FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kelly Hargraves
Phone: 1-323-662-1930
kelly.hargraves@firstrunfeatures.com

AVAILABLE ON DVD APRIL 21, 2009

AWARD WINNING GERMAN DIRECTOR VADIM GLOWNA’S

“An alternately lyrical and disturbing adult fairy tale.” – New York Magazine

Based on the beautifully strange novella by Yasunari Kawabata, writer-director-actor Vadim Glowna has crafted a beautiful, macabre thriller about loneliness, sex, eroticism and mortality. Featuring performances by Glowna, the Academy Award-winning Maximilian Schell, Angela Winkler, and a cast of young beauties, House of the Sleeping Beauties premiered at Cannes in 2007.

Edmond (Glowna), a lonely widower in his late sixties living in Berlin, learns from old friend Kogi (Schell) about a secret establishment where one can pay to lie alongside beautiful, sleeping young women. The girls – who move, stretch, roll over and dream but never awaken – are cared for by Madame (Winkler), the enigmatic director of the house.

Seduced and enchanted by their peculiar, unconscious tenderness, Edmond visits the sleeping beauties with greater and greater frequency, prompting him to probe the boundaries of his own morality and to re-visit long repressed memories, including the deaths of his wife and daughter.  When Edmond inadvertently observes Madame and her cohorts smuggling a corpse from the premises, a newly ignited desire to unravel the bizarre activities conflicts with his addiction to the juvenile innocence and tender embrace of those who inhabit it.

Vadim Glowna has directed more than thirty films for television as well as eight feature films. He won several awards for his film Desperado City (1981), including the Caméra d'Or at Cannes. Two other films, Nothing Left To Lose (1983) and Raising to the Bait (1992), both received accolades at the Berlin Film Festival. Also a versatile performer, Glowna is one of Germany’s most popular actors.  In 2000, the German Film Critics Association awarded him Best Actor for his appearance in Oskar Roehler’s No Place to Go.  He also has appeared in films such as Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron (1977) and Claude Chabrol’s Quiet Days in Clichy (1990), among others.

Maximilian Schell is one of the most well-known and successful German actors (and directors) worldwide. In 1961, he won the Oscar for Best Actor by tackling the difficult role of the defense attorney in the epic film Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).  Schell has six total Academy Award nominations and has won two Golden Globes. He met Glowna while filming Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron, and the two became friends.
Angela Winkler is a German theatre actress and a living legend. She has appeared in more than one hundred plays and worked with Europe’s most renowned directors.  In 1980, Winkler was awarded the German Film Prize for The Tin Drum (1979), which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film as well the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Other notable film roles include The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum (1975) and Edith’s Diary (1983).

DVD BONUS FEATURES: Photo Gallery • Director's Biography • Film Notes • Trailer Gallery

FESTIVALS & AWARDS

Cannes Film Festival 2007
Nominated – German Film Awards 
Best Director & Best Music – International Film Festival Belgrade
Glowna/Lifetime Achievement Award – Film Festival Hachenburg, Germany
International Film Festival of Sao Paulo, Brazil
International Film Festival of Kiev, Ukraine

“The psychology of eroticism is on vivid display!” – HARVEY KARTEN, COMPUSERVE

“Creepily mesmerizing, seductively filmed... Sex, death and the endless fascination of
unclothed innocence.” – THE NEW YORK TIMES

 “An alternately lyrical and disturbing adult fairy tale.” – NEW YORK MAGAZINE

 “Visually lush.” – TIME OUT NEW YORK

 “More than an unsettling voyeuristic fantasy.” – CRITICS NOTEBOOK

 “Rewarding viewing for people with the correct mind-set.” – NEW YORK POST

 “Dark and affecting... Succeeds in using a fantastic idea to give us a glimpse into a very real, emotional journey.” – CINEMAFANTASTIQUE

 “Artfully made...visually stunning!” – BIG PICTURE BIG SOUND

 “A sleepy thriller in a very unusual bordello. The photography is absolutely gorgeous.”
– TWITCHFILM.NET

HOUSE OF THE SLEEPING BEAUTIES
(Das Haus der schlafenden Schönen)
A film by Vadim Glowna
100 minutes, color, German w/English subtitles, 2006
UPC #: 720229913706 • Catalog #: FRF 913706D
Suggested Retail Price: $29.95/CAN.: $34.95
Pre-book Date: March 17  •  Street Date: April 21

For more information, including the press kit, photos, credits and more, please visit www.firstrunfeatures.com

NEW DVD BOX SET AVAILABLE APRIL 21, 2009

INSIDE THE THIRD REICH

Four Provocative, Astonishing Documentaries About Nazi Germany

Inside The Third Reich is a unique collection of seminal films about Nazi Germany essential for an accurate insight into the real life ‘heart of darkness.’ Included in this 4-disc collector’s edition box set are the following films:

TELEVISION UNDER THE SWASTIKA
Legend has it that television began in the United States in the 1950s - but in reality its origins hark back much further. Nazi leaders, determined to beat Great Britain and the U.S. to be the world's first television broadcaster, began Greater German Television in 1935. Making use of film footage discovered in the catacombs of the Berlin Federal Film Archive, Television Under the Swastika is a fascinating look at the world's first television broadcast network. It explores both the technology behind this new medium and the programming the Nazis put on it. Interviews with high-ranking Nazis as well as "ordinary" people on the street, cooking shows, sporting events, cabaret acts and teleplays are some of the stunning finds seen here - propaganda yes, but quite entertaining, and required viewing for anyone interested in the history of television, the intersection of media and propaganda, and the inside story of Nazi Germany.

THE GOEBBELS EXPERIMENT
From The New York Times: “Arguably the most gifted of Hitler's henchmen, Joseph Goebbels was an enigmatic genius whose successful manipulation of mass political opinion was unprecedented. His rise to power, and that of the Nazi Party itself, will forever stand as one of history's most terrifying examples of the reach of propaganda, a tool with which Goebbels's name is virtually synonymous. In their fascinating documentary, the filmmakers provide a rare and chilling glimpse into a brilliant but toxic mind. Rejecting commentary, they allow Goebbels to speak for himself (in the voice of Kenneth Branagh), via the extensive diaries that he kept from 1924 to 1945. Rare clips from German film and television archives illustrate the readings. At a time when much of our news and entertainment media is controlled by a handful of corporations, The Goebbels Experiment is a cautionary reminder that equal access to the machinery of ideas may be society's most critical goal.”

FIRESTORM
After suffering heavy losses of aircraft during attacks on German factories, Winston Churchill orders cities to be targeted in order to smash German morale and reduce the number of workers available for the Nazi war machine. Hundreds of thousands of German civilians are killed as incendiary bombs turn Hamburg, Dresden and other cities into tornados of fire. Now, a new debate is underway over this lethal bombing campaign. Were these relentless aerial attacks on German cities, which killed so many and destroyed so much, a necessary tactic in the war against Hitler? Or was it an act of revenge by the Allies? Using rare film footage (much of it in color) and stirring interviews with historians, former bomber pilots and survivors of the destruction, this extraordinary film brings to light the devastating bombing campaign against Nazi Germany.

THE REICH UNDERGROUND
While Germany sustained relentless bombing by the Allies, the Nazis undertook a bold gambit to turn the war back in their favor. Building an extensive tunnel system deep underground to house armament factories, Nazi leaders raced against time to produce the deadly new weapons they hoped would bring Germany final victory. Long forgotten after the victorious American Army sealed them off from intruders, the sprawling underground labyrinths are reopened for the first time in decades. Using previously unreleased film material and exclusive interviews, the story of the Underground Reich provides a glimpse into awesome worlds hidden beneath the earth.

DVD BONUS FEATURES: Amateur Film Footage of Germany in Ruins • Filmmaker Biographies • Film Notes • WWII Film Collection Preview

INSIDE THE THIRD REICH
Approx. 6 hours, color & b/w, English Narration
UPC #: 720229913713 • Catalog #: FRF 913713D
Suggested Retail Price: $59.95/CAN.: $69.95
Pre-book Date: March 17  •  Street Date: April 21