A generation ago it would
have been Peter Sellers in the starring role, but with the Icarus Films’ Sept.
26 domestic DVD debut of the Distrib Films release of director Roberto Andò’s Viva
la Liberta, you can enjoy Toni Servillo’s marvelous Sellers-like
performance instead.
Icarus Films has been releasing
the Distrib Films (French-based) production inventory for several months now
and this latest entry took awhile to make its transition from its arthouse run
(back in November of 2014) to its home entertainment launch (where people
without access to a first-run arthouse venue can now finally catch it). For the record, the ARR is a whopping 1,054
days.
Toni Servillo (The
Great Beauty, The Confessions, The Girl by the Lake, etc.) has a field
day in the duel role of Italian politico Enrico Oliveri, who takes it on the
lam when things go sour for him to have a fling in France with a now married
former lover (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi), and as his twin brother Giovanni, who
has a screw loose (he’s been institutionalized and is heavily medicated).
When Enrico turns up
missing, party bosses have a panic attack, but Enrico’s chief of staff, Andrea
Bottini (Valerio Mastandrea), comes up with the idea of substituting his twin
brother Giovanni until Enrico can be found.
What could possibly go wrong?
Plenty! Giovanni takes the job of politician to heart
and starts making speeches and public appearances. The speeches are misinterpreted (think:
Peter Sellers in Being There) and suddenly this down and out political leader is
back in favor with the populace. What is
the real Enrico to do? What is Bottini
to do?
Tune in on Sept. 26 and
find out!
Viva la Liberta is presented in Italian with English subtitles.
Also making its DVD debut
on Sept. 26 is the Bullfrog Films production of writer/director Debra Granik’s Stray
Dog, a documentary about Ronnie Hall, who played the role of Thump
Milton in her Oscar nominated film, Winter’s Bone (Nominated for: Best
Picture, Best Actress (Jennifer Lawrence), Best Supporting Actor (John Hawkes)
and for Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini’s Adapted Screenplay).
Ronnie Hall could be
right out of central casting as an aging Vietnam vet, grizzled, hog-riding,
tough as nails, but with a kind heart.
But Ronnie Hall is the real deal and Granik, who likely got to know him
while shooting Winter’s Bone (not confirmed), thought that his story (and the
men and women like him) was worth telling.
We follow him on “Run for
the Wall” with fellow veterans, get to know about his trailer park that he runs
in Missouri, about his wartime experiences (and how they relate to current
veterans), his relationships and more.
Granik uses these touchstones in Hall’s life to the issues that veterans
of all wars face — the indifference of the government bureaucracy, drugs,
suicide and the sense of loss.
Lastly, Icarus Films will
be teaming with The KimStim Collection on Sept. 19 for the DVD debut of Thai
filmmaker Anocha Suwichakornpong’s film release of By the Time It Gets Dark.
This film-within-a-film
takes a look at the 1976 Thammasat University massacre in Bangkok in the form
of a docuemtnary filmmaker named Ann (Visra Vichit-Vadakan) interviewing Taew
(Rassami Paoluengton), a “survivor” of that October night in 1976. But the film goes beyond just the
remembrances of the student uprising to become a surreal experience that encompasses
several different storylines, including that of the filmmaker, a man named Peter
(Arak Amornsupasiri) and yet a third main character that assumes many roles
throughout the narrative (played by Atchara Suwan).
Sequences repeat
themselves, but with a different emphasis, and Ann, the initial detached
documentarian, takes us on a very personal trip that seems to jump about in
time. Telling tales of the past can, as
director Anocha Suwichakornpong expresses here, can be a dicey proposition as
memories fade, memories shift and memories are never quite what they seem.
By the Time It Gets Dark is presented in Thai with English subtitles.
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