Frownland, Others Coming Soon to DVD

New company Factory 25 has announced their first DVDs for September and October, most notably an official DVD release for Ronald Bronstein's amazing Frownland, which has been making rounds across the country for the past two years. Kino will also be releasing a third collection of Avant Garde shorts from 1922-1955 on 24 November; unfortunately I don't know any details further than that. Palisades Tartan has also announced a box-set of Park Chan-wook's Vengeance Trilogy (Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Oldboy and Lady Vengeance) for the same date; I don't know of any of the specifics. The releases are in descending order of release.

- Damon & Naomi: 1001 Nights, d. Naomi Yang, Cedrick Eymenier, Hiroo Ishihara, Factory 25, 29 September
- Frownland, 2007, d. Ronald Bronstein, Factory 25, 29 September
- Chéri, 2009, d. Stephen Frears, Miramax, 20 October
- High School Record, 2005, d. Ben Wolfinsohn, Factory 25, 27 October
- You Weren't There: A History of Chicago Punk 1977 to 1984, d. Joe Losurdo, Christina Tillman, Factory 25, 27 October
- The Answer Man [Arlen Faber], 2009, d. John Hindman, Magnolia, also on Blu-ray, 3 November, w. Jeff Daniels, Lauren Graham, Lou Taylor Pucci, Olivia Thirlby, Kat Dennings
- Lesbian Vampire Killers, 2009, d. Phil Claydon, The Weinstein Company, 3 November
- Humpday, 2009, d. Lynn Shelton, Magnolia, 17 November
- Is Anybody There?, 2009, d. John Crowley, Magnolia, also on Blu-ray, 17 November, w. Michael Caine
- Luxury Car, 2006, d. Wang Chao, First Run Features, 17 November

More from Berlin...

New films set for Berlin unfortunately do not include Claire Denis' White Material, which hopefully will see its premiere at Cannes instead, though I doubt in competition seeing as the film stars Isabelle Huppert, the head of this year's jury. The rest include:

Cheri - dir. Stephen Frears - with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Anita Pallenberg, Iben Hjejle
Deutschland 09 - dir. Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Romuald Karmaker, Nicolette Krebitz, Isabelle Stever, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner, Christoph Hochhaeusler, Dani Levy, Angela Schanelec
Eden à l'ouest - dir. Costa-Gavras - with Riccardo Scarmarcio, Juliane Köhler, Ulrich Tukur, Eric Caravaca
Happy Tears - dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (Teeth) - with Parker Posey, Demi Moore, Rip Torn, Ellen Barkin
Ricky - dir. François Ozon - with Sergi Lopez
Sturm - dir. Hans-Christian Schmid (Requiem) - with Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane
Tatarak - dir. Andrzej Wajda - with Krystyna Janda

Full list at IndieWire and on IFC Daily.

DVD Release Update - 16 January

Although I was a little disappointed to see that Last Year at Marienbad wasn't on the list, Criterion named their April releases; and although they weren't the Nagisa Oshima films I would have liked to have seen put out, I do look forward to rewatching both In the Realm of the Senses and Empire of Passion (formerly known in the US as In the Realm of Passion). Unfortunately, as Criterion doesn't put quotes on their DVD titles, In the Realm of the Sesnes will be without Madonna's glowing review: "It turns me on because it's real." In addition to those two, Stephen Frears' The Hit, starring John Hurt, Terence Stamp, Tim Roth, Bill Hunter and Fernando Rey, and 23 short films from director Jean Painlevé.

New Yorker announced Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub's Class Relations [Klassenverhältnisse] for 17 March. MGM will be releasing three musicals on 7 April: Goldwyn Follies (which is also available in their big musical box-set), It's a Pleasure with Sonja Henie and Howard Hawks' A Song Is Born.

Watchmaker Films, though Koch Vision, are releasing Profit motive and the whispering wind and Mississippi Chicken on 7 April. And finally, Kino will have Raphaël Nadjari's Tehilim on 31 March.

Murnau and Others in 2009

Kino will release three silent works from director F.W. Murnau on DVD on 17 March. The first is a resorted edition of Faust; the second is The Finances of the Grand Duke [Die Finanzen des Großherzogs]; and the third is The Haunted Castle [Schloß Vogeloed]. Also in March from Kino are Wonderful Town on the 3rd and Nicolas Philibert's doc Back to Normany [Retour en Normandie] on the same day.

Fernando Meirelles' Blindness, which opened this year's Cannes Film Festival and was later ignored by US audiences, will be released on 10 February. Jirí Menzel's Czech comedy I Served the King of England will be available from Sony on 17 February. Also in February, Religulous on the 17th from Lionsgate and Takeshi Kitano's Takeshis' on the 24th from BCI Eclipse.

Sony announced another round of their "Martini Movies," which includes Stephen Frears' Gumshoe with Albert Finney, the sci-fi comedy Vibes with Cyndi Lauper and Jeff Goldblum, Carol Reed's Our Man in Havana with Alec Guinness, Burl Ives and Maureen O'Hara, Getting Straight with Elliott Gould and Candice Bergen, and the apocalyptic Five. All street on 3 February.

The Weinstein Company has delayed a few titles from February to March. Dante 01 will now be released on 17 March, and Martyrs on the 24th. The animated Azur et Asmar, which was delayed from November, should be released on the 17th of March as well.

And finally, the animated, highly-amusing The Life and Times of Tim will hit shelves on 24 March from HBO.