British label Screenbound Pictures, formerly known as Odeon Entertainment, will to its Blu-ray catalog two classic films: John Huston's
Wise Blood (1979) and Max Ophuls'
La Ronde (1951).
La Ronde
Max Ophuls` wonderful adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler's play won a BAFTA for Best Film as well as two Oscar nominations. Starring Simone Signoret, Simone Simon and Anton Walbrook as the enigmatic master of ceremonies who guides us through a series of amorous encounters in 1900`s Vienna. A soldier (Serge Reggiani) meets an eager young lady of the night and later has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid who then has an affair with the young master of the house. The young man then seduces a married woman and on and on spins on the gay carousel of romantic life... Starring Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon, and Daniel Gelin.
STREET DATE: JULY 11.
Wise Blood
Legendary film director John Huston creates one of his most cerebral films that will stay with the viewer for a long time. Set in the American Deep South during the post-war era, Wise Blood stars Brad Dourif as Hazel Motes, an unhinged and aimless war-veteran, who decides to become a Bible-thumping preacher for a quasi-religious cult called The Church Without Christ. Linking up with a fraudulent hustler from hellfire-and-brimstone preaching circuit -- who pretends to be blind for the assembled believers -- Motes is put under pressure by the fraudster to blind himself for real so that he can truly 'see the light'. A dark satire on religious movements that, beautifully acted by Dourif, Huston and William Hickey.
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 12.
Satan's Blood
Stylish Euro-sleaze horror from dierctor Carlos Puerto. A newly-married couple living in Madrid, Andres (José María Guillén) and Ana (Mariana Karr) meet an eccentric couple of swingers in a chance encounter and are invited to a foreboding country estate. When a heavy thunderstorm and car trouble prevent Andres and Ana from leaving they stay overnight and the couples decide to try and communicate with spirits from the other side on a sinister Ouija-board, and engage in dangerous acts of seduction, cannibalism and a satanic orgy. Soon past sexual conflicts and arguments over an attempted suicide arises. But this is only the beginning of the satanic horrors that will haunt them in the house…
STREET DATE: SEPTEMBER 19.
Doomwatch
The acclaimed feature film of the BBC TV series in which Dr Del Shaw (Ian Bannen) of Doomwatch - the British government's environmental monitoring organisation - travels to the island of Balfe to investigate pollution. A year earlier an oil tanker was holed and its cargo contaminated the local waters - but has there been any adverse long-term effects? The villagers are all suspicious of Shaw, especially the menfolk, who seem to have transformed into near-neanderthals. Samples of the local fish sent back to Doomwatch prove to be unnaturally large, and after teaming up with a local teacher (Judy Geeson) Shaw discovers that the transformation of the men is due to a rare disease called acromelagy. Co-stars Percy Herbert and George Sanders.