Natural Enemies

Details

This listing is for the standard edition Blu-ray release. The limited edition slipcover (designed by Tony Stella) was limited to 2,000 units and is sold out. The two versions are identical, aside from the slipcover.

Taking its name from the ironic moniker for late 1960s and '70s New York, Fun City Editions is a new boutique label focused on reissues of maverick repertory cinema and music that can best be described as works that exist "outside of their time." Spanning an array of genres, artists and countries, but with a unifying focus on forgotten and overlooked treasures, each Fun City release, be it a Blu-ray or vinyl LP, will present new restorations and comprehensive extras which contextualize and illuminate the artistic and historic value of the piece. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!

What causes a man who seemingly has everything—a thriving business and family—to snap and throw it all away? It’s the question that this provocative and intelligent psychological drama investigates. Successful New York magazine publisher Paul Steward (Hal Holbrook, The Fog and All the President’s Men) has reached his breaking point and today is the day he has decided to kill himself, his wife and their children. His marriage to Miriam (Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Strange Behavior) has grown cold and distant. On this final day, he seeks the answers that might relieve him of his despair, through encounters with a psychiatrist (Viveca Lindfors, Creepshow and Dark City), an astronaut, a friend who survived the Holocaust (Jose Ferrer, Dune and Lawrence of Arabia), five prostitutes in a brothel and a lonely woman on the train ride home…

Writer, director and editor Jeff Kanew (Revenge of the Nerds and Troop Beverly Hills) established himself in Hollywood as one of the industry’s most sought-after trailer editors of the 1960s and ‘70s. Having become a leader in that field, he adapted Julius Horwitz’s controversial novel Natural Enemies for himself to direct. The result is a blistering and devastating work that recalls Taxi Driver, and which shocked audiences and critics when it was first released in 1979. Having been out of circulation for nearly four decades, this worldwide Blu-ray premiere has been sourced from the best-surviving element, a 35mm deposit print held by the Library of Congress.

directed by: Jeff Kanew
starring: Hal Holbrook, Louise Fletcher, Jose Ferrer, Viveca Lindfors
1979 / 100 min / 1.85:1 / English DTS-HD MA 2.0

Additional info:

• Region Free Blu-ray
• New 2K restoration from 35mm deposit print held by Library of Congress
• Booklet with a new essay by Jason Bailey
• Newly recorded audio commentary by Bill Ackerman of the Supporting Characters podcast
• “The Road to Natural Enemies,” a newly-filmed, two-part video interview with director Jeff Kanew
• Video introduction by director Jeff Kanew
• Alternate Ending
• Theatrical trailer
• English SDH subtitles