I see a number of interesting European releases listed recently.

Look out for Time Bandits in Germany from Koch Media GmbH on May 29th, 2009.

In France there are a number of new alternate offerings.

Expect Luc Besson movies Nikita, The Fifth Element and Leon from Paramount Home Entertainment on June 11th, 2009.

Not sure about English language support on Nikita, though Leon (known in the US as The Professional) is likely to be a all region alternative to the Region B German release.

Expect Guy Ritchie’s Rocknrolla from Universal Studio Canal Video on May 26th, 2009.

This could be an improvement over the local Warner release which was squeezed onto a BD25, though it is hard to say for sure…

Also,  Traffaut’s Les 400 coups is being released by TF1 Video on May 7th, 2009.

This title is getting a Criterion release in the USA, which is likely to be the best choice for locals.

In the UK watch for North Face from Metrodome Video on April 27th, 2009.

Many people had never heard of the Wachowski brothers before The Matrix was released, but some may remember the movie they did prior to that called Bound.

Excellent news to see that Bound is now coming to Blu-ray from Warner Home Video, scheduled for May 27th, 2009 in France.

No idea about a US release yet, but since Warner never uses region coding, this seems like a no brainer import if there is no US release.

Also watch for the French movie Vilaine from Warner Home Video on May 27th, 2009.

Another interesting title that has recently shown up for pre-order -  watch for Van Helsing from Universal Studio Canal Video on April 15th, 2009.

It would surprise me if this announcement doesn’t foretell of a US release for this action title.

French movie fans should also watch for the 1996 Patrice Leconte movie Ridicule from Universal Studio Canal Video on April 15th.

I see more evidence of potential upcoming Star Trek releases in the USA with another European announcement – this time in France.

Look for Star Trek – the Original Series, Season 1 on Blu-ray Disc from Paramount Home Entertainment on April 20th, 2009.

It is a tad pricey at over 80 Euro for the set, so hopefully things will be somewhat cheaper here in the USA if they ever formally annouce these things!

Also of interest there appears to be a new distributor in France, with some smaller release titles.

Look for Opération Varsovie (though the listing describes The Poet) and the 2008 version of The Boston Strangler from Emylia on March 17th, 2009.

The latter features David Faustino from Married with Children! How bad could it possibly be!

Just a heads up that the Buy One Get One Free sale at Amazon France ends January 31st.

I ended up grabbing a couple of titles, which is pretty straightforward assuming you have an Amazon.com account.

Just log in like you do in the USA and follow the prompts imagining you are on the USA site.

The titles come out to 19.19 Euro since you also don’t pay tax. Shipping is a little steep at 12.80 Euro, but essentially you are paying 32 Euro for the two discs delivered, around $42 right now.

You are going to want to be sure to get Region Free titles – you can check the Amazon France database – titles with a green background are Region Free.

There are a few nice titles in there including, including Two Brothers and Chicken Run which have English language audio and are coded for all regions.

I also notice that some Sony titles have been added, including The Bone Collector and 13 Ghosts.

I see that Warner is up to its old tricks again, listing a number of popular key titles in France way ahead of time.

Watch for the Academy Award nominated The Curious Case of Benjamin Button from Warner on August 4th, 2009.

Naturally I fully expect a US release of this well before that time.

Other Warner titles listed already in France include Twilight : Chapter 1 – Fascination July 7th and Yes Man on July 21st, 2009.

The Buy One Get One Free has finally returned to Amazon – kind of.

I see today that there is a Buy One Get One Free at Amazon France that runs for the month of January.

The down side from our perspective is that the 62 qualifying titles are all Fox Pathe Europa, which means a lot of region coding and no English subtitles on the French movies.

That said there are a few nice titles in there including, including Two Brothers and Chicken Run which have English language audio and are coded for all regions.

Of course, if you really want to you can listen to Gerard Depardieu voicing the rooster in French…

I just took a look at what is coming up in France on Blu-ray Disc and saw a number of interesting titles.

As in the UK, you can expect the Tim Burton version of Batman from Warner Home Video on March 4th, 2009.

Perhaps a sign of things to come in the USA.

Also look out for The Silence of the Lambs from Fox Pathe Europa on March 4th, and the French movie Faubourg 36 from Fox Pathe Europa on March 25th, 2009.

Paramount Home Entertainment has Vendredi 13 – chapitre 2 and Vendredi 13 – chapitre 3 from coming on Friday March 13th, 2009. This is no doubt to coincide with the remake of Friday the 13th due out in 2009.

France is a great country for art house cinema and we are getting to the point where some of the smaller distributors there are releasing Blu-ray titles.

Universal Studio Canal Video planning to release the French movies Martyrs on March 3rd and Parlez moi de la pluie on March 17th, 2009.

BAC is planning to release Bernardo Bertolucci movies The Sheltering Sky and The Last Emperor, as well as Japanese classic Zatoïchi on February 17th, 2009.

TF1 has a number of releases planned including the French movie L’empreinte de l’ange on February 19th, the Italian movie Gomorrah on March 5th, as well as the latin American movie The Motorcycle Diaries and the Thai movie The Protector on March 19th, 2009.

I see that France has a couple of new Gaumont titles coming that are not available or announced in the USA yet.

Expect the Jennifer Garner movie  13 Going on 30 (30 ans sinon rien) as well as Center Stage (Danse ta vie) from Gaumont Columbia Tristar on January 21st, 2009.

Often street dates get announced earlier in Europe than the US, so there is a good chance that we will see US releases of these titles early next year also.

The yet to be released in the cinema Quantum of Solace Bond movie has already been given a release date in France by Fox.

According to Amazon France, you should expect James Bond: Quantum of Solace from Fox on May 2nd, 2009.

I would tend to assume that the US release will be on or before this date, though of course it will be a Sony release in the USA.

(more…)

I saw some exciting new Blu-ray releases listed on the Amazon UK and Amazon France sites this week.

The William Friedkin movie the French Connection will be released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on December 1st, 2008.

Fox also has a French Connection/French Connection 2 pack listed for the same day.

(more…)