Kino Lorber Unveils August Releases Including Indie Horror, Ernst Lubitsch & More

Kino Lorber has unveiled some of the details of their August 2023 Blu-Ray and DVD releases from their Kino Lorber, Kino Classics, Milestone Cinematheque, Metrograph Pictures, Greenwich Entertainment and Cinephobia Releasing imprints. Get all the details on this incredibly packed lineup below:

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SCARLET

Street Date: 8/8/23

Synopsis: Pietro Marcello, one of contemporary cinema’s most versatile talents, follows up his dramatic breakthrough Martin Eden with this enchanting period fable. Shortly after World War I, veteran Raphaël (Raphaël Thiery) returns home from the frontlines a widower and father to an infant daughter. Raised in rural Normandy, the child Juliette (Juliette Jouan) grows into a headstrong young woman who dreams of greater possibilities. She seeks refuge in the nearby woods, where she meets a witch who promises scarlet sails will one day take her away from her village. Reckoning with her future and swept away by a rakish young pilot (Louis Garrel) who literally falls from the sky, Juliette never stops believing in the witch’s prophecy. Tracing Juliette’s journey throughout the 20 years of great invention between the world wars, Scarlet delicately weaves together music and fantasy, history and folklore, realist drama and ethereal romance, to craft a timeless story of a young woman’s emancipation.

Bonus Features: Q&A with director Pietro Marcello (courtesy of Film at Lincoln Center and New York Film Festival) | Making-of Documentary | Theatrical Trailer

THE DOLL & I DON’T WANT TO BE A MAN

Street Date: 8/15/23

Synopsis: Presaging such playful sex comedies as Ernst Lubitsch’s Trouble in Paradise and Design for Living, The Doll follows the misadventures of an effete young man who must wed in order to inherit a fortune. He opts to purchase a remarkably lifelike doll and marry it instead, not realizing that the doll is actually the puppet-maker’s flesh-and-blood daughter, in disguise. In I Don’t Want to Be a Man (1918), a teenaged tomboy, tired of being bossed around by her strict guardian, impersonates a man so she can have more fun, but discovers that being the opposite sex has its share of complications. What ensues is a gender-bending comedy that was decades ahead of its time. Both films star Ossi Oswalda, a gifted comedic actress who headlined several other silent films for Lubitsch, notably The Oyster Princess. But the real star is the director and his unmatched gift for sexual innuendo and deliciously subversive comedy.

Bonus Features: Audio commentary for both films by Joseph McBride, author of the critical study How Did Lubitsch Do It?

THE SPANISH DANCER

Street Date: 8/29/23

Synopsis: Pola Negri (The Wildcat) was already an international star. Antonio Moreno (The Searchers) was her equal in terms of talent and sex appeal. The director Herbert Brenon (Beau Geste) was one of the greatest directors of his day and he was assisted by his cinematographer, James Wong Howe (Hud). Together, they created one of the great romance epics of the silent era. Restored by Eye Filmmuseum, The Spanish Dancer (1923) is a joy to behold. The film is action-packed, witty, and romantic with huge sets and a cast of thousands. Brenon keeps the adventure going full steam ahead while Negri and Moreno show why they were huge stars of their day. Includes a new orchestral score by Bill Ware!

Bonus Features: Audio commentary by film historian Scott Eyman | Interview with the composer Bill Ware | Restoration Demonstration

LAST AND FIRST MEN

Street Date: 8/15/23

Synopsis: Two billion years in the future, humanity finds itself on the verge of extinction. Almost all that remains are lone, surreal monuments— the futuristic, solemn, Brutalist stone slabs erected during the communist era in the former Yugoslav republics, arrestingly photographed in luminous 16mm black-and-white. A stunning feature debut and final cinematic testament from the late composer and musician Jóhann Jóhannsson (Sicario, Arrival, Mandy) conjures a world of surreal and phantasmagorical monuments, once intended as symbols of unity and brotherhood, now abandoned beacons beaming their message into the wilderness. Based on the cult 1930 science fiction novel by British author Olaf Stapledon, with narration by Tilda Swinton, Last and First Men is a poetic, hopeful, and tragic work: an allegory of remembrance, ideals, and the death of Utopia.

Bonus Features: Trailer

THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER: THE ART & TIMES OF DAVID HAMMONS

Street Date: 8/1/23 (DVD Only)

Synopsis: THE MELT GOES ON FOREVER chronicles the singular career of the elusive African-American art star David Hammons from Watts rebellion era ’60s L.A. to global art world prominence today. Hammons’ category-defying practice – rooted in a deep critique of American society and the elite art world – is in the words of one art critic “an invitation to confront the fissures between races.”

Bonus Features: Trailers

TWO TICKETS TO GREECE

Street Date: 8/22/23 (DVD Only)

Synopsis: When childhood friends Magalie (Call My Agent!’s Laure Calamy) and Blandine (Olivia Côte) cross paths after many years, they decide to finally take their dream vacation to Greece. A wildly entertaining tale of female camaraderie, also starring Academy Award® Nominee Kristin Scott Thomas (The English Patient, Four Weddings and a Funeral).

Bonus Features: Trailers

MADELEINE COLLINS

Street Date: 8/29/23 (DVD Only)

Synopsis: In this tense psychological drama, Judith (Virginie Efira) leads a secret double life split between two households in two countries. In Switzerland, she lives with Abdel, with whom she is raising a little girl. In France, she lives with Melvil, with whom she has two older boys. Gradually this fragile balance, based on lies and back-and-forth trips, begins to veer dangerously off the rails.

Bonus Features: Trailer

BRIGHTWOOD

Street Date: 8/22/23 (DVD Only)

Synopsis: At times both surreal and frightening, this American Indie sci-fi/horror film follows a bickering couple who find themselves trapped in a confusing and dangerous time loop. The marriage of Jen (Dana Berger, “Orange Is the New Black”, “Elementary”) and Dan (Max Woertendyke) has seen better times, with Jen now barely tolerating her whiny husband. While out on a daytime jog around a lake the thirtysomething couple begin to talk about their failing marriage but soon find themselves lost as the hiking trail seem not to have an exit and they repeatedly return to the same spot. And if that is not bad enough, a silent hooded killer is tracking them down. In this debut feature film from writer/director/cinematographer Dane Elcar (based on his award winning short The Pond, 2018), presents a twisting, understated film which culminates in a disturbing conclusion.