Roadshow - June 2012 Releases

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IDES OF MARCH

LABEL:                 Roadshow
RELEASE DATE:     13 June 2012
DIRECTOR:             George Clooney
STARRING:             George Clooney, Ryan Gosling
CATEGORY:           Thriller
RRP DVD:              $39.99
RRP Blu-Ray:         $39.99

Is this man the next president?

Academy Award® nominee George Clooney (Director, Good Night and Good Luck) directs a brilliant all-star cast including Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei and Jeffrey Wright in this enthralling political thriller where ambition seduces and power corrupts.

In the tradition of movie classics The Candidate, Advise and Consent and The Best Man, Clooney plays presidential candidate Governor Mike Morris whose ground-breaking ideas could change the political landscape. Idealistic campaign worker Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) has sworn to give his all for Morris; however when a brutal Ohio primary threatens to test the Governor’s integrity, Stephen gets trapped in the down-and-dirty battle. He also finds himself caught up in a scandal involving a young intern (Evan Rachel Wood) – and realises his only path to survival is to play both sides.

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THE ARTIST

LABEL:                 Roadshow
RELEASE DATE:     27 June 2012
DIRECTOR:             Michel Hazanavicius
STARRING:             Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo
CATEGORY:           Drama
RRP DVD:              $39.99
RRP Blu-Ray:         $39.99

Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist is a heartfelt and entertaining valentine to classic American cinema. Set during the twilight of Hollywood’s silent era and shot on location in Los Angeles, The Artist tells the story of a charismatic movie star unhappily confronting the new world of talking pictures. Mixing comedy, romance and melodrama, The Artist is itself an example of the form it celebrates: a black- and-white silent film that relies on images, actors and music to weave its singular spell.

Hollywood, 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is one of Hollywood’s reigning silent screen idols, instantly recognizable with his slim moustache and signature white tie and tails. Starring in exotic tales of intrigue and derring-do, the actor has turned out hit after hit for Kinograph, the studio run by cigar-chomping mogul Al Zimmer (John Goodman). His success has brought him an elegant mansion and an equally elegant wife, Doris (Penelope Ann Miller). Chauffeured to the studio each day by his devoted driver Clifton (James Cromwell), George is greeted by his own smiling image, emblazoned on the posters prominently placed throughout the Kinograph lot. As he happily mugs for rapturous fans and reporters at his latest film premiere, George is a man indistinguishable from his persona and a star secure in his future.

For young dancer Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), the future will be what she makes of it. Vivacious and good-humoured, with an incandescent smile and a flapper’s ease of movement, Peppy first crosses George’s path at his film premiere and then as an extra on his latest film at Kinograph. As they film a brief dance sequence, the leading man and the newcomer fall into a natural rhythm, the machinery of moviemaking fading into the background. But the day must finally end, sending the matinee idol and the eager hopeful back to their respective places on the Hollywood ladder.

And Hollywood itself will soon fall under sway of a captivating new starlet: talking pictures. George wants no part of the new technology, scorning the talkie as a vulgar fad destined for the dustbin. By 1929, Kinograph is preparing to cease all silent film production and George faces a choice: embrace sound, like the rising young star Peppy Miller; or risk a slide into obscurity.

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OUR IDIOT BROTHER

LABEL:                 Roadshow
RELEASE DATE:     6 June 2012
DIRECTOR:             Jesse Peretz
STARRING:             Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks
CATEGORY:           Comedy
RRP DVD:              $34.99
RRP Blu-Ray:         $39.99

Every family has one: the sibling who is always just a little bit behind the curve when it comes to getting his life together.

For sisters Liz (Emily Mortimer), Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), that person is their perennially upbeat brother Ned (Paul Rudd), an erstwhile organic farmer whose willingness to rely on the honesty of mankind is a less-than-optimum strategy for a tidy, trouble-free existence.

Ned may be utterly lacking in common sense, but he is their brother and so, after his girlfriend dumps him and boots him off the farm, his sisters once again come to his rescue. As Liz, Miranda and Natalie each take a turn at housing Ned, their brother's unfailing commitment to honesty creates more than a few messes in their comfortable routines. But as each of their lives begins to unravel, Ned's family comes to realize that maybe, in believing and trusting the people around him; Ned isn't such an idiot after all.

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FATHER & SON

RELEASE DATE:     6 June 2012
STARRING:             Dougray Scott, Sophie Okonedo, Ian Hart
RRP DVD:              $29.99

A compelling, contemporary thriller loaded with high calibre talent from the award-winning makers of Wallander and The Queen.

How far would you go to save your son?

Michael O’Connor was a gangster. One of the toughest around. A legend, you might say. Now he’s served his time and put some miles between him and his home city Manchester, maybe he can put it all behind him – make a fresh start with his girlfriend and their unborn child in Dublin.

Unfortunately, the life Michael lived has left a terrible legacy. Violence on the estates has turned to outright warfare. Gun crime and tit-for-tat killings are rife. Even the good kids are getting tangled up in it. Like Michael’s estranged 15-year-old son, Sean. Caught up in the chaos of his best friend’s murder, Sean suddenly finds himself in the firing line. Michael races back to England to sort out Sean’s troubles, determined to avoid being drawn back into his old habits.

But morals are a lot harder to stand by when your son’s life is at stake. Will Michael be able to find a way through the drug and death fuelled insanity of the place he once called home; and can his son ever forgive him for the hurt and devastation he caused?

Inspired by true events, Father & Son is at once a twisting, heart-rending tale of redemption and a shocking portrait of a world that, for many, is becoming all too familiar.

As seen on TVOne.

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THE SINKING OF THE LACONIA

LABEL:                 Fremantle
RELEASE DATE:     13 June 2012
STARRING:             Frank Potente, Brian Cox
CATEGORY:           Television
RRP DVD:              $29.99

This two part drama is based on the true story of the Allied ship Laconia, sunk in WWII by a German U-boat, which then surfaced against orders to rescue the civilian crew.

On the 12th September 1942 the Laconia - a cruise ship turned troop ship - was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-156 commanded by Werner Hartenstein. She carried a motley crew of women, children, wounded soldiers and Italian Prisoners of War. Having sunk the ship, Hartenstein should have left them to their uncertain fate in the water but instead he made the incredible decision to save as many lives as he could. A true story of unexpected gallantry and humanity in the fog of war.

Special features:

• The Sinking of the Laconia: Survivors’ Stories (30 mins feature)

• Biographies

• Photo Gallery

• Bibliography

• The Laconia Crew Manifest (DVD-ROM content)

• Admiral Dönitz Nuremburg Trial transcript (DVD-ROM content)

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