Sneak Peek At New Blu-ray Distributor Radiance Films

Radiance Films is the brand new label releasing the best world cinema, cult classics and rediscovered gems.

The new label has been created by sco Simeoni. He has drawn on over two decades worth of experience in the world of film distribution, has launching Radiance Films in a bid to release films that otherwise might not see the light of day.

Utilising his expert knowledge of where and how to source visionary filmmaking, some of it ultra-rare, and driven by a desire to shine a light on these wonderful, and sometimes wonderfully-obscure titles, Radiance Films is an idiosyncratic and adventurous new label

Here’s a trailer that gives you a taster in what’s coming up at the label…

The first titles 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. 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 will be available from 2nd January 2023.

The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) | Drama
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-encoming 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) | Crime, Thriller
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