05 May 2008

Backroom Quickie

As you may know, my thesis is due in two days, so if you expect me to have anything of substance to say here, you're shit out of luck. However, I'm taking a scheduled break to list a few more DVD updates. Also, just as a forewarning, the posts immediately following the completion of my paper may be just as superficial. But I'll be back soon... anyway...

Three silent films are on their way to your shelves. Abel Gance's J'accuse! will be released by a studio I'm not familiar with called Flicker Alley on 2 Sept. This will be the first time Gance's anti-war epic will be available on DVD. Kino will release two previously unavailable films from the first great Swedish master, Victor Sjöström: A Man There Was [Terje Vigen] from 1917 and starring the director and The Outlaw and His Wife [Berg-Ejvind och hans hustru] from 1918, also starring the director. The latter will feature Gösta Werner's 1981 documentary on the filmmaker entitled, simply, Victor Sjöström. Both will street on 29 July.

On a sleazier level (because I know you all prefer that), Lionsgate will be releasing an omnibus horror film called Trapped Ashes. Alongside Ken Russell (the only director involved I care about, although does anyone really like anything he's done since the 80s?) is Sean S. Cunningham (Friday the 13th, Spring Break), John Gaeta (best known as the visual effects supervisor for the Matrix trilogy and Speed Racer), Monte Hellman (Silent Night, Deadly Night III: Better Watch Out!... yeah), and Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling, The 'burbs). The film stars Jayce Bartok, Scott Lowell (Queer as Folk), John Saxon, and Ken Russell himself!

In further sleaziness, Cinema Epoch will rerelease novelist Ryu Murakami's (Audition) naughtiest film foray, Tokyo Decadence, starring Miho Nikaido (wife of Hal Hartley), on 5 August (the director is of no relation to the more popular Haruki Murakami). There is no word on what version of the film will be presented in the release, as it has seen several different edits throughout the world, including two edited US cuts from Image Entertainment and First Run Features. Rob Marshall's disappointing follow-up to The Descent, Doomsday, will be available from Rouge Pictures on 29 July in an unrated cut.

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