The Arrow Thread

[Susan Foreman]

ARROW ACADEMY

"UK/US TITLE: Godard + Gorin (Dual Format Blu-ray + DVD)

Five films, all originally shot in 16mm celluloid, that serve as examples of Godard and Gorin’s revolutionary project:

Release date: 26/27 February

After finishing his film Weekend in 1967, Jean-Luc Godard shifted gears to embark on engaging more directly with the radical political movements of the era, and thus create a new kind of film, or, as he eventually put it: “new ideas distributed in a new way.” This new method in part involved collaborating with the precocious young critic and journalist, Jean-Pierre Gorin. Both as a two-person unit, and as part of the loose collective known as the Groupe Dziga Vertov (named after the early 20th-century Russian filmmaker and theoretician), Godard and Gorin would realize “some political possibilities for the practice of cinema” and craft new frameworks for investigating the relationships between image and sound, spectator and subject, cinema and society.

Included here are five films, all originally shot in 16mm celluloid, that serve as examples of Godard and Gorin’s revolutionary project:

Un film comme les autres [A Film Like Any Other]: An analysis of the social upheaval of May 1968 made in the immediate wake of the workers’ and students’ protests. The picture consists of two parts, each with with identical image tracks, and differing narration.
British Sounds, aka: See You at Mao: An examination of the daily routine at a British auto factory assembly line, set against class-conflict and The Communist Manifesto.
Vent d’est [Wind from the East]: A loosely conceived leftist-western that moves through a series of practical and analytical passages (“an organization of shots,” Godard called it) into a finale based around the process of manufacturing homemade weapons.
Lotte in Italia / Luttes en Italie [Struggles in Italy]: Not necessarily a film about the struggles in Italy — largely shot, in fact, in Godard and Anne Wiazemsky’s home at the time — this is a discursive reflection on a young Italian woman’s shift from political “theory” to political “practice” and, at the same time, a self-questioning of its own practice and theories.
Vladimir et Rosa [Vladimir and Rosa]: A searing and satirical comic-reportage on the trial of the Chicago Eight, featuring Juliet Berto and Godard and Gorin themselves.

These films, long out-of-circulation except in film dupes and bootleg video, here make their Blu-ray debut, providing a crucial glimpse of Godard’s radicalization, and of the aesthetic dialogue between him and Gorin that, in essence, served to invent a modern militant cinema. As Godard told an English journalist of the era, film is not a gun — but “a light which helps you check your gun.”
SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
• High-definition digital transfer
• High-definition Blu-ray (1080p) and standard-definition DVD presentations
• Original uncompressed monaural audio
• Optional English subtitles
• A conversation with JLG - Interview with Jean-Luc Godard from 2010 by Dominique Maillet and Pierre-Henri Gibert
• 60-page full-colour book containing English translations for the first time of writing by, and interviews with, Godard and Gorin, and more
• More to be announced before release!"

[keirarts]

Der Todesking and Scalpel for me. I'll probably end up getting basket case sooner or later.

[Susan Foreman]

ARROW ACADEMY

"NEW UK/US TITLE: Inferno (Blu-ray)

Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea present Inferno’s incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot’s original vision

Release date: 5/6 February

In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of thriller masterpieces Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear, began work on his most ambitious film yet.

Set in a beautiful lake side resort in the Auvergne region of France, L’Enfer (Inferno) was to be a sun scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager (Serge Reggiani). However, despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed under the weight of arguments, technical complications and illness.

In this compelling, award-winning documentary Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea present Inferno’s incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot’s original vision, and shedding light on the ill-fated endeavour through interviews, dramatisations of unfilmed scenes, and Clouzot’s own notes.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Lucy Mazdon on Henri-Georges Clouzot, the French cinema expert and academic talks at length about the films of Clouzot and the troubled production of Inferno
• They Saw Inferno, a featurette including unseen material, providing further insight into the production of Inferno
• Filmed Introduction by Serge Bromberg
• Interview with Serge Bromberg
• Stills gallery
• Original trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Twins of Evil
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Ginette Vincendeau"

[Susan Foreman]

ARROW ACADEMY

"Orchestra Rehearsal (Blu-ray)

Possibly Fellini’s most satirical and overtly political film.

Release date: 12th February

Made in 1978 for Italian television, Orchestra Rehearsal is possibly Fellini’s most satirical and overtly political film.

An allegorical pseudo-documentary, the film depicts an Italian television crew’s visit to a dilapidated auditorium (a converted 13th-century church) to meet an orchestra assembling to rehearse under the instruction of a tyrannical conductor. The TV crew interviews the various musicians who each speak lovingly about their chosen instruments. However, as petty squabbles break out amid the different factions of the ensemble, and the conductor berates his musicians, the meeting descends into anarchy and vandalism. A destructive crescendo ensues before the musicians regroup and play together once more in perfect harmony.

Abounding with its director’s trademark rich imagery and expressive style, Orchestra Rehearsal marks the last collaboration between Fellini and the legendary composer Nino Rota (due to the latter’s death in 1979) who provides one of his most beautiful themes in the film’s conclusion.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:
• Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements, produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original 1.0 mono sound
• Optional English subtitles
• Richard Dyer on Nino Rota and Orchestra Rehearsal, the film scholar talks about the great composer and his last collaboration with Fellini
• Orchestrating Discord, a visual essay on the film by Fellini biographer John Baxter
• Gallery featuring rare poster and press material on the film from the Felliniana collection of Don Young
• Reversible sleeve featuring two original artwork options

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Adrian Martin"

[Rob4]

so another mixed bag. Basket Case will have to be a major improvement transfer wise to justify double dipping. Der Todesking i can wait for a standard release. That leaves Scalpel - never heard of it! was it mentioned in Nightmare USA? Anyway whichever way i like the way it sounds so i'll be 'avin it

[Rik]

Yeah, Scalpel sounds interesting so that’s tempting, will have to do some digging first to see if it’s worth a punt

[BAKA]

I'm in for Der Todesking, Scalpel, and Inferno.

Scalpel is of particular interest, being really obscure, and the only other feature from John Grissmer (Blood Rage). He also wrote The House That Cried Murder, which I've never seen, but really want to. I wonder if Arrow will put that out eventually.

[J Harker]

Scalpel maybe. The rest of that lot can go up their arse as far as I'm concerned.

[Susan Foreman]

Probably very wide of the mark, but the synopsis of 'Scalpel' makes me think of 'Les Yeux Sans Visage'

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I've seen Scalpel.

It's quite a minor film really, more a suspenseful drama than out and out horror, but i think it's probably worth a purchase. Maybe when it's £6 in Fopp.

It's not really like Les Yeux Sans Visage. Other than the surgeon creates a face, this time for his missing daughter in order to collect on an inheritance. It's not in the same class really.