Icarus Films To Release Director Marc Allegret's Landmark Travels In The Congo On DVD On Feb. 09

Icarus Films, in concert with Les Films du Panthéon, will be bringing director Marc Allégret’s newly restored landmark 1927 silent travel saga, Travels in the Congo, to the DVD marketplace on Feb. 9.

Allégret would become a prolific director, not only developing talent, but mentored Roger Vadim as his assistant director beginning in 1948.   Although his career spanned some 40 years and over 50 film credits, he began his trade quite by accident when he teamed with his then lover, French writer André Gide (who would go on to with the Nobel Prize in 1947), for a ten-month odyssey of the Congo.  

He filmed what they experienced (learning as he went), capturing a time and a place that would shift dramatically “between the wars.”   World War I turned the various European powers focus away from their colonial pursuits and World War II brought an end to it.  

Africa had been carved up during the age of exploration for its natural resources, this process also brought, roads, technology, medicine, commerce and organization to the newly-formed tribal-based nations.  Allégret and Gide could see the seeds of long-term poverty and colonial neglect already in the works, with Allégret filming it (not as a travel adventure, but as documentary of what he saw and experienced) and Gide would end up publishing a book on the subject.

One of those crazy footnotes to history is that Allégret and Gide would remain good friends until Gide’s death in 1951, but Allégret’s experiences, legend has it, with the women of the Congo changed his outlook on his sexual orientation … he would later marry French starlet Nadine Vogel.

Icarus Films will be bringing this interesting film to DVD on Feb. 9, which includes a newly-prepared musical score by composer Mauro Coceano.   There are English subtitles included here.

 

 

Cinema Libre Readies Blu-ray And DVD Editions Of Writer/Director Sophie Deraspe's Antigone For Domestic Release On Mar. 09

Cinema Libre has tabbed Mar. 9 for the domestic Blu-ray and DVD debut of writer/director Sophie Deraspe’s Antigone.

The film opened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September of 2019 and then proceeded to work the festival circuit through February of last year … and then we all know what happened next.   A tragedy, but during its moment in the sun Antigone did manage to pull in a series of festival awards and garnered some solid critical praise.   Now comes the home entertainment marketplace.

In the Fifth Century BC, Sophocles wrote of the tragedy of Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus Rex, and how her actions in defense of her brother brought about a series of tragic events.   Deraspe has up-dated the core of the story to modern day Montreal, however she leaves the names as is (odd for parents to name their four children after the characters in a Sophocles play, but there you have it).

Antigone (Nahéma Ricci) has adapted to her new country (family is from Algeria, which gives her a leg up since she speaks French) and all is going well as she attends high school.   The future is bright.  

Not so for her brothers, Étéocle (Hakim Brahimi) and the “footloose” Polynice (Rawad El-Zein), who sees the “system” as something to exploit, which, of course lands him in a world of trouble.

For students of Sophocles, the other “leg” to the triangle is her school mate, Hémon (Antoine DesRochers), whose father is a high-powered politician.   Things for Hémon, Antigone and her brothers — and the tragedy that will unfold — are set in motion when Polynice is arrested for his scheming and scamming and, if found guilty (a foregone conclusion), he will be deported.  

Once Antigone steps forward to help her brother (with a “hair-brain” scheme), things are set in motion that will playout pretty much as they did 2,500 years ago.  

Antigone is presented in French with English subtitles. 

 

 

 

MVD Entertainment Group Bestows Marquee Collection Statyus On The Mar. 30 Blu-ray Release Of Director Ernie Barbarash's Falcon Rising

MVD Entertainment Group announced this past week its latest edition to its popular Marquee Collection line of Blu-ray products.   This will be the Mar. 30 Blu-ray debut of director Ernie Barbarash’s 2014 thriller, Falcon Rising.

When the film opens, your first thought is that this is going to be a very short film.   The protagonist, John Chapman (Michael Jai White — Spawn, Breakfast of Champions, Universal Soldier: The Return, The Dark Knight, etc.), who is known to friends as Falcon, is about to blow his brains out by playing Russian roulette all by himself.   How many spins of the chamber before the magic bullet puts an end to his misery?  

Bored with the process, Falcon leaves his filthy New York City apartment and wanders down to the local bodega, which is in the process of being robbed by some gangbanger.   Suicide by gangbanger, that’s the ticket, but when the little thug hesitates, Falcon takes him down and that puts the end to both the robbery and his momentary thought of suicide.

Word arrives that his sister, Cindy (Laila Ali), has been beaten to an inch of her life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro.   She’s a do-gooder, who crossed paths with someone who didn’t particularly care for her working with the locals.

Falcon, who we learn is a highly-skilled Marine combat veteran, jets down to Rio, hooks up with his war buddy, Manny (Neal McDonough — Captain America: The First Avenger, Flags of Our Fathers, Minority Report, etc.), who works in the American embassy.   He warns him to be careful of the local slum lords.   So too does Tiago Santo (Jimmy Navarro), the detective assigned to investigate Cindy’s beating.

It all becomes clear at the hospital.   There is an attempt to murder the comatose Cindy and Falcon puts two and two together and comes up with the yakuza as the gangsters responsible for her beating and attempted murder.   They are running drugs and engaged in human trafficking in Rio’s notorious slums!!  It’s all-out war as Falcon cuts a swath through the yakuza … who’s in charge?   He’ll find out — there’s no stopping the Falcon, he is a force of nature — but he had better watch his back in the process!!

Falcon Rising, on Blu-ray from MVD Entertainment Group on Mar. 30 as the newest installment in the company’s Marquee Collection.   Perfect!!

 

 

 

Mill Creek Entertainment's Next Retro VHS Blu-Ray Promotion Set For Mar. 09 • Includes Director Michael Apted's Gorillas In The Mist

Word arrived this past week from Mill Creek Entertainment that four new priced-to-collect Blu-ray releases will be ready on Mar. 9 as part of the company’s popular Retro VHS Blu-ray promotional line of products.

Topping the list is the late Michael Apted’s 1988 biopic, Gorillas in the Mist, starring Sigourney Weaver as primatologist Dian Fossey.

In 1983, Fossey wrote the best-selling novel, “Gorillas in the Mist,” and almost immediately there were attempts to transition the book to the screen.   After two years, the first production folded up shop.   Enter producer Arnold Glimcher, who traveled to Rwanda to meet with Fossey about resurrecting the project … just hours after their meeting she would be murdered.

For the next two years there would be competing interest trying to bring Fossey’s story to the screen, with her murder making it all the more important that her story be told.   Eventually, two studios, Universal and Warner Bros., would combine their efforts.

Who would portray Dian Fossey?   That was the big question.   Jane Fonda?  Vanessa Redgrave?   Diane Keaton?  Really, Diane Keaton?   Even Jessica Lange’s name surfaced in the trades as a possible candidate (after all, she was familiar with giant apes).   Sigourney Weaver got the part … ironically, 1988 would be a very good year for her, nominated as Best Actress for her performance in Gorillas in the Mist and also nominated Best Supporting Actress for Working Girl.

Other Blu-ray releases in this Mar. 9 Retro VHS Blu-ray promotion from Mill Creek Entertainment are director Kevin James Dobson’s 1995 family-themed adventure, Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain (with Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky), director Arthur Hiller’s 1992 baseball biopic, The Babe, starring John Goodman as Babe Ruth, and also from 1992 we have directorRoger Spottiswoode’s action/comedy, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot, teaming Sylvester Stallone with Estelle Getty.

Also heading to Blu-ray from Mill Creek Entertainment on Mar. 9 is the double-feature of director Howard Zieff’s 1991 family-themed blockbuster, My Girl, starring Anna Chlumsky (the future six-time Emmy nominee for her role as Amy Brookheimer in the Veep television series) and Macaulay Culkin (who had just rocketed to stardom as Kevin in Home Alone).

The movie proved to be so successful that in 1994 filmmaker Howard Zieff and Anna Chlumsky (along with parents Dan Aykroyd and Jamie Lee Curtis) reunited for My Girl 2.

 

 

 

 

Artsploitation Films Tabs Feb. 9 For The Release Of Director Michael Mayer's Happy Times On Both DVD And Blu-ray

Oh my, what a dinner party Artsploitation Films has lined up for fans of deep, dark and very black comedies to enjoy on Feb. 9!!

That’s the street date for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of director Michael Mayer’s film festival favorite, Happy Times, which has sort of a double-entendre meaning, happy not, but hilariously funny in a “happy” sort of way.

It’s the annual Shabbat dinner at Sigal (Liraz Chamami) and Yossi’s (Ido Mor) home in the Hollywood Hills.  The dinner, the tradition, is a bit of a pretense to show off their digs … to rub it in, so to speak.   Their friends and family members are invited, but at this particular dinner it will be more than just wine, challah bread and Gefilte fish served.

Michael (Michael Aloni — Out in the Dark) is a struggling actor who has elected to bring a guest, Aliyah (Stéfi Celma), and he can’t even make it to the front door before he has a run-in with Maor (Daniel Lavid), who secretly has the hots for Sigal.  How dare Michael bring Aliyah to the dinner … she’s black and she’s not Jewish.

More guests arrive and the meal finally begins, but it doesn’t go well.   Michael and Maor go at it again, Michael gets the worst of it and Maor uses the confusion of the moment to hit on Sigal, which doesn’t sit well with her husband who nearly beats him to death.   It the middle of all this chaos Michael returns, licking his wound, but now he has a gun!!

OK, OK, everyone needs to settle down.   This is getting out of control.   Calm.  BANG!!  One dead Maor, but it was an accident … let’s just move on.  Move on, HAH!   One thing leads to another and pretty soon it is absolute bedlam in the Hollywood Hills home of Sigal and Yossi.

Who survives the night?   To find the answer to that question out, you’ll need to pick up a Blu-ray or DVD edition of Artsploitation Films’ Happy Times on Feb. 9.   Presented in a mix of English and Hebrew with English subtitles.

Bonus features include a blooper reel, deleted scenes and an alternate cut scene.   

 

 

 

Paramount Home Media Targets Mar. 02 For The Blu-ray Debut Of She's The Man: 15th Anniversary Edition

Paramount Home Media announced two new Blu-ray promotions for the first quarter this past week.   The first of these is the Mar. 2 Blu-ray debut of director Andy Fickman’s 2006 high school comedy, She’s the Man: 15^th Anniversary Edition, starring Amanda Bynes and Channing Tatum.

Bonus features include two separate commentary options, the first featuring cast members Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, Laura Ramsey, Robert Hoffman and Alexandra Breckenridge, who are joined by director Andy Fickman (Playing with Fire, Race to Witch Mountain) and writer/producer Ewan “Jack” Leslie, and the second features Leslie with co-producer Lauren Shuler Donner.

There are also nine deleted scenes, a gag reel, the David Lichens’ music video titled “Let Go” and three featurettes — “Making the Man,” “The Troupe” and “Inspired by Sharkespeare’s … Twelfth Night.”

The other Blu-ray promotion added to the ‘Q1 release calendar by Paramount Home Media this past week is a 13-strong slate of Miramar Productions returning to the home entertainment marketplace (Paramount acquired the library last April).   The street date is Feb. 23 (all include Digital Copy).

The mix includes director Anthony Minghelia’s 1996 Best Picture-winner, The English Patient (Best Director, Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche and six additional Oscar wins); director John Dahl’s 1998 film release of Rounders (with Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Edward Norton and Gretchen Mol), Billy Bob Thornton’s 1996 drama Sling Blade (he wrote, directed and starred … winning the Oscar for adapting his stage play) and writer/director Kevin Smith’s 1997 romantic dramedy, Chasing Amy, starring Ben Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams.

Rounding out the Feb. 23 Blu-ray release list from Paramount Home Media are the foreign-language imports, Amélie (Best Foreign Language Oscar-nominee in 2002) and Like Water for Chocolate, as well as Doubt (acting nominations for Meryl Streep, Amy Adams, Viola Davis and Philip Seymour Hoffman), Frida, Gone Baby Gone, Hostage, Paid in Full, The Queen (Best Actress Oscar for Helen Mirren) and Trainspotting.

 

 

 

Bayview Entertainment Sets Feb. 23 For The DVD Debut Of Writer/Director Holly Mollohan's My Autopsy

Bayview Entertainment has selected Feb. 23 as the DVD debut date for writer/director Holly Mollohan’s intense abuse drama, My Autopsy.

Back in 2011, Mollohan began entering her script for My Autopsy into various competitions, and it piled up a list of impressive awards and citations, including the Silver Ace Award at the Las Vegas International Film Festival in 2011 and the Award of Excellence at the 2012 edition of the Canada International Film Festival.

You would think that the script would have found some backers, gone into production and would have long-since been released on DVD.   Didn’t happen, and in retrospect that was not a bad thing as Mollohan honed her film filmmaking skills with directing, editing and producing numerous short films and music videos for Byzantine and Voices of Anatole.

These music videos piled-up a ton of awards, including wins at the Great Lakes Film Festival (Best Music Video: The Existential Gentlemen: Devil in the White City), Queen City Film Festival (Best Music Video: Byzantine: New Ways to Bear Witness) and five wins at the West Virginia Filmmakers Film Festival between 2007 and 2019.

She learned the craft, and with indie financing produced, directed and edited My Autopsy.  Yes, it took a decade from inception to release, but the wait is well worth it.

Rachel (Gareth Tidball), just 24-years old, is in a dark, abusive relationship with the charismatic Vince (Dave Stishan), a local musician.   He can be sweet, sensual and loving one minute and the next brutal, manipulative and cruel.   It’s a cycle that seems to have no end.

She does work up the courage to walk away, but just being physically separated from Vince is a start, but as she learns, it is just a start.   He loves to play “mind games” with her.   She is, after all, his “property.”   The mental abuse, as she discovers, is every bit, if not more so, destructive as the physical assaults.

What filmmaker Holly Mollohan has crafted, with My Autopsy, is an intense look at the trauma of an abusive relationship and what it takes, physically and emotionally, to finally break free.   The movie is a rollercoaster ride of emotions, blessed with top-of-the-line production values and a solid soundtrack … and, of course, more festival awards were garnered for the finished film, including Best Feature Film at the 2020 GenreBlast Film Festival (you would expect nothing less).

Feb. 23, on DVD, My Autopsy from Bayview Entertainment.   Mark it down.