Arrow Video’s April 2024 Releases Revealed
Arrow Video dropped the news today, unveiling their April 2024 lineup - and it looks to be so good. I’ve never actually seen That Cold Day in the Park or Behind Convent Walls, but that’s what I love about Arrow and all of the other Boutique labels; they introduce me to so much new cinema that I’d never otherwise have come across - and many of the titles I’ve seen via Arrow, Vinegar Syndrome and more have been movies that I’ve absolutely adored.
Personally, I think I’ll be picking up all of these movies set for release, though I think the Arrow Store Exclusive option for Basket Case is the one of the three for me. I already picked up the Blu-ray a few years ago when it got a US release with the same basket artwork on the slipcover (gorgeous, btw!) - so I don’t really want to double dip on the same artwork for the 4K upgrade. Thankfully, the Graham Humphreys artwork is stunning, so that makes it a no-brainer to go for that one :)
I’ve actually got a big Basket Case edition with a replica of Belial in the basket, though it’s one of those editions that I’ve just never had the space to display… Maybe it’s time to break it out of the cupboard and do a little unboxing to coincide with the 4K release - let me know if that’s something you wanna see!
Firstly, Robert Altman’s ‘underrated psychosexual chiller’ That Cold Day in the Park is getting a Limited Edition two-disc Blu-ray, set for release on April 8th, 2024, RRP: £24.99.
Made after years of directing television and industrial films – and just one year before his commercial breakthrough with M★A★S★H – Robert Altman’s underrated psychosexual chiller That Cold Day in the Park, arguably the first true ‘Altman film’, is a stylish harbinger of the themes that would resonate through many of the director’s later masterpieces such as Images and 3 Women.
On a cold and rainy day, Frances Austen (Sandy Dennis, Academy Award winner for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), a reclusive virgin sheltered from the sexual revolution happening outside her door, suddenly becomes obsessed with an enigmatic 19 year-old boy she sees sitting on a park bench. Inviting him into her apartment to be bathed and fed, Frances’ repressed fantasies soon violently boil over into a dangerous and disturbing desire to keep the boy in her clutches… no matter what.
Adapted from Richard Miles’ novel by British author Gillian Freeman (The Leather Boys), Altman expertly turns the screws in this suspenseful tale of sexual repression, the chilly Vancouver locations vividly photographed by László Kovács the same year he lensed Easy Rider, and accompanied by a haunting score from Johnny Mandel, just before he co-wrote the anthem “Suicide Is Painless” for Altman’s next film.
TWO-DISC LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Tom Ralston
• Illustrated collectors’ booklet featuring new writing by Brad Stevens, Anna Bogutskaya and James Flower, original press notes including an essay by Altman, and an excerpt from David Thompson’s Altman on Altman
DISC ONE
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original lossless mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
• New audio commentary by critic Samm Deighan
• Isolated music and effects track in lossless mono
• Crazy in the Rain: Altman’s Vancouver, a newly produced featurette revisiting the locations by Kier-La Janisse, author of House of Psychotic Women
• Archive interview with film critic and historian David Thompson, author of Altman on Altman
• Extended scenes from a pre-release print of the film, never seen on home video before
• Over ten minutes of behind-the-scenes footage featuring Altman and Dennis, from the archives of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
• Theatrical trailer
• Image gallery
DISC TWO (LIMITED EDITION EXCLUSIVE)
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation of a newly extended 114-minute version of the film re-integrating previously deleted material from a surviving pre-release print
• Original lossless mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
Next up is Walerian Borowczyk’s Behind Convent Walls, which is getting a Limited Edition Blu-ray on April 29th, RRP: £24.99.
A lushly filmed exploration of the relationship between flesh and spirit from Polish provocateur Walerian Borowczyk, director of Blanche, The Beast, and Immoral Tales.
Behind the walls of an apparently serene convent, a zealous abbess tries in vain to keep order and prevent her sexually repressed charges from experiencing the sins of the flesh. When the unfortunate young nuns get out of control, the church inflicts cruel punishment for their carnal crimes.
Erotic, colourful and highly charged, Behind Convent Walls features striking handheld cinematography by Luciano Tovoli (Suspiria) and the final performance of Borowczyk’s wife, Ligia Branice.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS
• New 2K restoration by Arrow Films from the original 35mm camera negatives
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation
• Original lossless English and Italian mono audio options
• Optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
• Brand new audio commentary by film critic Justine Smith
• Anarchic Nuns and the Artistry of Desire, a new appreciation by film scholar Virginie Sélavy
• Brief Von Paris (1975), a short film by Walerian Borowczyk
• Theatrical trailer
• Reversible sleeve featuring two artwork options
• Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring new writing by film scholar Kat Ellinger and original press notes
And finally, to round out the month we have Frank Hennenlotter’s Basket Case getting Blu-ray and 4K releases, on April 29th, RRPs: £24.99/£29.99.
The feature debut of director Frank Henenlotter (Brain Damage, Frankenhooker), 1982’s Basket Case is a riotous and blood-spattered “midnight movie” experience, now presented for the first time ever on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray.
Duane Bradley seems like a pretty ordinary guy. His formerly conjoined twin Belial, on the other hand, is a deformed creature who lives in a wicker basket. Arriving in the Big Apple and taking up a room at a seedy hotel, the pair set about hunting down and butchering the surgeons responsible for their separation.
Filmed on a shoestring budget against the backdrop of 1980s New York (where it played on the midnight movie circuit for over two-and-a-half years), Basket Case has clawed its way from its humble origins to become one of the most celebrated cult movies of all time.
LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS:
• High Definition (1080p) Blu-ray presentation OR 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) - depending on whether you go for the Blu-ray or the 4K/UHD release. All other content below is the same across all three releases, with the exception of the alternate slipcover artwork, designed by Graham Humphreys, which is only for the Arrow Store Exclusive Edition.
• 4K restoration from the original 16mm negative by the Museum of Modern Art in cooperation with director Frank Henenlotter
• Original uncompressed PCM mono audio
• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
• Audio commentary with writer/director Frank Henenlotter and star Kevin Van Hentenryck
• Archival audio commentary with Frank Henenlotter, producer Edgar Ievins, actor Beverly Bonner and filmmaker Scooter McRae
• Basket Case 3-1/2: An Interview with Duane Bradley – short film by Frank Henenlotter
• Me and the Bradley Boys – interview with actor Kevin Van Hentenryck
• A Brief Interview with Director Frank Henenlotter – a strange 2017 interview with the director
• Seeing Double: The Basket Case Twins – interview with actors Florence and Mary Ellen Schultz
• Blood, Basket and Beyond – interview with actor Beverly Bonner
• The Latvian Connection – featurette including interviews with producer Edgar Ievins, casting person/actor Ilze Balodis, associate producer/special effects artist Ugis Nigals and Belial performer Kika Nigals
• Belial Goes to the Drive-In – interview with film critic Joe Bob Briggs
• Basket Case at MoMA – footage from the 2017 restoration premiere
• What’s in the Basket? – feature-length documentary covering the three films in the Basket Case series
• In Search of the Hotel Broslin – archival location featurette
• The Frisson of Fission: Basket Case, Conjoined Twins, and ‘Freaks’ in Cinema – video essay by Travis Crawford
• Slash of the Knife (1976, 30 mins) – short made by Frank Henenlotter featuring many of the same actors from Basket Case, including optional audio commentary with Frank Henenlotter and playwright Mike Bencivenga
• Basket Case and Slash of the Knife outtakes
• Belial’s Dream (2017, 5 mins) – animated short by filmmaker Robert Morgan
• Extensive image galleries
• Trailers, TV & radio spots
• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck
• Double-sided fold-out poster featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sara Deck
• Collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Michael Gingold and a Basket Case comic strip by artist Martin Trafford
For more information on all of the above titles, as well as many, many more - visit the Arrow Films UK Store.
- V x
