Christian Beauchamp (Richard Denis Africa Love), a medical student, is powerfully attracted to his beautiful young stepmother Françoise (Michèle Perello Shut Up! I Love You!). But when his fantasies become an enthusiastic reality, he and Françoise find things moving beyond their control... An explicit drama of dangerous desire, Erotic Sex Games (AKA Le Cri Du Desir) remains profoundly provocative nearly fifty years after it first challenged the censors. A film that firmly lives up to its title, 88 Films are proud to present this re-discovered classic on blu-ray for the first time in the UK, now completely uncut. HIGH DEFINITION BLU-RAY PRESENTATION IN 1.78:1 ASPECT RATIO ORIGINAL FRENCH MONO 2.0 AUDIO WITH NEW ENGLISH SUBTITLES NEWLY COMMISSIONED ARTWORK BY SILVER FEROX
This ground-breaking collection brings together Walerian Borowczyk's key films from a twenty-five-year period stretching from 1959 through to 1984. This unique release includes five of Borowczyk s provocative feature films: Theatre de Monsieur et Madame Kabal, Goto, l ile d amour, Blanche, Contes Immoraux and La Bête as well as his ground-breaking short films from this period, in digital high definition restorations approved by the director s widow, Ligia Branice. In addition to exclusive documentaries featuring cast and crew, an hour long portrait of Borowczyk is included, featuring the director s musings on painting, animation and sex. Arrow Academy's Walerian Borowczyk Collection is a vital addition to the collection of anyone interested in either world cinema, animation or experimental film. 5-DISC SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS HD restorations of the five features High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations Original uncompressed mono 1.0 audio English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Reversible sleeves featuring Borowczyk s original poster designs and artwork THEATRE OF MR AND MRS KABAL The short films Astronauts (1959), The Concert (1962), Grandmother s Encyclopaedia (1963), Renaissance (1963), Angels Games (1964), Joachim s Dictionary (1965), Rosalie (1966), Gavotte (1967), Diptych (1967), The Phonograph (1969), The Greatest Love of All Time (1978) and Scherzo Infernal (1984) Introduction by filmmaker and animator Terry Gilliam Film is Not a Sausage, a documentary about Borowczyk s animated work featuring Borowczyk, producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant André Heinrich and composer Bernard Parmegiani Blow Ups, a visual essay by Daniel Bird about Borowczyk s works on paper Commercials by Walerian Borowczyk: Holy Smoke (1963), The Museum (1964) and Tom Thumb (1966) GOTO, ISLE OF LOVE Introduction by artist and Turner Prize nominee Craigie Horsfield The Concentration Universe, a new interview programme featuring actor Jean-Pierre Andréani, cameraman Noël Véry and camera assistant Jean-Pierre Platel The Profligate Door, a new documentary about Borowczyk s sound sculptures featuring curator Maurice Corbet BLANCHE Introduction by Schalcken the Painter director Leslie Megahey Ballad of Imprisonment, a documentary about the film featuring producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant director André Heinrich, camera operator Noël Véry and assistant Patrice Leconte Obscure Pleasures: A Portrait of Walerian Borowczyk, a newly edited archival interview in which Borowczyk discusses painting, cinema and sex Gunpoint, a documentary short by Peter Graham produced and edited by Borowczyk IMMORAL TALES Introduction by Borowczyk expert Daniel Bird Love Reveals Itself, a video essay about the film featuring production manager Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin and cinematographer Noël Véry Obscure Pleasures: A Portrait of Valerian Borowczyk, a newly edited archival interview in which the filmmaker discusses painting, cinema and sex Blow Ups, a visual essay by Daniel Bird about Borowczyk s works on paper Theatrical trailer THE BEAST An introduction by film critic Peter Bradshaw Borowczyk s erotic short film Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) The Making of the Beast, an hour-long documentary with rare on-set footage, narrated by cameraman Noël Véry Frenzy of Ecstasy, a visual essay about The Beast s design and the film s unmade sequel Original theatrical trailer
Halle Berry stars as a successful criminal psychologist who wakes up to find herself a patient in her own mental institution with no memory of the murder she's apparently committed.
A sculptor preparing to open a new show must balance her creative life with the daily dramas of family and friends, in Kelly Reichardt's vibrant and captivatingly funny portrait of art and craft.
Influential director Jacques Becker's final film, Le Trou is also amongst his very best. Hailed as a masterpiece by Truffaut, it remains a compelling work, superbly directed and photographed with a remarkable attention to detail. 1947. A young man, Gaspard Claude (Marc Michel), is convicted for the attempted murder of his wife, although he is innocent of the crime. He is sent to the notorious Santé Prison in Paris and is placed in a cell with four hardened criminals. The latter have decided to escape from the prison by digging their way out of their cell. Reluctantly, they take Gaspard into their confidence and labour digging their way out of their cell. Then, just when escape appears certain, Gaspard is called away to see the prison governor
This high-energy Dirty Harry in Japan stars Jean Reno (The Professional) as a maverick Paris cop with sledgehammer fists and a short temper. Promoted to sudden fatherhood when he "inherits" a spunky Japanese daughter (Ryoko Hirosue) he never knew, he becomes her droopy guardian angel, protecting her from an army of yakuza gangsters. Written and produced by Luc Besson, the former fashionista director of Euro-sleek shoot-'em-ups, this colorful B-movie blast is as gritty as an oil slick on a water slide but packed with explosive action. Director Gerard Krawczyk punctuates his gunfights with the Hong Kong school of recoil (bullets blast victims across the screen) and an undercurrent of humor. As long as you don't lean too hard on such niggling details as logic, legality, and the laws of physics, this silly, splashy, family bonding bulletfest is a spirited good time.
Influential director Jacques Becker's final film, Le Trou is also amongst his very best. Hailed as a masterpiece by Truffaut, it remains a compelling work, superbly directed and photographed with a remarkable attention to detail. 1947. A young man, Gaspard Claude (Marc Michel), is convicted for the attempted murder of his wife, although he is innocent of the crime. He is sent to the notorious Santé Prison in Paris and is placed in a cell with four hardened criminals. The latter have decided to escape from the prison by digging their way out of their cell. Reluctantly, they take Gaspard into their confidence and labour digging their way out of their cell. Then, just when escape appears certain, Gaspard is called away to see the prison governor
Characteristically breaking with tradition director Robert Bresson presents a realistic unique view of the life and death of Joan of Arc. Using a script based on the actual transcript notes taken during her trial Bresson focuses on the psychological and physical torture that Joan had to endure showing how these techniques were used to break her resolve and cause her to eventually recant her faith. With impeccable historical accuracy Bresson re-creates the story of the peasant gi
Pilot Hardy Kruger returns to France from the Indochinese War and takes up residence in a small town near Paris, where he becomes friendly with a 12-year-old girl who lives in an orphanage. The nuns assume that Kruger is her father, but people become suspicious of the relationship and mistake Kruger's intentions.
Claude Chabrol's nervy and nasty little 2001 thriller Merci Pour le Chocolat is based on Charlotte Armstrong's novel The Chocolate Cobweb. In Chabrol's hands it becomes a vehicle of considerable power for the unsettling, disturbed qualities of actress Isabelle Huppert, who has been one of his most important muses over the years (their other collaborations include La Cérémonie and Rien ne va Plus). Huppert plays Mika, the owner of a Swiss chocolate factory, now married to a world-class concert pianist (Jacques Dutronc) and with a stepson who is obsessive about making the family's drinking chocolate every day. As the clues unravel, it soon becomes clear that Mika is damaged goods. When Dutronc acquires a piano student (Anna Mougalis) in curious circumstances, Mika is forced to escalate her secret agenda. Huppert is fascinating throughout and the film is sinewy and, for the most part, rather clever, evoking shades of Hitchcock and Clouzot. Liszt's Les Funérailles is the ominous leitmotif, worked on by Dutronc and his protégé, and the Lausanne setting creates an other-worldliness which seems almost sterile. Only at the end does the picture dwindle into an almost Strindbergian inertia as Mika's motivation seems to evaporate in a rather unsatisfactory way. Until then it is spellbinding. --Piers Ford
Financed by Marcel Pagnol's production company Jean Renoir's Toni is a landmark in French filmmaking. Based on a police dossier concerning a provincial crime of passion it was lensed by Claude Renoir on location (unusually for the time) in the small town of Les Martigues where the actual events occurred. The use of directly-recorded sound authentic patois lack of make-up a large ensemble cast of local citizens in supporting roles and Renoir's steadfast desire to avoid m
One of France's greatest screen stars Michel Piccoli plays Gilbert Valence a grand old theatre actor who is given the shocking news that his wife daughter and son-in-law have been tragically killed in a car accident. Some time later and over the worst of his grief Valence busies himself with his daily life in Paris turning down unsuitable roles in low brow television productions and caring for his nine-year old grandson. But when an American filmmaker (John Malkovich) absurdly
Contains three films by Jean Luc Godard: ALPHAVILLE UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME and LE PETIT SOLDAT.ALPHAVILLE:With 1965's ALPHAVILLE--part sci-fi action film part noir thriller--the acclaimed French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard achieves a stunningly clinical futurism using absolutely no special visual effects. The result is a moving original film that with its abstract political and intellectual themes essentially redefines the apocalyptic science fiction genre. ALPHAVILLE clearly the product of one of cinema's greatest contributors is nothing less than a bona fide cult classic.UNE FEMME EST UNE FEMME:Godard pays tribute to American musicals in much the same way that his debut feature A BOUT DE SOUFFLE did to American gangster films. The story follows the beautiful Angela (Anna Karina) a strip-tease artist who wants nothing more than to have a baby. Her live-in boyfriend Emile (Jean-Claude Brialy) doesn't want to refuse and risk sparking major friction between the two. However fed up with her constant pleading Emile finally suggests that she shack up with his best friend Alfred (Jean-Paul Belmondo) and much to Emile's dismay she eventually takes his advice. Godard's second feature employs jump cuts and jarring sound mixing--most notably during Karina's strip-tease performances. Godard is at his most affectionate and good-natured here. He also makes several cinematic in-jokes including one in which Belmondo's character mentions that he wants to hurry home to watch A BOUT DE SOUFFLE the film that turned Belmondo into a megastar just one year before. Featuring a magnetically cute performance from Karina who soon after the film became Godard's wife this loving romantic comedy is a dazzler.LE PETIT SOLDAT (1960):Michel Subor stars as Bruno a hitman under contract by the French government who suddenly develops a conscience and a philosophy when he is ordered to kill a left wing Arab leader. His newfound ideals are provoked by the stunning Veronica (Karina) a young woman who is secretly employed by the Arabs. The two fall in love and not surprisingly Bruno finds it impossible to carry out his mission bringing down the wrath of the French government on both he and Veronica. Beautifully filmed by Raoul Coutard LES PETIT SOLDAT is less interested in the mechanics of plot as it is in providing Godard a voice for thoughts and musings on the politics and horrors of the Algerian War. It was originally banned in France because of its frank depiction of torture during Algeria's war of Independence which was tearing France apart at the time of the film's completion.
Three clueless and hedonistic bachelors are forced to trade dames for diapers when an infant is left on their doorstep. However what they don't know is that this ""package"" is harbouring a little extra when drug dealers come looking for their narcotics unwittingly stashed in the baby's cradle! Funny feelgood French farce later remade as the Stateside uber-comedy Three Men And A Baby!
You've never seen a sex comedy quite like The Decline of the American Empire. That's because there's no sex in this comedy--just a lot of entertaining talk about it (and a few discreet flashbacks). The speakers are eight Montreal academics. For most of the film, the men--Rémy (Rémy Girard), Claude (Yves Jacques), Pierre (Pierre Curzi), and Alain (Daniel Brière)--fix dinner while talking about sex. The women--Dominique (Dominique Michel), Louise (Dorothée Berryman), Diane (Louise Portal), and Danielle (Geneviève Rioux)--work out while talking about sex. That evening, they all gather for dinner... and talk about sex. The Decline of the American Empire made the reputation of writer-director Denys Arcand, but his greatest success would arrive 17 years later with The Barbarian Invasions. In that 2003 Oscar-winner, Arcand revisits the lovably loquacious characters from the first film, all of whom are older, wiser--and just as obsessed with sex. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Eddie Roback (Dane Clark), an American army deserter turned criminal, is going to trial in Paris after a ten-month delay when he is sprung on his way to court in a pitched gun battle. A manhunt ensues with the police just a few paces behind, including a nicely staged scene in a department store in which Roback manages to improvise an escape, only to be standing by across the street from his intended destination as his waiting confederates are taken by the police. Investigators try to get ahead of him by reaching out his girlfriend, Denise Vernon (Simone Signoret). Feigning innocence, she makes contact with the wounded Roback, who is turned away by his former associates in his attempts to find shelter and escape. She eventually finds him a hiding place in the studio of Max Salva, a lecherous photographer with a sadistic streak, who may have given Roback up to the police. Denise tries to find him a way out of the country, with money from an American writer, Frank Clinton (Robert Duke), while the police slowly catch on to Roback's whereabouts, drawing the net ever closer. Several battles of wits unfold at once, drawing the viewer in, across intertwining, overlapping plot elements. Even nature raises its hand against Roback as a crippling fog slows his seemingly easy escape to Belgium. All of the players are drawn together for a final confrontation that is every bit as violent as anything seen in American crime films of the period.
Marco Ferreri's greatest international success La Grande Bouffe scandalized audiences when it was released in 1973. Audiences were shocked by its tale of four world-weary middle-aged men (superbly portrayed by Marcello Mastroianni Ugo Tognazzi Michel Piccoli and Philippe Noiret) who decide to gorge themselves to death in one final orgiastic weekend full of gourmet food call girls and a hefty lusty schoolteacher. This blackly humorous parable of modern society's collaps
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