Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (Borowczyk) (Arrow US) (DVD / Blu-Ray Combo)

‘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) It’s the engagement party for brilliant young Dr Henry Jekyll (Udo Kier) and his fiancee, 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.

Bonus Materials

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, and new interviews with cinematographer Noël Véry, editor Khadicha Bariha, assistant Michael Levy and filmmaker Noël Simsolo, moderated by Daniel Bird
Interview with Marina Pierro
Himorogi (2012), a short film by Marina and Alessio Pierro, made in homage to Borowczyk
Interview with artist and filmmaker Alessio Pierro
Video essay by Adrian Martin and Cristina Alvarez Lopez
Eyes That Listen, a featurette on Borowczyk’s collaborations with electro-acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani
Jouet Jouyeux (1979), a short film by Borowczyk based on Charles-Émile Reynaud’s praxinoscope
Introduction to Jouet Joyeux by production assistant Sarah Mallinson
Returning to Méliès: Borowczyk and Early Cinema, a featurette by Daniel Bird
Reversible sleeve with artwork based on Borowczyk’s own poster design
Booklet with new writing on the film by Daniel Bird and archive materials, illustrated with rare stills
More to be announced!