Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution
expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has tabbed July 7 for Blu-ray
debut — complete with a new film restoration from the original film negative —
of writer/director Mike Hodges’ under-appreciated gothic chiller, Black
Rainbow.
British filmmaker Mike Hodges (Get
Carter, Flash Gordon, The Terminal Man,
etc.) came to the United States in the fall of 1988 and filmed a gothic-like
supernatural crime thriller, whew, that’s a lot of genre-blending … you can
even throw in precognitive sci-fi elements if you are so inclined.
In any case, Black
Rainbow stars Rosanna Arquette — after Desperately
Seeking Susan, Silverado, and
After Hours, but
before Pulp Fiction — as
Martha Travis, a travelling road show “medium,” a huckster, a con artist. Her father, Walter (played by Jason
Robards), is her manager and he likes to drink, well, actually, he likes to
drink a lot.
At one of these sessions she actually sees the
pending death of a local by the name of Tom Kuron (Olek Krupa — Burn
After Reading, Hidden Figures), a
nobody, but who is about to blow the whistle on some corporate shenanigans …
and he is subsequently murdered. She
saw it, she said in her act and poor Tom died.
To another nobody, a local journalist by the name of
Gary Wallace (Tom Hulce — Animal House, Amadeus),
that sounds like a story. So he starts
following Martha and Walter around … and sure enough she sees more deaths
before they happen. And to make matters
worse, the killer decides that her little act has to come to an end. So, does she see her own death, will Wallace
come to her rescue, or is it the end for all of them?
Nice cast, decent story, sharp production values,
but financial problems precluded a theatrical release, so it went the
direct-to-video route after working the film festival circuit beginning in
October of 1989. VHS in 1991, DVD (now
out of print) followed in 2005 … now, finally, on Blu-ray from Arrow Video on
July 7.
Bonus features include a vintage commentary option
from filmmaker Mike Hodges, plus a newly-prepared commentary with film
historians Kat Ellinger and Samm Deighan.
There are also five featurettes — “Message in a
Bottle,” “8 Minutes,” “Disasters,” “Seeing the Future” and “Behind the
Rainbow.”
No comments:
Post a Comment