Newsletter - FOR THE WEEK

OF August 7th, 2017

Terve! A very Giallo-esque week with Blu-ray reviews of packages by Arrow, 88 Films, Shameless, Kino Lorber, Blue Underground, Splendid of films by Seijun Suzuki, William A. Wellman, Dario Argento, Sergio Martino, Lamberto Bava, Lucio Fulci and others!. Our Calendar has NEW updates of films-to-Blu-ray, including John Frankenheimer, Vittorio De Sica, Stephen Frears, Henry Hathaway, Paul Verhoeven, Ridley Scott, Luigi Cozzi, Alfred Hitchcock, Luis Buñuel, Sergio Martino, Mario Bava, Sofia Coppola and more. We have another new listings page and check-out a few incredible sale items below. Our Feature Blu-ray and DVD is posted for AUGUST and a CONTEST with a KINO LORBER Blu-ray prize. Enjoy!!

Mildred Pierce [Blu-ray] (Michael Curtiz, 1945) Criterion 50% OFF (BEAVER REVIEW)  and many more HERE...

LISTING PAGES:

The 100 BEST Neo-Noirs (on Blu-ray!)

The GREATEST 100 Westerns (on Blu-ray!)

Giallo on Blu-ray!

ESSENTIAL NOIR on Blu-ray!

Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.FR (France)

Shopping Guide for Blu-rays at Amazon.DE (Germany)

LATEST ARTICLE: The Beauties of Star Trek (TOS)

DVDBeaver has their own store at Movie Zyng - check it out! Many have $1 shipping - even overseas!

Feature Blu-ray and DVD chosen for the Month of AUGUST!

FOLLOW US on TWITTER! (where we post important reviews, contests - prizes, polls, calendar updates - plus much more...)

(Week of) August 7th CONTEST  identify the clip HERE to win a prize of a KINO LORBER Blu-ray of Andrew V. McLaglen's The Devil's Brigade Best of luck!

If there are DVD or Blu-ray titles you'd like us to cover - please feel free to recommend!

Gary at 2ze dot com

Beggars of Life BD - An American silent film classic, Beggars of Life (1928) stars Louise Brooks as a train-hopping hobo who dresses like a boy to survive. After escaping her violent stepfather, Nancy (Brooks) befriends kindly drifter Jim (Richard Arlen). They ride the rails together until a fateful encounter with the blustery Oklahoma Red (Wallace Beery) and his rambunctious band of hoboes, leading to daring, desperate conflict on top of a moving train. Based on the memoir of real-life hobo Jim Tully, and directed with adventuresome verve by William Wellman. Blu-ray Release date: August 22nd, 2017

Nymph BD - It’s thanks to director Milan Todorovic’s forensic understanding of the genre that allows him to play with its conventions. In the opening sequence a couple of lovers are quickly killed, seemingly paving the way for an hour and a half of senseless maiming. Except this does not happen. Kelly, Lucy and the gang are not merely monster fodder, but are well-rounded and, more interestingly, likeable protagonists, engagement helped by having a select cast, so when the Grim Reaper does come a-splashing there is no joy to be found in their jeopardy. Blu-ray Release date: June 30th, 2017

The Stendhal Syndrome BD - While investigating a series of sexual assaults that have evolved into brutal murders, detective Anna Manni (Asia Argento) follows up on an anonymous tip that takes her to the Uffizi Gallery where she is overcome by the works of art and passes out (in reference to "The Stendhal Syndrome" so named because the experience was first described as happening to novelist Stendhal while he was visiting Florence in the nineteenth century). When she comes to, she does not remember her identity but finds understanding in stranger Alfredo (Thomas Kretschmann) who explains that great works of art have great power. As Anna's memory starts to return, she realizes too late that Alfredo is the rapist she has been looking for. Blu-ray Release Date: July 25th, 2017

The Devil's Brigade BD - During the early days of World War II, while the United States was massing its forces for the war, England hastily plans commando raids against the German forces to keep them at bay until America's troops enter the war. As a part of this plan, the Allies create the 1st Special Service Force to plan and carry out an attack on Norway in order to tie up the German forces. This commando force of Canadian soldiers and American GIs is headed by Lt. Col. Robert T. Frederick (William Holden), a paper-pusher given his first field command. Antagonism immediately erupts between Canadian Maj. Alan Crown (Cliff Robertson) and American Maj. Cliff Bricker (Vince Edwards). But Frederick utilizes their mutual dislike as a basis for a rivalry that turns this rag-tag group of misfits into a disciplined fighting force. Blu-ray Release date: August 1st, 2017

The Strange Vice of Mrs. WardH BD - An ambassador’s wife discovers that one of the men in her life – either her husband, an ex-lover or her current lover – may be a vicious serial killer. This beautiful hypnotic film depicts a series of grisly murders, the victims of which all have some connection to our heroine, Mrs. Julie Wardh (the stunning queen of 1970′s Italian Giallo cinema: Edwige Fenech) Blu-ray Release Date: July 31st, 2017

Yumeji BD - Yumeji is the final film in youth-gone-berserk auteur Seijun Suzuki’s acclaimed Taisho Trilogy. Sensual and absurdist, it spins a ghost story around the character and work of real-life painter and poet Yumeji Takehisa (1884-1934). The eponymous character -- conjured by Suzuki as a chronic philanderer and dreamer played by former rock star Kenji Sawada -- is plagued with ideals of perfect beauty and the terror of his own demise. He falls in love with women, but can never capture their hearts. He is constantly escaping his rivals, but can never face them down. Taisho Trilogy Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th - August 8th, 2017

Kagerô-za BD - Kageroza's alternate title, Heat-Haze Theatre, perfectly illustrates the ineffable sensuality and perverse randomness of Seijun Suzuki's late-period arabesque. The middle entry in the director's Taisho Trilogy, the wantonly eccentric narrative is set in 1926 Tokyo, though, given Suzuki's contempt for coherence, it might as well take place in another planet. Playwright Matsuzaki (Yusaku Matsuda) has a series of encounters with Shinako (Michiyo Ookusu), a strange woman who materializes one day on her way to the hospital, and who may or may not be the late wife of Tamawaki (Katsuo Nakamura), Matsuzaki's shotgun-toting patron. Taisho Trilogy Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th - August 8th, 2017

Zigeunerweisen BD - Departing from his signature stylistically-infused Yakuza pulpy drama's Seijun Suzuki concocts another masterpiece of psychedelic cinema. Titled after a Pablo Sarasate violin composition that haunts the film both narratively and aurally, Zigeunerweisen (aka Tsigoineruwaizen) was a huge hit in Japan. Suzuki's naturalistic, yet twisted and bizarre, approach helped reincarnate himself as the modern auteur of Japanese Art cinema. Set in the 1920's and saturated with decadence and nihilism, the story unites a disparate quartet drawn together by unseen strings of fate - and nearly driven mad by their own fears and desires. Its uniqueness only intensifies its appeal. A weird cocktail of horror and nightmarish sensibilities. Taisho Trilogy Blu-ray Release Date: July 24th - August 8th, 2017

2019: After the Fall of New York BD - It's 20 years after the nuclear holocaust, and the "Pan American Confederacy" is hot to breed up a new batch of citizens. Black-clad "Eurac" soldiers on horseback battle survivors in an attempt to round up subjects for experimentation, while "handsome, virile actor" (so sez the box) Michael Sopkiw (as Parsifal) takes part in some kind of hot rod demolition derby. Punk rock chicks shriek from the hilltops as Parsifal rains destruction on his foes, culminating in a bare-knuckle brawl and the approval of a weird clown robot. Blu-ray Release date: April 10th, 2017

Touch of Death BD - The financially strained and increasingly desperate, Lester Parsons (50s matinee star Brett Halsey), concocts a brilliant get-rich-quick scheme; cruise the lonely hearts adds for rich women to fleece. Too bad then, that Lester’s also a psychotic cannibal who enjoys mutilating these lovelorn souls, via his trusty chainsaw, and using their flesh for his dinner. When a copycat killer threatens to bring him down, Lester must do all he can to prevent this new killer’s sloppy work from ruining them both. Blu-ray Release date: August 7th, 2017

Body Puzzle BD - In this mind-mangling GIALLO an attractive young widow (played by the prolific B-movie babe Joanna Pacula) becomes inadvertently caught up in a killer's sick scheme - with the mysterious murderer leaving lopped off limbs at her doorstep and taunting her from afar… Blu-ray Release Date: June 12th, 2017

Meridian BD - A beautiful young artist must choose her destiny in this hauntingly sensual tale of love, passion and revenge.... Catherine Bomarzini (Sherilyn Fenn - TWIN PEAKS) returns to the family castle in Italy after her father s death and gets caught up in a mysterious love triangle: a man who is at times repulsive, at others enchanting; and a creature of the night whose gentle eyes and touch reveal his infinite love and devotion. With the help of Martha (Hilary Mason) her faithful childhood nanny and the ghost of a slain young girl, Catherine discovers the mediaeval curse that threatens their lives and only she can dispel. Blu-ray Release Date: June 26th, 2017

The Exterminating Angels - After scandalizing France with 2002's Secret Things, controversial director Jean-Claude Brisseau returns with this semi-autobiographical story of a director whose curiosity leads to unexpected consequences. Francois is holding auditions for his upcoming film about female sexuality. He expects the process to be unconventional but could never predict the dangers... As his female cast embarks on a journey of intense physical pleasure-seeking they become emotionally involved with the director and with each other. DVD Release Date: July 10th, 2007

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