Showing posts with label eureka entertainment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eureka entertainment. Show all posts
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29 September 2014
Blu-ray Review - The Gang's All Here (1943, Masters Of Cinema)
Genre:
Comedy, Musical
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
BD Release Date:
29th September 2014 (UK)
Director:
Busby Berkeley
Cast:
James Ellison, Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, Phil Baker,
buy:The Gang's All Here (1943) [Masters of Cinema] [Blu-ray]
Busby Berkeley is one of the names most associated with the classic Hollywood musical. It’s not hard to see why with his first Technicolor film The Gang’s All Here. It also happens to be up there as one of the most surreal films to ever come out of the golden age of Hollywood.
The film’s “plot” is the barest of the bare: a young soldier Andy Mason (James Ellison) falls in love with a New York nightclub singer but he has a long-standing engagement to a childhood sweetheart. This all provides a jumping off point for the quite nauseating (but in a good way) film of melodrama, campy dialogue and the musical numbers that are quite mind blowing.
The film’s cinematography and choreography is what the film is all about; the opening musical number perfectly sets the template for what is to come, and fans of Terry Gilliam’s Brazil will recognize the opening song. The first musical number that starts the spiral of surrealism is the much-celebrated “The Lady in the Tutti-Frutti Hat” which of course features the iconic Carman Miranda. It literally ends with a stunning bit of art direction which makes her fruit hat look it’s going on forever.
The film’s climax, however, remains one of the most surreal pieces of cinema I’ve ever seen, never mind of Golden Age Hollywood. It becomes almost psychedelic which is perhaps unsurprising considering its revival in the 60s and 70s when it gained cult status. It remains a classic musical that even non-fans of the genre will be entertained and swept up in its magic.
Eureka as usual has done a very nice package with a commentary: a 20 minutes documentary on the film, and it’s finished off with a deleted scene and the theatrical trailer. The new HD transfer also gives the film’s visual sparkle that makes the imagery pop out of the screen. It also includes a 56 booklet with writings by director David Cairns and Karina Longworth.
★★★★
Ian Schultz
25 November 2013
Eureka Video Announce Their Masters Of Cinema 2014 Early Releases
Eureka Entertainment have announced via their twitter feeds (@eurekavideo and @mastersofcinema) their forthcoming releases in The Masters of Cinema series for the months of January, February and March 2014.
With a slate of titles that ranges from the most recent and 1980s American cinema (and, separately, the emergent Australian independent cinema), through to masterworks of the Italian cinema, and on to silent, and 1970s Hollywood, The Masters of Cinema Series runs the cinephile gamut once again with a seven-film January-March line-up that includes works by Federico Fellini, Samuel Fuller, Sidney Lumet, Francesco Rosi, William A. Wellman, Ted Kotcheff, and Andrew Bujalski. As if that weren't enough, Eureka Entertainment are also proud to announce an early summer release for one of Robert Altman's most revered films.
Producer of the Masters of Cinema Series, Craig Keller stated “In January, we welcome Andrew Bujalski into the Series for the first time with his smash indie-success Computer Chess (read review) that is currently enjoying a theatrical run across the UK following its British première at the London Film Festival. Alongside Computer Chess, William A. Wellman's Wings – the winner of the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture (1927-1928) will see its UK home-release premiere. Both titles will be released as Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) editions.
In February, we'll be releasing for the first time in the UK, a special edition Blu-ray and Ltd Edition Blu-ray SteelBook of Sidney Lumet's classic police drama starring Al Pacino — Serpico (Original Theatrical Trailer http://bit.ly/17Tt2mE ) Secondly, we'll be releasing a Blu-ray edition of Federico Fellini's 1972 epic colour spectacle, a love-letter to the past and present of the city he loved best: Roma .
Another Italian classic arrives in March in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) release: Francesco Rosi's gripping political procedural, Le mani sulla città [Hands Over the City]. March also finds us two of the most brutally unsparing and controversial independent works of the last forty years. The first is the long-awaited (and uncut) release of Ted Kotcheff's disturbing and subversive Wake in Fright, hailed by Nick Cave as "the best and most terrifying film about Australia in existence," and which Martin Scorsese has stated to have rendered him "speechless" — released in its brilliant 2009 restoration. Prior to its home-video release, Wake in Fright will be released theatrically in selected cinemas in the UK & Eire on 7 March 2014. Here is the brand new 2014 UK theatrical trailer . The second controversial release in March is Samuel Fuller's feverish White Dog, unavailable in the UK for decades, whose premise — a stray white dog turns out to have been conditioned to attack any black person on sight — was woefully misconstrued at the time of its 1982 release; it remains one of Fuller's most passionate anti-racist statements. Both of these works will also be released in Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) editions.”
Managing Director of Eureka Entertainment, Ron Benson added “The finest in world cinema abounds across these seven releases, supplemented as always with a spate of special features and extras, all presented with a meticulous attention to detail and design. The same ethos applies to a film we'll be releasing in May, and for which we're thrilled to be able to provide an early sneak-announcement: Robert Altman's epic 1970s ensemble classic, Nashville, released for the first time on UK home video, in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition.”
17 August 2013
The Tarnished Angels Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray Review
Rating: 12
BD Release Date:
26th August 2013 (UK)
Director:
Douglas Sirk
Cast:
Rock Hudson, Dorothy Malone, Robert Stack
Buy:
(Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray)
The Tarnished Angels is a film based on the novel Pylon by noted American writer William Faulker; who in fact wrote quite a few screenplays. Faulkner considered it the only good adaptation of his work he saw in his lifetime. Legendary director Douglas Sirk noted for his Technicolor drenched melodramas and the films normally starring Rock Hudson directed it.
The Tarnished Angels is about the very strange relationship between Roger Shumann (Robert Stack), his wife LaVerne (Dorothy Malone), Roger’s mechanic Jiggs (Jack Carson) and local reporter Burke Devlin (Rock Hudson). Roger is a disillusioned World War I flying ace that is making appearances as a stunt pilot, which also features his parachuting wife. They also have a kid Jack but it’s never clear that if Roger or Jiggs is the father on of the kid. The gypsy like lifestyle of the Roger, LaVerne and Jiggs intrigues Burke Devlin. He wants to do a newspaper piece on it much to the dismay to his editor.
Burke is dismayed by the treatment of his family and especially his wife LaVerne. He gets increasingly more and more attracted to his neglected wife. The key line is when Burke compares Roger, Jiggs and LaVerne as extra-terrestrials to his editor. They are very alien like and can’t form any meaningful relationship even with the ones they love. The film will end in tragedy in a way only true melodrama can.
The film is a slight departure from Sirk’s normally work due to the very contrasty black and white, which Sirk choose to shoot in to the echo the depression era the film is set. It is also perhaps his most bleak and pessimistic film. The film has the characteristic irony that goes though all of Sirk’s finest films. The Pylon, which Faulkner’s novel took its name and the pilots fly around is very overt symbolism of the characters going nowhere. It is brilliantly crosscut with the son Jack flying in circle during a tragic plane clash.
Rock Hudson gives a great performance, as the journo who falls deeply for LeVerne but knows nothing will happen. Rock is always one of the constantly surprising actors of the golden age of Hollywood for proof see Seconds and Giant. The film is also shoot in glorious black and white CinemaScope.
The Tarnished Angels also came out not that soon off one of his most successful films Written on the Wind that shared the same leads with the exception of Lauren Bacall. The film originally was one of his least successful films. The resurgence of his work since the 1970s with directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, John Waters, Todd Haynes and even Quentin Tarantino praising his brand of melodrama. The film has since being re-evaluated as one of his key works.
Ian Schultz
24 July 2013
The Birth Of A Nation (Masters Of Cinema) Blu-Ray Review
Rating:NR
BD Release Date (UK):
29th July 2013
Director:
D.W. Griffith
Cast:
Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall
Buy: (BLU-RAY)
The Birth of a Nation is one of the most notorious films in film history and rightfully so. The film is probably the most important film of the silent only possibly topped by Battleship Potemkin. The film is directed by one of the very first true masters of cinema D.W. Griffith and is rightfully included in Eureka’s Masters of Cinema range. The film over the almost 100 years since it’s release has been indicted for being just racist trash. It’s no questionably incredibly racist but it’s a film with full of such amazing cinematic craftsmanship. The racism is so over the top are times it’s laughable especially the infamous 2nd half.
The film is a nutshell is about 2 families; one is Northern Stonemans and the Southern Camerons. They are friendly and one of the Stoneman boys falls in love with one of the Cameron girls. However the American Civil War happens. Sons of both families die during the war. After the war John Wilkes Booth (played by later noted director Raoul Walsh) assassinates President Abraham Lincoln.
The radical congressmen are determined to punish the South and by doing so they alienating white Southerners. Ben Cameron forms the Ku Klux Klan to fight back against the radical congressmen giving blacks “more rights than their white counterparts.” The film becomes increasingly becomes more and more absurd especially with the fried chicken eating mostly black legislature scene and the portrayal of African Americans as basically anarchic savages. To add insult to injury most of the black characters in that lovely old technique of blackface and the “Negro speak” intertitles are absurd.
The film boosts truly stunning cinematography and composition. The battle scenes are truly stunning and the end scenes with the KKK on horseback racing down to save the white people of the town are spellbinding. D.W Griffith are invented most of the editing techniques that are still used today. The film basically started feature length films as a realistic option, they’re about a dozens attempts previously… mostly lost sadly. It started the rise of Hollywood as a dominating force in the world for better or worse.
The Birth of a Nation a is film that is very much of it’s time and that has to be taken into account when your watch it. The film is clearly racist and pro-KKK even though D.W Griffith’s own beliefs has been much debating in the almost 100 years since it’s release. However as everyone knows the time it was made was a very racist time decades before the civil rights movement. His next film Intolerance was his response to the film’s criticism over its portrayal of the KKK and African Americans. Intolerance was all about how we should all come together and be tolerant of each other.
The film is an important piece of history that shouldn’t be dismissed outright. The film still deserves to be studied by students of film. The great Charles Chaplin once said “D.W Griffith was the teacher of us all” and he had a point. Masters of Cinema as always has released the film with loads of bonus features including a documentary and many of D.W Griffith’s civil war short films on both blu-ray and dvd.
Ian Schutz
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