Film Movement Classics Set to Release Classics KAMIKAZE '89 And ONCE WERE WARRIORS on Blu-ray in September

Editor, U.S. ; Dallas, Texas (@HatefulJosh)

Indie film distributors Film Movement are gearing up to release a pair of highly anticipated Blu-rays in their Film Movement Classics line this September. Film Movement first made a name for themselves as a monthly subscription service by which fans could acquire a very well curated collection of independent films through the mail. Fairly recently they have moved into acquiring and releasing older classic titles for release on home video.

This September will see the US Blu-ray releases of two films desperately in need of high definition upgrades. First up is Kamikaze '89 from director Wolf Gremm, a neon noir from Germany that features the final on screen performance of Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The other release is Lee Tamahori's requiem for Maori tribal history, Once Were Warriors. Check out the details and art below.

Directed by his friend Wolf Gremm and set in a New Wave, dystopian Germany, KAMIKAZE ‘89 is perhaps Fassbinder's crowning achievement as an actor. The film, throughout which he wears a signature leopard skin suit, also marks Fassbinder’s last collaboration with longtime muse Brigitte Mira and co-star Franco Nero (of DJANGO fame as well as the star of Fassbinder's final project as a writer/director, QUERELLE). KAMIKAZE ‘89 features a haunting electronic score by Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream.

Vincent Canby of The New York Times called KAMIKAZE ‘89 “a footnote to film history” when it was originally released, but New York Magazine’s Vulture describes it as “truly, deeply, gloriously weird." The DVD and Blu-ray bonus features will include a documentary, RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER: THE LAST YEAR, about the making of KAMIKAZE ’89 and QUERELLE; Wolf Gremm’s video memoir A WOLF AT THE DOOR; a producer’s commentary with Regina Ziegler; John Cassavetes’ KAMIKAZE ’89 radio spots; the original KAMIKAZE ’89 trailer and essays written by film critics Nick Pinkerton and Samuel B. Prime.

KAMIKAZE ‘89 (1982, 106 mins) Directed by Wolf Gremm. Written by Wolf Gremm and Robert Katz. Starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Günther Kaufmann and Brigitte Mira. Germany. German with English subtitles. A Film Movement Classics Release. Trailer, stills, and synopsis available here.

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Blu-rayhome videoLee TamahoriRainer Werner Fassbinder

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