Violent Panic: The Big Crash (Kinji Fukasaku, 1976)

KINJI FUKASAKU’S ODE TO AUTOMOTIVE ANARCHY

Acclaimed Japanese director Kinji Fukasaku breaks free from his iconic yakuza films with Violent Panic: The Big Crash, a deliriously wild ride through Japanese and American exploitation cinema.  Takashi Yamanaki (Tsunehiko Watase) and his partner tear across Japan committing daring, daylight bank-robberies in hopes of eventually escaping to Brazil, but when his partner is killed escaping from a heist, Takashi finds himself on the run as a wanted man.  Standing between him and his getaway to South America is a beautiful woman in love with him (Miki Sugimoto), his partner’s vicious brother (Hideo Murota), an ill-tempered cop (Takuzo Kawatani), and every news truck, motorcycle gang, and delivery driver that crosses their path.  Violent Panic crashes cult film genres (sex comedy, crime, erotic horror, carsploitation) into Fukasaku’s trademark handheld cinematography to create an irreverently careening caper flick, culminating with an outrageous multi-vehicle demolition derby that must be seen to be believed!

Fans of Japan’s master of gangster cinema will recognize Fukasaku’s unique storytelling and visual style, but Violent Panic contains a madcap spontaneity that is wantonly cartoonish and uncharacteristic to the director’s better known works.  Fun, frothy, and fierce, Violent Panic: The Big Crash is a cult film spectacle that pulls out all the stops.

Special Features:

• New High Definition digital transfer
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation
• Newly translated English subtitles
• New interview with star Tsunehiko Watase
• Interview with Fukasaku biographer, Yamane Sadao
• Original trailer
• Reversible sleeve with original and newly commissioned artwork
• Booklet by critic and scholar Tom Mes of Midnight Eye, illustrated with original stills and new artwork

The American Astronaut (Cory McAbee, 2001)

“Imagine a Laurel & Hardy skit directed by Salvador Dali.” – ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

“More original than almost anything you’ve seen this millennium.” – SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL

“Now that’s entertainment!” – FILM THREAT

“Surprising and hilarious! May be the most wonderfully strange film experience you have this year.” – ELLE MAGAZINE

Space travel has become a dirty way of life dominated by derelicts, grease monkeys and hard-boiled interplanetary traders such as Samuel Curtis.  Written, directed and starring Cory McAbee of the legendary cult band The Billy Nayer Show, this sci-fi musical-western uses flinty black-and-white photography, Lo-Fi sets and the spirit of the final frontier.  We follow Curtis on his Homeric journey to provide the all-female planet of Venus with a suitable male, while pursued by the enigmatic killer, Professor Hess.  The film features music by The Billy Nayer Show and some of the most original rock ‘n’ roll scenes ever committed to film.

Also included are McAbee’s hour-long, genre-defying space western Stingray Sam, his 52-minute fantasy Crazy & Thief, and his award-winning short films Reno, The Ketchup and Mustard Man, The Man on the Moon, and Billy Nayer, collected together here for the first time and providing a comprehensive review of one of America’s most audacious independent filmmakers.

Special Features:

• Live audio commentary with writer, director, and star Cory McAbee
• Gallery of production stills, storyboards, graphic designs, and sidewalk drawings
• Ceres walk test footage
• Trailers
• Stingray Sam, McAbee’s 2009 musical-comedy, sci-fi-western serial recounting Stingray Sam and the Quasar Kid’s mission to save a kidnapped girl, with behind the scenes extra footage
• Crazy & Thief, McAbee’s 2012 fantasy about a seven year-old girl who takes her two year-old brother on a voyage through a world of homemade mythologies
• Reno, a 2007 short starring McAbee as a singing cowboy bragging about his travels through Nevada
• The Ketchup and Mustard Man, a stream of consciousness-narrated musical
• The Man on the Moon, McAbee’s short film about a dejected husband exiled on the moon, shot on a Fisher Price Pixel Camera
• Billy Nayer, an animated short film direct by and starring McAbee as a singing bar patron
• 24-page booklet of photos, production stills and promotional materials, plus a new interview with Cory McAbee

“Hertz Donut” Edition – Package Includes:

• The American Astronaut on Blu-ray or Standard DVD
• DRM-free digital download of The American Astronaut and other films by McAbee on 1080p, 720p, and mobile/tablet formats
• Instant Download of the Original Motion Picture Soundtracks by The Billy Nayer Show for The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam
• 27″ x 40″ posters for The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam
• Stingray Sam Film Program
• The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam T-shirts
• The American Astronaut and Stingray Sam stickers

The Dupes (Tewfik Saleh, 1973)

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films present The Dupes.

The Dupes is a starkly beautiful film tracing the destinies of three Palestinian refugees brought together by dispossession, poverty, and dreams of a better future.  Set in 1950s Iraq, the three men risk their lives within the sweltering confines of a water truck’s steel tank in hopes of smuggling themselves into nearby Kuwait and finding gainful employment.  A masterful adaptation of Ghassan Kanafani’s acclaimed novella Men in the Sun, The Dupes is one of the first films to address the Palestinian predicament.  Egyptian filmmaker Tewfik Saleh blends social realism, documentary representation, New Wave-style subjectivity, and road movie allegory into a Pan-Arabist production that casts a critical eye on the Palestinian diaspora and its causes.

Disc Features:

• New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
• Audio commentary by Arabic film scholar and filmmaker Viola Shafik
• Interview of Tewfik Saleh by artist and curator Fareed Armaly
• John Berger reads Ghassan Kanafani’s Letters from Gaza for the 2008 inaugural Palestine Festival of Literature
• City Cinematheque episode on The Dupes with host and film scholar Jerry Carlson and film programmer and scholar Richard Peña
• New English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by Arabic media scholar Nadia Yaqub and Ghassan Kanafani’s original 1963 novella Men in the Sun, reprinted specially for this release

Beggars of Life (William A. Wellman, 1928)

The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents Beggars of Life.

Following his Best Picture win at the inaugural Academy Awards, William A. Wellman made Beggars for Life, an adaptation of Jim Tully’s best-selling classic of hobo literature.  This gripping drama casts cinema icon Louise Brooks as a girl on the lam after killing her lecherous adoptive father.  Dressed in boy’s clothes, she navigates through the dangerous tramp underworld with the help of a handsome and devoted drifter (Richard Arlen) and encounters the dangerous, but warm-hearted hobo legend Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery).  Loaded with stunning visuals and empathetic performances, this dark, realistic drama is Brooks’ best American film, Paramount’s first foray into synchronized sound, and a masterpiece of late-silent era feature films.

Disc Features:

• New digital restoration, created in collaboration with the George Eastman House
• Four musical scores: a piano score by silent film accompanist Steve Sterner, a pan-temporal score by Daryl Fleming and the Public Domain, one by Neil Brand and skiffle band The Dodge Brothers and a Wurlitzer score by organist Jim Riggs, all presented as uncompressed stereo soundtracks on the Blu-ray edition
• Introduction by documentary filmmaker Ken Burns
• Audio commentary by film historian Richard Koszarski
• Jim Tully: The Most Hated Man in Hollywood, a new interview program with Tully biographers Mark Dawidziak and Paul J. Bauer
• New interview with William Wellman Jr. on his director father and the making of the film
• PLUS: A booklet featuring new essays by film critic Mark Kermode and filmmaker John Sayles, a collection of reviews on the film’s release curated by Thomas Gladysz of the Louise Brooks Society, and Jim Tully’s original novel, reprinted specially for this release.

On Tour (Mathieu Amalric, 2010)

“A likably rambling survey of ephemeral community, a portrait of the artist as a washed-up family man and pimp, and a quasi-documentary about brassy stage personas.” – Fernando F. Croce, SLANT

Joachim, an ostracized former Parisian television producer, returns from America with a New Burlesque strip-tease ensemble to whom he has promised a tour of France culminating in a grand finale in Paris.  Traveling from city to city, the curvaceous showgirls create a community of warmth and hedonism despite the impersonal hotels and little money.  When the venue for the Paris show falls through, Joachim’s grip on the situation and himself weakens, all under the watchful eyes of his performers.  A winner at Cannes and nominated for 7 César awards, Mathieu Amalric’s On Tour captures all the glamor, the stress, the intimacy, and the freedom of the artist’s life on the road.

Special Features:

• Rodolphe Gonzales’ documentary on the making of On Tour
• Interviews with cast and crew
• Theatrical trailer
• Gary Beeber’s 60-minute documentary on the creation of the new burlesque scene in New York City, Dirty Martini and the New Burlesque
• 16-page booklet featuring an interview with director/actor Mathieu Amalric and an essay by burlesque historian and performer Jo “Boobs” Weldon

“Pasties and Tassels” Edition – Package Includes:

• On Tour on Blu-ray or Standard DVD featuring over 2 hours of bonus materials
• High quality 720p HD Digital Download of the Film
• Instant Download of the 16-track Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, including 4 by performer and actress Kitten on the Keys
• 27″ x 40″ Theatrical Poster
• 1 Pair of Red Sequined Pasties with Tassels

In the Land of Don Quixote (Orson Welles, 1964)

While working on his failed adaptation of Don Quixote, Welles made a Spanish travelogue for Italy’s RAI-TV to assist in financing the feature film project.  With his Italian wife Paola Mori and his six year-old daughter Beatrice, Welles documented their travels over nine episodes, touring through Seville’s Holy Week, Pamplona’s bullfights, the Pueblo Español of Barcelona, and the Roman and Arabic legacies throughout Spain.  Stunning and poetic in its composition, In the Land of Don Quixote is presented here as restored by the Munich Film Museum, removing the Italian language narration inserted without Welles’ approval and enhancing his originally selected soundtrack.