"Director: Walerian Borowczyk"

• Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection | Blu Ray | (12/10/2020) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This ground-breaking collection brings together Walerian Borowczyk's key films from a twenty-five-year period stretching from 1959 through to 1984. This unique release includes five of Borowczyk s provocative feature films: Theatre de Monsieur et Madame Kabal, Goto, l ile d amour, Blanche, Contes Immoraux and La Bête as well as his ground-breaking short films from this period, in digital high definition restorations approved by the director s widow, Ligia Branice. In addition to exclusive documentaries featuring cast and crew, an hour long portrait of Borowczyk is included, featuring the director s musings on painting, animation and sex. Arrow Academy's Walerian Borowczyk Collection is a vital addition to the collection of anyone interested in either world cinema, animation or experimental film. 5-DISC SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS HD restorations of the five features High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentations Original uncompressed mono 1.0 audio English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Reversible sleeves featuring Borowczyk s original poster designs and artwork THEATRE OF MR AND MRS KABAL The short films Astronauts (1959), The Concert (1962), Grandmother s Encyclopaedia (1963), Renaissance (1963), Angels Games (1964), Joachim s Dictionary (1965), Rosalie (1966), Gavotte (1967), Diptych (1967), The Phonograph (1969), The Greatest Love of All Time (1978) and Scherzo Infernal (1984) Introduction by filmmaker and animator Terry Gilliam Film is Not a Sausage, a documentary about Borowczyk s animated work featuring Borowczyk, producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant André Heinrich and composer Bernard Parmegiani Blow Ups, a visual essay by Daniel Bird about Borowczyk s works on paper Commercials by Walerian Borowczyk: Holy Smoke (1963), The Museum (1964) and Tom Thumb (1966) GOTO, ISLE OF LOVE Introduction by artist and Turner Prize nominee Craigie Horsfield The Concentration Universe, a new interview programme featuring actor Jean-Pierre Andréani, cameraman Noël Véry and camera assistant Jean-Pierre Platel The Profligate Door, a new documentary about Borowczyk s sound sculptures featuring curator Maurice Corbet BLANCHE Introduction by Schalcken the Painter director Leslie Megahey Ballad of Imprisonment, a documentary about the film featuring producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin, assistant director André Heinrich, camera operator Noël Véry and assistant Patrice Leconte Obscure Pleasures: A Portrait of Walerian Borowczyk, a newly edited archival interview in which Borowczyk discusses painting, cinema and sex Gunpoint, a documentary short by Peter Graham produced and edited by Borowczyk IMMORAL TALES Introduction by Borowczyk expert Daniel Bird Love Reveals Itself, a video essay about the film featuring production manager Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin and cinematographer Noël Véry Obscure Pleasures: A Portrait of Valerian Borowczyk, a newly edited archival interview in which the filmmaker discusses painting, cinema and sex Blow Ups, a visual essay by Daniel Bird about Borowczyk s works on paper Theatrical trailer THE BEAST An introduction by film critic Peter Bradshaw Borowczyk s erotic short film Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) The Making of the Beast, an hour-long documentary with rare on-set footage, narrated by cameraman Noël Véry Frenzy of Ecstasy, a visual essay about The Beast s design and the film s unmade sequel Original theatrical trailer

• Behind Convent Walls | DVD | (19/11/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The cloistered atmosphere of a 19th century convent becomes a hotbed of repressed desire in this film by Walerian Borowczyk, director of 'The Beast' and 'The Streetwalker'.

• The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne | Blu Ray | (11/05/2015) from £19.98   |  Saving you £7.00 (38.91%)   |  RRP £24.99

  “Potent and poetic mischievous and macabre Borowczyk’s film shows how many imaginative worlds the horror movie can open up when the right artist holds the keys” (Nigel Andrews Financial Times) It’s the engagement party for brilliant young Dr Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and his fiancée the beautiful Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro) attended by various pillars of Victorian society including the astonishing Patrick Magee in one of his final roles. But when people are found raped and murdered outside and ultimately inside the house it becomes clear that a madman has broken in to disrupt the festivities – but who is he? And why does Dr Jekyll keep sneaking off to his laboratory? We know the answer of course but Walerian Borowczyk’s visually stunning adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s much-filmed tale is crammed with wildly imaginative and outrageously perverse touches characteristic of the man who scandalised audiences with Immoral Tales and The Beast not least the explicitly sexualised nature of Mr Hyde’s primal urges. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: Brand new 2K restoration scanned from the original camera negative and supervised by cinematographer Noël Véry High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film released on both formats for the first time anywhere in the world English and French soundtracks in LPCM 1.0 Optional English and English SDH subtitles  Appreciation by critic and long-term Borowczyk fan Michael Brooke  Audio commentary featuring archival interviews with Walerian Borowczyk and new interviews with cinematographer Noël Véry editor Khadicha Bariha assistant Michael Levy and filmmaker Noël Simsolo moderated by Daniel Bird  Brand new interview with Udo Kier  Brand new interview with Marina Pierro Himorogi (2012) a short film by Marina and Alessio Pierro made in homage to Borowczyk Interview with artist and filmmaker Alessio Pierro Phantasmagoria of the Interior a video essay on Borowczyk’s Dr Jekyll by Adrian Martin and Cristina Álvarez López Eyes That Listen a featurette on Borowczyk’s collaborations with electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani  Happy Toy (1979) a short film by Borowczyk inspired by Charles-Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope  Introduction to Happy Toy by production assistant Sarah Mallinson Returning to Méliès: Borowczyk and Early Cinema a featurette by Daniel Bird Reversible sleeve with artwork based on Borowczyk’s own poster design Booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive pieces by Walerian Borowczyk and André Pieyre de Mandiargues  illustrated with rare stills

• Immoral Tales | Blu Ray | (08/09/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Although it has much in common with Walerian Borowczyk's earlier work Immoral Tales marks the point where his reputation as an arty pornographer began and was sexually explicit enough to have caused problems with the censors on its original UK release. It tells four stories revolving around particular taboos (virginity female masturbation bloodlust incest) each delving further back in time as if to suggest that the same issues recur constantly throughout human history and in all walks of life whether it's Lucrezia Borgia (Florence Bellamy) or Erzsébet Báthory (Paloma Picasso in her only screen role) or the anonymous teenagers of the earlier episodes. This high-definition restoration by Argos Films is being released on Blu-ray with English subtitles for the first time. The film is presented in two versions: the familiar four-part edition and the original five-part conception including the short film The True Story of the Beast of Gévaudan that was later expanded into Borowczyk's later feature The Beast. The disc also includes both cuts of A Private Collection (1973) the short film that scandalised film festival audiences with its witty and often graphic study of vintage erotica. Special Features: New high definition digital transfers of the feature and the shorts Uncompressed Mono 2.0 PCM Audio Optional English subtitles Introduction by Borowczyk expert Daniel Bird Love Reveals Itself a new interview programme featuring production manager Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin and cinematographer Noël Véry A Private Collection (1973) presented in the commercially released version and the more explicit 'Oberhausen' cut Boro Brunch a reunion meal recorded in February 2014 reuniting members of Borowczyk's crew Theatrical Trailer Reversible sleeve featuring original poster designs Booklet

• Story of Sin | Blu Ray | (13/03/2017) from £20.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The life of a beautiful, young and pious woman is thrown into chaos when her parents takes in a dashingly handsome lodger. Having embarked on a torrid affair, the lodger goes off to Rome to seek a divorce from his estranged wife. Unable to live apart from her beloved, our hero leaves home only to fall prey to the infatuations and lusts of a band of noble admirers, unsavoury criminals and utopian do-gooders The only feature Walerian Borowczyk (The Beast, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne) made in his native Poland, Story of Sin transforms Stefan Zeromski's classic melodrama into a deliriously surrealistic meditation on l'amour fou.

• Blanche | Blu Ray | (08/09/2014) from £16.39   |  Saving you £3.60 (21.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of the greatest of all medieval films not least for its utterly distinctive realisation of a recognisable yet alien world Walerian Borowczyk’s third feature was widely hailed as a masterpiece from the moment it first appeared and is still regarded as one of his greatest films. Based on Juliusz S?owacki’s 19th-century play Mazepa but relocated to 13th-century France Blanche tells the story of the beautiful young wife (Ligia Branice) of a nobleman many decades older (French acting legend Michel Simon). As innocent as her name suggests Blanche becomes the unwilling centre of attention in a power struggle between her husband the visiting King and his page the latter a notorious womaniser. Its unique visual style resembles a medieval fresco and its period-instruments soundtrack adapting the ancient ‘Carmina Burana’ song book was years ahead of its time. Blanche is presented in a brand new high-definition restoration from original 35mm elements. Bonus Features: New high definition digital transfers of the feature and the shorts Uncompressed Mono 2.0 PCM Audio Optional English subtitles where necessary Introduction by Schalcken the Painter director Leslie Megahey Ballad of Imprisonment a documentary about the film featuring producer Dominique Duvergé-Ségrétin assistant director André Heinrich camera operator Noël Véry and assistant Patrice Leconte Obscure Pleasures: A Portrait of Walerian Borowczyk a newly edited archival interview in which Borowczyk discusses painting cinema and sex Gunpoint a documentary short by Peter Graham produced and edited by Borowczyk Reversible sleeve featuring original poster designs Collector’s booklet

• The Beast | Blu Ray | (18/08/2014) from £14.79   |  Saving you £5.20 (35.16%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Originally turned down flat by the British Board of Film Censors and initially released exclusively in London in a version heavily cut by its nervous distributor The Beast is Walerian Borowczyk's most notorious film although it's much wittier and more playful than its subject matter might suggest. Lucy Broadhurst (Lisbeth Hummel) is due to inherit a substantial fortune but on condition that she marries the son of her late father's best friend. But Mathurin de l'Espérance (Pierre Benedetti) seems more interested in his horses than in his bride-to-be and when Lucy finds out about the story of his 18th-century ancestor Romilda (Sirpa Lane) and brings her to life in one of the most outrageous dream sequences in cinema history we begin to realise just how bizarre Mathurin's bloodline truly is. Receiving its Blu-ray world premiere this new high-definition restoration by Argos Films is supported by the original short-film version of The Beast and Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) Borowczyk's portrait of the painter Bona Tibertelli de Pisis and her erotic fusions of men women and molluscs. Special Features: New high definition digital transfers of the feature and the shorts Uncompressed Mono 2.0 PCM Audio Optional English subtitles Introduction by film critic Peter Bradshaw The True Story of the Beast of Gévaudan (1972) the original short-film version of The Beast Venus on the Half-Shell (1975) The Making of 'The Beast': camera operator Noël Véry provides a commentary on footage shot during the film’s production Frenzy of Ecstasy a new visual essay on the evolution of Borowczyk’s beast and the sequel that never was Motherhood Theatrical trailer Reversible sleeve featuring original poster design Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive pieces by David Thompson and Craig Lapper illustrated with original stills

• Goto, Isle of Love | Blu Ray | (08/09/2014) from £17.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (25.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Walerian Borowczyk’s second feature was just as original as his first. Almost entirely live action this time it is situated on the archipelago of Goto which has been cut off from the rest of human civilisation by a massive earthquake and has consequently developed its own arcane rules. Melancholic dictator Goto III (Pierre Brasseur) is married to the beautiful Glossia (Ligia Branice) who in turn is lusted after by the petty thief Gozo (Guy Saint-Jean) as he works his way up the hierarchy.

• Walerian Borowczyk Short Films and Animation | Blu Ray | (08/09/2014) from £16.39   |  Saving you £3.60 (21.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  For the first decade of his career Walerian Borowczyk exclusively made short films initially in his native Poland but then mostly in France where he settled permanently in the late 1950s. This disc includes the vast majority of the shorts that he made between 1959 and 1984 apart from ones that were originally intended to accompany specific features. Far from being prentice work or optional extras the shorts include many of his greatest films such as the cut-out Astronauts the reverse-motion Renaissance and the extraordinary Angels Games a one-off masterpiece of the macabre that would alone establish Borowczyk as one of the cinema s most innovative artists. In 1967 Borowczyk made his feature debut a grotesque and surreal fantasy about the physically and temperamentally mismatched couple Mr & Mrs Kabal. Made with a tiny production team at a time when animated feature films were far scarcer than they are now it s almost the polar opposite of a Disney film with angular mainly monochrome graphics bringing the Kabals universe to startlingly vivid life. Both this and all the short films are presented in brand new high-definition restorations from original 35mm elements.

• The Beast - (La Bete) (1975) | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Beast is an erotic masterpiece from the most controversial exponent of the genre-Walerian Borowczyk. This sexual fantasia caused outrage when it was first screened in 1975 and was refused a certificate until 26 years later. A modern day version of 'Beauty and the Beast', The Beast is the story of a young American heiress, Lucy Broadhurst, betrothed to the mentally unstable heir to a French aristocratic dynasty. Dark rumours abound about a mystical 'beast' and on the night of her wedding Lucy is visited by strange and erotic dreams.Set in a beautiful gothic chateau, the film features hilarious couplings, not so pure clergy and unwholesome secrets shot in a superb brushstroke style, climaxing in what has to be one of the most erotic, and at the same time hilarious finales of all time.

• The Story Of Sin | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £9.43   |  Saving you £10.56 (111.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Passionate Melodrama surrealist erotica and the rapturous strains of Mendelssohn collide head on in Story of Sin - the story of Ewa whose betrayal in love drives her to murder and prostitution. Based on a novel placed on the Index by the Church Borowczyk's only feature to be shot in Poland meticulously recreates a time in which his country had no official existence casting a cynical eye on a corrupt society commited to exploiting the innocent and repressing the erotic.

• Love Rites | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  One day Hugo meets Myriam a prostitute who picks up her clients on the Paris metro. Hugo becomes obsessed with Myriam's sultry beauty and follows her to her flat owned by the mysterious 'Sara Sand' where he consumates his passion. Suddenly he finds the rules of the game have changed and Myriam is now in charge.. of his body and soul.

• Goto L'Ile D'Amour | DVD | (30/05/2005) from £31.70   |  Saving you £-11.71 (-58.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Goto L'ille D'Amour

• Love Rites | DVD | (25/01/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Love Rites