DVD/Blu-ray Releases: Kino Lorber 2014 Home Video Highlights and Gift Guide

The Conformist
from Raro Video
(Blu-ray & DVD)

Bernardo Bertolucci’s acclaimed masterpiece returns in a dazzling new restoration supervised by the director and cinematographer Vittorio Storaro! One of the enduring masterpieces of the 1970s, Bertolucci’s breakthrough film is an elegant portrait of the death throes of Italian Fascism and a triumph of pure style. With a gorgeous score by Georges Delerue and incandescent performances by a star-studded cast, The Conformist is a towering accomplishment that for the past four decades has enraptured audiences and influenced filmmakers around the world.

Blu-ray: $29.95
DVD: $19.95
Street Date: Now available

In 1920, one brilliant movie jolted the postwar masses and catapulted the movement known as German Expressionism into film history. That movie was The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, a plunge into the mind of insanity that severs all ties with the rational world. This authoritative edition of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is a 4K restoration scanned from the (mostly) preserved camera negative at the German Federal Film Archive.

(Blu-ray) 

THE BUBBLE is the “eerie and enjoyable” (Los Angeles Times) science-fiction spine-tingler that shocked audiences and revolutionized the cinematic world of 3-D! THE BUBBLE introduced the ground-breaking Space-Vision 3-D system, which pioneered a new way of both shooting and exhibiting 3-D film. Now fully restored from the 35mm negatives by the 3-D Film Archive.

Elliott Gould (Busting) gives one of his best performances as a quirky, mischievous Philip Marlowe in Robert Altman’s (Thieves Like Us) fascinating and original send-up of Raymond Chandler’s classic detective story. Co-starring Nina Van Pallandt, Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell and Henry Gibson with a screenplay Leigh Brackett (The Big Sleep), The Long Goodbye is a gloriously inspired tribute to Hollywood with an ending that’s as controversial as is it provocative. Private eye Philip Marlowe (Gould) faces the most bizarre case of his life, when a friend’s apparent suicide turns into a double murder involving a sexy blonde, a disturbed gangster and a suitcase of drug money. But as Marlowe stumbles toward the truth, he soon finds himself lost in a maze of sex and deceit – only to discover that in L.A., if love is dangerous… friendship is murder.

Screen legend Gary Cooper (Vera Cruz) powerfully demonstrates why he will forever be remembered as one of the most original and authentic stars of the screen. Tight-lipped, capable yet vulnerable, Cooper’s portrayal of a former outlaw whose past returns to haunt him ranks among his best. When the train he is on gets robbed, Link Jones (Cooper) finds himself unwillingly reunited with his old gang. Dock Tobin (Lee J. Cobb, 12 Angry Men), the gang’s sadistic, half-crazed patriarch, was like a father to Link some twenty years ago welcomes him back with open arms, to survive his old vicious gang, Link must take up his old killing ways. Renowned for its breathtakingly cinematography and violent fist fight between Cooper and Jack Lord this strong allegorical film directed by the great Anthony Mann (The Naked Spur) is now considered one of the finest achievements from the western’s golden age.

Capricious, winsome, whimsical, and all together delightful! Superbly directed by the peerless Frank Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life), this remake of Lady For A Day is pure Hollywood magic – an unforgettable combination of comedy, whimsy and romance that was nominated for three Oscars including Supporting Actor (Peter Falk, TV’s Columbo). Impoverished Broadway peddler “Apple Annie” (Bette Davis, All About Eve) has a problem, her daughter Louise (Ann-Margret, Tommy), educated abroad since infancy, is coming for a visit and bringing her wealthy fiance with her. The problem is that Louise has believed all her life that Annie’s a wealthy dowager, and the poor old women doesn’t know what to do. Enter “Dave the Dude” (Glenn Ford, 3:10 to Yuma), a kindhearted racketeer who enlists the aid to pass Annie off as a high-society granddame so Louise can marry her fairy-tale prince and everyone can live happily ever after!

The Quatermass Xperiment(Blu-ray)

Val Guest (The Day the Earth Caught Fire) directed this chilling film about a spacecraft returning to earth with a frightening surprise on board. Two of the ship’s three astronauts have mysteriously vanished, while the third is sick with an unidentifiable illness. While doctors try to help the third man recover, an investigation takes place to figure out just what happened to his comrades. As it turns out, the survivors body has been taken over by an alien fungus that needs blood to survive. After the astronaut escapes from the hospital, he transforms into a monster, attacking everyone who gets in its way. Meanwhile, Scotland Yard detective Lomax (Jack Warner, The Blue Lamp) and Professor Bernard Quatermass (Brian Donlevy, The Glass Key), a determined scientist, attempt to track down the creature before it finds new victims. Also known as The Creeping Unknown.

The Death Kiss(Blu-ray & DVD)

Reuniting three of the stars of Universal’s Dracula (released the previous year), this low-budget production was, on the surface, a blatant attempt to capitalize on a major Hollywood hit. But THE DEATH KISS is anything but a cheap knock-off. A Pre-Code murder mystery that plays out on the sound stages, screening rooms, and dressing rooms of the fictitious Tonart Studios, the film offers modern viewers a precious glimpse at the workings of a Poverty Row studio during the Great Depression. Bela Lugosi stars as the head of a struggling studio, who tries to contain a scandal after an actor is killed during the making of a film. While the police investigate the deepening mysteries within the studio, a quick-witted screen-writer (David Manners) decides to solve the crime himself, in order to clear the picture’s leading lady (AdrienneAmes) from suspicion.

The Max Linder Collection(DVD)

 

Kino Classics and Lobster Films celebrate the legacy of Max Linder, a pioneer of comedy whom Charlie Chaplin referred to as “the great master.” With his trademark silk top hat and cane, the French-born Linder blended slapstick with sophistication, and invested his films with a layer of cleverness that elevated them above mere knockabout comedies, paving the way for such multi-dimensional screen comedians as Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. The collection includes four of Linder’s American-made productions, meticulously restored from archival materials: THE THREE MUST-GET-THERES (1922, a parody of The Three Musketeers), SEVEN YEARS BAD LUCK (1921, a masterpiece of physical comedy), and the romantic farces BE MY WIFE (1921) and MAX WANTS A DIVORCE (1917).

Nancy Buirski (The Loving Story) brings to the screen the magnificent and tragic story of Tanaquil Le Clercq.

Of the great ballerinas, Le Clercq may have been the most transcendent, mesmerizing viewers and choreographers alike.
At the age of 27, she was struck down by polio and paralyzed. She never danced again. The ballet world has been haunted by her story ever since.With a soul-stirring soundtrack and exquisite visuals, this is a story of how one woman passionately influenced an entire art form. Afternoon of a Faun: Tanaquil Le Clercq is a frighteningly real, gracefully candid portrait of an artist. Rarely has a film revealed such a dramatic experience on such an intimate scale.

 

Kids For Cash is a riveting look behind a notorious scandal that rocked the nation. In the wake of the shootings at Columbine High School, a small town in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania elected a charismatic judge who was hell-bent on keeping kids in line. Under his reign, over 3,000 children were ripped from their families and imprisoned for years over petty crimes. When one parent dared to question his harsh brand of justice, it was revealed the judge had received millions of dollars in payments from the privately-owned juvenile detention centers where the kids were incarcerated. In this thrilling true crime documentary, director Robert May exposes the scandal behind the headlines, featuring extensive, exclusive access to the judges behind the scheme.

Boy Meets Girl
from Carlotta Films
(Blu-ray & DVD) 

Paris by night. Alex, 22, wants to become a filmmaker. He is fascinated by first times and his girlfriend, Florence, has just left him for his best friend, Thomas. First break-up, first attempted murder: Alex tries to strangle Thomas, but gives up and wanders the streets. That evening, Mireille, a girl from provincial France who has come up to Paris to make commercials, is left by her boyfriend. Alex witnesses this separation. These two tormented souls run into each other at a party….Boy Meets Girl, Leos Carax’s first feature film, reveals an extreme sensitivity. This atypical masterpiece bluntly displays the social uneasiness of young adults suffering from the torments of their waning teenage years, echoing Carax’s own blues and the disillusionment of the 80s generation. Glowing with a melancholic and nocturnal poetry through his brilliant, reference-crammed stage direction, Boy Meets Girl has revealed the director of Holy Motors and Mauvais Sang as a first-rate author and aesthete. Available for the first time on Blu-ray in a stunning new HD digital restoration!

(Blu-ray and DVD)

Marc and Hans, two old gangsters, plan to steal the vaccine for a mysterious virus, STBO, which affects those who make love without being in love and is wreaking havoc among teenagers. After the death of their associate Jean, the two accomplices call on his son, Alex, known as “Chatterbox”, who is a talented conjuror. Alex, who has just left his girlfriend Lise, falls madly in love with a girl in a white dress he sees on a bus. Her names is Anna and she turns out to be Marc’s mistress…Leos Carax’s second movie, Mauvais Sang is a stunning masterpiece, midway between a thriller and a romantic tale, which multiplies references to master filmmakers (Godard in particular) and seduces with its poetry and lyricism. This emblematic film of 80s French cinema established Leos Carax as one of its most talented directors, twenty-six years before Holy Motors. Starring Denis Lavant, Michel Piccoli, and Juliette Binoche, Mauvais Sang is available for the first time in a stunning new HD digital restoration.

Maurice Pialat’s We Won’t Grow Old Together is the “ultimate bad break-up movie” (J. Hoberman), a combustible portrait of a couple whose love tears them apart.Pialat’s (Á nos amours) second feature was a hit in France upon its release in 1972, won actor Jean Yanne Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival, and screened at the New York Film Festival, but it never opened in the United States (and is here receiving its U.S. home video premiere). Heavily autobiographical, “it tells the story of endless breakups and makeups of a highly unstable yet apparently indissoluble couple… depicting the protracted end of a five year affair” (Dave Kehr). Jean (Jean Yanne, Weekend), a married 40-year-old filmmaker, and his young working class lover Catherine (Marlène Jobert, Masculin Féminin) engage in a circular series of spectacular blow-ups and tentative reunions, their mutual desire a fire that burns them again and again.