffanys / Funny Face / Sabrina, American Gigalo / Ghost / An Officer & A Gentleman, A Roman Polanski Collection (Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, The Tenant), and a Robert Redford Collection (The Great Gatsby / Indecent Proposal / Barefoot in the Park)
September sees Mork & Mindy: Season 3, Love Boat: Season 1, Hawaii Five O: Season 4, a Michael Caine Collection (Sleuth / The Italian Job / Alfie / Zulu / Funeral in Berlin), Harrison Ford Collection (Witness / K-19 The Widowmaker / Clear And Present Danger / Patriot Games / Sabrina / Regarding Henry), a Footloose / Flashdance double and a Days Of Thunder / Top Gun double. The second week of the month sees Reds and Black Rainreleased on Blu-ray, a week late and you are offered a Tom Cruise Collection (Collateral / Days of Thunder / Top Gun / The Firm / Mission Impossible / War of the Worlds) and a Jack Nicholson Collection (Chinatown / The Two Jakes / Terms of Endearment / Heartburn), an Eddie Murphy Collection (48 Hours / Beverly Hills Cop / Coming to America / The Golden Child / Trading Places / Norbit), Frasier: Complete Series 11: 4 DVD, while the following month there’s gigantic Frasier: Complete Collection 44 DVD Box Set. October sees more back catalogue goodies from Paramount on Blu-ray; Warriors, The Untouchables and November Zulu makes the potentially thrilling leap to BD.
Fox is finally releasing Bernardo Bertolucci’s 1900 on July 28, delayed, apparently, as they sought better elements. And mark this because in my estimation this is unparalleled for many a year - it’s a landmark for Fox; shockingly, I think I’m correct in saying that it is their only new classic title released thus far in 2008. The rest of the year looks just as barren, not counting the BD of Batman: The Movie they have just released and the Bond Blu-ray six pack they have pencilled in for MGM in October - Dr No, For Your Eyes Only, From Russia With Love, Die Another Day, Live And Let Die, Thunderball. Fox appears to have completely abandoned it’s classic catalogue, including their R2 Studio Classics, in a clear bid to cut loose what they see as less profitable business. What on earth are you doing Fox? Have you no pity?
It’s looking almost as impoverished on the Universal front; immenently, they have a two-disc set of Karloff’s The Mummy, replicating (lush packaging aside) the R1’s Legacy Series set; cheap too; details here at DVD Times. September and Universalis also releasing steelbook collections for the trilogy of Jurassic Park, Pitch Black and Back To The Future films, plus the four Psycho films. Ho-hum… Much the same story for Sony’s Columbia label releases - I can’t even be bothered to list the triple-DVD sets of extant releases they’ve cobbled so lazily together, you’ve seen them all before and it’s getting just too depressing - where is the new stuff for us poor culture starved Brits you Hollywood based, martini sipping, credit crunch fearing numbskulls!!? Somebody shoot me now…
It’s largely down to the independents to lift the gloom then. And - largely - they do…
Following the successful release of the first four films in Second Sight’s 
The Max Ophuls Collection comes two more of visionary director Max Ophuls’ highly acclaimed films.
La Ronde is Ophuls’ wonderful adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s play of the same name which won the 1952 BAFTA for Best Film, and garnered two 1952 Academy Award nominations.
The vastly influential Ophuls’ penultimate Hollywood film Caught is another of his great exercises in cinematic beauty; this time in a film noir that showcases some of Tinseltown’s biggest legends at the peak of their powers. The visionary director imprints his own distinctive and unique European style on this thoroughly American genre.
Both films are released separately for the first time on DVD as part of The Max Ophuls Collection on 8 September 2008:
La Rondeis a series of character vignettes, set in Vienna in the early 1900s and woven together by the Raconteur (Anton Walbrook – The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes). Ophuls uses an old-fashioned merry go round to foreshadow the films events, in which each segment introduces a new character, who then moves on to an affair with another. On and on the carousel spins, revealing itself as the metaphor for the very nature of human relationships.
Max Ophuls is widely regarded to be one of the greatest and most revered directors in the history of cinema. His trademark array of lavish, fluid camera movements would influence generations of filmmakers to come. Among the many who have had praised his genius are Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Goddard, Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick, who believed ‘his camera could pass through walls’ and, more recently, directors such as Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven Heaven) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights, Magnolia) who called him his ‘idol’.
Bonus features :
Working with Max Ophuls Daniel Gelin on La Ronde
‘Circles of Desire’ Alan Williams on Max Ophuls’ La Ronde
Audio commentary by Susan White White, author of The Cinema of Max Ophuls
Photo Gallery
The vastly influential Max Ophuls’ penultimate Hollywood film Caught is another of his great exercises in cinematic beauty; this time in a film noir that showcases some of Tinseltown’s biggest legends at the peak of their powers. The visionary director imprints his own distinctive and unique European style on this thoroughly American genre.
This film noir classic makes its DVD debut courtesy of Second Sight as part of The Max Ophuls Collection on 8 September 2008. Thinking she is living out her childhood dream of marrying a man worth millions, Leonora Eames (Barbara Bel Geddes – Dallas, Rear Window) leaps at the chance to marry the wealthy Smith Ohrig (Robert Ryan – On Dangerous Ground, The Set Up), unaware that her new husband is a cruel monster who forces her to remain a prisoner in her own home. In an effort to escape her miserable existence she falls in love with society doctor Larry Quinada (James Mason – Lolita, North By Northwest). With her life spiraling out of control, only a miracle can free her from her life of lavish bondage.
Bonus features :
Commentary by Lutz Bacher, author of ‘Max Ophuls in the Hollywood Studios’
Video Essay by film historian Tag Gallagher
Stills Gallery
‘Incisive and compulsively entertaining’
TV Guide
Turning in one of the finest performances of his legendary career, Albert Finney stars in the mesmeric Under The Volcano, John Huston’s 1984 adaptation of Malcolm Lowry’s epic novel of the same name. The film will be released in September in R2, though it lacks the extra features that fill the scintillating Criterion DVD set, it’s well worth a look if you haven’t already grabbed the R1:
This multi award-winning masterpiece will be released on DVD courtesy of Mr Bongo Films on 22 September 2008. Set during the Mexican fiesta the Day of Death, we are taken through 24 hours in the life of Geoffrey Firmin (Finney – Saturday Night And Sunday
Morning, Miller’s Crossing), an alcoholic British consul living in a small town in Mexico. His self-destructive behaviour is a source of perplexity and sadness to his ex-wife Yvonne (Jacqueline Bisset – The Deep, Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills) who has returned with hopes of healing him and their broken marriage.
Acclaimed by critics, Under The Volcanois a delicate yet shocking film, served by a captivating script written by Guy Gallo, and interpreted into an epic fever dream by visionary director Huston, who turns a novel many called ‘unfilmable’ into a masterwork. The picture is dominated by Finney’s immense portrayal of Firmin, cited by film critic Roger Ebert as ‘the best drunk performance I’ve ever seen in a film’. Alone, such a masterful portrayal would be enough to make this film a must see; combined with the beautiful script, stunning cinematography and deft direction, it renders it unmissable.
ITVDVD is releasing a Michael Caine Collection: 75th Anniversary Box on August 11 to celebrate the birthday of the Great Man:
Educating Rita (Dir. Lewis Gilbert) (1983): Rita, a hairdresser with a sharp wit, is married to Danny, and at 26 doesn’t want a baby. She wants to discover herself - so she joins the Open University. Dr Frank Bryant is a disillusioned university professor of literature. His marriage has failed, his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend and he can’t get through the day without downing a bottle or two of whiskey. He refers to himself as an appalling teacher of appalling students. What Frank needs is a challenge - and along comes Rita. In this hilarious and often moving drama, the story tells how two people find a new lease of life through each other.
The Fourth Protocol (Dir. John Mackenzie) (1987): On July 1, 1968, America, Britain and Russia signed a treaty to halt the spread of nuclear weapons. The powers then added four extra clauses. The most secret of them was, and remains, the final. One winter, the Chairman of the KGB hatches a plan to breach this Fourth Protocol and destroy NATO. He sends an agent, Major Petrofsky, to assemble the operation. It is now up to MI6 agent John Preston, who now must race against an unknown deadline to stop him and his devastating mission.
The Eagle Has Landed (Dir. John Sturges) (1977): A Nazi Strike Force plots to assassinate Winston Churchill while he is resting in a desolate Norfolk Village. Colonel Radl masterminds the plot which, if successful, would change the outcome of the war. He enlists the help of Colonel Steiner and Liam Devlin. Disguised as Polish airmen, German paratroopers land in England. Radl’s plan appear to be going smoothly until an unforeseeable incident exposed the Germans. But the kidnap continues and Steiner, Luger in hand, approaches the unmistakable figure of Churchill…
The Ipcress File (Dir. Sidney J. Furie) (1965): The tense spy thriller by Len Deighton that turned Michael Caine into a superstar. Cynical and rebellious ex-army sergeant Harry Palmer has been blackmailed into working for Britain’s security service. Hot on the trail of a kidnapped scientist, Palmer finds himself enmeshed in a sinister conspiracy involving horrifying brainwashing techniques, murder and treachery that reaches up to the highest levels of the security service itself…
Without A Clue (Dir. Thom Eberhardt) (1988): A madcap comedy which takes a fresh look at the classic Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson escapades. Holmes is actually a figment of Dr. Watson’s own success in crime detection, a character who Watson uses when he writes in `The Strand’ magazine. But when the printing plates for five pound notes are stolen Queen Victoria calls for the country’s greatest detective.
Presumably the extras will reflect the current stand alone release, though ITVDVD’s The Ipcress File may be shorn of the extras Network blessed their superb release with, so be warned. August 11 also sees ITVDVD release of the newly remastered David Lean Centenary Collection Box Set; The Sound Barrier, Hobson’s Choice, Blithe Spirit, Brief Encounter, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, Madeleine, The Passionate Friends, This Happy Breed and In Which We Serve. For more details on the restorations, see this post.
Optimum will also release the restored The Sound Barrier & Hobson’s Choice on their own, and ITVDVD the rest, so you can cherry pick, should that suit your wallet or your fancy. Great Expectations has also just been released on Blu-ray and looks excellent apparently. ITVDVD are also planning a A Night To Remember 50th Anniversary Edition in August, though it’s not known how - or if - it will differ from the current disc. Coming September on Blu-ray from ITVDVD - Educating Rita, and later that same month, the long planned Auf Wiedersehen Pet: 25 Years Ultimate Box Set.
Odeon ploughs on with their July releases including Michael Winner’s The System, School for Randle (1949), the horror duo Neither The Sea Nor The Sand and The Flesh & Blood Show, plus Peter Sellers Battle Of The Sexes. Suspicion with Anthony Andrews comes August as does 1947’s Things Happen At Night, and a Master Of Gore Collection, four discs, a quartet of exploitation classics from the godfather of gore, Herschell Gordon Lewis; includes: 2000 Maniacs, Wizard Of Gore, Gruesome Twosome and Colour Me Blood Red. Lewis’s Gore Gore Girls is also released by Odeon August, as is Pete Walker’s sex comedy Cool it Carol.
2|entertain is promising 1981’s Private Schulz, with the much missed Michael Elphick at the end of July alongside Tom Baker in Doctor Who - The Brain Of Morbius from 1976, Are You Being Served? - Series 7 arrives in August with a Colin Baker adventure, Doctor Who - The Trial Of A Time Lord. In September expect In Sickness And In Health - Series 2, a William Hartnell era story, Doctor Who: The War Machines from 1966, and a Peter Davison era Who, Doctor Who - Four To Doomsday from 1981.
On the blocks from Network; Jason King - The Complete Series Special Edition:
Jason King, the scene – stealing, dandy and suave crime investigator from the star - studded series of DEPARTMENT S – also a NETWORK release – makes a long-awaited entrance into the spin–off series on DVD; JASON KING – THE COMPLETE SERIES SPECIAL EDITION (PG) is out on 14th July 2008, RRP £59.99. This 8–disc set includes all 26 episodes complete and uncut.
Peter Wyngarde reprises the role of Jason King in this excellent series. Jason King is now an author, who is in the process of writing his adventure novel, featuring the fictional character Mark Cain, who resembles Jason King from general appearance down to mannerism and personality. Though constantly harassed by his publisher about deadlines and people who need help, Jason King is still not one to shy from enjoying life to the fullest from good food to beautiful women. His research for the book and thirst for adventures take him all around the world and to some exotic, mysterious locations. He encounters more stirring dramas, greater danger, deeper and more colourful intrigue, more exceptional situations, not to mention more beautiful women than any one man has the right to experience. He copes with all this in his long, elegant and flamboyant stride. He expects anything to happy – they usually do, he also is sure to take care of everything, which he usually does too.
Special features in this set include:
• Wanna Watch A Television Series? Chapter 2: Fish Out of Water narrated by Peter Bowles and featuring contributions from, amongst others, Cyril Frankel, Burt Kwouk and Dick Fiddy
• Stills gallery
• Music suite
• TV play The Cross Fire starring Peter Wyngarde. A drama set in Algeria during French colonial rule, it also stars Eric Portman, Ian Hendry and Roger Delgado.
There’s full review of the set at DVD Times here. Network has Louis Malle’s Atlantic City as coming in August, but their website’s own specs reveal it to be full screen and not OAR; could be an error, but, sadly, probably not. They are also releasing some titles from that Hitchcock box set that they launched earlier in the year; Young & Innocent, Sabotage, The Pleasure Garden, The Man Who Knew Too Much (the 1934 version despite what some websites claim), and The Lady Vanishes. These should replicate the discs in that Hitch set, complete with extras (hopefully), something of a bargain with an rrp of just £5.99, and just £3.99 each on pre-order at HMV. At the end of August Network also releases Doctor On The Go Series 1 (2 DVD), The Army Game: Complete Series (6 DVD), and John Pilger: Volume 1/2/3/4 15 DVD Box Set.
September and we can look forward to Spitting Image - Series 3 from Network, Only When I Laugh - Series 4 plus a box containing Series 1 - 4, Strangers - Series 3, Dennis Potter At London Weekend Television Vols.1 and 2, Dick Turpin - Series 1 And 2 - Complete/Dick Turpin’s Great Adventures, Father Dear Father - Series 4, Robin’s Nest - Series 5, and The Crossroads Collection. September also promises a The Red Balloon / White Mane double (though some sites are suggesting that it’s the 2007 film Flight of The Red Balloon [Le Voyage du ballon rouge] and The White Mane [Crin blanc: Le cheval sauvage]; I rather think a pairing of both Albert Lamorisse’s films is more likely). The Network release of This Sporting Life we flagged some time ago has, it appears, been postponed indefinitely - so take these pre-release announcements with the same pinch of salt!
No doubt about this though; Network also have a ‘web exclusive’ on their website for their 3-disc From A Birds Eye View; The Complete Series:
Actress and comedienne Millicent Martin and American actress Patte Finley star as high-spirited air stewardesses facing one dizzy dilemma after another in this rarely seen ITC series made in 1969. Martin plays the well-meaning but dangerously impulsive Millie – whose heart invariably rules her head – while Finley stars as Maggie, her anguished American colleague who knows that every trip will be a flight into the unknown. Their exploits cause endless consternation for long-suffering boss Mr. Beauchamp (Peter Jones), but Millie’s Irish uncle, Bert (Robert Cawdron), is always on hand to offer his unique brand of advice…
From a Birds Eye View broke new ground for a TV situation comedy, for the first time pairing two established comediennes in an Anglo-American comedy series. The series also boasted direction by U.S. comedy veteran Ralph Levy – whose previous work included I Love Lucy, The Groucho Marx Show and The Beverly Hillbillies – and drew on the talents of legendary actor and producer Sheldon Leonard (The Andy Griffith Show, I Spy). The complete series of From a Birds Eye View is presented here, for the very first time in any format.
SPECIAL FEATURES
Image Gallery
Promotional Material PDF
Imminent, and Acorn are releasing a ‘remastered’ Lonesome Dove Collection; Lonesome Dove, Return to Lonesome Dove, Streets of Laredo and Dead Man’s Walk. Acorn are also on the cusp of releasing the 1976 TV version on Lorna Doone, while still in classic TV, Universal have the mini-series Masada, starring Peter O’Toole, ready to roll.
Towards the end of July, Eureka adds to their impressive Masters of Cinema range with Bruno Dumont’s La vie de Jésus (The Life of Jesus):
One of the great debut films of recent times, Bruno Dumont’s La vie de Jésus [The Life of Jesus] presents life’s brutality and exhilaration played out by turns within the quarters of a tiny Flemish country town. Here, positioned in relative isolation from the rest of so-called cultural Europe, the connections between individuals will take on a physical power inflected by boredom, by desperation, and by urges as raw as the earth.
Freddy and Marie (played by David Douche and Marjorie Cottreel in astonishing performances) are two teenagers with their futures uncertain and their present undefined. They ride motorbikes, they have sex – communication like any other sort. But in their hometown of Bailleul in Flanders, where news from the world-at-large disappears just as quickly as it drifts in, death proves to be inescapable, and decidedly permanent. As the film’s powerful climax unfolds, the viewer will come away with his or her own interpretation of how the life of Christ has figured into the story of Freddy and Marie – a contemplation on the magnitude of mercy.
With its frank, honest depictions of the body in the course of the sexual act, La vie de Jésus announced the emergence of a powerful philosophical intelligence – and a master of dramatic control – onto the scene of world cinema. Winner of the prestigious BFI Sutherland Trophy, Camera d’Or at Cannes, the Prix Jean Vigo, European Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards, amongst many others, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Bruno Dumont’s feature debut for the first time on home video in the UK in a director-approved edition.
• The debut film by Bruno Dumont, the provocative director of such controversial films as ‘L’humanité’ (Artificial Eye), ‘Twentynine Palms’ (Tartan), and ‘Flanders’ (Soda Pictures), in an edition approved by Dumont himself.
• Winner of the prestigious BFI Sutherland Trophy, Camera d’Or at Cannes, the Prix Jean Vigo, European Discovery of the Year at the European Film Awards and many others.
• One of Michael (Hidden, Funny Games) Haneke’s favourite directors
• Includes the original French trailer, and English subtitles in a new and improved translation.
• Accompanied by a lavish collectible 40-page full-colour booklet.
SPECIAL FEATURES
• New anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer in the original aspect ratio
• New and improved optional English subtitles
• Original French trailer
• Full-colour 40-page booklet including a lengthy interview with Dumont on the making of the film, and Dumont’s work-notes created during production, in new English translations.
In August, Eureka releases Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Vampyr in an edition that easily appears to at least rival Criterion’s upcoming R1 of the same film:
The first sound-film by one of the greatest of all filmmakers, Vampyr offers a sensual immediacy that few, if any, works of cinema can claim to match. Legendary director Carl Theodor Dreyer leads the viewer, as though guided in a trance, through a realm akin to a waking-dream, a zone positioned somewhere between reality and the supernatural.
Traveller Allan Gray (arrestingly depicted by Julian West, aka the secretive real-life Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg) arrives at a countryside inn seemingly beckoned by haunted forces. His growing acquaintance with the family who reside there soon opens up a network of uncanny associations between the dead and the living, of ghostly lore and demonology, which pull Gray ever deeper into an unsettling, and upsetting, mystery. At its core: troubled Gisèle, chaste daughter and sexual incarnation, portrayed by the great, cursed Sybille Schmitz (Diary of a Lost Girl, and inspiration for Fassbinder’s Veronika Voss.) Before the candles of Vampyr exhaust themselves, Allan Gray and the viewer alike come eye-to-eye with Fate — in the face of dear dying Sybille, in the blasphemed bodies of horrific bat-men, in the charged and mortal act of asphyxiation — eye-to-eye, then, with Death — the supreme vampire.
Deemed by Alfred Hitchcock ‘the only film worth watching… twice’, Vampyr’s influence has become, by now, incalculable. Long out of circulation in an acceptable transfer, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Dreyer’s truly terrifying film in its film restored form for the first time in the UK.
Special Features:
• New, high-definition transfer of the Martin Koerber / Cineteca di Bologna film restoration in its original aspect ratio (1.19:1)
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Full-length audio commentary featuring film scholar Tony Rayns
• Full-length audio commentary featuring Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro talking about one of his favourite films
• Two deleted scenes, removed by the German censor in 1932
• Carl Th. Dreyer(1966) – a documentary by Jörgen Roos
• Visual essay by scholar Casper Tybjerg on Dreyer’s Vampyr influences
• The Baron – a short MoC documentary about Baron Nicolas de Gunzburg
• Inspiration for the film – Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla – as an on-disc pdf.
• 80-page book featuring rare production stills, a facsimile reproduction of the 1932 Danish film programme, writing by Tom Milne (The Cinema of Carl Dreyer), Jean and Dale Drum (My Only Great Passion: The Life and Films of Carl Th. Dreyer), and Martin Koerber (film restorer).
Also in the same month Eureka welcomes Georges Franju into the MoC Series with two films Judex (1963) and Nuits Rouges (1973) together in the same set with an accompanying booklet.
JUDEX is the faithful feature-film version of the exploits of French serial eponymous superhero, a sharp-witted detective and master of disguise who employs his skills in the defence of the world from archenemy Fantomas.
NUITS ROUGES tells the story of an arch criminal known as ‘the man without a face’ and his pursuit of the fabled treasure of the mythic order of the Knights Templar.
In September, in Eureka’s MoC range, Maurice Pialat’s 1968 film L’Enfance-nue:
One of the earth-shaking feature debuts in the history of cinema, Maurice Pialat’s L’Enfance-nue [Naked-Childhood] provides a perspective on growing-up that rejects both sentimentality and modish cynicism. Its unflinching, but also warmly accommodating, outlook on childhood attracted François Truffaut to take on the role as co-producer of Pialat’s film — which, ironically, exists as much as a response to Truffaut’s own debut The 400 Blows as that film was to the ‘cinema of childhood’ that came before the New Wave.
First-time actor Michel Tarrazon plays the young François, a provincial orphan whose destructive behaviour precipitates his relocation from the home of a long-term foster family to the care of a benevolent elderly couple. In the course of this transition, Pialat’s film presents the turbulence of François’s unmoored existence, and his explosive reactions to the contradictory emotions it engenders. This is the naked portrait of a soul’s — and an entire society’s — dysfunction, before the moment of reconciliation.
L’Enfance-nue represents the ideal introduction to the films of Maurice Pialat — an artist whose work resides alongside that of Jean Eustache and Philippe Garrel at the summit of the post-New Wave French cinema. One discovers in his pictures a raw and complicated emotional core which, as in the films of John Cassavetes, reveals upon closer examination a remarkably rigorous visual aesthetic, and a facility of direction which lifts both seasoned actors and debut amateurs to the level of greatness. Coupled here with Pialat’s poetic and brilliant early short L’Amour existe [Love Exists, 1960], L’Enfance-nue is the first masterpiece of an artist whose work has had an incalculable influence on contemporary directors as diverse as Bruno Dumont, Olivier Assayas, Michael Haneke, and the Dardenne brothers, among others — and whose 2003 passing led Gilles Jacob, president of the Festival de Cannes, to declare: “Pialat is dead and we are all orphaned. French cinema is orphaned.” The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Maurice Pialat’s 1968 debut feature film — and Prix Jean Vigo winner — in a magnificent restored transfer for the first time on home video in the UK.
2-DISC EDITION:
• New anamorphic transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• L’AMOUR EXISTE [LOVE EXISTS] (1960) — Maurice Pialat’s poetic 19-minute film about life in the Paris banlieues
• 2003 video interview with co-screenwriter Arlette Langmann, conducted by former Cahiers du cinéma editor-in-chief, and current director of the Cinémathèque Française, Serge Toubiana
• 32-minute 1973 interview with Maurice Pialat, from the programme Champ contre-champ
• CHOSES VUES AUTOUR DE L’ENFANCE NUE [THINGS SEEN AROUND L’ENFANCE NUE] (1969) — 50-minute documentary by Roger Stéphane shot in the course of L’Enfance-nue’s production, examining Pialat’s film-in-progress and the plight of foster children
• 2005 video interview with Michel Tarrazon, the star of L’Enfance-nue
• The film’s original trailer, along with trailers for other Maurice Pialat films to be released by The Masters of Cinema Series
• 40-page booklet containing a new essay by critic and filmmaker Kent Jones, and newly translated interviews with Maurice Pialat
Also the same month, Maurice Pialat’s Police:
Maurice Pialat’s Police delivers on the raw promise of its title, insofar as much of its action qualifies as an insistently ‘procedural’ descent into the Paris drugs underworld. But the hyper-real route that the film takes to arrive there, before veering into a zone of dangerous emotional play, contributes to a disorienting, adventurous, and ultimately tremendously exciting experience unlike any ‘police-thriller’ ever before conceived.
The iconic Gérard Depardieu (who also collaborated with Pialat on Loulou, Sous le soleil de Satan, and Le Garçu) plays Mangin, a cop whose brutal method of investigation finds its obsessive outlet in an attempt to crack a Tunisian narcotics ring. It is when Mangin enters into close acquaintance with the defiant Noria (expertly played by Sophie Marceau in one of her first screen roles) that the film proceeds to chart an unexpected, emotionally ambiguous course — and the lines between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, and ‘power’ and ‘freedom’, terminally blur.
Written with Catherine Breillat (director of The Last Mistress, Anatomy of Hell, Fat Girl), but relying in equal measure upon Pialat’s improvisatory control (directing, among others, his star-actress from A nos amours, Sandrine Bonnaire), Police is a genre-defying excursion rivaled only by John Cassavetes’ The Killing of a Chinese Bookie in the pantheon of cinema’s most idiosyncratic thrillers. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Maurice Pialat’s daring 1985 film in a magnificent restored transfer for the first time on DVD in the UK.
2-DISC EDITION:
• New anamorphic transfer of the film in its original aspect ratio
• New and improved English subtitle translations
• 2003 video interview with director and Police co-screenwriter Catherine Breillat, conducted by former Cahiers du cinéma editor-in-chief, and current director of the Cinémathèque Française, Serge Toubiana
• ZOOM SUR POLICE [ZOOM ONTO POLICE] (2002) — 34-minute documentary by Virginie Apiou about the production of the film
• Vintage screen-tests featuring Maurice Pialat and C. Galmiche, the inspiration for the character of Lambert
• Excerpt from a 1985 episode of Cinéma Cinémas shot during the course of the 17th day of production on Police
• 23-minute video discussion with Yann Dedet, the editor of Police
• The film’s original trailer, along with trailers for other Maurice Pialat films to be released by The Masters of Cinema Series
• 40-page booklet containing a new essay by filmmaker and critic Dan Sallitt, and newly translated interviews with Maurice Pialat
Finally, before we finish, can I point you at Mike Sutton’s DVD Times reviews for Optimum’s upcoming Boulting Brothers titles Suspect - here - which sounds like a very poor effort, and Run For The Sun, not quite as damaged by being transferred in the incorrect aspect ratio as feared, here.
That’s it for the time being, until the next Showing Soon, au revior mes enfants…
BREAKING NEWS; Just announced, two more MoC titles you must know about - Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai’s Mad Detective and William Dieterle’s The Devil and Daniel Webster. No details on either, and it will be fascinating to see if Eureka can outgun Criterion’s excellent R1 of the latter, but I will include a little art. Nice.
And thanks to Gary Couzens for the news that Metrodome are releasing five US indies over the next few months: Joan Micklin Silver’s Hester Street (starring Carol Kane) comes out on 28 July and Michael Roemer’s Nothing But a Man on 18 August. There are a further three on 22 September: Frank Perry’s David and Lisa, The Luck of Ginger Coffey (starring Robert Shaw, directed by Irvin Kershner from Brian Moore’s novel) and Robert M. Young’s Alambrista!
Metrodome are also releasing a 4-disc set of documentaries in their Bruce Weber Collection the same month; Letter To True, Chop Suey, Broken Noses and the seminal Let’s Get Lost.