The British Film Institute (BFI) has announced that it will release on Blu-ray three films directed by Jane Arden and Jack Bond: '
Separation',
'
The Other Side of the Underneath' and
'
Anti-Clock', on July 13, day-and-date with the DVD. These films have remained unseen since Arden committed suicide in 1982.
Born in Wales in 1927, Jane Arden was an actress, author and filmmaker whose screenwriting and directorial work of the late 60s and 70s explored themes of sexual politics, radical feminism, social alienation and ‘madness'. Made at a time when there were very few distinctive female voices in British cinema, the films she wrote and directed with director-producer Jack Bond ('Dali in New York', 'It Couldn't Happen Here') constitute a unique and unclassifiable body of work, ranging from Separation's counter-cultural flamboyance of swinging 60s London to Anti-Clock's boundary-pushing psycho-exploration.
Special features are as follows:
Separation
- New full-feature audio commentary with Jack Bond
- Beyond Image (Mark Boyle & Joan Hills, 1969, 14 minutes) – a rare liquid light film co-created by leading British artist Mark Boyle, whose visual effects are used throughout Separation. With music by The Soft Machine
- Trailer for Anti-Clock (Jane Arden/Jack Bond, 1979)
- Illustrated booklet with essays by William Fowler, Claire Monk, Amy Simmons, Maria Walsh; biographies and credits
The Other Side of the Underneath
- ‘Workprint' version of feature (Blu-ray only)
- Extended sequences
- Filmed interviews with Sheila Allen (2008) and Natasha Morgan (2007)
- Trailer for Anti-Clock (Jane Arden/Jack Bond, 1979)
- Illustrated booklet with essays by Susan Croft, Sophie Mayer, Amy Simmons, Penny Slinger; reviews, biographies and credits
Anti-Clock
- Jack Bond's 2005 re-edit of feature
- Vibration (1974, 36 minutes): Arden and Bond's experimental Super-8 visual ‘tone poem'
- Original trailer
- Illustrated booklet with contributions by Jack Bond, Chris Darke, and Penny Slinger; reviews, biographies and credits