Posted Mon Mar 20, 2017 at 08:00 AM PDT by Steven Cohen
Six titles are coming to Blu-ray in April.
In an early announcement to retailers, Olive Films is preparing 'Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films Collection,' 'Blanche,' 'Goto, Isle of Love,' 'Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal,' 'The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers,' and 'Ophélia' for Blu-ray on April 25.
'Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films Collection' - Featuring fifteen of Walerian Borowczyk’s (Theatre de Monsieur & Madame Kabal) short films and animated treasures, the Short Films Collection includes: The Concert (1962) aka Le Concert de M. et Mme. Kabal The Astronauts (1959) aka Les Astronautes Angels’ Games (1964) aka Les Jeux des Anges Renaissance (1963) Joachim’s Dictionary (1965) aka Le Dictionnaire de Joachim The Greatest Love of All Time (1978) aka L’Amour Monstre de tous les temps Diptyque (1967) Grandma’s Encyclopedia (1963) aka L’encyclopedie de Grand-Maman Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) aka Escargot de Venus Gavotte (1967) The Phonograph (1969) aka Le Phonograph Rosalie (1966) Scherzo Infernal (1984) A Private Collection Uncensored aka Une Collection Particulière – Uncensored (1973) A Private Collection Short Version aka Une Collection Particulière – Short Version (1973).
Specs have not been announced yet, but supplements will include:
- Introduction by filmmaker Terry Gilliam
- Film is not a Sausage: Borowczyk’s Short Films – Interview program featuring Borowczyk, producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant André Heinrich and composer Bernard Parmegiani
'Blanche' - Set in medieval France, an elderly noble baron (Michel Simon, L’Atalante) and his much younger bride, the beautiful Blanche (Ligia Branice, Goto, Isle of Love) welcome a visiting King (George Wilson, Les destinées) and his handsome page, Bartolomeo (Jacques Perrin, Cinema Paradiso) to their castle, and sets in motion accusations of disloyalty and marital infidelity, turning what should be a fairytale into a nightmare. Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast), whose stylized vision of a bygone world, is key to the overall look and feel of Blanche, which despite its period surroundings, embraces very modern sensibilities. Blanche, written and directed by Walerian Borowczyk (based on the poem Mazepa by Juliusz Slowacki), features performances by Jacques Perrin (Cinema Paradiso), Denise Péronne (Forbidden Games) and Lawrence Trimble (Meetings in the Forest).
Specs have not been detailed yet., but supplements will include:
- Introduction by director Leslie Megahey
- Ballad of Imprisonment: Blanche – Interview program featuring producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant director André Heinrich, camera operator Noël Véry and assistant Patrice Leconte
'Goto, Isle of Love' - With Goto, Isle of Love, director Walerian Borowczyk (Blanche) would cement his status as a visual stylist, weaver of erotic tales, and a filmmaker whose work would both confront and celebrate society’s taboos. Goto, Isle of Love is a tale of infidelity, revenge, and repressed love, both chaste and illicit, starring Pierre Brasseur (Port of Shadows) as Goto III, an unstable and jealous dictator married to the beautiful Glossia (Ligia Branice, Blanche). Unbeknownst to Goto III, Glossia is carrying on an affair with one of his guards, the handsome Lieutenant Gono (Jean-Pierre Andreani, The Story of O). Also lusting after the dictator’s wife is Grozo (Guy Saint-Jean, The Killing Game), a petty thief who, by winning the confidence of Goto III, plans to win Glossia for himself. Simmering passions will boil over on the isle, leading to a surprising denouement. Shot in haunting shades of black & white and color by cinematographer Guy Durban (Immoral Tales), Goto, Isle of Love is written for the screen by director Borowczyk with additional dialogue by Dominique Duvergé.
Specs have not been detailed yet, but supplements will include:
- Introduction by artist and Turner Prize nominee Craigie Horsfield
- The Concentration Universe: Goto, Isle of Love – Interview program featuring actor Jean-Pierre Andréani, co-writer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, cameraman Noël Véry and camera assistant Jean-Pierre Platel
'Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal' - Walerian Borowczyk’s (Blanche) Theatre of Mr. & Mrs. Kabal is a glimpse inside the weird and wonderful world of the theatrical Kabals. The henpecked Mr. Kabal, prone to ogling young females through his binoculars, is never quite beyond the reach of the statuesque and domineering Mrs. Kabal who flutters about (quite literally when butterflies appear inside of her stomach) in a connubial reign of terror. Although it may not always be le beau mariage, Mr. and Mrs. Kabal are nonetheless made for each other. The years-in-the-making feature length animated film from the controversial director of Goto, Isle of Love and Immoral Tales, featuring the voice talents of Pierre Collet (Greed in the Sun) and Louisette Rousseau (War of the Buttons), is akin to other Borowczyk animated works such as The Astronauts, Renaissance and Angels’ Games.
Specs and supplements have not been detailed yet.
'The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers' - The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers combines the talents of top-tier directors and actors from the world of American, French, Italian and Japanese cinema in an entertaining tale of sensational swindles taking place around the globe. Claude Chabrol (Le Boucher) directs L’Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel, Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless) directs Le Grand escroc, Ugo Gregoretti (Ro.Go.Pa.G) directs La Feuille du Route, and Hiromichi Horikawa (Kuroi Gashu: Aru sarariman no shogen) directs Les Cinq Bienfaiteurs de Fumiko. The eclectic cast of actors includes Jean Seberg (Breathless), Academy Award nominee Catherine Deneuve (Indochin – 1993), Jean-Pierre Cassel (Murder on the Orient Express), Francis Blanche (Monsieur Gangster) and Ken Mitsuda (Sansho the Bailiff). Lending their considerable talents behind the camera are cinematographers Raoul Coutard (Breathless), Tonino Delli Colli (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), Asakazu Nakai (Ran) and Jean Rabier (The Umbrellas of Cherbourg).
NOTE: The Amsterdam segment, A River of Diamonds (directed by Roman Polanski), which was featured in original theatrical release of The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers, has been removed from presentations of the film at the request of the director.
Specs and supplements have not been detailed yet.
'Ophélia' - Claude Chabrol (Le Boucher) directs the inspired-by-Shakespeare cinematic gem Ophélia, starring Alida Valli (The Third Man). Ivan (André Jocelyn, Les Cousins), a high-strung and intense young man of means, suspecting that his mother, Claudia (Valli), and Uncle Adrian (Claude Cerval, Belle de Jour) are responsible for the death of his father, sets out to reveal their foul deed. Imagining himself a modern day Hamlet, Ivan goes about wooing Lucy (Juliette Mayniel, Eyes Without a Face), the beautiful daughter of his parents’ groundskeeper, convincing her to become the de facto Ophelia of the piece. Concocting a clever ruse to unmask the accused, Ivan’s fever dream of revenge takes a unexpected turn in Ophélia, Claude Chabrol’s witty and darkly comic reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet. Ophélia, directed by Claude Chabrol from a screenplay by Chabrol, Paul Gégauff and Martial Matthieu, features stark black & white cinematography courtesy of Jean Rabier (Chabrol’s Le Boucher and Madame Bovary, Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Agnès Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7) and a haunting score by Pierre Jansen (Le Boucher, The Lacemaker).
Specs and supplements have not been detailed yet.
Suggested list price for each Blu-ray is $29.95.
You can find the latest specs for all of the titles listed above linked from our Blu-ray Release Schedule, where they are indexed under April 25.
See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.
The latest news on all things 4K Ultra HD, blu-ray and Gear.