Cleopatra Music and Films Sets Jan. 13 For The DVD Debut Of Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trails

Cleopatra Music and Films, with sales and distribution expertise provided my MVD Entertainment Group, has selected Jan. 23 as the DVD debut date for documentary filmmaker Evgeny Mitta’s Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trails.

The story of the punk rock group Voina’s female exodus by Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Mariya Alyokhina to join with Yekaterina Samutsevich (and others) to form the feminist punk rock group (or troupe) known as Pussy Riot and their rise to fame (or notoriety) plays out in this insightful documentary by Russian artist-turned-filmmaker Evgeny Mitta.

The trio — who along with their Pussy Riot compatriots — would stage impromptu public performances (which, were of course, forbidden) and film them (punk rock music videos) and that would eventually lead to their arrest, trial and imprisonment for “premeditated hooliganism.” 

The great irony is that their arrest and trial took these members of the punk rock group Pussy Riot from Moscow-based troublemakers to international celebrities!!

Act & Punishment: The Pussy Riot Trails is in Russian with English subtitles.

Documentary Filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s CERN On DVD From Icarus Films On Jan. 16

Icarus Films will be teaming with The KimStim Collection on Jan. 16 for the DVD debut of documentary filmmaker Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s CERN, a behind-the-scenes look at the Large Hadron Collider on the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland.  

It is difficult to imagine a machine, a “particle collider” composed of superconducting magnets, which operates at 520.3 degrees (Fahrenheit) below zero, and is 16.78 miles in circumference.   

It took ten years to build (after 14 years of planning), the involvement of over 100 countries and a team of scientists and engineers that totaled over 10,000 to complete the project … and it still wasn’t done.   They shut it down for two years and upgraded it, finishing the work in 2015.

Nikolaus Geyrhalter (Our Daily Bread, Homo Sapiens, etc.) gives us insight into the workings of the massive structure through interviews with a number of the the researchers/ physicists and a tour of the facility.   The purpose of the Large Hadron Collider (simply “CERN,” hence the title of the documentary) is to take two “high-energy particle beams” and fire them at each other, using an array of massive “dipole” and “quadrupole” magnets to focus the beams, which slam into each other in a recreation of the “Big Bang.”  

Of note, the arrival of Geyrhalter’s CERN on DVD occurs just three months after the facility fired Xenon atoms for the first time (Xenon is a “noble gas,” which according to researchers at CERN closely replicates heavy-ion collisions) … normally they fire lead atoms at each other, so this event (Oct. 16) was considered a major milestone in the history of the facility.

CERN is a fascinating look at the world of theoretical science — even for the uninitiated into such things — and sheer size and scope of the project.

Arrow Video Restores The Witches For DVD And Blu-ray Delivery On Jan. 9

Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, will be delivering a new 2K restoration of the Dino De Laurentiis-produced anthology, The Witches, to market on Jan. 9 as both DVD and Blu-ray selections.

Arrow will be delivering the original Italian-language version, which was released in Europe in 1967 and eventually made its way to these shores in 1969 as an English-dubbed theatrical release.   

The film is of interest on several levels, the first of which is the choice made by De Laurentiis to have five different Italian filmmakers direct a chapter — a short story, if you will — of the film.   Each of these segments feature Silvana Mangano (Bitter Rice, Five Branded Women, Barabbas, Dune, etc.), who was married to De Laurentiis at the time, and although the film is titled The Witches, the subject of the piece (and its segments) is about social commentary and satire.

The choice in directors is also noteworthy in that it reads like a who’s who of the period … Luchino Visconti (Death in Venice, The Damed, Ludwig), Vittorio De Sica (Oscar-winner for The Garden of the Finzi-Continis and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, plus such films as Woman Times Seven, A Brief Vacation, Umberto D.) Pier Paolo Pasolini (Salo, The Decameron, The Canterbury Tales), Franco Rossi (The Seducer, The Woman in the Painting, Three Nights of Love) and Mauro Bolognini (Wild Love, The Lovemakers, Young Husbands, etc.).

And lastly, The Witches features a segment with none other than Clint Eastwood, who had finished For a Few Dollars More and was about to begin production on The Good, the Bad and the Ugly — before departing Europe after his Spaghetti Western successes — had time for a small role in this De Laurentiis production.

As to bonus goodies, film critic and author Tim Lucas (“Mario Bava: All the Colors of the Dark”) provides commentary, plus there is a newly-minted video session with Ninetto Davoli (featured in the Pasolini segment and an actor in a number of Pasolini’s films, including The Hawks and the Sparrows, The Decameron and Arabian Nights) and the segment featuring Clint Eastwood, “An Evening Like the Others” by Vittorio De Sica is presented here in English.

Paramount Home Media Targets Feb. 6 For The DVD Release Of Bosom Buddies: The Complete Collection

Paramount Home Media announced this past week that the Tom Hanks 1980/1982 sitcom series, Bosom Buddies, will be available on Feb. 6 in the six-disc DVD collection titled (what else!), Bosom Buddies: The Complete Collection.

All 37 episodes from the comedy’s two season run teaming Tom Hanks as Kip “Buffy” Wilson with Peter Scolari as Henry “Hildegarde” Desomond, who are two Madison Avenue creative types who need a place to live and hit upon a scheme to move into the Susan B. Anthony Hotel … which is for female clientele only!

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Tabs Dec. 19 For 4K Ultra HD Editions Of Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has added some last minute additions to its Christmas-season release calendar that should generate some interest at retail, especially among those looking to add to their 4K Ultra HD libraries.

So let’s get to it!    Director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy of films is at the forefront with all three in the series — Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises — getting 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray Combo Pack editions on Dec. 19.  All of the bonus nuggets associated with the original Blu-ray presentations are included with these Combo Pack SKUs.

Batman Begins (2005) comes with the 2005 short film title Tankman Begins and 11 production featurettes — “Batman: The Journey Begins,” “Shaping Mind and Body,” “Gotham City Rises,” “Cape and Cowl,” “Path to Discovery,” “Saving Gotham City,” “Genesis of the Bat,” “Reflections on Writing Batman Begins,” “Digital Batman” and “Batman Begins Stunts.”

The Dark Knight (2008) includes the multi-part “Focus Points” presentation titled “Gotham Uncovered: Creation of a Scene,” plus six episodes of Gotham news broadcast titled “Gotham Tonight,” a collection of “Joker Cards,” concept art and other graphic materials in “The Galleries” and a pair of featurettes — “Batman Tech” and “Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of The Dark Knight.” 

And The Dark Knight Rises (2012) comes packed with bonus goodies — over “Three Hours” — that include director Roko Belic’s 2012 feature-length documentary, The Batmobile, and the three-part presentation of “Ending the Dark Knight,” which runs nearly two hours in length and is divided into “Production,” “Characters” and “Reflections” segments. 

Also on the way from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment is a Blu-ray edition of director Morton DaCosta’s 1958 Best Picture nominee Auntie Mame, starring Rosaland Russell — who was nominated Best Actress — as novelist Patrick Dennis irresistible force.    The Blu-ray street date will be Dec. 5.

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Selects Jan. 16 As The Street Date For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of The Snowman

Universal Pictures Home Entertainment looks to Jan. 16 in the New Year as the street date for both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions of director Tomas Alfredson's serial killer mystery, The Snowman.

The ARR works out to 88 days and ticket sales currently stand at $6.7 million.

 

Bonus goodies include five featurettes — “Cast of Characters,” “Creating Jo Nesbø's World,” “The Snowman Killer,” “Norwegian Landscape” and “Stunt Files: The Sinking Lake.”

Also getting a New Year’s home entertainment street date are DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions of director Reginald Hudlin’s biopic, Marshall, starring Chadwick Boseman as the future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in one of his early landmark cases.

The Jan. 9 street date yields an ARR that is also 88 days and box office receipts were light at just $8.8 million.

Amazon.com Leaks Street Date Information On Sony Pictures Home Entertainment's Jan. 13 Release Date For Better Call Saul: Season Three

There are some things that are certain in a world of uncertainty.   First, amazon.com is an equal opportunity abuser of breaking announcement embargoes before the supplier in question has a chance to make a formal announcement.   

Week in and week out it is the same pattern.   This week the early news comes in the form of order-taking for a Jan. 16 Blu-ray and DVD launch of Better Call Saul: Season Three.   

The target: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.   They shouldn’t feel bad as amazon.com had its glare on 20^th Century-Fox Home Entertainment for the past two weeks.

Details?   You want details?   How about three-discs each for the Blu-ray and DVD SKUs, which feature all ten episodes from the third season of the series … bonus goodies, other details, etc. forget it.   

The other thing in this world that is certain is that Bob Odenkirk as Jimmy McGill, who we will come to know as Saul Goodman from the Breaking Bad hit series, can get into all sorts of jams and he will not die.   Another familiar face from Breaking Bad is “hit man” Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks), which makes both him and Saul “untouchable” … every other character, as we’ve come to expect, could end up in a shallow grave at any moment!!