Mill Creek Entertainment has circle Aug. 29 on the release calendar for the release of a six-film Blu-ray collection titled Music & Romance: 6 Movie Collection.
Five of the six films in the collection are being released for the first time on Blu-ray … how sweet is that! Let’s unwrap this gift in chronological order of theatrical release and see what cinematic joys are included in Music & Romance: 6 Movie Collection.
We begin with director John Schlesinger’s 1988 film adaptation of Bernice Rubens’ 1962 novel (based on her brother’s experiences), Madame Sousatzka, starring Shirley MacLaine as the title character, a gifted piano teacher who never quite made it professionally (she was pushed too fast as a child) and now teaches for a living.
Into her world comes Manek (Navin Chowdhry in his film debut — Teachers, as Nish Panesar in the EastEnders TV series), a literary stand-in for Rubens’ brother Harold, who was something of a child prodigy. She immediately recognizes his skills and devotes herself to him, going beyond just music lessons but how to present himself and avoid the temptations of his teenage years.
Next up in this collection is director Jeffrey Hornaday’s fall of 1991 release of Shout, starring John Travolta as Jack Cabe, a musician with a checkered past who takes a job as the music teacher at the Benedict Boys Home in Texas, run by the ever so strict Eugene Benedict (Richard Jordan).
It’s 1955 and the teenagers living there, including Jesse Tucker (Jamie Walters), need the discipline of the school, where the motto is “Hard Work … Works!” Music, in theory, is something that the “boys” need as well … in the words of Congreve, “music hath charms to sooth a savage breast.” However, there’s this little thing called “rock ‘n roll” that is causing all sorts of social problems.
One other little detail, Benedict has a teenage daughter, Sara (Heather Graham — Drugstore Cowboy, Boogie Nights, Sidewalks of New York, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me) and the nasty little lads have a bet on who will bed her first.
Rock ‘n roll, teenage bad boys, headmaster’s daughter and a music teacher with a checkered past, that’s the explosive set-up for Shout, which actually becomes something of a coming-of-age romantic tale!
The next film in this end-of-August Blu-ray collection from Mill Creek Entertainment is filmmaker Kasi Lemmons’ 2001 Sundance Film Festival surprise and follow-up to her success with Eve’s Bayou, The Caveman’s Valentine, toplining of Samuel L. Jackson as homeless Central Park “cave dweller” Romulus Ledbetter.
Romulus was once a gifted pianist who studied at the famed The Juilliard School in New York City. Now, his days are spent with periodic schizophrenic breaks and delusional rants about evil living atop the nearby Chrysler Building … he clearly needs help.
Literally dropping into Romulus’ world is the body of a young man, whom the police believe to be the victim of exposure. An accidental death, nothing more. Romulus has other ideas and sets about to solve the case during his lucid moments … of course, being crazy, no one believes him, including his estranged daughter Lulu (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor — Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actress last year for her performance as Brandy in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s King Lear), and she’s a cop.
Our fourth selection is writer/director Sally Potter’s 2001 offbeat tale, The Man Who Cried, which is actually an episodic adventure about a young woman (played by Christina Ricci), who is separated from her father and spends the entire film searching for him.
Being a Russian Jew, her village is burned, but she escapes. Arrives in England, where she is raised in foster care as something of an outcast. She grows, becomes a dancer moves to Paris and is attracted to a gypsy (played by Johnny Depp), but the Nazis invade and her life is once again in jeopardy.
As fortune would have it, she is able to escape on one of the last passenger ships leaving Europe … but the ship is torpedoed! Does she survive? Does she ever find her father, who left so many years before to find fame and fortune in America?
You’ll need to pick up a copy of Music & Romance: 6 Movie Collection on Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment on Aug. 29 to find the answers to these questions … and more!
Rounding out the collection are director John Madden’s 2001 film release of Captain Corelli's Mandolin, starring Nicolas Cage and Penélope Cruz, and director Michael Lembeck’s screwball comedy, Connie and Carla, teaming Nia Vardalos with Toni Collette as “drag queens” hiding out in Los Angeles (they were witnesses to a mob hit), but their dreadful musical act suddenly becomes a big hit … which could be their undoing!!
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