New Releases for January 7 2025

SOUNTRACK TO A COUP D'ETAT (2024)

United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup. Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba. Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate. (DVD)

LET'S GET LOST (1987) 

Traveling with the elusive jazz vocalist and trumpeter Chet Baker, Bruce Weber weaves together the life story of a jazz great. The film uses excerpts from Italian B movies, rare performance footage, and candid interviews with Baker, musicians, friends, battling ex-wives, and his children in what turned out to be the last year of his life. Winner of the 1989 Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival and nominated for an Academy Award, Let’s Get Lost has become a landmark documentary on the life of a jazz legend. Since its release in 1989 Let’s Get Lost has introduced a whole new generation of jazz enthusiasts to the timeless talent of the late Chet Baker. (BLU-RAY)

MAD PROPS (2024) 

A handsome nerd journeys the globe to turn the conventional art world on its head, set to prove to historians and critics alike that movie props are as important an art form as the greatest paintings and sculptures in history. (BLU-RAY)

ALIENS EXPANDED (2024)

Dive into the unknown with the "Aliens Expanded" Blu-ray edition, a must-have for fans of the 2024 documentary that takes you on a riveting journey beyond the limits of our solar system. This expanded version not only includes the original 4-hour documentary but also offers an additional 2 hours of exclusive content, providing a deeper look into the ongoing search for extraterrestrial life. (BLU-RAY)

LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD (1961) (2 DISKS)

Winner of the Golden Lion at the 1961 Venice Film Festival, Last Year at Marienbad is a hypnotically beautiful puzzle box of a film, and one of the most influential in history. Alain Resnais's sensuous tracking shots and Delphine Seyrig's iconic Chanel gowns have become part of the cinematic lexicon, and can now be seen in a gorgeous 4K restoration from StudioCanal. In a large international hotel in the European resort town of Marienbad, with a sumptuous but austere décor—a marble universe with gold paneling, statues, and stiff servants—the rich, anonymous clientele circulates. A man (Giorgio Albertazzi) is convinced he met an enigmatic woman (Seyrig, Jeanne Dielman) the previous year at the same location, and perhaps had a flirtation. A second man (Sacha Pitoëff, Inferno), possibly the woman's lover or husband, repeatedly intimidates the first man. Their relations unfold through flashback shards that never quite fit into place, their lives a hall of mirrors that never reflect a true self. (BLU-RAY + 4KULTRAHD)