Christ Stopped At Eboli

‘great, haunting film’
The Sunday Telegraph

Infinity Arthouse is delighted to announce the release of the multi award-winning masterpiece Christ Stopped At Eboli from renowned Italian director Francesco Rosi. It will be available for the first time as a double DVD set on 15 May 2006.

Winner of the BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film, Christ Stopped At Eboli tells the story of the life-changing exile of anti-Fascist intellectual Carlo Levi to a remote village in Southern Italy.

The triumph of the human spirit is the theme of Rosi’s epic film, in which Carlo Levi is exiled in 1935 by the ruling Fascist dictatorship to a poverty-stricken village in the Basilicata region of southern Italy. Levi finds himself in a stark world, in which the peasants scratch a meagre living from the land, a world little changed since the Middle Ages. But, as Levi grapples with this new environment, it is the peasants’ wisdom, humanity and spirit that help him cope with his sense of helplessness and isolation.

Renowned for his political thrillers, Palme d’Or-winning director Francesco Rosi’s many credits include Salvatore Giuliano, Hands over the City, The Mattei Affair, Three Brothers, Bizet’s ‘Carmen’ and Chronicle of a Death Foretold. An accomplished screenwriter, Rosi also wrote the screenplay for Christ Stopped At Eboli based on Carlo Levi’s autobiographical novel.

The film’s distinguished cast features Gian Maria Volonté (Carlo Levi) best known to UK audiences for the Spaghetti Westerns’ A Fistful of Dollars, and For a Few Dollars More, alongside Paolo Bonacelli (Midnight Express), Alain Cuny (La Dolce Vita) and Irene Papas (Zorba the Greek).

Extras: Italian Portraits - Francesco Rosi
Title: Christ Stopped At Eboli

Release Date: 15 May 2006 RRP: £19.99 Running Time: 2hrs 25mins

*************
The Harem

‘one of Italy’s most impeccable films’
Variety

Infinity Arthouse is delighted to announce the release of this erotic masterpiece from one of Italian cinema’s most controversial directors, Marco Ferreri. It will be available for the first time ever on DVD on 15 May 2006.

Originally released in 1967, The Harem is a sumptuously sensual, darkly satiric drama starring screen siren and Academy Award nominee Carroll Baker (Baby Doll, Giant) as a seductive woman who deceitfully lures the three men she desires to her villa, pushing them to their limits by toying with their sexual needs and male egos.

Dubbed ‘the master of bad taste’ by the Sunday Times, Marco Ferreri established a reputation as a maker of blackly humorous satires on middle-class life and attitudes. He provoked a scandal at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival with his film La Grande Bouffe, a reworking of the Marquis de Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom, which won the Grand Jury Prize and entertained and disgusted in equal measure. Ferreri’s many other pungently original features include The House of Smiles, La Carne and Tales of Ordinary Madness.

The film features a wonderful soundtrack by the legendary Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morriocone (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The Mission, Cinema Paradiso.

An erotic masterpiece from one of Italy’s most controversial directors
Title: The Harem Release Date: 15 May 2006 RRP: £15.99

************************
God is Great, I’m Not

Universal Pictures is delighted to announce the release of the heartwarming romantic comedy God is Great, I’m Not, featuring the enchanting Audrey Tautou, star of the Oscar nominated Amélie and A Very Long Engagement.

In a captivating performance overflowing with gamine charm and gallic exuberance, Tautou plays 20 year old Michelle – a fashion model whose life is at an all time low. She’s broken up with her boyfriend and is having a crisis of faith – if only she could find something to believe in.

Trying and rejecting Christianity and Buddhism (“All this positive energy is exhausting!”) as the cure for her spiritual malaise, an answer seems to present itself in the form of the handsome François (Edouard Baer), a vet and non-practicing Jew. When Michelle decides to convert to Judaism, however, it has disastrous consequences for their relationship…

Directed with quirky élan by Pascale Bailly, God is Great, I’m Not is a light-hearted comedy of existential manners that explores the modern day quest for spiritual enlightenment and the myriad ways in which men and women fail to communicate.

Bonus features include: Making of, Deleted Scenes, Photo Gallery, Trailer and Filmographies.

Title: God is Great, I’m Not Release Date: 8 May 2006

RRP (recommended retail price): £9.99