Surrealism, a lone yakuza, and world noir from Radiance in August
9 May 2024
Radiance Films has confirmed its August Blu-ray releases as Fernando Arrabal's celebrated debut feature ¡Viva la muerte!, Tai Kato's powerful Tokijiro: Lone Yakuza, and Radiance's second volume of globally focused moody thrillers, World Noir Vol. 2.
¡VIVA LA MUERTE! (France/Tunisia 1971)
Limited Edition Blu-ray | 26 August 2024 | £17.99
As the Spanish Civil War draws to a close, Fando, a young boy, is tormented by violently conflicting feelings towards his mother, who he suspects may have had a role in his father's capture by fascists; feelings that manifest themselves as a nightmare onslaught of terrifying and bizarre imagery.
Based on Fernando Arrabal's own brutal experiences during the Civil War, Viva la muerte is a shockingly provocative work of surrealist cinema from the artist and filmmaker, who co-founded the 'Panic Movement' collective alongside Alejandro Jodorowsky. Acclaimed on release by critics and scorned by censors, ¡Viva la muerte!would later achieve notoriety as a midnight movie, and was a favourite film of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.
Restored in 4K with the collaboration of Fernando Arrabal, Radiance is proud to present ¡Viva la muerte!on English-subtitled Blu-ray for the first time ever.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
New 4K restoration of the original 35mm negative by the Cinémathèque Toulouse in collaboration with Fernando Arrabal
Audio discussion from the Project Booth podcast featuring Mike White, Heather Drain and Jess Byard (66 mins)
Sur les traces de Baal - a short documentary by Abdellatif Ben Ammar in which the filmmaker followed Arrabal's film and captured him at work on ¡Viva la Muerte! (1970, 20 mins)
VIDARRABAL - a feature-length documentary on Arrabal by Xavier Pasturel Barron capturing the life and work of this singular filmmaker, playwright, painter and essayist, featuring interviews with admirers, friends and family, including members of the Panic Movement he founded (2011, 98 mins)
Interview with scholar and Spanish cinema expect David Archibald (2024)
Trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
Booklet featuring new writing by Sabina Stent and archival interview with Fernando Arrabal
Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Weary of the rigid codes of the underworld, gambler Tokijiro (Kinnosuke Nakamura, Goyokin) wanders Japan in search of freedom. But escape proves to be impossible when an obligation to a gang boss leaves him with no choice but to kill a man. To atone for his crime, he vows to take care of his victim's widow and young son. But the gang won't rest until they've killed the entire family – including the man who stands in their way.
With this breathtakingly stylised film, Tai Kato broke all the conventions of the yakuza genre, fusing blood-spurting action with melodrama worthy of Japanese cinema's greatest masters.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES:
High-Definition digital transfer
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Interview with film critic Koushi Ueno about the film's place in genre cinema history (2024)
A visual essay on star Kinnosuke Nakamura by Japanese cinema expert Robin Gatto (2024)
New and improved English subtitle translation
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by scholar Ivo Smits and a newly translated archival review
Limited Edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
WORLD NOIR VOL. 2
Limited Edition Blu-ray | 26 August 2024 | £17.99
As the 1960s got underway, the golden age of film noir in Hollywood came to an end, with a new wave of filmmaking emerging that would define itself against the studio system. But while the classic noir fell out of favour with American audiences and producers, filmmakers from across the world – particularly in countries that continued to grapple with the devastating fall out of the Second World War – continued to produce first-rate examples of the genre, with three such examples collected here, in our second volume of titles showcasing the best of World Noir.
Black Gravel [Schwarzer Kies] (West Germany 1961)
Sohnen is a town built on vice for the occupying American forces in Cold War Germany. Robert, a local truck driver who sells off gravel from the site he works on as a side hustle, runs into an old flame, Inge. Inge is now respectably married to American officer John who runs the site. Driving in Robert's truck, tragedy strikes and he and Inge must do their best to cover up a pair of dead bodies.
From Helmut Käutner, unknown in the UK but the subject of numerous recent retrospectives and hailed as an underappreciated master, his films have remained difficult to see outside of Germany until recently: Black Gravelhas been restored by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in two versions, the 'Premiere version' and a 'Distribution version', the latter of which removing two moments of antisemitism, something which Käutner was unafraid of portraying in the film as still being present in society but proved to be too uncomfortable for audiences at the time.
Symphony for a Massacre [Symphonie pour un massacre] (France 1963)
Five gangsters raise the cash to buy a large shipment of drugs which they plan to sell on. One of the gang however plans to secretly rob his partners, beginning an escalating spiral of violence and deception that leaves a trail of bodies across France.
Fiendishly plotted with a twisty script from José Giovanni (Le trou) and Claude Sautet (Classe tous risques) adapting a novel by Reynaud-Fourton, Symphony for a Massacresees the French master of the mystery thriller Jacques Deray (La piscine) directing with real energy and verve. Featuring an icy performance by Jean Rochefort (Tell No One), support from a remarkable cast of France's finest character actors, and stunning photography by Claude Renoir (La grande illusion), this is French crime cinema of the highest quality.
Cruel Gun Story [Kenjû zankoku monogatari] (Japan 1964)
Togawa (Joe Shishido, Branded to Kill) is released from prison early by his underworld bosses. They make him execute a daring heist on an armoured vehicle, knowing he has no choice to do it as he needs the money for his sister's surgery. With multiple partners and facets to the operation, much is at risk and all is never as it seems.
A variation on Stanley Kubrick's The Killingfrom Nikkatsu's Action line, Takumi Furukawa directs this yakuza tale with every bit of the deftness found in classic American noir of the 1950s, featuring hard-boiled characters and enough twists to make your fedora spin.
BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION BOX SET SPECIAL FEATURES:
4K restoration of Symphony for a Massacre by Pathé, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK
2K restoration of Black Gravel by the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK
High-Definition digital transfer of Cruel Gun Story, presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the world
Original uncompressed mono PCM audio for all films
Optional English subtitles for all films
Newly designed artwork based on original posters
Limited edition 80-page perfect bound book by critics and experts including Carmen Gray on post-war German politics and film, Elena Lazic on Jose Giovanni, David Hering on noir's evolution in the 1960s, and Jake Cole on the filmography of Joe Shishido
Limited Edition of 3,000 copies presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases for each film and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
BLACK GRAVEL:
Includes both uncensored original cut and the re-edited distribution cut
Audio commentary with film historian Olaf Möller (2020)
Newl introduction from writer and programmer Margaret Deriaz (2024)
Newsreel footage of film set featuring behind-the-scenes footage and an interview with Käutner (1960)
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
SYMPHONY FOR A MASSACRE:
New audio commentary by critic Travis Woods (2024)
New introduction by critic Christina Newland (2024)
Archival interviews with cast members Charles Vanel, Jean Rochefort and director Jacques Deray (1963)
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
CRUEL GUN STORY:
Audio commentary by author and filmmaker Jasper Sharp (2024)
New introduction by critic and programmer Tony Rayns (2024)
Archival interview with actor Joe Shishido
Visual essay by critic Philip Kemp on Nikkatsu's noir films of the 1960s (2024)
Original trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
