The Breakfast Club

release date: 23rd January 2023

 

What happens when five strangers end up together in Saturday detention? Badass posturing, gleeful misbehavior, and a potent dose of angst. With this exuberant, disarmingly candid film, writer-director John Hughes established himself as the bard of American youth, vividly and empathetically capturing how teenagers hang out, act up, and goof off. The Breakfast Club brings together an assortment of adolescent archetypes—the uptight popular girl (Molly Ringwald), the stoic jock (Emilio Estevez), the foulmouthed rebel (Judd Nelson), the virginal bookworm (Anthony Michael Hall), and the kooky recluse (Ally Sheedy)—and watches them shed their personae and emerge into unlikely friendships. With its highly quotable dialogue and star-making performances, this exploration of the trials of adolescence became an era-defining pop-culture phenomenon, one whose influence now spans generations.

 

• 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray

• Alternate 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray

• Audio commentary from 2008 featuring actors Anthony Michael Hall and Judd Nelson

• New interviews with actors Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy

• New video essay featuring director John Hughes’s production notes, read by Nelson

• Documentary from 2008 featuring interviews with cast and crew

• Fifty minutes of never-before-seen deleted and extended scenes

• Rare promotional and archival interviews

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The Juniper Tree

release date: 23rd January 2023

 

An unsung talent in her lifetime, director, professor and Fulbright scholar Nietzchka Keene’s stark, stunning debut feature The Juniper Tree is loosely based on a Brothers Grimm fairy tale of the same name, and stars Björk in her first feature film performance. Set in medieval Iceland, The Juniper Tree follows Margit (Björk) and her older sister Katla (Bryndis Petra Bragadottir) as they flee for safety after their mother is burned to death for witchcraft. Finding shelter and protection with Johan (Valdimar Orn Flygenring.), and his resentful young son, Jonas (Geirlaug Sunna Thormar), the sisters help form an impromptu family unit that’s soon strained by Katla’s burgeoning sorcery. Photographed entirely on location in the stunning landscapes of Iceland in spectacular black-and-white by Randy Sellars, The Juniper Tree is a deeply atmospheric film, evocative of Carl Theodor Dreyer’s Day of Wrath and Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring, and filled with indelible waking dream sequences (courtesy of legendary experimental filmmaker Pat O’Neill). A potent allegory for misogyny and its attendant tragedies, The Juniper Tree is a major rediscovery for art house audiences.

 

• Restored in 4K and presented in High Definition

• New feature commentary by Icelandic cultural scholar Dr Guðrún D Whitehead

• Still (1978, 4 mins), Hinterland (1981, 25 mins), Aves (1998, 7 mins): three remastered short films by Nietzchka Keene

• Video interview with cinematographer Randy Sellars (2019, 29 mins)

• Archival video interview with Nietzchka Keene (2002, 15 mins)

• Outtakes from The Juniper Tree (5 mins)

• The Witch’s Fiddle (1924, 7 mins): a British folk rarity from the BFI National Archive

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The Dunwich Horror

release date: 9th January 2023

 

Riding high on their successful adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe, Roger Corman and American International Pictures took on that other titan of literary terror, H.P Lovecraft, in The Dunwich Horror!  Dean Stockwell stars as Wilbur Whateley, a mysterious young man who travels from the small town of Dunwich to the library of the Miskatonic University which holds one of the only copies of the Necronomicon, a legendary book of occult lore that Wilbur hopes to borrow. Graduate student Nancy Wagner (Sandra Dee) falls under his malign influence and travels with him back to his home where Wilbur has plans to use her in a ritual to raise ‘The Old Ones’, cosmic beings from another dimension. But who, or what, is in the locked room at the top of the stairs? And what will happen if they get out?  Directed by Daniel Haller, genius art director of numerous Corman classics, this was also the first screenwriting credit for Curtis Hanson, who would later direct the multi award-winning L.A. Confidential. Newly restored by Arrow Films from the original 35mm camera negative, The Dunwich Horror is among the most successful Lovecraft adaptations ever committed to film, and it has never looked better. 

 

• New 2K restoration by Arrow Films from the original camera negative 

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation 

• Original lossless mono audio 

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 

• New audio commentary by Guy Adams and Alexandra Benedict, creators of the audio drama Arkham County 

• The Door into Dunwich, a new conversation between film historian Stephen R. Bissette and horror author Stephen Laws in which they discuss The Dunwich Horror, Lovecraft, and their memories of seeing the film on release 

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The Lukas Moodysson Collection

release date: 30th January 2023

 

Ever since his debut was heralded as “a young master’s first masterpiece” by none other than Ingmar Bergman, director Lukas Moodysson has been hailed internationally as one of Sweden’s greatest filmmaking talents, delighting and confounding audiences in equal measure. Available together for the first time, Moodysson’s eclectic filmography can now be appreciated as the work of a singular filmmaking voice, as avowedly uncompromising and unabashedly political as it is keenly observed, deeply felt and frequently hilarious.

 

• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentations of all seven films

• Original DTS-HD MA 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo mixes for all seven films

• Optional English subtitles for all films, plus English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing on Mammoth and the English version of Container

•  New video interviews with Lukas Moodysson and other cast and crew, moderated by film programmer Sarah Lutton

•  200-page hardback book featuring new writing by Peter Walsh, excerpts from the original press kits for each film, including interviews with and directors’ statements from Moodysson, and essays on his films from a 2014 special issue of the Nordic culture journal Scandinavica by C. Claire Thomson, Helga H. Lúthersdóttir, Elina Nilsson, Scott MacKenzie & Anna Westerståhl Stenport and Kjerstin Moody

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Big Time Gambling Boss

release date: 2nd January 2023

 

Tokyo, 1934. Gang boss Arakawa is too ill and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead. But Matsuda is in jail and the elders won’t wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honour and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in an increasingly violent internal strife. An atmospheric tale of gangland intrigue written by Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) and starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, (Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy) and genre legend Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss is one of the all-time classics of the yakuza genre. Paul Schrader called it the richest and most complex film of its type, while novelist Yukio Mishima hailed it as a masterpiece. Radiance Films is proud to present this crucial re-discovery for the first time ever on Blu-ray.

 

• High Definition digital transfer of the film

• Uncompressed mono PCM audio

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by maarko phntm

• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by author Stuart Galbraith IV, and critic Hayley Scanlon

• Ninkyo 101: In this video essay, Mark Schilling, author of The Yakuza Movie Book, delves into the history and impact of the classical style of yakuza film, the ninkyo eiga or “chivalry films” (2022)

• Gallery of original promotional stills

 

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The Working Class Goes to Heaven

release date: 2nd January 2023

 

Gian Maria Volonté (A Fistful of Dollars), stars in one of provocative filmmaker Elio (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion) Petri’s most politically charged films as factory worker Lulu: a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Too tired to sleep with his girlfriend, cut out of his son’s life by his ex, humiliated and disrespected, Lulu turns revolutionary following an accident at work. The Working Class Goes to Heaven is an oftentimes surreal and darkly comic look at the life of an everyday Italian trying to find a sense of purpose in a world where he is only allowed to be a tool for industry. A savage takedown of capitalism and industrial corruption, the film was recipient of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and features a gloriously unhinged, award-winning performance from Volonté, accompanied by an exceptional score by Ennio Morricone and stunning cinematography by Luigi Kuveiller (Deep Red).

 

• 2K restoration of the film

• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio

• New and improved English subtitle translation

• Archival interview with Elio Petri from the Cannes Film Festival

• Career-encompassing archival interview with Gian Maria Volonté from French TV

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Eugenio Renzi, Elio Petri Investigation of a Filmmaker author Roberto Curti on Petri and Volonté’s collaborations and relationship, archival writing and reviews to be confirmed 

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Villa Rides

release date: 16th January 2023

 

Pulled into the Mexican Revolution by his own greed, Texas gunrunner & pilot Lee Arnold joins bandit-turned-patriot Pancho Villa and his band of dedicated men in a march across Mexico battling the Colorado’s and stealing women’s hearts as they go. But each has a nemesis among his friends: Arnold is tormented by Fierro, Villa’s right-hand-man; and Villa must face possible betrayal by his own president’s naiveté.

 

• High-Definition Transfer

• UK Blu-ray™ Premiere

• Optional English SDH Subtitles

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Snake and Crane: Arts of Shaolin

release date: 16th January 2023

 

Released in 1978, the madcap mayhem of SNAKE & CRANE ARTS OF SHAOLIN was a surefire sign to audiences that its young star Jackie Chan was soon to be even more famous than the man who paved the way for the modern martial arts genre – Mr. Bruce Lee! An international box office success, this all-time classic is one of Chan’s most beloved masterworks and it is easy to see why. The fights come thick and fast in this relentless tale of a young kung-fu student with a very unique style – which attracts a series of curious competitors! Helmed by the great Chen Chi Hwa, who also oversaw the Chan classic SHAOLIN WOODEN MEN (1976), 88 Films is proud to present SNAKE & CRANE ARTS OF SHAOLIN in glorious HD thanks to a brand new 2K restoration.

 

• Hardcase featuring new artwork by Robert “Kung Fu Bob” O’Brien

• Double-Sided Foldout Poster featuring new artwork and original Hong Kong poster

• 6 Replica Hong Kong Lobby Cards

• 80-page perfect-bound book with new writing by Matthew Edwards and Andrew Heskins, plus rare archive stills and posters

• Stunning New 2K Transfer from the Original Film Negative

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation

• Newly remastered English subtitles

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The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

release date: 30th January 2023

 

The boundless imagination of Terry Gilliam yields a dazzling fantasy of epic proportions. Inspired by the extravagant exploits of the fabled Baron Munchausen, this spectacle—born of a famously turbulent production—follows the whimsical eighteenth-century nobleman (John Neville) as he embarks on an outlandish quest that takes him from faraway lands to the moon to the belly of a sea monster and beyond, meanwhile waging battle against a vengeful sultan and the tyranny of logic. Packed frame to frame with special effects, mischievous wit, and colorful performances—including a young Sarah Polley as the Baron’s no-nonsense sidekick—the Oscar-nominated The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a lavish celebration of the triumph of make-believe over reality.

 

• New 4K digital restoration, approved by writer-director Terry Gilliam, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack

• Audio commentary featuring Gilliam and his coscreenwriter, Charles McKeown

• Documentary on the making of the film

• New video essay by critic and filmmaker David Cairns about the history of the Baron Munchausen character

• Behind-the-scenes footage of the film’s special effects, narrated by Gilliam

• Deleted scenes with commentary by Gilliam

• Storyboards for unfilmed scenes, narrated by Gilliam and McKeown

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Houdini

release date: 30th January 2023

 

While working as a Coney Island entertainer, Harry Houdini meets and falls madly in love with Bess. The two quickly marry, and with her at his side, the magician begins his rise to fame as the world’s greatest escape artist and magician. But as the escapes get more and more dangerous, Bess worries that Harry may be taking his act too far. This biographical look at the life of Houdini takes several liberties with the facts, including how the magician died.

 

• High-Definition Transfer

• UK Blu-ray™ Premiere

• Optional English SDH Subtitles

• Still Gallery

 

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