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Radiance Films

We’ve got another 2 for £22 multibuy offer on Radiance Films Blu-ray – many of these titles are included in the deal for the very first time!
Ends closing time Sunday 14th September
radiance films, created by and for cinephiles, is dedicated to celebrating cinema through meticulously curated releases that cater to serious film lovers, offering deep insight into both well-known and obscure titles. focusing on high-quality editions of classic, cult, and international films, the label has quickly gained recognition for its limited-edition blu-ray releases, often featuring the distinctive radiance obi strip – a hallmark that has become iconic in the label’s brief existence.

suzhou river

 

A videographer narrates the story of Mardar, a small-time crook who delivers packages without asking questions, until he is tasked with delivering Moudan, the daughter of a shady smuggler. After a failed kidnapping attempt sees Moudan disappear and Mardar imprisoned, Mardar returns to the Suzhou River to look for Moudan. Instead, he discovers Meimei, a woman who looks identical to his long-lost love, and also happens to be the subject of our videographer narrator’s obsession.  Set within the murky wastelands of Shanghai, Lou Ye’s award-winning re-tooling of Hitchcock’s Vertigo is a visual treat that features the kinetic style of Wong Kar-wai’s Chungking Express. A unique take on the neo-noir genre, Suzhou River is newly restored in 4K and made available on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.
 
  • 4K restoration of the film from the original negative
  • 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Newly filmed interview with critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024, 33 mins)
  • In Shanghai – a short film documentary portrait by Lou of his home city (2001, 16 mins) 
  • Original trailer
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

Planet of the Vampires

 

In the outer reaches of deep space, the spaceship Galliott answers a distress signal from Aura, an unexplored planet. As the ship attempts to land, members of the crew inexplicably begin to attack one another. This is the start of a terrifying expedition into the unknown, one plagued by paranoia, possession and violent mayhem wrought upon the unsuspecting explorers by the planet’s mysterious inhabitants. A sci-fi horror hybrid from genre master Mario Bava (Blood and Black Lace), Planet of the Vampires is widely regarded as one of the most influential genre films ever made, with a clear influence on films such as Alien and Pitch Black. With a uniquely chilly atmosphere and fantastic production design that belies its low budget origins, Planet of the Vampires is a true genre classic.

 

  • Booklet
  • Bonus Footage
  • Commentary by Tim Lucas (author)
  • Trailer commentaries by Joe Dante and Josh Olson
  • Documentary feature on Planet of the Vampires, Mario Bava, and the connection between gothic and science fiction
  • Image Gallery
  • Interview with Lamberto Bava
  • Reversible sleeve
  • Italian version (90 min) and English version (88 min) included
  • Super 8 version
  • Trailers

O-Bi O-Ba: The End of Civilization

 

The survivors of a claustrophobic, subterranean world in ruins are pacified by Soft (Jerzy Stuhr, Camera Buff), who engineers a mass collective dream of escape through means of a mythical vessel, The Ark… A dark vision existing somewhere between Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker and John Carpenter’s Escape from New York, Piotr Szulkin’s O-Bi, O-Ba: The End of Civilization is one of the great dystopian films. Masquerading as both works of science fiction and horror, Szulkin’s satirical, surrealistic apocalypse-themed films are Polish cinema’s best-kept secret. 

 

  • 2K restoration supervised by Piotr Szulkin, cinematographer Witold Sobociński and sound engineer Nikodem Wołk-Łaniewski
  • On Blu-ray for the first time in the UK
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Audio commentary by Michael Brooke (2023)
  • Retrofuturism – interview featurette with production designer Andrzej Kowalczyk on creating the world of O-Bi, O-Ba (2023)
  • Cages – Miroslav Kijowicz’s award-winning short film about a guard and a prisoner, freedom and captivity (1967, 8 mins)
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork

viva la muerte!

 

As the Spanish Civil War draws to a close, Fando, a young boy, is tormented by violently conflicting feelings towards his mother, who he suspects may have had a role in his father’s capture by fascists; feelings that manifest themselves as a nightmare onslaught of terrifying and bizarre imagery. Based on Fernando Arrabal’s own brutal experiences during the Civil War, Viva la muerte is a shockingly provocative work of surrealist cinema from the artist and filmmaker, who co-founded the ‘Panic Movement’ collective alongside Alejandro Jodorowsky. Acclaimed on release by critics and scorned by censors, Viva la muerte would later achieve notoriety as a midnight movie, and was a favourite film of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Restored in 4K with the collaboration of Fernando Arrabal, Radiance is proud to present Viva la muerte on English-subtitled Blu-ray for the first time ever. 

 

  • New 4K restoration of the original 35mm negative by the Cinémathèque Toulouse in collaboration with Fernando Arrabal
  • Audio discussion from the Project Booth podcast featuring Mike White, Heather Drain and Jess Byard (66 mins)
  • Sur les traces de Baal – short documentary by Abdellatif Ben Ammar capturing Arrabal at work on Viva la Muerte! (1970, 20 mins)
  • VIDARRABAL – feature-length documentary on Arrabal by Xavier Pasturel Barron (2011, 98 mins)
  • Interview with scholar and Spanish cinema expert David Archibald (2024)
  • Trailer
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
  • Booklet featuring new writing by Sabina Stent and archival interview with Fernando Arrabal
  • Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

welcome to the dollhouse

 

Junior high school student Dawn “Wiener-dog” Wiener is perpetually teased by her classmates and tormented by the school bully, Brandon. All she wants is to be popular and that would certainly help her emerging crush on the lead of her brother’s garage band. Todd (Happiness) Solondz’s celebrated coming-of-age comedy won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and young star Heather Matarazzo was awarded Best Debut Performance at the prestigious Independent Spirit Awards. Perfectly capturing the growing pains of youth and suburbia with startling intensity, Welcome to the Dollhouse was widely praised on release with Janet Maslin of the New York Times describing it as a “mordantly hilarious suburban comedy – excruciatingly funny.” 

 

  • High Definition digital transfer of the film with uncompressed original stereo audio, approved by director Todd Solondz
  • Uncompressed stereo PCM audio
  • Interviews with Solondz and star Heather Matarazzo (2022)
  • Todd Solondz’s Suburban Nightmare: A visual essay by critic and author Hannah Strong on the film and its place within Solondz’s work
  • Audio commentary by BJ and Harmony Colangelo of the This Ends at Prom podcast
  • Trailer
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

tattooed life

 

Tetsuo (Hideki Takahashi, Fighting Elegy), a low-level yakuza is double-crossed by his boss and attacked. His younger brother Kenji (Kotobuki Hananomoto, This Transient Life), an aspiring artist with no connections to crime, comes to his aid and kills Tetsuo’s assailant. Fearing repercussions from the yakuza they flee to Manchuria where they risk coming under suspicion of rival gangs. Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill) remains loyal to the conventions of the yakuza film, but Tattooed Life contains flashes of his later creative genius, including a final act of explosive visual excess that has become one of the director’s all-time classic scenes.
 
  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Audio commentary by William Carroll, author of Seijun Suzuki and Postwar Cinema (2024)
  • Newly edited archival interview with Seijun Suzuki (2006, 10 mins)
  • Newly edited archival interview with art director Takeo Kimura (2006, 12 mins)
  • Trailer
  • Newly improved English subtitle translation
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
  • Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Tom Vick and a newly translated archival review of the film
  • Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

a woman kills

 

A series of prostitute murders disturb the public with the thought of a serial killer on the loose. Helene Picard, a prostitute, is sentenced and executed for the murders, but shortly thereafter similar crimes continue. Executioner Louis Guilbot meanwhile develops a relationship with the investigating officer, Solange, who soon learns Louis may not be who he says he is. Filmed in the tumultuous events of May 1968, Jean-Denis Bonan’s A Woman Kills never found distribution due to controversy around the director’s first film and producer Anatole Dauman (The Beast, Hiroshima mon amour) was unable to find distribution for the film for 45 years until Luna Park Films brought it back to life in a new restoration. Now released on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere, audiences outside of France can finally experience this utterly singular film, a new wave-influenced serial killer film that presents its narrative in an almost true crime approach yet focuses more on the psychological aspect with echoes of Polanski and Franju, set to a discordant, jazzy score.

 

  • Bonus footage
  • Audio commentary by Kat Ellinger and Virginie Sélavy (critics)
  • Documentary: On the Margin: The Cursed Films of Jean-Denis Bonan
  • Introduction by Virginie Sélavy
  • Short films by Jean-Denis Bonan: La vie brève de Monsieur Meucieu (1962), Un crime d’amour (1965), Rushes of an incomplete film, Tristesses des anthropophages (1966), Mathieu-fou (1967), Une saison chez les hommes (1967)
  • Trailers

l’amour fou

 

Sebastian (Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Weekend) is staging an adaptation of Racine’s tragedy, Andromaque while a film crew captures their rehearsals on handheld 16mm. The production’s star and Sebastian’s girlfriend, Claire (Bulle Ogier, Out 1), cannot take the pressure and removes herself. Life imitates art, creating a tragedy for the couple when Sebastian recasts the role with his ex. L’amour fou is a hypnotic study of tempestuous love, told with director Jacques Rivette’s signature reflexivity and containing striking examinations of performance, art, theatre and life. A classic of the French New Wave and one of Rivette’s most radical works, L’amour fou was unavailable for years, with the original elements tragically burned in a fire.
 
  • Documentary: The Third Eye – feature-length documentary featuring new interviews with Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Pascal Bonitzer, Antoine de Baecque, Sylvie Pierre, and archival footage of Jacques Rivette (Robert Fischer, 2024)
  • Interview with Caroline Champetier (cinematographer/restoration supervisor)

panic in the year zero

 

When Harry Baldwin (Ray Milland, The Lost Weekend) takes his family on a fishing trip, their holiday is brutally interrupted as a catastrophic atomic war breaks out, destroying their suburban Los Angeles home. What remains of the United Nations announces on the radio that society has broken down, and the Baldwins realise that they must quickly learn how to navigate this new ‘year zero’, and do whatever it takes in order to survive. Milland stars alongside teen idol Frankie Avalon as well as directing this bleak and visceral apocalypse thriller, described as ‘the most expressive on-the-ground nightmare of the cold-war era’ (Village Voice).

 

  • Booklet
  • Bonus Footage
  • Audio commentary by critic Richard Harland Smith
  • Interview with author and critic Kim Newman
  • Interview with director and actor Ray Milland
  • Interview with filmmaker Joe Dante
  • Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
  • Trailers

thieves like us

 

A group of criminals daringly escape from prison in depression-era Mississippi. They survive by robbing banks and hole up with a gas station attendant where injured Bowie (Keith Carradine, Nashville) falls in love with the attendant’s daughter Keechie (Shelley Duvall, 3 Women). Made within one of the great runs of back-to-back classics by any filmmaker, Robert Altman followed multi-award-winning classics like M*A*S*H and The Long Goodbye with Thieves Like Us, an adaptation of Edward Anderson’s pulp novel. Previously adapted by Nicholas Ray as They Live by Night, Altman’s film takes a more faithful approach to the source material, preserving the original tone and period of the novel, going back to historical and American myth themes that Altman mined so brilliantly in his earlier McCabe & Mrs. Miller. Critically praised, noted critic Pauline Kael described it as “the closest to flawless of Altman’s films – a masterpiece.”
 
  • Bonus Footage
  • Audio commentary by director Robert Altman
  • Documentary: Geoff Andrew on Thieves Like Us
  • Image Gallery
  • Interview with screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury
  • Interview with actor Keith Carradine
  • Two classic radio plays featured in the film: The Shadow (written by and starring Orson Welles) and Speed Gibson of the International Secret Police (starring Ed Gardner)
  • Trailers

Eighteen Years in Prison

 

Trying to survive in the ruins of post-war Japan, Kawada (Noboru Ando, By a Man’s Face Shall You Know Him) and Tsukada (Asao Koike, Sympathy the Underdog) run afoul of the military police after stealing valuable copper wire. Kawada is arrested and sent to prison, but Tsukada uses their gains to start a yakuza gang. Facing violent inmates and a cruel warden (Tomisaburo Wakayama, Big Time Gambling Boss), Kawada vows to escape and stop his former partner. Tai Kato directs this epic prison story with characteristic visual flair, while gangster-turned-actor Ando delivers a stunning performance charged with real-life gravitas. As an examination of the deep scars of wartime, this genre classic is also a clear precursor to Kinji Fukasaku’s epoch-making Battles Without Honour and Humanity series.

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Appreciation by critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024)
  • A visual essay on Japanese prison films by author Tom Mes (2024)
  • Original trailer
  • Newly translated English subtitles
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
  • Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Ivo Smits and an archival interview with Noboru Ando by Mark Schilling

Trenque Lauquen

 

A woman vanishes. Two men take to the road in search of her: they both love her. Why did she leave? This sudden escape becomes the hidden core of a number of fictions that delicately weave together: the secret of the heart of another woman, lost as well, many years ago; the secret of the life of a village in the countryside, governed by a supernatural incident that nobody seems to perceive; the secret of the plains, which never ceases to spread and devour everything. An astonishing epic of two feature-length films six years in the making, Trenque Lauquen’s playful mystery and approach to genre has been compared to Twin Peaks and The Endless. Radiance is proud to present one of the most revered works of the year, from Argentine auteur Laura Citarella and the El Pampero Cine collective.

 

  • High-Definition Digital Transfer, approved by director and co-screenwriter Laura Citarella
  • 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
  • Interview with Laura Citarella (2023, 45 mins)
  • New Interview with actor and screenwriter Laura Paredes (2024, 13 mins)
  • New Interview with actor Ezequiel Pierri (2024, 14 mins)
  • New Interview with critic David Jenkins (2024, 11 mins)
  • Eiko Ishibashi x Laura Citarella – a short film commissioned for Film Fest Gent’s golden anniversary (2023, 12 mins)
  • Two Galleries of behind-the-scenes photos from Laura Citarella’s personal archive, annotated by the director
  • Trailer
  • Newly Improved English Subtitle Translation

messiah of evil

 

A woman arrives in a sleepy seaside town after receiving unsettling letters from her father, only to discover the town is under the influence of a strange cult that weeps tears of blood and hunger for human flesh. From Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, the writers of American Grafitti, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Howard the Duck, this dreamy and atmospheric film transposes the post-Night of the Living Dead zombie movie to a surreal small-town American setting, presented through gorgeous Techniscope visuals that echo the stylish European horror of Mario Bava and Hammer. A true cult film, Messiah of Evil, which was also released as Dead People, has overcome distribution challenges to enjoy growing awareness and high acclaim after decades of word-of-mouth enthusiasm among horror cinema fans and critics around the world.

 

  • New 2023 restoration from a 4K scan of the best-surviving elements of the film from the Academy Film Archive
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Audio commentary by critics and horror experts Kim Newman and Stephen Thrower
  • Archival interview with co-writer-director Willard Huyck by Mike White from the Projection Booth Podcast
  • What the Blood Moon Brings: Messiah of Evil, A New American Nightmare – A documentary feature which explores Messiah of Evil in the context of American independent cinema of the 70s, as well as examining the film’s allegiance to several subgenres of horror film through its underlying themes. Co-directed by Dima Ballin and Kat Ellinger; featuring film scholars Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, Maitland McDonagh, Guy Adams, Mikel Koven and David Huckvale (2023)
  • Visual essay on American Gothic and Female Hysteria by critic Kat Ellinger (2023)
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 

The case is closed: forget it

 

Franco Nero (Django) stars as an architect thrown in jail for a misdemeanour in The Case is Closed: Forget It. Inside, he sees the grim reality of life behind bars, faced with corrupt guards and a prison yard ruled by the mafia. Damiano Damiani (A Bullet for the General) continues his exploration of mafia stories with this gritty prison drama. Nero gives a sympathetic performance as the honest man, while support is given by noted character actors including Riccardo Cucciola (Rabid Dogs) as another innocent and John Steiner (Tenebrae) as a psychotic killer. Alongside Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion and Damiani’s own Confessions of a Police Captain, this exploration of authority and corruption was as critical as the era’s finest work and ranks alongside the best Italian genre films of the 1970s.

 

  • 2K restoration of the film from the original negative presented with Italian and, for the first time, English audio options
  • Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • New interview with star Franco Nero (2022, 14 mins)
  • Archival documentary on the making of the film featuring actor Corrado Solari, assistant director Enrique Bergier and editor Antonio Siciliano (2015, 28 mins)
  • Italy’s Cinematic Civil Conscience: An Examination of the Life and Works of Damiano Damiani – A visual essay on the career of the director by critic Rachael Nisbet (2023, 35 mins)
  • Trailer
  • New and improved optional English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio

The Hot Spot

 

Harry, a drifter (Don Johnson, Miami Vice) rolls into town and talks his way into a job at a car dealership where he becomes caught between two beautiful women, the boss’s conniving wife Dolly (Virginia Madsen, Candyman) and Gloria (Jennifer Connelly, Requiem for a Dream) a naive young accountant whose life is complicated by blackmail. When Harry plans to rob the local bank, he becomes enmeshed in a lethal web of lust, greed and extortion, whose only escape is murder. Adapted from Hell Hath No Fury by Charles Williams, The Hot Spot is a dusty, sweaty modern noir that updates the pulp formula of twists and turns with an intensity to match director Dennis Hopper’s earlier film roles. Directed by Hopper (Easy Rider, Out of the Blue) with verve, the stellar cast are supported by William Sadler (The Shawshank Redemption), Charles Martin Smith (The Untouchables) and Jack Nance (Eraserhead) accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack featuring Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Taj Mahal and original music by Jack Nitzsche.

 

  • 2K restoration by Kino Lorber, overseen and approved by cinematographer Ueli Steiger
  • Uncompressed stereo PCM audio
  • Archival interview with Dennis Hopper who discusses The Hot Spot and features footage of John Lee Hooker and images from the set (1991, 5 mins)
  • Interviews with stars Virginia Madsen (2021, 7 mins) and William Sadler (2021, 6 mins)
  • Nick Dawson on Dennis Hopper and The Hot Spot, an interview with the editor of Dennis Hopper: Interviews (2023, 20 mins)
  • Duane Swierczynski on Charles Williams’ source novel, the crime writer and expert looks at the adaptation and provides a background of the author (2023, 22 mins)
  • Trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

Yakuza Graveyard

 

When he falls for the beautiful wife of the jailed boss of the Nishida gang, things start to spiral out of control for detective Kuroiwa (Tetsuya Watari, Graveyard of Honour). In a world where the line between police and organised crime is vague, he finds himself on the wrong side of a yakuza war when his superiors favour Nishida’s rivals, the Yamashiro gang. Co-starring the iconic Meiko Kaji (Lady Snowblood) and featuring Nagisa Oshima as chief of police, Yakuza Graveyard sees director Kinji Fukasaku (Battles without Honour and Humanity) at the peak of his powers.

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Appreciation by filmmaker Kazuya Shiraishi (2022, 15 mins)
  • The Rage and the Passion – A visual essay by critic Tom Mes on Meiko Kaji and Kinji Fukasaku’s collaborations (2022, 12 mins)
  • Gallery of promotional imagery
  • Easter Egg
  • Trailer
  • Newly improved English subtitle translation

The Bride Wore Black

 

Jeanne Moreau (Jules et Jim) stars as the titular bride, who after marrying her love sees him murdered on the steps outside the church. From here she enacts her ruthless revenge on the group of men responsible. Undoubtedly an influence on Kill Bill, François Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black was itself influenced by the master of suspense. Adapting celebrated crime writer Cornell Woolrich (here credited as William Irish and who was also the author of the short story Hitchcock’s Rear Window is based on) Truffaut’s film is a deliciously entertaining tale that was one of the director’s biggest hits. Alongside Moreau, the film boasts a sensational cast, including Michael Lonsdale, Jean-Claude Brialy, Charles Denner and Michel Bouquet among others, and features a score by the maestro, Bernard Herrmann (Psycho).

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Original uncompressed French mono PCM audio
  • Archival interviews with François Truffaut (1968, 12 mins) and Jeanne Moreau (1969, 5 mins)
  • Appreciation by filmmaker Kent Jones (Hitchcock/Truffaut) (2023, 15 mins)
  • Barry Forshaw on Cornell Woolrich and the adaptation (2023, 9 mins)
  • Original trailer
  • Les surmenés (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, 1958, 25 mins) – an early short written by Truffaut and starring Jean-Claude Brialy
  • Optional English subtitles 

the landlord

 

In 1970s Brooklyn, gentrification is already beginning to take hold in the predominantly black neighbourhood of Park Slope. Spoiled trust fund kid Elgar Enders (Beau Bridges) buys an apartment block in the area with the intention of evicting the tenants and building himself a bachelor pad. But upon moving in and unexpectedly befriending the inhabitants, he decides to let them stay and become their landlord. Rebelling against his rich, racist family, he embarks on affairs with two black women, causing uproar in the country clubs and the ghetto tenements of Park Slope alike. This outrageous satire marks the debut of Hal Ashby (Harold and Maude) as director, with a wicked script from Bill Gunn (Ganja & Hess) and stunning photography from Gordon Willis (The Godfather). The Landlord is a scabrous and unflinching look at race relations far ahead of its time, and a unique and important work in the annals of American screen comedy.

 

  • 2K transfer by Kino Lorber
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • The Racial Gap – An interview with star Beau Bridges (2019, 25 mins)
  • Reflections – An interview with star Lee Grant (2019, 26 mins)
  • Style and Substance – An interview with producer Norman Jewison (2019, 29 mins)
  • A new interview with Hal Ashby biographer Nick Dawson (2024)
  • An interview with broadcaster and author Ellen E. Jones (2024)
  • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Vincent Wild
  • Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by critic Jourdain Searles, plus an archival piece with Hal Ashby
  • Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Scream and Scream Again

 

A serial killer runs amok over London, draining his victims of their blood. A mad doctor performs experimental surgery on his victims, taking them apart limb by limb. A shady organisation from Eastern Europe is involved in some way while intelligence officer Fremont investigates. Bringing together the biggest horror stars of the era in Vincent Price (Witchfinder General), Christopher Lee (Dracula: Prince of Darkness) and Peter Cushing (Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors) Amicus Productions pulled out all the stops to compete with rival studio Hammer. Directed by genre specialist Gordon Hessler (The Oblong Box) Scream and Scream Again is a diabolical sci-fi horror hybrid that counted Fritz Lang as an admirer. Dabbling with conspiracies, mad doctors and killers in the dying days of swinging London, this British horror classic makes its UK Blu-ray debut, and is presented in its British and American versions. 

 

  • Bonus Footage
  • Commentary: Kevin Lyons and Jonathan Rigby (authors)
  • Trailer Commentary: Mick Garris
  • Deleted Scenes
  • Documentaries: Ramsey Campbell on Christopher Wicking and ‘Peter Saxon’, Gentleman Gothic: Gordon Hessler at American International Pictures
  • Image Gallery
  • Interviews: Julian Holloway (actor), Christopher Matthews (actor), Peter Elliott (editor), Arthur Wicks (props), Uta Levka (actor), Clifford Earl (actor)
  • Super 8 Version
  • Trailers

I am waiting

 

A failed boxer and a waitress with a dark past run afoul of an underworld syndicate that seeks to exploit the woman to its own ends. With dreams of escaping to Brazil, he agrees to help. But neither the past nor the future turns out to be exactly what it seems. A foundational film from the pioneering studio of post-war Japanese noir Nikkatsu, I Am Waiting was directed by a master of the genre and stars Yujiro Ishihara and Mie Kitahara, the on-screen and real-life couple that ruled Japanese popular cinema of the 1950s.

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Audio commentary by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp
  • Yujiro’s Travel Diary – a documentary on star Yujiro Ishihara during location shooting in Europe (1959, 42 mins)
  • The Yujiro Effect – a visual essay by Mark Schilling on the monumental impact the film’s star had on Japanese pop culture
  • Trailer
  • Optional English subtitles

witness in the city

 

A wealthy industrialist murders his lover, throwing her from a train to look like suicide. Her husband, Ancelin (Lino Ventura, The Valachi Papers) seeks revenge but his endeavours leave a witness putting him in a cat-and-mouse game, thrillingly shot on the streets of Paris. This early work from Édouard Molinaro (La cage aux folles) adapts the novel by celebrated writers Boileau and Narcejac (Vertigo, Les diaboliques) with minimal dialogue and wrings every ounce of tension from the narrative, focusing on evocative shadows and Parisian nightlife shot by Henri Decae (Le Samourai). 

 

  • 2K restoration by Gaumont
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Introduction by critic Tony Rayns (17 mins)
  • Interview with Philippe Durant, biographer of Lino Ventura, who speaks about the film and the iconic actor (11 mins)
  • French noir – critic and author Ginette Vincendeau provides an overview of noir in France during the 1950s and Witness in the City’s place within it (22 mins)
  • Optional English subtitles

she dies tomorrow

 

When Amy is suddenly stricken by the random idea she will die tomorrow, a bizarre phenomena starts passing through her social circle, where each and every person is eventually hit by the same realisation they will not last until the next sunrise, despite there being no obvious reason to believe this. Rather than riffing on the notion of contagion as conventional plague Amy Seimetz’s She Dies Tomorrow takes an abstract route into the subject, one which recalls films such as Pulse, where contagion features a strong existential element, in its sometimes absurdly comic, yet deeply unsettling, exploration of a group of people facing imminent unexplained death. As such, the film fits neatly into the stable of Lynchian horror, which seeks to explore genre by breaking down boundaries, as well as enhancing sensory elements such as the use of hallucinatory colour and dreamlike sequences. 

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer approved by writer-director Amy Seimetz 
  • Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound
  • A ‘Making of’ featurette with Seimetz and cinematographer Jay Keitel 
  • Newly filmed interviews with stars Kate Lynn Sheil and Jane Adams
  • She Dies Tomorrow and The Viral Apocalypses of the Future: A visual essay on contagion in modern horror by Anton Bitel
  • Audio commentary by critic and programmer Anna Bogutskaya
  • Original trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

mississippi mermaid

 

Wealthy plantation tycoon Louis (Jean-Paul Belmondo, Breathless) puts up an ad for a bride and luminous beauty Julie (Catherine Deneuve, Belle de Jour) arrives in answer. More attractive than the photograph he received Louis is nevertheless enraptured despite some strange details in her story. Things get complicated when Julie disappears and Louis determines to find her, leading him on a trail of mystery and erotic obsession. Adapted by Truffaut from a novel by Cornell Woolrich (The Bride Wore Black), Mississippi Mermaid is a lush colour noir that features the twists and turns of the genre with the heart of Renoir (to whom the film is dedicated) while Belmondo and Deneuve are on top form.

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Uncompressed French mono PCM audio
  • Archival interview with Truffaut from 1969 in which the filmmaker discusses his work as a director, screenwriter and actor (1969, 34 mins)
  • Archival interview with Jean Renoir who discusses the work of Truffaut (1969, 6 mins)
  • Interview with French cinema expert Ginette Vincendeau (2024)
  • Audio commentary by critic Glenn Kenny (2024)
  • Original trailer
  • Optional English subtitles
  • Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
  • Limited edition booklet featuring archival writing by Truffaut and contemporary writing on the film
  • Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Elegant Beast

 

In their humble two-room apartment, the Maeda family seem ever so self-effacing – but their modest façade hides another truth. Daughter Tomoko is the mistress of a bestselling author with well-lined pockets. Son Minoru embezzles funds with his lover Yukie (Ayako Wakao, Red Angel), who has her own hidden agenda. And father Tokizo (Yunosuke Ito, Ikiru, Lone Wolf and Cub) is a former military man who swears he will never return to the poverty he knew during the war, no matter what the cost. One after another, those affected by the Maedas’ schemes show up on their doorstep. But these visitors all have their own duplicitous agendas. With each knock on the door, the gamesmanship reaches a whole new level. Elegant Beast was adapted by Kaneto Shindo (Onibaba, Naked Island) from his own stage play. Director Yuzo Kawashima, mentor of Shohei Imamura and a major influence on the Japanese New Wave, makes magnificent widescreen use of the single apartment setting to deliver a ferocious satire on Japan’s post-war economic miracle.

 

  • New 4K restoration
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Interview with film critic Toshiaki Sato (2023)
  • Appreciation by filmmaker Toshiaki Toyoda (2023)
  • Visual essay by critic Tom Mes on post-war architecture in Japanese cinema (2023)
  • Trailer
  • New and improved English subtitles
  • Sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork

how to kill a judge

 

In How to Kill a Judge, Franco Nero (Django) plays filmmaker Giacomo Solaris, whose latest film features a judge corrupted by the mafia and who is later killed. The real judge the character is based on seizes the film but is later found murdered. Feeling a degree of responsibility, Solaris investigates through his police and mafia advisors, but as the assassinations increase around him, will he reach the source of the conspiracy? Full of twists and a fascinating meta-commentary on cinema that derives from a highly personal approach to the subject matter inspired by real-life events, director Damiano Damiani (The Day of the Owl) points the camera at himself and the genre in this fascinating exploration of the social impact of the mafia.

 

  • 2K restoration of the film from the original negative presented in Italian and English audio options
  • Original uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • New interview with star Franco Nero (2022, 13 mins)
  • New interview with Alberto Pezzotta, author of Regia Damiano Damiani (2022, 34 mins)
  • Lessons in Violence: A new video essay on the film by filmmaker David Cairns (2023, 22 mins)
  • English and Italian Trailers
  • New and improved optional English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio

Miami Blues

 

George Armitage (Grosse Pointe Blank) adapted celebrated noir author Charles Willeford’s novel Miami Blues for the screen with new star Alec Baldwin in the lead role as Frederick J. Frenger, Jr., a sociopathic criminal. Arriving in Miami fresh out of jail he commits one crime after another when he meets young hooker Susie (Jennifer Jason Leigh, Single White Female) who he starts to build a pseudo-married life with, including the home cooking and the white picket fence. As Frederick tries to juggle domesticity with his mounting crimes, dogged cop Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward, Tremors) threatens to put his freedom in jeopardy. Baldwin is brilliant as the unhinged criminal tearing through Miami while Armitage perfectly balances the humour and violence in this singular crime comedy that betrays the quirky influence of producer Jonathan Demme (Something Wild, Married to the Mob). 

 

  • High Definition Digital Transfer
  • Original Uncompressed Stereo PCM Audio
  • Interviews: Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh (2015)
  • Video Essay: David Jenkins on Miami Blues and Jonathan Demme’s role in the production (2022)
  • Discussion: Pulp crime expert Maxim Jakubowski on Hoke Moseley in Miami Blues and Willeford’s novels (2022)
  • Behind-the-Scenes and Promotional Image Gallery
  • Trailer

The Horrible Dr Hichcock

 

One day the necrophiliac tendencies of Dr Hichcock (Robert Flemyng, The Quiller Memorandum) go too far and his wife dies from an overdose. Bereft, the doctor leaves his house but returns years later with a new wife, Cynthia (Barbara Steele, Black Sunday). The house they return to is eerie and Cynthia hears strange things, meanwhile, she doesn’t realise Dr Hichcock intends to use her body to re-animate his dead wife’s corpse. Released at the height of the Italian horror boom that was produced in the wake of the influence of Hammer’s era-defining horror productions, director Riccardo Freda (The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire) and screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (The Whip and the Body) create a dark and wicked gothic horror that brings in sly allusions to the work of Alfred Hitchcock while the period detail of Victorian London provides a lush backdrop. 

 

  • Bonus Footage
  • Commentary: Kat Ellinger and Annie Rose Malamet (critics)
  • Image Gallery
  • Interviews:
  • Ernesto Gastaldi (screenwriter)
  • Madeleine Le Despencer
  • Visual Essay: Bluebeard in Gothic Film by Miranda Corcoran (2023)
  • Trailers

The Working Class Goes To Heaven

 

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).

 

  • Bonus Footage
  • Interviews:
  • Elio Petri (director)
  • Gian Maria Volonté (actor)
  • Corrado Solari (actor)
  • Making of Documentary
  • Appreciation of Gian Maria Volonté and the film by Alex Cox (filmmaker)
  • Visual essay by Matthew Kowalski (scholar) on Petri and politics
  • Trailers

Black Tight Killers

 

After wooing stewardess Yoriko (Chieko Matsubara, Tokyo Drifter), war photographer Hondo (Akira Kobayashi, Battles Without Honor and Humanity) sees her kidnapped by a team of deadly female assassins who use vinyl records as weapons. Investigating her whereabouts, Hondo uncovers a conspiracy to steal a buried stash of WWII-era gold. Soon he must dodge go-go dancing ninjas and chewing-gum bullets to save Yoriko, whose family secret is tied to the hidden treasure. Every bit as stylish and inventive as the wildest works by his mentor Seijun Suzuki, Yasuharu Hasebe’s spy spoof is a gaudy 1960s pop delight that ranks with the likes of Joseph Losey’s Modesty Blaise and Mario Bava’s Danger: Diabolik!

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Audio commentary by Jasper Sharp
  • Archival interview with director Yasuharu Hasebe
  • Trailer
  • Optional English subtitles 
  • Sleeve featuring newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

by a man’s face shall you know him

 

A community struggles against immigrant gangs in the ruins of postwar Tokyo. Only doctor Amamiya (real-life ex-yakuza Noboru Ando) can save them, but he had enough fighting in the war. His pacifism is severely tested by the gangs’ increasingly outrageous taunts and when his neighbours decide to take matters into their own hands, Amamiya is forced to take action. The consequences prove to be much more far-reaching than he could ever foresee. With a story spread across three time periods, Tai Kato’s ambitious revision of the yakuza movie was one of the first films to tackle the taboo subject of Japan’s Korean nationals, greatly influencing the work of later directors such as Kinji Fukasaku and Takashi Miike.

 

  • High-Definition digital transfer
  • Uncompressed mono PCM audio
  • Appreciation by filmmaker Kenta Fukasaku (2023, 18 mins)
  • Tribute to Sanae Nakahara by her son Kenta Fukasaku (2023, 14 mins)
  • Tale of a Scarface – A visual essay on Noboru Ando by Nathan Stuart (2023. 22 mins)
  • Newly translated English subtitles
  • Sleeve featuring original newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

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