• A Blonde in Love presented from an HD transfer of the new 4K restoration of the film from original materials by the Czech National Film Archive

• Life As It Is: Miloš Forman on his Czech films – Part 2: the second part of an archival film-by-film interview with Forman, newly edited for this release with never-before-seen footage

• An original Projection Booth commentary recorded especially for this release with Mike White, Samm Deighan, and Kevin Heffernan

• Trailer

• 24-page booklet featuring an essay on the film by film historian Michael Brooke

• Easter egg

• New and improved English subtitle translation

• Region free Blu-ray (A/B/C)

• World premiere on Blu-ray

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• Valerie and Her Week of Wonders presented from a brand new HD transfer of the film from original materials by the Czech National Film Archive

• Audio commentary with Peter Hames and Daniel Bird

• All-new Projection Booth audio commentary with Mike White, Samm Deighan and Kat Ellinger

• Filmed introduction by Michael Brooke

• Interview with actor Jaroslava Schallerová (Valerie)

• Three acclaimed short films by Jaromil Jireš: Uncle (Strejda, 1959 / 6 mins) / Footprints (Stopy, 1960 / 21 mins) / full length uncut version The Hall of Lost Footsteps (Sál ztracených kroků, 1960 / 12 mins) – with original colour sequences

• 24-page booklet featuring writing by Peter Hames and Joseph A. Gervasi

• New and improved English subtitle translation

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The Cremator

 

Presented from new HD materials, Second Run presents a special Blu-ray edition of one of its most enduringly popular titles – Juraj Herz’s The Cremator. The Cremator has been described in many ways – as surrealist-inspired horror film, as an expressionistic political allegory, a pitch-black comic satire and as a dark and disturbing tale of terror. This brilliantly chilling film, a unique mix of Psycho, Dr Strangelove and Repulsion, is set in Prague during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. It tells the story of one Karl Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrušínský), a professional cremator, for whom the political climate allows free rein to his increasingly perverse and deranged impulses for the ‘salvation of the world’. Now more chillingly prescient than ever, The Cremator also contains another of master-composer Zdeněk Liška’s brilliantly inventive film scores.

 

• Presented from a new HD re-master and transfer from original materials held by the Czech National Film Archive

• Juraj Herz’s short film The Junk Shop (Sběrné surovosti, 1965)

• Filmed introduction to The Cremator by the Quay Brothers

• Audio Commentary by Diabolique magazine editor-in-chief Kat Ellinger

• The Projection Booth podcast with Mike White and critic Samm Deighan

• Booklet with an essay on Herz and the film by writer/producer Daniel Bird

• New and improved English subtitle translation

• Region Free

• World premiere release on Blu-ray

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Diamonds of the Night

 

Presented from new 4K remaster, Second Run present Jan Němec’s masterful and harrowing Diamonds of the Night. Němec’s debut feature is one of the most thrilling and startlingly original works of cinema. Told almost without dialogue, it chronicles the tense and desperate journey of two teenage boys who are trying to stay alive after escaping from a German train bound for a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. Adaptated from ‘Darkness Casts No Shadow’ by Arnošt Lustig, Diamonds of the Night is one of the earliest key early works of the Czechoslovak New Wave. This stunning new 4K restoration premiered in the at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and Second Run are delighted to present the film in its new restoration for the first time anywhere on Blu-ray.

 

• Presented from a new 4K restoration of the film from original materials by the Czech National Film Archive

• Jan Němec’s debut short film A Loaf of Bread (Sousto, 1960)

• Audio commentary by film historian Michael Brooke

• New filmed interview with Eva Lustigová, daughter of author Arnošt Lustig

• A filmed appreciation by Peter Hames

• 20-page booklet featuring Michael Brooke’s substantial essay on the film

• World Premiere on Blu-ray

• Region Free Blu-ray (A/B/C)

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Invention for Destruction

 

Presented from a new 4K restoration of the film, Second Run are delighted to follow their hugely popular release of the visionary Czech animator and filmmaker Karel Zeman’s The Fabulous Baron Munchausen, with his most famous work – Invention for Destruction. Invention for Destruction, based on the writings of Jules Verne, is Zeman’s most beloved work and is still the most commercially successful Czech film ever produced (it was released internationally to huge success in 1960, dubbed into English and retitled ‘The Fabulous World of Jules Verne’). Wildly inventive, and breaking new ground in its combination of live-action, animation and design, creating a ‘steampunk’ aesthetic decades ahead of its time. Zeman’s film is both a heartfelt homage and love letter to Jules Verne’s wonderful tales of science and adventure, and a valiant cry against man’s propensity for self-destruction.

 

• Presented from a brand new 4K restoration of the film from original materials

• The Fabulous World of Jules Verne – the alternative full-length English-dubbed version of the feature film

• A new appreciation by filmmaker and animator John Stevenson, director of Kung Fu Panda and Sherlock Gnomes

• Two of Karel Zeman’s exquisite short films – Inspiration (1949) and King Lavra (1950) (BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE)

• Booklet featuring new writing on the film by film critic and historian James Oliver

• New and improved English subtitle translation

• Region free Blu-ray

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Mysterious Object at Noon

 

Mysterious Object at Noon is his hallucinatory debut feature, an extraordinary mix of experimental documentary and fiction that wends its way through the landscapes and mindscapes of rural Thailand. The film is structured as a surrealist game; a small film-crew travel the Thai countryside asking people they encounter along the way to invent the next chapter of a story. The daisy-chain structure of interlocking vignettes – alternately fantastical, comic and workaday – bridge documentary realism and the avant-garde, resulting in a boldly original debut that looks and feels like nothing else. Available on both Blu-Ray and DVD formats – Mysterious Object at Noon is presented from a new 2K restoration of the film by the Austrian Film Museum and Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation and also includes Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s short film Nimit, plus an exclusive new filmed interview with the director, and a booklet featuring a new essay on the film by Tony Rayns.

 

• High Definition director-approved presentation from a new 2K restoration of the film

• New and exclusive filmed interview with director Apichatpong Weerasethakul

• Apichatpong’s 2007 short film Nimit (Meteorites)

• A featurette on the restoration of the film

• 16-page booklet featuring a new essay on the film by filmmaker and critic Tony Rayns

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Witchhammer

 

Otakar Vávra’s Witchhammer (1969) transforms the horrific tale of a notorious 17th Century witch trial into a powerful allegory of life under totalitarian rule. In a small Czech village, an investigation into a simple superstition quickly becomes a full-blown Inquisition, unleashing a tide of hysteria and cruelty. The script, co-written by Ester Krumbachová (Daisies, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders), draws on original court transcripts and forced confessions, revealing the malevolence of the Inquisitors who exorcise their own greed and lust through gruesome torture and execution. The beautiful, stark cinematography echoes Bergman, Dreyer and František Vlácil, and finds literary antecedents in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and Aldous Huxley’s The Devils of Loudon. Like Ken Russell’s controversial, expressionistic adaptation of Huxley’s text, The Devils (1971) and other films of the period such as Michael Reeves’ Witchfinder General (1968), Witchhammer transcends horror to create a chilling political fable, revealing power to be the ultimate weapon of evil.

 

• Presented from a new HD re-master and transfer from original materials held by the Czech National Film Archive

• ‘The Womb of Woman is the Gateway to Hell’ – a new and exclusive filmed appreciation by essayist and critic Kat Ellinger and film historian Michael Brooke

• The Light Penetrates the Dark (Svetlo proniká tmou, 1931) – Otakar Vávra’s experimental short film

• 16-page booklet featuring a new essay on the film by editor and journalist Samm Deighan and director Otakar Vávra on Witchhammer

• World premiere release on Blu-ray

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The Devil’s Trap

 

The first film in Vlácil’s trilogy of visionary historical epics, The Devil’s Trap prefigures his legendary masterpiece Marketa Lazarová (1967). In early-18th century Bohemia, an innocent miller finds himself under investigation by the Inquisition after daring to question the judgement of a local landowner. At a time when religious authority is absolute, the miller’s understanding of the natural world is interpreted as evidence of a pact with the Devil. With atmospheric imagery and evocative use of sound, the film depicts a cruel but credible world torn between superstition and science. Presented from the Czech National Archives’ new HD transfer, The Devil’s Trap makes it’s world premiere on Blu-ray.

 

• The Devil’s Trap (Ďáblova past, 1961) presented from a new HD transfer from the best existing original materials created by the Czech National Film Archive, Prague

• In the Web of Time (V síti času, 1989): cinematographer František Uldrich’s documentary portrait of Vláčil

• The Week Starts on Friday (Týden začíná v pátek, 1962): Elmar Kloss’ short film about Czech cinema exhibition in the early 1960s, and featuring The Devils Trap

• 20-page booklet featuring a new essay on the film by author and Czechoslovak cinema specialist Peter Hames

• New and improved English subtitle translation

• Region free Blu-ray (A/B/C)

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The Circus Tent

 

Aravindan Govindan’s The Circus Tent explores the ripples created by the arrival of a travelling circus in a remote Indian village. From their processional entrance through spellbinding performances to their final pack-down, circus life is captured in striking imagery. Cutting between skilled performers and wide-eyed spectators, the film encapsulates the sheer magic of art encountered for the first time. Shot in semi-documentary style, Aravindan worked closely with real circus people and artistes, travelling with them to the village of Thirunavaya on the banks of India’s Bharathappuzha river – and created one of Indian cinema’s most poetic triumphs. Aravindan’s joyous, lyrical masterpiece links the transience of the travelling troupe with the inevitable mortality of life. Once thought lost, now beautifully restored, the film will enrapture audiences anew.

 

• The Circus Tent (Thamp, 1978) presented from the new 4K restoration by Film Heritage Foundation

• Exclusive, newly filmed interview with photographer Ramu Aravindan, son of the legendary Aravindan Govindan

• The Circus Tent at Cannes 2022: Shivendra Singh Dungarpur and actor Jalaja interviewed by writer and broadcaster Anupama Chopra for Film Companion

• 24-page booklet with new writing by filmmaker and Film Heritage Foundation founder Shivendra Singh Dungarpur

• New and improved English subtitle translation

• Region free Blu-ray (A/B/C)

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The Circus Tent

 

Joshua Bonnetta and J.P. Sniadecki’s El Mar La Mar is a moving portrait of life and death in the US-Mexico border region, a sensorily immersive, captivating and terrifying journey through the Sonoran Desert. The film weaves harrowing personal accounts of border crossings with the cruel rhetoric of the politicised American media, accompanied by striking footage of desert life and the remnants left behind by animals and people. Intense and mythic, and utilising a rich polyphonic soundtrack to create a vivid exploration of the desert habitat, El Mar La Mar is an experience like nothing you’ve seen, heard or felt before. Presented from a new HD transfer approved by the filmmakers, El Mar La Mar makes its world premiere on Blu-ray. Our region-free edition also features a brand new appreciation of the film by writer, curator and producer Gareth Evans, and a booklet with new writing by Patrick Gamble.

 

• Presented from a new HD transfer approved by directors Joshua Bonnetta and J.P. Sniadecki

• An exclusive newly-filmed appreciation by writer, curator, and producer Gareth Evans

• Trailer

• 16-page booklet with a new essay by film writer Patrick Gamble

• Dolby Digital 5.1 audio and Dual Mono 2.0 audio

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Dragon’s Return

 

Joshua Bonnetta and J.P. Sniadecki’s El Mar La Mar is a moving portrait of life and death in the US-Mexico border region, a sensorily immersive, captivating and terrifying journey through the Sonoran Desert. The film weaves harrowing personal accounts of border crossings with the cruel rhetoric of the politicised American media, accompanied by striking footage of desert life and the remnants left behind by animals and people. Intense and mythic, and utilising a rich polyphonic soundtrack to create a vivid exploration of the desert habitat, El Mar La Mar is an experience like nothing you’ve seen, heard or felt before. Presented from a new HD transfer approved by the filmmakers, El Mar La Mar makes its world premiere on Blu-ray. Our region-free edition also features a brand new appreciation of the film by writer, curator and producer Gareth Evans, and a booklet with new writing by Patrick Gamble.

 

• Presented from an HD transfer of the new 2K restoration of the film by the Slovak Film Institute

• On Dragon’s Return (2022): a new and exclusive documentary on the film, with the special participation of director Eduard Grečner

• A newly filmed introduction by Rastislav Steranka of the Slovak Film Institute

• An exclusive, archival filmed appreciation by Czech and Slovak cinema expert Peter Hames (2015)

• 20-page booklet featuring an essay on the film and an interview with Grečner by author Jonathan Owen

• New and improved English subtitle translation

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Love

 

Károly Makk’s beloved, Cannes award-winning gem, based on the autobiographical writings of Tibor Déry, is a meditation on time, memory, love and loss. Two women – a wife and a mother – await the return of political prisoner János. His elderly mother believes him to be working abroad; his devoted wife knows the painful truth of his absence… and fears she may never see him alive again. Beautifully played by two giants of Hungarian cinema, Lili Darvas and Mari Törõcsik, the film is a subtle yet powerful exploration of how love sustains life, even in times of fear and uncertainty. Perfectly realised, with luminous cinematography and innovative editing, Makk’s tender masterpiece is a landmark of international cinema.

 

• Love (Szerelem, 1971) presented from a new 4K restoration created by the National Film Institute – Film Archive, Hungary

• Károly Makk on Love (2005): the renowned filmmaker discusses the film

• Audio commentary with Károly Makk and professor Gábor Gelencsér (2016)

• ‘Love’ returns to Cannes (2016): a film on the history and legacy of Love

• Archival newsreel footage of Hungarian film week in Sorrento, 1971

• Trailers

• 20-page booklet with writing on the film by Graeme Hobbs and Agnes Sajti

• New and improved English subtitle translation

• World premiere on Blu-ray

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Luminous Procuress

 

Exploding out of San Francisco’s vibrant late-60s counter-culture, Luminous Procuress is a psychedelic odyssey of unabashed hedonism. The only feature film by artist, mystic and polymath Steven Arnold, the film celebrates gender-fluidity and pan-sexuality in a voyeuristic phantasmagorical journey towards spiritual ecstasy. Often compared to the works of Fellini, Jack Smith and Kenneth Anger, and featuring the outrageous talents of the avant garde drag troupe The Cockettes, as well as artist ruth weiss, Luminous Procuress was an underground sensation upon release but disappeared from circulation for many years. Now fully restored in all its sensuous glory, Luminous Procuress’ subversive delights are ready to be discovered anew. Luminous Procuress is presented from a glorious new 2K restoration and makes its world premiere on Blu-ray.

 

• Presented from the new 2K restoration of the fully uncut version of the film by the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) and the Cinema Preservation Alliance

• Newly-filmed interview with producer Harry Tsvi Strauch discussing the film and director Steven Arnold

• Curator and author Steve Seid on the history and preservation of Luminous Procuress

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