LIFEBOAT

LIFEBOAT, one of the finest 1940s works by the Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, is to be released in the UK on DVD & Blu-ray as part of Eureka Entertainment’s MASTERS OF CINEMA Series on 23 April 2012

    

• First-ever Blu-ray release anywhere in the world of Lifeboat and Hitchcock's two rarely seen French-language 1944 war-time films, Bon voyage and Aventure malgache

           

• Based on a script by author John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden)

• Nominated for Oscars for best director, cinematography, and original story

• Starring a first-rate ensemble headed by Tallulah Bankhead, whose performance in the film won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best actress

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SYNOPSIS:

Based on an unpublished novella by John Steinbeck (written on commission expressly to provide treatment material for Hitchcock's screen scenario), Lifeboat found the Master of Suspense navigating a course of maximal tension – in the most minimal of settings – with a consistently inventive, beautifully paced drama that would foreshadow the single-set experiments of Rope and Dial M for Murder.

After a Nazi torpedo reduces an ocean liner to wooden splinters and scorched personal effects, the survivors of the attack pull themselves aboard a drifting lifeboat in the hope of eventual rescue. But the motivations of the German submarine captain (played by Walter Slezak) on the eponymous craft might extend beyond mere survival...

With a cast including Shadow of a Doubt veteran Hume Cronyn and the extraordinary, irrepressible Tallulah Bankhead, this "picture of characters", as François Truffaut aptly termed the film, oscillates dazzlingly between comic repartée and white-knuckle suspense – a perfect example of "the Hitchcock touch".

Eureka Entertainment’s MASTERS OF CINEMA Series is proud to present the Oscar-nominated  Lifeboat in a Dual Format (Blu-ray and DVD) standard edition & limited edition Dual Format steelbook , accompanied by Hitchcock's two French-language wartime shorts, Bon voyage and Aventure malgache. Released in the UK on 23 April 2012.  

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AVAILABLE FROM

AMAZON (Blu-ray) http://amzn.to/yQ1VLt  (Steelbook)  http://amzn.to/yRjKid

HMV (Blu-ray) http://tidd.ly/4dc9574c  (Steelbook) http://tidd.ly/56036724

PLAY (Blu-ray) http://bit.ly/wkXbHq  (Steelbook) http://bit.ly/zhZTSe

HUT (Blu-ray)  http://tidd.ly/4d7301da  (Steelbook)  http://tidd.ly/6f81e14f

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SPECIAL DUAL FORMAT EDITION FEATURES:

• New high-definition master, officially licensed from Twentieth Century Fox

• New high-definition transfers of Hitchcock's little-seen French-language 1944 wartime films, Bon voyage (26 minutes) and Aventure malgache (31 minutes) officially licensed from the British Film Institute

• Optional English subtitles on all three films

• 20-minute documentary on the making of Lifeboat

• 12-minute excerpt from the legendary 1962 audio interviews between Hitchcock and François Truffaut, discussing Lifeboat and the wartime shorts

• PLUS: A 36-page booklet featuring archival imagery alongside new writing by critics Bill Krohn, Arthur Mas, and Martial Pisani

    

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REVIEWS:

“Absorbing...brilliantly executed” – The Hollywood Reporter

" That old master of screen melodrama, Alfred Hitchcock, and Writer John Steinbeck have combined their distinctive talents in a tremendously provocative film” — Bosley Crowther, The New York Times

"He realises that peculiar Hitchcock manner with the player, in which the actor seems to be concentrating mentally on what he is about to do but never quite does it; so that his pantomime takes on a kind of sinister spontaneity." —Manny Farber, The New Republic

    

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DETAILS:

Label: Eureka Entertainment Ltd

Cat. No: EKA70040

Barcode: 5060000700404

RRP: £20.42

Steelbook Cat. No: EKA70076

Steelbook Barcode: 5060000700763

Steelbook RRP: £30.63

Release Date: 23 April 2012

Certificate: TBC

Run Time: 98 min.

Format:  1.37:1 OAR/ B&W

Genre: Thriller

Director: Alfred HITCHCOCK

Year: 1944

Country:  USA

Language: English

Subtitles: English SDH (Optional)

Bricks in Motion

LEGO Fan Recreates Nation’s Favourite Movie Moments

from the Iconic Bricks

With anticipation surrounding the annual Oscars ceremony hotting up, a 17 year old ‘A Level’ student and avid LEGO fan, has recreated the top ten movie moments of all time using the iconic bricks and popular minifigures.  And, the results show that we are a nostalgic nation with eight out of ten of the scenes being from pre 90s movies and most recent from 1997!

Topping the poll was the moment everyone’s favourite extra-terrestrial, E.T., rides the bicycle away in to night sky, with more than one in ten claiming it was their favourite movie scene of all time.  Coming a close second and third, was Hollywood starlet, Marilyn Monroe, standing above the subway in The Seven Year Itch and Gene Kelly singing in the rain, making up near to 20% of the vote.  Julie Andrews singing The Hills are Alive in The Sound of Music was fourth favourite followed by ill-fated lovers Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet standing on the bow of the Titanic.  Bond girl Ursula Andress striding out of the sea in a bikini in Dr No was next; then the famous ‘lift’ scene at the end of Dirty Dancing; Olivia Newton John turning up in her leathers at the funfair in Grease; Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze moulding their clay pot in Ghost; and finally, the opening scene of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark when Harrison Ford is chased by the rolling boulder.

The spoof video amalgamates the top ten moments in to one film, cutting neatly from one scene to another using a series of cleverly engineered transitions.  Indiana’s pot of treasure flies out of his hands and in to the scene from Ghost where it lands on Demi and Patrick’s potter’s wheel whilst after emerging from the sea in James Bond’s Dr. No, Ursula Andres swims away, only to come across Kate and Leo on board the Titanic! 

Currently studying drama at the Brit School, Harry Bossert from Walton, Surrey, has been producing LEGO videos since 2007 after seeing a LEGO video on YouTube.  His so called ‘brickfilms’ are a big hit on the video-sharing website and his version of Parry Gripp’s  Megaphone was shown at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in California last year. 

To see the video, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jh-LZFtsDIQ

To watch other videos produced by Harry Bossert from LEGO please visit his YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/Zoot101#g/u.

Top Ten Movie Moments

1.    E.T. elevating the bicycle for a ride through the night sky in E.T. The Extra Terrestrial – 1982

2.    Marilyn Monroe standing above the subway vent in The Seven Year Itch -  1955

3.    Gene Kelly singing in the rain in Singing in the Rain – 1952

4.    Julie Andrews singing The Hills are Alive in The Sound of Music – 1959

5.    Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet ‘I’m flying’ scene on the bow of the ship in Titanic – 1997

6.    Ursula Andress coming out of the sea in a bikini in James Bond Dr No – 1962

7.    ‘The lift’ scene in Dirty Dancing – 1987

8.    Olivia Newton John turning up at the funfair wearing leathers in Grease – 1978

9.    Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze making a clay pot together in Ghost – 1990

10. Opening scene of Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark where Harrison Ford is chased by the giant rolling boulder – 1981

Survey conducted February 2012 by LEGO UK