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Last but not least is a title which has been rescued from the BFI’s ‘Most Wanted’ list (the record of important British feature films that are considered lost) after the recent discovery of the original negative: José Ramón Larraz’s dark and disturbing Symptoms (1974). Britain’s official Palme d’Or entry at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, the film was given the briefest of theatrical releases, but aside from a screening on British television in the early 80s it disappeared into obscurity. The BFI’s Flipside release presents the film in a stunning new restoration along with a wealth of essential extra features, including new interviews with its stars Angela Pleasence and Lorna Heilbron, and is being produced in collaboration with the great US label Mondo Macabro.

Link.

Wow! This is an amazing announcement! First the Alan Clarke set, now this!

I've only ever seen an off air TV recording of this, as has pretty much everyone else who has ever seen it. Long lost and the stuff of legend.
I haven't seen the film in years, but I remember an excellent atmosphere and some quite shocking moments.

The editor of Symptoms is Brian Smedley-Aston, who had previously edited Performance and Sebastian. He embarked on a career as an exploitation producer after working with Larraz on on Symptoms, going on to produce Larraz's next UK horror film, the terrifically entertaining 'Vampyres'.

The whole period of Larraz and Smedley-Aston working on UK exploitation films is a fascinating era. Smedley-Aston's next film was the odd Fiona Richmond horror vehicle Exposé, which co-stared Udo Keir and Linda Haydon - who does not like talking about this film! Exposé is actually directed by a library music composer and BBC documentary producer James Kenelm Clarke. Clarke had made a BBC documentary about the British exploitation film industry and decided to have a go at making one himself.

Exposé was co-produced by UK porn baron Paul Raymond, which is why it stars his muse and at the time partner Fiona Richmond. Clarke's next two films were sex comedy vehicles again produced by Raymond staring Fiona Richmond.

Symptoms actually had two screenings on ITV in the 1980s - 08/07/1986 and 24/10/1989.
Still it's good to have the Flipside back again. Is Expresso Bongo actually a Flipside title?

Yes.

Great news! If anyone wants to know more about Larraz in addition to Alphonse Tram's great post here's the episode of the Eurotika series dedicated to the director (although the episode does skip over Symptoms quite quickly due to its obscurity).

I'll definitely be buying this release, but I have a dilemma. I have all the Flipside Blu-rays, so the Flipside release would keep my collection complete. However, there's also going to be a limited, numbered edition of 500 copies released by Mondo Macabro before the Flipside edition, with exclusive extras, that sounds very nice too...

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/33786 ... exclusive/

Decisions, decisions!

Love the cover of this:



Reminded me to check out some clips of this, and just had a look at some. What I've seen so far feels a little bit like Polanski or Bergman, and I'd be very surprised if it hadn't inspired Alex Ross Perry with his most recent film, Queen of Earth. Very much up my street, and I'll be looking to get this sooner rather than later.

Adam Clark wrote:I'll definitely be buying this release, but I have a dilemma. I have all the Flipside Blu-rays, so the Flipside release would keep my collection complete. However, there's also going to be a limited, numbered edition of 500 copies released by Mondo Macabro before the Flipside edition, with exclusive extras, that sounds very nice too...

http://bloody-disgusting.com/news/33786 ... exclusive/

Decisions, decisions!

It seems the extras are going to be on both editions. Here's what's listed for BFI release -

Special features

Newly restored in 2k
On Vampyres and other Symptoms (Celia Novis, 2011, 74 mins): Feature-length documentary about director José Ramón Larraz focusing on two of his most acclaimed films, Vampyres and Symptoms
From Barcelona to Tunbridge Wells: The Films of José Larraz (Andrew Starke & Pete Tombs, 1999, 24 mins)
Interview with Angela Pleasence (2016): Interview with the film's star
Interview with Brian Lorna Heilbron (2016): Interview with the film's co-star
Interview with Brian Smedley-Aston (2016): Interview with the film's editor
Original theatrical trailer
Other extras TBC

disc content has been confirmed to be the same for both editions. But I believe MM is looking into exclusive non disc extras for their LE release.

The extras for Mondo Macabro's Limited Edition Blu-ray have now been confirmed:

http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=18741" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Basically, the Limited Edition has all the extras from Mondo Macabre's standard edition (and Flipside release) plus:

• Larraz on Larraz! Bonus DVD featuring a two-hour long archival interview with Jose Ramon Larraz! - Conducted in the late 90s and used as the basis for the Larraz episode of UK TV show Eurotika! (included as an extra on the main disc), the majority of this career-spanning interview has never been seen before.
  
  Exclusive booklet featuring a brand new essay from Writer/Critic Samm Deighan! – Samm is the editor of the Satanic Pandemonium blog, co-host of the Daughters of Darkness podcast, and the assistant web editor for excellent horror magazine Diabolique. She has contributed to Fangoria, Paracinema, and the book Satanic Panic: Pop-Cultural Paranoia in the 1980s, and is currently writing a book about WWII and cult cinema.
  
  Red Case - 1000 numbered copies in the usual red case that you've all come to love, or at least tolerate.

Reviewed at ukhorrorscene.com