Eureka Entertainment are teaming up with Scalarama once more to offer special September Scalarama disconts on some of their recent releases, including new restorations of films from Fritz Lang and Buster Keaton, and recent Spansih film The Olive Tree by Iciar Bollain and written by Paul Lavery (I, Daniel Blake). #directedbywomen.

Get in touch with Steve Hills on theatrical@eurekavideo.co.uk and quote SCALARAMA to access the special discounts.

The Olive Tree

ICÍAR BOLLAÍN / 2016 / Spain / 100 minutes

#directedbywomen

 

Alma works on her family’s farm. Like many young Spaniards’, her future is being shaped by the country’s devastating economic crisis – as is her relationship to the past.

 

To make ends meet, her father has been selling some of their most ancient olive trees to foreign buyers. For Alma’s grandfather, whose olive groves have been his life’s work, his pride and a vital connection to family tradition, the loss of one particular, two-thousand-year-old tree, proved too much. He has not uttered a word since and refuses to eat.

 

Convinced that her grandfather’s recovery depends on the tree’s return, Alma sets off on a quixotic road trip across Europe to re-claim it from its new corporate owners. Her quest peppers this tender film with plenty of humour. It also embodies a hope shared by many: to say “basta” and make up for the damage inflicted on the country’s landscape and its communities.

 

Stills/poster: https://flic.kr/s/aHskFBoyBd

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N99AlFD_ynA

Available: Throughout September

Format: DCP or Blu-ray

Terms and how to book: Contact Steve Hills on theatrical@eurekavideo.co.uk and quote SCALARAMA

Why book?:

  • Screenplay written by Paul Laverty (Who also wrote the screenplay for Ken Loach’s BAFTA Award Winning film I, Daniel Blake)
  • Stars Javier Gutierrez (Assassin’s Creed movie)

The General (4K Restoration)

Buster Keaton/ Clyde Bruckman | 1926 | USA | 79 min.

Set during the Civil War and based on a true incident, the film is also an authentic-looking period piece that brings the scope and realism of Matthew Brady-like images to brilliant life. Keaton portrays engineer Johnnie Gray, rejected by the Confederate Army and thought a coward by his girlfriend (Marion Mack). When a band of Union soldiers penetrate Confederate lines to steal his locomotive, Johnnie Gray sets off in pursuit. Seven of the film’s eight reels are devoted to the chase, featuring hilarious comedy and amazing stunts performed by Keaton himself.

Stills: https://www.flickr.com/gp/eurekavideo/57C4Ey

Available: Throughout September

Format: Blu-ray

Why Book?:

  • Many critics consider The General to be the last great comedy of the silent era, and it consistently ranks as one of the greatest films of all time on international critics’ polls.
  • Featuring an original score by acclaimed conductor Carl Davis.

 

Sherlock Jr. (4K Restoration)

Buster Keaton | 1924 | USA | 45 minutes

 

Buster plays a movie projectionist who daydreams himself into the movies he is showing and merges with the figures and the backgrounds on the screen. While dreaming he is Conan Doyle’s master detective, he snoops out brilliant discoveries.

 

Stills: https://flic.kr/s/aHskXjtxCM

Available: Throughout September

Format: Blu-ray

 

Steamboat Bill Jr. (4K Restoration)

Charles Reisner | 1928 | USA | 79 minutes

 

The son of a steamboat captain, Buster falls in love with the daughter of a rival steamboat owner. When a cyclone rages, Buster proves himself a hero by rescuing his love and her father from a watery grave.

 

Stills: https://flic.kr/s/aHskMzrHh9

Available: Throughout September

Format: Blu-ray

Why Book?:

  • Featuring an original score by acclaimed conductor Carl Davis.

Metropolis

Fritz Lang | 1927 | Germany | 150 minutes

 

With its dizzying depiction of a futuristic cityscape and alluring female robot, Metropolis is among the most famous of all German films and the mother of sci-fi cinema (an influence on Blade Runner and Star Wars, among countless other films). Directed by the legendary Fritz Lang (M, Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse,The Big Heat, etc.), its jaw-dropping production values, iconic imagery, and modernist grandeur – it was described by Luis Buñuel as “a captivating symphony of movement” – remain as powerful as ever.

 

Drawing on – and defining – classic sci-fi themes, Metropolis depicts a dystopian future in which society is thoroughly divided in two: while anonymous workers conduct their endless drudgery below ground their rulers enjoy a decadent life of leisure and luxury. When Freder (Gustav Fröhlich) ventures into the depths in search of the beautiful Maria (Brigitte Helm in her debut role), plans of rebellion are revealed and a Maria-replica robot is programmed by mad inventor Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) and master of Metropolis Joh Fredersen (Alfred Abel) to incite the workers into a self-destructive riot.

 

Stills: https://flic.kr/s/aHsk2Uzv3k

Trailer: Awaiting 90th Anniversary Trailer to be created

Available: Availability TBA

Format: DCP or Blu-ray

 

Why Book?:

  • 90th Anniversary year since the original release
  • A “Holy Grail” among film finds, Metropolis is presented here in its reconstructed and restored version, as lavish and spectacular as ever thanks to the painstaking archival work of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung and the discovery of 25 minutes of footage until recently thought lost to the world. Lang’s enduring epic can be seen as the director originally intended, and as seen by German cinema-goers in 1927.

 

Der Mude Tod

Fritz Lang / 1921 / Germany / 116 minutes

 

A young woman (Lil Dagover) confronts the personification of Death (Bernhard Goetzke), in an effort to save the life of her fiancé (Walter Janssen). Death weaves three romantic tragedies and offers to unite the girl with her lover, if she can prevent the death of the lovers in at least one of the episodes. Thus begin three exotic scenarios of ill-fated love, in which the woman must somehow reverse the course of destiny: Persia, Quattrocento Venice, and a fancifully rendered ancient China.

 

Stills/Poster: https://flic.kr/s/aHskMzrHh9

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EVYTPoMaQI

Available: Throughout September

Format: DCP or Blu-ray

Terms and how to book: Contact Steve Hills on theatrical@eurekavideo.co.uk and quote SCALARAMA

Why Book?:

  • Directed by Fritz Lang (Metropolis, M, Die Nibelungen)
  • Stars Lil Dagover (Das Cabinet Des Dr Caligari)
  • One of Alfred Hitchcock’s favourite films
  • The movie that first sparked surrealist Director Luis Buñuel’s interest in film
  • Restored by Anke Wilkening on behalf of the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, this definitive presentation of Der müde Tod preserves the original German intertitles and simulates the historic colour tinting and toning of its initial release
  • Accompanied by a newly-composed score by Cornelius Schwehr as a commissioned composition by ZDF / ARTE performed by the 70-member Berlin Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra under the direction of conductor Frank Strobel.