The British Film Institute has officially announced and detailed its upcoming Dual Format Edition of
Schalcken the Painter (1979). Originally screened by the BBC during the dying hours of 23 December 1979, this exquisitely shot, atmospheric horror film explores the uneasy relationship between art, commerce and erotic desire. Street date is November 18th.
An aspiring young painter falls for his patron's niece but forsakes love for ambition when a ghoulish stranger demands her for himself. Adapted from the chilling ghost story by J Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalcken the Painter weaves a fictional tale of terror around the work of real life seventeenth-century Dutch Golden Age painter Godfried Schalcken. The superb cast includes Jeremy Clyde, Maurice Denham and Cheryl Kennedy.
Special Features:
- Presented in both High Definition and Standard Definition;
- The Pit (Edward Abraham, 1962, 27 mins): experimental gothic short, adapted from Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum';
- Original sketches for The Pit;
- The Pledge (Digby Rumsey, 1982, 21 mins): three criminals pledge to free the soul of their friend from his gibbeted corpse in this short film based on 'The Highwayman' by Lord Dunsany;
- Look Into the Dark (2013, 39 mins): interviews with director/writer/producer Leslie Megahey and director of photography John Hooper on the making of Schalcken the Painter;
- Illustrated booklet with new essays by Ben Hervey, James Bell and Vic Pratt; complete film credits.