The BFI has announced its disc releases for October to December 2023, which include films by Michael Powell and Yasujirō Ozu, more Ghost Stories for Christmas, a third volume of Short Sharp Shocks, and a 15th volume of British Transport Films.

SHORT SHARP SHOCKS, VOLUME 3 | 2-disc Blu-ray set | 9 October 2023 | £19.99

The third Short Sharp Shocks collection in the critically acclaimed BFI Flipside series – continuing its ongoing mission to curate an alternative Brit-screen history of overlooked rarities in deluxe home-entertainment editions – is a further compelling compendium of strange, striking, thrilling, horrific, eerie and eccentric short subjects from the heyday of the British cinematic supporting programme.

Settle down for another strange cinematic journey through uncanny stories, twists in the tale, low-budget weirdness, stylish spectacle, avant-garde art, peculiar public information, monstrous music and provocative experiment – many ultra-rare and all with oodles of atmosphere and in High Definition.

The Films:

• Return to Glennascaul (Hilton Edwards, 1951, 22 mins)
• Strange Stories (John Guillermin and Don Chaffey, 1953, 45 mins)
• Strange Experiences (1955, 10 mins)
• Maze (Bob Bentley, 1970, 15 mins)
• Skinflicker (Tony Bicât, 1973, 41 mins)
• Beach Litter: Broken Bottle (1 min)
• Firework: Chick (1 min)
• Wings of Death (Nichola Bruce and Michael Coulson, 1985, 20 mins)
• The Terminal Game (Geoff Lowe, 1982, 40 mins)

THREE FILMS BY YASUJIRŌ OZU | 2-sdisc Blu-ray set | 23 October 2023 | £24.99

This year marks the 120th anniversary of Japanese filmmaker Yasujirō Ozu's birth. From his early silent films to his final features in the 1960s, Ozu perfected a style that stripped away unnecessary plot mechanics and camera movement. In doing so, he produced a cinema whose surface simplicity belies character studies of depth, warmth and on occasion, humour.

This new set features three newly restored films, all presented on Blu-ray in the UK for the first time:

Dragnet Girl (1933, 99 mins)
Sweet-faced Tokiko is an ordinary typist, but come nightfall she's a fun-loving gangster's moll. When her boyfriend strays, Tokiko is forced to reassess her life. Hugely popular when it was released, Ozu's Dragnet Girl remains one of his most enduring silent films.

Record of Tenement Gentleman (1947, 75 mins)
Tashiro, a fortune-telling resident in a poor district of Tokyo, has been followed home by a young boy whose father took him to the city but became separated from him. Initially unwilling to look after Kohei, Tashiro gradually warms to the boy.

A Hen in the Wind (1948, 84 mins)
A soldier returns home at the end of World War II, and refuses to forgive his wife for prostituting herself one night to pay off medical bills for their son.

BLUEBEARD'S CASTLE | Blu-ray | 20 November 2023 | £16.99

Discover a 'lost' masterpiece from acclaimed director Michael Powell (The Red Shoes, and Peeping Tom), with this stunning adaptation of Béla Bartok's expressionist opera.

Starring Norman Foster as the murderous Bluebeard and Ana Raquel Satre as his doomed wife, Judith, this boldly original production was made for West German television in 1963. Combining outstanding performances with spectacular production designs (by Academy Award-winner Hein Heckroth), Powell concocts a daring and inventive interpretation of this haunting work, equal to the creative innovation of the iconic The Tales of Hoffmann. 

Unavailable for many years, Bluebeard's Castle has been painstakingly restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, and is presented here – on its 60th anniversary - in its original 1963 version and the revised 1978 edition and featuring limited English subtitles added by Powell.

GHOST STORIES FOR CHRISTMAS: VOLUME TWO
3-disc Blu-ray box set | 20 November 2023 | £24.99

Broadcast in the dying hours of Christmas Eve, the BBC's A Ghost Story for Christmas series was a fixture of the seasonal schedules throughout the 1970s and spawned a long tradition of chilling tales, which terrified yuletide viewers for decades to come.

After the best-selling release of Volume One last year, this much-requested follow-up gives five more festive landmarks their Blu-ray debut, having been newly remastered by the BFI from original film materials. As well as two MR James adaptations, the series includes the celebrated version of Charles Dicken's The Signalman starring Denholm Elliot, as well as specially written stories set in the contemporary 1970s.  These influential films, all but one directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark, were written by some of the best scriptwriters working in British TV in the 1970s: John Bowen, David Rudkin, Andrew Davies and Clive Exton.

THE FILMS:

• The Treasure of Abbot Thomas (1974, 37 min) 
• The Ash Tree (1975, 32 min) 
• The Signalman (1976, 39 min)
• Stigma (1977, 32 min)
• The Ice House (1978, 34 min)

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• A View From a Hill (2005, 39 mins): a young museum curator, Fanshawe finds himself in possession of a pair of binoculars that grant him a strange new ability. Ignoring all warnings about their necromantic creator, Fanshawe carries out his research, but the bloody past of the area is best left undisturbed…
• Number 13 (2006, 40 mins): infuriated by the ghoulish noises made nightly by his neighbour, Professor Anderson is soon driven to investigate the diabolical secrets of the old hotel and its mysteriously vanishing room 13.
• Newly recorded audio commentary on The Treasure of Abbot Thomas by TV historian Simon Farquhar
• Newly recorded audio commentary on The Ash Tree by author Johnny Mains
• Newly recorded audio commentary on The Signalman by TV historian Jon Dear
• Newly recorded audio commentaries on Stigma and The Ice House by Kim Newman and Sean Hogan
• Ghost Stories for Christmas With Christopher Lee (2000, 30 mins): Ronald Frame's adaptation of M R James' Number 13 is brought to life by horror maestro Christopher Lee
• Introductions by Lawrence Gordon Clark (2012, 39 mins): the director introduces The Treasure of Abbot Thomas, The Ash Tree, The Signalman and Stigma
• Illustrated booklet with archival essays by Alex Davidson, Dick Fiddy, Matthew Sweet, and Helen Wheatley

BRITISH TRANSPORT FILMS VOLUME 15: LIFE ON THE LINE
2-disc DVD set | 4 Decemeber 2023 | £16.99

Britain's nationalised railway of the 1970s was shaping up to be a very different operation from that which it had started in the late 1940s. So too was the film unit of the railway – British Transport Films. Exciting times were ahead, the Channel Tunnel was back on the drawing board, Electrification would get the nation through an oil crisis and the futuristic tilting Advanced Passenger Train was coming to fruition.

As BTF moved away from theatrical cinema distribution their production values remained visually beautiful to look at; a simple consignment from A to B or a promotion for hire cars could still be as visually exciting as the latest streamlined express passenger service, yet the films of BTF were now targeted at smaller audience groups with measurable results. 16mm had taken over from 35mm production, its reduced costs and high quality remained the norm for regular production work. Video production was creeping in too and throughout the 1970s, BTF had been pioneers in video production with their own dedicated video department. BTF, just like British Rail, was ready to head into the 1980s.

THE FILMS:

Disc 1

• Multiple Aspects (1969, 20mins) 
• Top Level of Transport (1969, 16 mins)
• Tale Out of School (1969, 27 mins)
• Our Business is Moving (1970, 16 mins)
• A Day with SELNEC (1972, 24 mins)
• Sea Road to Britain (1974, 21 mins)
• Keep Your Business Moving (1977, 7 mins)

Disc 2

• Kowloon Connection (1979, 20 mins)
• Life on the Line (1979, 14 mins)
• Who's in Charge? (1980, 19 mins)
• Tops for Industry (1981, 14 mins)
• Round Trip to Glasgow (1982, 14 mins)
• Robbie - Overhead Electrified Lines (1986, 13 mins)
• Channel Tunnel (Tomorrow's Way) (1986, 29 mins)

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Kings of the Road - Rail Drive (BTF Video) (1986, 11 mins)
• Illustrated booklet with new writing on all of the films included