British distributors Curzon Artificial Eye have informed us that they are planning to add a number of new titles to their Blu-ray catalog in 2019. Amongst them are Pawel Pawlikowski's Cold War (2018), Matteo Garrone's Dogman (2018), Sebastián Lelio's Disobedience (2017), and Lars von Trier's The House That Jack Built (2017).
These are all early confirmed titles. Additional titles are expected to be announced in the coming months.
Synopsis: Paweł Pawlikowski follows his Oscar-winning Ida with the stunning Cold War, an epic romance set against the backdrop of Europe after World War II. Sumptuously shot in luminous black and white, it spans decades and nations to tell a love story that is as tragic as it is moving, and as transportive as it is honest.
In the ruins of post-war Poland, Wiktor (Tomasz Kot) and Zula (Joanna Kulig) fall deeply, obsessively and destructively in love. As performing musicians forced to play into the Soviet propaganda machine, they dream of escaping to the creative freedom of the West. But one day, as they spot their chance to make a break for Paris, both make a split decision that will mark their lives forever. As the years march on in the wake of that moment, Wiktor and Zula watch the world changing around them, always struggling to find their moment in time.
Winner of the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival 2018, Pawlikowski melds the personal with the political to exquisite effect. Set to a soundtrack that takes you from the rustic folk songs of rural Poland to the sultry jazz of a Paris basement bar, it's a wistful and dreamlike journey through a divided continent – and a heartbreaking portrait of ill-fated love.
*In the United Kingdom, the following films from director Pawlikowski are already out on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon Artificial Eye: Ida (2013) and The Woman in the Fifth (2011).
Synopsis: Marcello is a small and gentle dog groomer who wants two things, to look after his dogs and take his daughter on exotic holidays. But to fund this lifestyle he runs a side business which has more unsavoury clientele and he soon finds himself involved in a dangerous relationship of subjugation with Simone, a former violent boxer who terrorises the entire neighbourhood. When Simone exploits him too much Marcello must make a crucial and potentially dangerous decision in order to regain his dignity.
Matteo Garrone, the master filmmaker behind Gomorrah returns to the crime thriller genre with the tension filled and relentlessly captivating Dogman.
STREET DATE: JANUARY 14.
Disobedience
Synopsis: From Sebastián Lelio, writer-director of the Academy Award-winning A Fantastic Woman, Disobedience s a timely and emotionally powerful tale set at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, of personal desires and the demands of faith.
When her estranged rabbi father suddenly passes away, Ronit (played by Oscar-winner and co-producer Rachel Weisz) returns from New York to the north London Orthodox Jewish community she rejected years previously after a scandalous transgression.
Ronit's presence immediately courts further controversy when she unknowingly runs into Esti (Rachel McAdams), the wife of her strictly religious cousin Dovid (Alessandro Nivola) and the woman for whom she shared an illicit attraction in their childhood. This happy reunion soon reignites the two women's burning, long-unrequited passions, an act of defiance that could alter the course of their lives forever.
Based on the novel of the same name by bestselling author Naomi Alderman and co-written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Disobedience is a critically acclaimed romantic drama that explores the fraught boundaries between spiritual devotion and sexuality.
Synopsis: Lars von Trier's upcoming drama follows the highly intelligent Jack (Matt Dillon) over a span of 12 years and introduces the murders that define Jack's development as a serial killer. We experience the story from Jack's point of view, while he postulates each murder is an artwork in itself. As the inevitable police intervention is drawing nearer, he is taking greater and greater risks in his attempt to create the ultimate artwork.
"The greatest cathedrals have sublime artwork hidden in the darkest of corners for only God to see... so does MURDER!"