Port Washington, NY –Filmmaking brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani made their mark on the world’s cinema screens with powerful, emotionally-charged masterpieces such as Padre Padrone and Good Morning, Babylon. Now, KOCH Lorber Films is bringing three of their most beloved and award-winning films to DVD – two for the very first time in the U.S.! On April 1, world cinema lovers are certain to revel in the digitally restored and remastered versions of the Cannes award-winning THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS, KAOS and FIORILE, each priced to add to every sophisticated home entertainment library at $26.98 SRP.
Port Washington, NY –Filmmaking brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani made their mark on the world’s cinema screens with powerful, emotionally-charged masterpieces such as Padre Padrone and Good Morning, Babylon. Now, KOCH Lorber Films is bringing three of their most beloved and award-winning films to DVD – two for the very first time in the U.S.! On April 1, world cinema lovers are certain to revel in the digitally restored and remastered versions of the Cannes award-winning THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS, KAOS and FIORILE, each priced to add to every sophisticated home entertainment library at $26.98 SRP.
Honored with many critical and industry prizes as well as top awards at Cannes, Berlin and other prestigious film festivals, The New York Times has called the Tavianis “the greatest cinematic brother act since Louis and Auguste Lumière, who pretty much invented the movies just over a century ago… the images and sounds [the Tavianis] capture are so strange, so fresh and so unaccountably beautiful that you can almost believe that they, too, were present at the creation.”
The three films ― all released theatrically in the U.S. ― are in Italian with English subtitles (THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS also includes Spanish subtitles) and are presented in widescreen.
THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS (1982)
In this moving and highly acclaimed drama, one of the highest-grossing Italian language films in history and a multiple award winner at Cannes, a woman tells her child about when she was six years old, and the residents of her small Tuscan town defied their Nazi occupiers. Film historian Mira Liehm called THE NIGHT OF THE SHOOTING STARS “a poetic epic of overwhelming terror and beauty.” The film, originally theatrically released in the U.S. in 1983, was named by the National Society of Film Critics Best Film of the Year, along with the Tavianis being named the best directors.
Extras include an 84-minute interview “Talking About Cinema: Taviani Brothers” and an 8-page collectible booklet featuring an essay by Italian cinema expert Peter Bondanella.
KAOS (1984) – Available for the first time on DVD!
Magic, drama, misery and hope are given life in KAOS, a compelling film, featuring five tales adapted from short stories by the great Italian playwright, Luigi Pirandello. In “The Other Son,” set in 19th century Sicily, a woman waits longingly to hear from two sons who have emigrated to America but ignores the son still at home. “Moonsickness” involves a young newlywed feeling the strange effects of the full moon. In “The Jar,” a craftsman hired by a feudal landowner to repair a giant olive jar gets stuck inside it, and in “Requiem,” villagers struggle to bury their dead. An epilogue has Pirandello himself (Omero Antonutti) chatting with his mother about a story he’d like to write. Imbued with a serene, sympathetic vision of mankind, KAOS, the winner of the David di Donatello Award in Italy for Best Screenplay and Best Producer and also awarded Best Screenplay by the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, transcends the boundaries of time.
Extras include an 8-page collectible booklet featuring an essay by Italian cinema expert Peter Bondanella.
FIORILE (1993) – Available for the first time on DVD!
The Benedetti family has been haunted by a curse for generations. While driving to visit their grandfather, Luigi Benedetti tells his children the mysterious story of their ancestors – a story filled with forbidden love, passion and romance. Touching on the undeniable forces of time and place, the Taviani drama unfolds as a 200-year-old curse comes to life. After a young woman, Fiorile (Galatea Ranzi), learns that her brother (Claudio Bigagli) is guilty of the crime for which her lover (Michael Vartan of TV’s “Alias”) was executed; she places a curse on her brother’s future descendants. FIORILE, a 1994 U.S. theatrical release, was nominated for the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival and won the David di Donatello Award for Best Production Design. Speaking of this film, The Austin Chronicle proclaimed, “as master storytellers of Italian cinema, the Taviani brothers continue to do what they do best.”
Extras include a 55-minute featurette “The Boys from San Miniato: Meeting with Paolo and Vittorio Taviani” (directed by Luciano Odorisio) and an 8-page collectible booklet featuring an essay by Italian cinema expert Peter Bondanella.
About KOCH Lorber Films
Dedicated to providing the best in award-winning, classic and contemporary international cinema, documentary features and cultural programming, KOCH Lorber Films is a market leader for high quality releases to both wide and specialized audiences through theatrical, television and home video distribution. KOCH Lorber Films DVD releases include: the classic films La Dolce Vita, The Decline of the American Empire, Teorema and The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and recent festival hits such as Intimacy, The Girl from Paris, Children of the Century, The Five Obstructions and Save the Green Planet. Visit KOCH Lorber Films online at www.kochlorberfilms.com.
