I don’t know where the folks at Variety.com, the online version of Hollywood’s major trade paper, get their information, but I do know they could use some editors. The glorious news that Rialto Pictures will be releasing new theatrical prints of Gillo Pontecorvo‘s searing The Battle of Algiers (1965) in January is somewhat tainted by the fact that their article refers to The Criterion Collection as both the “Classic Collection” and the “Classic Connection.”
Variety.com
Mon., Sep. 29, 2003, 6:16pm PTRialto to re-release ’65’s ‘Algiers’
By GABRIELLE MITCHELL-MARELL
Rialto Pictures will re-release “The Battle of Algiers,” Gillo Pontecorvo’s 1965 film depicting the Algerian uprising against the occupying French in the late 1950s.
Pic will be revamped with more detailed subtitles.
Rialto will theatrically release the film for the Classic Collection, which acquired the rights from Casbah Films of Algiers.
It is slated for release in Gotham, Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C., in January.
The Classic Collection will handle DVD release for the fall of 2004.
“Algiers” was originally released in the U.S. and Europe but was banned in France for its negative representation of French colonialism.
It picked up the grand prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1965 and was nominated for three Academy Awards.
“It’s a very famous film in cinema circles, but you cannot find the tape or get it online,” said Rialto Pictures co-prexy Bruce Goldstein.
“There is a tremendous demand for this film that goes beyond a cinephile audience because it offers an incredible parallel to what is going on today,” he added.
“Algiers” will be the sixth film Rialto and the Classic Connection have partnered on to re-release.
Previous ventures include Jean Renoir’s “Grand Illusion” and Georges Franju’s stylized horror pic “Eyes Without a Face,” slated to open in Gotham, L.A. and Chicago on Halloween.
Note: One can order the Italian Region 2 DVD here, and Argent in the UK is prepping a DVD for November as well.