Movie Publicity

press release

artwork

production notes

website

custom requests

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN and BITTER MOON
Press Release

Available to buy and rent on DVD June 3, 2003
Director: Roman Polanski
Starring:
Death and the Maiden- Sigourney Weaver and Ben Kingsley
Bitter Moon- Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas

MPAA Rating: Death and the Maiden- Rated R for strong language including descriptions of violent situations.
Bitter Moon- Rated R for the strong depiction of a perverse sexual relationship
Total Running Time: Death and the Maiden- 103 minutes
Bitter Moon- 139 minutes
DVD Order Date: May 6, 2003

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN AND BITTER MOON
BY ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINATED DIRECTOR
ROMAN POLANSKI
ON DVD FOR THE FIRST TIME JUNE 3

Los Angeles (March 17, 2003) New Line Home Entertainment today announced the DVD releases of Death and the Maiden and Bitter Moon, gripping dramas by acclaimed director Roman Polanski. Hollywood heavyweights Academy Award® nominee Sigourney Weaver and Academy Award® winner Ben Kingsley star in Death and the Maiden, and Hugh Grant and Academy Award® nominee Kristin Scott Thomas star in Bitter Moon. Death and the Maiden and Bitter Moon are available for the first time on DVD for $19.98 on June 3. These films are currently available on VHS.

DEATH AND THE MAIDEN IS A GRIPPING DRAMA
In Death and the Maiden, Paulina Escobar (Sigourney Weaver, Tadpole, Heartbreakers) is the housewife to a prominent lawyer in a South American country, and a former political prisoner. A storm forces her husband to ride home with a neighbor, and that chance encounter brings up demons from her past. Upon hearing his voice, Paulina is convinced that the neighbor, Dr. Miranda (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast, Gandhi) was the doctor who supervised her torture and raped her on several occasions while she was blindfolded and strapped to a table. Despite her husband’s objections, Paulina takes him captive, determined to get a taped confession from him at any cost. Her husband Gerardo (Stuart Wilson, Vertical Limit) is torn between his wife and the law, and Dr. Miranda is forced to endure captivity while husband and wife seek out the uncertain truth about the clouded past.

The DVD includes the widescreen version of the film (1.85:1) with English subtitles and closed captions. The DVD also features animated menus, the original theatrical trailer and trailers from other New Line Home Entertainment films.

BITTER MOON IS AN EROTIC MELODRAMA
Uptight British couple Fiona and Nigel Dobson (Kristin Scott Thomas, Life As A House, The English Patient and Hugh Grant, Two Weeks Notice, About A Boy) are on a cruise to Istanbul to celebrate their wedding anniversary. They encounter Oscar (Peter Coyote, A Walk to Remember), a wheelchair-bound American expatriate and his beautiful French wife Mimi (Emmanuelle Seigner, Frantic). Oscar senses Nigel’s fascination with his wife, and takes him aside to recount in exhibitionist detail the sordid tale of their once-passionate love affair, which gradually deteriorated into a series of increasingly sadistic and degrading sex games. Bitter Moon provides several jarring twists, and no one escapes unscathed from this erotic melodrama.

Title	Format	SRP	Cat. #	ISBN #	UPC #
Death and the Maiden	DVD	$19.98	N6351	0-7806-4305-4	7 94043 63512 0
Bitter Moon	DVD	$19.98	N6347	0-7806-4304-6	7 94043 63472 7

New Line Home Entertainment distributes all of New Line Cinema and Fine Line Features theatrical films on video and select titles on DVD, including the new premium DVD brand infinifilm™. The Company also distributes feature films and non-theatrical programs acquired or produced by New Line Home Entertainment and New Line Television. Founded in 1967, New Line Cinema is the leading independent producer and distributor of theatrical films and licenses its programming to ancillary markets including cable and broadcast television as well as in all international markets. New Line Cinema is a unit of Time Warner.

To download Bitter Moon and Death and the Maiden DVD box art, and for other New Line Home Entertainment press releases and photos, visit New Line’s website at www.moviepublicity.com.

For screener copies or artwork, please mail your request to Frank Reifsnyder, New Line Home Entertainment 116 N. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048, fax your request to 310-854-0602 or e-mail requests@newline.com.

CONTACTS
Jennifer Sandler
New Line Home Entertainment
310-967-6992
jennifer.sandler@newline.com