Toronto, encore

New films from Alejandro Amenábar, Carlos Saura, Werner Herzog and (boo) Don Roos have been added to the slate. The concrete line-up will come sometime next week.

Gala

- Agora - d. Alejandro Amenábar
- Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky - d. Jan Kounen
- I, Don Giovanni [Io, Don Giovanni] - d. Carlos Saura
- Love & Other Impossible Pursuits - d. Don Roos - w. Natalie Portman, Lisa Kudrow
- The Men Who Stare at Goats - d. Grant Heslov
- Mother and Child - d. Rodrigo García - w. Samuel L. Jackson, Naomi Watts, David Morse, Annette Bening, Kerry Washington, Amy Brenneman, Tatyana Ali, Marc Blucas, Jimmy Smits
- Phantom Pain [Phantomschmerz] - d. Matthias Emcke - w. Til Schweiger, Stipe Erceg


Special Presentations

- Baarìa, la porta del vento - d. Giuseppe Tornatore
- L'affaire Farewell - d. Christian Carion (Joyeux Noël) - w. Emir Kusturica, Guillaume Canet, Willem Dafoe, Alexandra Maria Lara, Fred Ward
- The Joneses - d. Derrick Borte (directorial debut) - w. David Duchovony, Demi Moore, Amber Heard, Gary Cole, Glenne Headly, Lauren Hutton
- Les derniers jours du monde - d. Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu (To Paint or Make Love) - w. Mathieu Amalric, Sergi López, Catherine Frot, Clotilde Hesme, Serge Bozon, Jacques Nolot, Sabine Azéma
- My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done - d. Werner Herzog - w. Willem Dafoe, Chloë Sevigny, Michael Peña, Michael Shannon, Brad Dourif, Udo Kier, Grace Zabriskie, Irma P. Hall
- The Road - d. John Hillcoat
- Road, Movie - d. Dev Benegal
- A Single Man - d. Tom Ford
- The Traveller - d. Ahmed Maher
- The Waiting City - d. Claire McCarthy - w. Radha Mitchell, Joel Edgerton, Tillotama Shome
- Wheat - d. He Ping - w. Fan Bingbing
- Youth in Revolt - d. Miguel Arteta (Chuck & Buck, The Good Girl) - w. Michael Cera, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Long, Steve Buscemi, Ray Liotta, Ari Graynor, Feed Willard, Jean Smart, Mary Kay Place, M. Emmet Walsh

DVD Update, 13 July

Not a totally exciting list, but here's what's been announced recently, in descending order of release.

DVD

- Sleep Dealer, 2008, d. Alex Rivera, Maya Releasing, also on Blu-ray, 8 September
- Marelene, 1984, d. Maximilian Schell, Kino, 6 October
- Made in France [Origine contrôlée], 2001, d. Ahmed Bouchaala, Zakia Tahri, Synkronized USA, 13 October, w. Ronit Elkabetz
- Black Rain, 1989, d. Shohei Imamura, AnimEigo, 20 October
- Fados, 2007, d. Carlos Saura, Zeitgeist, 20 October
- Born of Fire, 1983, d. Jamil Dehlavi, Mondo Macabro, 27 October, w. Peter Firth
- Graveyard Disturbance [Una notte al cimitero], 1987, d. Lamberto Bava, MYA Communication, 27 October

Blu-ray

- The Exorcist, 1973, d. William Friedkin, Warner, 8 September
- Easy Rider, 1969, d. Dennis Hopper, Sony, 13 October
- Heat, 1995, d. Michael Mann, Warner, 10 November

Some Changes

The Blu-rays of Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead have been upped to 22 September. Jeremiah Zagar's In a Dream will now be out 29 September. The Blu-ray of sex, lies and videotape has been pushed to 15 September. The news about a release of the theatrical version of Grindhouse on DVD and Blu-ray was bogus. Shout! Factory will also release a 2-disc Collector's Edition of Audition on DVD in addition to the Blu-ray on 7 October. And finally, Kino's I Can See You and The Viewer will now be out 27 October instead of in September.

S'mother DVD announcements

Gregg Araki's Smiley Face (which was pushed back theatrically from its original 4/20 release date) will be released by First Look on the 19th of August, over a year after its premiere at Sundance.

Not so far into the future, you can pick up Paris je t'aime on the 20th of November.

A Barbara Stanwyck/Warner Brothers box-set will be out on the 30th of October. The set includes Annie Oakley, East Side West Side, Executive Suite, My Reputation, To Please a Lady, and Jeopardy. The John Waters doc/stand-up film This Filthy World will be out the same day.

You can get your special editions of all of Kubrick's films (other than Dr. Strangelove, The Killing, Paths of Glory, and Spartacus) on the 23rd of October. A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, and 2001 will be double-discs, though no word as to the content of EWS, whether it will be censored or not. Lindsay Anderson's long-awaited O Lucky Man! will also be out in a double-disc from Warner; the film stars Malcolm McDowell. If low-art is more your cup of tea, Lionsgate is releasing Cutting Class, a 1989 slasher film that stars Brad Pitt (pre-Thelma and Louise), Martin Mull (!!), Roddy McDowell, and Donovan's son, Donovan Leitch.

Carlos Saura's Flamenco Trilogy will be the next box-set from Criterion's Eclipse. The films include Blood Wedding, Carmen, and El Amor brujo. The set will be available on the 16th of October. The 1997 HBO original movie, Subway Stories, will also be available. The film stars, among others, Lili Taylor, Denis Leary, Bonnie Hunt, Peter Sarsgard, Mercedes Rheul, Gretchen Mol, Rosie Perez, Sam Rockwell, Mekhi Phifer, and Steve Zahn, and is directed by, among others, Jonathan and Ted Demme, Bob Balaban, and Abel Ferrara.

For some sleaze (both high art and sexploitation), pre-order Just Jaeckin's Emmanuelle and the Sylvester Stallone soft porn Italian Stallion, both due on the 9th of October. Reportedly, the hardcore porno version of Italian Stallion has been lost (though some sites report that the German DVD, under a different title that cashes in on the Rocky franchise, is the full version), but don't get upset, Stallone didn't actually take part in the dirtier bits. Do you ever wonder what Sylvia Kristel looks like now? I'd rather not know. On another sleaze level, Rise: Blood Hunter, with Lucy Liu as a bisexual vampire huntress will also be out.

The Imperial Edition of Caligula, which contains 4 discs, will be available on the 2nd of October. The exciting feature is that Image Entertainment allowed Malcolm McDowell (wow, 2007 sure is his year for DVD) and Helen Mirren conduct a no-holds-barred commentary on the notoriously awful film. Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr's One to Another (Chacun sa nuit), which got some pretty solid reviews in limited release, will be out the same day from Strand Releasing and Red Envelope Entertainment.

On the 18th of September, Genius Products have boxed up their Wellspring titles into sets: Catherine Deneuve (Pola X, Kings and Queen, Dangerous Liaisons, Place Vendôme); Werner Herzog (White Diamond, Wheel of Time); Jean-Luc Godard (Breathless, Le petit soldat, Les carabiniers, Notre musique); and Pedro Almodóvar (What Have I Done to Deserve This?, Dark Habits).

Naturally, if there's anything else worthy of mention announced in the near future, I'll let you know.