There’s an art to marketing art house films on video. Critical raves, cult success and film festival honors may thrill film buffs, but they are no guarantee that a title will find its audience. The goal is to take films that have low budgets, a cast of unknowns or limited theatrical distribution and make them accessible to the mass renting public.
Foreign films present a further challenge to studios trying to place them in video stores. Breakthrough hits such as “La Cage Aux Folles,” “Cinema Paradiso” and “La Femme Nikita” are the exception. Aversion to subtitles is more often the rule.
Fox Lorber Video learned its lesson with “The Killer,” directed by Hong Kong action-master John Woo. Video stores bought the dubbed version over the subtitled version by about 3-to-1, according to a spokesperson. Consequently, “Hard Boiled,” another proclaimed Woo masterwork to be released in August, will be available only in a dubbed version. Bullets, blood and a high body count need no translation.
For those who do not frequent or do not have access to an art theater, video allows them to take a chance on a foreign film in the friendly confines of home.
“People come into a video store with a more open mind,” said Tania Steele, vice president of publicity and special events marketing for Buena Vista Home Video. “They have more information about a movie at their fingertips by reading the packaging, looking at displays or talking to salespeople.”
Some foreign films are an easier sell than others. “Jamon Jamon,” available in stores next week, is a libidinous Spanish sex comedy. Academy Entertainment not only offered retailers a choice of subtitled and dubbed versions of the film, but also a choice of box covers.
One depicts passionate lovers framed against a vivid sunset. Box No. 2 features the same lovers and the same sunset, but adds into the mix a leaping, smiling pig.
“We’re looking to introduce the film to a more mainstream audience,” said M.J. Peckos, Academy’s vice president of marketing and theatrical distribution. “One box emphasizes the film’s romantic elements, the other emphasizes the film’s comic elements.”
Those looking for the award-winning French costume drama, “Tous Les Matins Du Monde” will not find it under its theatrical title. Touchstone Home Video released it under the English-translated title, “All the Mornings of the World.”
“I would say that most people don’t know the movie,” Steele said. “But it has a lot to recommend it from the retailer’s point of view. Gerard Depardieu is at this point a mainstream star with a following. It has very sensual story with an appeal beyond an `art’ film.”
– You will find no mention of double murders, DNA tests, blood-stained gloves or Kato in “O.J. Simpson: Juice on the Loose,” available July 27 from Vidmark Entertainment for $12.99 suggested retail. The 47-minute documentary was produced 20 years ago and broadcast only once on ABC-TV.
George (“Night of the Living Dead”) Romero directed this authorized profile that includes highlights of Simpson’s legendary football career, footage of Simpson at home with his first wife, Margueritte Simpson, interviews with friends and sports notables, and eerily ironic words from Simpson himself: “When O.J. dies, everybody’s gonna be talking about him.”
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