A
Cock and Bull Story in July [12 May 2006]
Michael
Winterbottom has proved yet again that he the British
film industry's most unclassifiable treasure with
his splendid adaptation (with regular collaborator
Frank Cottrell Boyce) of Laurence Stern's reputedly
'unfilmable' 18th Century novel The Life and
Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman. Switching
merrily between Shandy's story and a fictionalisation
of the process of creating it, it stars Steve Coogan
and Rob Brydon both as Shandy and his Uncle Toby
respectively, and wonderfully jusdged parodies of
themselves. It's without doubt one of the smartest
films to hit cinemas in some while, and at long
last a region 2 UK DVD release has been announced
by Lionsgate Home Entertainment (which should please
out Slarek, who screened the film at the cinema
and has been pestered by enquiries ever since about
a DVD release).
The
listed extras are:
- Audio
commentary with Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon;
- The
complete Tony Wilson interview with Steve Coogan;
- Deleted
scenes;
- Scene
extensions;
- Behind
the scenes footage;
- Premiere
footage;
- Theatrical
trailer.
Anyone
who has seen the film will realise that there's
some intriguing stuff here - the Tony Wilson interview
was conducted with Coogan as an extra for the DVD
of the film being made within this film (still with
me?), and with Coogan and Brydon playing parodies
of themselves, who knows which versions of them
the commentary will be conducted by. I can hardly
wait.
Release
date is set for 10th July 2006 at the retail price
of £19.99
La
Grande Bouffe (Blow Out) in July [12 May
2006]
A
film which caused a stir on its release and won
its director Marco Ferrari the FIPRESCI Prize at
Cannes in 1973, this allegorical tale of four bored
middle-aged, upper-middle-class professionals, retreat
to a country house for the weekend with three local
prostitutes and over-indulged in sex and glutony.
Still celebrated as a masterpiece of decadence and
disgust, the cast boasts such acting luminaries
as Marcello Mastroianni, Michel Piccoli, Philippe
Noiret and Ugo Tognazzi and remains director Ferrari's
most celebrated, if controversial work.
In
July Nouveaux Pictures are to release the film on
DVD with a 16:9 widescreen transfer and a most unusual
special feature entitled Frank Bordoni's Blow
Out, in which award winning TV chef Frank Bordini
"discusses the culinary delights of La
Grande Bouffe and presents a masterclass
on how to make crepes suzettes with Grand Marnier
and orange sauce." Having seen the film many,
many years ago, I detect a sense of playful irony
about this inclusion. The disc will also feature
a picture gallery.
Release
date is set for 3 July 2006 at the retail price
of £19.99
Manderlay
from Metrodome in July [10 May 2006]
Danish
maestro and provocateur Lars von Trier's sequel
to his own superb Dogville,
the
tellingly titled and confrontational Manderlay,
has devided critics even more effectively than his
previous works can still be caught at the odd indie
cinema (another on Slarek's 'we're showing it soon'
list), but if you missed it there then Metrodome
will come to the rescue in July when they release
it on UK DVD on 3rd July 2006. A sometimes uncomfortable
examination of slavery and race relations, once
again set in 1930s small town America and again
staged in minimalist fashion, the film arrives on
DVD with teh following extras:
- commentary
by Lars von Trier and director of photography
Anthony Dodd Mantle;
- 40
minute making-of featurette The Road to Manderlay;
- Trailer
The
film will also be released on the same day as part
of a 2-disc set with its predecessor, Dogville,
which will sport:
- 'Confessions
Box' featurette;
- 'Trier,
Kidman & Cannes featurette;
- UK
Theatrical trailer.
Manderlay
will retail at £19.99, while the double disc
set will come in at a respectable £24.99.
Bone
in June [10 May 2006]
His
output may be uneven, but all true horror fans have
a place in their heart for writer/director Larry
Cohen, the man who gave us It's Alive!,
The Stuff and Q: The Winged
Serpent. Now Anchor Bay are to release
his 1972 directorial debut Bone,
the tale of a Beverly Hills couple whose lives are
shattered upside down by the arrival into their
house of unstable criminal Bone (Yaphet Kotto),
whose robbery attempt stumbles when the couple he
has targeted turn out not to be as wealthy as they
appear, triggering off a danerous and perverse game
that forces the couple to face their own lies, desires
and fears. Dolby 2.0, Dolby 5.1 and DTS soundtracks
are on offer, plus the following extra features:
- audio
commentary by writer-director Larry Cohen; producer
Jack H. Harris;
- Unreal
featurette (a selection of scenes from the original
aborted shoot of Bone);
- theatrical
trailers;
- radio
spot;
- poster
and stills gallery;
- Larry
Cohen biography.
Release
date is 19th June 2006 at the retail price of £16.99.
The Collingswood Story
in June [10 May 2006]
A
minor cult hit on the indie horror circuit, writer/director
Michael Costanza's ultra-low budget The
Collingswood Story hailed from the same
stable as The Blair Witch Project
and The Last Broadcast in turning
its microscopic budget to its advantage, telling
its house-with-a-dark past story almost entirely
through webcam video, and described bu iofilm in
their Frightfest report as 'Unquestionably the best
"pure" horror film of this year's Frightfest.'
It's been floating around the festival circuit for
four years now, but is finally to get a UK DVD release
on 19th June 2006, courtesy of Anchor Bay. Dolby
2.0, Dolby 5.1 and DTS soundtracks are on offer,
as are the following special features:
- Michael
Costanza's award winning short film, Mama Said;
- Michael
Costanza's NYU student film, Flasher;
- alternate
scene;
- behind-the-scenes
featurette;
- cast
auditions;
- bloopers;
- stills
gallery.
Retail
price is £14.99.
The
Dark Hours in June [10 May 2006]
Something
of an unknown in the UK, at leat outside of devoted
horror fandom, Paul Fox's The Dark Hours
won Best Film at the New York Horror Film Festival
and the 2005 Sitges Fantastic Film Festival, and
scooped the Audience Award at Edinburgh's Dead By
Dawn Festival. Interested? OK, then read on. It's
described by the pre-publicity thus:
Harking
back to the character-driven style of films such
as Roman Polanski's Repulsion,
Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now
and Stanley Kubrick's The Shining,
The Dark Hours is an intense
and thought-provoking psychological horror film
that will stay with the viewer long after the
credits have rolled.
Bold
words, but a little research suggests that the film
is provoking a favourable response in many quarters.
I'll hand over to the publicity people again to
save me the job of typing out the plot:
When
attractive, hard-working psychiatrist Dr. Samantha
Goodman (Kate Greenhouse) decides to join her
writer-with-a-deadline husband, David (Gordon
Currie), and her younger sister who also works
as David's assistant, Melody (Iris Graham), for
a weekend at a winter cottage, it is to deliver
some grave news regarding her health. But things
quickly go from bad to worse with the arrival
of an unexpected visitor from Samantha's past.
Harlan Payne (Aiden Devine) is a violent rapist
and murderer who is convinced Samantha subjected
him to unethical experimental treatment while
he was her patient. With the assistance of his
troubled yet eager teenage protégé,
Adrian (Dov Tiefenbach), Harlan forces Samantha,
David and Melody to participate in a nightmarish
game of "Truth or Dare" revolving around
psychological and physical torture. During the
long night of terror that follows, Samantha learns
that the truth is far more horrifying than anything
she could ever have imagined.
The
word on the vine is that the film is both intelligent
and shockjing, just the sort of thing horror fans
are crying out for. It's out from Anchor Bay on
19th June 2006 with Dolby 2.0, Dolby 5.1 and DTS
soundtracks, and will include a making-of featurette,
a theatrical trailer and photo gallery. retail price
is £14.99.
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