New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Dive head first into the month with three new releases from Arrow Academy beginning with legendary French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot. In 1964, backed with an unlimited budget from Columbia Pictures, Clouzot set out to film L'Enfer. From the start the production was beset from a number of severe problems. Ultimately the film was never finished, but in 2009 directors Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea pieced together what footage there was and detailed the film's problematic journey in the semi-documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno.
Shift gears from semi-documentary to pseudo-documentary with Federico Fellini's made-for-Italian-TV film, Orchestra Rehearsal. This satirical look at politics has a bickering orchestra in the role of a governing body. Like many of Fellini's films, Orchestra Rehearsal is just as relevant today as it was upon its initial release. The film is presented with a brand-new 2K restoration from the original film elements.
For a deeper look at politics there's the pairing of director Jean-Luc Godard and filmic critic Jean-Pierre Gorin. The duo worked together to shake up cinema all while exposing political ideas. This stretch of filmmaking has come to be known as Godard's "radical years." Arrow Academy has collected five films that Godard and Gorin released together in one boxset - Jean-Luc Godard + Jean-Pierre Gorin: Five Films, 1968-1971.
Not to be outdone, Arrow Video has seven releases of their own starting with the Godfather of Gore, Herschell
Gordon Lewis and his late 60's entry, The Gruesome Twosome. The work of Lewis isn't for everyone, but fans of the Godfather's macabre madness will surely appreciate this high definition presentation. Included as a nice little bonus is Lewis' foray into the world of vampires with A Taste of Blood.
From the Godfather to Diamond Guys, Arrow Video will release Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years Vol 1. This boxset features five films from the B-movie maverick with a focus on youth. Fans of Suzuki's later work will certainly get a kick out of watching his career evolve of the course of these earlier films.
Arrow Video will also be releasing the splatter classic Re-Animator. Adapted from a short story from fame horror author H.P. Lovecraft, this 80's film was responsible for making
Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs and
Barbara Crampton horror legends. Re-Animator is presented in an unrated 4K restoration and is loaded with special features.
Keeping the icons coming, Arrow Video will release two films from the maestro Dario Argento - The Cat O' Nine Tails and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. The later film reinvented the 'giallo' and put Argento on the map. The former proved he was here to stay. Both films are presented with brand-new 4K restorations.
Next up is Scalpel, a grisly film about a surgeon that isn't afraid of malpractice. Original known as False Face, Scalpel was the first film to be directed by future Blood Rage director John Grissmer, Robert Lansing stars as the doctor while daytime soap paragon
Judith Chapman plays the deranged doctor's "patient."
Bringing February to a close is Basket Case, the often intimated but never duplicated film about conjoined twins from the twisted mind of Frank Henenlotter. This film will still give you the creeps, but no, your mind is not playing tricks on you, Basketcase does come with a brand-new 4K restoration courtesy of the Museum of
Modern Art.
HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT'S INFERNO [Blu-ray] (2/6)
In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of thriller masterpieces Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear, began work on his most ambitious film yet.
Set in a beautiful lakeside resort in the Auvergne region of France, L'Enfer (Inferno) was to be a sun scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager (Serge Reggiani). However, despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed under the weight of arguments, technical complications and illness.
In this compelling, award-winning documentary Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea present Inferno's incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot's original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavor through interviews, dramatizations of un-filmed scenes, and Clouzot's own notes.
FEATURES
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
* Optional English subtitles
* Lucy Mazdon on Henri-Georges Clouzot, the French cinema expert and academic talks at length about the films of Clouzot and the troubled production of Inferno
* They Saw Inferno, a featurette including unseen material, providing further insight into the production of Inferno
* Filmed Introduction by Serge Bromberg
* Interview with Serge Bromberg
*
Stills gallery
* Original trailer
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by
Twins of Evil
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Ginette Vincendeau
SPECS
* Production Year: 2009
* Running Time: 102
* Number of Discs: 1
* Language: French
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
* SRP: $34.95
Order on MVDshop.com or Amazon
THE GRUESOME TWOSOME [Blu-ray] (2/6)
OH, YES... OUR WIGS ARE MADE FROM GENUINE HUMAN HAIR... AND HOW!
After dabbling in the unlikely world of children's entertainment with the likes of Jimmy, the Boy Wonder and The Magic Land of Mother Goose, in 1967 "Godfather of Gore" Herschell
Gordon Lewis returned to genre he helped create with the delightfully depraved The Gruesome Twosome!
The young women of a small-town American college have more than just split-ends to worry about... Down at the
Little Wig Shop, the batty Mrs. Pringle and her socially-inept son Rodney are procuring only the finest heads of hair - by scalping the local co-eds! Can they be stopped before they clear the entire campus of luxuriant-haired ladies?
Also including HG Lewis' Dracula-inspired vampire epic A Taste of Blood as a bonus feature, this is one Gruesome Twosome that's well worth flipping your wig over!
FEATURES
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
* Bonus Feature! 1967's A Taste of Blood
* Introductions to the films by HG Lewis
* Archive audio commentaries for both films by HG Lewis
*
Peaches Christ Flips Her Wig! - San Francisco performer
Peaches Christ on The Gruesome Twosome
* It Came from Florida - filmmaker Fred Olen Ray (Scalps, The Alien Dead) on Florida Filmmaking
* HG Lewis vs. the Censors - HG Lewis discusses some of the pitfalls of the blood-and-guts business including local censorship and angry moviegoers
* Trailers and radio spot
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly-commissioned artwork by The
Twins of Evil
SPECS
* Production Year: 1967
* Running Time: 72
* Number of Discs: 1
* Language: English
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
* SRP: $34.95
Order on MVDshop.com or Amazon
THE CAT O' NINE TAILS - LIMITED EDITION [Blu-ray + DVD] (2/13)
Following the success of his debut feature, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, distributor Titanus tasked writer/director Dario Argento with delivering a follow-up in short order. The resulting film, granted a greatly enhanced budget and heralded in its US marketing campaign as "nine times more suspenseful" than its predecessor, was The Cat O' Nine Tails.
When a break-in occurs at a secretive genetics institute, blind puzzle-maker Franco Arnò (Karl Malden, Patton, One-Eyed Jacks), who overheard an attempt to blackmail one of the institute's scientists shortly before the robbery, teams up with intrepid reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus, Beneath the Planet of the Apes) to crack the case. But before long the bodies begin to pile up and the two amateur sleuths find their own lives imperilled in their search for the truth. And worse still, Lori (Cinzia De Carolis, Cannibal Apocalypse), Franco's young niece, may also be in the killer's sights.
This second entry in the so-called "Animal Trilogy" found Argento further refining his distinctive style and cementing his reputation as the master of the giallo thriller. Co-starring Catherine Spaak (Il Sorpasso) and Rada Rassimov (Baron Blood), and featuring another nerve-jangling score by the great Ennio Morricone (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The Good, The Bad and the Ugly), The Cat O' Nine Tails remains one of Argento's most suspenseful and underrated films.
FEATURES
* Presented from a brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations
* Original mono Italian and English soundtracks (lossless on the Blu-ray Disc)
* Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
* New audio commentary by critics Alan Jones and Kim Newman
* New interviews with co-writer/director Dario Argento, co-writer Dardano Sacchetti, actress Cinzia De Carolis and production manager
Angelo Iacono
*
Script pages for the lost original ending, translated into English for the first time
* Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp
* Double-sided fold-out poster
* 4 lobby card reproductions
* Limited edition booklet illustrated by Matt Griffin, featuring an essay on the film by Dario Argento, and new writing by Barry Forshaw, Troy Howarth and
Howard Hughes
SPECS
* Production Year: 1971
* Running Time: 112
* Number of Discs: 1
* Language: Italian, English
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
* SRP: $49.95
Order on MVDshop.com or Amazon
ORCHESTRA REHEARSAL [Blu-ray] (2/13)
Made in 1978 for Italian television, Orchestra Rehearsal is possibly Fellini's most satirical and overtly political film.
An allegorical pseudo-documentary, the film depicts an Italian television crew's visit to a dilapidated auditorium (a converted 13th-century church) to meet an orchestra assembling to rehearse under the instruction of a tyrannical conductor. The TV crew interviews the various musicians who each speak lovingly about their chosen instruments. However, as petty squabbles break out amid the different factions of the ensemble, and the conductor berates his musicians, the meeting descends into anarchy and vandalism. A destructive crescendo ensues before the musicians regroup and play together once more in perfect harmony.
Abounding with its director's trademark rich imagery and expressive style, Orchestra Rehearsal marks the last collaboration between Fellini and the legendary composer Nino Rota (due to the latter's death in 1979) who provides one of his most beautiful themes in the film's conclusion.
FEATURES
*
Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements, produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* Original 1.0 mono sound
* Optional English subtitles
* Richard Dyer on Nino Rota and Orchestra Rehearsal, the film scholar talks about the great composer and his last collaboration with Fellini
* Orchestrating Discord, a visual essay on the film by Fellini biographer John Baxter
* Gallery featuring rare poster and press material on the film from the Felliniana collection of Don Young
* Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Adrian Martin
SPECS
* Production Year: 1978
* Running Time: 80
* Number of Discs: 1
* Language: Italian
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
* SRP: $34.95
Order on MVDshop.com or Amazon
SEIJUN SUZUKI: THE EARLY YEARS VOL. 1 LIMITED EDITION [Blu-ray + DVD] (2/13)
YOUTHS ON THE LOOSE AND REBELS WITHOUT CAUSES IN THE UNRULY SEISHUN EIGA YOUTH MOVIES OF JAPANESE ICONOCLAST SEIJUN SUZUKI
Making their home-video debuts outside Japan, this diverse selection of Nikkatsu youth movies (seishun eiga) charts the evolving style of the B-movie maverick best known for the cult classics Tokyo Drifter (1966) and Branded to Kill (1967).
The Boy Who Came Back (1958) marks the first appearances of "Nikkatsu Diamond Guys" and regular Suzuki collaborators Akira Kobayashi and Jo Shishido, with Kobayashi cast as the hot-headed hoodlum fresh out of reform school who struggles to make a clean break with his tearaway past.
The Wind-of-Youth Group
Crosses the Mountain Pass (1961) is a carnivalesque tale of a young student who hooks up with a down-at-heels travelling circus troupe.
Teenage Yakuza (1962) stars Tamio Kawaji as the high-school vigilante protecting his community from the extortions of mobsters from a neighboring city. The Incorrigible (1963) and Born Under Crossed Stars (1965), both based on Toko Kon's novels about young love, represent Suzuki's first films set in the 1920s era later celebrated in his critically-regarded Taisho Trilogy.
FEATURES
* Limited Edition Dual Format Collection [3000 copies]
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation and Standard Definition DVD presentation
* Optional English subtitles
* New introduction to the films by critic Tony Rayns
* 60-page illustrated collector's book featuring new writing by critics and author Jasper Sharp
SPECS
* Production Year: 1958-1965
* Running Time: 450
* Number of Discs: 4
* Language: Japanese
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
* SRP: $69.95
Order on MVDshop.com or Amazon
RE-ANIMATOR [Blu-ray] and [DVD] (2/13)
HERBERT WEST HAS A GOOD HEAD ON HIS SHOULDERS... AND ANOTHER ONE ON HIS DESK.
One of the most wildly popular horror movies of all-time,
Stuart Gordon's enduring splatter-comedy classic Re-Animator returns to Blu-ray in a stunning restoration packed with special features!
When medical student Dean Cain advertises for a roommate, he soon finds one in the form of Dr. Herbert West. Initially a little eccentric, it some becomes clear that West entertains some seriously outlandish theories specifically, the possibility of re-animating the dead. It's not long before Dean finds himself under West's influence, and embroiled in a serious of ghoulish experiments which threaten to go wildly out of control.
Based on H.P. Lovecraft's classic terror tale Herbert West Reanimator and featuring a standout performance from Jeffrey Combs as the deliciously deranged West, Re-Animator remains the ground-zero of 80s splatter mayhem and one of the genre's finest hours.
FEATURES
* Presented from a 4K restoration of the Unrated version
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
* Mono,
Stereo and 5.1 DTS-HD MA Surround Audio Options
* Isolated Score
* Audio commentary with director
Stuart Gordon and actors Graham Skipper and
Jesse Merlin of Re-Animator: The Musical
* Audio commentary with
Stuart Gordon
* Audio commentary with producer Brian Yuzna, actors Jeffrey Combs,
Barbara Crampton, Bruce Abbott and Robert Sampson
* Re-Animator: Resurrectus - feature-length documentary on the making of the film, featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew
* Interviews with director
Stuart Gordon and producer Brian Yuzna, writer
Dennis Paoli, composer Richard Band and former
Fangoria editor Tony Timpone
*
Music discussion with composer Richard Band
*
Barbara Crampton in Conversation - the Re-Animator star sits down with journalist Alan Jones for this career-spanning 2015 interview
* The Catastrophe of Success:
Stuart Gordon and The Organic Theater - director
Stuart Gordon discusses his early theater roots and his continued commitment to the stage
* Theater of Blood - Re-Animator: The Musical lyricist Mark Nutter on adapting the cult classic for musical theatre
* Extended Scenes
* Deleted Scene
* Trailer & TV Spots
* Still Gallery
* Screenplay (BD-ROM Content)
* Reversible sleeve with newly commissioned artwork by Justin Erickson
SPECS
* Production Year: 1985
* Running Time: 101
* Number of Discs: 1
* Language: English
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
* SRP: $34.95
Order on MVDshop.com or Amazon
THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE [Blu-ray] & [DVD] (2/13)
In 1970, young first-time director Dario Argento (Deep Red, Suspiria) made his indelible mark on Italian cinema with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage - a film which redefined the 'giallo' genre of murder-mystery thrillers and catapulted him to international stardom.
Sam Dalmas (Tony Musante, We Own the Night), an American writer living in Rome, inadvertently witnesses a brutal attack on a woman (Eva Renzi, Funeral in Berlin) in a modern art gallery. Powerless to help, he grows increasingly obsessed with the incident. Convinced that something he saw that night holds the key to identifying the maniac terrorizing Rome, he launches his own investigation parallel to that of the police, heedless of the danger to both himself and his girlfriend Giulia (Suzy Kendall, Spasmo).
A staggeringly assured debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage establishes the key traits that would define Argento's filmography, including lavish visuals and a flare for wildly inventive, brutal scenes of violence. With sumptuous cinematography by Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) and a seductive score by legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in the West), this landmark film has never looked or sounded better in this new, 4K-restored edition from Arrow Video!
Blu-ray SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
* Presented from a brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* Original lossless mono Italian and English soundtracks
* English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
* New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
* The Power of Perception, a new visual essay on the cinema of Dario Argento by Alexanda Heller-Nicholas, author of Devil's Advocates: Suspiria and Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study
* New analysis of the film by critic Kat Ellinger
* New interview with writer/director Dario Argento
* New interview with actor Gildo Di
Marco (Garullo the pimp)
* Eva's Talking, an archival interview with actor Eva Renzi (Monica Ranieri)
* Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp
DVD SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
*
Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Video exclusively for this release
* Standard Definition DVD presentation
* Original mono Italian and English soundtracks
* English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
* New audio commentary by Troy Howarth, author of So Deadly, So Perverse: 50 Years of Italian Giallo Films
* The Power of Perception, a new visual essay on the cinema of Dario Argento by Alexanda Heller-Nicholas, author of Devil's Advocates: Suspiria and Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study
* New analysis of the film by critic Kat Ellinger
* New interview with writer/director Dario Argento
* New interview with actor Gildo Di
Marco (Garullo the pimp)
* Eva's Talking, an archival interview with actor Eva Renzi (Monica Ranieri)
* Original Italian and international theatrical trailers
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Candice Tripp
SPECS
* Production Year: 1971
* Running Time: 98
* Number of Discs: 1
* Language: Italian, English
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
* SRP Blu-ray: $39.95
* SRP DVD: $29.95
Order on MVDshop.com or Amazon
SCALPEL [Blu-ray] (2/20)
HE LOST THE FACE OF THE WOMAN HE LOVED... SO HE GAVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE.
US television staple Robert Lansing (Star Trek, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone) stars as a deranged surgeon in this twisty-turny psychological thriller from Blood Rage director John Grissmer.
In Scalpel, Lansing plays Dr. Phillip Reynolds, a man whose daughter Heather (Judith Chapman, As the World Turns, General Hospital) has run away from home a year prior following the suspicious death of her boyfriend. When he happens across a young woman one night, her face beaten beyond recognition, the unhinged Reynolds sees his an opportunity to put his trusty scalpel to use - hatching a plan to "reconstruct" her face in the image of his missing daughter, and so claim her sizeable inheritance.
Photographed by celebrated cinematographer Edward Lachman, who would go on to serve as DP on the likes of Erin Brockovich and The Virgin Suicides, Scalpel is an exemplary slice of Southern-fried gothic, finally rescued from VHS obscurity in this revelatory new Blu-ray edition from Arrow Video.
FEATURES
*
Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements
* High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
* Original Uncompressed Mono Audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
*
Brand new audio commentary by film historian Richard Harland Smith
*
Brand new crew interviews
* Original Theatrical Trailer
* Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The
Twins of Evil
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet with new writing on the film by Bill Ackerman
SPECS
* Production Year: 1977
* Running Time: 95
* Number of Discs: 1
* Language: English
* Subtitles: English
* Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
* SRP Blu-ray: $39.95
