Child's Play

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This special limited edition J-card MediaBook slipcase (designed by Vlad Rodriguez) is limited to 3,000 units and is only available on our website and at select indie retailers. Absolutely no major retailers will be stocking them.

Taking its name from the Lumière Brothers invention of the same name, Cinématographe is a new sub-label from Vinegar Syndrome that seeks to fill gaps in the canon of American cinema. Offering a mix of auteur driven studio films produced during the New Hollywood era of the late 1960s and 70s all the way through the indie boom of the 1980s and 90s, Cinématographe will explore the wide breadth of American moviemaking, spanning numerous genres and scales of production. Curated and produced by Vinegar Syndrome's Justin LaLiberty, each limited edition release will be housed in a specially designed, cloth-bound, media book with embossed foil titles and custom molded disc trays accompanied by a slipcase featuring newly commissioned art and an individually numbered J-card.

Paul Reis (Beau Bridges, The Landlord) returns to his almamatter, St. Charles, an exclusive Catholic boarding school for male adolescents, as the new physical education teacher. When he arrives, he finds two of his new colleagues, English teacher Joseph Dobbs (Robert Preston, Victor/Victoria) and Latin teacher Jerome Malley (James Mason, Lolita), engaged in a bitter rivalry. As tensions rise, and anonymous threatening phone calls disrupt the usually tranquil environs of St. Charles, Reis finds himself embroiled in an unpredictable cycle of violence which begins to reflect in the increasingly aggressive behavior of the students.

Sidney Lumet’s (Serpico, Network) often overlooked marriage of coming-of-age angst and subtle thriller dynamics is a deft adaptation of Robert Marasco’s (Burnt Offerings) play of the same name. Featuring claustrophobic photography by Gerald Hirschfeld (Fail-Safe) accompanied by a paranoia-inducing score from Michael Small (Klute, The Stepford Wives), CHILD’S PLAY is vintage Lumet. Cinématographe is proud to present this beguiling entry in the career of America’s most treasured auteurs in a brand new 2K restoration from its original camera negative.

directed by: Sidney Lumet
starring: James Mason, Robert Preston, Beau Bridges
1972 / 100 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 1.0

Additional info:

• Region A Blu-ray
• New Audio Commentary by film historian Adrian Martin 
  
• Play to Strengths: Sidney Lumet, Stagecraft and Cinemacraft - a new video essay by film historian Daniel Kremer 
  
• Designing Lumet - an interview with production designer Philip Rosenberg
• One Stop on the Road to Serpico - a new documentary short by Daniel Griffith
• Sidney Lumet on Charlie Rose - a full, 42 minute interview between director Sidney Lumet and journalist Charlie Rose, recorded in 2006
• One Step Further: Becoming Lumet - An hour long documentary chronicling the first half of Sidney Lumet's career
• New text essays by film critic Mitchell Beaupre, and culture writers Patrick Dahl and Madelyn Sutton
• English SDH subtitles