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MOVIE FEATURE

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DERSU UZALA (1975)

Winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 1976, legendary

director Akira Kurosawa's cinema masterpiece is the remarkable true story of a Mongolian hunter who is enlisted as a guide by a Soviet survey team, winning their trust with his ingenuity and bravery.

A feast for fans of Charles Bukowski, an Akira Kurosawa classic, a sports drama fromWilliam Friedkin, and the '90s screen adaptation of a controversial Nabokov novel. Words Scott Hocking

Extras include a new audio commentary and video interview, vintage documentary, and more. THE ROAD HOME (1999) Returning to his childhood village to give his

late father a traditional burial, a young man recalls how his parents met and fell in love. Based on the novel Remembrance by Bao Shi and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Zhang Yimou ( Raise the Red Lantern ), this unforgettable journey is rich in romance, culture and tradition. Extras TBC. Directed by William Friedkin ( The French Connection ), this sports drama stars Nick Nolte as a college basketball coach who resorts to illegal tactics to secure star players following a losing season. Hoop legends Shaquille O'Neal and Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway co-star

BLUE CHIPS (1994)

Barfly (1987)

P rolific poet and writer Charles Bukowski is an underground cult hero in the mould of William Burroughs and Hunter S. Thompson, whose substance abuse inspired and informed his transgressive prose on skid row life, existential angst, and the social and cultural climate of the city he called home, Los Angeles. But unlike the drug-fuelled work of the former two,

the screenplay in 1979, but it would be eight long years before the film finally arrived. Bukowski initially wanted Sean Penn to play Henry, and the actor agreed on the condition that Dennis Hopper direct the film. But that was never going to happen, as Bukowski considered Hopper to be a "gold-chain wearing Hollywood phony" and had already sealed the deal with Schroeder. Consequently,

alongside J.T. Walsh and Mary McDonnell. Extras include a new audio commentary and interviews. LOLITA (1997) Vladimir Nabokov's controversial 1955 novel – previously filmed by Stanley Kubrick in 1962 – gets a modern makeover from director Adrian Lyne ( Fatal Attraction ), with Jeremy Irons as the schoolteacher who becomes infatuated with his landlady's teenaged daughter. Extras include a new audio commentary and video essay, deleted scenes, featurettes, and more. HAREM (1985) This romantic drama of forbidden love chronicles the unlikely relationship that develops between a sheik (Ben Kingsley) and an American woman (Nastassja Kinski) he has kidnapped to join his harem. A staple of the VHS era, this forgotten flick makes a welcome return on Blu-ray with a new audio commentary and video essay.

Bukowski's poison was alcohol, and his life and exploits are dramatised in director Barbet Schroeder's 1987 film Barfly . Based on a semiautobiographical short story by Bukowski, who adapted it into the screenplay for the film, Barfly casts Mickey Rourke as the

Mickey Rourke was cast and, depending on

which account you believe, Bukowski considered his performance to be "misdone" or "a good acting job". Imprint's limited two-disc edition of Barfly includes an audio commentary with Schroeder,

seedy Henry Chinaski, a slovenly writer whose creativity is predicated on his levels of inebriation. Henry regularly clashes with the bartender (Frank Stallone) at his local dive, leaving him battered and bruised, and becomes enamoured by fellow drunkard Willa Wilcox (Faye Dunaway). But when a wealthy publisher (Alice Krige) also takes an interest in him and his work, it complicates his relationship with Willa – and the bottle. The kind of movie that makes you want to take a long hot shower afterwards, Barfly will polarise viewers and delight fans attuned to Bukowski's world view. Schroeder commissioned Bukowski to write

and new interviews with Alice Krige, Frank Stallone, editor Eva Gardos, and production designer Bob Ziembicki. Bukowski fans are well catered for with a bonus disc featuring the 1985 documentary The Charles Bukowski Tapes , a compilation of 52 short interviews with the man himself, conducted by Barbet Schroeder over three years in the lead-up to production commencing on Barfly . Over a four-hour running time, the chain-smoking and beer-swilling Bukowski talks frankly about bars, humanity, and his contempt for modern life, and these vignettes are, predictably, as colourful and opinionated as his prose.

• The new Imprint range is out on Sept 28 for a limited time only (while stocks last).

18 SEPTEMBER 2022

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