The Etruscan Smile

The Etruscan Smile 

coming to VOD, EST, DVD and BluRay June 16th

starring Brian Cox, Golden Globe Winner for HBO's Succession

PRE-ORDER HERE

Produced by six-time Academy Award-winner Arthur Cohn, The Etruscan Smile stars renowned actor Brian Cox (HBO's Succession) in a career-defining role as Rory MacNeil, a rugged Scotsman who is forced to leave behind his beloved home and seek medical treatment in San Francisco. Moving in with his estranged son, Rory's life will be transformed, when he least expects it, through the redemptive power of love. Katie Walsh of the Los Angeles Times says "Cox is a wonder to watch, and seeing him in this gentle, vulnerable role is a treat."

The film also boasts a strong ensemble cast featuring Rosanna Arquette, JJ Feild, Thora Birch, Tim Matheson, Peter Coyote, and Treat Williams. Tim Appelo of AARP Movies says "It's worth watching for Cox's bravura performance with some of the best grownup actors alive."

Film Festival Awards include:

• Winner, Festival Grand Prize, Best Film, Stony Brook International Film Festival
• Winner, Best Feature, Rhode Island International Film Festival
• Winner, Audience Award, Traverse City Film Festival
• Winner, Special Grand Prize of the Jury and Grand Prix des Amériques, Montreal World Film Festival - Best Film
• Best of Fest and Nominee for Best Narrative Feature, Palm Springs Film Festival
• Winner, Best Cinematography and Best Ensemble Cast, Boston Film Festival
• Nominated for AARP Movies for Grownups Award (Best Intergenerational)

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/401123001/8dac9615f3 

Saturday Sinema: Even Money

Life Is A Gamble... 

Academy Award winners* Kim Basinger and Forest Whitaker join Danny Devito and an all-star cast in this compelling thriller directed by Academy Award nominee** Mark Rydell that follows the lives of nine individuals, as their fates become increasingly entwined in a web of addiction and gambling, culminating at one critical moment where their lives will be lost or reclaimed.

Struggling writer Kate (Kim Basinger) loses her family's savings at a casino; a washed-up magician (Danny Devito) tries to help Carol regain her money; Clyde (Forest Whitaker) owes so much money to his dangerous bookie (Jay Mohr) that he asks his NBA-destined nephew (Nick Cannon) to throw the game. Also starring Kelsey Grammer, Tim Roth, Ray Liotta and Carla Gugino, Even Money is a cautionary thriller about addiction and deception that hits a jackpot of suspense.

*Basinger, 1997, Supporting Actress, L.A. Confidential, Whitaker, Actor, Last King of Scotland

**Rydell, 1981, Director, On Golden Pond

Media

 Watch trailer »

Bonus Materials

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the main feature
• Audio: English 5.1 Surround
• English and Spanish Subtitles
• Original Theatrical Trailer (HD, 2:30)

Sales Points

• From Academy Award Nominated Director Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond, The Long Goodbye)
• Official Selection - 2006 SXSW Film Festival
• All-star cast includes Kim Basinger (Batman), Nick Cannon (Drumline), Danny DeVito (Hoffa), Kelsey Grammer (Frasier), Carla Gugino (Watchmen), Ray Liotta (Goodfellas), Jay Mohr (Go), Tim Roth (Pulp Fiction), Forest Whitaker (The Butler)
• First Time Ever on Blu-ray!

Press Quotes

Ambitious as it is, Even Money truly succeeds as a gripping story about our urge to want more; more love, or more money, or just more life

     —Andrew L. Urban, Urban Cinefile

The film is definitely worth a look.

     —Kevin Carr, 7M Pictures

Strong performances save this somewhat melodramatic film from sudsing up.

     —Kyle Smith, New York Post

Order Here: https://mvdb2b.com/s/FirstSnow/MVD3288BR 

Film Buff Friday: Flowers In The Attic

Before the Lifetime TV movie...

When her husband dies in a tragic accident, widow Corrine Dollanganger (Victoria Tennant, The Holcroft Covenant) takes her four children to the ancestral family home she fled before they were born. Locked away in the attic by their tyrannical grandmother (Academy Award® winner Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), it falls to older brother and sister Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams, The Goonies) and Cathy (Kristy Swanson, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) to care for their younger siblings. But with their mother growing increasingly distant and erratic and a mysterious sickness taking hold, will any of the Dollanganger children survive to escape the clutches of the house's cruel matriarch? Originally published in 1979, VC Andrews' novel Flowers in the Attic was a smash hit, spawning four sequels and going on to sell over 40 million copies worldwide. With undercurrents of incest and child abuse and a haunting score by Christopher Young (Hellraiser), Flowers in the Attic is a dark and chilling Gothic suspense thriller in the classic tradition.

Bonus Materials

• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless 2.0 stereo audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• New audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, author and editor-in-chief of Diabolique Magazine
• Home Sweet Home: Filming Flowers in the Attic, a new interview with cinematographer Frank Byers
• Fear & Wonder: Designing Flowers in the Attic, a new interview with production designer John Muto
• The Devil’s Spawn: Playing Flowers in the Attic, a new interview with actor Jeb Stuart Adams
• Shattered Innocence: Composing Flowers in the Attic, a new interview with composer Christopher Young
• Production gallery of behind-the-scenes images, illustrations and storyboards
• The original, studio-vetoed ending
• The revised ending with commentary by replacement director Tony Kayden
• Original theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Haunt Love

Order Here: https://mvdb2b.com/s/AV227

"Cruising"

The controversial thriller hits Blu-ray August 20th...!

Academy Award-winner William Friedkin (The Exorcist, The French Connection) directs Al Pacino as an undercover cop pitched into New York's seedy underbelly in Cruising - available for the first time on Blu-ray in a brand new director-approved transfer. New York is caught in the grip of a sadistic serial killer who is preying on the patrons of the city's underground bars. Captain Edelson (Paul Sorvino) tasks young rookie Steve Burns (Pacino) with infiltrating the S&M subculture to try and lure the killer out of the shadows - but as he immerses himself deeper and deeper into the underworld, Steve risks losing his own identity in the process. Taking the premise and title from reporter Gerald Walker's novel, Cruising was the subject of great controversy at the time of its release and remains a challenging and remarkable movie to this day, with Pacino's haunted lead performance as its magnetic centerpiece.

Bonus Materials

• Brand new restoration from a 4K scan of the original camera negative, supervised and approved by writer-director William Friedkin
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Newly remastered 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio supervised by William Friedkin
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Archival audio commentary by William Friedkin
• The History of Cruising – archival featurette looking at the film’s origins and production
• Exorcizing Cruising – archival featurette looking at the controversy surrounding the film and its enduring legacy
• Original Theatrical Trailer

Order Here - https://mvdb2b.com/b2b/s/AV219

Saturday Sinema: The Loveless

With this pedigree "The Loveless" is a Film Buff's dream!

THEY'RE GOING NOWHERE... FAST! The United States, late 1950s. A time of generational conflict, of immense social change, of bold fashions and toe-tapping music - just some of the elements that collide in thrilling fashion in The Loveless, the feature debut of both its star, Willem Dafoe (To Live and Die in LA), and its directors, Monty Montgomery (producer, David Lynch's Wild at Heart) and future Academy Award®-winner* Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark, Detroit). A motorcycle gang roars into a small southern town en route to the Daytona races, unnerving and angering the locals with their standoffish attitude and disrespect for social niceties. When one of their number, the charismatic Vance (Dafoe), hooks up with sportscar-driving Telena (Marin Kanter, Endangered Species), he incurs the wrath of the girl's father, setting the gang on a collision course with the rest of the town as simmering tensions boil over into violent retribution. Raw, angry and honest, The Loveless evokes, with unflinching clarity, both an attitude and a bygone era, exploring the tensions between two very different Americas - now fully restored and presented in high definition for the first time in this feature-packed new edition from Arrow Video! * 2010, Best Director, Best Picture: The Hurt Locker. "ACADEMY AWARD®" is a registered trademark and service mark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Bonus Materials

• Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative by Arrow Films, approved by co-writer/co-director Monty Montgomery and director of photography Doyle Smith
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation • Original lossless mono audio • Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• New audio commentary with co-writer/co-director Monty Montgomery, moderated by Elijah Drenner
• No Man’s Friend Today: Making The Loveless, new video interviews with actors Willem Dafoe, Marin Kanter, Robert Gordon, Phillip Kimbrough and Lawrence
• U.S. 17: Shooting The Loveless, new video interviews with producers Grafton Nunes and A. Kitman Ho
• Chrome and Hot Leather: The Look of The Loveless, new interviews with production designer Lilly Kilvert and director of photography Doyle Smith
• Order Here: https://mvdb2b.com/b2b/s/AV207
• Relentless, new audio interview with musician Eddy Dixon • Extensive image gallery, including on-set photographs, storyboards and original production
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
• FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on the film by Peter Stanfield

Saturday Sinema - Vengeance: A Love Story

Sometimes U Need Vengeance -

On the Fourth of July, single mother Teena is brutally assaulted by a local gang in front of her 12-year-old daughter Bethie. Despite Bethie's ability to identify the attackers, the defense hires a local hot-shot attorney who manipulates the law to their advantage. When the criminals are set free, Gulf War veteran and detective John Dromoor (Nicolas Cage) is dismayed at the lack of justice and plots revenge against the men on Teena's behalf. Blu-ray includes 5.1 surround sound, stereo and English subtitles for the deaf and hearing-impaired.

Order It Here:
https://mvdb2b.com/b2b/s/MVD2029BR

Film Buff Friday: "The Apartment"

Jack Lemmon & Shirley MacLaine
The Apartment

The Academy Award Winner for Best Picture, Directed by the great Billy Wilder

The Apartment - Limited Edition (12/26) In 1960, following on from the success of their collaboration on Some Like it Hot, director Billy Wilder (Ace in the Hole, Sunset Boulevard) reteamed with actor Jack Lemmon (The Odd Couple, Glengarry Glen Ross) for what many consider the pinnacle of their respective careers: The Apartment. C.C. "Bud" Baxter (Lemmon) is a lowly Manhattan office drone with a lucrative sideline in renting out his apartment to adulterous company bosses and their mistresses. When Bud enters into a similar arrangement the firm's personnel director, J.D. Sheldrake (Fred MacMurray, Double Indemnity), his career prospects begin to look up... and up. But when he discovers that Sheldrake's mistress is Fran Kubelik (Shirley MacLaine, Irma la Douce), the girl of his dreams, he finds himself forced to choose between his career and the woman he loves... Winner of five Academy Awards®, including Best Picture, The Apartment features a wealth of Hollywood's finest talent - on both sides of the camera - at the top of their game. By turns cynical, heart-warming and hilarious, Wilder's masterpiece now shines like never before in this all-new, 4K-restored edition from Arrow Films. Trailer: https://youtu.be/GX9-5Zxy5us  LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS - Limited Deluxe Edition Blu-ray [3000 copies] - Brand new 4K restoration of the film from the original camera negative produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release - Original uncompressed PCM mono audio - Optional 5.1 remix in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio - Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing - Audio commentary with film producer and historian Bruce Block - New appreciation of the film and select scene commentary by film historian Philip Kemp - The Flawed Couple, a new video essay by filmmaker David Cairns on the collaborations between Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon - Billy Wilder ABC, an overview by David Cairns on the life and career of the filmmaker, covering his films, collaborators and more - New interview with actress Hope Holiday - Inside the Apartment, a half-hour "making-of" featurette from 2007 including interviews with Shirley MacLaine, executive producer Walter Mirisch, and others - Magic Time: The Art of Jack Lemmon, an archive profile of the actor from 2007 - Original screenplay by Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond (BD-ROM content) - Theatrical trailer - Special collector's packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Ignatius Fitzpatrick - Collector's 150-page hardcover book featuring new writing by Neil Sinyard, Kat Ellinger, Travis Crawford and Heather Hyche, generously illustrated with rare stills and behind-the-scenes imagery

Sunday Sinema: A Fish Called Wanda

Can't Touch This!
John Cleese

And now for something politically incorrect in every little way...Yes!

A Fish Called Wanda [Blu-ray] (10/3)

In 1988, John Cleese, former Python and the mastermind behind Fawlty Towers, teamed up with the veteran Ealing Comedy director Charles Crichton (The Lavender Hill Mob) to produce another classic of British comedy.

Cleese plays Archie Leach, a weak-willed barrister who finds himself embroiled with a quartet of ill-matched jewel thieves - two American con artists played by Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline, Michael Palin's animal-loving hitman and London gangster Tom Georgeson - when Georgeson is arrested. Only he and Palin know the whereabouts of the diamonds, prompting plenty of farce and in-fighting as well as some embarrassing nudity and the unfortunate demise of some innocent pooches...

Wanda/Fish/Wanda/Fish
Jamie Lee Curtis 

Nominated for three Academy Awards and winning one for Kline's outstanding supporting turn as the psychopathic Otto, A Fish Called Wanda has stood the test of time, earning its rightful place among its creators' remarkable comedy pedigree.

Features

- Brand-new 4K restoration from the original negative, produced by Arrow Films exclusively for this release

- High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation

- Original English mono audio (uncompressed LPCM)

- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

- Commentary by writer and star John Cleese

- Brand-new appreciation by Vic Pratt of the BFI National Archive

- Brand-new interviews with composer John Du Prez, production designer Roger Murray Leach, executive producer Steve Abbott and makeup supervisor Paul Engelen

- John Cleese's Final Farewell Performance, a 1988 documentary on the making of A Fish Called Wanda featuring interviews with actors Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Palin, Kevin Kline and director Charles Crichton

- Something Fishy, a 15th anniversary retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Cleese, Curtis, Kline and Palin, executive producer Steve Abbott and director of photography Alan Hume

- Fish You Were Here, a documentary on the film's locations hosted by Robert Powell

- 24 deleted/alternative scenes with introductions by Cleese

- A Message from John Cleese, a tongue-in-cheek introduction recorded for the film's original release

- Gallery

- Trivia track

- Theatrical trailer

FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Booklet featuring writing on the film by Sophie Monks Kaufman

Pre-order at MVDshop.com or on Amazon 

Cinephile: Attack Force Z

This ones for all you Cinephiles out there.

Directed by Tim Burstall (End Play) and written by Roger Marshall (Twisted Nerve), Attack Force Zstars Academy Award© winner Mel Gibson (Braveheart, Lethal Weapon), three-time Golden Globe nominee Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, Thor: Ragnarok), John Phillip Law (Barbarella), Chris Haywood (Shine) and John Waters (Breaker Morant).

 

Attack Force Z was originally released theatrically in North America in June 1982 and is in the company of a collection of films that include Mad Max, The Road Warrior and Gallipoli that introduced Mel Gibson to U.S. audiences before his star making turn in the Academy Award© winning The Year of Living Dangerously.

 

Long before Gibson tackled the subject of World War II in Hacksaw Ridge, Attack Force Z tells the classic story of an elite military team of commandos lead by Captain P.G. Kelly (Gibson) dispatched during World War II to locate and rescue the survivors of a shot down plane stranded on a South Pacific island occupied by the Japanese. One of the castaways, a defecting Japanese official, holds the secret to ending the war and must be saved at all costs.

 

Making its debut in high definition Attack Force Z boasts a brand new 4K scan and restoration from the film's inter-positive, presented for the first time ever on 1080p Blu-ray in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio along with the original uncompressed dual channel mono audio. Additional special features in the disc include "The 2-Men Debriefed", a 25 minute featurette that includes interviews with executive producer John McCallum and actors John Waters and Chris Haywood (presented in standard definition) a photo gallery and the film's original theatrical trailer. 

 

Eric Wilkinson, MVD Entertainment Group's Director of Acquisitions and Sales shares his excitement about announcing this release... 

"Previous home video versions of this film have looked sub-par. Umbrella Entertainment has done an amazing job restoring this film to its original glory. As a collector of physical media, myself,  I'm happy to announce that Attack Force Z represents the first of many classic films on Blu-ray that MVD will be releasing in the near future." 

 

Attack Force Z makes is home video debut on November 7th 2017 on Blu-ray (UPC# 9344256016103) and Digital / VOD from MVD Entertainment Group in North America.

Pre-order now at MVDshop.com or on Amazon  

Janis Joplin Rules!

"FIERCELY BRILLIANT!" 

-Guy Lodge, Variety

"ENTHRALLING!" 

                                                 -Stephen Holden, New York Times (Critics' Pick)

 

This is going to date me...one of my first cassette tapes was Janis Joplin's Greatest Hits. Which of course lead to Pearl and others. They don't make em' like they used to. I mean the rock stars, not the cassette tapes.

The critically acclaimed, box office smash Janis: Little Girl Blue is coming to DVD on May 6th viaBrooklyn-based film and TV distributor FilmRise. MVD Entertainment Group will distribute the film with exclusive, never-before-seen bonus features.

 

Directed and written by Academy Award®-nominated documentarian Amy Berg ("Deliver Us From Evil," "West of Memphis") and produced by Academy Award®-winner Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side," "Going Clear"), Janis: Little Girl Blue is an intimate portrait of the iconic but troubled rock 'n' roll singer Janis Joplin. FilmRise released the film in theaters in Fall 2015 to rave reviews, and it wowed audiences in over 100 cities across the country with electrifying archival footage, exclusive interviews with friends and family, and rare personal letters from the iconic rocker herself. The film features musicians Pink, Kris Kristofferson, Melissa Etheridge, Juliette Lewis, and Bob Weir, TV presenter Dick Cavett, producer Clive Davis, counterculture filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker, and more.

 

The DVD will include bonus features such as an a capella performance from Janis's first band, Big Brother and the Holding Company; footage from Janis's posthumous Walk of Fame ceremony; a fascinating look at Janis's early venues, The Avalon and the Fillmore; and a rare interview with Chan Marshall aka Cat Power, who narrates Janis's letters in the film.

 

Janis Joplin is one of the most revered singers of all time, a tragic and misunderstood figure who thrilled millions of listeners and blazed new creative trails before her untimely death in 1970 at age 27. Janis: Little Girl Blue examines her story in-depth for the first time on film, presenting an insightful look at this complicated, driven, often beleaguered artist with rare personal and performance footage and interviews with friends and family. The Joplin family provided unfettered access to their vaults for the first time, through which Berg unearthed previously unreleased letters, photos, audio and footage of Joplin. The singer's own words tell much of her story through a series of letters she wrote to her parents over the years, never before seen by the public (read by Cat Power). Joplin was a powerhouse when she sang, and her surprising rise and sudden demise changed music forever.

 

Janis: Little Girl Blue premiered at the 2015 Venice Film Festival, and screened at the Toronto and London Film Festivals, as well as the prestigious DOC NYC. The film opened in theaters in November 2015.

Pre-order now at the MVD SHOP or on Amazon.