Kino Lorber has unveiled the new titles debuting on VOD, Kino Now and their free, ad-supported Kino Cult streaming service in April 2022. Highlights include a German epic, a Brit Noir classic, international favorites, a science-fiction spine-tingler and more. Get all the details below!
COMING TO VOD
MIKLÓS JANCSÓ COLLECTION:
THE ROUND-UP, THE RED AND THE WHITE, THE CONFRONTATION, WINTER WIND, RED PSALM, ELECTRA, MY LOVE
dir. Miklós Jancsó, 1966/1967/1968/1969/1971/1974, 91/91/81/74/86/75m
Available 4/12/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
The Round-Up and The Red and The White also available on all major Digital/VOD platforms including Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play
Screenwriter and director Miklós Jancsó was the creator of a unique film language centered around his mastery of the tracking shot. The first internationally recognized representative of modern Hungarian filmmaking, his extraordinary works examined oppressive authority and the mechanics of power. Kino Lorber is proud to present six of his classic features restored in 4K from their original camera negatives by the National Film Institute Hungary – Film Archive. The Round-Up (1966) depicts a prison camp in the aftermath of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution. A true classic of world cinema. The Red and the White (1967) is a haunting, powerful film about the absurdity and evil of war set in Central Russia during the Civil War of 1918. The Confrontation (1968) is a story of protest and rebellion set in 1947 Hungary, when the Communist Party has just taken power. Winter Wind (1969) consists of twelve fluid long takes that capture a mid-1930s group of Croatian anarchists. Red Psalm (1971) follows a group of farm workers who go on strike in 1890s Hungary, for which Jancsó won the best director prize at Cannes. Electra, My Love (1974) is a richly inventive adaptation of the Greek myth that consists of 12 single take, intricately choreographed set pieces.
FABIAN: GOING TO THE DOGS
dir. Dominik Graf, 2021, 185m
Available 4/12/22 to rent or own on all major Digital/VOD platforms including Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, and Kino Now.
Berlin, 1931. Jakob Fabian works in the advertising department of a cigarette factory by day and drifts through bars, brothels and artist studios with his wealthy and debauched friend Labude by night. When Fabian meets the beautiful and confident Cornelia, he manages to shed his pessimistic attitude for a brief moment and falls in love. Not long after, he falls victim to the great wave of layoffs sweeping the city, plunging him back into a depression, while Cornelia’s career as an actress is taking off thanks to her wealthy boss and admirer – an arrangement that Fabian finds difficult to accept. But it’s not just his world that is falling apart; all of Germany is about to self-destruct. Veteran German director Dominik Graf (Beloved Sisters) wowed audiences at the Berlin Film Festival with this dazzling adaptation of Erich Kästner’s classic of Weimar literature, set amid the twilight hedonism of pre-Nazi Germany.
THE OLIVE TREES OF JUSTICE
dir. James Blue, 1962, 81m
Available 4/19/22 to rent or own on all major Digital/VOD platforms including Apple TV, Amazon, Vudu, Google Play, and Kino Now.
The first and only narrative feature by American documentarian James Blue (Oscar®-nominated for A Few Notes On Our Food Problem), The Olive Trees of Justice holds the dual distinctions of being the only French film to have been shot during the Algerian War, and to have been the inaugural winner of the Critics prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962.
Filmed in Algiers and the surrounding countryside during the late stages of the Algerian War, under the pretext that it was a documentary about the wine industry, the film depicts the Algerian struggle for independence from the French by concentrating on a young “pied-noir” (Frenchman of Algerian descent) who returns to Algiers to visit his dying father. His memories of boyhood on his father’s farm are told in flashbacks with a lush serenity that contrasts to the teeming, tank-filled streets of contemporary Algiers.
Giving the film a neorealist tone by shooting in a documentary style and enrolling a cast that consisted largely of non-professional actors, including author Jean Pelegri who wrote the autobiographical novel from which the film is based, Blue tells a powerful story of common people living and struggling in their daily lives, while providing a valuable testimony to the complexity of the Algerian situation in that time period.
COMING TO KINO NOW
THE INDIAN TOMB
dir. Joe May, 1921, 242m
Available 4/5/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
Before creating such silent masterworks as Metropolis, Spies, Die Nibelungen, and Woman in the Moon, Fritz Lang and screenwriter Thea von Harbou crafted the screenplay for this four-hour exotic epic for director Joe May (Asphalt). Conrad Veidt (The Hands of Orlac) stars as the vengeance-crazed Maharajah of Bengal, who seeks to build an imposing temple in which to entomb his former wife. But his diabolical plans are thwarted upon the arrival of two adventurers: a British architect (Olaf Fönss) and his fiancée Irene (Mia May). A masterpiece of Orientalist fantasy, The Indian Tomb’s labyrinthine plot is punctuated by thrilling action sequences and ambitious special effects. Late in his career, Lang would return to the story and remake the diptych as The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb (1959).
JIGSAW
dir. Val Guest, 1962, 108m
Available 4/5/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
In this newly restored late Brit Noir classic, director Val Guest (EXPRESSO BONGO) whips up an absorbing and entertaining murder mystery based on the Hillary Waugh novel Sleep Long, My Love and inspired by the Brighton Trunk Murders of the 1930s. After discovering a woman’s body in a lonely beach house, a pair of Brighton detectives painstakingly assemble a jigsaw puzzle of clues as they attempt to track down her murderer.
THE BODY OF MY ENEMY
dir. Henri Verneuil, 1976, 121m
Available 4/5/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
Screen legend Jean-Paul Belmondo (Le Doulos, The Hunter Will Get You) teams up with director Henri Verneuil (The Sicilian Clan, The Night Caller) and co-writer Michel Audiard (Le Professionnel, Le Marginal) for this stylish revenge drama. François Leclercq (Belmondo) once romanced the beautiful Gilberte Liégard (Marie-France Pisier, Trans-Europ-Express), daughter of a powerful textile baron (Bernard Blier, Buffet Froid). Now only hatred holds them together. Framed for murder and imprisoned for seven years, François returns to his hometown seeking vengeance. He needs friends. And friends are hard to come by in his town. Featuring masterful cinematography by Jean Penzer (The Inheritor) and a rousing score by Francis Lai (Love Story), The Body of My Enemy is a unique, twist-filled neo-noir that offers a sharp critique of the French upper classes—with the ultra-suave Belmondo in top form.
ARMAGEDDON
dir. Alain Jessua, 1977, 93m
Available 4/5/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
International icon Alain Delon (Un Flic, The Sicilian Clan) must stop a madman from triggering Armageddon in this slick Eurocrime thriller. A repairman named Louis Carrier (Jean Yanne, We Won’t Grow Old Together) uses his newly inherited fortune to launch a campaign of terror that will make him a household name. Becoming more and more mentally unstable, Carrier threatens the police and various government institutions while operating under the alias “Armageddon.” A psychologist from Interpol (Delon) heads the investigation and prepares a trap at an international conference of world leaders in Paris. Renato Salvatori (Illustrious Corpses) and Michel Duchaussoy (The Killing Game) also star in this intense psychological game of cat-and-mouse from director Alain Jessua (Shock Treatment) that examines the potentially dangerous impact of mass media.
ORANGES AND SUNSHINE
dir. Jim Loach, 2010, 106m
Available 4/12/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
Oranges and Sunshine tells the story of Margaret Humphreys (Emily Watson, two-time Academy Award® nominee for Breaking the Waves and Hilary and Jackie), a social worker from Nottingham who uncovered one of the most significant social scandals of recent times: the deportation of thousands of children from the United Kingdom to Australia. Children as young as four had been told that their parents were dead, and been sent to children’s homes on the other side of the world. Many were subjected to appalling abuse. They were promised oranges and sunshine: they got hard labor and life in institutions. Almost single-handedly, against overwhelming odds, and with little regard for her own well-being, Margaret reunited thousands of families, brought authorities to account and drew worldwide attention to an extraordinary miscarriage of justice.
LAST OF THE DOGMEN
dir. Tab Murphy, 1995, 115m
Available 4/12/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
Tom Berenger (Shoot to Kill, Shattered) is Lewis Gates, a bounty hunter haunted by the past, hired to track down three escaped convicts in the Oxbow region of the Rockies. Their trail leads him to a secluded spot and signs of a struggle, but no bodies—only a strange arrow shaft remains. Gates takes the arrow to an expert in Native American culture, Lillian Sloan (Barbara Hershey, Hoosiers, The Public Eye), and together they set off in search of an impossible mystery—a tribe they believe cannot exist, massacred over 100 years ago. What they discover deep in the Oxbow may prove an answer to both Lillian’s dreams and Lewis’s nightmares. But for now, it’s a desperate race against time if they are to save the last of the Dogmen from the destructive forces of the modern world. Tab Murphy (Gorillas in the Mist, Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Tarzan) wrote and made his directorial debut with this beautifully photographed modern-day western filled with romance, adventure and Native American folklore. Co-starring Kurtwood Smith (RoboCop) and Steve Reevis (Dances with Wolves).
MY AFTERNOONS WITH MARGUERITTE
dir. Jean Becker, 2010, 83m
Available 4/19/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
My Afternoons with Margueritte is the story of life’s random encounters. In a small French town Germain (Gérard Depardieu, Cyrano de Bergerac), a nearly illiterate man in his 50s who is considered the village idiot, takes a walk to the park and happens to sit beside Margueritte (Gisèle Casadesus, The Hedgehog), a little old lady who is reading excerpts from her novel aloud. She’s articulate and highly intelligent. Germain is lured in by Margueritte’s passion for life and the magic of literature from which he has always felt excluded. As Margueritte broadens his mind by reading excerpts from her novel, Germain realizes that he is more of an intellectual than he has ever allowed himself to be. Afternoons spent reading aloud on their favorite bench transform their lives and start them both on a new journey—to literacy and respect for Germain, and to the deepest friendship for Margueritte.
FROM THE JOURNALS OF JEAN SEBERG
dir. Mark Rappaport, 1995, 97m
Available 4/19/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
From the Journals of Jean Seberg (1995) is a profoundly illuminating exploration of Jean Seberg’s career from the brilliant filmmaker Mark Rappaport (Rock Hudson’s Home Movies). Mary Beth Hurt (The Age of Innocence) portrays Jean Seberg, who reflects on her life as it is illustrated through her work. It follows her as she is plucked from obscurity to star in Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan (1957), to the critical drubbing that followed, her resurrection as a star in Godard’s Breathless (1960) and through her death in 1979. From the Journals of Jean Seberg is a revelatory interrogation of film history, and women’s place in it, that examines Seberg’s involvement with the Black Panther Movement while also touching on the careers of Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Clinst Eastwood.
MOON MANOR
dirs. Erin Granat and Machete Bang Bang, 2021, 103m
Available 4/26/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
With advancing Alzheimer’s and a determination to do things his way, Jimmy has decided to throw himself a fabulous FUNeral before his intentional death, teaching his guests, estranged brother, salt-of-the earth caretaker, sharp-witted death doula, a novice obituary writer, and an ethereal cosmic being — that sometimes the art of living just may be the art of dying. (Inspired By A True-ish Story)
GAGARINE
dirs. Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh, 2022, 98m
Available 4/26/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
Yuri, 16, has lived all his life in Gagarine Towers, a vast red brick housing project on the outskirts of Paris. From the heights of his apartment, he dreams of becoming an astronaut. But when plans to demolish his community’s home are leaked, Yuri joins the resistance. With his friends Diana and Houssam, he embarks on a mission to save Gagarine, transforming the estate into his own “starship.”
DEMENTIA
dir. John J. Parker, 1953, 56m
Available 4/26/22 to rent or own on Kino Now
An entirely unique and utterly bizarre film, John J. Parker’s DEMENTIA is a 1950s-style foray into the mind of psycho-sexual madness. Set entirely in a nocturnal twilight zone that blends dream imagery with the cinematic stylings of film noir, DEMENTIA follows the tormented existence of a young woman haunted by the horrors of her youth, which transformed her into a stiletto-wielding, man-hating beatnik. Accompanied by George Antheil’s sci-fi score, the camera follows a “Gamin” (Adrienne Barrett) on a surreal sleepwalk through B-movie hell, populated by prostitutes, pimps, and would-be molesters – all photographed by William Thompson (PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE). Two years after its original release, a narration track of foreboding psychobabble (diabolically spoken by Ed McMahon) was added and the title was changed to the more sensational DAUGHTER OF HORROR.
COMING TO KINO CULT
The following titles will be available to stream for free on the ad-supported streaming channel.
THE BUBBLE (2D)
dir. Arch Oboler, 1966, 91m
THE BUBBLE is the “eerie and enjoyable” (Los Angeles Times) science-fiction spine-tingler that shocked audiences and revolutionized the cinematic world! The eye-popping thrills and chills begin when a plane carrying pregnant Catherine (Deborah Walley) and her husband Mark (Michael Cole) is forced to land in a mysterious remote town. The townspeople are quite strange, indeed: they repeat certain phrases and movements ceaselessly and stagger through the streets like brain-dead automatons. Then there is an even more terrifying discovery – the zombie inhabitants live under an impenetrable dome, trapped like insects in a jar. Can Catherine, Mark and their newborn baby escape The Bubble, or will they become mindless drones trapped in a human zoo?
BURKE & HARE
dir. Vernon Sewell, 1972, 94m
Two of the most notorious figures in the history of medicine, William Burke and William Hare were a pair of enterprising street thugs who provided anatomical specimens to the Edinburgh Medical College—often by robbing the graves of the recently dead, sometimes through even more nefarious methods.
HOME BEFORE MIDNIGHT
dir. Pete Walker, 1979, 111m
A successful rock lyricist becomes romantically involved with a girl he picks up hitchhiking only to learn that she is only fourteen. Her parents take action against him.
KILLER’S MOON
dir. Alan Birkinshaw, 1978, 92m
An important film in the evolution of “video nasties” (especially violent films that brought about stricter censorship in the UK in the early 1980s), KILLER’S MOON sets a quartet of drug-addled psychopaths against a group of vacationing schoolgirls.
Four mental patients undergo an experi-mental drug therapy, and then escape into the countryside. Believing they are inside a dream, they lose any remaining shreds of morality. Roaming the woods, they stumble upon a manor of schoolgirls and wreak unholy havoc. Dressed all in white, like the droogs of A Clockwork Orange, these terrifying sleepwalkers unleash their violent ids with insane abandon. When two nearby campers attempt to stop the slaughter, the killers begin to awake from their slumber – and to their deeds.
THE LASH OF THE PENITENTES
dirs. Harry J. Revier and Roland Price, 1936, 48m
Exploitation films were often ripped from the most sensational headlines of the day, and few headlines were as scandalous as those reporting a murder within the community of a masochistic religious cult in northern New Mexico. Los Hermanos Penitentes celebrated Lent by enacting elaborate tableaus of flagellation, self-mutilation, and crucifixion. Envisioning the box-office potential of such a spectacle, cinematographer Roland Price (Marihuana: Weed With Roots in Hell) shot several reels of footage of the rituals, then teamed with producer Harry Revier (Child Bride) to fashion a murder mystery around the documentary material.
THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTED
dir. Jean Rollin, 1980, 91m
A man driving home late one night nearly hits a beautiful, scantily-clad woman who is running wild in the streets; he takes her back to his apartment, they make love, and he discovers that she has already forgotten where they met. She is rapidly losing her memory, a woman without a past. The amnesiac woman is traced back to a scientific fortress melodramatically known as “The Black Tower,” where people suffering memory and identity loss due to accidental nuclear contamination are being held and treated.
RHINOCEROS
dir. Tom O’Horgan, 1973, 104m
Reunited for the only time after their triumph in Mel Brooks’ The Producers, Gene Wilder and Zero Mostel catapult their shared genius for elegant slapstick, manic wit, and sly satire to a level of fearless absurdity that virtually no other comedy team would dare approach. Director Tom O’Horgan, originator of the Broadway smash hit Hair, transforms playwright Eugene Ionesco’s “Theater of the Absurd” curio Rhinoceros into a fluid, character-rich screen comedy that The Hollywood Reporter dubbed, “an excellent film.”
In the face of a modern urban life devoid of anything but an uninterrupted parade of dehumanizing compromise and disappointment, Stanley (Wilder) tenuously guards his fragile individuality in between gulps of booze. The only solace he enjoys is commiseration with his self-consciously sophisticated neighbor John (Mostel), and his unspoken adoration of a warmly sympathetic co-worker Daisy (70s cult object Karen Black). But as a surreal comic apocalypse begins to transform, one by one, everyone into a rhinoceros, the non-conformism that seemed like Stanley’s downfall may be his only salvation.
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Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
