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)

• Booklet featuring writing by Bill Ackerman

• Limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings 

---

Goodbye & Amen

 

John Dannahay (Tony Musante, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage), a CIA agent stationed in Rome, is planning to overthrow an African government. But his plan goes wrong when a corrupt colleague starts shooting people from the roof of a hotel, taking an innocent couple hostage. Director Damiano Damiani (How to Kill a Judge) wields expert tension in this gripping espionage thriller, twisting and turning its tight plot to its sensational finale. Featuring a fantastic supporting cast including Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl), John Steiner (The Case is Closed: Forget It) and Wolfango Soldati (The Heroin Busters), Goodbye & Amen is one of the great 1970s Italian action thrill rides, set to a haunting score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (Torso, Keoma). 

• New 2023 restoration of the film from the original camera negative presented with Italian and, for the first time on home video, English audio options

• Uncompressed mono PCM audio

• Audio commentary by Eurocrime experts Nathaniel Thompson and Howard Berger (2023)

• Interview with editor Antonio Siciliano (2023)

• Archival interview with Wolfango Soldati (2013)

• New and improved English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio

• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters

• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Italian crime cinema expert Lucia Rinaldi

• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

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

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork

• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Midori Suiren and contemporary archival writing

• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings 

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

Le combat dans l’ile

Clement (Jean-Louis Trintignant, Il sorpasso) is a wealthy son of an industrialist who lives a secret life as a right-wing terrorist. Double-crossed following an assassination attempt he flees to the countryside with his wife, Anne (Romy Schneider, La piscine) where they stay with his childhood friend, Paul (Henri Serre, Jules et Jim). Clement plots his revenge but Anne falls for Paul and a love triangle is just one of many complications in this multi-layered discovery from the French New Wave. With the support of producer Louis Malle, Alain Cavalier (Fill ’Er Up with Super) directed his debut, a noirish drama beautifully shot by cinematographer Pierre Lhomme (Army of Shadows). While echoing the political turmoil of the 1960s, the film probes bourgeois values and the relationship between sex and violence, acting as a precursor to The Conformist and demonstrating the influence of Chabrol.

• 2K Restoration from the original camera negative

• Original uncompressed French mono PCM audio

• Interview with Alain Cavalier from French television show Cinema page (1962, 5 mins)

• Faire la mort: A commentary featurette by Cavalier on photos from the Cinémathèque française (2011, 5 mins)

• Interview with star Jean-Louis Trintignant from the Belgian television show Cinescope (1983, 7 mins)

• The Succulence of Fruit: An interview with French critic Philippe Roger who provides an analysis of the film and Cavalier’s work (2020, 37 mins)

• Un américain – Cavalier’s first short film about a sculptor who comes to Paris (1958, 17 mins)

• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Ben Sachs who considers the film in the context of the French New Wave and genre filmmaking; and scholar and author of Late-Colonial French Cinema Mani Sharpe looks at the film and its political dimension

• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings 

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

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

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

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

• Limited edition 28-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by Lillian Crawford and Isabel Millar and an interview with Seimetz from the original press book

A Woman Kills

A series of prostitute murders disturbs the public with the thought of a serial killer on the loose. Hélène Picard, a prostitute, is sentenced and executed for the murders, but shortly thereafter similar crimes continue. Executioner Louis Guilbeau 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 German Expressionism and Franju, set to a discordant, jazzy score.

• 2K restoration of the film from the original 16mm elements

• Audio commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Virginie Sélavy

• On the Margin: The Cursed Films of Jean-Denis Bonan (Francis Lecomte, 2015/2022, 37 mins) – a newly updated documentary programme featuring director Jean-Denis Bonan, cinematographer Gérard de Battista, editor Mireille Abramovici, musician Daniel Laloux, and actress Jackie Raynal

• Short films by Jean-Denis Bonan: The Short Life of Monsieur Meucieu (1962, 13 mins); A Crime of Love (1965, 7 mins, rushes of an incomplete film, narrated by Bonan); Sadness of the Anthropophagi (1966, 24 mins); Crazy Mathieu (1967, 17 mins); A Season with Mankind (1967, 19 mins)

• Limited edition 52-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by author and scholar Catherine Wheatley, writer and musician Richard Thomas on the short films, Cerise Howard on gender identity tropes in A Woman Kills and the horror film, an interview with Francis Lecomte, the French distributor who rescued the film, and newly translated archival reviews and film credits

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 

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.”

• High-Definition digital transfer

• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio

• Audio commentary by director Robert Altman

• Brand new interview with co-screenwriter Joan Tewkesbury who discusses the film and her working relationship with Altman (2023)

• Brand new interview with star Keith Carradine (2023)

• Geoff Andrew on Thieves Like Us – the critic discusses the film and its place within Altman’s work

• 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

• Trailer

• Promotional image gallery

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

The Iron Prefect

Based on the true story of the Iron Prefect, Cesare Mori, who was sent to Sicily for an Eliot Ness-in-The Untouchables style clean up of the mafia. Mori approaches organised crime on the island with uncompromising force even in the face of mass murders designed to scare him off. Pasquale Squitieri (The Climber) directs this stunning period piece which won the David di Donatello award for best film and features spaghetti western icon Giuliano Gemma brilliantly playing against type as the titular hero, winning him an award for his performance at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival. Alongside Gemma are the cream of international film from the period with co-stars Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Francisco Rabal (Sorcerer), the key surveyor of Italy’s civic cinema screenwriter Ugo Pirro (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) and legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in America).

• 2K restoration of the film from the original negative presented with Italian and English audio options

• Uncompressed mono PCM audio 

• Archival interview with director Pasquale Squitieri and star Giuliano Gemma (2009)

• New interview with Squitieri biographer Domenico Monetti (2023)

• New appreciation of Giuliano Gemma and the film by filmmaker Alex Cox (2023)

• Original trailer

• New and improved English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio

A Moment of Romance

Small-time hood Wah Dee (Andy Lau, Infernal Affairs) is enlisted by Triad boss Trumpet (Tommy Wong, The Killer) as a getaway driver for a daring heist that goes wrong. Thinking fast Dee takes Jo Jo (Jacklyn Chien-Lien Wu, The Barefooted Kid) hostage to save his skin, but the bosses order her to be killed. They escape and begin a forbidden relationship while being chased by both sides of the law. Produced by Johnnie To (Throwdown) and Ringo Lam (City on Fire) the film is sensationally directed by Benny Chan in his feature debut. With a breakneck pace and violence reminiscent of To and Takashi Miike and the beautiful and emotive sensibility of Wong Kar-wai, the film features stunning performances from Lau, and Wu in her debut work. A Moment of Romance is a classic of Hong Kong cinema that has been much imitated but rarely bettered. 

• 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative

• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio

• Archival audio interview with Benny Chan who discusses his start in the industry, A Moment of Romance, and his collaborators on the film (2016, 21 mins)

• In Love and Danger: HK Cinema Through A Moment of Romance – A new visual essay by critic and Asian cinema expert David Desser on the genre tropes in A Moment of Romance and their use in Hong Kong cinema (2023, 26 mins)

• Audio commentary by Asian cinema expert Frank Djeng

• Newly translated English subtitles by Dylan Cheung

Scream and Screaming 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. 

• High-Definition digital transfer of the British and American cuts of the film

• Uncompressed mono PCM audio

• Audio commentary with Kevin Lyons, author of The Encyclopedia of Fantastic Film and Television and Jonathan Rigby, author of English Gothic: Classic Horror Cinema 1897-2015 (2023)

• New interviews with actors Julian Holloway and Christopher Matthews, editor Peter Elliott, and propman Arthur Wicks (2023, 19 mins)

• Ramsey Campbell on Christopher Wicking and ‘Peter Saxon’ (2023, 11 mins)

• Gentleman Gothic: Gordon Hessler at American International Pictures – A documentary on the filmmaker’s work for the studio featuring Hessler himself and critics Jeff Burr, David Del Valle, Steve Haberman and C. Courtney Joyner (2015, 23 mins)

• Archival interview with Clifford Earl (2015, 18 mins) 

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 with Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh (2015)

• David Jenkins looks at Miami Blues and Jonathan Demme’s role in the production (2022)

• Pulp crime expert Maxim Jakubowski discusses the character of Hoke Moseley in both Miami Blues and Willeford’s novels in which he is a recurrent character (2022)

• Behind-the-scenes and promotional image gallery

• Trailer

• English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing 

Red Sun

Thomas (Marquard Bohm, Kings of the Road) gets a ride to Munich where he finds his ex-girlfriend Peggy (counter culture activist and model Uschi Obermaier) who takes him in. In her flat he finds Peggy and her roommates have a commune-like lifestyle where they kill the men in their lives after five days, but will Thomas realise in time? A pop fantasy focused on the post-’68 and women’s liberation movements, Red Sun was compared to a comic strip by Wim Wenders and is a beautiful art-genre collision that is both brilliantly bizarre and provocative. Director Rudolf Thome was an emerging talent in the New German Cinema alongside Wenders, Fassbinder and Herzog, but received little international distribution and fell into obscurity despite a consistent career covering six decades. Radiance Films is proud to present Red Sun to English-speaking audiences for the first time in a restoration overseen by Thome. 

• High-definition digital transfer overseen by director Rudolf Thome

• Select scene commentary with Thome and Rainer Langhans, Obermaier’s boyfriend and Kommune 1 member who served as inspiration for the film and was on set for the shoot

• Rote Sonne between Pop Sensibility and Social Critique – A newly produced visual essay by scholar Johannes von Moltke on Red Sun, which looks at the social and cultural influences on the film and provides context for the era in which it was made (2022, 21 mins)

• From Oberhausen to the Fall of the Wall: A visual essay by academic and programmer Margaret Deriaz tracing the development of the New German Cinema from the Oberhausen Manifesto to the fall of the Berlin wall (2023, 50 mins)

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. 

• New 2023 2K restoration of the film from the original negative presented in three versions across two Blu-rays:

• Disc 1: the original 87-minute Italian version The Horrible Dr. Hichcock [L’orrible segreto del Dr. Hichcock]; and the English dub of the complete 87-minute Italian cut Raptus: The Secret of Dr. Hichcock; 

• Disc 2, exclusive to the limited edition: the re-ordered 76-minute North American version The Horrible Dr. Hichcock

• Audio commentary by critics Kat Ellinger and Annie Rose Malamet

• Audio commentary by Tim Lucas analysing the different versions and distribution history of the film

• New interview with screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (2023)

• Visual essay on Bluebeard in gothic film by Miranda Corcoran (2023) 

• An interview with Madeleine Le Despencer on necrophilia and taboo gothic (2023)

• Gallery

• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters

The Dead Mother

Ismael (Karra Elejalde, Timecrimes) breaks into the house of a fine art restorer and shoots the homeowner dead, leaving her daughter orphaned and traumatized for life. Years later Ismael is working in a bar where he sees the daughter again. Paranoid that she has recognised him and will report him, he kidnaps her and holds her hostage, demanding that her hospital pay a ransom for her release. As he spends more time with her, a strange bond develops that causes him to delay the ransom request or fulfil his threats of throwing her in front of a train. But he can’t delay forever… A gothic thriller with pitch-black humour that recalls the Coen brothers, Juanma Bajo Ulloa’s sophomore feature won a host of prestigious international awards and was a precursor to the Spanish genre explosion.

• 4K restoration of the film supervised and approved by director Juanma Bajo Ulloa

• Uncompressed stereo 2.0 audio

• Audio commentary by Bajo Ulloa

• The Story of The Dead Mother – a documentary on the making of the film featuring behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with the cast and crew (2008, 38 mins)

• Victor’s Kingdom [El reino de Victor] – Goya Award-winning short film by Ulloa, restored in 4K (1989, 38 mins)

• Gallery of behind-the-scenes and promotional imagery

• Trailer

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

• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by Xavier Aldana Reyes, author of Spanish Gothic: National Identity, Collaboration and Cultural Adaptation, and newly translated archival writing by Juanma Bajo Ulloa, co-writer Eduardo Bajo Ulloa and an appreciation by Nacho Vigalondo

The Sunday Woman

An odious architect is beaten to death and a high society wife (Jacqueline Bisset, Day for Night) and her gay friend (Jean-Louis Trintignant, The Conformist) are the key suspects with a discarded letter implicating them in the crime. Commissioner Santamaria (Marcello Mastroianni, Fellini’s 8 ½) is assigned to the case and tries to uncover the murder suspect in upper-class Turin. With a murder mystery narrative worthy of Agatha Christie, The Sunday Woman is also a sharp critique of Turin’s upper crust. The screenplay, by the celebrated duo Age & Scarpelli, famed for their masterpieces in the Commedia all’Italiana boom including Big Deal on Madonna Street and The Organizer, is a whip-smart adaptation of the best-selling novels by Carlo Fruttero and Franco Lucentini with the lead character of Santamaria inspired by the real-life head of the Flying Squad. The much-heralded director Luigi Comencini (Misunderstood) often worked in a combination of comedy and drama, finding humour in tragedy, and is only waiting to be rediscovered as a master of post-war Italian cinema.

• 2K restoration of the film from the original negative, presented in the original 1.33:1 and an alternate 1.85:1 widescreen presentation

• Original uncompressed mono PCM audio

• Newly filmed interview with academic and Italian cinema expert Richard Dyer, who looks at The Sunday Woman (2022, 18 mins)

• Archival interview with cinematographer Luciano Tovoli who discusses his work on the film (2008, 22 mins)

• Newly filmed interview with academic and screenwriter Giacomo Scarpelli, who discusses the life and work of his father, Furio Scarpelli and his writing partner Agenore Incrocci (2022, 36 mins)

• Archival French TV interview with Jean-Louis Trintignant in which the actor discusses The Sunday Woman (1976, 4 mins)

• Trailer

• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters

• Limited edition 24-page booklet featuring new writing on the film by Mariangela Sansone and a reprint of an archival piece on the film

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

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).

• 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

• Petri’s Praxis: Ideology and Cinema in Post-war Italy – A visual essay by scholar Matthew Kowalski on Petri’s relationship with left-wing politics and its impact on his cinema 

• The Working Class Goes to Heaven – Background to a Film Shot in Novara (2006), by Serena Checcucci and Enrico Omodeo Salé; an unconventional making-of documentary, exploring the real-life factory location where the film was shot and the story behind the film’s production there, as told by the staff, film extras and crew

• Trailer

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

Big Time Gambling Boss

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

• Serial Gambling: A video essay by Chris D., author of Gun and Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980, on Big Time Gambling Boss‘s origins in the Toei studio’s serialized yakuza movie production and what sets the film apart (2022)

• 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

• Trailer

Fill ‘Er Up with Super

Klouk (Bernard Crombey) is a car salesman who has to miss a family holiday to deliver a luxury Chevrolet station wagon to his boss’ wealthy client. He decides to take his friend Philippe (Xavier Saint-Macary) along with him for the ride across the length of France from Lille to the Cote d’Azur. On the way they give a lift to hitchhiker Charles (Etienne Chicot) who also brings along his friend Daniel (Patrick Bouchitey). A buddy road movie that came together from genuine friendship developed throughout the months-long script workshop giving the film a casual and naturalistic quality that pre-dates Richard Linklater’s similar approaches by some decades. A meditation on friendship and masculinity, this was one of the last films Alain Cavalier made before approaching more experimental forms of filmmaking but prefigures his later breaking down of fiction and documentary barriers with the freewheeling approach of Fill ‘er up with Super . 

• 2K restoration of the film from the original negative

• Friends First and Foremost: An interview with Bernard Crombey – in this video interview the star discusses his work on the film, his collaborators and his career (2019, 28 mins)

• Three interview short films with the cast directed by Cavalier: My Wife Lives in Fear with Etienne Chicot, Bernard Crombey and Patrick Bouchitey (2011, 4 mins), It’s a Full House with Bernard Crombey (2011, 6 mins) and The King of the Bottle with Patrick Bouchitey (2011, 8 mins)

• An appreciation of Fill ‘Er Up with Super by Cahiers du Cinema deputy editor Charlotte Garson (2022)

• Newly translated English subtitles

• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters

• Limited Edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic and author Murielle Joudet, a newly translated contemporary article on the film and an extract of an interview with Cavalier

• Limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings