Soda Pictures have acquired UK & Irish home video rights to Philip Ridley’s 1990 cult classic THE REFLECTING SKIN, featuring Viggo Mortensen in one of his first starring roles and Scottish actress Lindsay Duncan. The UK/Canada co-production, which has never been released on DVD or Blu-Ray in the UK before, will be released by the Anglo-Canadian distributor in a special edition later this year. This release will be the worldwide video premiere of a new, director-approved high-definition transfer. Exclusive bonus material is currently in production, including newly-filmed interviews with Ridley and Mortensen.
Further details, including release dates, will be fully announced in the lead-up to the restoration’s UK premiere at Film4 Frightfest in August, which was announced yesterday.
THE REFLECTING SKIN caused a sensation at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival and went on to win eleven international awards. Set in the Idaho farmlands of the 1950s, the film follows eight year-old Seth through a mythical summer where reality is heightened to the level of a hallucinogenic quasi-fantasy. As mysterious deaths plague the rural community, Seth comes to believe that the pale, reclusive widow living next door (Lindsay Duncan) is a vampire. Seth’s worst nightmare comes true when his older brother Cameron (Viggo Mortensen) returns home from abroad and falls in love with the widow – will he be next? The truth is much more shocking than Seth could imagine.
On the remaster, writer/director Ridley says: “Earlier this year I saw something I hadn’t seen for over twenty years. A beast so rare I thought it extinct. I saw THE REFLECTING SKIN looking exactly as it was meant to look. Somehow – by some miracle! – all the original elements have been found. Every frame has now been made a scratch-free zone. I sat in the grading room with some of the best technicians in the world and, scene by scene, shot by shot, guided them through how everything should look. So here it is… the exploding frog, the shiniest of Cadillacs, the yellowest of wheat fields, the bluest of skies, the reddest of sunsets, the whole hall-of-mirrors, teeth ‘n’ claws ‘n’ roar caboodle… all looking and sounding exactly as they did when the world was still young.”
Soda Pictures’ Managing Director Edward Fletcher negotiated the deal with Clare Crean from The Works International. For further press information please contact Olivia Jarvis at Soda Pictures. olivia@sodapictures.com / 0207 377 1407
About Soda Pictures
Soda Pictures is an Anglo-Canadian film distributor of art house, independent and world cinema. Established in London in 2002 by Eve Gabereau and Edward Fletcher, the company releases 25+ films a year and has a library of over 300 films from all corners of the world. In September 2014, it was announced that Soda Pictures was acquired by the Canadian production company Thunderbird Films in order to join a greater media group, build a theatrical film division in Canada and expand their existing business in the UK and Ireland. They launched the new venture at Toronto International Film Festival with the World Premiere of the film The Riot Club.