Kino: Two AFT Titles Detailed for Blu-ray
HomeKino: Two AFT Titles Detailed for Blu-ray
Posted July 12, 2019 08:01 PM by Webmaster
Kino Lorber have detailed two upcoming Blu-ray releases: Peter Hall's The Homecoming (1973) and John Quested's Philadelphia, Here I Come (1975). The two releases will be available for purchase on September 17.
The Homecoming
Synopsis: In North London, an all-male beehive of inactivity is ruled with a foul mouth and an iron hand by the abusive Max (Paul Rogers) and his brother, the priggish palace eunuch Sam (Cyril Cusack). Rounding out the precision vulgarity of The Homecoming's "situation tragedy" are the sons, punch-drunk demolition man Joey (Terence Rigby) and the magnificient Ian Holm (Lord of the Rings, The Sweet Hereafter) as pimp-smart Lenny. When, under cover of darkness, the prodigal son Teddy (Michael Jayston) brings his wife Ruth (Vivien Merchant) home to meet his family for the first time, he gets far more and less than he bargained for. To Teddy's rueful discomfort, Ruth's Mona Lisa smile forms the gateway to a labyrinth of Freudian dread, venal family values, and naked neediness that could only come from the mind of Harold Pinter.
Director Sir Peter hall re-renders his original Royal Shakespeare Company London stage triumph as a bleached, claustrophobic delirium that exploits the jagged tempos and seductive tensions of Pinter's best play as no theater staging could. The New York Times declared the American Film Theatre's production of The Homecoming, "a movie of astonishing dynamism." Indeed, director Atom Agoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) went so far as to say, "I often find myself seeking solace from this film. Its poetry and twisted sense of compassion and humor have assuaged many moments of despair and confusion. Other people have religion, I have my copy of The Homecoming."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
Synopsis: Set in playwright Brian Friel's (Dancing at Lughnasa, Faith Healer) mythical Ballybeg, Ireland, The American Film Theatre's Philadelphia, Here I Come! presents an ingenious glimpse into the stock-taking of young Gareth "Gar" O'Donnell on the eve of his emigration to America. Through the myriad preparations and good-byes that fill Gar's last day in Ireland, comes a powerful portrait of the public boasts and private doubts that bedevil him on the threshold of his journey to a new life in a new land.
Friel contrasts Gar's cloistered emotional life with his gregarious social persona by portraying him as two distinct characters, a public self (Donal McCann) and a private self (Des Cave). As public Gar energetically goes about his rounds, private Gar voices the anger, and sadness, "the loneliness, the groping," that has positioned him between a loveless youth and an unknown future. As the two sides of Gar spar over their shared past and we meet the people that have inclined him towards a two-faced life, the difference between emigration and exile begins to blur.
Gar's surrogate mother Madge (Siobhan McKenna, Doctor Zhivago), his speechless, affectionless father (Eamon Kelly), and most importantly Gar's ex-fiancée Kate (Fidelma Murphy) all provide inadvertent testimony to the fear and longing that have already separated Gar from his community, his family, his heart, and ultimately from himself. AFT's Philadelphia, Here I Come! is a soulful backward glance at a life as yet un-lived and a heart as yet un-loved on the threshold of escape to, "a vast restless place that doesn't give a damn about the past."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
The Homecoming
Synopsis: In North London, an all-male beehive of inactivity is ruled with a foul mouth and an iron hand by the abusive Max (Paul Rogers) and his brother, the priggish palace eunuch Sam (Cyril Cusack). Rounding out the precision vulgarity of The Homecoming's "situation tragedy" are the sons, punch-drunk demolition man Joey (Terence Rigby) and the magnificient Ian Holm (Lord of the Rings, The Sweet Hereafter) as pimp-smart Lenny. When, under cover of darkness, the prodigal son Teddy (Michael Jayston) brings his wife Ruth (Vivien Merchant) home to meet his family for the first time, he gets far more and less than he bargained for. To Teddy's rueful discomfort, Ruth's Mona Lisa smile forms the gateway to a labyrinth of Freudian dread, venal family values, and naked neediness that could only come from the mind of Harold Pinter.
Director Sir Peter hall re-renders his original Royal Shakespeare Company London stage triumph as a bleached, claustrophobic delirium that exploits the jagged tempos and seductive tensions of Pinter's best play as no theater staging could. The New York Times declared the American Film Theatre's production of The Homecoming, "a movie of astonishing dynamism." Indeed, director Atom Agoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) went so far as to say, "I often find myself seeking solace from this film. Its poetry and twisted sense of compassion and humor have assuaged many moments of despair and confusion. Other people have religion, I have my copy of The Homecoming."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- Interview with cinematographer David Watkin
- Interview with Edie Landau
- "Ely Landau: In Front of the Camera," a promotional film for the American Film Theatre
- Gallery of trailers for the American Film Theatre
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature
Synopsis: Set in playwright Brian Friel's (Dancing at Lughnasa, Faith Healer) mythical Ballybeg, Ireland, The American Film Theatre's Philadelphia, Here I Come! presents an ingenious glimpse into the stock-taking of young Gareth "Gar" O'Donnell on the eve of his emigration to America. Through the myriad preparations and good-byes that fill Gar's last day in Ireland, comes a powerful portrait of the public boasts and private doubts that bedevil him on the threshold of his journey to a new life in a new land.
Friel contrasts Gar's cloistered emotional life with his gregarious social persona by portraying him as two distinct characters, a public self (Donal McCann) and a private self (Des Cave). As public Gar energetically goes about his rounds, private Gar voices the anger, and sadness, "the loneliness, the groping," that has positioned him between a loveless youth and an unknown future. As the two sides of Gar spar over their shared past and we meet the people that have inclined him towards a two-faced life, the difference between emigration and exile begins to blur.
Gar's surrogate mother Madge (Siobhan McKenna, Doctor Zhivago), his speechless, affectionless father (Eamon Kelly), and most importantly Gar's ex-fiancée Kate (Fidelma Murphy) all provide inadvertent testimony to the fear and longing that have already separated Gar from his community, his family, his heart, and ultimately from himself. AFT's Philadelphia, Here I Come! is a soulful backward glance at a life as yet un-lived and a heart as yet un-loved on the threshold of escape to, "a vast restless place that doesn't give a damn about the past."
Special Features and Technical Specs:
- Interview with Edie Landau
- "Ely Landau: In Front of the Camera," a promotional film for the American Film Theatre
- Gallery of trailers for the American Film Theatre
- Optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature