Excalibur is not a thing, something you can hold in your hand.
Excalibur is the good in you.
The power to do good, to stand up for what's right, to slay dragons, to capture bank robbers.
You always carry Excalibur in your heart.


Robert Tinnell, Kids of the Round Table (1995)

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Tristana Returns to Video

 Luis Buñuel's 1970 film Tristana, a modern-day recasting of the Tristan story, has recently been released to home and on-demand video as part of the Cohen Film Collection (details, trailer, and images at http://www.cohenfilmcollection.net/Details.aspx?id=00d78a14-db09-e311-9060-d4ae527c3b65) with a number of features, as noted on the Amazon.com product pages (DVD; Blu-Ray), unique to the physical media versions.

Synopsis (from Cohen Film Collection)

Tristana stars Catherine Deneuve as an orphaned young woman who becomes the ward of a nobleman (Fernando Rey) who seduces her. She then leaves him for an artist (Franco Nero), but returns to her aging benefactor and calculatingly hastens his demise.

Filmed in Toledo, Spain, it was released in 1970 after protracted skirmishes with censors in Generalissimo Franco’s government.

Restored by Cohen Film Collection in conjunction with Filmoteca Española, Madrid to its original glory not seen since its original release in 1970.




DVD/Blu-Ray Extras: (from Amazon)

- Feature Length audio commentary with Catherine Deneuve and critic Kent Jones
- 30 minute featurette with Bunuel scholar Peter William Evans
- Alternate ending
- Catherine Deneuve's diary entries written during production
- New essay by Cineaste editor Richard Porton
- Chapter excerpt from scholar Raymond Durgnat from his now out of print book on Bunuel
- English and Spanish dub tracks
- New restoration trailer