Masters of Cinema Announces Jan/Feb 2013 Slate: Kubrick! Fellini! Guitry! & More

It is always an exciting day when Eureka Entertainment's Masters of Cinema series unveils a new block of titles soon to be entering its pantheon of cinematic excellence. And today is just such a day. Only a few minutes ago, the MoC twitter feed announced its slate of January and February 2013 releases, and it more than holds up to the label's recent run of incredible home video titles, which has included Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra, Billy Wilder's Double Indemnity and will soon see the release of Carl Theodor Dreyer's masterpiece, The Passion of Joan of Arc.

Eureka Entertainment announced today via their twitter feeds (@eurekavideo & @mastersofcinema) the forthcoming releases in The Masters of Cinema series for the months of January and February 2013.

Following a spate of epic releases for the last quarter of 2012 which included Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen and Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, The Masters of Cinema Series returns in 2013 with the nearly-impossible-to-see debut feature film by Stanley Kubrick, a long-awaited Blu-ray and DVD Dual Format release of Josef von Sternberg's classic first-collaboration with Marlene Dietrich, new restorations of films by the European giants Fellini and Guitry, and a Blu-ray upgrade of Kaneto Shindô's cult horror confection Onibaba.

Producer of the Masters of Cinema Series, Craig Keller stated "January sees the release of Stanley Kubrick's 1953 debut feature Fear and Desire, newly restored by The Library of Congress -- a war-film psychodrama that exhibits many of the thematic obsessions and visual motifs that would course throughout all of Kubrick's films over the next four decades -- needless to say, ravishingly photographed, even this early on in his career. We are extremely excited that UK audiences will at last be able to see where that body of work called "Kubrick" all began. Also this month: we've got the HD debut of Josef von Sternberg's immortal The Blue Angel, in both its German and English-language versions (shot by Sternberg simultaneously) featuring Marlene Dietrich as the impossibly erotic cabaret singer who bewitches Emil Jannings -- and consigns him to perdition.

In February we present three titles, two of which capitalise on sumptuous HD restorations carried out by Gaumont. The first of these is Federico Fellini's unhinged 1980 post-punk epic, City of Women [La città delle donne / La cité des femmes], starring the great Marcello Mastroianni in a kind of reprise of his role from Fellini's 8-1/2. The second new HD restoration is the initial entry into The Masters of Cinema Series by the French comic genius Sacha Guitry -- La Poison [Poison] -- starring the equally brilliant Michel Simon (of Renoir's La Chienne and Boudu sauvé des eaux, and Vigo's L'Atalante). We're so proud to introduce this venomously witty murder-comedy to UK audiences -- it's a perfect example of why Guitry was revered as a kind of god both by the French public at large and by the critics and filmmakers that went on to form the New Wave. Our last release of the month is a new Blu-ray upgrade of the recently deceased Kaneto Shindô's Onibaba -- one of our most popular films -- an unsettling, atmospheric erotic horror film whose Scope frames veer between sunlit existential dread and moonlit mystery/suspense.

Managing Director of Eureka, Ron Benson added "We're very excited by this Jan/Feb lineup -- with new HD elements of all five films, each accompanied by numerous supplements and the kind of lengthy booklets our fans will be thrilled to pore over. But we're only getting started -- 2013 might be our most exciting year yet."
Full details of each of the titles announced can be found on the Eureka / Masters of Cinema website www.eurekavideo.co.uk/moc

For latest news and updates from Eureka & The Masters of Cinema Series, Eureka can be found on Facebook www.facebook.com/EurekaEntertainment and via their twitter feeds @mastersofcinema & @eurekavideo.