20/07/17 - The Saga of Anatahan out on Blu-ray

Eureka Entertainment to release The Saga of Anatahan, Josef von Sternberg’s vulnerable tale of human trauma, survival and redemption, for the first time on home video in the UK on Blu-ray as part of The Masters of Cinema Series in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition on 14 August.

Josef von Sternberg – the innovative director with an unmatched eye for detail and a reputation for his intensity – brings to life this vulnerable tale of human trauma, survival and redemption.

Set during the dying stages of World War II, The Saga of Anatahan tells the story of twelve Japanese seaman stranded on a forgotten island for seven years. Accompanied only by Keiko (Akemi Negishi), a young Japanese woman, all rationality and discipline are soon overcome by a struggle for power and control over Keiko’s affections.

Narrated by Sternberg himself, the director positions himself as the story’s unconscious viewpoint amidst his other trademark qualities: lush mise-en-scene, theatrical lighting and bleak yet poignant storytelling.

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19/07/17 - Vampira resurrected on Blu-ray & DVD

Fabulous Film is to reissue Vampira on Blu-ray and DVD on 14 August.

It’s Dracula with a difference as the smooth, suave David Niven brings a new dimension to the time-honoured role of the Transylvanian Count.

Count Dracula is conducting a desperate quest to bring his beloved Vampira, Countess Dracula, back to life. To do so he needs to find a victim with the right blood group - seizing his chance when a group of shapely beauty contest winners are brought to his castle.

Count Dracula’s efforts to track down the right donor send him on a trail which leads from Transylvania to London and are both horrific and hilarious...

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18/07/17 - The Doctors: Tom Baker Years DVD

Koch Media is to release The Doctors: The Tom Baker Years, new double-DVD release in the highly regarded series exploring the world of TV’s Doctor Who, on 11 September.

This release will be the first volume in what will build into a complete work on The Doctors.

The producers claim that this is the most complete collection of cast and crew interviews ever assembled from the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who, offering viewers unparalleled access into the world of the sci-fi classic.

• Includes six documentaries making it the definitive set of interviews with the team of actors who brought the Tom Baker era of Doctor Who to life.

• Presented by voice of the Daleks Nicholas Briggs.

• Quality in-depth interviews with Tom Baker (the Fourth Doctor), Elisabeth Sladen (Sarah Jane), Ian Marter (Harry), Louise Jameson (Leela), Mary Tamm (Romana) and John Leeson (Voice of K9)

• This 2 disc special collectors edition is 5 hours of pure nostalgia, which will give you a whole new insight into the making of Doctor Who.

• Includes special feature: Introduction by Nicholas Briggs & Producer Keith Barnfather.

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17/07/17 - Journey to the Center of the Earth Blu

Eureka Entertainment is to release 1959's Journey to the Center of the Earth, a sci-fi, adventure extravaganza on Blu-Ray, as part of the Eureka Classics range on 18 September.

Jules Verne’s classic novel, Journey to the Center of the Earth, is brought to the screen in this thrilling adventure about a band of intrepid explorers descending to the hidden reaches of our world.

Professor Lindenbrook (James Mason) discovers a long hidden message that reveals the existence of a passage into the centre of the Earth.

Leading a team of unlikely adventurers (including Pat Boone, Arlene Dahl and… a duck), the groups daring expedition will see them come up against exploding volcanoes, rockslides and even flesh-eating reptiles!

Scored by the legendary Bernard Hermann and filmed in stunning Cinemascope, Journey to the Center of the Earth is a much beloved classic, and a landmark in both Science-Fiction and Adventure filmmaking.

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14/07/17 - Salzar's Revenge on Blu-ray & DVD

Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer Films will release Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge, the fifth film in the now-iconic Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise, on Digital in HD on 19 September, and on Blu-ray Combo Pack, DVD and On-Demand on 02 October.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge is a rollicking new tale of the high seas, infused with all the elements of fantasy, humour and action that have resulted in an international phenomenon for the past 13 years.

Johnny Depp returns to his Academy Award®-nominated role as the outrageous, swashbuckling scoundrel Captain Jack Sparrow, and is joined by Oscar® winners Javier Bardem and Geoffrey Rush. Bonus material includes a collection of behind-the-scenes, making-of stories, including a conversation with directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg; a sit-down with the two young newcomers who play Henry and Carina; the secrets behind the menacing new villain, Salazar, and his ferocious ghost sharks; an on-set visit with Jack’s first mate from all five films; a chat with Sir Paul McCartney who appears as Uncle Jack; and a discussion about the franchise’s legacy; along with hilarious bloopers, deleted scenes and memories from producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s photo diary.

The adventure finds down-on-his-luck Captain Jack feeling the winds of ill fortune blowing strongly his way when deadly ghost sailors, led by the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil's Triangle bent on killing every pirate at sea - notably Jack.

 

13/07/17 - The Mourning Forest Blu-ray/DVD

Eureka Entertainment to release The Mourning Forest, Naomi Kawase’s powerful blend of nature and traditional Japanese storytelling, as part of The Masters of Cinema Series in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition on 21 August.

Ten years after becoming the youngest winner of the Caméra d’Or, Naomi Kawase returned to Cannes and claimed the prestigious Grand Prix for The Mourning Forest [Mogari no mori], a beautiful and contemplative portrait of grief.

Machiko (Machiko Ono) is a young nurse who still carries the burden of her young son’s death. Shigeki (Shigeki Uda) is an elderly widower and a resident at the nursing home where Machiko works.

After celebrating Shigeki’s birthday, Machiko takes him for a drive in the countryside, but their car breaks down and Shigeki absconds into the nearby forest. Machiko has no choice but to follow, and they become lost in the dense woodlands, before their fates eventually become entwined.

Drawing comparisons to Shohei Imamura (particularly his Palme d’Or winning The Ballad of Narayama) and Terence Malick, Naomi Kawase’s The Mourning Forest is a hauntingly beautiful, symbolically rich masterpiece.

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12/07/17 - Capture Kill Release comes to DVD

Eureka Entertainment will release Capture Kill Release on DVD from 25 September.

A hit with critics and audiences worldwide since its debut at the Sunscreen Film Festival, Capture Kill Release is an unflinching and chilling depiction of a couple’s moral decay for the sake of their “art”.

A young married couple documents their descent down the rabbit hole as they seek to fulfil one of their darkest desires: kill a stranger and film it for posterity.

Strain and second thoughts pull at their devotion to each other as they carefully plot out a heinous crime for the sake of curiosity. While they may have carefully thought out every small step and detail of getting away with murder, nothing can prepare them for the guilt and the weight of moving on in the aftermath.

Winning numerous awards from horror festivals around the world, and featuring star-making performances from the two leads, Capture Kill Release is one of the most talked about independent horror films in recent years.

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11/07/17 - Transfiguration home media release

Thunderbird Releasing is to release The Transfiguration on Blu-ray and DVD on 14 August.

An atmospheric, intricate study of a troubled young mind, The Transfiguration follows orphaned teen Milo (Eric Ruffin) as he immerses himself in vampire lore to escape his troubled life.

In Queens, New York, 14 year-old Milo is a total outsider. Ignored by his schoolmates and bullied by older children, he takes refuge in the apartment he shares with his older brother. To escape his solitude, he studies vampire mythology, to the point of obsession.

Milo hides a terrible secret, but a chance encounter with neighbour Sophie (Chloe Levine) leads him to develop new feelings. But will it be enough to quash his dark urges?

This first feature from writer/director Michael O’Shea took Cannes 2016 by storm, where it competed in Un Certain Regard, and received widespread praise for it’s bold, unusual take on the classic coming of age tale... with added bite.

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10/07/17 - Halo Legends is released this month

Content Media is to rerelease the animated feature film Halo Legends worldwide on VOD platforms on 31 July.

Based on the globally renowned best-selling Halo franchise, Halo Legends tells seven amazing stories in the sweeping Halo saga, following Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, Halo: Nightfall and Halo: The Fall of Reach.

Halo Legends delves deep into the rich Halo universe surrounding the Master Chief’s mysterious origins, the Spartan’s advanced combat capabilities and the tense rivalry between Spartans and Orbital Drop Shock Troopers (ODSTs).

Created in collaboration with some of the world’s leading animators from Japan, Halo Legends draws you into the centre of humankind’s ongoing battles with the Covenant, dynamically depicted in cutting-edge animation styles that deliver breathtaking visuals and gripping adventure. looking for a way out.

 

07/07/17 - Spaceship is released on DVD

Trinity Film is to release Spaceship on DVD on 10 July.

A unique and intriguing portrait of teenage outsiders from a fresh new voice in British cinema, Spaceship stars an electrifying ensemble cast including Alexa Davies, Tallulah Haddon, Lara Peake and Finnish actor Antti Reini.

Spaceship tells the story of Lucidia (Alexa Davies), a British cyber-goth teenager who fakes her own alien abduction, forcing her father Gabriel (Antti Reini) to search for her in a surreal world of black holes and unicorns where everyone is looking for a way out.

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06/07/17 - Mindhorn comes to Blu-ray and DVD

StudioCanal is to release British comedy Mindhorn on Blu-ray and DVD on 04 September and digital download on 28 August.

Washed-up Richard Thorncroft (Julian Barratt) peaked with hit 1980s detective show ‘Mindhorn’, playing the titular Isle of Man sleuth with a robotic eye that allowed him to literally “see the truth”.

Decades later, when a deranged Manx criminal demands Mindhorn as his nemesis, Thorncroft returns to the scene of his greatest triumphs for one last chance to reignite his glory days, professional credibility and even romance with former co-star/paramour Patricia Deville (Essie Davis).

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05/07/17 - Jasmine score by Shie Rozow

Varèse Sarabande will release the Jasmine Original Motion Picture Soundtrack digitally on 14 July. The album features the film’s original music composed by Shie Rozow.

“This was my first time doing an all-electronic score, and in many ways the score also needed to double as sound design,” explained Rozow. “I took various orchestral sounds and effects and processed them very heavily to turn them into something very electronic and quite different. And in order to really get the emotion I wanted, I felt I needed a bowed instrument. There’s something about how a bow pulls across a string to generate a sound in a way that no other instrument can. Since I wanted to stick to the electronic palette I used an electric cello that is also quite processed, and that’s featured throughout the score.”

A year after his wife's murder, once-successful Hong Kong businessman Leonard To is still reeling from the tragedy. Having lost his job, friends and all sense of order in his life, Leonard becomes obsessed with a mysterious stranger he sees at his wife's grave, believing him to be responsible for her death.

“The film is called Jasmine, yet we never actually see Jasmine in the movie,” said Rozow. “We see a couple of photos of her, and her gravestone. But she died before the film even begins. So one of the tricks was to create a ‘Jasmine theme’ that would emotionally connect our main character, Leonard, with her.” In addition to Jasmine’s theme and variations, “we also have Leonard’s motif, which is just a four note ascending line that sometimes plays as counterpoint to Jasmine’s theme. And we have the therapy theme, which comes back whenever we see Leonard in group therapy.”

 

04/07/17 - The Graduate 50th anniversary edition

StudioCanal is to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Graduate with a special edition Blu-ray and DVD release on 14 August.

A complete sensation on its original release in 1967, The Graduate was a one-of-a-kind cinematic portrait of America, which captured the mood of disaffected youth seething beneath the laid-back exterior of 1960s California.

It earned Mike Nichols a Best Director Oscar, introduced the music of Simon & Garfunkel to a wider audience and featured one of the most famous seductions in movie history and a truly iconic final scene.

The Graduate also introduced the world to a young actor named Dustin Hoffman, perfectly cast as the jaw-droppingly naïve Benjamin. Benjamin Braddock has just finished college and is already lost in a sea of confusion as he wonders what to do with his life. He returns to his parents’ luxurious Beverly Hills home, where he idles away the summer floating in the pool and brooding in silence. He is rescued from the boredom when he is seduced into a clandestine affair with a middle-aged married friend of his parents, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

That liaison is soon complicated by Benjamin’s infatuation with her college-age daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross). Visually imaginative and impeccably acted, with a witty, endlessly quotable script by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry (based on the novel by Charles Webb), with a supporting cast that includes William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Walter Brooke and Elizabeth Wilson.

This 50th Anniversary 4K restoration was created from the 35mm original camera negative by the Criterion Collection. The colour timing was done by referencing a previous colour grading that had been supervised by Grover Crisp at Sony Pictures and approved by director Mike Nichols. The 5.1 surround-sound remix, approved by the director, was created from the 35mm magnetic tracks and the original soundtrack recordings at Chace Audio.

Click here to buy this Blu-ray - Amazon.co.uk
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03/07/17 - Down the Deep Dark Web score

Lakeshore Records will release Frank Ilfman's soundtrack to Down the Deep Dark Web on 07 July.

Is the Darknet a prophetic glimpse into the twisted dystopian future that awaits us, or the key to escaping the Orwellian reality in which we are already living?

This is the central question at the heart of this investigation of the Darknet, which delves beyond the child porn, drug sales and hitmen-for-hire which have dominated existing explorations of this virtual Wild West.

Down the Deep Dark Web reverses everything you thought you knew about the internet and the dangers of the digital world. Our guide is Yuval Orr, a young journalist born in 1984 and well-aware of the gradual encroachment of Big Brother, but like many of his generation, too busy updating his Facebook status to pay it much attention. Assigned with writing an article about the Darknet, he dives headfirst down the rabbit hole. On a journey that takes us through Tel Aviv, Prague and Berlin, Yuval meets tech experts, cybercrime watchmen, and a group of self-appointed underground freedom fighters.

This latter group – an assembly of hackers, crypto-anarchists and libertarians – stand on the frontier of an unseen battle for privacy, shielded by the anonymity of the Darknet. In contrast to the nefarious activities for which the Darknet is know, these activists are united across borders to defend the universal human rights which are quickly falling by the wayside in our privacy-free online age. Here, in the depths of the Darknet, we find the people lighting the way to the freedoms of tomorrow.

Click here to buy this digital album - Amazon.co.uk

Click here to buy this digital album - Amazon.com

 

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