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Ronald Epstein
Owner
Join Date: Jul 1997
Local Time: 09:02 AM
Local Date: 09-07-2008
Posts: 23,157
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Criterion/Eclipse Press Release: August 2008 Titles
BRAND UPON THE BRAIN
In the weird and wonderful super-cinematic world of Canadian cult filmmaker Guy Maddin, personal memory collides with movie lore for a radical sensory overload. This eerie excursion into the gothic recesses of Maddin’s mad, imaginary childhood is a silent, black-and-white comic science-fiction nightmare set in a lighthouse on grim Notch Island, where fictional protagonist Guy Maddin was raised by an ironfisted, puritanical mother. Originally mounted as a theatrical event (accompanied by live orchestra, foley artists, and assorted narrators), Brand upon the Brain! is an irreverent, delirious trip into the mind of one of current cinema’s true eccentrics.
Info
• Directed by Guy Maddin (Tales from the Gimli Hospital, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary, The Saddest Music in the World)
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Optional narration tracks by Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Crispin Glover, Guy Maddin, Louis Negrin, and Eli Wallach
• The Making of “Brand upon the Brain!”, a new documentary featuring interviews with the director and crew members
• Two new short films directed by Maddin: It’s My Mother’s Birthday Today and Footsteps
• Deleted scene
• Trailer
• PLUS: A new essay by film critic Dennis Lim
Title: Brand upon the Brain!
CAT: CC1761D
UPC: 7-15515-03112-7
ISBN: 978-1-60465-055-6
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 7/8/08
Street date: 8/12/08
THE SMALL BACK ROOM
After the lavish Technicolor spectacle of The Red Shoes, British filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger retreated into the inward, shadowy recesses of this moody, crackling character study. Based on the acclaimed novel by Nigel Balchin, The Small Back Room details the professional and personal travails of troubled, alcoholic research scientist and military bomb-disposal expert Sammy Rice (David Farrar), who, while struggling with a complex relationship with secretary-girlfriend Susan (Kathleen Byron), is hired by the government to advise on a dangerous new German weapon. Frank and intimate, deftly mixing suspense and romance, The Small Back Room is an atmospheric, post–World War II gem.
Info
• Directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus)
• Starring Cyril Cusack (Odd Man Out, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, My Left Foot)
• Starring Jack Hawkins (The Fallen Idol, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Ben-Hur)
• Starring Michael Gough (Richard III, The Horse’s Mouth, Batman)
• Cinematography by Chris Challis (The Tales of Hoffmann, A Shot in the Dark, Two for the Road)
SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Audio commentary featuring film scholar Charles Barr
• New video interview with cinematographer Chris Challis
• Excerpts from Michael Powell’s audio dictations for his autobiography
• PLUS: A new essay by film scholar Nick James
Title: The Small Back Room
CAT: CC1762D
UPC: 7-15515-03122-6
ISBN: 978-1-60465-056-3
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 7/15/08
Street date: 8/19/08
TWENTY-FOUR EYES
Keisuke Kinoshita’s Twenty-Four Eyes (Nijushi no hitomi) is an elegant, emotional chronicle of a teacher’s unwavering commitment to her students, her profession, and her sense of morality. Set in a remote, rural island community and spanning decades of Japanese history, from 1928 through World War II and beyond, Kinoshita’s film takes a simultaneously sober and sentimental look at the epic themes of aging, war, and death, all from the lovingly intimate perspective of Hisako Oshi (Hideko Takamine), as she watches her pupils grow and deal with life’s harsh realities. Though little known in the United States, Twenty-Four Eyes is one of Japan’s most popular and enduring classics.
Info
• Directed by Keisuke Kinoshita (Ghost of Yotsuya, The Ballad of Narayama)
• Starring Hideko Takamine (The Munekata Sisters, Floating Clouds, When a Woman Ascends the Stairs)
• Co-starring Chishu Ryu (Late Spring, Tokyo Story, Good Morning)
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Television interview with director Keisuke Kinoshita
• New video interview with Japanese cinema historian and critic Tadao Sato about the film and its director
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay be renowned film scholar Audie Bock and excerpts from an interview with Kinoshita
Title: Twenty-Four Eyes
CAT: CC1763D
UPC: 7-15515-03132-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-057-0
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 7/15/08
Street date: 8/19/08
SALÒ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s notorious final film, Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, has been called nauseating, shocking, depraved, pornographic . . . it’s also a masterpiece. The controversial poet, novelist, and filmmaker’s transposition of the Marquis de Sade’s 18th-century opus of torture and degradation to 1944 Fascist Italy remains one of the most passionately debated films of all time, a thought-provoking inquiry into the political, social, and sexual dynamics that define the world we live in.
Info
• Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini (Mamma Roma, The Gospel According to St Matthew, The Decameron)
• Music by Ennio Morricone (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Days of Heaven; The Mission)
• Cinematography by Tonino Delli Colli (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly; Once Upon a Time in America; Life Is Beautiful)
• Art direction by Dante Ferreti (The Age of Innocence, Interview with the Vampire, Sweeney Todd)
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• The End of Salò, a 40-minute documentary about the film’s final scene
• Salò: Yesterday and Today, a 35-minute documentary featuring interviews with Pier Paolo Pasolini, actor-filmmaker Jean-Claude Biette, and Pasolini’s friend Nineto Davoli
• New interviews with set designer Dante Ferretti and filmmaker/film scholar Jean-Pierre Gorin
• Optional English-dubbed soundtrack
• Theatrical trailer
• Optional English subtitles
• PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by Neil Bartlett, Roberto Chiesi, Naomi Greene, Gary Indiana, and Sam Rohdie, and excerpts from Gideon Bachman’s on-set diary
• More!
Title: Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom
CAT: CC1764D
UPC: 7-15515-03102-8
ISBN: 978-1-60465-054-9
SRP: $39.95
Prebook: 7/22/08
Street date: 8/26/08
ECLIPSE SERIES 11: LARISA SHEPITKO
The career of Larisa Shepitko, an icon of sixties and seventies Soviet cinema, was tragically cut short when she was killed in a car crash at age thirty-nine, just as she was emerging on the international scene. The body of work she left behind, though small, is masterful, and her genius for visually evoking characters’ interior worlds is never more striking than in her two greatest works: Wings, an intimate yet exhilarating portrait of a female fighter pilot turned provincial headmistress, and The Ascent, a gripping, tragic World War II parable of betrayal and martyrdom. A true artist, who had deftly used the Soviet film industry to make statements both personal and universal, Shepitko remains one of the greatest unsung filmmakers of all time.
TWO-DISC BOX SET INCLUDES:
Wings (1966)
For her first feature after graduating from the State Institute for Cinematography (VGIK), Larisa Shepitko trained her lens on the fascinating, beloved Russian character actress Maya Bulgakova, giving a marvelous performance as a once heroic Russian bomber pilot now living in quiet, disappointingly ordinary life as a school principal. Subtly portraying one woman’s desperation with elegant, spare camerawork and casual, fluid storytelling, Shepitko with Wings announced herself as an important new voice in Soviet cinema.
The Ascent (1977)
Shepitko’s emotionally overwhelming final film won the Golden Bear at the 1977 Berlin Film Festival and has been hailed around the world as the finest Soviet film of its decade. Set during the darkest days of World War II, The Ascent follows the path of two peasant soldiers, cut off from their troop, who trudge through the snowy backwoods of Belarus evading the Nazis and seeking refuge from villagers. Their harrowing trek leads them on a journey of betrayal, heroism, and ultimate transcendence.
Title: Eclipse series 11: Larisa Shepitko
CAT: ECL049
UPC: 7-15515-03062-5
ISBN: 978-1-60465-048-8
SRP: $29.95
Prebook: 7/8/08
Street date: 8/12/08
ATTN CANADA: BRAND ON THE BRAIN AND TWENTY-FOUR EYES ARE AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING CANADA ONLY. SALÒ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM AND ECLIPSE SERIES 11: LARISA SHEPITKO ARE AVAILABLE IN ALL CANADA. THE SMALL BACK ROOM IS AVAILABLE IN US ONLY.
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