“Ilya Muromets (The Sword & The Dragon)” (1956) on 4K Restoration Blu-ray

drama, fantasy, foreign films, ,

“Ilya Muromets (The Sword & The Dragon)” (1956) on 4K restoration Blu-ray uncut for the first time in the United States.

Aleksandr Ptushko’s visually stunning FX-filled epic has hit the streets and is now available for your theater library.

Deaf Crocodile Films, in association with distribution partner Seagull Films, released the 4K restoration on Blu-ray of famed fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko.

Produced in 1956, this Russian film with English subtitles is visually stunning. The medieval epic was initially released and heavily edited with the title The Sword & the Dragon.

Now, Ilya Muromets (The Sword & The Dragon) through partner label OCN-Vinegar Syndrome. The Blu-ray edition of Ilya Muromets is fully restored to its original Russian release. The package also contains a new commentary track by comics artist (Swamp Thing), film historian and author Stephen R. Bissette and a reprint of film scholar Alan Upchurch’s pioneering essay on Aleksandr Ptushko from Video Watchdog magazine, plus Ptushko’s own essay on the making of Ilya Muromets. 

Mosfilm studio recently restored Ilya Muromets in 4K using the original 35mm camera negative. Ptushko’s movie became available for digital streaming after its Blu-ray release through Deaf Crocodile’s partner label, Grasshopper Films.

Ilya Muromets runs 87 minutes, which keeps the drama moving without unnecessarily long pans and dramatic moments. The legendary fantasy filmmaker Aleksandr Ptushko’s sweeping, visual FX-filled epic is impressive as a 1956 production. 

“On one level, Ilya Muromets is a pure fantasy, one of Ptushko’s greatest — but even a fantasy can have political implications,” says Dennis Bartok, Deaf Crocodile’s Co-Founder and Head of Distribution & Acquisitions. “Although Ilya Muromets was made in 1956 at the height of the Cold War and was set in a mythical landscape nearly a thousand years earlier, it has unmistakable parallels to today’s world and the war in Ukraine. Ilya was a legendary Kyivan Rus hero, encompassing modern Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus in the 9th to 13th centuries. That idea of somehow returning to a mythical “united Rus'” has been used as a tragic justification for the war today — and of course, when Ilya Muromets was made in 1956, it would have been seen as a call for a united Soviet Union at the time.”

“Imagine being given an unlimited budget and no time constraints to make the ultimate fantasy epic in 1956… that’s Ilya Muromets”, added Deaf Crocodile Co-Founder and Head of Post-Production & Restoration Craig Rogers. “With over 100,000 extras, over 10,000 horses, and a three-headed dragon that breathes real fire!”

Though I have seen none of Ptushko’s production before, some film fans believe this is one of his most enchanting achievements. The movie has stunning Cinemascope as a ballad of heroic medieval knights with ruthless Tugar invaders.

The special effects include wind demons and three-headed fire-breathing dragons, which are remarkable for 1956. The film stars Boris Andreyev as the bogatyr, Russian for a warrior, Ilya, a mythic figure in the Kyivan Rus’ culture that pre-dated modern Ukraine and Russia. Kyivan Rus’ was a shapeless federation in Eastern Europe and Northern Europe from 880 to the beginning of the 13th century. Much of the film’s action is set in Kyiv, and Ilya’s relics are held today in the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery. 

Based on a series of famous byliny, Russian for oral epics, the film follows Ilya as he wages a decades-long battle against the Tugars. The Tugars threaten his homeland, kidnap his wife and raise his son to fight against him. The movie is worth watching because of its dynamic acting, brilliant costumes, cinematography and vast panorama shots. 

Ptushko began his career in the 1930s and became a combination of Walt Disney, Ray Harryhausen, who pioneered stop-motion animated effects, and Mario Bava, an Italian filmmaker known for his horror movies. Ptushko stands among the best for his dazzling, bejeweled fantasies, including The Stone Flower, Sadko, Sampo and Ruslan & Ludmila. 

They released the first Cinemascope film produced in the Soviet Union, Ilya Muromets, in a truncated, dubbed version in the U.S. at the height of the Cold War as The Sword & The Dragon, downplaying the epic poetry and lyricism of the original. 

Thanks to the progression of technology, Deaf Crocodile and Seagull Films, this epic movie arrives fully restored in 4K for its first-ever official U.S. release on Blu-ray in its original Russian with English subtitles. 

“Hard Hit” South Korean Thriller

foreign films, remake, thriller, ,

Kim Chang-Ju co-wrote, directed and edited this South Korean action thriller, Hard Hit.

The film follows VIP Bank Manager Sung-Gyu, played by Jo Woo-jin. He tends to the demands of a bank’s essential customers. And somehow, it leads him to the worse day of his life.

The movie, directed by Dani de la Torre, provides a familiar suspenseful plot based on the Spanish-French action thriller Retribution (2015).

Sung-Gru drives his daughter and son to school one morning. Along the way, a phone rings from the glove box. An anonymous caller claims there’s a bomb under Sung-gyu’s seat, and if anyone exits the car, it will explode unless Sung-gyu can pay a hefty ransom.

What initially feels like a prank call quickly turns into an edge-of-your-seat thriller. The action-packed sequences hold the movie together. Sure, we feel for the family and their dangerous situation, but the car chases through a maze of alternate roles of attack and defense.

The original music composed by Kim Tae-Seong adds suspenseful undertones and overtones, perfect for developing a calm, typical weekday to a vibrant, hellbent high-speed chase at the mercy of a sinister bomber.

Sung-gyu must simultaneously ensure the safety of his children, find enough money to pay the ransom and evade the police, all while trying to figure out what he did in his past to deserve this.

Woo-jin does a dynamic job of acting primarily behind the wheel of a car. He holds his emotions by expressing tension and remorseful angst. Ji Chang-Wook also stars and is believable in this new gem of a role, another side we’ve yet to see.

The movie received three nominations in 2021 at the Buil Film Awards and the Blue Dragon Film Awards.

IMDB and Wikipedia helped with background information, reviews and character roles.

“The Unknown Man of Shandigor” (1967) on Blu-Ray

4K Ultra HD, foreign films, thriller, ,

All you have to do is watch the four-and-a-half-minute trailer to know The Unknown Man of Shandigor (L’inconnu De Shandigor, 1967) is a spy-thriller. Any movie enthusiast wants to see the Blu-ray version of this classic.

Directed by Swiss filmmaker Jean-Louis Roy, this long-unseen 60s Cold War super-spy features legendary French singer and songwriter Serge Gainsbourg and famed Chilean cult actor Daniel Emilfork. 

Marie-France Boyer as Sylvaine

Recently restored in 4K from the camera negative by the Cinémathèque Suisse, the visually stunning movie screened initially at the Cannes Film Festival in 1967. The Blu-ray features new interviews with the director’s wife, Francoise Roy and first assistant director on the film Michel Schopfer, along with an ultra-rare 1967 Swiss TV “making of” documentary featuring the director with behind-the-scenes footage and new artwork by acclaimed illustrator Tony Stella.

I marveled at the surreal hall of mirrors, reminding me of Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove and British TV shows like “The Avengers” and “Doctor Who.”  

The fine cast includes most who’s who of great 60s European character actors starting with the unforgettable Daniel Emilfork as crazed scientist Herbert Von Krantz, who has invented a device to “sterilize” all nuclear weapons.

A mad herd of rival spies is desperate to get their hands on the device, including legendary French singer Serge Gainsbourg as the sect leader of bald, turtleneck-wearing assassins and Jess Franco veteran Howard Vernon.  

Gainsbourg’s deranged jazz-lounge song, “Bye Bye Mr. Spy”— performed by him on a funeral parlor organ, no less — is arguably the film’s high point. “An accomplished spy is at the same time psychologist, artist, funambulist, conjurer,” to quote one of the film’s characters, and the same said of Roy’s exotic camera obscura of black and white Cold War paranoia. The movie is in Swiss French with English subtitles, like the trailer. 

Blu-Ray Bonus Features

• New 4K Restoration from the original 35mm picture and sound elements by Cinémathèque Suisse with additional digital restoration by Craig Rogers of Deaf Crocodile 

• New Commentary by film journalist Samm Deighan (Diabolique magazine, Daughters of Darkness podcast) 

• New Booklet essay by filmmaker, punk musician and poet, and genre expert Chris D. (The Flesh Eaters; author of Outlaw Masters of Japanese Film) 

• New interview with Francoise Roy, wife of director Jean-Louis Roy, and Michel Schopfer, first assistant director on The Unknown Man of Shandigor (17 min., in Swiss French with English subtitles) 

• Ultra- rare 1967 “making of” documentary from Swiss TV’s “Cinema VIF” show, featuring interviews with director Jean-Louis Roy, cast members Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Dufilho, and Marie-France Boyer, and behind-the-scenes footage (28 min., in Swiss French with English subtitles) 

• Restored original trailer (4 min., in French with English subtitles) 

• Blu-ray encoding and authoring by David Mackenzie/Fidelity in Motion 

• New art by Tony Stella 

Legendary Filmmaker Jean-Louis Roy

Australian Film, “The Flood” Review

action, foreign films, western, , ,

Her husband, daughter, land and innocence ripped from her, she embarks on a brutal journey of retribution and revenge.

Written and directed by Victoria Wharfe McIntyre, The Flood is her debut feature film. The movie takes place during WWII. McIntyre brings a flavor of the Wild West throughout the movie. “The Flood is an action-packed, dramatic western-styled adventure that uses our nation’s history as a framework to support an uncompromising, exacting and romantic and delicate female-driven story that acts as a parable for race relations in our country.”  

“It is a world of juxtapositions and grave injustice as we move through the lives of black, white and women of color, young and old, rich and poor, contrasting their grief, love, loss and rage against a ruthless rural patriarchy in WWII Australia.”

The story starts when Jarah’s Irish drover father and South Sea Islander mother die during a flood. She’s sent to live on Pastor Gerald Mackay’s mission, played by Peter McAllum.

Here, she meets Waru, an Aboriginal boy who becomes the love of her life and future husband. Jarah, played by Alexis Lane, and Waru, played by Shaka Cook, grow up together and have a daughter Binda, played by Simone Landers.  

When WWII is in full swing, Waru and the mission men receive citizenship for military service. Waru goes to war against Jarah’s wishes.

While he was gone, the Aboriginal Welfare Board removed the children from the mission and subsumed their land. Jarah finds herself an enslaved person on a wealthy landholder’s estate and loses contact with Binda, who is working on the now-retired Gerald Mackay’s cattle farm.   

Waru returns from the war with his mate Minto, played by Aaron Jeffery, a white soldier who owes his life to Waru on the battlefield. When Waru discovers what has happened to Binda and Jarah, he sets out to recover his family. Waru unwittingly kills Gerald’s son Kelly and flees with Binda to find Jarah.

Gerald sends for Kelly’s brother Shamus, played by Dean Kyrwood, and his brutal black tracking gang. Shamus arrives in town to find the local men incarcerated. Jarah is determined to use her to lure Waru back from the bush. Shamus and his gang violate Jarah, igniting a rage in her that stokes the fires of brutal and bloody revenge. Jarah forms an unlikely alliance with Pam, a mature white woman, played by Karen Garnsey, who has experienced her torment and is ready to act against the men and their atrocities.   

Jarah plans, and with Pam’s help, she escapes her cell and travels with Minto to find Waru and Binda, who Shamus has captured.   

Shamus kills Binda and drags Waru and Jarah back to town. Binda’s death transforms Jarah into something altogether new, something even she does not understand. She plunges into the unchartered territory of her darkness.  

Jarah escapes once more and demands Waru’s help to destroy the town.

Through his own profound wartime experience, Waru understands that revenge will not ease Jarah’s pain, but he supports her.   

With Waru’s help, Jarah wipes out the town and discovers Waru is correct. Her agony has not eased, but she is not ready to give up this approach. Jarah, Waru and Waru’s sister Maggie, played by Dalara Williams, flee, taking Shamus.   

Jarah tortures Shamus, and eventually, he breaks. To Jarah’s consternation, Maggie determines to help Shamus connect once more to the goodness deep within. Through Maggie’s kindness, Shamus embarks on his inner journey of memory and feeling and can see he is a product of generations and generations of unending brutality. A seed of healing and hope births within him.  

Jarah and Waru confront their rage and sorrow at the loss of Binda and the schism within their relationship.

Eventually, their love carries them through the darkness. Maggie is a pillar of compassion, understanding and spirit and is a catalyst for healing between them all.   

Minto finds the near-dead Binda and brings her to Pam, a nurse in WWI. Together, they save her life. Gerald finds and takes them, with the police, to find Waru and Jarah and bring them to justice.  

In a classic western show-down and shoot-out, Shamus willingly sacrifices himself for Maggie. Binda returns from the dead to her parents. Gerald goes the way of the dinosaurs, and Jarah touches on the prospect of forgiveness. 

They find a fresh path of reconciliation and redemption between those who remain.   

I am so glad that not everyone died. Justice is not as it appears, workable based on the circumstances of trying to survive.

The Flood garnered some awards at the Sydney Women’s International Film Festival: Best Director, Best Australian Film, and Best Actress for Alexis Lane.  

“Arrebato” Spanish Cult Horror

4K Ultra HD, foreign films, horror, ,

Brand-new 4K restoration, written and directed by Ivan Zulueta, 1979 feature Arrebato’s is a popular Spanish cult horror movie. Some consider the film a dimension-shattering blend of heroin, sex, and Super-8 as a final word on Cinemania.

Arrebato follows horror movie director José Sirgado, played by Eusebio Poncela, adrift in a sea of doubt and drugs. As his belated second feature nears completion, two situations pop his reclusive bubble.

First, there is a sudden reappearance from an ex-girlfriend, played by Cecilia Roth. Second, a package arrives from past acquaintance Pedro, played by Will More. It contains a reel of Super-8 film, an audiotape and a door key.

From there, the boundaries of time, space and sexuality disappear as José is once more absorbed into Pedro’s vampiric orbit — a vampire camera that sucks up people, and they disappear.

Together, they attempt the ultimate hallucinogenic catharsis through a twisted strip of filming and being filmed.

The horror movie offers beauty, clearly describing a dark state of living — angst and joy of living with dangerous drugs, alcohol and sex and the love of making movies.

Special Features:

• Region Free Blu-ray

• Commentary Track with Mike White of The Projection Booth

• Documentary: Ivan Z by Andrés Duque (51 min.)

• Theatrical Trailer

• Other Trailers

• Reversible Art

• English subtitles

IMDB supplied additional information.

“The Lover,” Review

4K Ultra HD, foreign films, romance, true story, , ,

Coming from the semi-autobiographical novel by bestselling author Marguerite Duras and directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud, The Lover (L’amant) special edition Blu-ray and DVD release of the 1993 Oscar-nominated and Cesar Award-winning film has hit the streets on its 30th anniversary.

The movie follows a fifteen-year-old French girl, played by Jane March. She returns to Saigon in 1930, where she attends an all-girls boarding school. On her way, a handsome and wealthy Chinese man, played by Tony Leung Ka Kai, of a respectable family, offers her a lift in his shiny black limo.

A passionate affair begins against her family’s disgust. The man becomes alienated from his family because they have selected his bride already. Against the conventions of society, the lustful pair continue their passionate affair, intensifying the attraction with the illicit nature of their rendezvous.

It starts with groping in the limo’s backseat and grows to nightly undertakings at his bachelor pad. Interestingly, the names of the young girl and wealthy man are never said. Slowly and eventually, their relationship disintegrates, and the man slides down into an opium-induced haze and unreturned love.

Many tastefully lit sex scenes allow little room for imagination, including Annaud’s skilled camera work, lingering delicately on the flesh. The paedophiliac situation sidesteps the moral nuances while using sensitivity. Today, the industry may frown even more profound on the issue.

March, a newcomer at the filming, comes across as photogenic and sultry. The character seems detached but amused.

Annaud’s brilliant direction takes in the vibrant scenery to divert from the senseless and gratuitous romantic scenes.

The release includes special features: Special collector’s media book packaging, Two-disc set, Original trailer.

Thank you, Empire, for more information about the production.

Showtime’s “Billions” Season 5

drama, episodic, television, ,

The fifth season of the machinations of Billions is full of double-crosses, complex and shifting alliances and too many gut punches. Ultimately, the viewers know they’ll get a significant reset in the sixth season at the end of the season.

The most noteworthy plot thread in season 5 was the gradual move of Axelrod or Axe, played by Damian Lewis, and Wendy Roades, played by Maggie Siff, acting on their long, and otherwise unstated desire to be together. When we thought it would happen, the season ended, and it was not the happy ending we hoped to experience. We also know Axe is no longer on the show when season six arrives.

According to the showrunners and Variety, Axe leaving started about three years ago. They knew Wendy and Axe would struggle with love, but it would never flourish. If you remember the season finale, Axe is leaving for Europe, running away. He asks Wendy to join him, and she turns him down.

With an unfulfilled relationship ending, other complex plotlines develop with double-crosses, wordplays, and shifting alliances. Van Halen fans appreciated the character reciting his lyrics from “Antic Punk.”

Since rival billionaire Mike Prince, played by Corey Stoll, outmaneuvers Axe in his constant jousts in the marketplace. Prince comes across as kinder, gentle, and socially more appealing compared to Axe. At the end of the season, Axe is tricked by the marijuana kingpin, played by Janeane Garofalo, who moves both contraband and legal weed, which places Axe in a vulnerable posting of money laundering charges.

Taylor Mason, played by Aisa Kate Dillon, holds the cards as the analytical genius but grapples with her conscience and wealth accumulation. A newcomer, Rian, played by Eva Victor, challenges her idealism. Taylor wants to take down Axe and helps Chuck Rhoades, played by Paul Giamatti, bring criminal charges against him. But, in the end, Taylor feels sorry rather than victorious.

As Billions showrunner and co-creator Brian Koppelman explained to Variety, “The central theme of the show has always been can anybody resist the temptation of that level of money and power? Can anybody remain even close to their true selves when that much money is at hand?”

“Red Snow” Horror Comedy for the Holidays

comedy, horror, review, ,

As a dark comedy of heavy-handed and trashy entertainment, this Christmas horror movie may make you wonder if some of its laughs are intentional or a bit off the rocker. You’ll see buckets of blood, along with bellies full of laughter.

Filmed on location in South Lake Tahoe for just 13 days, the low-budget production comes through with a talented cast that’s stiff and nightmarish.

Written and directed by Sean Nichols, Red Snow follows Olivia Romo, played by Dennice Cisneros, as a struggling vampire romance novelist holed up in South Lake Tahoe. Here, she’s forced to defend herself against real-life vampires during the holidays.

It all starts with an injured bat named Luke, played by Nico Bellamy, who becomes a handsome vampire after slamming into her living room window.

Unbeknownst to Olivia, she takes pity on the wounded animal and places it in her garage. She nurses the bat a bit, and the next day, the little creature transforms into a real-life Edward, a full-size vampire.

Olivia knows when opportunity knocks, so she makes a deal with Luke. Read her unpublished manuscript, and he can stay a few days in the garage to heal from an unpleasant wooden stake injury. She keeps him satisfied with microwaved pig blood in a mug. In return, he gives his feedback on the manuscript.

Luke is your typical vampire, but he takes a liking to Olivia. Their relationship barely flourishes when Olivia’s suspicion of Luke’s true intentions surfaces as his deadly past catches up with him.  

The humor takes hold with a rather odd private detective, played by Vernon Wells, who acts more like a voyeur, spying on her and rummaging through her garage.  

The evenings become sinister with pale figures dressed in black visiting the cabin, who turn out to be Luke’s vampire friends, played by Laura Kennon and Alan Silva. They want Luke to return to their brood, of course, after they help themselves to the blood of Olivia.

More romance and less terror, sticking with the Edward and Bella theme, might have saved the movie in the long run.

Thank you, The Guardian, for the information about the movie.

“The Hidden Life of Trees” Shares a Mystical Life

book, documentary

Based on Peter Wohlleben’s bestselling book of the same name and directed by Jorg Adolph, The Hidden Life of Trees, introduces you to a unique idea. The documentary immerses you into understanding how trees are sentient creatures. Despite being rooted to the ground with the inability to flee from danger, these living forces branch off and live to infinity as an unbeatable force. The movie shows how trees release chemicals into their cells to discourage predators, such as deer and insects. In fact, trees disperse chemical signals into the atmosphere to warn other species — prepare for the threat.  

Together with scientists, and dedicated persons, the movie disabuses the idea that planting trees compensates for cutting down trees. 

A renowned forester and writer Peter Wohlleben guides us through his most precious ideas and understanding of how trees work in this enlightening documentary. Presenting ecological, biological and academic expertise with matter-of-fact honestly, Peter inspires us to see the forest for the trees.  

Traveling through Germany, Poland, Sweden and Vancouver, Peter discusses, debates, and explains the unique process of life, death and regeneration he has observed in the woodland and the fantastic scientific mechanisms behind these wonders. We are too often blissfully unaware.

Thanks to Peter and his bestseller, we are more aware of this valuable life force that aids our planet’s survival. After watching Adolph’s documentary, you’ll never walk into the woods the same again. 

The Hidde Life of Trees will profoundly change believers’ understanding of forests. That trees can communicate with each other through a complicated system with the ability to feel. The old trees care for the young ones by providing nutrition. 

Wohlleben charmingly takes us through the woods and shows us how the trees cooperate and communicate with nearby species. Sheltering and nurturing young offspring trees, they partner with other species in the forest like fungi — a synergy of survival. 

Gratefully, Jan Haft’s camera work illustrates the fantastic process of life, death, and regeneration Peter has observed in the woodland for decades. Haft’s camera work is a wonder. The result is an immersive and eye-opening look at the scientific mechanisms behind these wonders of nature. 

Thank you, We Are Movie Geeks and IMDB, for information about the documentary. 

“The Concubine” Machinations of Two Powerful Women

drama, foreign films, ,

Directed by Kim Dae-Seung, The Concubine takes place in Korea during the early Joseon Dynasty. Like most movies about the lineage of royalty, machinations control the outcome. We meet Hwa-Yeon, played beautifully by Yeo-jeon Cho, a minister’s daughter and Kwon-Yoo, played brilliantly by Min-Joon Kim, a commoner. Both are deeply in love with each other. It’s a forbidden attraction because of the caste system.

For this reason, Hwa-Yeon is ordered to the royal palace to become the royal concubine. She and Kwon-Yoo attempt to flee and spend the night together. Hwa-Yeon’s father and men, who threaten to kill Kwon-yoo, intercepted them.

To save her one true love, Hwa-Yeon agrees to go to the palace as King’s concubine as instructed. Unbeknownst, her father castrates Kwon-yoo as a punishment, which sets up some compelling drama later in the movie.

Five years later, Hwa-Yeon is the mother of the heir to the throne, but the King slowly dies. After his death, the King’s stepmother, played by Ji-Young Park, uses her power to appoint her biological son Sung-won, played emotionally charged by Dong-Wook Kim, as the successor.

Sung-won has been madly in love with the unobtainable Hwa-Yeon for years. Now that he must procreate to produce an heir to the throne, he can have any woman he wants except Hwa-Yeon based on his mother’s manipulation. She has vengeance on Hwa-Yeon, whose life is in danger.

Kwon-Yoo reemerges into the story, pushing them into a dangerous chess game of lust, sex and power. When Hwa-Yeon discovers what her father has done to her true love, she’s devastated but regains strength. 

The Concubine theatrical release in 2012 received accolades and was the 11th most-watched Korean movie. Some reviews at the time focused on the erotic aspect of some scenes, which caused audiences to misunderstand the director’s intent. Mainly, the film shows two powerful women fighting for power. However, the ending is tragic. The director gets us there with beautiful imagery thanks to Ki S. Hwang’s cinematography and Geun-Hyun Cho’s production design.

English subtitles suffice, but I prefer to watch the movie, but the storyline gets lost. The running time is 102 minutes.

Special Features Include: 

· Special collector’s media book packaging

· Two-disc set

· Original trailer

· 24-page booklet featuring director/actor profiles