Arrow Video & Academy September Releases About Pioneers And Memories

Summer might be a non-existent but Arrow Video and Arrow Academy want to keep things sizzling in September. The month will see the release of the greatest work and autobiography of a French cinema pioneer. A beloved Oscar-winning masterpiece about the beauty of cinema in 4K, and a pair of blood-splattered Yakuza classics.

Arrow Academy will deliver aan exclusive, limited edition Blu-ray package, George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon & Autobiography. Méliès, a pioneer of early cinema, as well as an illustrator, magician, filmmaker, and inventor, paved the way for animation and multi-media filmmaking. The release includes his boldest and best known film, A Trip To The Moon, supplemented by the phenomenal documentary, An Extraordinary Voyage, along with a beautiful hardback edition of Méliès’ unpublished autobiography.

Also this month Cinema Paradiso, Giuseppe Tornatore’s loving homage to the cinema, and winner of awards across the world including Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, 5 BAFTA Awards, the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival and many more. The original award-winning theatrical version of Tornatore’s classic is presented here for the first time on 4K Ultra-HD Blu-ray. This edition and the Blu-ray release also include the expanded Director’s Cut.

At the start of September, Arrow Video release Graveyards of Honor, with two peerless masters of Japanese cinema – Kinji Fukasaku (Battles without Honor and Humanity) and Takashi Miike (Audition) – presenting their own distinctive adaptations of yakuza expert Goro Fujita’s gangster novel Graveyard of Honor, each tapping into the zeitgeist of a distinct period of Japanese history. Fukasaku’s original 1975 film is shot through with the same stark realism and quasi-documentarian approach as Fukasaku’s earlier Battles Without Honor and Humanity. Miike’s film captures both the hedonism and nihilism of the modern Japanese crime scene in deliriously stylish fashion. Both films make their High Definition debut in a sumptuous limited edition packed with new and archival bonus content.

George Méliès’ A Trip to the Moon & Autobiography

On Limited Edition Blu-ray, 21st September 2020

Loosely based on the writings of Jules Verne, this follows a group of travellers who jet off to the moon from earth on an exploration mission only to end up in peril and captured by the local inhabitants, the Selenites. Featuring a who’s who of theatrical cast from the era, with Méliès himself taking a lead role, this is one of the very first forays into sci-fi cinema, and spawned one of the most iconic images of cinema – the man in the moon with a rocket in his eye.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
• Limited Edition of 1,000 copies
• Deluxe limited edition packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork
• 214-page hardback casebound book of George Méliès’ autobiography, previously unpublished in English

BLU-RAY:
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
• Original uncompressed Stereo 2.0 and 5.1 surround audio
• Optional English subtitles
• Multiple scores by world renowned composers
• The Innovations of Georges Méliès – new video essay by Jon Spira exploring A Trip to the Moon and Méliès’ career
• An Extraordinary Voyage – Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange’s 2011 documentary on the film, its rediscovery and preservation for future generations, featuring interviews with Costa Gavras, Michel Gondry, Michel Hazanavicius, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• Le Grand Méliès (1952) – a short film directed by Georges Franju about the life and work of Méliès – 2020 re-release trailer

BOOK: The Long-Lost Autobiography of Georges Méliès: Father of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Cinema – Available for the first time since 1961, finally translated into English by Ian Nixon, with annotations and supporting material by Jon Spira, Méliès filmography, illustrations by Lucy Collin, interviews with filmmaker Serge Bromberg, silent film expert Bryony Dixon, and filmmaker Michel Gondry

CINEMA PARADISO 28TH SEPTEMBER

On UHD 4K and Blu-ray and DVD
Giuseppe Tornatore’s loving homage to cinema tells the story of Salvatore, a successful film director, returning home for the funeral of Alfredo, his old friend who was the projectionist at the local cinema throughout his childhood. Soon memories of his first love affair with the beautiful Elena and all the highs and lows that shaped his life come flooding back, as Salvatore reconnects with the community he left 30 years earlier.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

• 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the 124 minute theatrical version
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the 174 minute Director’s Cut
• Uncompressed original stereo 2.0 Audio and 5.1 surround sound options
• Optional English subtitles
• Audio commentary with director Giuseppe Tornatore and Italian cinema expert critic Millicent Marcus
• A Dream of Sicily – A 52-minute documentary profile of Giuseppe Tornatore featuring interviews with the director and extracts from his early home movies as well as interviews with director Francesco Rosi and painter Peppino Ducato, set to music by the legendary Ennio Morricone
• A Bear and a Mouse in Paradise – A 27-minute documentary on the making of Cinema Paradiso and the characters of Toto and Alfredo, featuring interviews the actors who play them, Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio as well as Tornatore
• The Kissing Sequence – Giuseppe Tornatore discusses the origins of the kissing scenes with clips identifying each scene
• Original Director’s Cut Theatrical Trailer and 25th Anniversary Re-Release Trailer

4K UHD Blu-ray (2160p) | High Definition Blu-ray (1080p)

GRAVEYARDS OF HONOR 7th September 2020

Set during the turbulent post-war years, Kinji Fukasaku’s original 1975 film charts the rise and fall of real-life gangster Rikio Ishikawa (Tetsuya Watari) a man utterly without honor or ethics, surviving by any means necessary in a world of brutal criminality. Takishi Miike’s 2002 retelling transplants the story to Tokyo at the turn of the millennium.

LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
• Exclusive two-disc set featuring two different versions of Graveyard of Honor: the 1975 film by Kinji Fukasaku and the 2002 film by Takashi Miike
• Limited edition packaging featuring newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing on both films by Jasper Sharp

DISC ONE – GRAVEYARD OF HONOR (1975):
• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless Japanese PCM 1.0 mono soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles
• New audio commentary by author and critic Mark Schilling
• Like a Balloon: The Life of a Yakuza, a new visual essay by critic and Projection Booth podcast host Mike White
• A Portrait of Rage, an archival appreciation of Fukasaku and his films, featuring interviews with filmmakers, scholars, and friends of the director
• On the Set with Fukasaku, an archival interview with assistant director Kenichi Oguri
• Theatrical trailer
• Imagery gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan
JAPAN | 18| 94 MINUTES |DRAMA| B&W | 2.35:1 | ENGLISH SUBTITLES

DISC TWO – GRAVEYARD OF HONOR (2002):
• High Definition Blu-ray™ (1080p) presentation
• Original lossless Japanese PCM 2.0 stereo soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles
• New audio commentary by Miike biographer Tom Mes
• New visual essay by author and critic Kat Ellinger
• Archival “interview special” featuring Miike and cast members Goro Kishitani and Narimi Arimori
• Archival “making-of” featurette
• Archival “making-of” teaser
• Archival press release interviews featuring Miike, Kishitani and Arimori
• Archival “premiere special” featuring Miike, Kishitani and Arimori
• Theatrical trailer
• Imagery gallery
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ian MacEwan

IVANSXTC 14TH SEPTEMBER

Opening with the death of its titular protagonist, Ivansxtc goes back in time to chart the final days of hot-shot Tinseltown agent Ivan Beckman (Danny Huston) and his fast-paced, wheeler-dealer lifestyle, which will ultimately lead him to an early grave after a shock cancer diagnosis.

JESUS SHOWS YOU THE WAY TO THE HIGHWAY 14TH SEPTEMBER 2020

The year is 2035, and Special Agent Gagano (Daniel Tadesse) dreams of leaving the CIA to open a business with his wife Malin (Gerda-Annette Allikas). Before he can hand in his resignation, however, a strange cyber virus attacks Psychobook, the CIA’s operating system, forcing Gagano to enter cyberspace via virtual reality to combat the threat. Before long, however, the virus starts to reach out into the real world, destabilising the fragile socio-political order for its own ends, and Gagano, trapped in the VR world, must find a way out before it’s too late.

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Tags: a trip to the moon, arrow academy, arrow video, Cinema Paradiso, George Méliès’, Graveyard Of Honor