Park Circus

PARK CIRCUS CONCLUDES DEAL WITH WARNER BROS.

Thu, 17 May 2012 10:43:49 +0100

Park Circus is delighted to announce it has concluded a deal with Warner Bros. Pictures International to represent the theatrical rights for parts of its extensive back catalogue of classic motion pictures.

The list of films produced by the studio reads like a history of Hollywood. Notable films in vast Warner Bros. library include THE JAZZ SINGER, CASABLANCA, MILDRED PIERCE, CALAMITY JANE, A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, GOODFELLAS and hundreds of further motion pictures waiting to be rediscovered and returned back to the big screen.

The agreement also features a number of films from other libraries controlled by Warner Bros., including from Castle Rock: BEFORE SUNSET and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION; from Lorimar: THE BIG RED ONE, CRUISING and S.O.B.; and from New Line: A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, MY OWN PRIVATE IDAHO and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET.

Some of the films, including BONNIE AND CLYDE, THE EXORCIST and A STAR IS BORN (pictured above), have been restored by the studio and are now available in digital cinema format.

We look forward to helping these classic films to find their audience in cinemas around the world.

CHECK INTO THE HOTEL SPLENDIDE

Mon, 14 May 2012 11:16:17 +0100

Park Circus has released Terence Gross’ bizarre and satiric dark comedy Hotel Splendide on DVD. The film boasts one the current James Bond Daniel Craig’s earliest film performances.

Hotel Splendide follows the peculiar travails of chef Kath (Toni Collette) and her former lover Ronald (Daniel Craig). He’s been running decaying resort and spa, the Hotel Splendide, just the way his parents did years before. Bad food and regular enemas are included in the price. After five years away, Kath returns to work with Ronald, with unexpected results.

Strange, beguiling and scatological, Hotel Splendide is a singular journey into the gothic and eccentric. An exceptional international cast includes veteran actor Peter Vaughan, the late Katrin Cartlidge and Stephen Tompkinson.

Little seen on its initial release in 2000, Hotel Splendide will open its doors again on Mon 14 May.

Cassavetes' classic Husbands is back

Fri, 11 May 2012 09:42:01 +0100

Park Circus is pleased to announce that John Cassavetes' classic film HUSBANDS (1970) will be re-released theatrically in the UK from September 28th this year, opening at BFI Southbank.

An important work in a filmography which includes titles such as LOVE STREAMS (1984) and GLORIA (1980), HUSBANDS is just one example that showcases esteemed director Cassavetes as one of the great American independent filmmakers of the time.

Cassavetes' himself stars alongside Ben Gazzara and Peter Falk as three married professionals from New York who try to deal with the loss of one of their closest friends. The three embark on a wild journey of rediscovery in an attempt to make sense of their lives after their friend's tragic death - an eventful journey which ends up taking them to London.

To be released on a brand new DCP courtesy of Sony Pictures, HUSBANDS will be back in cinemas in 2012.

007 MAKES HIS 50TH ANNIVERSARY DEBUT AT 65TH CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

Thu, 10 May 2012 10:53:48 +0100

Park Circus and Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios are pleased to announce a special celebration at the 65th Cannes International Film Festival to mark the 50th Anniversary on the big screen of Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

Five James Bond films will screen in new digital versions as part of the Cinema de la Plage screenings.

The celebration will kick off with a 50th anniversary screening of DR NO directed by Terence Young and starring Sean Connery and Ursula Andress.

First released on 5th October 1962 Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli’s production of DR NO marked the first big screen appearance for Ian Fleming’s James Bond character.

DR NO will be followed by screenings of FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE, DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE and CASINO ROYALE.

This is the first time a James Bond film has screened during the festival.

The screenings in Cannes mark a year long celebration including a return to theatres worldwide of some of the classic Bond films. The celebration continues on the small screen with BOND 50, a collectible box-set featuring all 22 James Bond films on Blu-ray disc for the first time including the debut of nine James Bond films previously unavailable in high definition Blu-ray. Fans around the world can pre-order now with participating online retailers.

Death Watch Returns

Wed, 09 May 2012 12:29:16 +0100

Before Big Brother there was Death Watch.

French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier’s mad, twisty dystopian 1980 sci-fi noir adaptation of David Compton’s novel The Continuous Katherine Mortenhoe. Starring an international cast including Harvey Keitel, Romy Schneider, Harry Dean Stanton and Max Von Sydow and featuring an early screen appearance by Robbie Coltrane and Bill Nighy, Death Watch is the very definition of an overlooked cult gem.

Roddy (Keitel) has a camera implanted in his brain. He's been hired by a television producer to film a documentary of terminally ill Katherine (Schneider) without her knowledge. His footage will then be run on the popular TV reality show, but Katherine has other plans. Opaquely scripted by David Rayfiel (Valdez is Coming, Jeremiah Johnson) and filmed in Glasgow while it was undergoing massive renovation, Death Watch is a bizarre, brilliant and prophetic fantasy.

Following a sell-out screening (the international premiere) of the stunning brand new digital restoration of the film at this year’s Glasgow Film Festival which Tavernier attended and spoke at, Death Watch switches back on for business in cinemas across the UK from Friday 1 June and will be re-released on Blu-ray and DVD later in the year.

WISTFUL GLASGOW CULT COMEDY RELEASED ON DVD FOR FIRST TIME IN 25 YEARS

Fri, 04 May 2012 15:34:40 +0100

Writer, director and actor Charles Gormley’s delightful and wistful Glasgow comedy Heavenly Pursuits falls from Film 4/Park Circus skies straight onto DVD for the first time in twenty-five years.

Recently reunited in Julie Taymor’s The Tempest, Heavenly Pursuits stars Tom Conti and Helen Mirren as teachers at Glasgow’s Blessed Edith Semple School. Vic Mathews (Conti) loves two things in life, teaching the remedial class at the school and the beautiful Ruth (Mirren). When the school authorities decide to pursue full canonisation of their namesake, little miracles begin to occur and Vic has to reassess his beliefs.

One of only two cinema feature films directed by influential and by all accounts inspiring Scottish writer and actor Gormley (the other being Living Together Apart), Heavenly Pursuits is every bit as charming and funny as the early films of Bill Forsyth. Released in the US as The Gospel According to Vic, Heavenly Pursuits is long overdue a second coming on DVD.

Featuring an exclusive score by Scottish composer BA Robertson, and containing Ewen Bremner’s first screen appearance as little Stevie Deans, Heavenly Pursuits is a wee revelation.

Heavenly Pursuits is released on DVD on Mon 7 May.

COLONEL BLIMP SULLIES FORTH AGAIN

Fri, 04 May 2012 09:41:35 +0100

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s epic wartime masterpiece has been forensically restored and is back in cinemas from Friday 18 May.

Long singled out by the good and the great as one of the most singular, brilliant and influential films of the 20th century, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is back, bold and beautifully restored. Part of a run of anarchic and idiosyncratic British wartime dramas by Powell and Pressburger (also known as The Archers) that led from the 49th Parallel (1941) to A Matter of Life and Death (1946), The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is an examination of love, friendship, patriotism, war and aging like no other.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1943 Technicolor romantic drama follows the life trajectory of British officer Clive Candy (Roger Livesey) through love, war, hope and friendship from the late 19th to the mid 20th Century. During the Boer War, Candy is sent to Berlin to trap a spy. There he befriends a German Officer, Theo (Anton Walbrook) who marries Edith (Deborah Kerr), the girl Candy is in love with. During the First World War, Candy marries a girl who resembles Edith and helps Theo - now a POW - to get repatriated. He comes back in the Second World War as a Brigadier General and once again encounters Theo.

Based on David Low’s satirical comic strip, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is arguably the greatest of all films about what it means to be British.

Painstakingly restored to digital by The Film Foundation, overseen by Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker Powell, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp will rise again in cinemas in the UK and across the world from Friday 18 May.

PARK CIRCUS AT CANNES FILM FESTIVAL 2012

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:40:24 +0100

International distributor and sales agent Park Circus will have a strong presence at this year’s Cannes Film Festival with two titles selected as part of the Official Selection – Cannes Classics.

We are delighted to announce Sony Pictures Entertainment’s 50th Anniversary restoration of David Lean’s LAWRENCE OF ARABIA will receive its world premiere as part of the Official Selection - Cannes Classics.

From Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Andrei Konchalovsky’s cult thriller RUNAWAY TRAIN, starring Jon Voigt, Eric Roberts and Rebecca De Mornay will also be screening as part of the Official Selection - Cannes Classics to mark the director’s presence at the festival.

In addition to the films taking part in the Official Selection, Park Circus is pleased to present a selection of other titles available for licensing, including Nicholas Ray’s restored WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN and Susan Ray’s documentary DON’T EXPECT TOO MUCH. Both films are available for all rights international licensing. Deals have already been concluded for the USA and France.

Also coming to Cannes for all rights licensing are restored versions of major Harold Lloyd films including SAFETY LAST, SPEEDY, GIRL SHY and many more features and shorts by “the third genius”. Agreements for France and UK have been concluded.

DESPAIR, LOVE AND LOOKS KICK OFF PARK CIRCUS� HOME ENTERTAINMENT Q2 SLATE

Thu, 26 Apr 2012 10:48:21 +0100

It’s like a European Union summit down at Park Circus’ Home Entertainment division with classic, cult and intellectual European films leading the 2012 Q2 release wave.

Out front, showing off their fine plumage are a pair of lesser-spotted Rainer Werner Fassbinders. DESPAIR, which is being released on both Blu-ray and DVD, was Fassbinder’s 1978 adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov’s interwar novel of disassociation, delusion and madness starring the great British actor Dirk Bogarde in what was to be his last great role.

Working with an unusually large budget in English and German allowed Fassbinder to create a surreal and insane psychological epic thriller that is unlike anything else. For this lovely new home entertainment release DESPAIR has been fully restored and partnered with some great extras.

You know how it is - you wait years for the Fassbinder bus to come by and then two come at once. Fassbinder’s little seen 1976 TV movie I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME is also out on DVD. This powerful and unrelenting tale of the gradual and ultimately tragic emotional bullying of a kindly construction worker (Vitus Zeplichal) has never been released in the UK before.

Made for German television in 1976, during a pause from filming feature Satan’s Brew, I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME is based on a true account taken from For Life (Lebenslaenglich), a book of interviews edited by Klaus Antes and Christiane Erhardt. Made when Fassbinder was going through a professional crisis the film is a very personal reflection of his own childhood and adolescence.

And finally some very continental philosophical musing with intellectual travelogue THE LOOK. Former model and veteran actor Charlotte Rampling travels from Paris to New York to debates with friends and colleagues about the image, celebrity, age, desire and love.

When your sparing partners are as interesting as photographers Peter Lindbergh and Juergen Teller or writer Paul Auster you know it’s going to be riveting. Selected for the 2011 Cannes Classic stream, Angelina Maccarone’s THE LOOK is a beautifully shot documentary film full of contemplation and intrigue.

That’s your starter for ten from the Q2 Home Entertainment slate. There’s more to follow. A whole world more.

Despair (Blu-ray, DVD) and I Only Want You To Love Me out now. The Look is out on Mon 30 April.

Build Your Collection with Park Circus

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0100

At Park Circus, we believe in making it easy for you to enjoy classic films, in whatever format you choose to watch them. Which is why we like to keep you informed of the best ways to download such classics as Jean Renoir's Boudu Saved From Drowning and Harold Lloyd's Safety Last!

Here is a full list of titles available to download digitally with direct links to their iTunes pages:

Boudu Saved From Drowning: One superb performance, one master director.

Bent: A multi award-winning, powerful and moving love story.

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno: Part original, part documentary. Fascinating.

Last Night: Award-winning, beautifully shot drama from David Cronenburg.

Marlene: A richly entertaining record of an encounter with a real-life legend.

The Phantom of the Opera: The 1925 phantom classic starring Lon Chaney.

The Pillow Book: An irresistable arthouse drama.

Safety Last!: The fourth - and best - of Lloyd's five famous "thrill" comedies.

Speedy: A superb valedictory to the silent era.

Wetherby: An engaging mystery starring Vanessa Redgrave.

Titles available from The Chaplin Collection:

The Chaplin Revue:

The Circus:

City Lights:

The Great Dictator:

The Gold Rush:

The Kid:

Limelight:

Modern Times:

With so many exciting ways to watch great cinema, we aim to make sure you can enjoy a diverse range of classic films - from the under-rated and rarely seen to the eternal hits - across a variety of services.

The new Curzon-On-Demand seeks to offer a different service to your average provider, have a peek at what Park Circus has in store for you.

Our catalogue on Blinkbox continues to grow too with 8 titles now available to buy or rent. Blinkbox's catalogue includes great titles such as Brother (directed by Takeshi Kitano of Battle Royale fame) plus Palme d'Or-winning The Best Intentions (screenplay by Ingmar Bergman) - a title which is exclusive to this service.

For those who engage in the online cinema community, MUBI, here is a page devoted to several key Park Circus titles, including Juliette Binoche-starring La veuve de Saint-Pierre.

If you are keen to learn more about our home entertainment releases, then head over to our devoted page on the Park Circus Blog, filled with news, articles and interviews. 2012 promises to be a big year...