Arrow Academy has announced that it will add three new titles to its Blu-ray catalog: Abdellatif Kechiche's
Black Venus (2010), Olivier Assayas'
Irma Vep (1996), and Roger Donaldson's
Smash Palace (1981). The three releases will be available for purchase in May.
Smash Palace
Synopsis: Premiering at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, Smash Palace was the second feature of Roger Donaldson following the success of Sleeping Dogs, a film which had heralded the arrival of the New Zealand New Wave.
Smash Palace concerns itself with the marriage of former racing driver Al (Bruno Lawrence, The Quiet Earth) and French-born Jacqui (Anna Jemison, Nomads). The pair had met when she nursed him back to health following a career-ending injury. They married, returned to Al's native New Zealand to take over his late father's wrecking yard business – the Smash Palace of the title – and had a child. But over time stagnation has set in, Jacqui's resentment of Al has grown, and things are threatening to spill over…
Playing out as a darker, more haunting New Zealand variation on such US separation movies as Kramer vs. Kramer or Shoot the Moon, Smash Palace offers a brilliant, vivid messy portrait of masculinity in crisis, driven by Lawrence's immense central performance – once again confirming his status as one of New Zealand's finest actors.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- Original mono audio (uncompressed LPCM)
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
- Commentary by writer-director Roger Donaldson and stunt driver Steve Millen
- The Making of Smash Palace, a 51-minute documentary on the film's production featuring interviews with Donaldson, actor Keith Aberdein, filmmaker Geoff Murphy and others
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sean Phillips
- First pressing only: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Ian Barr, a contemporary review by Pauline Kael and the original press book
U.S. STREET DATE: MAY 29
UK STREET DATE: MAY 28.
Irma Vep
Synopsis: Ten years after he made his feature debut with Disorder in 1986, Olivier Assayas decided it was time to turn his attentions to the French film industry for his sixth picture. Written in ten days, and shot in less than a month, Irma Vep provides a mid-nineties' amalgam of François Truffaut's Day for Night and Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Beware of a Holy Whore.
French filmmaker René Vidal (Day for Night's Jean-Pierre Léaud) is commissioned by a TV company to direct a remake of Louis Feuillade's classic silent-era serial, Les Vampires. Maggie Cheung (playing a version of herself) is cast in the central role and heads to Paris for filming – where she finds herself amid the chaos of artistic differences, petty rivalries and the immense egos which make up a film set.
Irma Vep is Assayas at his lightest and most playful – simultaneously a gently satirical dig at the state of French cinema and a love letter to his female star.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- 2K restoration from the original negative, supervised and approved by Olivier Assayas
- Original 2.0 Stereo DTS-HD Master Audio
- Optional English subtitles
- Audio commentary by writer-director Olivier Assayas and critic Jean-Michel Frodon
- On the Set of Irma Vep, a 30-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with optional commentary by Assayas and Frodon
- Interview with Assayas and critic Charles Tesson
- Interview with actors Maggie Cheung and Nathalie Richard
- Man Yuk: A Portrait of Maggie Cheung, a 1997 short film by Assayas
- Black and white rushes
- Theatrical Trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
- First pressing only: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Neil Young
UK STREET DATE: MAY 9.
Black Venus
Synopsis: Between Couscous, winner of three César Awards, and the Cannes triumph of Blue Is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche made Black Venus, a stark portrait of the life of Saartjie Baartman, also known as the 'Hottentot Venus'.
Baartman was taken from South African home as a 21-year-old and shipped to Georgian London, where she would be caged and exhibited as a freak show. Presented semi-nude, her physique – especially her large buttocks – was the source of much curiosity. But as her 'fame' spread, so too did her exploitation…
Centred on a remarkable performance by Cuban actor Yahima Torres as Baartman, Black Venus provides a bleak but barbed exploration of sex, science, race, colonialism and social attitudes.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- Optional 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
- Optional English subtitles
- Brand-new appreciation of Black Venus and the cinema of Abdellatif Kechiche by critic Neil Young
- Theatrical trailer
- Reversible sleeve featuring and original newly commissioned artwork by Peter Strain
- First pressing only: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Will Higbee, author of Post-Beur Cinema: North African Émigré and Maghrebi-French Filmmaking in France Since 2000
U.S. STREET DATE: MAY 22.
UK STREET DATE: MAY 21.