The roster of partner labels under the MVD Entertainment Group’s distribution network just got a new member!
This would be boutique specialty label Altered Innocence and they’ve not a moment of time in setting their first two release dates.
On May 7 look for both DVD and Blu-ray editions of writer/director Bertrand Mandico’s epic adventure, She is Conann, starring Claire Duburcq, Christa Théret, Sandra Parfait, Agata Buzek, Nathalie Richard and Françoise Brion … all as the title character, Conann.
About now you’re thinking “What?”
Let’s ease into it this way. In the iconic Rocky Horror Picture Show song, “Time Warp,” there are a series of magical lyrical moments that best describe Mandico’s She is Conann.
First “time is fleeting, madness takes its toll.” Keep that in mind, especially the “time is fleeting” part.
Second, there is an exchange with Magenta (same song, “Time Warp”) that has the line “In another dimension, with voyeuristic intention …” and Riff Raff, counters, “with a bit of a mind flip” and then Magenta again, “you’re into the time slip” and then Riff Raff, “and nothing can ever be the same” and back to Magenta who delivers “you’re spaced out on sensation.”
There, you have the perfect description of She is Conann and why Mandico needed six actors to play Conann.
It is an epic tale about a Conan-like (Arnold, that is) barbarian and her time-tripping adventures beginning as a teenage captive followed by various stages in her life (not necessarily connected to real time). She’s kick-ass and shares much in common with the characters from Rocky Horror Picture Show (wink wink, nod nod).
It’s a one of kind (literally) cinematic treat. If you saw Fellini Satyricon and understood all the nuances, then She is Conann will be a refresher.
Bonus features include “The Show has Already Started,” which includes three short films by Mandico —Rainer, a Vicious Dog in Skull Valley, We Barbarians and The Last Cartoon: Nonsense, Optimistic, Pessimistic.
She is Conann is presented in French with English subtitles.
Altered Innocence returns on June 25 with DVD and Blu-ray sets (two discs each) of Ozon’s Transgressive Triple, a collection of famed French filmmaker François Ozon’s three earlier works. These are: Sitcom (1998 theatrically in France … film festival stops domestically), Criminal Lovers (1999 France, limited 2000 in U.S.) and Water Drops on Burning Rocks (2000 in France, limited distribution followed in the U.S.).
All three films are presented in French with English subtitles.
Bonus features include a newly-prepared video session with actor Stéphane Rideau, Cerise Howard and Rohan Spong provide commentary for Water Drops on Burning Rocks and Diabolique Magazine’s Kat Ellinger delivers a video essay titled “Little Deaths: Loss and Coming of Age in François Ozon’s First Chapter.”
