Angst By August arrives at end of October

Bille August is one of Denmark’s leading directors having won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film for Pelle The Conquer. Before he achieved this honor, August adapted two novels by Bjarne Reuter about kids growing up in Denmark. Zappa and Twist & Shout played the art houses in the American cities during the early ’80s. Now both films are getting revived on Blu-ray with Angst By August: Zappa and Twist & Shout. While Twist & Shout deals with Beatlemania, Zappa is not about Frank Zappa. Here’s the press release from Altered Innocence:

ALTERED INNOCENCE ANNOUNCES

ANGST BY AUGUST: ZAPPA and TWIST & SHOUT

Academy Award Winner Bille August’s ‘Zappa’ and

‘Twist & Shout’ Explore Teenage Passion, Pain,

and Discovery in 1960s Denmark

Now Restored For A New Generation

[Blu-ray]

10/28

Danish director Bille August‘s (Academy Award and Palme D’or winning director of Pelle the Conqueror) coming-of-age dramas, Zappa (1983) and Twist & Shout (1984), offer a tender yet unflinching vision of adolescent passion, cruelty, and discovery set to the sounds of early rock ‘n’ roll.

Overlooked for decades, these gorgeously photographed and dramatically nuanced films – breathtaking in their candor and heartbreaking in their sincerity – are here for rediscovery in stunning new transfers, along with newly produced bonus features, that help bring August’s powerful films to audiences anew.

Zappa
Three young boys, Bjørn (Adam Tønsberg), Steen (Peter Reichhardt), and Mulle (Morton Hoff), navigate the transition from boyhood to adolescence in Bille August‘s stunning period drama. Steen and Bjørn have formed their own small gang, and invite Mulle to join, but humiliation, cruelty, and violence follow as Steen leads Bjørn further into his loveless, frustrated, and, ultimately, sadistic world. Gentle, funny, honest, and fearlessly dark, Zappa is a richly textured and unforgettable, novelesque film.

Twist & Shout
Denmark’s biggest indigenous hit at the time of its release, Twist & Shout once again follows Bjørn (Adam Tønsbrerg). During the explosion of Beatlemania in Europe, Bjørn plays drums in a rock ‘n’ roll band while Erik (Lars Simonsen) must care for his mentally ill mother. Amid the excitement of music, romance, and sex, the young men must confront the harsh realities of the adult world in director Bille August‘s stark and beautiful film.