Richard Fleischer's Violent Saturday Joining Masters Of Cinema Family This April

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of VIOLENT SATURDAY, a key but overlooked 1950s criss-crossed heist tale which influenced Kubrick’s The Killing and Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. Directed by Richard Fleischer (The Boston Strangler and 10 Rillington Place) this first ever home video release will include new special features, including an interview with fan William Friedkin (The French Connection, To Live and Die in LA).

VIOLENT SATURDAY will be released in a stunning blu-ray presentation as part of a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition on 21 April 2014.



A coolly riveting crime saga from director Richard Fleischer (The Boston Strangler, Soylent Green), Violent Saturday tells a brutal noir tale against blazing, sun-drenched Arizona landscapes.

Three criminals arrive in the small mining town of Bradenville, planning on robbing its only bank. But as they start scouting the area and gathering the information they need, the lives of others in the town threaten to get mixed up in their scheme, in a tangle that could lead to disastrous consequences.

Featuring the iconic Victor Mature and Lee Marvin, and with Ernest Borgnine in one of his most unforgettable roles, Violent Saturday is a fascinating gem of Hollywood storytelling, complete with memorably vicious and idiosyncratic details, brilliant performances, and stunning Cinemascope

imagery.

Violent Saturday is based on a novel by William L. Heath.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Stunning high-definition master, with 4.0 and 2.0 soundtracks, on both Blu-ray and DVD
- A new video examination of the making of the film by Nicolas Saada
- A video appreciation by director William Friedkin

Masters Of Cinema Blu-ray Review - Serpico (1973)

Genre:
Crime, Drama, Biography
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Rating: 18
BD Release Date:
24th February 2014 (UK)
Director:
Sidney Lumet
Cast:
Al Pacion, Jack Keghoe, John Randolph, Barbara Eda-Young
Buy: SERPICO (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray)

Serpico is one of the crowning achievements in two careers, which had plenty the director Sidney Lumet, and the film’s star Al Pacino. It came off the heels of Sidney Lumet’s little seen but brilliant Sean Connery cop film The Offence and Pacino’s star making role in The Godfather and his equally great performance in Scarecrow.

Al Pacino shines as the title character of Frank Serpico, who starts life out as a uniformed police officer. He gradually discovers a world of police corruption and plans to blow it open. Serpico becomes increasingly idiosyncratic such as read literature not associated with a police officer and basically becomes a hippie. His behaviour makes his partners, superiors to be suspicious of him cause he refuses to take any payoffs. They eventually start to threaten his life.

Sidney Lumet was the undisputedly the king of gritty New York realism and Serpico was the beginning of what would make his name despite working since the 1950s and making many great films by this time. It’s both a pioneering cop film and a brilliant examination of a man who is a flawed moral crusader. Serpico along with The French Connection became the blueprint for the gritty realistic cop film we now know and love today.

The film is also very much a product of the time. It’s a film made at the climax of the Vietnam War, Watergate and the death of the Hippie dream. Lumet was always a political director even though his politics never made his films inaccessible to people of the left or the right is evident in the right leaning Tea Party appropriation of the “I’m not gonna take it anymore” line from his later 70s masterpiece Network despite his liberal politics. It could also just be there were fewer films then and people of all political persuasions would see what was new.

Lumet would return to the topic of police corrupt in the New York police force in later films such as Prince of the City and Q & A but he never bettered Serpico on the subject. Pacino and Lumet really were at the top of the game; both star and actor rarely put a put a foot wrong in the 70s. The most amazing thing about the film is that Pacino and Lumet topped it with their next collaboration Dog Day Afternoon but that’s a different story altogether.

★★★★½

Ian Schultz

Masters Of Cinema Blu-ray Review - Roma (1972)

Genre:
Comedy, Drama, World Cinema
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
BD Release Date:
24th February 2014 (UK)
Rating:15
Director:
Federico Fellini
Cast:
Britta Barnes, Peter Gonzales Falcon, Fiona Florence
buy: ROMA (Masters of Cinema) (Blu-ray)
Roma is one of Fellini’s most ambitious films but also one of his most narratively lacking, which at times can be extremely frustrating. It was released the year before the similar but more narrative led Amarcord, which is considered among his finest and rightfully so. Both films however deal with the rise of fascism in Italy during the 30s and both present a snapshot of the place it’s set.

Roma is a fragmented and at times surrealistic look at the city of Rome. Half of the narrative deals with young Fellini arriving in Rome during the Mussolini years. The other half is set during present day, which concerns Fellini (played by himself) making a film about the city of Rome. This is not untypical of Fellini’s films especially 8 ½, which is one of the great examples of film being an imitation of the director’s life.

The film’s lack of narrative can be confusing at times which can become irritating, but Fellini is one of those director’s whose images are so hypnotic that it somehow works. Fellini is also one of the most compassionate directors and he loves every character in his films greatly, no matter the social circumstances of them. Fellini’s films are often called grotesque but I’ve always found they just reflected his reality. It’s always worth noting Fellini was a cartoonist and that shaped how he saw the world, not unlike his obvious successor Terry Gilliam.

It’s Fellini in his most indulgent but even that is much better than most other people’s films, and it’s a fun satirical romp though Rome. The comparison between the Catholic fashion show and the brothel is one of Fellini’s finest moments in a career of many. The disc boosts a great transfer and an interview with Chris Wagstaff (lecturer in Italian cinema) along with roughly 20 minutes of deleted scenes and Italian and international trailers.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz

Eureka! Entertainment Welcome Lindsay Anderson’s If.... To Masters Of Cinema Family

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of IF...., Lindsay Anderson’s quintessential tale of rebellion and winner of the 1969 Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Starring Malcolm McDowell (Clockwork Orange), IF.... was voted the 12th greatest British film ever in BFI’s Top 100 British Films poll. IF....will be released for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK, as part of Eureka!’s award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series on 21 April 2014

Legendary director Lindsay Anderson expanded on the social outrage and intense character focus of his debut This Sporting Life with this combustible tale of teenage insurrection. Winner of the 1969 Palme d’Or at Cannes, If…. was a popular triumph and instantly recognised as a classic.

A caustic portrait of a traditional boys’ boarding school, where social hierarchy reigns supreme and power remains in the hands of distanced and ineffectual teachers and callously vicious prefects. But three junior pupils, led by Mick Travis (played by Malcolm McDowell in the role that would catapult him to becoming one of Britain’s most iconic actors), decide on a shocking course of action to redress the balance of privilege once and for all.

Packed to bursting with its director’s customary passion and experimentation, If…. remains one of cinema’s quintessential tales of rebellion, a radical snapshot of late 60s’ change, and one of the towering achievements of British film in any era. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this masterpiece in a new Blu-ray edition.

Check out the original theatrical trailer for If....

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• New 1080p high-definition restoration
• Commentary with David Robinson and Malcolm McDowell
• More on-disc extras to be announced closer to release!
• 36-PAGE Booklet featuring a new and exclusive essay about the film by David Cairns, rare archival imagery, and more!

“Amongst the greatest British films of the post-war years” – Film 4

“Punchy, poetic pic that delves into the epic theme of youthful revolt” – Variety

“A classic, a movie of real authority” - Philip French, The Observer

As per usual we will be reviewing If.... so stay tuned for that review.

Vintage Wilder, Altman, Ashby, Casavettes Make Up The April - July Masters Of Cinema Line Up

When it comes to their fantastic Masters Of Cinema Imprint Eureka Entertainment never disappoint. Today Eureka! have have announced via their twitter feed their forthcoming releases in The Masters of Cinema series for the months of April, May and June 2014.

    

The slate for 2nd quarter of 2014 has an big focus on American cinema The latest slate of films from  The Masters of Cinema Series brings together some of the most heralded masterpieces of the 20th century. Their is some real gem of releases coming  starting off with some vintage Billy Wilder with a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition of Ace in the Hole , an electrifyingly dramatic critique of society and the media starring Kirk Douglas in one of his very best roles in a career already filled with highlights. Also released in April is the long awaited Blu-ray UK debut of Lindsay Anderson's Palme d'Or-winning If...., which stars Malcolm McDowell in the role that made him famous, as the leader of a rebellious group of youths fighting back against the oppression of their boys' boarding school. 

May sees the long-awaited Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) debut of one of the great classics of the American screen: Robert Altman's stunning, freewheeling Nashville, an epic ensemble tour de force depiction of the Nashville music industry and American society at the end of the Sixties that is as hilarious as it is powerful. Another Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition comes in the form of Elia Kazan's 1947 noir-inflected crime drama Boomerang!, starring Dana Andrews and Lee J. Cobb in powerhouse performances anchoring a gritty procedural rife with murder and corruption.


Hal Ashby's 1971 counter-culture comedy Harold and Maude arrives on Blu-ray this June, and tells the tale of the burgeoning relationship between a 20-year-old and an 80-year-old: it's a razor-sharp, and moving masterpiece that has become considered another of the great classics of the American screen. June also brings the first entry into the Series of a film by American master John Cassavetes in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition — his second-feature, the studio-backed Too Late Blues, which stars Bobby Darin as a jazz musician down on his luck; it's one of the most explosive films of the late studio era.

 

In addition to the new titles being added to the Masters of Cinema Series, Eureka! have also announced the blu-ray release in April of The War Lord, one of the finest historical adventures ever made and starring Charlton Heston  and Richard Boone. May will see the release of Violent Saturday, a coolly riveting crime saga from director Richard Fleischer, available on blu-ray for the first time ever on home video. And June sees the home video release of The Rocket, the multi-award winning debut feature from Kim Mordaunt about a ‘cursed’ twin who guides his family to a new life in Laos. Released in cinemas on 14 March, The Rocket will be released on DVD and Blu-ray formats on 2 June 2014.

As usual we're massive fans of Master Of Cinema releases from Eureka! Video and will cover the great films reviews nearer release dates.You can also catch a special screening of The Rocket at Glasgow Youth Film Festival on 11th February purchase your tickets here

Francesco Rosi’s LE MANI SULLA CITTÀ Joining Masters Of Cinema Family This March

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of LE MANI SULLA CITTÀ [Hands Over The City] starring Rod Steiger (In The Heat Of The Night, The Pawnbroker, On The Waterfront) who is ferocious as a scheming land developer in Francesco Rosi’s blistering work of social realism and the winner of the 1963 Venice Film Festival Golden Lion. LE MANI SULLA CITTÀ [Hands Over The City] will be released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition as part of Eureka! Entertainment's award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series on 17 March 2014.

“one of the very few left wing movies that one can imagine actually reaching the mass audience it's aimed at” – Time Out

Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Francesco Rosi's Le mani sulla città [Hands Over the City] is one of the finest political dramas ever made – a ferocious, invigorating exploration of civic corruption in post-war Naples with the intensity of the best Hollywood thrillers.

Beginning with the collapse of an apartment building in a working-class district, the film zeroes in on the subsequent investigation of responsibility surrounding the disaster. At the centre is Edoardo Nottola (Rod Steiger), a wealthy land developer and council member of the government's ruling party, who is determined to keep his personal and professional interests in the building of new government housing as intertwined as possible.

With sterling performances and visual prowess, Rosi meticulously unpicks the tangled threads of interconnected favours and unscrupulous culture of self-reward within the halls of governmental power. This brilliant exposé (a major influence on countless filmmakers, including Coppola's Godfather films) remains as blazingly topical as the day of its premiere. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this film for the first time on home viewing in the UK in a new Dual-Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- New high-definition 1080p presentation
- Optional English subtitles
- Additional extras to be announced
- PLUS: A booklet containing the words of Francesco Rosi, rare imagery, and more!

Pre-order / buy Le Mani Sulla Citta - (Dual Format Blu-ray &DVD)

As usual we will review this one so stay tuned when Le Man Sulla Citta arrives on 17th March 2014.

Blu-ray Review - Wings (1927)

Genre:
Drama, War, Romance
BD/DVD Release Date:
27th January 2014 (UK)
Distribution:
Eureka! Distribution
Rating:
PG
Director:
William A. Wellman
Cast:
Clara Bow, Charles 'Buddy' Rogers, Richard Arlen
Buy:WINGS (Masters of Cinema) (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD)
William A. Wellman’s silent epic will forever be remembered as the winner of the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture. But this, in itself, can be seen as a bit of a misnomer. For 1927 had two Best Picture categories at the Academy Awards, one for Best Picture, Production, and the other for Best Picture, Unique and Artistic Production. Wings won for Production while the far superior Sunrise, a Song of Two Humans by F.W. Murnau won the award for Unique and Artistic Production, an award that to my ears, but not to those of the Oscar historians, sounds like the better award of the two.

But, to put the Academy Award nit-picking to one side, Wings winning of the Best Picture, Production award could not be more apt as the no expenses spared special effects and superb art direction are the films only saving grace. I say this because the story itself is over-simplistic, overly sentimental, and just the most tiresome type of straightforward, melodramatic Hollywood weepie type storytelling you could possibly imagine. To illustrate how straightforward the storyline is, I am now going to give away the films plot in full.

Mary lives next door to Jack, the boy she loves; she jovially helps him fix up his automobile. She paints a shooting star on the side and says, “D’you know what you can do when you see a shooting star? Well… you can kiss the girl you love.” “Maybe I will,” Jack responds. She purses her lips in anticipation. Jack, however, unaware of this, drives off in search of Sylvia, the gorgeous girl visiting from the big city. She is the one he loves. Unbeknownst to Jack, Sylvia loves another, the town’s rich boy, David. David loves her too. Then war breaks out. Both boys sign up for the air force. Jack visits Sylvia to say his goodbyes and mistakenly takes a keepsake locket meant for David. Then off they go to war.

Jack and David are both stationed at the same barracks. They don’t get along. Eventually a fight breaks out and by the end of it they are the best of friends. Jack still believes that Sylvia loves him. David, however, knows this not to be true but keeps it from his new best friend. Then off to France. They both see combat. Lots of combat. Then Mary makes an appearance in France. She finds Jack, drunk and in Paris on leave. He doesn’t recognise her. She is sent back home. Then comes the “Big Push” and the war nears its end. Jack and David have a fall out over Sylvia’s keepsake and head off into battle. Jack returns. David doesn’t. A distraught Jack rushes heedlessly into the next battle. He shoots down an enemy plane. Flying it was David, who had survived against all odds and escaped from behind enemy lines. He dies. Jack returns home.

Upon returning home Jack catches up with Mary. They sit together on the hood of the car they jovially fixed at the beginning of the film. A shooting star flies across the night’s sky. Jack turns to Mary and says, “Do you know what you can do when you see a shooting star?” Yes, she nods, “You can kiss the girl you love.” They kiss. The film ends.

Now, as classical melodrama goes, the story is nice enough but the film spends two and a half hours to tell it. But what is it all for? The only themes I can discern are that of luck and unrequited love which pop up throughout the film and then there is that overwhelming sense of patriotism that is constantly thrown at the audience. And this is the films biggest problem; it does not know what it wants to be. If Wellman wanted a big patriotic war epic then fine that is what he should have made. And if he wanted to make a beautiful melodramatic weepie about unrequited love then that would have been fine too. But as it stands the film is an epic mess.

★★½☆☆

Shane James

Eureka! Entertainment Re-releasing Lubitsch In Berlin Masters Of Cinema Release This February

Eureka! Entertainment have announced that they will be re-releasing their LUBITSCH IN BERLIN (Fairy-Tales, Melodramas, and Sex Comedies) Box Set in new slim line packaging on 10 February 2014.

Before he arrived in Hollywood to leave his indelible (and inimitable) mark on timeless comedies like Trouble in Paradise and The Shop Around the Corner, Ernst Lubitsch created an expansive body of work in Germany that proved to be as varied in its tone as it was sophisticated in its measure of man and woman. This set collects six recently restored works from the silent phase of Lubitsch's career, and casts new light on the director both as a fully-formed comic master, and as a virtuoso of cinematographic technique.

Featuring some of the biggest stars of the silent cinema including Emil Jannings, Pola Negri, Ossi Oswalda, Paul Wegener, and Harry Liedtke

ICH MÖCHTE KEIN MANN SEIN (1918)
One of the first collaborations between Lubitsch and the exuberant Ossi Oswalda, Ich möchte kein Mann sein [I Wouldn't Like to Be a Man] is a concise sketch of society life in three acts. When Ossi's uncle goes away on a business trip, a new guardian steps in to tame the distractable niece. But Ossi finds a way out of the house and into a grand ball... by way of a brazen cross-dressing scheme -- and triggers what is perhaps Lubitsch's most twisted finale.

DIE PUPPE (1919)
"Four amusing acts from a toy-chest" — so reads the opening title of the comic masterpiece Die Puppe. [The Doll.] adapted by Lubitsch and co-scenarist Hanns Kräly from a libretto by A. M. Wilner (based in turn on a tale from E. T. A. Hoffmann). Ossi Oswalda stars in a double-role as both the mischievous daughter, and automatonic creation, of a wildly coiffed "dollmaker". When a wealthy baron decides the time has come for his prudish nephew to take a wife, an uproariously ribald plot unwinds into what is perhaps the world's first-ever sex-doll comedy.

DIE AUSTERNPRINZESSIN (1919)
As Die Austernprinzessin. [The Oyster Princess.], Ossi Oswalda makes another turn as a plutocrat's rambunctious daughter — now the heiress of a global oyster empire, devoting her wiles once again to the service of man-ipulation. A comic high-point in the master's oeuvre, Die Austernprinzessin. showcases the trademarks of the "Lubitsch Touch" and its ten-fingered dexterity, resulting in a film that is simultaneously clever, concise, and risqué.

SUMURUN (1920)
By turns melodramatic and grotesquely comic, Sumurun brings together performances by star-players Paul Wegener (Der Golem.), Pola Negri, Harry Liedtke, and Ernst Lubitsch himself (in the role of an ultra-pathetic hunchbacked minstrel) for this ensemble tale pulled from the milieu of The Arabian Nights. Featuring hundreds of extras milling through open-air set-pieces and dusky harem-chambers alike, Sumurun demonstrates Lubitsch's ability to transfigure rote romance into vibrant pageant.

ANNA BOLEYN (1920)
Emil Jannings plays King Henry VIII in the story of Anne Boleyn's movement from the outskirts of the court, to the royal boudoir, and off to the chopping-block. Suffused with an atmosphere of entrapment that would not be out of place in later films by Fritz Lang, and prefiguring the stately contretemps in John Ford's Mary of Scotland, Anna Boleyn proceeds with a deathward momentum unique in Lubitsch's oeuvre.

DIE BERGKATZE (1921)
Set in one of Lubitsch's hallmark mythical kingdoms, Die Bergkatze [The Mountain-Lion / The Wildcat] finds Lubitsch in exuberantly expressionistic mode, employing a host of optical masks to create perhaps the most visually audacious comic spectacle of his career. Pola Negri plays the daughter of a band of thieves; seduction of army commander (and audience) ensues. Lubitsch's personal favourite work of all his German films, Die Bergkatze represents a peak in both Lubitsch's silent oeuvre and the silent cinema as a whole.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• Six features across five discs
• A sixth disc containing Robert Fischer's 2006 feature-length documentary Ernst Lubitsch in Berlin: From Schönhauser Allee to Hollywood
• Exclusive concertina score for Die Puppe.
• Liner notes for all six features by film-writers David Cairns, Anna Thorngate, and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

We will be review this extraordinary release and you can pre-orderLUBITSCH IN BERLIN Six films by Ernst Lubitsch, 1918-1921 [Masters Of Cinema] (DVD) [Amazon], Available from 10th February.

Sam Fuller's White Dog Joining The Masters Of Cinema Family In A March Re-Release

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the first UK release of the long-awaited classic White Dog, directed by iconic director Samuel Fuller (The Big Red One, Shock Corridor, Pickup on South Street) and featuring Kristy McNichol, Burl Ives, Paul Winfield, and cameos from Dick Miller, Paul Bartel, Marshall Thompson and Samuel Fuller himself. One of the most controversial films of its era - released briefly in the UK at cinemas and on VHS in the 1980s and rarely seen since, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of all animals: the human being! White Dog will be released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition as part of Eureka! Entertainment's award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series on 24 March 2014.



One of the most controversial American films of the 1980s, Samuel Fuller's White Dog was originally withheld from release in the USA and has been rarely seen since. This head-on examination of racism remains a riveting and startlingly powerful film experience, with superb performances and a brilliant score by the great Ennio Morricone.

When a young actress (Kristy McNichol) adopts a stray white Alsatian she hit with her car, she soon discovers that the dog has been conditioned to attack any black person on sight. Its only chance is Keys (Paul Winfield), an animal trainer focused on breaking the dog's behaviour and finding a way to eradicate its vicious instincts.

An acclaimed and daring late-career highlight for its director, White Dog amply demonstrates Fuller's clear-eyed intelligence, impassioned humanity and filmmaking dynamism. Unavailable in the UK for decades, The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present its premiere in a new Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- New high-definition 1080p uncut presentation, supervised by producer Jon Davison
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired
- More to be announced!
- A booklet featuring the words of Samuel Fuller, rare imagery and more!

We will review  Sam Fuller's White Dog near the time, when it's released on Dual format (blu-ray & DVD) on 24th March.

Pre-order/Buy WHITE DOG (Masters of Cinema) (Dual Format Blu-ray & DVD) [Amazon]

Blu-Ray Review - Il Bidone (1955)

Genre:
Comedy, World Cinema, Drama
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Rating:
12
BD Release Date:
30th December 2013(UK)
Director:
Federico Fellini
Cast:
Broderick Crawford, Richard Basehart, Giulietta Masina
Buy: Il Bidone [Masters of Cinema] Dual Format [Blu-ray & DVD]

Il Bidone is one of Fellini’s early films and came out after the worldwide success of La Strada. It was a big flop in the film’s native Italy and abroad. It was made when Fellini for all purposes was still working in the school of Italian neo-realism. Fellini from the 60s onwards would be known for surrealist satires, which I prefer.

Il Bidone is about a group of small time swindlers (the title translated is The Swindlers) called Augusto (Broderick Crawford), Picasso (Richard Basehart), and Roberto (Franco Fabrizi) who prey on poor farmers and slum dwellers. The role of Augusto was originally intended for Humphey Bogart, which would have been interesting. Fellini always a mischievous director in the opening scene dresses up his swindlers as Catholic priest. They trick some poor farmers out of their money by in exchange for some bogus buried treasure.

The film has a great set piece in which the conmen pretend to be city officials. They go to a slum and pretend to be city officials and scam everyone by saying they will give them a council house if they put down a deposit. It’s perfect shows the lengths that the 3 conmen will go to get a quick buck.

The film isn’t Fellini at his finest see his masterful 8 ½ but it’s a interesting slice of neo-realism which a slight film noir edge. It was criticised by some for just being a crime film but it’s a scathing attack on the greed. It’s worth checking out and as usual Masters of Cinema has done a very nice package.

★★★★☆

Ian Schultz

Eureka! To Give First Oscar Winning Film Wings The Master Of Cinema Treatment

Genre:
Drama, Romance, War
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
DVD/BD Release Date:
27th January 2014 (UK)
Pre-order/Buy Wings:
WINGS (Masters of Cinema) (Dual Format Blu-ray &DVD)

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of the first-ever Best Picture Academy Award (Oscar) winner, Wings starring the exquisite early-Hollywood actress Clara Bow and from the director of such golden-era classics as The Public Enemy, Beau Geste, and Track of the Cat, William A. Wellman. This thrilling effects-laden melodrama of World War I aerial combat will be released in a Dual Format (Bluray &a DVD) edition as part of Eureka! Entertainment's award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series on 27 January 2014.

Forever granted a place in cinematic history by winning the first ever Academy Award for Best Picture in 1927 and the only silent film to do so, William Wellman’s silent epic Wings is more than an Oscar winner, but an epic story of friendship with the type of thrilling action only practical effects can imagine…

Hometown best friends Jack (Charles "Buddy" Rogers) and David (Richard Arlen) compete for the affection of a gorgeous dame (Jobyna Ralston), though Jack doesn't realise that girl next door Mary Preston (Clara Bow) has eyes for him as well. But World War I is soon upon them, so the boys are off to France to fight against the Germans. Meanwhile, Mary follows Jack into enemy lines as a nurse.

Wellman's epic drama combines the most spectacular of stunts with the most classical of melodrama, along with one of Bow's greatest performances and the screen debut of Gary Cooper. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this American classic in a beautiful new restoration on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK as part of a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition.

Watch this fantastic clip from Wings


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Gorgeous newly restored 1080p transfer
• Video documentary Wings: Grandeur in the Sky
• Video documentary Restoring the Power and Beauty of Wings
• Video piece Dogfight!
• 40-PAGE BOOKLET featuring a new essay on the film by critic Gina Telaroli; excerpts from a vintage interview with Wellman; a 1930 profile of stuntmen from the film; a vintage piece on the production of the film; personal anecdotes from Wellman; rare archival imagery; and more!

Fellini's Landmark Roma Getting Master Of Cinema Blu-Ray Release This February

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the home video release of Roma, one of the most famous international hits by Federico Fellini, the most popular Italian director of all time (the director La strada, 8-1/2, Satyricon, and much more). Roma is a landmark film in the history of '70s art-film, and one of Fellini's best known-films to this day. Released on Blu-ray as part of Eureka! Entertainment's award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series on 17 February 2014.

One of the maestro Federico Fellini's greatest '70s works (between Satyricon and The Clowns and Amarcord), Roma [Rome] erupts volcanically as a state-of-the-world pronouncement on what was not only happening within Rome at the tide of the hippies' organic birth and the post-Boom-set that made up his characters of the 1960s films, but also where, and how, his city would move feverishly forward into one of potential futures.

As Fellini himself travels with his crew to document the ring-road circling Rome, with all the natural diversions that might inherently divert a traditional film shoot, we move into episodes that chart the wartime difficulties of Roman life across those fleeting times that chronicle love and life within the modern-day Rome-time, themselves pitted against the archaelogical vestiges of the great city, — and the Catholic church rears its dominance, and we come into a midpoint that positions itself, indeed, between the memory-cinema of Satyricon and Amarcord.

One of the great and bountiful colour-spectacles of Fellini's cinema, almost leapt off toward from the moment of Giulietta of the Spirits, Fellini's Roma remains a passionate testament both to the city that finally claimed him as its son after he left small Rimini, and to the final stage of cinema that he himself would work till the day he died. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Fellini's Roma in a Blu-ray edition for the first time in the UK.



SPECIAL FEATURES

• Gorgeous restored 1080p HD transfer of the film
• Outtakes from the film
• More to be announced closer to the release date
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring the words of Fellini, and more!

We will be reviewing Fellini's Roma nearer the time and time will be 17th Febraury 2014.

Checkmate, Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess To Get Its Masters Of Cinema Home Release January

Genre:
Comedy
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
DVD Release Date:
20th January 2014 (UK)
Director:
Andrew Bujalski
Cast:
Kriss Schludermann, Tom Fletcher, Wiley Wiggins
Pre-Order/Buy [Amazon]:
Computer Chess (Masters of Cinema) (DVD & BLU-RAY DUAL FORMAT)
Eureka! Entertainment have announced the home video release of Computer Chess, the smash indie-hit selected by the 2013 London Film Festival, 2013 Sundance Festival, 2013 South by Southwest, and 2013 Berlin Film Festival. Directed by the "godfather" of the American "mumblecore" movement, Andrew Bujalski, director of Funny Ha Ha, Mutual Appreciation, and Beeswax – and selected by The New York Times this summer as one of 20 Directors to Watch, Computer Chess is poignant, absurd and downright hilarious. Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess follows the trials and tribulations of a group of oddball geniuses over the weekend of a computer chess tournament circa 1980. As they pit their chess programmes against each other’s they're met with right-on new-agers, voracious swingers and a computer that appears to be self aware...

Computer Chess transports viewers to that fleeting moment when the contest between man and machine seemed a little more up for grabs. We get to know the eccentric geniuses possessed of the vision to teach a metal box to defeat man, literally, at his own game, laying the groundwork for artificial intelligence as we know it.

Computer Chess received its UK premiere at the LONDON FILM FESTIVAL, before wowing audiences at the CORK FILM FESTIVAL, CINE-CITY (Brighton Film Festival) & LEEDS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL ahead of its UK VOD and theatrical release on 22 November 2013 where it is currently playing selected cinemas nationwide across the UK in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Nottingham, Sheffield, Bristol, Brighton, Edinburgh, Southampton, Dublin & Cork and more.


Released as a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition as part of Eureka! Entertainment's award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series, Computer Chess will be available on home video from 20 January 2014.

The fourth feature film from the brilliant and maverick American filmmaker Andrew Bujalski, whose previous works include Funny Ha Ha (the early ‘00s film that arguably kicked-off the so-called “mumblecore” movement of American independent cinema), Mutual Appreciation (an acclaimed comic portrait of love and longing in the Brooklyn indie music scene), and Beeswax (which among its principals starred Alex Karpovsky, the filmmaker and actor who has gone on to renown for his own comedy features and his role in Lena Dunham’s Girls).
A boldly intelligent ensemble comedy with a feel and atmosphere that surpass easy comparison, Computer Chess takes place in the early-1980s over the course of a weekend conference where a group of obsessive software programmers have convened to pit their latest refinements in machine-chess and the still-developing field of artificial intelligence (AI) against an assembly of human chess masters. Computer Chess is a portrait not only of the crazy and surreal relationships that come to pass between the abundance of characters who participate in the weekend event (and among whose ranks include Wiley Wiggins, the revered indie-game developer and star of Richard Linklater’s classic Dazed and Confused), but of the very era of early computing itself – and of the first, rudimentary video games – and (if that weren’t enough) of the hopes and insecurities that persisted through the film’s “retro” digital age into the present-day — that semi-virtual, hyper-social, maybe-kind-of-dehumanised landscape that, let’s face it, is our very own era. If that still weren’t enough: it’s also one of the wittiest, most shift-and-cringe-in-your-seat, and entirely LOL-hilarious movies of recent times.
With its radical retro video aesthetic and wry rumination on digitality and where-we-are-today, Computer Chess is a far-reaching and ambitious benchmark for the modern American cinema. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Andrew Bujalski's Computer Chess in its UK home-viewing debut in a Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) release.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• 1080p presentation of the feature film on the Blu-ray
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• Two trailers for the film
• Andrew Bujalski's short 2013 film Analog Goose
• New and exclusive video interviews with Bujalski, actor Wiley Wiggins, and producer Alex Lipschultz
• 56-PAGE FULL-COLOUR BOOKLET featuring a new essay by Craig Keller; a discussion on retro gaming with Wiley Wiggins; a profile on cover artist (and original Atari 2600 packaging artist) Cliff Spohn; a plethora of full-colour photography from the set; and more!
• Additional extras to be announced closer to release

We recently reviewed Computer Chess you can re-read the review by Pierre Badiola here and Computer Chess will be released by Eureka! Entertainment via The Masters Of Cinema on a Dual Format release (Blu-Ray & DVD) on 20th January 2014 , Pre-order/Buy Computer Chess (Masters of Cinema) (DVD & BLU-RAY DUAL FORMAT)

Felini's Il Bidone (1955) To Get Duel Format Masters Of Cinema Release

Genre:
Comedy,Drama, World Cinema, Arthouse
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Release Date:
30th December 2013 (UK)
Format:
Dual (DVD&Blu-Ray)
Rating:
12
Director:
Federico Felini
Cast:
franco fabrizi, richard basehart, broderick crawford, Giulietta Masina,


Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing IL BIDONE, one of the most acclaimed films of the 1950s by legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini (8-1/2, Nights of Cabiria, La Dolce Vita). The first Blu-ray release anywhere in the world of this classic drama, will be released in the UK in a Dual Format (Blu-ray &DVD) edition as part of the Masters of Cinema Series on 30 December 2013.

Federico Fellini followed up his iconic breakthrough La strada with this brilliant drama - an unsparing look at the dog-eat-dog values of post war Italian society that nonetheless manages to navigate expertly between the lightly comic and the emotionally stark to become one of his richest, most moving works.

Il bidone [The Swindle] follows three small-time conmen - the ageing Augusto (Broderick Crawford), "Picasso" (Richard Basehart), and Roberto (Franco Fabrizi) - as they prey upon the poor and gullible for modest gains. However, once Augusto is unexpectedly reunited with his daughter, now struggling with her studies, the moral and emotional demands of his lifestyle begin to take their toll sooner than he had anticipated.

With its masterful set pieces and host of superb performances (including the director's wife and muse Giuletta Masina), this forms the centrepiece of what has been termed Fellini's "Trilogy of Loneliness" (with bookending films La strada and Le notti di Cabiria), and may be the darkest examination of human nature he ever attempted. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present this long-undervalued classic in a new high-definition restoration.



SPECIAL FEATURES

• Beautiful new high-definition master, with the film appearing in 1080p on the Blu-ray
• Optional English subtitles
• Original theatrical trailer
• 36-PAGE BOOKLET featuring the words of Federico Fellini, rare imagery, and more!
• More to be announced!

Pre-order or Buy - Il Bidone [Masters of Cinema] Dual Format [Blu-ray & DVD]

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.”

Red River (1948) Masters Of Cinema Blu-Ray Review

Rating:
PG
Release Date:
28th October 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka! Video
Director:
Howard Hawks
Cast:
Montgomery Clift, John Wayne, Joanne Dru,
buy:Blu-ray
Red River is one of the finest classic Hollywood westerns ever made. The jack of all genres Howard Hawks, who also directed the great western Rio Bravo, directs it. John Wayne starred in both; he probably gives his finest performance in Red River.

The film unlike many pre-60s westerns doesn’t have the racial stereotypes that populate the film of let’s say John Ford. That’s not a dig at John Ford who was a mighty fine director in his own right but Hawks was a much more sophisticated director when it came to his subject matter. Orson Welles once perfectly described the different between Hawks and Ford “Hawks is great prose; Ford is poetry". Ford’s films were more about the poetry and mythology of the west while Hawks’ films were based on the true west.

Red River is based on a news article about the first cattle drive from Texas to Kansas along the Chisholm Trail. It’s set after the end of the American civil war and the South is too poor after loosing the war. Thomas Dunson must lead a group of men including his adopted son Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift) to move his massive herd of cattle to Missouri.

Dunson is determined to get to Missouri but he is told by many people on the way that the railroad has reach Abilene, Kansas. He instantly dismisses these claims because none of the people have actually seen the railroad. He becomes increasingly merciless in his control over the men and naturally a rebellion starts to grow.

The film is expertly told by Hawks with book passages to fill you in, it moves a very solid pace though out. Hawks after all directed one of the fastest moving films ever made His Girl Friday. The cinematography by Russell B. Harlan is outstanding with stunning point of view shots from inside the carriages. The only real flaw in photography is some of the rear projection is bit dodgy at times; it was clearly shot as pick-up after the location shootss. Harlan also shot To Kill a Mockingbird later in his career along with many films for Hawks like The Thing.

John Wayne’s performance is widely considered one of his finest if not his finest. He was never known for his great acting ability but he gives a fascinating psychological portrayal of a tyrant. The only other performance he gave that comes close would be The Searchers. Red River was only Montgomery Clift’s 2nd film role and was the one that really made him a star and it’s a great performance. Walter Brennan is great as usual; he is really the quintessential character actor of the first half of the 20th century he was literally in everything from Bride of Frankenstein, Swamp Water, Meet John Doe, To Have and Have Not and countless westerns.

The film has some hilarious gay subtext to a modern audience. It’s widely known now that Montgomery Clift was bisexual. The scene that makes the gay subtext very overt is when Cherry Valance (John Ireland) appears and is clearly eying up Matt and they have an exchange involving such lines as “Can I see your gun?” and “Would you like to see mine?” Dunson and Matt’s relationship is also rather suspect especially with the line at the end after a fight between the 2 a woman says “Everybody can see you love each other” There is also barely any women in the film and even they appear and the love interest is basically there just to verbalise the tension between Dunson and Matt.

Red River is possibly the finest western of the Golden age of Hollywood with great performance, expert storytelling, fantastic cinematography and priceless gay subtext. Masters of Cinema has done a very fine Blu-ray release even though a few more bonus features would have been nice.

★★★★★

Ian Schultz

Martin Scorsese World Cinema Foundation Volume 1 To Get A Masters Of Cinema Release

Rating:
PG
DVD/BD Release Date:
25th November 2013 (UK)
Distributor:
Eureka! Entertainment
Pre-Order/Buy:
Martin Scorsese Presents: World Cinema Foundation: Volume One - Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) [Masters of Cinema]
Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of MARTIN SCORSESE PRESENTS: WORLD CINEMA FOUNDATION: VOLUME ONE ( Three films preserved, restored, and re-presented by the efforts of the World Cinema Foundation: DRY SUMMER / TRANCES / REVENGE). This is the first release from the official partnership between Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation and The Masters of Cinema Series, and will be released in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) box set edition on 25 November 2013.

Founded in 2007 and overseen by Martin Scorsese, the World Cinema Foundation (WCF) has spearheaded efforts to preserve, restore, and annually re-present neglected masterpieces of world cinema, particularly those from areas of the globe that have not traditionally been highlighted in prevailing evaluations of film, or which have lacked the financial, technical, or governmental infrastructure to ensure their preservation.

As the WCF's mission statement announces: "Cinema is an international language, an international art, but, above all, it is a source of enlightenment. There are wonderful, remarkable films, past and present, from Mexico, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Central Asia that deserve to be known and seen. Composed of filmmakers from every continent, the World Cinema Foundation breathes life into the idea that when a cultural patrimony is lost, no matter how small or supposedly 'marginal' the country might be, we are all poorer for it."

The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to act as the official partner of the World Cinema Foundation for the UK region. In this first in a regular series of Blu-ray box sets, we present the WCF's restorations of masterpieces from Turkey (Erksan's Dry Summer), Morocco (El Maanouni's Trances), and Kazakhstan (Shinarbaev's Revenge), with exclusive introductions by Martin Scorsese for each film in this set.

DRY SUMMER [ SUSUZ YAZ ] | A film by Metin Erksan | 1964 | Turkey | 75 minutes | 1.37:1 original aspect ratio

A brutal naturalist melodrama, Metin Erksan's masterful Dry Summer [Susuz yaz], which won the Golden Bear at the 1964 Berlin Film Festival, returns to the spotlight in a new restoration after decades of suppression by Turkish authorities: an arid fate for one of the most exciting films of the 1960s. Viscerally tactile, unsparing, and even on occasion outright lurid, Dry Summer has been described by filmmaker Fatih Akin as "one of the most important legacies of Turkish cinema."

During a particularly dry rural Turkish summer, a group of local workers enter into a dispute with a landowner when he decides the construction of new irrigation infrastructure must first and foremost service his own property. Wholly rapacious, the landowner foments a private war with his own kin after the brother takes a bewitching young wife. The battle between the factions plays out in stunning set-pieces: a pursuit with pistols amidst grass-stalks and dam-water before the setting sun evokes elements of Renoir (Toni), Ford (The World Moves On), Bergman (The Virgin Spring), and Shindô (Onibaba), while a scene set in a brush thicket wherein the landowner and his aggressors fight it out hatchet-and-club provides drama at least as exciting and gasp-inducing as the climax of Seven Samurai.

Dry Summer's sweat-dappled tone and baked images of promenade and labour recall Mexican-period Buñuel as much as aspects of mid-'50s Italian commercial melodrama and, via the film's backdrop of agrarian agitation and its low angles – which effect a figural relief against blazing, albeit greyish mid-contrast summer skies – post-montage Soviet agitprop. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present the World Cinema Foundation's restoration of Metin Erksan's classic on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.



TRANCES [ TRANSES ] | A film by Ahmed El Maanouni | 1981 | Morocco | 87 minutes | 1.85:1 original aspect ratio

The inaugural film of the World Cinema Foundation's efforts, Trances [Transes] is a picture unlike any other: a poetic, roving documentary-portrait performance-film based around the Moroccan band Nass El Ghiwane.

In this rare, transformational work, Nass El Ghiwane perform their music at concerts at once fervidly rally-like and suffused with the spontaneity of a mass happening; recount their time working alongside the great chaâbi musician Boudjemaâ El Ankis in the 1970s; and generally philosophise and reflect upon life. As Martin Scorsese expressed at the time of the film's re-presentation in 2007: "I became passionate about this music that I heard and I saw also the way the film was made, the concert that was photographed and the effect of the music on the audience at the concert. I tracked down the music and eventually it became my inspiration for many of the designs and construction of my film The Last Temptation of Christ. [...] And I think the group was singing damnation: their people, their beliefs, their sufferings, and their prayers all came through their singing. And I think the film is beautifully made by Ahmed El Maanouni; it's been an obsession of mine since 1981."

True to its title, Trances is an hypnotic, exhilarating masterwork. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Ahmed El Maanouni's film, restored from the original 16mm camera and sound negatives, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.


REVENGE [ MEST' ] | A film by Ermek Shinarbaev | 1989 | Kazakhstan | 96 minutes | 1.37:1 original aspect ratio

Set largely in Korea and China, and spanning the 1910s to 1940s, Ermek Shinarbaev's epic masterpiece unites the resonant pictoriality of certain Far Eastern cinema with a mysticism rooted in the Russian tradition: a fitting and harmonic convergence for this collaboration (one of three) between the Kazakh director and Korean-Russian writer Anatoli Kim.

A rural schoolteacher, Jan, murders a pupil, the young daughter of a family under whom he had previously been a tenant. The father, Caj [pronounced "Tsaiya"], tracks him to China to exact revenge – but at at the moment of vengeance, Caj cannot act. He returns home only to take a concubine, who in turn bears him a son: Sungu, a prodigious composer of verse. At Caj's deathbed, the boy is informed he has been brought into the world purely for the sake of vengeance; he takes an oath to annihilate Jan.

Tonally, Revenge exhibits an extraordinary use of natural light that lends the figures an almost ethereal incandescence in the picture's first half; the second half of the film shifts into a no-less-impressive palate that is ally to late-Tarkovskyan naturalism. A narrative broken into seven chapters, and constructed in a full-circle that creates a visual and spoken summary of Sungu's poetic universe, Revenge is, to quote the critic Kent Jones, "a true odyssey, geographically and psychologically. One of the greatest films to emerge from the Kazakh New Wave, and also one of the toughest." The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Revenge, restored from the original camera negative with the involvement of Ermek Shinarbaev, on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.


SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Glorious new restorations of three neglected masterworks of world cinema, all presented in 1080p HD
• Exclusive video introductions to each film by Martin Scorsese
• 80-page book featuring writing by Kent Jones on Revenge, Bilge Ebiri on Trances, archival documentation and imagery, and more to be announced
• Optional English subtitles on each film
• More features to be announced closer to release date