Quest
for Fire on region 2 in September
 |
Back
in 1981, a remarkable and unusual film hit UK screens,
then a year later was gone and has been rarely seen
since. The first feature by Jean-Jacques Annaud
(later to reach a larger audience with The
Bear, The Lovers and The
Name of the Rose), Quest for Fire
(La Guerre du feu) is set 80,000
years in the past where the ownership fire was life
itself, the Ulam tribe loses their flame during
an attack by a neighbouring tribe and three of their
number are dispatched to find another source of
fire to ensure the future survival of the tribe.
What makes the story so striking is the handling
- the recreation of the period is genuinely astonishing,
with actors chosen in part for their simian appearance,
primitive dialogue designed by Anthony Burgess (and
there are no subtitles to help you out bhere) and
gestures by Desmond Morris. And it was utterly compelling
stuff. You've not seen it? Well, lucky for you that
Second Sight are planning to release he film on
DVD in the UK this September. Fans of the the film
will no doubt already have picked up the region
1 DVD from 20th Century Fox (dirt cheap at the moment
if you search), which has a decent transfer and
some very good extras, including... well, the same
as the ones that Second Sight have included on their
release:
- Audio
commentary from director Jean-Jacques Annaud;
- Audio
commentary by cast members;
- Interview
with Jean-Jacques Annaud;
- ''Making
Of' featurette;
- Photo
gallery with director's commentary.
Release
date is 25th September 2005 at the RRP of £17.99.
Kon-Tiki
in August
Back
in 1947, Norwegian Biologist Thor Heyerdahl decided
to prove his theory that the South Sea Polynesian
islands were visited by ancient South American civilisations
long before the arrival of Columbus by completing
the journey with five companions on a balsa wood
raft. He took a long a small, wind-up 16mm camera
and recorded the adventure, and an adventure it
was. The result was Kon-Tiki, a
rough and ready yet utterly fascinating documentary
that scooped the 1950 Academy Award, but is too
little seen today. The film has been available on
an Image Entertainment US region 0 DVD for some
time, but is not so easy to track down from the
UK. Well fear not, as in August the film will be
available on UK DVD in August, courtesy of the little
known Cymru Wales Ltd. DVD label. At present it
looks like a movie-only release, but that would
put it in line with the US release.
Release
date is 21st August 2006 at the RRP of £14.99.
You
can read Slarek's review of the US release here.
Sweetie
from Criterion in October
The
name of Jane Campion should be familiar to all film
fans, though more often it's for her 1993 The
Piano than her earlier work, but that's
the stuff that many of us fell in love with and
tuned us in to the talents of this gifted storyteller.
Following on from their fine release of Campion's
brilliant An Angel at My Table,
Criterion are to release her first theatrical feature,
Sweetie, the story of what happens
when the disturbed and self-entered title character
returns to the family fold, a move that has a considerable
effect on her more withdrawn sister Kay. While perhaps
not as fully realised as An Angel at My
Table, this is nevertheless a fascinating
first film that boasts an eye-catching performance
from Geneviève Lemon as Sweetie (her next
acting gig was to be two years as Brenda Riley in
Neighbours).
What's
on the disc? You may well ask:
- New,
restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised
by
director of photography Sally Bongers and approved
by
director Jane Campion;
- New
Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack Audio commentary
featuring Campion and Bongers and screenwriter
Gerard Lee;
- Making
Sweetie, a new video interview featuring
stars
Genevieve Lemon and Karen Colston;
- Campion’s
early short films: An Exercise in Discipline:
Peel;
Passionless Moments; and A Girl’s
Own Story;
- Jane
Campion: The Film School Years, a 1989 conversation
between Campion and critic Peter Thompson;
- Gallery
of behind-the-scenes photos and production stills;
- Original
theatrical trailer;
- Optional
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing;
- A
new essay by film scholar Dana Polan.
For
those who have not seen them, the disc is worth
getting alone for the inclusion of Campion's short
films Passionless Moments and Peel,
both of which are superb. Anyway, you'll be able
to see for yourself in October (exact date to be
confirmed), and providing you have the requisite
$39.95.
26
July 2006
Clean,
Shaven from Criterion in October
Lodge
Kerrigan's 1994 debut film as director, writer and
producer is regarded by many of one of the best
and most sympathetic portrayals of schizophrenia
on film. The story revolves around Peter Winter,
a paranoid schizophrenic suffering from continuous
auditory hallucinations, who is prematurely freed
from hospital, who sets off in search of his daughter,
who has begun a new life with adoptive parents.
It's a compelling piece that deserves to be far
more widely seen than it has been, although a sequence
in which Peter believes there is a bug planted under
his finger nail and takes a knife and... well, you
may have to peer from behind the sofa for that bit.
Previously
available through the sometimes less than wonderful
Fox Lorber, the film has now been picked up by Criterion
have announced the film for a region 1 October release,
and the following features have been confirmed:
- New,
restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised
and
approved by director Lodge Kerrigan;
- Audio
commentary in which Steven Soderbergh interviews
Kerrigan;
- A
Subjective Assault: Lodge Kerrigan's "Clean,
Shaven", a
new video piece written and narrated by critic
Michael
Atkinson exploring the film’s unique subjectivity
and sound
design;
- The
film's original soundtrack (composed by Hahn Rowe)
as
MP3 audio selects and additional downloads from
the film's
final audio mix;
- Trailer;
- Optional
English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing;
- A
new essay by critic Dennis Lim.
Release
date is set for 17th October 2006 at the SRP of
$29.95.
26
July 2006
Brick
2-disc edition in August
Rian
Johnson's micro-budget debut feature has been compared
to Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko
for its originality and hallucinogenic edge, a deconstruction
of film noir storytelling and characters, is set
largely in a modern Californian high school (hardly
the most noir of settings) and already seems to
be building a cult following. Of course, the publicity
surrounding the film has made great play of the
fact that Johnson edited the film on his home computer,
but given that the industry standard Final Cut Pro
runs on even the slowest Mac you can buy, this is
hardly a revelation - just about every editor I've
met edits professional stuff at home or even on
the move (I'm sure Camus could tell us some stories
here).
But
no matter, it's all about the film and the film
is cool. If you haven't caught it yet then Optimum
are about to give you that chance, with their upcoming
2-disc DVD, which is released on UK region 2 on
18th August 2006. The 16:9 anamorphic widescreen
picture and 5.1 sound are complimented by the following
extra features:
- Audio
commentary from director Rian Johnson;
- Deleted
and extended scenes
- UK
exclusive interview with Rian Johnson;
- Nora
Zehetner and Noah Segan auditions;
- Rian
Johnson video diary (UK exclusive);
- Junkyard
Score: the making of the soundtrack featurette
(UK exclusive);
- Costume
design featurette (UK exclusive);
- Chickenscratch
storyboards (UK exclusive);
- The
Pin's Den (music only) (UK exclusive);
- Theatrical
Trailer.
RRP
is £19.99.
26
July 2006
Forbidden
Planet 50th Anniversary Edition in November
A
welcome reminder that Hollywood once made great
movies, great science fiction movies no less, comes
in the shape of a 50th anniversary edition DVD release
for Fred McLeod Wilcox's magnificent Forbidden
Planet. An sf interpretation of Shakespeare's
The Tempest, this long-standing genre favourite
features superb production design, special effects
that still hold up today, one of the first electronic
film scores, monster animation by the Disney team,
one of the best robots the screen has ever seen,
and Leslie Nielson before he became a goon.
The
2-disc set will boast a new anamorphic transfer
constructed from restored film and audio, a remastered
5.1 soundtrack, and the following special features:
- Additional
scenes;
- Lost
Footage (well, it's found footage now);
- Excerpts
from The MGM Parade TV Series;
- The
Invisible Boy, a follow-up feature film starring
Robby the Robot;
- An
episode of The Thin Man TV series starring
Robby, The Robot Client;
- TCM
original Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction,
the 1950s and Us documentary;
- Newly
produced Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches
of Forbidden Planet documentary;
- Robby
the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon documentary;
- Science-fiction
movie trailer gallery.
The
2-disc edition will be released on 14th November
2006 by Warner Brothers at the SRP of $59.92. Region
1 only at present, but keep watching the skies.
24
July 2006
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