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)

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

Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh To Master Stroke Its Way Into A Masters Of Cinema Release

UK Release Date:
23rd September 2013
Distributor:
Eureka Entertainment
Buy/Pre-Order:
2-Disc DVD or Blu-ray
Eureka Entertainment have announced that they will be releasing VAN GOGH, considered by some to be the greatest film by Maurice Pialat, the legendary French filmmaker, seven of whose previous films have been given Masters of Cinema editions (including L'Enfance-nue and A nos amours). Van Gogh, the epic and powerful bio-pic of the final weeks in the life of Vincent van Gogh, will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on 23 September 2013.

One of the greatest films by one of the finest directors of the second half of the 20th century, Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh represents an ambitious and crowning achievement in its portrayal of the master painter's final weeks of life, almost exactly one-hundred years earlier.

Van Gogh, depicted by the remarkable actor/songwriter-singer Jacques Dutronc (Godard's Sauve qui peut (la vie)), has arrived at Auvers-sur-Oise to come under the care of Dr. Gachet (Gérard Séty) for his nervous agitation. Soon after the arrival of Vincent's brother Théo (Bernard Le Coq) and his wife, plein air portraiture and conviviality give way to the more crepuscular moods of brothels and cabarets, and the painter's anguished existence, tossing between money worries and an impassioned relationship with the doctor's teenage daughter, finally meets its terminal scene.

With its loosely factual and wholly inspired treatment of the last period of Van Gogh's life, Pialat's film applies an impressionist touch to the biographical picture — indeed, the filmmaker was himself an accomplished painter, and the personal resonance of the subject matter results in an epic, major late work. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Maurice Pialat's Van Gogh on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK, and also in a special two-disc DVD edition.

Check out The Van Gogh trailer...


SPECIAL BLU-RAY AND ‘TWO-DISC DVD’ EDITIONS:

• Gorgeous new restoration of the film, appearing in 1080p on the Blu-ray
• New and improved optional English subtitles
• Van Gogh (1965) — a short, early documentary about the painter, by Maurice Pialat
• A 10-minute video interview with Pialat from 1991
• A 50-minute video interview with Pialat from 1992
• Video interviews with actors Jacques Dutronc and Bernard Le Coq; director of photography Emmanuel Machuel; and editor Yann Dedet
• Deleted scenes
• Original theatrical trailer
• 56-PAGE BOOKLET containing a new and exclusive essay by critic Sabrina Marques; Jean-Luc Godard's letter to Pialat after seeing the film, followed by Godard's tribute to Pialat upon the director's passing in 2003; copious newly translated interviews with Maurice Pialat; images of Pialat's canvasses; rare imagery; and more!

Here's some quotes about Van Gogh...

"Pialat is one of the finest living French filmmakers, and Van Gogh, his tenth feature, is arguably one of his best." –Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader in 1993

"An extraordinary film....We flatter ourselves that if we were around in 1890, we would have recognized Van Gogh's genius and changed his fate. But we probably wouldn't have – just as we probably don't recognize the Van Goghs among us now. In this sad, brilliant film, Pialat gives us a terrible inkling of why." –Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times

We will be hoping to review this closer to the release, so stay tuned. Van Gogh will be released in UK&Ireland on 23rd September on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Terry Gilliam's The Time Bandits Will Be Stealing Your TV Screens This Month

Release Date:
26th August 2013 (UK)
Stars:
Craig Warnock, David Warner, John Cleese, Ralph Richardson
Buy The Time Bandits:
DVD or Blu-ray

To millions he was one member of the iconic comedy team of Monty Python, but to the rest of us The Time Bandits was the film that established Terry Gilliam as more than the Python's resident animator. This month Arrow Video are releasing The Time Bandits digitally remastered on DVD & Blu-Ray chock full of extras too!

Time Bandits is a delightfully inventive children’s fantasy about young Kevin (Craig Warnock) who finds himself travelling through holes in the space-time continuum in the company of half a dozen fractious dwarfs.

Along the way, he encounters Agamemnon (Sean Connery), Robin Hood (John Cleese), Napoleon (Ian Holm) and winds up as a passenger on the Titanic, although not necessarily in that order. But is this just random entertainment laid on for history fan Kevin’s benefit, or part of a wider struggle between the forces of good (Ralph Richardson) and evil (David Warner)?

At the time, this was a rare example of a small-budget British film successfully taking on American blockbusters. Now, it's a much-loved fantasy classic bursting with inspired images and ideas: Gilliam and co-writer Michael Palin (who also appears) are clearly enjoying themselves as much as their audience.



Seeing this is about to get released has unleashed some nice childhood memories and yes kids I'm old enough to remember watching this.Whilst it was typical Gilliam style surreal, silly, fantastical it a Time Bandits essentially a kids film. Though it officially released July 1981 in UK depending where you lived it could take upto 2 years for it to arrive in your local cinema sometimes even longer for the home release! So kids and cinephiles of today you don't realise how lucky you are withing months cinema then home release!

Special Features

- Brand new 2k-resolution restoration of the film from the original camera negative, approved by director and co-writer Terry Gilliam
- Original uncompressed PCM Stereo 2.0 and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio options
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Chasing Time Bandits: A new interview with Terry Gilliam
- Writing the Film that Dares Not Speak its Name: A new interview in which Michael Palin discusses co-writing and acting in Time Bandits
- The Effects of Time Bandits: A new interview in which Kent Houston, founder of the Peerless Camera Company, discusses Time Bandits’ optical effects
- Playing Evil: A new featurette in which actor David Warner remembers producer George Harrison and playing Evil in Time Bandits
- The Costumes of Time Bandits: A new interview with costume designer James Acheson
- The Look of Time Bandits: A new interview with production designer Milly Burns
- From Script to Screen – A new animated featurette in which Milly Burns takes us through her production notebooks, locations photographs and storyboards revealing how twentieth century Morocco was transformed into Ancient Greece
- Original Trailer
- Restoration Demonstration
- Collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic James Oliver


The Time Bandits is also getting a limited cinema re-release on Friday 9th August, here's where you can catch it:

Prince Charles Leicester Square
Harbour Lights Picturehouse, Southampton
The Belmont Picturehouse, Aberdeen
Cameo Picturehouse, Edinburgh
Picturehouse at FACT, Liverpool
Hackney Picturehouse
Ritzy Picturehouse, Brixton
Exeter Picturehouse
Cinema City, Norwich
City Screen Picturehouse, York
Arts Picturehouse, Cambridge
Dukes at Komedia, Brighton
Curzon HMV Wimbledon

The Time Bandits will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on 26th August.

BFI Announces It's DVD & Blu Ray Releases For Remaining Part of 2013

This autumn the BFI will make available on DVD a superb collection of rare and previously unseen ghost and horror titles from the BBC archives. Released as part of the BFI’s GOTHIC: THE DARK HEART OF FILM blockbuster project (www.bfi.org.uk/gothic), these long-unseen gems will delight many fans of British horror and classic TV drama.

Highlights in October include:

• The legendary Play for Today drama Robin Redbreast (1970) – an unsettling tale of ‘folk horror’ that’s considered a precursor to 1973’s The Wicker Man (DVD)
• The three surviving, terrifying episodes of the long-unseen 1972 ghost story anthology Dead of Night (DVD)
• Classic Ghost Stories (1986), five spine-tingling tales from the pen of MR James, presented by Robert Powell (DVD)
• An extended six-disc repackage of the best-selling BBC Ghost Stories for Christmas (DVD)

Highlights in November include:

• A BFI Flipside Dual Format Edition presentation of the BBC’s Schalcken the Painter (1979). This highpoint of BBC arts filmmaking will be presented in High Definition from a rare 16mm source recently discovered in the BFI National Archive
• The 1977 BBC gothic horror anthology Supernatural starring a host of British acting legends including Billie Whitelaw, Robert Hardy, Denholm Elliot and Jeremy Brett (DVD)

Other Gothic releases include:

• Scary Stories – a collection of creepy films from The Children’s Film Foundation featuring The Man From Nowhere (1976), Haunters of the Deep (1984) and Out of the Darkness (1985) (September 2013, DVD)
• A three-disc Dual Format special edition of Rupert Julian / Lon Chaney’s original The Phantom of the Opera (1925) (November 2013)
• The BFI National Archive digital re-mastering of Thorold Dickinson’s dark psychological drama Gaslight (1940) (November 2013, Dual Format Edition)

October also sees the long-awaited Blu-ray premiere of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) – presented as a steelbook exclusively at www.zavvi.com .

Rescheduled releases for December include the previously announced Dual Format Editions of Roberto Rossellini’s Stromboli (1950) and Journey to Italy (1954), and Alain Robbe-Grillet’s Trans-Europ Express (1967) and Successive Slidings of Pleasure (1974).

Click here to see a picture gallery of packshots along with the news: http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/announcements/bfi-dvdblu-ray-releases-announced-autumn-2013

Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) on BFI Blu-ray & DVD

Director:
Lotte Reiniger
Dual DVD Release Date:
19th August 2013 (UK)
Buy:
The Adventures of Prince Achmed (DVD + Blu-ray)
On 19 August 2013, the BFI will release Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed (Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed) on Blu-ray for the first time in a Dual Format Edition (includes a DVD disc) with a newly recorded narration and the original orchestral score, along with a selection of short films and an illustrated booklet with contributors including Marina Warner.

Three years in the making, this beautiful 1926 silhouette animation brings to life magical tales from the Arabian Nights. The earliest surviving animated feature film – preserved in the BFI National Archive – it has been hailed as one of the world’s most innovative and influential animations.

Handsome young Prince Achmed is brave and eager for adventure, so when the most powerful sorcerer in the world challenges him to fly a magic horse, Achmed plunges headlong into a series of exciting escapades which take him from Baghdad to China via the enchanted spirit lands of Wak-Wak.

Made in card, cut entirely by hand, and then manipulated using sheets of lead joined by wires, Reiniger’s exquisite shadow characters move intricately through colourful worlds of demons, witches, beautiful princesses and flying castles. The incredible talent and creativity shown here has influenced the animation in other films including Snow White, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and The Sword in the Stone.

Special Features

• Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition
• Original orchestral score by Wolfgang Zeller
• Newly recorded alternative narration based on Lotte Reiniger's own translation of her German text Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, spoken by actress Penelope McGhie
• The Adventures of Dr Dolittle (Lotte Reiniger, 1928, 30 mins): a series of three short films based on the classic stories by Hugh Lofting
• The Flying Coffer (Lotte Reiniger, 1921, 8 mins): a poor young fisherman tries to rescue the Emperor of China's daughter who is imprisoned in a sky high pagoda
• The Secret of the Marquise (Lotte Reiniger, 1922, 2 mins): an early advert for Nivea skin care products
• The Lost Son (Lotte Reiniger, 1974, 14 mins): the New Testament parable animated in Lotte Reiniger's inimitable style
• The Star of Bethlehem (Lotte Reiniger, 1956, 18 mins): the nativity story with music by Peter Gellhorn, performed by the Glyndebourne Festival Chorus
• Illustrated booklet with newly commissioned essays by Jez Stewart and Philip Kemp and a contribution by Marina Warner

Frightfest 2012 Thriller The Seasoning House UK Home Release Coming This August

Buy: [DVD] [Blu-ray]

The Seasoning House arrives on DVD & Blu-ray 12th August and is a must-own for fans of revenge thrillers at their best.The film picked up some positive reviews at Film4 Frightfest in 2012 (our review is here) and now it will be yours to own.

Directed by special-effects maestro Paul Hyett (The Woman in Black, Eden Lake, The Descent), the film was highly anticipated and didn’t disappoint when it premiered at last year’s Frightfest, where it was described as “nerve shredding” and “exceptional.”

Starring talented British newcomer Rosie Day (Ironclad 2) in the lead role of captive Angel, and with support from Sean Pertwee (Dog Soldiers, Wild Bill) Kevin Howarth (The Last Horror Movie, Gallowwalker) and Anna Walton (Hellboy 2, Mutant Chronicles) The Seasoning House is a dark, gripping exploration of a young orphaned girl’s psychological terror as she is kidnapped and enslaved by soldiers.

SYNOPSIS: Set in the war-torn Balkans, The Seasoning House is a grim and soulless place where young girls are bought and sold for men’s pleasure. Here we meet Angel (ROSIE DAY), a young, mute, orphaned girl enslaved by Viktor (KEVIN HOWARTH). Unbeknownst to her master, she moves between the walls and crawlspaces of the house – silently observing, learning and planning for her escape. When her closest confident is savagely killed, Angel can no longer contain her rage and sets out through both ingenuity and brutality to seek justice.

The Seasoning House will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray 12th August 2013.

You Need To Fight If You Want To Escape (Flukt) This July

The director and star of the critically acclaimed Cold Prey team up once again for a thrilling, action-packed adventure that marries the best of The Hunger Games and Mad Max as a young girl fights for survival against brutal warriors in a disease-ridden medieval world.This July Escape (Flukt) will arrive on DVD in UK in July

Ten years after the Black Plague ravaged their country, a poor family sets out on a journey for a new home. On a remote mountain pass, they are attacked by a band of merciless killers led by the vicious Dagmar (Ingrid Bolsø Berdal) and the only one spared is young Signe (Isabel Christine Andreasen), who is taken hostage. At the gang’s camp she meets fellow kidnap victim Frigg (Milla Olin) and learns that a terrible fate awaits her. There is nothing for it but to escape, but Dagmar will not let Signe go that easily…

Escape is like The Hunger Games stripped bare – a strong heroine, fast-paced action, awesome archery, but not a love triangle in sight! It’s a beautifully filmed, uncompromising tale of survival-against-the-odds with top performances and stunning scenery that’ll leave you wanting a trip to Norway!

Escape(Flukt)is directed Roar Uthaug (Cold Prey) and stars Ingrid Bolsø Berdal (Cold Prey, Cold Prey 2), Kristian Espedel aka Gaahl (frontman of Gorgoroth, Trelldom and Gaahlskagg) and the film arrives on DVD in UK on 29th July.

Special Features:

• Visual Effects
• 
  
• Deleted Scenes
• 
  
• Bloopers

BFI To Release A London Trilogy: The Films of Saint Etienne (2003-2007) On DVD In July

On 15 July the BFI will release A London Trilogy: The Films of Saint Etienne 2003-2007, bringing Finisterre, What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? and This is Tomorrow together on one DVD for the first time. The trilogy is accompanied by a selection of rare and previously unavailable short films.

From a beautifully conceived film-poem and an imaginative exploration of the Lower Lea Valley to an uplifting documentary on a London landmark, the collaborations between electronic indie trio Saint Etienne and filmmaker Paul Kelly (Lawrence of Belgravia) document London's ever-changing environment and landscapes with music by the band.

Finisterre (2003), directed by Paul Kelly and Kieran Evans, is a homage to London featuring a host of well-known voices including Mark Perry, Julian Opie, Vic Godard and Lawrence who’ve made the capital their own, soundtracked by songs from the Saint Etienne album of the same name.

What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day? (2005) follows paperboy Mervyn Day on his round, tracing the fascinating hidden history of East London’s Lower Lea Valley in the years before it was redeveloped to become the Olympic Park. Guest voices include David Essex and Linda Robson.

Commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall to mark its renovation and grand reopening, This is Tomorrow (2007) lovingly records the immense labour and attention to detail that went into the refurbishment of one of London’s most distinguished concert venues.

The additional short films are:

• Today’s Special (2004): three shorts about London’s disappearing cafés
• Banksy in London (2003): outtakes from Finisterre documenting the artist’s work, some of which is no longer in situ
• Monty the Lamb (2006): a day in the life of Monty, mascot for North London’s Hendon FC
• Seven Summers (2012): Sarah Cracknell narrates this follow up to What Have You Done Today Mervyn Day?
• The Other South Bank (2008): a look at Teeside’s South Bank. 

Pre-order/Buy:A London Trilogy: The Films of Saint Etienne 2003-2007 [DVD]


Also included in a 32-page illustrated booklet with an introduction by Paul Kelly and new essays by Bob Stanley, Sukhdev Sandhu, Owen Hatherley and Tom Dyckhoff.

The DVD will be a launched with a BFI &Caught by the River screening event and Q&A attended by the band, at Rough Trade East, Brick Lane, E1 on Friday 12 July at 6.30pm which is free and open to all. More details here: Rough Trade

Monster Pictures To Release The Long Awaited Little Deaths

Monster Pictures have announced the release of shocking and gruesome horror anthology Little Deaths, out on DVD and download from 12th August 2013.

Three boundary-pushing tales of sex and death from acclaimed British horror directors Sean Hogan (‘The Devil’s Business’), Andrew Parkinson (‘I, Zombie’), and Simon Rumley (‘ABCs of Death’, ‘Red White and Blue’, ‘The Living and the Dead’)

In House And Home, Sean Hogan’s opening segment, a ‘good Samaritan’ couple invite a pretty young homeless girl into their house for a meal and a bath. But when they reveal their perverted motive behind the charitable act, they soon discover that they are not the only ones with a dark hidden agenda for the night’s events.

Andrew Parkinson’s sci-fi horror segment Mutant Tool takes experimental drugs treatment to a whole new level. When a former prostitute visits a shady doctor and is given some tablets, she suffers headaches and nightmares. She soon learns that the unorthodox ‘treatment’ is preparing her for a sinister new role in a nightmare-ish medical experiment.

Simon Rumley’s Bitch completes the unholy trilogy. When a young woman’s kinky sex games and abusive character push her submissive boyfriend too far, she finds herself the victim of her worst fears – her phobia of dogs – and the sick revenge that her boyfriend has planned for her.

Pre-Order/Buy: Little Deaths ( House and Home / Mutant Tool / Bitch ) On DVD