on 4/7/2025, 4:44 pm
...Kino Lorber has the Blu-ray box set Film Noir: The Dark Side of Cinema XXV (1947-1954), a three-disc set containing three films by John H. Auer.
The Blu-ray premiere of The Flame (1947), starring John Carroll, Vera Ralston, Robert Paige, Broderick Crawford, Henry Travers and Blanche Yurka, as well as remastered Blu-rays for Auer's films City That Never Sleeps (1953) and Hell's Half Acre (1954), both of which had debuted on Blu-ray in 2013. All three films are now sourced from 4K scans done by Paramount Pictures in 2017 and 2024. Extras include audio commentaries on The Flame and Hell's Half Acre by Heath Holland (host of the podcast Cereal at Midnight), and audio commentary on City That Never Sleeps by film historian Imogen Sara Smith.
...Coming to Blu-ray from Radiance Films is the box set Hardboiled: Three Pulp Thrillers by Alain Corneau (1976-1981), a three-disc set containing Corneau's films Police Python 357 (1976), starring Yves Montand, François Périer, Simone Signoret, Stefania Sandrelli, Mathieu Carrière and Vadim Glowna, Série noire (1979), starring Patrick Dewaere, Myriam Boyer, Marie Trintignant, Bernard Blier, Jeanne Herviale and Andreas Katsulas and Choice of Arms (Le Choix des armes) (1981), starring Yves Montand, Gérard Depardieu, Catherine Deneuve, Michel Galabru, Gérard Lanvin and Jean-Claude Dauphin. Sourced from new 4K scans by StudioCanal,
Radiance presents all three films with LPCM 2.0 Mono audio and optional English subtitles. Extras include new audio commentary on Police Python 357 by Mike White, a new interview with Maxim Jakubowski on the source novel of Police Python 357 and its adaptation; a new visual essay about Jim Thompson adaptations; a new introduction to Choice of Arms by documentary filmmaker Jérôme Wybon; a new interview with Manuela Lazic on Yves Montand in the 1970s; archive interviews with cast and crew for all three films; the documentary Série noire: The Darkness of the Soul (2013), interviews from 2002 with Corneau and Marie Trintignant and trailers for Série noire and Choice of Arms. Limited edition content includes an "80-page booklet featuring new writing by Andrew Male, Nick Pinkerton, Charlie Brigden, and newly translated archival writing".
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