It’s the engagement party for brilliant young Dr Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and his fiancée, the beautiful Fanny Osbourne (Marina Pierro), attended by various pillars of Victorian society, including the astonishing Patrick Magee in one of his final roles. But when people are found raped and murdered outside and ultimately inside the house, it becomes clear that a madman has broken in to disrupt the festivities – but who is he? And why does Dr Jekyll keep sneaking off to his laboratory?
We know the answer, of course, but Walerian Borowczyk’s visually stunning adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s much-filmed tale is crammed with wildly imaginative and outrageously perverse touches characteristic of the man who scandalised audiences with Immoral Tales and The Beast, not least the explicitly sexualised nature of Mr Hyde’s primal urges.
Reviews
“Potent and poetic, mischievous and macabre, Borowczyk’s film shows how many imaginative worlds the horror movie can open up when the right artist holds the keys.”
- Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
"A film of strange and outrageous beauty which seems to emanate from that place where our fears are also desires."
- Chris Peachment, Time Out
"Arrow Films certainly deserves praise for the film's excellent 2K restoration, scanned from the original camera negative, and the disc's scads of supplementary features."
- Stuart Galbraith IV , DVD Talk
Contents
Brand new 2K restoration, scanned from the original camera negative and supervised by cinematographer Noël Véry High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentation of the film, released on both formats for the first time anywhere in the world English and French soundtracks in LPCM 1.0 Optional English and English SDH subtitles Introduction by critic and long-term Borowczyk fan Michael Brooke Audio commentary featuring archival interviews with Walerian Borowczyk, Udo Kier, Marina Pierro and producer Robert Kuperberg New interviews with cinematographer Noël Véry, editor Khadicha Bariha, assistant Michael Levy and filmmaker Noël Simsolo, moderated by Daniel Bird Brand new interviews with Udo Kier and Marina Pierro Himorogi (2012), a short film by Marina and Alessio Pierro, made in homage to Borowczyk Interview with artist and filmmaker Alessio Pierro Phantasmagoria of the Interior, a video essay on Borowczyk’s Dr Jekyll Adrian Martin and Cristina Álvarez López Eyes That Listen, a featurette on Borowczyk’s collaborations with electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani Happy Toy (1979), a short film by Borowczyk inspired by Charles-Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope Interview with Sarah Mallinson, former assistant to Borowczyk and fellow animator Peter Foldes Returning to Méliès: Borowczyk and Early Cinema, a featurette by Daniel Bird Theatrical trailer with optional commentary by editor Khadicha Bariha Reversible sleeve with artwork based on Borowczyk’s own poster design illustrated booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive pieces by Walerian Borowczyk and André Pieyre de Mandiargues