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The Brothers Quay short film collection
| The Ball in the Hall | Irréversible
CE | Don't Look Now SE
| The Wind That Shakes the Barley
| Yojimbo and Sanjuro remastered
| The Comedy Western Collection
The
Brothers Quay short film collection in November
26 October 2006
Two
of the masters of dark, surrealistic animation,
Stephen and Timothy Quay (more widely known as
The Brothers Quay), have been making mind-bendingly
gorgeous animated shorts for over 20 years, and
only recently graduated to features with the mesmerising
Institute Benjamenta (1995) and
The
Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005).
Fans will no doubt already have Kino Video's US
release, The Brothers Quay Collection,
which contained 10 of their best works, but now
BFI Video look set to seriously top that with
a 2-disk release entitled The Quay Brothers
Short Films 1979-2003 that showcases
13 of their films, all restored and remastered
under the supervision of the Quays themselves,
together with some very interesting extra features.
The contents are as follows:
Disc
1 - The Films
- The
Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1984)
-
This Unnameable Little Broom
(1985) (with Brothers Quay commentary)
- Street
of Crocodiles (1986) (with Brothers
Quay commentary)
- Rehearsals
for Extinct Anatomies (1987)
- Dramolet
(Stille Nacht I) (1988) (with Brothers
Quay commentary)
- The
Comb (1990)
- Anamorphosis
(1991)
- Are
We Still Married? (Still Nacht II)
(1992) Alternative versions (with Brothers Quay
commentary)
- Tales
from the Vienna Woods (Still Nacht III)
(1993) (with Brothers Quay commentary)
- Can't
Go Wrong Without You (Still Nacht IV)
(1994)
- In
Absentia (2000) (with Brothers Quay
commentary)
- The
Phantom Museum (2003)
Disk
2 - Footnotes
- Introduction
by the Quay Brothers
- Nocturnia
Artificiala (1979 - the Quay's first
puppet film)
- The
Calligrapher (1991)
- The
Summit (1991)
- Archive
Interview (2000)
- Extract
from peter Greenaway's The Falls
(1980), featuring a brief acting appearance
by the Quays
- BFI
ident
Unlike
the Kino disc, the widescreen films in the collection
have all been anamorphically enhanced, although
the majority are 4:3. Previously we suggested
that there were a couple of the films missing
from this collection that were on the Kino disc,
something we have been rightly corrected on. This
is as definitive a collection as you can expect,
so start salivating now.
Release
date is set for 13th November at the RRP of £24.99.
The
Ball in the Hall in December
26 October 2006
Amnesty
International's Secret Policeman's Ball concerts
have gone down in entertainment history for the
sheer volume of talent they bring together. Well
this year it's back with its usual blend of music,
performance and quick-fire comedy, and on 31st
october Channel Four will be broadcasting an edited
version of the show. A week later a much longer
version (125 mins) with a number of extras will
be released on region 2 DVD by Warner Vision International.
The
stars this year include Al Murray, Andrew Maxwell,
Chevy Chase, Dylan Moran. Eddie Izzard. Graham
Norton. Green Wing. Jeremy Irons. Jessica Stevenson.
Jimmy Fallon.Jon Culshaw. Natalie Imbruglia, Omid
Djalili, Richard E Grant, Ronni Acona, Russell
Brand, Sarah Silverman, Seth Green, The Magic
Number, The Mighty Boosh, and The Zuton. DVD exclusive
extras include:
- Footage
not seen on TV;
- Exclusive
animations;
- Celebrity
photo gallery;
- Classics
clips;
- Amnesty
extras.
Release
date is 4th December at the RRP of £17.99.
Irréversible
Collector's Edition in December
26 October 2006
Gasper
Noé's reverse-structured drama is the very
personification of the term 'controversial, opening
with a vicious beating and ending with an almost
unwatchable rape (as it should be), and has found
as many vocal detractors as it has admirers, and
even prompted a sizeable, opposing opinion debate
in the pages of Sight & Sound. Already available
in an extras-free edition in the UK and with a
Gasper Noé commentary in the US, this new
Collector's Edition from Tartan looks set to top
them both. The anamorphioc transfer and Dolby
Digital 2.0 stereo, 5.1 and DTS surround tracks
are joined by the following:
- Audio
commentary by director Gasper Noé and
stars Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel;
- Gasper
Noe's short film Intoxication;
- Special
effects featurette, Le Rectum;
- Stress
and
Outrage, two videos by Thomas Bangalter
of Daft Punk;
- Teaser
trailers.
Release
date is set for 4th December 2006 at the RRP of
£19.99. Now, how about Noe's brilliant debut
feature Seul Contre Tous and
the short film that gave rise to it, The
Butcher.
Don't
Look Now Special Edition in November
26 October 2006
No
arguments here, Nic Roeg's Don't Look
Now is simply one of the best horror-tinged
thrillers in cinema history, a brilliantly realised
tale of a couple who lose their young daughter
in an accident, then on a business trip to Venice
encounter two elderly sisters who claim to be
in touch with the girl's spirit. Never has Venice
been so atmospherically creepy, and as for that
ending...
The
previous region 2 DVD from Warner did rather well
on picture but the hissy soundtrack really let
the disc down, and a few extra features would
have been nice, given the film's status, but all
of that could soon be put right by Optimum Home
Entertainment, who have announced a single disc
Special Edition re-release for a November 13th
2006 release. Word is that the picture (anamorphic
widescreen) and sound (Dolby Digital 2.0) have
been remastered (let's hope), and the following
extra features have been confirmed:
- An
introduction by fantasy journalist Alan Jones
(7:12);
- Commentary
by director Nicolas Roeg (yes!);
- Looking
Back
- a making of featurette (19:31);
- Interview
with composer Pino Donnagio (17:36);
- Trailer.
RRP
is set at a reasonable £17.99.
The
Wind That Shakes the Barley in November
21 October 2006
Wiining
Ken Loach his first Palme D'Or after seven near
misses, The Wind That Shakes the Barley
managed to ruffle a few feathers, in its choice
of subject matter - the fate of two brothers who
join the IRA to fight back against the violence
of the occupying British forces in 1920s Ireland
- in its (some might say) one-sided view of events
and in its graphic and bludgeoning violence. But
it's also a powerful and skillfully told tale,
very much in the mould of Loach's superb Land
and Freedom and should be considered
essential viewing for anyone tough enough to cope
with the subject and handling, and demonstrates
that even at the ripe age of 70 Loach is showing
no hint of mellowing.
Pathé
have announced a 2-disc DVD release of the film
for UK region 2 that will include the following
features:
All
of which sounds exciting enough but for the inexplicable
decision by Criterion to once again release the
films as non-anamorphic transfers. This is especially
disappointing given the increasingly large size
of TVs owned by movie enthusiasts, and blowing
up a non-anamorphic NTSC DVD picture to fit the
screen on a 42" plasma means that all the
restoration work in the world effectively goes
to waste. As a result, one of the most anticipated
releases of the year could turn out to be it's
biggest missed opportunity.
UPDATE:
Criterion have updated their announcement and
the news is good. The word "not," which
previously appeared before the word "anamorphic,"
has been dropped from the specifications, confirming
that the transfers will be widescreen enhanced
after all. Time to get very excited again!
Both
discs are set for a January 2007 release at the
SRP of $39.95 each or as part of a Collector's
Box Set, price to be confirmed.
The
Comedy Western Collection in October
7 October 2006
No,
not Blazing Saddles, even if
Mel Brooks' masterpiece is the film most readily
associated with a term like 'comedy western'.
Perhaps a better title for the box set would have
been 'The Comedy Spaghetti Western Collection',
featuring as it does four Italian-made comedy
westerns, all featuring the talents of one of
the actors whose name became synonymous with this
sub-genre, actor Terence Hill.
The
1970 My Name is Trinity (Lo
chiamavano Trinità) is the film
that really introduced western audiences to Hill,
his frequent screen companion Bud Spencer and
the comedy Spaghetti Western genre in general.
It's also very funny. The standard was largely
maintained for the direct sequel, Trinity
is Still My Name (...continuavano
a chiamarlo Trinità 1971), although
there is a sense that the film was banged out
in a hurry to cash in on the widespread success
of the first.
The
1973 My Name is Nobody (Il Mio
nome è Nessuno) has built itself a considerable
cult following over the years, teaming Hill with
the awesome talents of Henry Fonda, so memorable
in Sergio Leone's magnificent Once Upon
a Time in the West. The Leone connection
is not casual, either - he is credited with devising
the original story and is rumoured to have directed
some scenes himself. A similar rumour stalks the
1975 A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe
(Un Genio, due compari, un pollo),
which leone is also said to have co-directed,
though the cult following this time failed to
appear, despite the presence of Patrick McGoohan.
All
four films are to be released as a three-disc
box set on 16th October by Nouveaux Pictures at
the RRP of £39.99. There is no information
yet on the aspect ratios of the films (if it's
not 2.35:1 anamorphic, I for one shall be a little
pissed) or whether the original Italian tracks
are to be included along with the inevitable English
dub.
