Foreign Films - Page 42

Manufacturer: Criterion Collection Brand: CRITERION COLLECTIONS

Manufacturer: Arrow Video

Nikkatsu, the oldest film studio in Japan, inaugurated a star system in the late 1950s, finding talent and contracting to their Diamond Line for a series of wild genre pictures. This collection celebrates these Diamond Guys with three classic films from directors Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill), Toshio Masuda (Rusty Knife) and Buichi Saito (Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril). An old hand at tough guy action roles, Hideaki Nitani (Tokyo Drifter, Massacre Gun) stars in Suzuki's Voice Without a Shadow. Asako, a former telephone operator once heard the voice of a murder suspect which has continued to haunt her. Years later her husband invites his boss, Hamazaki, over for dinner and she realises his voice is suspiciously like that of the killer. Before she can investigate further, Hamazaki is found dead and her husband becomes the prime suspect... Next, 50s subculture icon Yujiro Ishihara (Crazed Fruit) stars in Masuda s Red Pier as Jiro the Lefty , a killer with a natural talent. Shortly after arriving in Kobe, he witnesses a man die in a crane accident which turns out to be a cover-up for a murder. Jiro soon finds himself on the run, tailed by a determined cop... Finally, in Saito s The Rambling Guitarist, mega star Akira Koabyashi (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) stars as wandering street musician Shinji, who falls in with mob boss Akitsu after saving one of his henchmen in a bar fight. Tasked by Akitsu with evicting an offshore fishery, Shinji finds himself in the middle of a very unusual domestic dispute... Presented on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time in the West, these thrilling genre films feature Nikkatsu s leading talent at their best. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: Limited Edition Blu-ray collection (3000 copies) High Definition digital transfers of all three films, from original film elements by Nikkatsu Corporation High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation Original uncompressed mono audio Newly translated English subtitles Specially recorded video discussions with Japa...

Manufacturer: Kino Lorber

A rare science fiction film made in National Socialist Germany, Karl Hartl's GOLD is a high-tech thriller dramatizing the ongoing war between scientific progress and corporate greed (resurrecting some of the themes and spectacle of Fritz Lang's Metropolis). Hans Albers stars as Professor Holk, an idealistic scientist developing the process of atomic fracturing, constructing an enormous electrical device to transform common lead into gold. When the operation is sabotaged by corporate rivals, resulting in the death of Holk's mentor (Friedrich Kayssler), Holk must accept the backing of a ruthless English businessman, John Wills (Michael Bohnen), whose interest in atomic fracturing is purely economic. Though he makes a deal with the devil, in order to continue his research, Holk recognizes it as a golden opportunity not for a paycheck, but for payback and plots to destroy Wills's titanic gold-making machinery. While Holk enacts his revenge, he captures the interest of the millionaire's rebellious daughter (Brigitte Helm, Metropolis), who is enthralled by the scientist's vision and integrity. GOLD is not only a handsomely-produced drama of corporate espionage, it also reveals the ways in which English and American culture was subtly condemned in films made under the Third Reich.

Manufacturer: Criterion Brand: Image Entertainment

Over the past four decades, Belgian director Chantal Akerman (Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles) has created one of cinema's most distinctive bodies of workformally daring, often autobiographical films about people and places, time and space. In this collection, we present the early films that put her on the map: intensely personal, modernist investigations of cities, history, family, and sexuality, made in the 1970s in the United States and Europe and strongly influenced by the New York experimental film scene. Bold and iconoclastic, these five films pushed boundaries in their day and continue to have a profound influence on filmmakers all over the world.

Manufacturer: Redemption

In the early 1970s, cult filmmaker Jess Franco inspired by the Hammer horror films being made in the UK revisited the iconic monsters of yesteryear, placing them in the castles and crypts of the Spanish countryside, and bracketing the thrills with scenes of frank eroticism. Daughter of Dracula was inspired by Sheridan LeFanu s Carmilla (which was also the source of Hammer s lesbian vampire trilogy), but as one might expect, Franco s version was unlike any treatment the story had yet received. When the nude body of a murdered woman washes onto the beach, a police inspector (Alberto Dalbés) and a reporter (Fernando Bilbao) focus their attention on the castle of Count Max Karlstein (composer Daniel White) and his niece (Britt Nichols, The Demons), a beautiful woman who appears to be wrestling with an ancestral curse.Bonus Features: English Subtitles, Audio commentary by film historian Tim Lucas, Alternate safe footage (less sexually explicit), Original heatrical trailer

Manufacturer: Criterion Collection (Direct)

Remembered primarily for directing the classic crime drama Pépé le moko, Julien Duvivier was one of the finest filmmakers working in France in the 1930s. He made the transition from silents to talkies with ease, thanks to a formidable innate understanding of the cinematic medium, and he married his expressive camera work to a strikingly inventive use of sound with a singular dexterity. His deeply shadowed, fatalistic early sound films David Golder and La tête d’un homme anticipate the poetic realist style that would come to define the decade in French cinema, while the small-town family drama Poil de Carotte and the swooning tale of love and illusion Un carnet de bal showcase his stunning versatility. These four films—all featuring the great stage turned screen actor Harry Baur—are collected here, each evidence of an immense and often overlooked cinematic talent. FOUR-DVD BOX SET INCLUDES: DAVID GOLDER The first sound film by Julien Duvivier also marked his first collaboration with the marvelous actor Harry Baur. Together, they brought to life the vivid protagonist of Irène Némirovsky’s best-selling first novel, an avaricious, self-interested banker whose family life is as tempestuous as his business dealings. Directed with visual panache, this grim yet arresting tale showcases Duvivier’s preternatural cinematic maturity during a transitional phase for the French film industry. POIL DE CAROTTE Julien Duvivier remade his own silent adaptation of a popular turn-of-the-twentieth-century novella for the sound era, resulting in one of his most beloved films. In a tremendously moving performance, Robert Lynen plays the neglected young François, mockingly called Poil de Carotte (“Carrottop”) by his family for his mop of red hair. Duvivier sensitively charts the rural daily life of a boy desperate to connect with others, especially his distracted father, played by the chameleonic Harry Baur. LA TÊTE D’UN HOMME ...

Manufacturer: Criterion Collection (Direct) Brand: CRITERION COLLECTIONS Model: 35167925

A poor man and his son search Rome for the stolen bicycle he needs to go to work.

Manufacturer: Oscilloscope Laboratories Model: 35357488

THE STORY OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN KARAMAKATE, AN AMAZONIAN SHAMAN AND LAST SURVIVOR OF HIS PEOPLE, AND TWO SCIENTISTS WHO WORK TOGETHER OVER THE COURSE OF 40 YEARS TO SEARCH THE AMAZON FOR A SACRED HEALING PLANT.