CineSavant Column
Hello!
Those Powerhouse Indicator people have once again proven their dedication to exotic Eurohorror … with two new releases from the French cult figure Jean Rollin. Jean-Luc Godard once boasted that all he needed to make a movie was a girl and a gun. Rollin could have responded that his personal Nouvelle vague d’exploitation just required unclothed women and fake blood.
The Rollin oeuvre is getting a Class-A treatment as it has never received before: later this month arrive both Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD editions of two of the Frenchman’s better-known pictures.
The Demoniacs (Les Démoniaques) from 1973 leads with the expected gruesome sex and violence. Two women raped by pirates make a deal with the devil to take their revenge. The Hardy Encyclopedia describes the film as ‘meandering’ but also ‘cruelly poetic’ and possessed of a finale that’s ‘a genuinely hallucinatory achievement.’
The Nude Vampire (La Vampire Nue) steps back a couple of years. It’s Jean Rollin’s second vampire feature and his first in color. The story boils down to a standard vampire cult, with an emphasis on erotic imagery for its own sake. Rollin doubles down on the wispy non-costumes; these films are really soft-core genre experiments in how to be commercially viable under the guise of film art. But hey, let’s admit that Rollin is quality Eurotrash horror.
As expected PI supplies both titles with ample extras coverage, old and new. Nobody loves these pictures more than UK film critics.
We thought we’d also put in a plug for Powerhouse Indicator’s single-release Blu-ray of Fernando Mendez’s Black Pit of Dr. M, aka Mysterios de Ultratumba, previously available only in a boxed set. Perhaps the most original and genuinely creepy of the late-’50s Mexican horror wave, Ultratumba is the one that CineSavant readers most often praise as a classic, beyond considerations of Camp and nostalgia. IP’s extras yield hard research and key-source information on these Mexican pictures, beyond what we’ve seen from U.S. disc companies.
One can also cruise the general page of Powerhouse Indicator releases.
Here’s some welcome news that’s only a day old: among their other July releases — Le samouraï, Risky Business, Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days, Chen Kaige’s My Concubine — Criterion has just announced what impatient Sam Peckinpah fans have been expected for ages.
On July 2 they’re releasing a 4K Ultra-HD / Blu-ray combo disc of Peckinpah’s 1973 MGM western Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, the one starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. One line in Criterion’s description calls it a 50th Anniversary Release — was it reissued last year and nobody told us?
When Criterion says that all three versions will be here, we assumed they’re talking about the original theatrical cut, the 1988 Jerry Harvey ‘Z’ Channel Preview Cut, and the 2005 ‘Fine Cut’ that reshuffles scenes, adds a couple of really good ones, and then opts for the uninspiring theatrical ending, instead of the Preview Cut’s terrific Flashback Closer.
A CORRECTION: As reported on the Sam Peckinpah facebook page — scroll down to yesterday, April 15 — the ‘Preview Cut’ to be seen on Criterion’s disc is said to be a never-before-shown item from Peckinpah’s own collection, smuggled out of MGM when Peckinpah was locked out by production chief James Aubrey. Thanks to Joe Dante for this link.
In whatever form — Bob Dylan sings, or he doesn’t sing — the fans will go nuts over this. It’s actually only been two years since director Alex Cox mentioned a Criterion disc on the way. There ya go: Mr. Cox’s parole is as good as gold, no matter who he gives it to.
Criterion’s announcement and specifications page is up for their four-disc set:
Thanks for reading! — Glenn Erickson