Category: NEWS

Eureka! Entertainment have announced the release of Madame DuBarry, starring Pola Negri (of Lubitsch’s Sumurun and Die Bergkatze) and Emil Jannings(of Lubitsch’s Anna Boleyn and Murnau’s Der letzte Mann and Faust).  This is the first ever blu-ray release of Lubitsch’s epic history, and will be accompanied by Lubitsch’s earliest surviving film, Als ich tot war. Madame DuBarry will feature as part of Eureka’s award-winning The Masters of Cinema Series and will be released on 22 September 2014.

Here’s a clip –

Before Ernst Lubitsch created his eminently sophisticated Hollywood sex comedies, he was at work in Germany perfecting his earliest entries into the genre, alongside sweeping ironic dramas based on historical events and often set in exotic locales. One of his earliest successes merged elements of both modes: Madame DuBarry.

A recounting-à-la-Lubitsch of the torrid affair between the title character (Pola Negri) and France’s King Louis XV (Emil Jannings, who would go on to portray Henry VIII in Lubitsch’s Anna Boleyn of the following year – a film that neatly bookends Madame DuBarry), the picture spans scandalous intrigue at the court and the ring of the guillotine among the riotous mobs of the Revolution.

Also included in this edition is Lubitsch’s earliest surviving film, the 1916 Als ich tot war [When I Was Dead], which stars the director himself in a lead role that involves his faked suicide and (prefiguring the later Die Puppe.) an infiltration of the domestic space whilst in disguise (not as an automaton, but as a servant). The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Madame DuBarry and Als ich tot war in a special Dual Format (Blu-ray + DVD) edition for the first time.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• New high-definition 1080p presentation of the main feature on the Blu-ray, and progressive encode on the DVD

• Original /French / German intertitles with newly translated optional English subtitles

• Lubitsch’s earliest surviving film, Als ich tot war [1916]

• 36-PAGE BOOKLET

Sarah Spillane’s Around the Block will open theatrically in Los Angeles 1st August at the Arena Cinema in Hollywood.  Around the Block stars Golden Globe nominee Christina Ricci (Monster, The Opposite of Sex) and Hunter Page-Lochard in an acclaimed debut performance.  The supporting cast includes Jack Thompson (Breaker Morant, Man from Snowy River), Damian Walshe-Howling (“Underbelly”, “Terra Nova”) and model Ruby Rose (Break Free).

Around the Block premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and has gone on to receive accolades around the globe, particularly for Page-Lochard and for its twist on the classic teacher as a fish out of water tale.  Set amid the 2004 Redfern riots, the film was shot in the very neighborhood where tensions between Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians reached a fever pitch a decade ago.

Around the Block is the story of American Dino Chalmers (Ricci) – an edgy and charismatic drama teacher with a passion for Shakespeare. When the opportunity arises for her to work at a school in inner Sydney, she embraces the chance to introduce the magical world of theatre as an alternative to life on the tough streets of Redfern in Sydney, Australia. The film centers on the developing relationship between Chalmers and Liam (Page-Lochard), a sixteen-year-old urban Aboriginal student who lives around the block in Redfern and earns the lead in her production of Hamlet. As Chalmers presents Liam with a possibility of a life without drugs and violence, he must choose between pursuing his newfound dream of performing or following his family into a cycle of crime.