Radiance Films has announced its December Blu-ray releases, and once again there's some genuinely great stuff coming, with Kudo Eiichi's neo-noir Yokohama BJ Blues, Bo Widerberg's Nordic noir The Man From Majorca, and Nothing is Sacred: Three Heresies by Luis Buñuel, a glorious-looking, three-film box set of classic works by the surrealist featuring Viridiana, The Exterminating Angel and Simon of the Desert.

YOKOHAMA BJ BLUES [YKOHAMA BJ BURŪSU] (Japan 1981)

Blu-ray | 16 December 2024 | £17.99

When his police detective best friend is killed, down-at-heel private eye and part-time blues singer BJ (Matsuda Yusaku, The Game Trilogy) gets the blame. He must start his own investigation to clear his name, but what he uncovers is a tangled web involving crooked cops, drug-dealing gangsters, the city's underground gay and biker scenes, and even his own past.

A loose remake of Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye that also draws from Visconti's Death in Venice, this was Matsuda's break with his action hero image. Samurai movie veteran Kudo Eiichi (The Fort of Death) relishes his chance at directing a neo-noir that captures urban Japan at the height of 1980s decadence.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• High-Definition digital transfer, world premiere on Blu-ray 
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• Interview with star Hemmi Mari
• Interview with screenwriter Maruyama Shoichi
• Interview with writer and Yokohama expert Toru Sano on the film and a look at the locations
• Trailer
• Newly translated English subtitles
• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
• Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Dimitri Ianni on Toei Central Film, a subsidiary of Toei studios famed for releasing Pink Films and independent productions such as Yokohama BJ Blues and an archival review of the film
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

THE MAN FROM MAJORCA [MANNEN FRÅN MALLORCA] (Sweden | Denmark 1984)

Blu-ray | 16 December 2024 | £17.99

Following a slick post office robbery two police officers see their investigation turn into one of high-level corruption and institutional intrigue.

Bo Widerberg follows his earlier investigative thriller The Man on the Roof with a focus on realism and procedural detail. Adapted from a novel by Leif Persson and starring Sven Wollter (The 13th Warrior), Widerberg's film channels the style of his earlier crime masterpiece but presents a new world. Gritty and often intense, The Man from Majorca is another classic of Nordic noir. 

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• High-Definition digital transfer by Svensk Filmindustri
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio
• On-set reportage including behind-the-scenes images and comments from Widerberg (1984, 2 mins)
• TV featurette featuring Widerberg (1984, 3 mins)
• Interview with Assistant Director Harald Hamrell (2022, 24 mins)
• Interview with Barry Forshaw, author of Nordic Noir (2024)
• Teaser trailer
• Gallery
• Newly improved English subtitle translation
• Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters-Limited edition booklet featuring new writing
• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

NOTHING IS SACRED: THREE HERESIES BY LUIS BUÑUEL

From 1946 to 1965, Luis Buñuel directed 21 films in Mexico, the country that became his naturalised home. Towards the end of this period, the great master of surrealism would meet two of his most important collaborators – the husband-and-wife duo of producer Gustavo Alatriste and actress Silvia Pinal – and together they would create three of his most provocative and enduring works: Viridiana (1961), The Exterminating Angel [El ángel exterminador] (1962) and Simon of the Desert [Simón del desierto} (1965). Presented here in new restorations, all three films are frequently hailed as some of the greatest of all time. All of what makes Buñuel one of the greatest of directors can be found within them: the startling imagery, the uncompromising surrealism, the wicked humour, the unapologetic eroticism, and the overwhelming disdain for contemporary boundaries of good taste. 

In Viridiana, Pinal stars as a former nun who, believing she has been defiled by a relative, abandons nunhood and attempts to repent and lead a morally pure existence by turning a mansion into a shelter for vagrants. Hugely controversial on release, this brilliant satire remains shocking today,  and was voted the best Spanish film of all time by Spanish critics in 2016.

The Exterminating Angel is one of Buñuel's most extraordinary and enduring works: after a night at the opera, a group of bourgeois party guests realise that they are inexplicably unable to leave the dining room they are sequestered in, and quickly descend into savagery. An influential blend of horror, comedy, drama and social commentary, the film was named one of the 200 greatest of all time in the 2022 Sight and Sound Critics Poll. 

Simon of the Desert is a typically outrageous and provocative commentary on organised religion: a parable of Simon, the would-be saint who lives an ascetic life at the top of a ten foot pillar, the film features a memorable turn from Pinal as the Devil, and an unforgettably bizarre ending. 

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:

• New 4K restorations of Viridiana and Simon of the Desert from the original negatives
• A new restoration of The Exterminating Angel from a 4K scan by Radiance Films
• Uncompressed mono PCM audio for each film
• Newly filmed appreciations for each film and Buñuel by filmmakers Richard Ayoade, Alex Cox, Guillermo del Toro, and Lulu Wang
• The Life and Times of Don Luis Buñuel – A BBC Arena documentary on Buñuel featuring contributions from Bunuel and collaborators including Catherine Deneuve, presented on Blu-ray for the first time (1983, 98 mins)
• A Mexican Buñuel – A documentary directed by Emilio Maille on Buñuel's Mexican period (1995, 50 minutes)
• Buñuel: A Surrealist Filmmaker – A feature-length documentary directed by Javier Estpada on Buñuel's life and career, presented on Blu-ray for the first time (2021, 83 mins)
• An interview with Buñuel from 1964 recorded for French TV's Cinéastes de notre temps (1964, 43 mins)
• The Other Trinity: Alatriste, Buñuel and Pinal – A visual essay on Buñuel in Mexico by Abraham Castillo Flores
• Dinner and Other Rituals – A visual essay on The Exterminating Angel and the dinner party on film by critic and writer Alexandra Heller-Nicholas
• Audio commentary on Viridiana by critic Michael Brooke
• Audio commentary on Simon of the Desert by critic and filmmaker Kat Ellinger
• Gallery of stills
• Trailer
• Optional English subtitles for each film
• Reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sister Hyde
• Limited edition 80-page book featuring new writing by Glenn Kenny, Justine Smith, Lindsay Hallam and David Hering, as well as archive material
• Limited edition of 6000 copies, presented in a rigid box with full-height Scanavo cases and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings