French label Pathe will add six new titles to its Blu-ray catalog in July: José Giovanni's
Two Men in Town (1973), Gilles Grangier's
The Night Affair (1958), Claude Sautet's
Waiter! (1983), Abel Gance's
Four Flights to Love (1940), and André Cayatte's
The Lovers of Verona (1949).
Two Men in Town
A hard-boiled crime drama and an impassioned indictment of capital punishment, Two Men in Town is the third and final on-screen collaboration between Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion; Pepe Le Moko), France's pre-eminent film star, and '70s Gallic anti-hero Alain Delon (Flic Story; Purple Noon). After an early release arranged by prison reformer Germain Cazeneuve (Gabin), ex-safe cracker Gino Strabliggi (Delon) is devastated by personal tragedy and banned, by statue, from returning to Paris. At Cazeneuve's urging, Gino makes a new start in the south of France, finds honest work as a printer and new love in the form of Lucie (Mimsy Farmer - More), a beautiful bank officer. But when vengeful cops start to stalk him, and Gino's ex-gang starts eyeing Lucy's bank, Gino's determination to go straight is pushed to the breaking point.
Written and directed by author Jose Giovanni (Le Trou), a real pardoned death row inmate, Two Men in Town fuses the two-fisted social commentary of Warner Bros' 1930s heyday with the naturalistic storytelling of '70s French noir cinema. Two Men in Town features a hauntingly evocative score by Phillipe Sarde (The Tenant). STREET DATE: JULY 1.
The Night Affair
Georges Vallois (Jean Gabin), a vice inspector for the Paris police, takes special interest in the plight of drug-addicted Lucky (Nadja Tiller), whom he considers to be more victim than criminal. Taking it upon himself to wean Lucky away from narcotics, Vallois also wins her love -- and, incidentally, smashes the dope ring responsible for her addiction. STREET DATE: JULY 1.
Waiter!
After a life of emotional and professional upsets, Alex finds himself headwaiter in a chic Parisian restaurant. Well into middle age, divorced but still very much a ladies' man, he has one great ambition: to open an amusement park by the sea. One day, an old flame, Claire, suddenly re-enters his life. For Alex, the fires of love are easily re-kindled, but Claire has another man in her life... Claude Sautet's third collaboration with Yves Montand - after the popular César et Rosalie (1972) and Vincent, François, Paul...et les autres (1974) - is this light-hearted comedy-drama which plays to Montand's strengths and allows Sautet to once more explore one of his favourite themes - the strength of friendship in relation to the ephemeral nature of male-female romantic relationships. In comparison with the director's better known works, it is pretty much an inconsequential film, easily overlooked and soon forgotten once seen. However, a pleasing performance from a relentlessly cheerful Yves Montand, here playing an ageing Don Juan of impeccable manners, makes this a mildly enjoyable cinematic diversion. STREET DATE: JULY 1.
Paradis perdu
New Restoration of Abel Gance's (
Napoleon) classic film
Paradis perdu a.k.a.
Four Flights to Love, starring Fernand Gravey, Elvire Popesco, André Alerme, Monique Rolland, and Robert Le Vigan, STREET DATE: JULY 1.
The Lovers of Verona
Les amants de Vérone is a 1949 French film directed by André Cayatte and loosely based on the William Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet. The film was a joint project of screenwriter Jacques Prevert and director Andre Cayatte and enjoyed great international success. it was released in Italy in 1949, then internationally in 1951.[1] This time the story is set in post war Italy and involves Angelo, a glass-blower from Murano, and Georgia Maglia, the daughter of a fascist magistrate. STREET DATE: JULY 1.
Le toubib
The film is set in a modern war, probably between a European country and a country in the Far East. Behind the battle lines, in a medical unit, a surgeon (Alain Delon) falls in love with an idealistic nurse (Véronique Jannot) after an initially difficult meeting. STREET DATE: JULY 1.