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Release: February 16, 2010

$7.99

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Product Description Lola Montès is a visually ravishing, narratively daring dramatization of the life of the notorious courtesan and showgirl, played by Martine Carol. With his customary cinematographic flourish and, for the first time, vibrant color, Max Ophuls charts the course of Montès’s scandalous past through the invocations of the bombastic ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) of the American circus where she has ended up performing. Ophuls’s final film, Lola Montès is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a one-of-a-kind movie spectacle. BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack Audio commentary featuring Max Ophuls scholar Susan White “Max Ophuls ou le plaisir de tourner,” a 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps, featuring interviews with many of Ophuls’s collaborators Max by Marcel, a new documentary by Marcel Ophuls about his father and the making of Lola Montès Silent footage of actress Martine Carol briefly demonstrating the various glamorous hairstyles in Lola Montès Theatrical rerelease trailer from Rialto Pictures New and improved English subtitle translation PLUS: A new essay by film critic Gary Giddins Amazon.com Max Ophüls explores the scandalous life of dancer and courtesan Lola Montes with a bittersweet empathy that turns melodrama into a tragic melancholy masterpiece. Using the theatrical re-creation of Lola's life in a big-top pageant as a framing device, Ophüls contrasts the outrageous sensationalism of her reputation with poignant, poetic flashbacks that explore her many affairs, most notably with Franz Liszt (Will Quadflieg) and King Ludwig of Bavaria (Anton Walbrook). Lola's greatest tragedy is that she loved well, if not too wisely. If Martine Carol's central performance is lacking passion, as many critics have argued, her quiet, at times seemingly passive demeanor makes her a veritable prisoner of her society and her reputation. Swept along by Ophüls's sweeping camerawork, which glides through the film in a balance of intimacy and contemplative remove as if on the wings of angels, her life becomes like a cinematic ballet with Ophüls the choreographer and conductor. Peter Ustinov costars as the jaded circus ringmaster, who nightly narrates her exploits to a throng of scandal-hungry spectators, while she performs with a face hardened in indifference, resigned to her empty role as a figure of spectacle in a garish gilded cage. Shot in delicate color and impeccably composed wide screen compositions throughout by Ophüls's regular cinematographer Christian Matras, Lola Montes is his most beautiful and restrained film, a fitting swan song for one of the cinema's most sensitive directors. --Sean Axmaker

Release: October 15, 2019

$7.99

Description

A gambling craze is sweeping 19th-century St. Petersburg, yet a dashing Russian army captain (Anton Halbrook, The Red Shoes) is too impoverished to participate. But when he learns that an aging countess (Three-time Oscar-nominee Dame Edith Evans, The Whisperers) may hold the ultimate key to gambling riches, the desperate young officer will stop at nothing to steal the sinister secret for himself. When fortunes are won and lost with the turn of a card, will one man wager his very soul on a final twist of fate? Yvonne Mitchell (Demons of the Mind) co-stars in this brilliant British chiller directed by Thorold Dickinson (Gaslight), featuring extraordinary cinematography by Otto Heller (Peeping Tom, The Picross File) and based on the celebrated short story by Russian poet Alexander Pushkin (The Eagle). Special Features: -Audio Commentary by Film Critic Nick Pinkerton -Introduction by Martin Scorsese -An Analysis by Film Critic/Author Philip Horne -1951 Interview with Thorold Dickinson at the British Federation of Film Societies -1968 Screening Introduction by Thorold Dickinson -Theatrical Trailer

Release: December 14, 2021

$7.99

Description

The Red Shoes, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Technicolor feasts ever concocted for the screen. Moira Shearer is a rising star ballerina torn between an idealistic composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack Cardiff, Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable, hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the artist. 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES 4K digital transfer from the 2009 restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and one Blu-ray with the film and special features Introductory restoration demonstration featuring filmmaker Martin Scorsese Audio commentary from 1994 by film historian Ian Christie, featuring interviews with actors Marius Goring and Moira Shearer, cinematographer Jack Cardiff, composer Brian Easdale, and Scorsese Profile of “The Red Shoes,” a 2000 documentary on the making of the film, featuring interviews with members of the production team Interview with director Michael Powell’s widow, editor Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, from the 2009 Cannes Film Festival Audio recordings from 1994 of actor Jeremy Irons reading excerpts from Powell and screenwriter Emeric Pressburger’s novelization of The Red Shoes and the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Red Shoes” Publicity stills and behind-the-scenes photos Gallery of memorabilia from Scorsese’s collection The “Red Shoes” Sketches, a 1948 animated film of Hein Heckroth’s painted storyboards, with the Red Shoes ballet as an alternate angle Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by critic David Ehrenstein and a description of the restoration by UCLA film archivist Robert Gitt

Release: July 20, 2010

$7.99

Description

The Red Shoes, the singular fantasia from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (Black Narcissus, The Small Back Room), is cinema’s quintessential backstage drama, as well as one of the most glorious Technicolor visual feasts ever concocted for the screen. Moira Shearer (The Tales of Hoffmann, Peeping Tom) is a rising star ballerina romantically torn between an idealistic composer and a ruthless impresario intent on perfection. Featuring outstanding performances, blazingly beautiful cinematography by Jack Cardiff (Black Narcissus, The African Queen), Oscar-winning sets and music, and an unforgettable, hallucinatory central dance sequence, this beloved classic, now dazzlingly restored, stands as an enthralling tribute to the life of the artist.