Kino-Lorber Announces April Product Release Slate

Kino – Lorber announced its April Blu-ray and DVD product line-up this past week. 

First some housekeeping notes.   Writer/director Larry Wade Carrell’s horror tale, Jacob, starring Michael Biehn, Jennifer Blanc and James Hampton, with outstanding performances by Dylan Horne as the title character and Grace Powell as his calming sister Sissy, has been shifted to Apr. 16. 

Additional bonus nuggets have been revealed as well for the DVD and Blu-ray release SKUs.   There will be two commentary options — the first featuring filmmaker Carrell with the aforementioned Horne and Powell; the second, Carrell is joined by producer/cinematographer Stacy Davidson (Domain of the Damned, Sweatshop).

There are also deleted and extended scenes (Carrell provides commentary), four featurettes, including one titled “A Killer Cast,” storyboard-to-scene comparisons (with commentary) and screen tests.

Documentary filmmaker Scott Thurman’s The Revisionaries has been shifted from Mar. 26 to Apr. 30.

Now to the new announcements for the month of April ... Dutch documentary filmmakers Gabrielle Provaas and Rob Schröder open the month with the Apr. 2 DVD debut of Meet the Fokkens, their true-but-very-strange look at the unique (and that’s putting it mildly) lives of 69-year old identical twins Louise and Martine Fokkens.

The ARR is 235 days and domestic ticket sales for the film’s limited arthouse run (it’s also played the festival circuit to some solid reviews) was $28,632.

Some fifty years ago the twins began working the streets of Amsterdam's famed Red Light District, along the way they rid themselves of the pimps, were involved in the formation of the first union for prostitutes and have operated independently ever since.   

Louise, due to arthritis, retired at 67, but Martine continues to work “her window” to an eclectic following … interspersed throughout the film we meet some of her clientele — which range from the kinky and strange to the sad and romantic.   Along the way the filmmakers also let the women tell their interesting stories; share their adventures.  

Also streeting on Apr. 2 is the German-language documentary, How to Make a Book with Steidl from filmmakers Jörg Adolph and Gereon Wetzel.   This is an intimate look at the craftsmanship of legendary book publisher Gerhard Steidl.

Shifting to Apr. 9, Isabelle Huppert stars in the first English-language film from South Korean writer/director Hong Sang-soo (Woman on the Beach, Night and Day, etc.).   Titled In Another Country, the ARR is 151 days and the limited domestic arthouse showcase yielded a box office take of $19,994.

Without the benefit of Kino – Lorber’s DVD release of In Another Country, this delightful romantic comedy would go unnoticed.   After all, how many people live in close proximity to an arthouse venue (few) or the wherewithal to dash off to Cannes for an “in competition” screening of the film (very few)?

Sang-soo’s film has set up an interesting structure to his film as French star Huppert arrives at a seaside resort in South Korea in separate, but three similar film stories.   Her communication with the locals — and her friends — is through the common language of English, which can, in its own way, be both awkward and funny at times.

The film has a certain rhythm to it; lyrical … with some of the actors appearing as different characters in each of the sketches, while some are common throughout the three inner-connected tales.

On Apr. 23, look for Blu-ray and DVD releases of two additional Remastered Editions from the late French filmmaker Jean Rollin’s rich collection of cinematic endeavors.   The two getting special treatment in April are Grapes of Death: Remastered Edition (1978 zombie thriller, starring Marie-Georges Pascal and Brigitte Lahaie) and Night of the Hunted: Remastered Edition (1980, Brigitte Lahaie returns, this time as the victim of a mysterious disease — experiments at a strange asylum — that slowly robs her of ability to remember things).

Closing out the month on Apr. 30 are Blu-ray and DVD editions of writer/director Curtis Harrington’s 1961 (re-released in 1963) atmospheric love story/mystery, Night Tide: Remastered Edition.   In what is eerily similar to one of those One Step Beyond episodes from the period, we meet Johnny (Dennis Hopper in an early starring role) as a sailor on leave, who has a mysterious encounter with a would-be mermaid named Mora (Linda Lawson).   

The film is noted for its Santa Monica pier location shooting — very cool time capsule — and the weirdly mysterious tale about whether the lovely Mora is indeed an actual mermaid who lures her lovers to their deaths when the full moon rises.   This is a real treat for genre fans and film buffs.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report