Jerry Goldsmith RIP -- Grave of the Fireflies UK region 2 -- Hellraiser Box Set from Anchor Bay -- Charge of the Light Brigade from BFI -- Clerks 3-disk edition -- La Haine Special Edition -- Marx Brothers box set -- Fukusaku double -- The Apple in August -- More Universal horror specials

Jerry Goldsmith RIP 1929-2004

One of the greatest and most prolific of Hollywood film composers, Jerry Goldsmith, has died of cancer at 75. Veteran of over 300 scores for film and television, Goldsmith had more classics under his belt than just about any other composer you care to name. Astonishingly, despite being nominated 18 times for the Best original Score oscar, he won it only once, for The Omen. This tells you quite a bit about the shallow nature of the Oscars, of course. A classically trained composer who studied under one of his own heroes - Miklos Rosza - at the University of California, Goldsmith was a man in love with his profession and was still composing and still in demand right up until his final days. Staring on TV, where he made a name for himself composing for a a number of series that went on to become classics, it was his Oscar nimination for the 1962 film Freud (which itself was to influence his own memorable score for Alien) that really launched his film career. His notable TV work included Gunsmoke (1955), Have Gun - Will Travel (1957), Wagon Train (1957), The Twilight Zone (1959), Dr. Kildare (1961 - main theme) and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (1964). His extraordinary film catalogue includes Seven days in May (1964) Von Ryan's Express (1965), The Blue Max (1966), Seconds (1966), Patton (1970), The Ballard of Cable Hogue (1970), Chinatown (1974), The Wind and the Lion (1975), The Omen (1976), Coma (1978), The First Great Train Robbery (1979), Alien (1979), Star Trek - The Motion Picture (1979 - the main theme was used as the opening theme to the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation), Psycho II (1983), Under Fire (1983 - a marvellous score that should have won the Oscar that year), Gremlins (1984), Legend (1985), Link (1986), Wall Street (1987) and L.A Confidential (1997). He will be sorely missed. Camus worked with him in the past and stayed in touch over the years - he will be preparing a full tribute to Mr. Goldsmith on his return from a sorely needed holiday.

Grave of the Fireflies on UK region 2

Isao Takahata's devastatingly moving Studio Ghibli anime Grave of the Fireflies (Hotaru no haka 1988) finally arrives on UK region 2 DVD in August. This extraordinary study of a young boy and his sister coping with loss in wartime Japan is as timely as ever, given that it focuses on the human cost of US carpet bombing, and packs an emotional wallop like no other feature animation I've ever seen. With an anamorphic 16:9 transfer and Dolby 2.0 sound (for both the original Japanese track and an English dub), the two disk set also sports a host of extras: screen to storyboard comparison for the entire film (a stadard Studio Ghibli feature); bonus storyboards; and interview with director Takahata; a 'historical perspective' documentary; an interview with noted critic and fan of the film, Roger Ebert; a 'video restoration' featurette; an art gallery; Japanese promotional material; biographies and trailer. This makes the region 2 disk identical to the already available Central Park Media region 1 2-disk set that has been available for some time, but that is no bad thing. UK street date is 23 August 2004.

Hellraiser Lament Configuration Box Set from Anchor Bay [15 July 2004]

After some pretty shoddy releases in the past, Clive Barker's iconic Hellriaser is set for a re-release from Anchor Bay, but as apart of a stonking 4 disk set containing all three films and a large pile of extras, all presented in anamorphic 16:9 and 5.1 sound and in a rather splendid puzzle box that should prove a familiar sight to fans of the series. Hellraiser features a commentary by Barker, a second commentary with Barker and actor Ashley Laurence, Under the Skin: Doug Bradley on Hellraiser featurette, Resurrection featurette, an on-set interview with Barker, storyboards posters and trailers, mercandising info and scripts in PDF format. Hellraiser 2 - Hellbound has a commentary by director Tony Randel and actor pete Atkins, a second commentary by Randel and actor Ashley Laurence, Under the Skin: Doug Bradley on Hellraiser 2 featurette, Lost in the Labyrinth featurette, on-set interviews with Clive Barker, Tony Randel, Claire Higgins, Ashley laurence, Imogen Boorman and Kenneth Cranham, a behind-the-scenes montage, posters, trailers and PDF scripts. Hellraiser 3 - Hell on Earth has a commentary by director Anthony Hickox and actor Doug Bradley, Doug Bradley on Hellraiser 3 featurette, an interview with Hickox, posters, stills and a trailer. Finally there is the bonus disk, which contains two early clive Barker films, the experimental Salome (1973) and The Forbidden (1978), plus interviews discussing these films with Barker, Pete Atkins and Doug Bradley. Wow. Of course, the jury is still out on whether the first film is the only one that's really any good, but this is still a hell of a release, and one fans should already be pre-ordering. Street date is 13 september 2004 in the UK only at present.

Charge of the Light Brigade from BFI [14 July 2004]

Written by Charles Wood (whose formidable credits include (Help!, The Knack and Cuba for Dick Lester, the brilliant Tumbledown and the recent Iris) and sporting an excellent cast that includes Trevor Howard, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, David Hemmings and T.P. McKenna, Tony Richardson's extraordinary, anti-heroic version of Charge of the Light Brigade makes it to DVD in a decent looking release from BFI. With a 16:9 anamorphic transfer and mono sound, the disk also features and interview with Richard Williams, whose extraordinary animated links are one of the film's most distinctive elements, biographies of Richardson and Williams, the original trailer and a 12 minute version of the story made by the Edison studios in 1912. The release date is real soon - 26 July - and on region 2 only.

Clerks 3-disk edition in September [11 July 2004]

With Kevin Smith's would-be romantic comedy Jersey Girl getting a critical pasting in the UK, it's perhaps a little dispiriting to go back and see how good he was when he started out with Clerks. Already released twice in the US on DVD, Buena Vista are now about to serve up a 10th Anniversary, 3-disk special edition (my God, has it really been ten years?), set for release on September 7 2004. This will include the 93 minute theatrical cut and the 103 minute original cut, both remastered in anamorphic widescreen and remixed Dolby 5.1 sound, and both with commentary tracks - the theatrical edit will have the same cast/crew commentary that featured on the original release (which could do with a remix itself, as only Smith seemed to have a microphone here), while the original edit will have an all-new commentary by the same participants. Also included will be a 95 minute documentary on the film, The Snowball Effect: The Story Behind Clerks, Jay and Silent Bob (enough with these guys already) shorts done for MTV, a 10th anniversary Q&A session with cast and crew members, a music video, trailer, an animated short, photo gallery, a trivia track, extracts from Kevin Smith Clerks and Sundance journals, articles on low-budget film-making, articles on the film, 'Mae Day', a documentary short made by Kevin Smith and Scott Mosier at film school, and probably a load more I haven't listed. If you're a fan of the film, then this is definitely the release you have been waiting for.

La Haine Special edition in September? [9 July 2004]

All the signs are that a special edition of Mathieu Kassovitz's excellent drama La Haine is set for region 2 re-release on September 27. several on-line retailers, including Amazon, are taking bookings for this most welcome disk, though no details not content or even the distributor are available yet. Previously release by Tartan in a poor transfer from a shabby film print with sometimes illegible subtitles, there has been no announcement from tartan themselves as yet, though given their present policy of re-releasing previously wobbly releases (Audition, Hard Boiled) in remastered special editions, they lot to be a likely candidate. A new anamorphic print with clear, removable subtitles would be a must, as would a 5.1 sound mix, but we can only dream that even a spattering of the extras on the French special edition will be included, though that would mean some subtitling work up at Tartan, or whoever else might be behind the release. We'd especially like to see the commentary from that disk given a subtitle translation. More details will be posted as soon as we have them.

The Marx Brothers Collection on region 2 [8 July 2004]

Coming from Warner in August is The Marx Brothers collection, a box set of what Warners a pushing as six of the comedy team's funniest and most popular films. The collection is, though, something of a mixed bag and and the extras are themselves an uneven bunch. Good news is that the set will include the wonderful A Night at the Opera (1935), which boasts probably the most oft-quoted Marx Brothers line about the sanity clause, but also has a fair set of extras, including a commentary by grinny critic Leonard Maltin, an new, half-hour documentary on the Brothers, a 5 min extract from The Hy Gardener Show featuring Groucho and some vintage MGM comedy shorts that are actually very little to do with the Brothers. The 1937 A Day at the Races doesn't quite match Opera's manic brilliance, but is still priceless at times. Again this will be supported by a commentary track, this time by Glenn Mitchell, author of The Marx Brother Encyclopedia, another new half-hour Marx Brother docco, and four more unrelated comedy shorts. A similar spattering of non-Marx brothers short films can also be found on At the Circus (1939), Go West (1940) and The Big Store (1941), none of which are exactly prime works of the team, and the 1946 A Night in Casablanca has a Bugs Bunny cartoon, of all things. Already available is a rival box set from Universal featuring the 1930 Animal Crackers, the riotous Monkey Business (1931), in which even Zeppo is engaging, the brilliant Horse Feathers (1932) and without doubt their greatest and purest work (no distracting romantic sub-plots here), Duck Soup (1933) - an arguably better set (less films, but no flab at all), but with no extras. By the way, warner's region 1 box set also includes the 1938 Room Service.

Fukusaku yakuza double in September [5 July 2004]

Following on from the previous region 1 releases of Kenji Fukusaku's Blackmail is My Life and If You Were Young: Rage, Home Vision Entertainment have announced the release of two more of Fukusaku's excellent Yakuza thrillers. Graveyard of Honor (Jingi no hakaba 1975) and Street Mobster (Gendai yakuza: hito-kiri yota 1972). Both will feature 2.35:1 anamorphic transfers and the original Japanese mono soundtrack with optional English subtitles. Graveyard of Honor also features a 20 minute video essay A Portrait of Rage, an interview with the film's assistant director Kenichi Oguri on working with Fukusaku, a filmography and trailers. Street Mobster includes filmographies, trailers and, most intriguingly, an interview with a former Yakuza. Street date is 7 September 2004 i8n the US only.

Artificial Eye to release The Apple in August [1 July 2004]

With Samira Makhmalbaf's compelling second feature Blackboards already available, courtesy of Artificial Eye (good print, not anamorphic, excellent documentary), August will see a release from the same company of Makhmalbaf's extraordinary first film, The Apple (1998). Following on from fellow Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's fascinating 1990 feature Close-Up, which recreated a real event (actually involving a man who was impersonating Samira's father, Mohsen) by using the real participants in the event rather than actors, The Apple tells the true story of twin sisters who are freed after being kept prisoner in their house for the first twelve years of their life by a father who did not want to expose them to the corrupting influence of the outside world. Their lack of communication with other human being resulted in seemingly severe learning difficulties, but the sisters soon learned to adapt to the world outside. That Makhmalbaf persuaded the entire family to play themselves in a recreation of this story is remarkable enough, but that made a film that helps to understand the people and situation rather than exploit is a major achievement, especially considering this was Samira's first film and that she was just 18 at the time. The disk will feature an anamorphic 16:9 transfer, Dolby 2.0 sound, and interview with and biography of the director, behind-the-scenes featurette and a trailer. Street date is set for 23 August 2004.

Universal Horror: the Legacy continues [28 June 2004]

Following on from their excellent 5-film Legacy collection releases of Dracula, Frankenstein and Wolf Man movies, Universal have announced and another three releases in this series. The Mummy features Karl Freund's atmospheric 1932 original, featuring Boris Karloff as the Im Ho-Tep, The Mummy's Hand (Christy Cabanne 1940), The Mummy's Tomb (Harold Young 1942), The Mummy's Ghost (Reginald Le Borg 1944) and The Mummy's Curse (Leslie Goodwins 1944). The Invisible Man stars James Whale's glorious 1933 original, The Invisible Man Returns starring a young Vincent Price (Joe May 1940), The Invisible Woman (A. Edward Sutherland), The Invisible Agent (Edward L. Marin 1942) and The Invisible Man's Revenge (Ford Beebe 1944). Completing the set is Jack Arnold's 1954 The Creature From the Black Lagoon, which will be joined by Arnold's 1955 sequel The Revenge of the Creature, featuring a certain Clint Eastwood in the tiny rols of a lab technician, and the 1956 The Creature Walks Among Us (John Sherwood). On the basis of the previous releases, we can hope to see the extras from the original single film releases included here, and they will again be retailing at a spiffy price: $26.95 each. I suppose it would be too much to hope for to see a 3D print of The Creature From the Black Lagoon? Oh well. All this is region 1, by the way - no doubt the region 2 releases will again feature just two films per set.