Pasolini double of Pigsty & Hawks and Sparrows on Blu-ray in February
8 December 2015
Eureka Entertainment have announced the release Pasolini’s Hawks and Sparrows and Pigsty, two films from one of the most revered and controversial directors of all time, on Blu-ray for the first time ever in the UK in February.
From its sung opening credits, Hawks and Sparrows [Uccellacci e uccellini] is a wonderfully free-form picaresque fable that lampoons politics, religion and the state of modern Italy, as the beloved comic actor Totò, Pasolini regular Ninetto Davoli and a talking crow wander the landscape through a gauntlet of unexpected encounters.
Pigsty [Porcile] is one of his most controversial works, interspersing the mute wanderings of cannibalistic savages against a barren, volcanic earth with the tale of Julian (played by Nouvelle Vague icon Jean-Pierre Léaud), his radically politicised fiancée Ida (Anne Wiazemsky, Au Hasard Balthazar), and the financial machinations of his father Herr Klotz in contemporary industrialised Germany.
Both films demonstrate a restless, pioneering artist’s exploration of the natural world contrasted with the societal structures that govern human life. Visually inspired and playing by no-one’s rules other than his own, these two brilliant works by Pasolini are presented on Blu-ray for the first time in a new limited edition.
Hawks and Sparrows and Pigsty will be released on UK Blu-ray in a 2-disc package on 22nd February 2016 by Eureka Entertainment as part of the Masters of Cinema series at the RRP of £17.95.
Special features:
Theatrical trailers
A booklet featuring essays on both films by Pasquale Iannone, a 1969 interview by Oswald Stack with the director about Hawks and Sparrows; an English translation by Iannone of a 1974 interview with Pasolini discussing Totó; a 1969 note on Pigsty by Pasolini circulated at the Venice première; an extract from a 1969 interview by Gian Piero Brunetta with Pasolini; and rare archival imagery
