Radiance Films debuts this January with a rediscovered Cannes-winning gem and a Yakusa classic

Radiance Films is an idiosyncratic and adventurous new Blu-ray label sourcing visionary filmmaking, some of it ultra-rare, sometimes wonderfully-obscure, that otherwise might not see the light of day. As label boss Francesco Simeoni says, “Radiance will explore lesser trodden paths, areas of cinema that have never been touched before.”

At the start of next year, Radiance Films will launch with the great Palme d’Or winning film The Working Class Goes to Heaven, starring Gian Maria Volonte, making its UK Blu-ray debut; and the outstanding Yakuza film Big Time Gambling Boss, that Paul Schrader thinks is best of its genre, and that Yukio Mishima called a masterpiece, presented for the first time ever on Blu-ray with a brand new restoration. Both titles are packed with thoughtfully curated extras featuring passionate cineastes, with stylish packaging (with a removable OBI strip allowing the cover to be free of text and certification), superbly designed new covers and collectable booklets, and will be available from 2nd January 2023.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971)

Gian Maria Volonté (A Fistful of Dollars), stars in one of provocative filmmaker Elio (Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion) Petri’s most politically charged films as factory worker Lulu: a man on the verge of a nervous breakdown, following an accident at work. Too tired to sleep with his girlfriend, cut out of his son’s life by his ex, humiliated and disrespected, The Working Class Goes to Heaven is an oftentimes surreal and darkly comic look at the life of an everyday Italian trying to find a sense of purpose in a world where he is only allowed to be a tool for industry. A savage takedown of capitalism and industrial corruption, the film was recipient of the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or and features a gloriously unhinged, award-winning performance from Volonté, accompanied by an exceptional score by Ennio Morricone and stunning cinematography by Luigi Kuveiller (Deep Red).

Limited Edition Special Features:

•    2K restoration of the film

•    Original uncompressed mono PCM audio

•    New and improved English subtitle translation

•    Archival interview with Elio Petri from the Cannes Film Festival

•    Career-encompassing archival interview with Gian Maria Volonté from French TV

•    Archival interview with actor Corrado Solari

•    Appreciation of Gian Maria Volonté and the film by filmmaker Alex Cox

•    Petri’s Praxis: Ideology and Cinema in Post-war Italy – A visual essay by scholar Matthew Kowalski on Petri’s relationship with left-wing politics and its impact on his cinema.

•    The Working Class Goes to Heaven – Background to a Film Shot in Novara (2006), by Serena Checcucci and Enrico Omodeo Salé; an unconventional making-of documentary, exploring the real-life factory location where the film was shot and the story behind the film’s production there, as told by the staff, film extras and crew

•    Trailer

•    Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

•    Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Eugenio Renzi, Elio Petri Investigation of a Filmmaker author Roberto Curti on Petri and Volonté’s collaborations and relationship, archival writing and reviews to be confirmed.

•    Limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Big Time Gambling Boss (1968)

Tokyo, 1934. Gang boss Arakawa is too ill and a successor must be named. The choice falls on Nakai, but being an outsider he refuses and suggests senior clansman Matsuda instead. But Matsuda is in jail and the elders won’t wait for his release, so they appoint the younger and more malleable Ishido to take the reins. Clan honour and loyalties are severely tested when Matsuda is released, resulting in an increasingly violent internal strife. An atmospheric tale of gangland intrigue written by Kazuo Kasahara (Battles Without Honour and Humanity) and starring Tomisaburo Wakayama, (Lone Wolf and Cub, The Bounty Hunter Trilogy) and genre legend Koji Tsuruta, Big Time Gambling Boss is one of the all-time classics of the yakuza genre. Paul Schrader called it the richest and most complex film of its type, while novelist Yukio Mishima hailed it as a masterpiece. Radiance Films is proud to present this crucial re-discovery for the first time ever on Blu-ray.

Limited Edition Special Features:

•    High Definition digital transfer of the film

•    Uncompressed mono PCM audio

•    Serial Gambling: A video essay by Chris D., author of Gun and Sword: An Encyclopedia of Japanese Gangster Films 1955-1980, on Big Time Gambling Boss’s origins in the Toei studio’s serialized yakuza movie production and what sets the film apart (2022)

•    Ninkyo 101: In this video essay, Mark Schilling, author of The Yakuza Movie Book, delves into the history and impact of the classical style of yakuza film, the ninkyo eiga or “chivalry films” (2022)

•    Trailer

•    Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by maarko phntm

•    Limited edition booklet featuring new writing on the film by author Stuart Galbraith IV, and critic Hayley Scanlon

•    Limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

The Working Class Goes to Heaven and Big Time Gambling Boss are released on Blu-ray on 2nd January 2023, and can be pre-ordered here.

Radiance Films also represent the US boutique label Fun City Editions with a Limited Edition Blu-ray of Jonathan Demme’s wonderful crime comedy Married to the Mob, starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Modine.

Married to the Mob (1988)

“Everybody loves Angela…but Angela’s married to da mob!” In a star-making performance, Michelle Pfeiffer (Scarface and The Age of Innocence) is suburban mafia housewife Angela de Marco in Jonathan Demme’s hit comedy Married to the Mob. When her unfaithful husband Frank “The Cucumber” (Alec Baldwin, Miami Blues and Beetlejuice) is iced by his boss Tony “The Tiger” Russo (Dean Stockwell, Blue Velvet and Paris, Texas), Angela flees her cloistered existence on Long Island for the big city, with several interested parties in hot pursuit: Tony, who’s smitten with Angela, Tony’s insanely jealous wife Connie (Mercedes Ruehl, The Fisher King and The Warriors) and FBI Agent Mike Downey (Matthew Modine, Full Metal Jacket and TV’s Stranger Things), who believes Angela is the key to locking Tony up for a very long time.

In between the beloved screwball thriller Something Wild and the Academy Award-winning The Silence of the Lambs, acclaimed auteur Demme helmed this sublime blend of madcap shenanigans, crime and social commentary, the type of genre balancing act he perfected throughout his varied and distinctive career. Inspired equally by the comedies of Preston Sturges and the real-life crimes of John Gotti, the screenplay by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns is one of the great cinematic satires of the American mafia. It’s vividly brought to life by Demme, his steady creative collaborators—cinematographer Tak Fujimoto, editor Craig McKay and production designer Kristi Zea, a very game cast and a typically lights out soundtrack, featuring David Byrne, New Order, Q. Lazzarus, Debbie Harry, The Feelies, Tom Tom Club, Brian Eno and more! Married to the Mob has been restored in 2K from its original 35mm interpositive and comes loaded with a bevy of extra features created exclusively for this edition!

SPECIAL FEATURES:

•    New 2K restoration from its 35mm interpositive

•    “A  Simple Appreciation of Life,” a newly filmed video interview with star Matthew Modine

•    “It Barreled into My Life,” a newly filmed video interview with star Mercedes Ruehl

•    “Writing Married to the Mob,” a newly filmed video interview with writers Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns

•    Image gallery

•    Theatrical trailer

•    Booklet with new essays by writer and podcaster Jourdain Searles and DJ and writer Margaret Barton-Fumo

•    Newly recorded audio commentary by Danielle Henderson and Millie DeChirico of the I Saw What You Did podcast

•    English SDH subtitles.

•    Limited edition o-card slipcover based on the original UK quad poster

Slipcover and booklet limited to 2000 copies

Married to the Mob is released on Blu-ray on 2nd January 2023, and can be pre-ordered here.