BFI Video has announced two new titles for UK release as part of its Flipside label, devoted to rare and little-seen features from the hidden history of British cinema:
Private Road and the
Duffer/The Moon over the Valley double feature. Both titles will come out on January 17, in two-disc BD/DVD dual-format editions.
Private Road
Barney Platts-Mills' stylish and compelling follow-up to Bronco Bullfrog (released by BFI Flipside in September) relocates the youthful struggle for social and personal freedom to 1970s Boho London, suburban Surrey and rural Scotland.
When Peter, a handsome author pausing from finishing his first novel (and played by Bruce Robinson who would go on to write and direct Withnail & I) shacks up with sugar-sweet receptionist Ann (Susan Penhaligon), sex, drugs, and some rigorous rural living ensue, to the dismay of Ann's well-to-do parents. Soon, however, they are forced to choose between domestic conformity and individual fulfilment.
Special features:
- St Christopher (1967, 48 mins): Barney Platts-Mills' affecting observational documentary about the education of mentally handicapped youngsters
- The Last Chapter (David Tringham, 1974, 29 mins): a dark tale in which a successful middle-aged writer (Denholm Elliot) is unbalanced by an assured young fan (Private Road's Susan Penhaligon)
- Illustrated booklet with newly commissioned essays and reviews
Duffer/The Moon over the Valley
An intense and bizarre study of obsession that is by turns lyrical and disconcerting,
Duffer tells the deranged story of a teenage boy torn between the womanly charms of a kindly prostitute, and the relentless, sadistic attentions of an older man.
The Moon over the Alley, from the writer-director team behind
Duffer, explores the problems of the multicultural residents in a Notting Hill boarding house. Dark and disturbing, yet dreamlike and tender, this astonishing film includes surreal musical numbers by the award-winning composer of
Hair, Galt MacDermot. It was unequivocally praised by the late Alexander Walker, legendary Evening Standard film critic, who proclaimed that 'it deserves immense popularity' when it was originally released.
Special features:
- Illustrated booklet with newly commissioned essays by Stephen Thrower and Rob Young, and Joseph Despins' personal recollections of making the two films