I believe in Rutles, I believe my little soul has grown…
The Rutles 2: Can’t Buy Me Lunch, (the long-awaited sequel to The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash) will finally get a Region 1 DVD release on March 1 through Warner Home Video.
The 56 minute film received its world premiere in Los Angeles in 2003 at the first annual Don’t Knock the Rock Festival, and has not been available for public viewing (apart from limited fan screenings) since.
BowieNet members may remember from
Those not familiar with The Rutles and their massive contribution to music, (and, indeed, culture, The Counter Culture, fashion and silliness) can read the official press release
Meanwhile, here’s the technical guff:
DVD Special Features:
? Additional interviews
? Extensive deleted scenes
? Never-before-seen alternate ending
? Bonus “Easter egg”
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Today sees the release of the Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence special collector’s edition region 2 DVD, which is described as “The definitive edition of Oshima’s masterpiece”.
David received much critical acclaim for his portrayal of tormented POW Major Jack Celliers, not least of all from Stephen Dalton in The Times who said: “David Bowie gives one of his best acting performances.”
If you don’t own Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence yet, this is the DVD to get, containing, as it does, many extras as outlined below:
Release Information:
? Studio: Optimum Home Entertainment
? DVD Release Date: January 24th, 2005
? Run Time: 124 minutes
Edition Details:? Region 2 encoding (Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Middle East including Egypt)
? PAL
? Catalogue Number: OPTD0065
DVD Features:? Special Feature Information:
? Interviews With Nagisa Oshima, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Jerry Thomas
? The Oshima Gang Making Of Documentary
? Theatrical Trailer
? Main Language: English
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The charming 1968 promotional film, Love You Till Tuesday, finally gets a DVD release in a couple of weeks, when it is due to be issued on Region 0 DVD through Universal on February 7th. (Though some maverick European territories have already been selling the thing! If you want it before February 7th, It’s been available in Germany and The Netherlands since December 6th and it’s just gone on sale in France.)
For those of you not familiar with the film, here’s the tracklisting:
01 Love You Till Tuesday
02 Sell Me A Coat
03 When I’m Five
04 Rubber Band
05 The Mask
06 Let Me Sleep Beside You
07 Ching-A-Ling
08 Space Oddity
09 When I Live My Dream
Apparently the whole of the Love You Till Tuesday film ha been digitally restored and remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.
While it’s great to have this stuff on an official DVD, the surprise bonus is the inclusion of The Looking Glass Murders, the 1970 made-for-TV adaptation of Pierrot In Turquoise in which David plays the part of Cloud…a character who spends much of his time up the top of a step-ladder in an outrageous wig, punctuating the bizarre production with his funny little songs, all included here:
01 When I Live My Dream
02 Columbine
03 The Mirror
04 Threepenny Pierrot (Which borrows the melody of London By Ta Ta)
05 When I Live My Dream (Reprise)
This Lindsay Kemp production was originally made for Grampian TV in Scotland where it was filmed in February 1970 and eventually broadcast in July of the same year. I’ve had this DVD for a couple of weeks and it seems to me that it’s a cleaned-up version of the video tape that has circulated as a bootleg among fans for some time.
Whatever, if you’ve never seen it, you’re in for a shock. The DVD also includes a photo gallery with “extensive period photographs”…I presume that’s excluding the live shot from 1974 and the 1966 sleep-deprived mod of the cover!
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I’ll be doing a round-up of some of the DVDs that have surfaced over the last few months, with an indication of just how essential each one may or may not be.