Kino use a two-channel Master Audio track that’s clean and clear, and places significant emphasis on Lalo Schifrin’s unfortunately rather middling score. You can enable it by following the instructions at enable-javascript.com. In other words, Lynch adopts the lucid point of view of Treves, tenderly regarding a cursed man who nevertheless savored beauty. Whatever the cost for artsploitation perverts’ future enjoyment, Kümel’s impulse to remain on the waning edge of eroticism turns what could’ve been another cheap thrill into a genuinely unsettling examination of the human race’s most happily sanctioned form of vampirism: man-woman couplings. The lossless audio is crisp and clear, revealing the depth of the mix in the film’s few fight sequences and in John Barry’s wonderful score. }, 400); setTimeout (function(){ For Lynch, Merrick is the ultimate tortured artist. Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2020. With considerable aide by cinematographer Freddie Francis, production designer Stuart Craig, art director Robert Cartwright, among others, Lynch conjures a menacingly beautiful, overpopulated Victorian London that’s rife in smoke and shadows, and the primordial industrial sounds that haunted the drab warehouse world of Eraserhead. The image reveals some real depth and excellent contrast. What’s more, he’s something of a one-man band—acting in, writing, directing, editing, and production designing his films. Storyboard comparisons with the final film demonstrate the director’s carefully mapped planning, and a booklet essay by critic Inkoo Kang that unpacks the film as the culmination of its maker’s career. Though such a brownish patina may easily have appeared muddy in a digital transfer, what Kino Lorber has accomplished with this disc is stunning. Due to the attentive sound mixing, we feel Merrick’s considerable pain, especially his labored breathing, even as he is invisible to us. The heart and soul that John Hurt breathes into his portrayal of John Merrick blends all the better with Lynch's noir cinematography and Hopkins stoic, good doctor. Landscapes, especially the woods of a surreal escape scene, shimmer with a healthy, heavenly translucent light, and the blacks are weighty and well-differentiated. Two man-children, the shirtless Stanley (Anthony Nichols) and the suspender-wearing Andy (Gunter Kleemann), gleefully play with a switchblade, while suave mechanic Johnny (Eron Tabor) idly chats Jennifer up before she drives away into the distance. Lynch imbues the film with a wrenching matter-of-fact quality that honors Merrick and his efforts to be an upper-crust English gentleman, who wears nice suits and takes tea with friends. Finally, there are any number of archival interviews, featurettes, promotional materials, and even a comedic dub track or two. A simply grand statement of a more respectful and optimistic future for mankind. We will email you as soon as each item is ready to be dispatched so you know when to expect them, but you can also check the status of your order in. John Hurt stars as John Merrick, aka the elephant man, in this biographical drama directed by David Lynch. PayPal Credit is a trading name of PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. Throughout this shocking and at times near-silent middle stretch of I Spit on Your Grave, Zarchi reduces everything to the elemental. Setting itself apart from other early Technicolor films that privileged pops of vibrant primary color, The Shepherd of the Hills is painted in delicate, earthy tones, giving the impression that we’re viewing its images through one of the bottles of illicit moonshine produced by its cantankerous central family, the Matthews clan. (“Mighty pretty thing for human gladness,” muttered by Granny Becky when she sees a friend’s joyful tear after a medical miracle restores her sight, is an especially memorable nugget.) One can’t mistake I Spit in Your Grave for anything other than a raging political text. In terms of sheer watchability, the first seven films range (depending, in part, on budgetary limitations) from modestly compelling to outright risible. 5.0 out of 5 stars A Must for Bowie Fans. They developed a friendship and others followed suit. A handicapped grocery delivery boy named Matthew (Richard Pace) joins the trio from the gas station, and as the men emerge from the woods, the moment is striking for its lack of editorial buildup. There are freaks galore made more interesting with the black and white cinematography and a spine chilling score by John Morris. and Score, to name two great and, to be more direct, intensely homophiliac debasements of the sanctity of heterosexual newlywed-lock. Meanwhile, film historian J.E. When he is discovered by Doctor Frederick Treves (Anthony Hopkins) in Victorian London, Merrick is finally treated with the kindness and intelligence he deserves. I believe extraordinary individuals like Mr. Merrick are placed among us to show us how we should treat one another. Much like Godzilla, Gamera is clearly the antagonist of the first film in the series, only to become a cuddlier, kid-friendly creature in subsequent films. Did I mention Chris Tuckers makeup effects? The “Heisei trilogy” puts ecological affairs front and center by suggesting that our collective treatment of the planet places it in constant jeopardy from oversized beasties of all sorts, a monstrous metaphor that demands no particular divinatory skills to be read. The image here is spotless: pristine and healthy, with sharp whites and rich, weighty blacks. The set provides an ideal opportunity to trace the emergence and development of the filmmaker’s key themes and visual motifs. Well, here we are in 2020, the 40th anniversary of Bowie in the role of John Merrick, The Elephant Man, and the documentary will be out soon. The image here can be a bit murky and soft on occasion, especially in interior shots, which is admittedly at least partially in keeping with the film’s aesthetic. The film’s freak show ringleader, Mr. Bytes (Freddie Jones), is a drunken tyrant out of a fairy tale, while Merrick (John Hurt) is a holy innocent who coaxes the best out of mostly the upper class. Bong positions Ki-taek and his family as grifters so adept at pulling off cons as a unit that they successfully convince the Parks to bring them all into their employ, in one capacity or another. The Elephant Man. [CDATA[ The inference of possible escape during the moments that segue into these scenes becomes the film’s most diabolical trick. Every bit as disturbing and dubious today as it was way back in 1978, I Spit on Your Grave gets what may be its definitive home-video release from Ronin Flix. //DO NOT REMOVE THIS SCRIPT A beautiful, horror of one man's life - who perhaps is more perfectly human than any one of those oppressors who so mercilessly try and keep him down. Tokyo Fist, from 1995, begins by opposing Tsuda (Tsukamoto), another stereotypical salaryman, and his former schoolfriend, Kojima (Kôji Tsukamoto), who’s now a professional boxer. Environmental concerns crop up in the seventh and final film of the Showa period, Gamera vs. Zigra, which is set in and around the Kamogawa Sea World facility. “I don’t like a woman giving me orders,” Johnny arrogantly says right before his castration. This film portrays not only the worst of humanity, but also the best of humanity as a contrast is made when we see him being taken care of, loved and accepted by Mr. Treves amongst others in the hospital. If the items are in stock, we’ll aim to dispatch them within 24 hours of your order being placed. In another moment, in which we see Merrick’s silhouette while Treves shows him to colleagues, we’re allowed to feel even through the medical sheet the will it takes for this man simply to stand. There's a problem loading this menu right now. Bowie's performance in The Elephant Man was between movie performances in … Sorry, unable to process. Anthony Hopkins plays his role of doctor-father-figure in a rather stiff manner, but Wendy Hiller and John Gielgud are, as usual, in formidable form in supporting roles. Cast: John Wayne, Betty Field, Harry Carey, Beulah Bondi, James Barton, Samuel S. Hinds, Marjorie Main, Ward Bond, Marc Lawrence, John Qualen, Fuzzy Knight, Tom Fadden, Olin Howland, Dorothy Adams Director: Henry Hathaway Screenwriter: Grover Jones, Stuart Anthony Distributor: Kino Lorber Running Time: 98 min Rating: NR Year: 1941 Release Date: November 3, 2020 Buy: Video. Cast: Kôji Fujiyama, Akira Natsuki, Kôjirô Hongô, Eiji Funakoshi, Reiko Kasahara, Ayako Fujitani Director: Noriaki Yuasa, Shigeo Tanaka, Shûsuke Kaneko, Ryuta Tazaki, Sandy Howard Screenwriter: Niisan Takahashi, Kazunori Itô, Richard Kraft, Shûsuke Kaneko Distributor: Arrow Video Running Time: 1174 min Rating: NR Year: 1965 - 2006 Release Date: August 18, 2020 Buy: Video. To top it all off, every order comes with FREE delivery whether you’re buying a couple of CDs, a new phone or an entire DVD collection. Jasper Sharp’s visual essay “An Assault on the Senses” lays the groundwork for an appreciation of Tsukamoto’s themes and techniques. Meanwhile, in the upper-class neighborhood where the Park clan lives, a backyard camping trip is ruined by rain. Instead of cutting from a picturesque location to an obvious set, Clint Eastwood and cinematographer Bruce Surtees frequently capture interiors and exteriors simultaneously, tightening claustrophobia as well as our impression of “knowing” this town. All rights reserved. To match the sheer heft and wealth of bonus materials contained in Arrow Video’s Gamera: The Complete Collection box set, you have to go back to their 2016 release of The Herschell Gordon Lewis Feast, which was similarly packaged in a large-format rigid box. Suggesting a distaff spin on Fight Club, 2011’s Kotoko uses Tsukamoto’s disorienting editing techniques to put us squarely inside the headspace of the title character (Cocco), who suffers from schizoid visions of aggressive doppelgangers. Kino Lorber outfits High Plains Drifter, one of Clint Eastwood’s bleakest westerns, with a sturdy transfer that honors its savage beauty. Granted, when Mr. Treves first saw him he wanted to study him and use him as a medical exhibit, but even then he made sure Merrick was comfortable.