British label Eureka Entertainment has announced that it plans to add various new titles to its Blu-ray catalog in January. Amongst them are Ewald André Dupont's
Varieté (1925) and Luis Valdez's
La Bamba (1987).
La Bamba
The life of rock & roll legend Ritchie Valens bursts across the screen in the highly celebrated music-filled biopic La Bamba, starring Lou Diamond Phillips (Young Guns, Che) as the teenage sensation whose rise to fame was tragically cut short at the age of 17.
Phillips gives an electrifying performance as Valens, who has to contend with racial prejudice, a jealous brother (a stunningly intense Esai Morales, NYPD Blue, Caprica) and an overbearing mother, before his unique style of Latino-influenced rock & roll rockets him to fame, but sets him on the path for an unavoidable date with destiny.
Featuring music from Grammy Award winning rock band Los Lobos, and also starring Elizabeth Peña (Jacob's Ladder, Down and Out in Beverly Hills), director Luis Valdez's La Bamba is an irresistibly toe-tapping depiction of the early days of American rock music, and the indelible influence one young man had upon it.
Special Features:
- High-definition presentation
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Remembering Ritchie – a featurette on the late musician
- La Bamba music video by Los Lobos
- Lonely Teardrops music video by Howard Huntsberry
- Original theatrical trailer
STREET DATE: January 9.
Varieté
A key work of German silent cinema and an international smash on its release, E. A. Dupont's Varieté (Variety) is an audacious revenge melodrama set under the canvas of the big top.
When Boss Huller (the iconic Emil Jannings) meets the young émigré Berta-Marie (Lya De Putti), it kindles his desire to relaunch his career as a trapeze artist, stalled due to an injury and the pressures of domestic life. But with passion comes obsession, and with the involvement of the famed Artinelli into their act, tensions rise to a fever pitch.
Visually astonishing, with some of the most inventive camerawork of the 1920s, and a typically intense and vivid central performance from Jannings, Varieté is presented here in an all-new restoration of the original German version. Featuring two scores: one by Stephen Horne (as performed at the London Film Festival 2015, and one by the Tiger Lilies (as performed at Berlinale 2015). NEW 2K RESTORATION.
STREET DATE: JANUARY 23.
Creepy
Director Kiyoshi Kurosawa first came to prominence in the West with his J-Horror masterpieces Cure and Pulse [Kairo]. Now he makes a triumphant return to the horror genre with Creepy, a macabre and deeply unsettling thriller that has left audiences around the world shivering in fear.
Based on a novel by Yutaka Maekawa, Creepy follows ex-police detective and criminal psychologist Takakura (Hidetoshi Nishijima, Dolls), who moves to a quiet suburban town seeking peace and quiet. When a former colleague asks for his assistance on a case involving a disappearing family his investigation leads him to suspect that his neighbour is a psychopath who comes into people's households and takes over their lives.
With a stunning cast made up of many of Japan's leading actors including Hidetoshi Nishijima, Yuko Takeuchi (Ring) and Teruyuki Kagawa (Tokyo Sonata, Rurouni Kenshin), Creepy expertly mixes the genre conventions of the American thriller and Japanese horror to create this breath taking thriller.
Special Features:
- High-definition presentation
- Optional English subtitles
- A new interview with director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- PLUS: A BOOKLET featuring new writing on the film
STREET DATE: JANUARY 23.
Metropolis
January Releases Revealed #1: OSAMU TEZUKA'S METROPOLIS, the spectacular anime based on the 1949 METROPOLIS manga, itself inspired by the 1927 German silent film of the same name, for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK, in a limited edition Dual-Format SteelBook (only 2000 copies) on
January 16, 2017, and a Special Dual-Format edition on
March 13, 2017.
Based on the classic comic created by revered manga artist and animator Osamu Tezuka (Astroboy), written by anime legend Katsuhiro Otomo (Akira) and directed by Rintaro (Galaxy Express 999), METROPOLIS is a spectacular film featuring stunning imagery and unforgettable characters.
In the industrial, tri-level world of Metropolis, Duke Red is a powerful leader with plans to unveil a highly advanced robot named Tima. But Duke Red's violent son Rock distrusts robots and intends to find and destroy Tima. Lost in the confusing labyrinth beneath Metropolis, Tima is beginning a friendship with the young nephew of a Japanese detective. But when Duke Red separates the two innocents, Tima's life – and the fate of the universe – is dangerously at stake.
Special Features:
- High-definition presentation
- DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Optional English Subtitles
- The Making of Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis – a documentary on the film's production
- Interviews with the films creators
- Multi-angle animation comparisons
- Original Trailer
Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari STEELBOOK EDITION
One of the most iconic masterpieces in cinema history, Robert Wiene's Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari shook filmgoers worldwide and changed the direction of the art form. Now presented in a definitive restoration, the film's chilling, radically expressionist vision is set to grip viewers again.
At a local carnival in a small German town, hypnotist Dr. Caligari presents the somnambulist Cesare, who can purportedly predict the future of curious fairgoers. But at night, the doctor wakes Cesare from his sleep to enact his evil bidding...
Incalculably influential, the film's nightmarishly jagged sets, sinister atmospheric and psychological emphasis left an immediate impact in its wake (horror, film noir, and gothic cinema would all be shaped directly by it). But this diabolical tale nevertheless stands alone - now more mesmerising than ever in this Blu-ray SteelBook edition, along with a bonus Blu-ray disc containing the 2014 documentary From Caligari to Hitler, exploring the social and cultural impact of German Cinema during the Weimar Republic.
Special Features:
- New high-definition presentation, from the extensive FWMS restoration
- Option of Stereo and 5.1 surround scores
- Original German intertitles with optional English subtitles
- FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER: German Cinema in the Age of the Masses (STEELBOOK EXCLUSIVE) – A 2-hour documentary on German Cinema during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933)
- New and exclusive audio commentary by film historian David Kalat
- You Must Become Caligari - New video essay by film critic David Cairns
- Caligari: The Birth of Horror in the First World War - 52 minute documentary on the cultural and historical impact of the film
- On The Restoration - three short video pieces on the film's restoration
- Trailer for the release of the new restoration on the film
- 44-PAGE BOOKLET featuring vintage writing on the film by Lotte H. Eisner; an original Variety review of the film; and rare archival imagery
STREET DATE: JANUARY 16.