Film Movement To Release New Drama Tuesday

Courtesy: Film Movement

Film Movement is bringing a new existential drama to American audiences Tuesday.

The independent film studio is scheduled to release the Polish import Corpus Christi June 23 separately on DVD, Blu-ray and digital.  The movie focuses on an ex-con who masquerades as a priest in a small village after serving a 20-year sentence in prison for committing a violent crime.

The convict, Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia — Ondine, The High Frontier, I Am Lying Now) pretends to be a priest after having found Christ during his time behind bars.  That change in life led him to aspire to serve in the clergy, which is why he pretends to be a priest.  The problem is that as an ex-conv, Daniel’s chances of becoming an ordained priest are next to zero.

As time passes, Daniel’s behavior leads some of the people in the town where he serves as a priest to become suspicious of him.  Now it is up to Daniel to come to a decision that could change his life all over again.  The movie’s trailer is streaming here.

Corpus Christi made its international debut Sept. 2, 2018 at the Venice Film Festival and U.S. premiere Oct. 23, 2019 at the Chicago International Film Festival.  The movie received various accolades, including a nomination for Best International Film at the 2020 Oscars ceremony and named an official selection of the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival.  It also received a Tomato Meter score of 97% through rottentomatoes.com.

The movie’s full list of accolades is noted below.

Nominated – Best International Feature Film – Academy Awards
Winner – Young Cineastes Award – Palm Springs Int’l. Film Festival
Winner – FIPRESCI Prize for Best Actor in an Int’l. Feature Film – Palm Springs Int’l. Film Festival
Winner – Edipo Re Award – Best Film – Venice Film Festival
Winner – Label Europa Cinemas – Best Film – Venice Film Festival
Winner – Eleven Awards including Best Film – Polish Film Festival
Winner – Best Actor – Chicago Int’l. FIlm Festival
Winner – Best Actor – Stockholm Film Festival
Nominated – Fedeora Award – Best Film – Venice Film Festival
Official Selection – Toronto Int’l. Film Festival
Official Selection – Busan Film Festival
Official Selection – AFI Fest —

The forthcoming domestic home release of Corpus Christi features a bonus making of featurette and bonus short film, titled Nice To See You as extras.  The short film, directed by Corpus Christi director Jan Komasa, focuses on the relationship between a college student and her father when he unexpectedly shows up asking his daughter to move back home with him.

Corpus Chrsti will retail for MSRP of $34.95 on Blu-ray and $24.95 on DVD.

More information on this and other titles from Film Movement is available at:

 

Website: http://www.filmmovement.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/FilmMovement

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Film_Movement

 

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PBS Announces Release Date For Ken Burns’ Latest Documentary Series

Courtesy: PBS/Public Media Distribution

Ken Burns and PBS have partnered to release the famed documentarian’s latest offering on DVD and Blu-ray late this summer.

Ken Burns: The Vietnam War will be released Tuesday, Sept. 19 on DVD and Blu-ray.  The 1,080-minute (18-hours) program examines the conflict in a previously untold fashion with interviews from almost 100 witnesses and uses rarely-seen, digitally re-mastered footage from historic news broadcasts, home movies and audio recordings from the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.

Audiences can see a preview of the program online now here.

Lynn Novick, who co-directed and produced the documentary alongside Burns and fellow co-producer Sarah Botstein, said some surprising revelations were made over the decade in which The Vietnam War was created.

“We are all searching for some meaning in this terrible tragedy.  Ken and I have tried to shed new light on the war by looking at it from the bottom up, the top down and from all sides,” Novick said.  “In addition to dozens of Americans who shared their stories, we interviewed many Vietnamese on both the winning and losing sides, and were surprised to learn that the war remains as painful and unresolved for them as it is for us.  Within this almost incomprehensibly destructive event, we discovered profound, universal human truths, as well as uncanny resonances with recent events.”

Burns agreed, adding it remains a divisive topic even four decades after Saigon fell.

“The Vietnam War was a decade of agony that took the lives of more than 58,000 Americans,” Burns said.  “Not since the Civil War have we as a country been so torn apart.  There wasn’t an American alive then who wasn’t affected in some way – from those who fought and sacrificed in the war to families of service members of POWs, to those who protested the war in open conflict with their government and fellow citizens.  More than 40 years after it ended, we can’t forget Vietnam, and we are still arguing about why it went wrong, who was to blame and whether it was all worth it.”

Courtesy: PBS/Public Media Distribution

This latest offering from Burns and company also features new music composed by famed Academy Award®-winning producers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.  Reznor has also won numerous awards and accolades as the creative force behind Nine Inch Nails.

It offers more than 100 minutes of bonus material, too, including a 45-minute preview program, two programs focusing on contemporary lives of two people involved in the conflict and much more.

As if that expanse of bonus material is not enough, the program, which will air on PBS stations nationwide between Sept. 17 – 21 and Sept. 24 – 28, a companion outreach and public engagement program – provided by PBS stations nationwide – aimed at giving communities the chance to take part in a national discussion about the war.

A website and educational initiative will also be launched online at PBS Learning Media aimed at engaging teachers and students everywhere about the war.

The program spans 10 discs on both platforms and will retail for MSRP of $99.99 on DVD and $129.99 on Blu-ray.  It will also be available via digital download. The sets can be pre-ordered online now at discounted prices of $94.99 (DVD) and $124.99 (Blu-ray).

A companion standalone book is also available for order for $59.99.  The book and box sets can be pre-ordered online now via PBS’ online store along with complete sets that include the box sets and book.

More information on this and other titles from Ken Burns and PBS is available online now at:

 

 

 

Website: http://www.pbs.org/

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pbs

Twitter: http://twitter.com/pbs

 

 

 

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ABKCO Records To Release “Joy” Soundtrack In Stores This Week

Courtesy: ABKCO Records

20^th Century Fox’s new movie Joy has only been in theaters a little more than a week and already much has been said of the movie, which stars Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook, The Hunger Games, American Hustle). It has been received a Golden Globe nomination for the year’s Best Motion Picture. And Lawrence has received a Golden Globe nomination in the category of “BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY.” Now the soundtrack to Joy is being released in stores and online.

ABKCO Records will release Joy’s soundtrack in stores Friday, January 8^th. It was previously released digitally on December 18^th. Music from some of music’s greatest names is featured in this collection. Those names include the likes of: The Rolling Stones, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, The Ronettes, Bee Gees, Cream, and a number of others. The complete track listing for Joy’s soundtrack is noted below.

 

Music From the Motion Picture JOY track listing:

1)   “I Feel Free” – Cream

2)   “Joy Romantic Theme” (score)

3)   “Aguas de Marzo” – Edgar Ramirez

4)   “The Sidewinder” – Lee Morgan

5)   “I Want to Be Happy” – Ella Fitzgerald, Chick Webb and His Orchestra

6)   “In the Bleak Mid-Winter – Thomas Bullard, Choir of King’s College, Benjamin Bayl, and Stephen Cleobury

7)   “Notre Pere, Op. 14” – Salzburg Bach Choir/Alois Glasser

8)   “Mama Told Me Not to Come” – Edgar Ramirez, Ray de la Paz & The Peditro Martinez Band

9)   “Something Stupid” – Jennifer Lawrence & Edgar Ramirez

10)                  “To Love Somebody” – Bee Gees

11)                  “I Am in Love” (score)

12)                  “Mop Drawing” (score)

13)                  “Racing in the Street” (score

14)                   “Sleigh Ride” – The Ronettes

15)                  “Stray Cat Blues” – The Rolling Stones

16)                  “Texas” (score)

17)                  “Markham” (score)

18)                  “A House With Love In It” – Nat King Cole

19)                  “Joy Theme” (score)

20)                  “I Feel Free” – Brittany Howard

21)                  “I Feel Free” (Bonus Track) – Brittany Howard

More information on this and other titles available from ABKCO Records is available online now at:

 

Website: http://www.abkco.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/abkco

Twitter: http://twitter.com/abkco

 

To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it. Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews in the Phil’s Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.

Olive Films To Release Cagney, Marx Brothers Classics May 6th

Courtesy: Olive Films

Olive Films has announced that it will release two Hollywood classics on DVD and Blu-ray next month.

Olive Films will release Jimmy Cagney’s 1943 film Johnny Come Lately and The Marx Brothers’ 1949 film Love Happy on May 6^th. Cagney stars as ex-newspaperman Tom Richards opposite Grace George’s Vinnie McLeod in Johnny Come Lately. After McLeod–who is himself the editor of a failing newspaper–saves Richards from serving a jail sentence for vagrancy, the pair teams up to expose political corruption in a small town. Richards and McLeod have to face their evil rival, corrupt newspaper owner Big Boss Dougherty (Edward McNamara) as they attempt to uncover all of the corruption going on in the town. The role was the first for Cagney since his Academy Award ® winning role the previous year in the beloved film Yankee Doodle Dandy. Cagney won the Oscar for Best Actor thanks to the movie.

Marjorie Main (Ma and P Kettle), Marjorie Lord (Make Room For Daddy), and Hattie McDaniel (Gone With The Wind) serve as supporting cast in Johnny Come Lately. William K. Howard directed and composer Leigh Harline (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio) handled the movie’s score. Harline would go on to receive an Oscar ® nomination for this movie’s score. Johnny Come Lately will be available on DVD and Blu-ray May6th for SRP of $24.95(DVD) and $29.95 (Blu-ray).

Also on May 6^th, Olive Films will release the Marx Brothers’ classic film Love Happy on DVD and Blu-ray. This movie was the last for the famed brothers. Harpo leads his brothers in this movie in which he plays a Robin Hood type of character.   He is trying to help a group of struggling actors that are trying to open a new musical without any financial backing. When he accidentally takes some smuggled diamonds in a shoplifting heist, Harpo and his friends come face to face with Madame Egelichi (Ilona Massey). Unbeknownst to them, Madame Egelichi has tracked her smuggled diamonds back to the theater where the acting troupe is trying to put on its musical. She hatches a plan to be the sole financial backer for the theater and for the musical so that she can get her diamonds back. The result is plenty of laughs for audiences. Harpo’s brothers Groucho and Chico are along for the ride in Love Happy as are fellow co-stars Vera-Ellen, Raymond Burr, and Marilyn Monroe.

Love Actually will be available in stores and online May 6^th on DVD and Blu-ray. It will retail for $24.95 (DVD) and $29.95 (Blu-ray). More information on these and other releases from Olive Films is available online at http://www.olivefilms.com, http://www.facebook.com/olivefilms, and http://twitter.com/olivefilms. To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it. Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews in the Phil’s Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.

Starz Announces Release Date For The White Queen Home Release

Courtesy: Starz Entertainment

Starz Entertainment has officially announced the release date for the home release of its hit mini-series, The White Queen.  The ten-episode mini-series will be released Tuesday, February 4th.  The story re-tells the infamous “War of the Roses” from the standpoint of the women involved in the feud.  Those women were Elizabeth Woodville, Margaret Beaufort, and Anne Neville.  They were part of the feud between the House of York and the House of Lancaster that took place in 1464.  The feud in question was centered on who was the rightful King of England.  After Edward IV is crowned king and falls in love with Lancastrian commoner Elizabeth Woodville, a conflict arises between her and her rivals, Margaret Beaufort and Anne Neville.  Each one will do whatever it takes to gain the power of the crown.

The White Queen will be released on DVD and Blu-ray/UV combo pack on Tuesday, February 4^th, 2014, just in time for Valentines Day.  Both sets will come with plenty of bonus features.  The features in question are listed below.

Bonus Features:

• The Making Of THE WHITE QUEEN
• Series Overview
• Book To Series
• The History Behind THE WHITE QUEEN
• THE WHITE QUEEN: Set Tour
• Queen Elizabeth
• The King
• The Heir Apparent
• Woman In A Man’s World
• Conjuring Up The Queen/Magic
• Dressing The Queen/Wardrobe

 

MSRP for the DVD and Blu-ray/UV sets are $49.98 and $59.98 respectively.  More information on these and other releases from Starz Entertainment is available online at http://www.starz.com, http://www.facebook.com/Starz, and http://twitter.com/starz_channel.  To keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews, go online to http://www.facebook.com/philspicks and “Like” it.  Fans can always keep up with the latest sports and entertainment news and reviews in the Phil’s Picks blog at https://philspicks.wordpress.com.