DVD Release Update, 6 January

Here are some DVD announcements from the past couple of weeks. Still, nothing super exciting, other than Kino's Blu-ray release of Wong Kar-wai's Fallen Angels, set for 16 March. They are in descending order of release.

- Cairo Station [Bab el hadid], 1958, d. Youssef Chahine, Typecast Releasing, 23 February
- Tapeheads, 1988, d. Bill Fishman, MGM, 9 March, w. John Cusack, Tim Robbins, Jessica Walter, Susan Tyrrell
- Broken Embraces [Los abrazos rotos], 2009, d. Pedro Almodóvar, also on Blu-ray, Sony, 16 March
- The Black Balloon, 2008, d. Elissa Down, Terra Entertainment, 23 March, w. Toni Collette
- Séraphine, 2008, d. Martin Provost, Music Box Films/MPI, 23 March
- Afghan Star, 2009, d. Havana Marking, Zeitgeist, 30 March
- The Killer, 1989, d. John Woo, also on Blu-ray, Dragon Dynasty/Weinstein Company, 30 March
- Sabu Double Feature [Savage Drums / Jungle Hell], 1951, 1956, d. William Berke, Norman A. Cerf, VCI, 30 March
- Sea Devils, 1953, d. Raoul Walsh, VCI, 30 March
- The Daisy Chain, 2008, d. Aisling Walsh, Image, 13 April, w. Samantha Morton, Steven Mackintosh
- Monamour, 2005, d. Tinto Brass, Cult Epics, 27 April
- The Voyeur [L'uomo che guarda], 1994, d. Tinto Brass, Cult Epics, 27 April
- Prodigal Sons, 2008, d. Kimberly Reed, First Run Features, 20 July

Ryko Gets a New Name + Some Other DVD Releases

I suppose this isn't official, as I couldn't find any further information, but it looks like Ryko Distribution is now Alternative Distribution Alliance... similar to Koch's switch to E1 earlier this year. I uncovered a couple of ADA titles for 29 September.

- Attraction [Nerosubianco], 1969, d. Tinto Brass, Cult Epics
- Burke & Hare, 1972, d. Vernon Sewell, Redemption
- Daughter of Darkness, 1948, d. Lance Comfort, Redemption
- Hardware, 1990, d. Richard Stanley, Severin, also on Blu-ray, w. Dylan McDermott, Iggy Pop
- Lucifera - Demonlover [L'amante del demonio], 1972, d. Paolo Lombardo, MYA
- Naked and Violent [America così nuda, così violenta], 1970, d. Sergio Martino, MYA
- New York Ripper [Lo squartatore di New York], 1982, d. Lucio Fulci, Blue Undergound, Special Edition, also on Blu-ray
- Sex and Zen, 1991, d. Michael Mak Tong-Kit, Eastern Star
- The Storm Riders, 1998, d. Lau Wai-keing, Discotek Media, Special Edition
- Until Death [Fino allo morte], 1987, d. Lamberto Bava, MYA
- Uzumaki, 2000, d. Higuchinsky, Eastern Star

There have been a few other DVD announcements:

- The Betrayal, 2008, d. Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath, Cinema Guild, 1 September
- Goodbye Solo, 2008, d. Ramin Bahrani, Lionsgate, 25 August
- In a Dream, 2008, d. Jeremiah Zagar, Indiepix, 25 August
- The Tiger's Tail, 2006, d. John Boorman, MGM, 11 August, w. Brendan Gleeson, Kim Cattrall, Ciarán Hinds, Sinéad Cusack
- Tyson, d. James Toback, Sony, also on Blu-ray, 18 August
- Full Battle Rattle, 2008, d. Tony Gerber, Jesse Moss, First Run Features, 15 September

And some new-to-Blu-rays:

- Billy Jack, 1971, d. Tom Laughlin, Image, 29 September
- Braveheart, 1995, d. Mel Gibson, Paramount, 1 September
- Child's Play, 1988, d. Tom Holland, MGM, 15 September
- Escape from L.A., 1996, d. John Carpenter, Paramount, 15 September
- Forrest Gump, 1994, d. Robert Zemeckis, Paramount, 3 November
- Friday, 1995, d. F. Gary Gray, New Line, 8 September
- Gojira [Godzilla], 1954, d. Ishirô Honda, Classic Media, 22 September
- Hot Fuzz, 2007, d. Edgar Wright, Universal, 13 October
- It's a Wonderful Life, 1946, d. Frank Capra, Paramount, 3 November
- Menace II Society, 1993, d. Albert Hughes, Allan Hughes, New Line, 8 September
- Misery, 1990, d. Rob Reiner, MGM, 15 September
- The Ninth Gate, 1999, d. Roman Polanski, Lionsgate, 11 August
- Set It Off, 1996, d. F. Gary Gray, New Line, 8 September
- Shaun of the Dead, 2004, d. Edgar Wright, Universal, 13 October

The Decade List: Some Honorable Mentions for 2000

As time is not on my side, I probably won't get the chance to write about (or even view) all of the films I'd like to for The Decade List. To make up for this, I've singled out a few other notable films from the year 2000, most of which aren't likely to show up on the big list down the road. Some of them are annotated, others not. Of the films below, only five have been revisited within the past year. You can still expect a bunch of other 2000 films throughout the year. I'll probably continue to do this with other good, if not amazing, films from the past 10 years. The films below are in no particular order, though the annotated ones are listed first.

Seom [The Isle] - dir. Kim Ki-duk

A rewatch of the film that introduced me to Kim Ki-duk proved less satisfactory than I had remembered. Outside of its grotesqueness, Ki-duk conducts a breathtaking landscape, a dream/nightmare world of floating houses on a Korean river with dialogue at an absolute minimum. This setting/tone of a cinematic poem works a lot better in Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring, but on a visual level, The Isle is still quite lovely.

With: Suh Jung, Kim Yoosuk, Park Sung-hee, Jo Jae-hyeon, Jang Hang-Seon
Screenplay: Kim Ki-duk
Cinematography: Hwang Seo-shik
Music: Jeon Sang-yun
Country of Origin: South Korea
US Distributor: First Run Features

Premiere: 22 April 2000 (South Korea)
US Premiere: 2002 August 23

The King Is Alive - dir. Kristian Levring

Of the notable Dogme 95 films of the 21st century (which, I believe, Lone Scherfig's Italian for Beginners, Susanne Bier's Open Hearts and Ole Christian Madsen's Kira's Reason: A Love Story may be the only others), Kristian Levring's The King Is Alive always stood as my favorite, despite the handful of problems that lie within. The premise, in which a group of tourists get stranded in the middle of an African desert when their bus veers off-course, isn't remarkable. It's a classic pre-reality TV boom exposé of the dark side of the human condition, in which a group of strangers resort to greed and treachery as their hope diminishes, and it doesn't break new ground there. However, when meta psychdrama takes precedence over bleak survival drama, The King Is Alive becomes a lot more intriguing. Of the uniformly excellent cast, Levring provides his actresses with the best material, with Romane Bohringer as an Iago-esque French woman, Jennifer Jason Leigh as a seemingly vapid party girl, Janet McTeer and Lia Williams as women unsatisfied by their husbands. Though certainly contrived, The King Is Alive is rather beautiful when it's hitting the right notes.

With: David Bradley, Romane Bohringer, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Janet McTeer, David Calder, Bruce Davison, Lia Williams, Chris Walker, Vusi Kunene, Miles Anderson, Brion James, Peter Khubeke
Screenplay: Kristian Levring, Anders Thomas Jensen, with inspiration from William Shakespeare's King Lear
Cinematography: Jens Schlosser
Music: Derek Thompson
Country of Origin: Denmark/Sweden/USA
US Distributor: IFC Films

Premiere: 11 May 2000 (Cannes)
US Premiere: 2001 May 11

Awards: Best Actress - Jennifer Jason Leigh (Tokyo International Film Festival)

Psycho Beach Party - dir. Robert Lee King

An amalgam of Frankie & Annette beach films, slasher pics and 60s Americana, Psycho Beach Party finds nothing new to say about its gender or sexual politics, but in such a rambunctious, vibrant package, it's hard to complain. The year 2000 was a strong one for Lauren Ambrose, whose hysterical performance as the spunky schizo Chicklet here and the lost teenager Frankie in Robert J. Siegel's somber Swimming would lead her to the amazing Six Feet Under the following year. Though Psycho Beach Party has a few casting missteps (Nicholas Brendan as Mr. Perfect?), Amy Adams, as the boycrazy Marvel Ann, is one of the bright spots.

With: Lauren Ambrose, Charles Busch, Thomas Gibson, Nicholas Brendon, Beth Broderick, Kimberley Davies, Matt Keeslar, Danni Wheeler, Amy Adams, Nick Cornish, Andrew Levitas, Kathleen Robertson, Nathan Bexton, Buddy Quaid
Screenplay: Charles Busch, based on his play Psycho Beach Party
Cinematography: Arturo Smith
Music: Ben Vaughn
Country of Origin: USA/Australia
US Distributor: Strand Releasing

Premiere: 23 January 2000 (Sundance)

Awards: Outstanding Actress - Lauren Ambrose (L.A. Outfest)

Trolösa [Faithless] - dir. Liv Ullmann

Ingmar Bergman screenplays directed by other people always lack the filmmaker's visual and emotional touch, but his frequent actress and former lover Liv Ullmann does an impressive job with Faithless, even if it does feel like something's missing. There's a strangeness about the unveiled disclosure of the screenplay, in which Erland Josephson, another regular in Bergman's troupe of actors, plays a character named Bergman, living on the island of Fårö, where many of the master's great works were filmed and where he'd later die. Ullmann keeps things ambiguous however, intertwining imagination and memory and keeping the narrative from feeling too confessional.

With: Lena Endre, Erland Josephson, Krister Henriksson, Thomas Hanzon, Michelle Gylemo
Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman
Cinematography: Jörgen Persson
Country of Origin: Sweden/Italy/Germany/Finland/Norway
US Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films

Premiere: 13 May 2000 (Cannes)
US Premiere: 2001 January 26 (Palm Springs International Film Festival)

Happy Times - dir. Zhang Yimou

Happy Times would be the turning point in Zhang Yimou's successful, if overpraised, career. His fascination with human drama ended on a high note with Happy Times before giving way to shit-fucking-awful martial arts epics Hero and House of Flying Daggers (as well Curse of the Golden Flower, which I never saw, and Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, a "return to form").

With: Zhao Benshan, Dong Jie, Dong Lifan, Fu Biao, Li Xuejian
Screenplay: Zi Gai, based on the novel Shifu, You'll Do Anything for a Laugh by Mo Yan
Cinematography: Hou Yong
Music: San Bao
Country of Origin: China
US Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics

Premiere: 31 December 2000
US Premiere: 2002 July 26

Erin Brockovich - dir. Steven Soderbergh

As wildly diverse as Steven Soderbergh's career may be, he found one of his best films, Out of Sight, under the Hollywood umbrella. While not nearly as good as Out of Sight, Erin Brockovich was, for this writer, the better of Soderbergh's offerings in 2000. Erin Brockovich's "empowerment" and sense of humor made for a much more enjoyable filmgoing experience than Traffic's "grittiness." Both could be thrown together as "message movies" about giant social issues, and while their insincerity comes from divergent reasons, Erin Brockovich never strives for anything bigger than its real-life subject does, and thankfully a few of those things are a tight-top, big hair, high heels and plenty of sass. All snark aside, Julia Roberts' performance is quite good, and her Oscar for it is certainly justified from a Hollywood perspective (though, of course, plenty of other actresses were even better with more challenging roles).

With: Julia Roberts, Albert Finney, Aaron Eckhart, Marg Helgenberger
Screenplay: Susannah Grant
Cinematography: Ed Lachman
Music: Thomas Newman
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Universal Studios

Premiere: 14 March 2000 (USA)

Awards: Best Actress - Julia Roberts (Academy Awards); Best Actress - Julia Roberts (BAFTAs); Best Actress, Drama - Julia Roberts (Golden Globes); Best Actress - Julia Roberts, Best Director [also for Traffic] (National Board of Review)

Dancing at the Blue Iguana - dir. Michael Radford

As a film, Dancing at the Blue Iguana isn't much, but as an acting experiment, which was how the film became what it is, it's fantastic. Surrounding the personal and professional lives of five strippers at the Blue Iguana, Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly and Sandra Oh deliver some of the best performances of their careers. All three tool around with their own expected cinematic personas (Hannah as the ditzy blonde, Oh as the introverted nice girl and Tilly as the fiesty vixen) with remarkable results. As one might expect from a film based around improvisation, Dancing at the Blue Iguana works better in individual scenes than as a whole. The most memorable occurs when Tilly, after finding out that she's pregnant, tries to smoke in the waiting room of the doctor's office and goes off on the irritating mom-to-bed next to her. Though neither Hannah nor Oh are physically believable as strippers (I always assume chest size is a pre-requisite for such a job), they make up for it in other areas. Dancing at the Blue Iguana is one of the few examples of a film that overcomes the fact that the sum of its parts greatly out-weight the whole.

With: Daryl Hannah, Jennifer Tilly, Charlotta Ayanna, Sandra Oh, Sheila Kelley, Elias Koteas, Robert Wisdom, Vladimir Mashkov, Kristin Bauer, W. Earl Brown, Chris Hogan, Rodney Rowland, Jesse Bradford, Christina Cabot
Screenplay: Michael Radford, David Linter
Cinematography: Ericson Core
Music: Tal Bergman, Renato Neto
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: Lions Gate

Premiere: 14 September 2000 (Toronto Film Festival)
US Premiere: 21 April 2001 (Los Angeles Film Festival)

Trasgredire [Cheeky!] - dir. Tinto Brass

Taken from my earlier review: Tinto Brass still makes films as if it were the 1970s. We open Cheeky! with our heroine, Carla (Yuliya Mayarchuk), strolling through a London park like Jayne Mansfield in The Girl Can’t Help It to an amusingly high-cheese score, where it just so happens everyone around her is engaging in lusty sex. Everywhere she turns, there’s a woman uncrossing her legs to reveal she forgot to put her panties in the laundry that morning. Or there’s a couple in heat, appeasing one another’s sexual urges. Of course, Carla, looking like an Eastern-European streetwalker dressed up as Brigitte Bardot, joins in on the fun, wearing a see-through skirt and exposing her buttocks to passer-byers. There’s a story that follows involving Carla’s tight-ass boyfriend and her search for an apartment, but really this is only an excuse to introduce Carla to as many sexual partners as possible or place her in a situation where others are about to bang. The playfulness of Cheeky!’s sexuality is admirable and refreshing, even if the film is simply pretext for close-ups of Mayarchuk’s ass and sexual experimentation.

With: Yuliya Mayarchuk, Jarno Berardi, Francesca Nunzi, Max Parodi, Mauro Lorenz, Leila Carli, Vittorio Attene
Screenplay: Tinto Brass, Carla Cipriani, Nicolaj Pennestri, Silvia Rossi, Massimiliano Zanin
Cinematography: Massimo Di Venanzo
Music: Pino Donaggio
Country of Origin: Italy
US Distributor: Cult Epics

Premiere: 28 January 2000 (Italy)
US Premiere: 30 May 2006 (DVD Premiere)

Sordid Lives - dir. Del Shores

With: Beth Grant, Delta Burke, Ann Walker, Leslie Jordan, Bonnie Bedelia, Beau Bridges, Kirk Geiger, Olivia Newton-John, Newell Alexander, Rosemary Alexander
Screenplay: Del Shores, based on his play
Cinematography: Max Civon
Music: George S. Clinton
Country of Origin: USA
US Distributor: here! Films

Premiere: 2000 May 25 (Toronto InsideOut Lesbian and Gay Film Festival)
US Premiere: 31 May 2000 (Seattle International Film Festival)

Awards: Outstanding Soundtrack (L.A. Outfest); Best Feature Film, Best Actor - Leslie Jordan (New York International Independent Film & Video Festival); Best Feature (Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival)

Faites comme si je n'étais pas là [Pretend I'm Not Here] - dir. Olivier Jahan

With: Jérémie Renier, Aurore Clément, Sami Bouajila, Alexia Stresi, Nathalie Richard, Emma de Caunes, Johan Leysen, Ouassini Embarek, Bouli Lanners
Screenplay: Olivier Jahan, Michael C. Pouzol
Cinematography: Gilles Porte
Music: Cyril Moisson
Country of Origin: France
US Distributor: N/A

Premiere: 2000 June (Avignon Film Festival)
US Premiere: N/A

101 Reykjavík - dir. Baltasar Kormákur

With: Hilmir Snær Guðnason, Victoria Abril, Hanna María Karlsdóttir, Þrúður Vilhjálmsdóttir, Baltasar Kormákur
Screenplay: Baltasar Kormákur, based on the novel by Hallgrímur Helgason
Cinematography: Peter Steuger
Music: Damon Albarn, Einar Örn Benediktsson
Country of Origin: Iceland/Denmark/France/Norway/Germany
US Distributor: Wellspring

Premiere: 1 June 2000 (Iceland)
US Premiere: 25 July 2001 (New York City)

Awards: Discovery Award (Toronto International Film Festival); Best Screenplay, Best Sound - Kjartan Kjartansson (Edda Awards, Iceland)

Mysterious Object at Noon - dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul

Cinematography: Prasong Klimborron, Sayombhu Mukdeeprom
Country of Origin: Thailand
US Distributor: Plexifilm

Premiere: 2000 October 2 (Vancouver International Film Festival)
US Premiere: 2001 June 23 (New York City)

Dayereh [The Circle] - dir. Jafar Panahi

With: Nargess Mamizadeh, Maryiam Palvin Almani, Mojgan Faramarzi, Elham Saboktakin, Solmaz Panahi, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaiy, Fatemeh Naghavi, Monir Arab
Screenplay: Kambuzia Partovi
Cinematography: Bahram Badakshani
Country of Origin: Iran/Switzerland/Italy
US Distributor: Fox Lorber

Premiere: 6 September 2000 (Venice FIlm Festival)
US Premiere: 1 March 2000 (International Film Series)

Awards: Golden Lion (Venice); Freedom of Expression Award (National Board of Review)

O Fantasma - dir. João Pedro Rodrigues

With: Ricardo Meneses, Beatriz Torcato, Andre Barbosa, Eurico Vieria, Joaquim Oliveira, Florindo Lourenço
Screenplay: Alexandre Melo, José Neves, Paulo Rebelo, João Pedro Rodrigues
Cinematography: Rui Poças
Country of Origin: Portugal
US Distributor: Picture This!

Premiere: 8 September 2000 (Venice Film Festival)
US Premiere: 2001 June 2 (Seattle International Film Festival)

Awards: Best Feature (New York Lesbian and Gay Film Festival)

Some Re-Releases in July, Bad News for Ran, Plus 2 of the Best Music Videos You'll See All Year

Ryko's release schedule for July features two exciting re-issues and a new-to-DVD title from Italy. Elio Petri's The 10th Victim [La decima vittima], with Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress, and Marco Bellocchio's Devil in the Flesh [Il diavolo in corpo], with Maruschka Detmers, are returning to circulation from Blue Underground and MYA respectively, while Cult Epics brings us Tinto Brass' experimental The Howl [L'Urlo], with Tina Aumont, makes its DVD debut in the US. For Aumont fans, Blue Underground is also re-issuing Sergio Matino's giallo Torso [I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale]. Rounding out the rest of Ryko's July DVD titles are:

Sergio Bizzio's Animalada from Synapse
Sergio Matino's spaghetti western Arizona Colt Returns from MYA
Robert Hatford-Davis' Black Torment [aka Estate of Insanity] from Redemption
Buddy Giovinazzo's Combat Shock [aka American Nightmare] from Troma
Enzo G. Castellari's Eagles over London [La battaglia d'Inghilterra] on DVD and Blu-ray from Severin
Frank: Diary of an Assassin from S'more
In Search of the Great Beast 666 from Disinformation
Anna Terean's Kevorkian: Right to Exit from Indie-Pictures
Fred Burnley's Neither the Sea Nor the Sand [aka The Exorcism of Hugh] from Redemption
Roger A. Scheck's Nobody Loves Alice from Indie-Pictures
Naoki Kudo and Terry Ito's Oh! My Zombie Mermaid from Eastern Star
Rodrigo Grande's Rosarigasinos from Synapse
Milan Cieslar's Spring of Life [Pramen zivota] from Redemption

Also look for Rolf de Heer's Bad Boy Bubby and Enzo G. Castellari's Inglorious Bastards [Quel maledetto treno blindato], just in time for Quentin Tarantino's remake, on Blu-ray from Blue Underground and Severin. All discs street on 28 July.

Magnolia has three titles lined up for June: Sean McGinley's The Great Buck Howard, with Tom Hanks, John Malkovich, Emily Blunt, Colin Hanks, Steve Zahn and Adam Scott, on 21 July; Hitoshi Matsumoto's Big Man Japan on 28 July; and Tony Stone's Severed Ways: The Norse Discovery of America on 28 July.

Lionsgate will release Alison Maclean's Jesus' Son, based on the work of Denis Johnson, on 23 June. Universal previously released the film on DVD in 2001; it stars Samantha Morton, Billy Crudup, Holly Hunter, Dennis Hopper, Denis Leary, Jack Black, Michael Shannon, Mark Webber, Ben Shenkman and Will Patton, as well as author Johnson and Miranda July in small roles. Oscilloscope has Stephen Kijak's Scott Walker: 30 Century Man for 16 June, and ThinkFilm/Image has John Maybury's The Edge of Love, with Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller, on 14 July.

As for box-sets, Sony has packaged five previously unavailable Jack Lemmon films together for 9 June. The set includes Mark Robson's Phffft!, with Judy Holliday and Kim Novak; Richard Quine's Operation Mad Ball, with Ernie Kovacs, Mickey Rooney and Kathryn Grant; Quine's The Notorious Landlady, with Novak, Fred Astaire and Lionel Jeffries; David Swift's Under the Yum Yum Tree; and Swift's Good Neighbor Sam, with Romy Schneider. Kino also has a box coming of John Barrymore films from the 20s on 7 July. The box includes Albert Parker's Sherlock Holmes; Alan Crosland's The Beloved Rogue, with Conrad Veidt; Sam Taylor, Lewis Milestone and Viktor Tourjansky's Tempest; John S. Robertson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; and the shorts Vagabonding on the Pacific and Dr. Pyckle and Mr. Pride, as well as an except from an earlier version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, directed by J. Charles Haydon. As far as I know, Sherlock Holmes will be the only title available separately.

And bad news for Blu-ray collectors: Criterion's release of Ran has been "withdrawn from the schedule due to a rights issue." The 2-disc DVD set of the film has also gone out-of-print now. And, I'm sure you know who's responsible for the rights issue. Yes, it's the Weinsteins, who hold the rights to a number of Fox Lorber/Wellspring's catalogue, though of course they haven't done much with it.

And finally, might I direct your attention to two amazing music videos from Fever Ray, the solo project of The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson. "If I Had a Heart," directed by Andreas Nilsson who did many of The Knife's videos, is the opening track off the self-titled album, and the video manages to out-creep even Chris Cunningham's Aphex Twin videos. "When I Grow Up," directed by Martin de Thurrah, is the album's second track, and focuses its attention on a girl who looks like the lovechild of Carrie White and the scary disfigured girl in the basement from Martyrs. Both represent the best music videos of 2009 so far, and if you haven't picked up the album, it comes highly recommended.

DVD Release Update for March/April 09

I'm still waiting for that big 2009 DVD announcement to cream my shorts, but until then, here are some recently announced titles (I'm still working out how to properly format these updates). Severin has re-announced Patrice Leconte's The Hairdresser's Husband (Le mari de la coiffeuse) and The Perfume of Yvonne (Le parfum d'Yvonne) for 28 April. In other Ryko news, three skin flicks will be available on the same date: Sergio Martino's Craving Desire (Graffiante desiderio) from MYA, Tinto Brass' Deadly Sweet (Col cuore in gola) with Jean-Louis Trintignant from Cult Epics and some film called Naked Rashomon from Mondo Macabre (I couldn't find any information on this one, but it sounded worth mentioning). Also, The Disinformation Company is releasing Aleksei Balabanov's Cargo 200, which was Aaron Hillis' first "Film of the Week" as the new editor of GreenCine Daily, on the same date.

From First Run Features, Vadim Glowna's House of the Sleeping Beauties (Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen), which co-stars the director alongside Maximilian Schell and Birol Ünel, and Parvez Sharma's documentary A Jihad for Love, about gay Muslims, street on 21 April. From Cinequest, Robert Peters' German-English musical Half Empty, with Marek Harloff, and Mária Procházková's Shark in the Head (Zralok v hlave), from the Czech Republic, will be out 25 March. And speaking of musicals, Troma's Crazy Animal, which co-stars Ron Jeremy and Lloyd Kaufman (of course), hits stores 31 March.

Anchor Bay will release the French sci-fi yarn Chrysalis, which stars Albert Dupontel, on 17 March. Zeitgeist is releasing the documentary Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains on 28 April. Ariztical Entertainment will have the German farce Fashion Victims (Reine Geschmacksache), which features a brief appearance from the wonderful Irm Hermann, out on 24 March.

No one seems to have been very kind to Anthony Page's BBC drama My Zinc Bed, which stars Paddy Considine, Uma Thurman and Jonathan Pryce, but HBO is releasing it still on 17 March. And finally, Wolfe has Ben from Lost and Arlene from True Blood (real life married couple) as the single mother and homo neighbor of a little boy who wants to be a cheerleader in Ready? OK!, which is out 24 March. All for now.