Indicator has announced its Blu-ray titles for April 2021. First up isthe UK Blu-ray premiere of The Chalk Garden (1964), adapted from Enid Bagnold’s successful stage play, and brought to the screen by Ronald Neame, this disturbing drama stars Deborah Kerr as the governess with a shadowy past who is employed to care for troubled teen Hayley Mills, co-starring here with her father, John Mills. Next are UK Blu-ray premieres of two features, made ten years apart, by celebrated British filmmaker Ken Loach in the shape of his underseen Fatherland (1986) and Carla's Song (1996), the first in an ongoing series of collaborations between Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty. Last, but by no means least, we are pleased to present the UK Blu-ray premiere of one of the most controversial examples of the French Extreme Cinema of the early 2000s, Gaspar Noé’s acclaimed Irreversible (2002).
THE CHALK GARDEN (1964) | Limited Edition Blu-ray | 19 April 2021 | £15.99
Ronald Neame (The Odessa File) directs this stately adaptation of Enid Bagnold’s play which tells of a haughty matriarch (Edith Evans, The Whisperers) who employs a governess (Deborah Kerr, The Innocents) with a shadowy past to take care of her troubled teenage granddaughter (Hayley Mills, Take a Girl Like You, Endless Night), and her neglected garden. John Mills (Town on Trial, The Wrong Box) plays the butler who develops a soft spot for the governess, and navigates the fraught interpersonal relationships of the house. A hit with audiences upon its original release, The Chalk Garden benefits from a nuanced screenplay by the great John Michael Hayes (Rear Window) and tasteful photography by Arthur Ibbetson (Where Eagles Dare, Fanatic).
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- High Definition remaster
- Original mono soundtrack
- Audio commentary with film historians Jo Botting and Lucy Bolton (2021)
- The BEHP Interview with Ronald Neame (1991): an archival audio recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the acclaimed director in conversation with Roy Fowler
- An appreciation of Maurice Arnold’s score by author and musician David Huckvale (2021)
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image gallery: promotional and publicity material
- New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Melanie Williams, extracts from interviews and autobiographies, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
- UK premiere on Blu-ray
- Limited edition of 3,000 copies
FATHERLAND (1986) | Limited Edition Blu-ray | 19 April 2021 | £15.99
Ken Loach collaborated with playwright Trevor Griffiths (Comedians) for this underseen political drama about an East German protest singer (played by Gerulf Pannach) who emigrates to the West when he falls foul of the authorities. He arrives to much interest from the media – and a potentially lucrative record contract – but wishes only to be able to perform his songs, and to find his father, another exile, who had left his home country during the 1953 East German uprising.
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- High Definition remaster
- Original mono audio
- Language Barriers (2021): new interview with editor Jonathan Morris
- Talk About Work (1971): Ken Loach’s documentary for the Central Office of Information, photographed by Chris Menges, interviewing young people about their work
- Right to Work March (1972): documentary film of a five-week protest march from Glasgow to London that saw the participation of a number of cultural figures, including Loach and other filmmakers
- Image gallery: publicity and promotional material
- New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Frank Collins, an archival interview with Ken Loach, an extract from Loach on Loach, an overview of contemporary critical responses, new writing on the short films, and film credits
- UK premiere on Blu-ray
- Limited edition of 3,000 copies
CARLA'S SONG (1996) | Limited Edition Blu-ray | 19 April 2021 | £15.99
The first collaboration between director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty – a relationship which now extends to fifteen feature films and shorts, including My Name Is Joe and I, Daniel Blake – Carla’s Song tells the story of George (Robert Carlyle, Trainspotting), a Glaswegian bus driver, and Carla (Oyanka Cabezas), a Nicaraguan refugee. Set in 1987, the film follows the pair as they meet, fall in love, and travel to Nicaragua in search of Carla’s former lover, a possible victim of the civil war.
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- High Definition remaster
- Original stereo audio
- Audio commentary with director Ken Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty (2005)
- Keeping Up Appearances (2021): new interview with producer Sally Hibbin
- Two Worlds Collide (2021): new interview with editor Jonathan Morris
- Tuning in to Nicaragua (2021): new interview with composer George Fenton
- Background to the Art (2021): new interview with art director Fergus Clegg
- Sounds of Music (2021): new interview with sound recordist Ray Beckett
- Keeping Up Appearances (2021): new interview with script supervisor Susanna Lenton
- Deleted scenes
- Original theatrical trailer
- Image gallery: publicity and promotional material
- New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Michael Pattison, an extract from Paul Laverty’s introduction to his screenplay, Ken Loach on recutting the film, an extract from a report on the Nicaraguan premiere, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
- UK premiere on Blu-ray
- Limited edition of 3,000 copies
IRREVERSIBLE (2002) | Limited Edition Blu-ray | 19 April 2021 | £22.99
Perhaps the quintessential exemplar of New French Extremism, Irreversible amazed and outraged audiences across the world upon its release in 2002 with its harrowing scenes of rape and violence. Now Gaspar Noé’s nauseating, thrilling, ingenious masterwork returns in a new 4K restoration, both in its original Theatrical Cut and a potent new Straight Cut, assembled in 2020, that re-orders the film’s reverse narrative into a linear chronology.
INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- 4K restoration supervised by writer-director Gaspar Noé
- Two versions of the film: the 2002 Theatrical Cut (98 mins); and the 2020 Straight Cut, which re-orders the narrative into a linear chronology (90 mins)
- Original 5.1 surround sound and 2.0 stereo audio tracks
- Audio commentary by Gaspar Noé on the Theatrical Cut (2003)
- The Irreversible Odyssey (2019): retrospective documentary featuring interviews with Gaspar Noé, actors Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel, and others
- SFX (2003): visual effects supervisor Rodolphe Chabrier discusses his team’s work on the film
- Original theatrical trailer
- 2020 Straight Cut trailer
- Image gallery: publicity and promotional material
- New and improved English subtitles
- Limited edition exclusive 80-page book with a new essay by Anna Bogutskaya, archival interviews and articles, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits
- UK premiere on Blu-ray
- Limited edition of 5,000 copies
|
