For the period ending September 27, 2019 ... New DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD selections added to the DVD & Blu-ray Release Report's database

 

DVD New Additions

 

Alpha Video (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Angel's Descent, Avenger, Broken Silence (silent-1922), Fabulous Dorseys, Idol Dancer (silent-1920), Independent Cult Horror Double Feature (2 film set: The Fungus Among Us, Slimoids), Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia: Bob Wilkins Halloween Special, Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia: Eegah!, Mr. Lobo's Cinema Insomnia: Haunted House Special, Murder Mystery Double Feature (2 film set: Bullet Scars, Night for Crime), Tate, Volume 3 and Trapped in Tia Juana

Borderline Media Group, LLC

09/24/19 — Released Christmas Lights #3

Cinedigm Entertainment

09/17/19 — Released Firecrackers

09/24/19 — Released Awake and Madness in the Method

Cledley Productions (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Minga and the Broken Spoon

DreamScape Media, LLC

09/24/19 — Released Soldier for Equality

Dynamic

09/24/19 — Released Verdi: Le Trouvere (2 disc set)

EM3, LLC (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Two Gary Cooper Classics (2 film set: Meet John Doe, A Farewell to Arms) (2 disc set)

EWTN

09/24/19 — Released @ Home with Jim & Joy: Father Gregory Pine - What Thomas Aquinas Can Still Teach to a Modern World, @ Home with Jim & Joy: Jim and Joy Pinto Answer Viewer Calls, Questions, And E-Mails Live From the Pinto House, Called to Communion, EWTN Live: James Kelty / Faith on the American Frontier EWTN Premier and World Over with Raymond Navarro: Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner / Sam Brownback / Nile Gardener / Deal Hudson

10/01/19 — Sets @ Home with Jim & Joy: Jim and Joy Pinto Answer Viewer Calls, Questions, And E-Mails Live From the Pinto House, Called to Communion, Journey Home: Mark and Desiree Hausam - Former Orthodox Presbyterians and Life on the Rock: Father Mike Schmitz / 2019 Seek/ Focus Conference

Eastern Star

09/24/19 — Released VS Knight Lamune & 40 Fresh

Film Movement

09/24/19 — Released Third Wife (Vietnamese) (ARR of 130 days; box office: $84,933)

Final Frontiers (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Screening Room: Season One (2 disc set)

Get Digital World (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released 9 Profit Pillars Training Course, Attracting High Paying Customers Made Simple, Building Your First WordPress Website For Dummies, Javascript & PHP For Your Website For Dummies, Learn How To Jazz Up Your Website Using PHP & Javascript, Learning Gutenberg, Make Your Own Twitter-Like Micro Blog …  Today!, PHP & Javascript For Your Website, Made Super Simple,  Premium WordPress Training Course (2 disc set), Programming Arduino Made Easy, REAL Ways Of Making REAL Money Online, Screencasting: Free & Powerful Tools That Work For You and WordPress for Dummies (2 disc set)

Grasshopper Film

09/24/19 — Released Buddy (ARR of 186 days; box office: $29,838)

10/29/19 — Sets William Eggleston in the Real World

11/05/19 — Sets Bread Factory (2 disc set) (ARR of 375 days; box office: $15,431) and Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin

11/26/19 — Sets Black Mother (ARR of 263 days; box office: $15,431)

Gravitas Ventures (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released 3 Bears Christmas, 7 Days to Vegas, 7 Deadly Sins (aka: Charlie Charlie) and Field

Hallmark Channel

09/17/19 — Released Love Takes Flight

09/24/19 — Released Good Witch: Season Five (2 disc set)

Hope of the World (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released When You Pass the Test

Lionsgate Home Ent.

10/15/19 — Sets 3 From Hell (ARR of 32 days; box office: $1,809,226)

11/05/19 — Sets Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (ARR of 88 days; box office: $65,785,234)

11/12/19 — Sets 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (ARR of 88 days; box office: $21,802,672), Farewell (ARR of 123 days; box office: $17,347,403) and Peanut Butter Falcon (ARR of 95 days; box office: $16,758,969)

I-Cine

09/24/19 — Released An Nao Cung Xu (10 disc set), Giai Thoai Ve Hong Gil Dong (15 disc set) and Tinh Mau Tu (15 disc set)

Icarus Films

11/26/19 — Sets Olivia (French)

Image Entertainment

09/24/19 — Released Score to Settle

Kino Lorber

09/24/19 — Released Bigamist, Heart in Winter (French), Hitch-Hiker, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (French), Never Fear, Not Wanted, This Magnificent Cake (French) and War at Home

MVD Entertainment Group

12/13/19 — Sets Monochrome: Black, White & Blue

Movie Detective (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Al-Mummia (Arabic), Chicken Feed for Little Birds (French), I Tre Ladri (Italian), Innamorato Pazzo (Italian), Skeleton on Horseback (Czech) and Utoszezon (Hungarian)

09/24/19 — Released Babette Goes to War (French), Even the Wind is Afraid (Spanish), Les Vierges (French), Mio Figlio Professore (Italian), Two Hearts in Waltz Time (German) and Un Etrange Voyage (French)

Naxos

09/24/19 — Released Rossini: Ricciardo e Zoraide (2 disc set) and Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker - The Royal Ballet

Pith-e Productions (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Safety Geeks: SV1 - Season One

Plets Express (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Northwest Shortline & Regional Railroad, Volume 1: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming

Provident Films

10/08/19 — Sets Chonda Pierce: Unashamed

Rarefilmsandmore.com (MOD)

09/17/19 — Released Adele Spitzeder (German), Hurra for Andersons (Norwegian), Hyppolit the Butler (Hungarian), Incident at Vichy, Madchen Mit Offenen Lippen (German) and Wiener Geschichten (German)

09/24/19 — Released Einer Von Uns Beiden (German), Embrace (French), Ferien Mit Piroschka (German), Good Time Girls (French), Images in a Convent (Italian), Intimate Relations and Moon Over Morocco (French)

Screamtime Films (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Filming of Death Metal Zombie, Reel Terror and Zombiefied: 10th Anniversary Edition (2 disc set)

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Anarchy Championship Wrestling: From Innocent to Insanity 13 - Austin, TX, Anarchy Championship Wrestling: Nothing Is As Real As a Dream: Queen Of Queens - Austin, TX, Anarchy Championship Wrestling: Peace, Love and Anarchy 2019 - Austin, TX, C*4 Wrestling: Undisputed - Ottawa, CN, Game Changer Wrestling: Lights Out - Nashville, TN, H2O Wrestling: Opportunity Knocks 4 - Williamstown, NJ, IWA Mid-South: Working for the Weekend - Jeffersonville, IN, On Point Wrestling: Brain Trust - Williamstown, NJ and On Point Wrestling: Survival of the Sickest IV - Williamstown, NJ

So Cal Cinema Studios (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Clowns of Halloween (aka: Night of the Clown) and Matinee Madness (3 short films: Butcherhouse (aka: Meathook Massacre II), Deadly Dummy (aka: The Dummy 2) and Growl! (aka: Blood Claws)

Sony Pictures Home Ent.

11/12/19 — Sets Angry Birds Movie 2 (ARR of 88 days; box office: $40,564,306)

Strand Releasing

09/24/19 — Released Yomeddine (Arabic) (ARR of 116 days; box office: $11,308)

10/08/19 — Sets Feliz Año Tijuana (Spanish)

10/22/19 — Sets Other Story (Hebrew) (ARR of 116 days; box office: $125,957)

11/12/19 — Sets Mom + Mom (Italian)

12/03/19 — Sets Ground Beneath My Feet (German) (ARR of 130 days; box office: $18,558)

TRP Music (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Great Kat: Chef Great Kat Bakes German Apple Strudel With Mozart

20^th Century-Fox Home Ent.

09/24/19 — Released Art of Racing in the Rain (ARR of 88 days; box office: $26,044,634)

Ultra DVD (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Chekka Chivantha Vaanam (Tamil), K.G.F: Chapter 1 (Tamil), Vada Chennai (Tamil) and Viswasam (Tamil)

Uni Music – Gaither Music Group

09/24/19 — Released Jimmy Fortune: God & Country

Blu-ray New Additions

 

Acorn Media

09/24/19 — Released Place Called Home: Season 5 (3 disc set)

Arrow Video

12/03/19 — Sets Slaughterhouse-Five

Borderline Media Group, LLC

09/24/19 — Released Christmas Lights #3

Cinedigm Entertainment

09/24/19 — Released Awake and Madness in the Method

Duke Video USA

09/24/19 — Released Le Mans: Official Review 2019

Dynamic

09/24/19 — Released Verdi: Le Trouvere

Eastern Star

09/24/19 — Released Kyo Kara Maoh!: The Complete Second Season (4 disc set) and Lupin III: Goemon's Blood Spray

FUNimation

09/24/19 — Released AOKANA: Four Rhythm Across the Blue (2 disc set), Centaur's Life; The Complete Series (2 disc set)), Dragoner Academy: The Complete Series (2 disc set), Love Live! Sunshine!!: The Complete Series (4 disc set), Magical Girl Raising Project: The Complete Collection (2 disc set) (with Digital Copy), Love Live! Sunshine!!: The Complete Series (4 disc set) and One Piece:  Episode of East Blue: Luffy and His Friends? Great Adventure (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack)

Icarus Films

11/26/19 — Sets Olivia (French)

Image Entertainment

09/24/19 — Released Score to Settle

Kino Lorber

09/24/19 — Released Bigamist, Heart in Winter (French), Hitch-Hiker, Nelly and Monsieur Arnaud (French), Never Fear, Not Wanted, This Magnificent Cake (French) and War at Home

Lionsgate Home Ent.

09/24/19 — Released Pavarotti (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy) and The Tracker (with Digital Copy)

10/15/19 — Sets 3 From Hell (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

11/05/19 — Sets Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

11/12/19 — Sets 47 Meters Down: Uncaged (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy), Farewell (with Digital Copy) and Peanut Butter Falcon (with Digital Copy)

Lionsgate Home Ent. (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Skin

MPI Home Video

09/24/19 — Released Summer in Genoa

Naxos

09/24/19 — Released Bruckner: Symphony No. 2, Rossini: Ricciardo e Zoraide and Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker - The Royal Ballet

Olive Films

09/24/19 — Released Bucket of Blood

Plets Express (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Northwest Shortline & Regional Railroad, Volume 1: Montana, Idaho, Wyoming

Sentai FilmWorks

09/24/19 — Released Tada Never Falls in Love: Complete Collection (2 disc set)

Severin Films, LLC

09/24/19 — Released Killer Crocodile (Italian) and Killer Crocodile: Limited Edition (2 film set: Killer Crocodile, Killer Crocodile 2) (2 disc set) (Italian)

Shout! Factory

09/24/19 — Released Fear No Evil, Going My Way: 75th Anniversary Edition, Great Waldo Pepper and Vampires: Collector’s Edition

Smart Mark Video (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Game Changer Wrestling: Lights Out - Nashville, TN

Sony Pictures Home Ent.

11/12/19 — Sets Angry Birds Movie 2 (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Sony Pictures Home Ent. (MOD)

09/24/19 — Released Count Three and Pray, Major League II, Major League: Back to the Minors and Skatetown U.S.A.

20^th Century-Fox Home Ent.

09/24/19 — Released Art of Racing in the Rain (with Digital Copy)

Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.

09/24/19 — Released 101 Dalmatians: The Signature Collection (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy) and Sleeping Beauty: Anniversary Edition (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Warner Bros. Home Ent.

10/15/19 — Sets Teen Titans Go! Vs. Teen Titans (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Warner Bros. Home Ent. (MOD)

10/08/19 — Adds From Beyond the Grave and Shazam!: The Complete Live Action Series (4 disc set)

10/15/19 — Sets Fearless Vampire Killers

10/22/19 — Adds Days of Wine and Roses and Don't be Afraid of the Dark

10/29/19 — Sets Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish (Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

4K Ultra HD New Additions

Lionsgate Home Entertainment

10/15/19 — Sets 3 From Hell (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

11/05/19 — Sets Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Sony Pictures Home Ent.

11/12/19 — Sets Angry Birds Movie 2 (4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack) (with Digital Copy)

Icarus Films' 4K Film Restoration Of French Filmmaker Jacqueline Audry’s Olivia Available On Both DVD And Blu-ray On Nov. 26

Icarus Films, working with France’s premiere film distribution source, Distrib Films, announced this past week that French filmmaker Jacqueline Audry’s 1950 (domestic 1954) film adaptation of Dorothy Bussy’s groundbreaking novel, Olivia, will be available as both DVD and Blu-ray editions on Nov. 26.

Where does one begin?   With the author of the work?   With the filmmaker?  With the film itself?   There are so many elements to the presentation of this French film classic, both as a recent cinema revival and as a 4K film restoration for the home entertainment package media marketplace, that just a simple announcement does not do it justice.

Let’s begin with the author of the work, Dorothy Bussy.   She was born as a member of the British aristocracy (the daughter of Sir Richard Strachey) in the immediate aftermath of America’s Civil War.   She lived through the Victorian Age, The Great War and World War II … the arrival of flight, the atomic age and more.    

She was a noted translator of foreign works, including the first translations of Freud (among others).   She was a school teacher (Eleanor Roosevelt was one of her students), her brother was Lytton Strachey (a founding member of the Bloomsbury Group and author) and Dorothy married well-below her station (a French working-class artist by the name of Simon Bussy — a contemporary of Matisse), which greatly displeased her parents.

Her one and only novel, “Olivia,” was published after World War II in 1949, with none other than Virginia Woolf handling the publishing aspects (a contemporary of her brother and fellow founding member of the Bloomsbury Group).   Her novel, was based — as legend has it — on her own experiences at boarding school in France.

It is here that we pick up the film itself, with Jacqueline Audry doing the direction and her sister, Colette Audry, handling the adaptation of Bussy’s novel for the screen.    For cinematic history, Jacqueline Audry became something of a footnote, with many of her films falling by the wayside as time passed.    The reason was simple enough, she did not participate in the rise of the French New Wave, which swept aside the more traditional (“traditional” in the sense of filmmaking and storytelling) French filmmakers.

Olivia, which was released in France in 1950 and arrived on these shores in 1954, was recently restored and re-released to the domestic arthouse circuit this past summer.

The film follows the boarding school “encounters” of British student by the name of Olivia (Marie-Claire Olivia — The House of Dune, The Red Inn … she then disappeared from the world of cinema, with rumor being that “Marie-Claire Olivia” was not her real name, but one adopted for the film Olivia), who arrives at a prestigious French finishing school (her mother once attended) in the middle of something of an internecine battle between two rival camps, one supporting Mademoiselle Julie (Edwige Feuillère — Lucrezia Borgia, The Emigrant, Wicked Duchess, etc.) and other on the side of Mademoiselle Cara (Simone Simon — Cat People, The Curse of the Cat People, La Bête Humaine).   Julie and Cara are perhaps former lovers.

During her stay at the school, Olivia will ping-pong between the two women, she will fall in love with Julie, be looked-upon by Cara (when not suffering from an unknown malady), a death will occur and despite the taboos of the relationship between a student and a teacher life will go on.

Olivia, a “lost” treasure, available on either DVD or Blu-ray (4K restoration) from Icarus Films on Nov. 26 … for cinephiles, this is a date on the calendar that is well worth keeping.   

MVD Entertainment Group Tabs Dec. 13 For The DVD Debut Of Documentary Filmmaker Jon Brewer’s Monochrome: Black, White & Blue

MVD Entertainment Group has tabbed Friday, Dec. 13, as the DVD debut date for prolific music-themed documentary filmmaker Jon Brewer’s latest, Monochrome: Black, White & Blue.

Brewer divides the history of “The Blues” in America into three unique periods, beginning with an overview of the arrival of slaves and many diverse African music styles.   From the mid-1700s through the Civil War, slaves in the south developing their own “code languages” (out of necessity to communicate across multiple languages), including the “field holler.”   He explores the roots of Voodoo and gospel music during this period.

Following the Civil War and for roughly a full-century, the blues migrated northward and with the arrival of the Jazz era, performers such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Willie Dixon, B.B. King (and more) made the blues a mainstream feature of American culture.

The last segment of Brewer’s exploration of the blues in America is more political in nature.

Piecing the patchwork of history together are interviews and segments with the likes of Morgan Freeman, Chuck Berry, Bill Wyman, B.B. King, Jake Bugg, Carlos Santana, Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray and many more.   Music presentations are included in Brewer’s presentation to highlight the unique experience of “The Blues.” 

Arrow Video's New 4K Film Restoration Of Director George Roy Hill's Slaughterhouse-Five Heads To Blu-ray On Dec. 3

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has a new 4K film restoration (from the original camera negative) of director George Roy Hill’s masterful 1972 film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s own experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II — specifically, the fire-bombing of Dresden in February of 1945 — Slaughterhouse-Five.   The street date for this new Blu-ray release will be Dec. 3.

Back in 1969 George Roy Hill directed the Best Picture nominee, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which also earned him the Oscar-nomination for Best Director (he would win the Oscar for directing The Sting in 1973).   The executive producer on the film was Paul Monash, but Academy rules at the time made John Forman the official “producer” of the film and hence he, not Monash, got the Oscar nomination for Best Picture (a minor point).   

At about the same time that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was achieving box office glory, Monash discovered a novel by Kurt Vonnegut and fell in love with it and immediately purchased the screen rights.   Naturally, he turned to George Roy Hill who agreed to direct the film, but the late William Goldman, who won the Oscar for his Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, begged-off on adapting the novel for the screen because he though it to be too difficult.

Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time.   He jumps between his mundane existence as an optometrist in “Ilium, New York,” being a POW in Germany in World War II and his sexual liaison with Montana Wildhack on the planet of Tralfamadore (in all three cases Billy is metaphorically-speaking, a prisoner).    So one can easily see why the skillful Goldman thought that it might be a bridge too far to bring Vonnegut’s novel to the screen.

Steve Geller, who had written both the novel and then adapted it for the screen — Pretty Poison (in 1968) — seemed an odd choice by Monash, but that’s who got the call.   The final film product did “OK” at the time, nothing special, but in hindsight it was one of the best films of 1972 — a year in which The Godfather ruled the cinematic universe.   And, of course, Kurt Vonnegut went on to be regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20^th Century.

As to the cast, Michael Sacks made his film debut here as Billy Pilgrim, he would go on to star in such films as The Sugarland Express and The Amityville Horror and then retire to the world of finance.   

Another key member of the cast was Valerie Perrine (also her official film debut … she appeared without credit in Diamonds are Forever the previous year) as Montana Wildhack — she would be nominated for Best Actress in Lenny two years later, but is perhaps best remembered as Eve Teschmacher in Superman and Superman II.

Rounding out the cast are Eugene Roche as Edgar Derby, a fellow POW of Pilgrim — who is executed by the SS — Ron Leibman as the irrational Paul Lazzaro (also a POW who develops a hatred for Pilgrim) … and Billy Pilgrim’s family, folk legend Holly Near as his wife, with Perry King and Sharon Gans as his children.   

As to bonus nuggets, there is a newly-minted commentary by author and film critic Troy Howarth (“The Haunted World of Mario Bava”), a newly-prepared video session with author and critic Kim Newman and four production featurettes — “Pilgrim’s Progress: Playing Slaughterhouse-Five” (featuring Perry King), “Only on Earth: Presenting Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Unstuck in Time: Documenting Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Eternally Connected: Composing Slaughterhouse-Five.”