Radiance Films has announced that its May 2025 Blu-ray releases will include Claude Faraldo's taboo-busting satire Themroc, Nakajima Sadao's gangster drama The Rapacious Jailbreaker, Pietro Germi's affecting melodrama The Railroad Man, and on the Raro Video label, Fernando Di Leo's poliziotteschi Shoot First, Die Later. Details below.
THEMROC (France 1973)
Blu-ray | 19 May 2025 | £17.99
Living at home with his mother, bachelor house painter Themroc (Michel Piccoli, Belle de Jour) leads a dull life. One day, after an unearned run-in with his boss, the usually docile Themroc rebels and dismantles his myopic world.
Made on a shoestring budget with no intelligible dialogue, Claude Faraldo’s cult taboo-busting satire about a French blue-collar worker-turned-urban caveman anarchically eviscerates mid-century labour and gender politics. Never released on home video in the UK, Themroc may be familiar to British audiences from Channel 4's infamous Red Triangle showings, intended for adults only; now this savage satire can be seen again, newly presented on Blu-ray from a 4K restoration.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- 4K Restoration from the original negative by StudioCanal
- Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Interview with critic David Thompson (2025)
- Interview with actor Michel Piccoli and director Claude Faraldo (1973)
- Interview with Manuela Lazic on Michel Piccoli (2025)
- Gallery
- Trailer
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Smith
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Alison Smith, author of French Cinema in the 1970s The echoes of May
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
Pre order from the Radiance store here.
THE RAPACIOUS JAILBREAKER [DATSUGOKU HIROSHIMA SATSUJINSHŪ] (Japan 1974)
Blu-ray | 19 May 2025 | £17.99
In the free-for-all chaos after World War II, black marketeer Ueda (Hiroki Matsukata, Cops vs Thugs) is robbed of a pound of morphine. He takes his brutal revenge, but is arrested for murder and sentenced to 20 years. He escapes and is caught, but no matter where they send him, Ueda won’t let prison walls stop him.
Directed by a master of the genre and based on the real exploits of a seven-time prison escapee, this ranks as one of the rawest entries in the 1970s cycle of Japanese true-account crime films.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- High-Definition digital transfer
- Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
- Audio commentary by yakuza film expert Nathan Stuart (2025)
- Visual essay on Sadao Nakajima by Tom Mes (2025)
- New English subtitle translation
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Earl Jackson 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
Pre order from the Radiance store here.
THE RAILROAD MAN [IL FERROVIERE] (Italy 1956)
Blu-ray | 19 May 2025 | £17.99
Pietro Germi (The Facts of Murder) directs and stars in this deeply affecting drama about a train driver. Living modestly with his wife Sara (Luisa Della Noce), Andrea Marcocci’s life is thrown into turmoil when he witnesses a suicide on the tracks ahead of him. Tenderly narrated from the perspective of his young son Sandro (Edoardo Nevola), the incident has repercussions on Andrea and his extended family - including his unemployed son Marcello (Renato Speziali) and pregnant daughter Giulia (Sylva Koscina) - who he is expected to support.
A huge success on release, with a tough, muscular performance by Germi at its centre, The Railroad Man should sit alongside the likes of Bicycle Thieves and La terra trema in the pantheon of great neorealistic classics.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- New 4K restoration by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Surf Film at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory
- Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
- New interview with Pietro Germi expert Mario Sesti (2025, 29 mins)
- Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by John Bleasdale and archival writing on Alfredo Giannetti by Simone Starace
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings
- more TBC!
Pre order from the Radiance store here.
SHOOT FIRST, DIE LATER [IL PLOIZIOTTO È MARCIO] (Italy 1974)
Blu-ray | 19 May 2025 | £17.99
In Shoot First, Die Later, Luc Merenda (Torso) stars as Police Commissioner Domenico Malacarne, a young rising star in the force who is also taking bribes from the mob. A routine complaint comes through to a local station in which a lowly officer, Malacarne's father, takes the statement. Unbeknownst to Malacarne, the complaint implicates someone who the mob wishes to remain hidden, putting Malacarne in a difficult position with his father, who begins to suspect his son isn’t the law-abiding official he was previously so proud of…
Another impressively action-packed thriller from poliziotteschi master Fernando Die Leo, Shoot First, Die Later is presented here on Blu-ray in the UK for the first time.
LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES:
- High-Definition digital transfer from the original camera negative
- Optional Italian and English audio tracks, uncompressed mono PCM audio
- New audio commentary by film critic Travis Woods
- Archival interview with director Fernando Di Leo
- Archival interview with star Luc Merenda
- Italian and English trailers
- New and improved English subtitle translation for Italian audio and English SDH for English audio
- Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Sam Moore
- Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging
Pre order from the Radiance store here. |
