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Posted: |
Feb 28, 2016 - 6:45 AM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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A time machine to late fifties (London) Soho, coffee bars, strip clubs, Adam Faith...Christopher Lee! I might pass on this, but will buy Expresso Bongo 1958, which the BFI are releasing at the same time.
Val Guest's 1959 London-shot Brit Beat classic charts the fortunes of aspiring musician Bert Rudge (Cliff Richard).
Rudge stands little chance in the music business but is propelled to major stardom after being discovered in an expresso coffee shop by sleazy Soho agent Johnny (Laurence Harvey). In quick succession Rudge changes his name to Bongo Herbert, gets a record deal and strikes up a relationship with an ageing American singing sensation. As Johnny starts Herbert on the road to stardom, an unfair deal is cut which exploits the young singer and leads their relationship to turn sour.
This sharp satire on the music industry was originally a successful 1958 West End musical, adapted for the big screen the following year, and designed as a star vehicle for the young Cliff Richard and The Shadows.
Special features
Remastered to HD
Longest ever version
Extras TBC
Starring: Cliff Richard, Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms and Hermione Baddeley
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01B6B46WY/ref=s9_simh_gw_p74_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=desktop-1&pf_rd_r=19QSM1BXG4B1MEFB1QXR&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=577047927&pf_rd_i=desktop
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Posted: |
Mar 2, 2016 - 2:46 AM
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By: |
CH-CD
(Member)
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Ha, only a British film would call the hero Bert Rudge! I don't think I've ever seen this, so looking forward to it.
“Expresso Bongo” is a Masterpiece, compared to ‘Beat Girl”.
It’s good fun, with some good performances and is well worth seeing.
By the way, Bert Rudge becomes Bongo Herbert.
Not much of an improvement, I know, but it does mirror Cliff’s (and Tommy Steele’s ) own Genesis. Both were discovered singing in the Two I’s coffee bar in Old Compton Street,Soho.
There is (sometimes - it keeps getting stolen!) a plaque on the wall of where that establishment used to be, commemorating the birth of British Rock ’n’Roll.
Cliff, of course, started life as Harry Webb, and Tommy Steele was Tommy Hicks.
For the same sort of flavour of this one, you should catch “The Tommy Steele Story”, which is almost a documentary of how Tommy rose to be the UK’s first Rock ’n’ Roll star. It is on DVD and the UK’s “Talking Pictures” channel are showing it in the next couple of weeks.
That same (Excellent) channel are also occasionally showing “The Golden Disc”. Another film in the same vein as the above. This time with Terry Dene.
Dene is little remembered today but was very big, back then, and had a decent voice. He was a contemporary of Cliff & Tommy but, unfortunately, his success ran away with him and he fell out with the Press ( & virtually everyone?) who, literally, killed his career.
Viewed today, "The Golden Disc” is a hoot, but, a very nostalgic one. Don’t miss this one!
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The British Film Institute will add three new titles to its Blu-ray catalog: Ken Russell's Women in Love, Don Sharp's Psychomania a.k.a. The Death Wheelers, and Charles Burnett's The Glass Shield.
Women in Love
Synopsis: Free-spirited sculptress Gudrun and her sister, schoolteacher Ursula, become acquainted with lifelong friends Gerald and Rupert in 1920s England. Gerald falls in love with Gudrun, and Rupert with Ursula, but their respective relationships are soon put to the test, particularly during an eventful and tense holiday in Switzerland. Adapted from the novel by D. H. Lawrence. Starring Alan Bates, Oliver Reed, Glenda Jackson, Jennie Linden, and Eleanor Bron.
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 19.
Psychomania
LOOK OUT! The Living Dead motorcycle gang is on the rampage, wreaking havoc in their small English town. For gang leader Tom (Nicky Henson), however, mere earthly violence is not enough: he's obsessed with the occult and is convinced that he can kill himself and then return from the dead - with the help of a frog-worshipping cult and his seance-conducting mother (Beryl Reid). Remarkably, Tom succeeds and soon joins the ranks of the walking - and riding - dead! Now if he can only persuade his girlfriend and the rest of his gang to join him - but Mother and her diabolical butler Shadwell (George Sanders) may have other plans for the Living Dead, who are dangerously trespassing on uncharted spiritual grounds.
Psychomania is a pre-punk British horror cult classic featuring trashy violence, suburban witchcraft and some amazing motorcycle stunt sequences. Come and ride with the Living Dead - if you dare! Starring Nicky Henson, Mary Larkin, Ann Michelle, Roy Holder, and Denis Gilmore.
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 19.
The Glass Shield
A rookie cop and his female partner (Michael Boatman and Lori Petty) uncover a dangerous world of corruption when they realise an innocent man (Ice Cube) has been wrongly jailed for murder. They come up against a test of their loyalty: should they say nothing and abide by the unwritten laws of the precinct, but deny their oaths to uphold the law; or speak out and face alienation from the force? Starring Michael Boatman, Ice Cube, Lori Petty, Elliott Gould, and Michael Ironside.
STREET DATE: AUGUST 22.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=18969
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Posted: |
May 24, 2016 - 6:47 PM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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The British Film Institute will add three new titles to its Blu-ray catalog: Neil Jordan's The Crying Game (1992), Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones (1954), and Robert Siodmak's Cry of the City (1948). The label also plans to release a collection of Quay Brothers films.
The Crying Game
'The Troubles' provide the backdrop for a study of sexual intrigue in this landmark British drama from director Neil Jordan (Michael Collins, Interview with the Vampire) and producer Stephen Woolley (Carol).
When British soldier Jody (Forest Whitaker) is kidnapped by the IRA, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with his captor, Fergus (Stephen Rea). When the abduction goes awry, Fergus leaves for London where he becomes embroiled in a curious love triangle with Dil (Jaye Davidson), Jody's beautiful girlfriend.
Full of suspense, mystery and intrigue, this Academy Award-winning thriller challenged mainstream sexual sterotypes and remains a powerful and poignant exploration of gender and identity.
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 19.
Carmen Jones
Otto Preminger's (Laura, Anatomy of a Murder) celebrated 1954 film proved to be a milestone in musical cinema.
Dorothy Dandridge, whose vibrant performance resulted in the first Oscar nomination for an African-American actress in a leading role, stars as the beautiful temptress Carmen Jones. In one of the sexiest performances ever seen on the big screen she seduces the handsome GI Joe (Harry Belafonte) away from his sweetheart (Olga James), but after she tires of him and takes up with a heavyweight prize-fighter (Joe Adams), she only succeeds in triggering Joe's tragic revenge.
With an all-black cast this Oscar nominated version of Bizet's opera Carmen features an iconic soundtrack from Oscar Hammerstein, including songs such as 'Beat Out Dat Rhythm on a Drum' and was voluptuously shot in Cinemscope Technicolor.
Special Features:
Original theatrical trailer
Audio commentary with Adrian Martin
Fully illustrated booklet
And More...
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 19.
Cry of the City
A masterpiece of law and disorder, Robert Siodmak's film noir classic depicts a timeless battle of good versus evil on the streets of New York.
Childhood friends Martin Rome (Richard Conte), a charismatic and ruthless criminal, and Lieutenant Candella (Victor Mature), a dogged and tireless cop, go head-to-head as Rome attempts to forge an alibi through intimidation and menace. Seductively callous and threatening, Rome's travails reveal an underworld of corruption and criminality at the heart of the Big Apple. Candella's persistence and resourcefulness keeps his nemesis looking over his shoulder; as tense game of cat and mouse played out to an inevitably dramatic climax.
Offering a vivid depiction of life in Little Italy, Siodmak's fast-paced crime thriller is beautifully shot and is a key work in the genre.
Special Features:
Original theatrical trailer
Audio commentary with Adrian Martin
Fully illustrated booklet
And More...
STREET DATE: AUGUST 22.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=19108
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Posted: |
Sep 24, 2017 - 6:38 AM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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The British Film Institute has detailed its upcoming Blu-ray release of Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear (1952), starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli, Peter van Eyck, and William Tubbs. The release will be available for purchase on October 23.
Synopsis: Few films are as gripping as The Wages of Fear, largely because few have come up with as effective a mechanism for generating pure white-knuckle tension. In an unnamed South American country, four European ex-convicts are so desperate to escape that they accept the potentially suicidal mission of driving two trucks loaded with nitroglycerine over the roughest terrain imaginable in order to extinguish a burning oil well – assuming their own lives aren't extinguished first.
The slow build-up gives Henri-Georges Clouzot time to round his characters – cynical Yves Montand, grizzled Charles Vanel, rugged Peter Van Eyck, nervy Folco Lulli – and establish how lethal a single drop of 'nitro' can be when jolted. And then the trucks leave the town, warning sirens blaring, whereupon Clouzot begins to slice at the viewer's nerve endings with the clinical precision of a master surgeon, and doesn't let up until the characteristically pessimistic ending.
The film was directly remade as The Violent Road (1958) and Sorcerer (1977), and its influence can clearly be seen in Speed (1994).
Special Features and Technical Specs:
BRAND NEW 4K RESTORATION of the original French theatrical release of the film
Interview with Assistant Director Michel Romanoff (2005, 23 mins)
Interview with Clouzot biographer Marc Godin (2005, 10 mins)
Interview with Professor Lucy Mazdon (2017, 35 mins)
The Guardian Lecture: Yves Montand in conservation with Don Allan (99 mins, audio only): recorded in 1989, the star discusses his distinguished career
Audio commentary with film critic Adrian Martin
Original theatrical trailer
Illustrated booklet with a new essay by Andy Miller, original reviews by Karel Reisz and Penelope Houston, an appreciation of Clouzot by Paul Ryan, and full film credits
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=22132
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The British Film Institute will add eight new titles to its Blu-ray catalog early next year. Amongst them are Beat the Devil (1953), Cyrano de Bergerac (1990), and Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971).
Please note that exact technical specs and supplemental features to be included on these releases will be announced as their street dates approach.
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=25949
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The British Film Institute will add three titles to its Blu-ray catalog in November: Thorold Dickinson's Gaslight (1940), Leslie Megahey's Schalcken the Painter (1979), and Rupert Julian's The Phantom of the Opera.
http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=11768
Are all these Blu-Rays going to be released only as Region 2? I ask, because I checked for the Kevin Brownlow restoration of the Abel Gance NAPOLEON on Amazon, and apparently that is only available on Region 2.
If true, a poor business choice on the part of BFI.
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Posted: |
Aug 27, 2020 - 5:57 AM
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By: |
johnjohnson
(Member)
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The British Film Institute has detailed its upcoming Blu-ray release of Vittorio De Sica's film After the Fox (1966), starring Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Britt Ekland, Martin Balsam, and Akim Tamiroff. The release will be available for purchase on September 21.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
High-definition transfer
After the Fox: A Socially Distanced Interview (2020, 15 mins): Britt Ekland looks back on the early days of her acting career and remembers the making of After the Fox
Peter Sellers: Master of Disguise (2020, 14 mins): the BFI's Vic Pratt revisits the enigma of Peter Sellers and his multiple roles in this video essay illustrated with promotional images for After the Fox
DDR Magazine Nummer 11 (1962, 12 mins): After the Fox director Vittorio De Sica – paying a visit to Berlin – features prominently in this fascinating East German newsreel produced in the Cold War era
Robbery (1897, 1 min): could this Victorian novelty reel be the earliest heist comedy?
The Man With the Velvet Voice: Maurice Denham (1961 + 1975, 72 mins): the mellow tones of velvet-voiced actor Maurice Denham – who plays an authoritative supporting role in After the Fox – ring out in two rarities from the BFI National Archive: the CFF classic The Last Rhino and BTF film Go As You Please… in Britain
Original trailer
First pressing only: Illustrated booklet with new writing by Vic Pratt, Dr. Deborah Allison and Howard Hughes, notes on the extras and full credits
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=27329
Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
REGION-B "LOCKED"
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One of Our Aircraft is Missing (Blu-ray)
Release date September 27 2021
Extras:
Presented in High Definition
Limited edition (4,000 units): packaged with a re-production of the original storybook based on the film by Emeric Pressburger
Newly recorded audio commentary by film scholar Ian Christie
An Airman’s Letter to His Mother (1941, 5mins): Michael Powell’s powerful propaganda short, narrated by John Gielgud
The Volunteer (1944, 42mins): an entertaining look at the Fleet Air Arm, directed by Powell & Pressburger and starring the legendary Ralph Richardson
Target for Tonight (1941, 50mins): a record of a Wellington bomber's mission over Germany
The Biter Bit (1943, 14mins): a glowing tribute to the Allied bombing campaign, narrated by Ralph Richardson
Image gallery
Newly commissioned sleeve art by Jennifer Dionisio
**FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Fully illustrated booklet with new essays by Ian Christie and Professor Sarah Street, writing on the extras by Alex Prideaux and full film credits
https://shop.bfi.org.uk/one-of-our-aircraft-is-missing-blu-ray.html
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