Fassbinder R2 UK

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

i got this email today from Arrow Films:

We have acquired 17 Fassbinder films, of which four are being released mid July (date has yet to be fixed). These films will be Fear eats the Soul, The Marriage of Maria Braun, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and The Merchant of Four Seasons priced at £19.99 each.

Along with the films, we have also acquired a number of documentaries, shorts, interviews and featurettes to accompany each release. Following on from the four single releases, will be a compilation featuring all 17 films, split into 2 box sets: 1969-1972 and 1973-1978.

The configuration of the box sets are proposed to be the following:

FCD300 (RWF 69-72)
American Soldier, The 80 mins
Beware of the Holy Whore 103 mins
Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant, The 124 mins
Gods of the Plague 91 mins
Katzelmacher 88mins
Love is Colder Than Death 88 mins
Merchant of Four Seasons, The 88 mins
Niklashauser Journey 90 mins
Rio des Mortes 84 mins

FCD301 (RWF 73-78)
Chinese Roulette 96 mins
Effi Briest 140 mins
Fear Eats the Soul 93 mins
Fear of Fear 88 mins
Fox and his Friends 123 mins
Marriage of Maria Braun, The 120 mins
Mother Kuster's Trip to Heaven 120mins
Satan's Brew 112 mins

I am obtaining technical details on the films at the moment and as soon as I have them, I will send these across to you.
If there is anymore information you would like please let me know.

it looks promising although i don't know much about this label.

[Barmy]

No Third Generation or World on a Wire? Or anything else a bit off the beaten track? All of this is out in R1, mostly in decent versions. Plus it's a bit pricey.

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

yes...this is all true but i'm hoping (perhaps foolishly) that:

1. the boxsets will be reasonably priced
2. the picture quality will be an improvement on the fox lorbers...

[tryavna]

Arrow is certainly better than Fox Lorber. Their Erich Rohmer boxset is pretty decent -- you can check out DVD Beaver's comparisons. I also have their 2-disc release of Marcel Ophuls' The Sorrow and the Pity, which is superior to the R1 release.

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/index.php?c ... &art_id=27


'The Bitter Tears of Maria Braun' is available...maybe this is a 'lost' film found in the archives...

[lazier than a toad]

Has anyone seen these DVDs or compared them to the R1 versions, and are they any good?

[Nadsat]

Do someone know anything about these editions from Arrow?

[spencerw]

Do someone know anything about these editions from Arrow?

It seems that the transfers come from the Fassbinder Foundation, so I would expect them to be good.

Talking of Fassbinder, some news about Berlin Alexanderplatz: .

[Lemmy Caution]

A series of 17 Fassbinders turned up in China last month. Looks like the identical titles, except The Third Generation was included here, and no Rio de Mortes. Turned out only 2 of them had English subtitles [Niklashauser Journey and The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant]. The others had Dutch, French and Chinese subtitles. All of the prints were from the Fassbinder Foundation and looked very good.

Now, I really have no idea if these are the same editions. Things can get a little wacky here in China, so this info might not amount to much outside The Middle Kingdom. But it sure was a huge disappointment for poor old Lemmy C.

Well, I guess if Arrow is a British company then there will certainly be English subtitles. Those Arrow covers look pretty nice. The covers that I got were fairly horrendous, each with a photo of Fassbinder in a circle at the top, and a side view of a different scantily female on the edge of the circle. Then down towards the bottom there was a small insert of the standard cover for each given film. Apparently from Manga Films of Spain, and supposedly featuring Castellano and English subtitles.

Okay, so it was a complete fiasco, but I did end up with perfectly fine copies of Niklashauser Journey and The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant

[nyasa]

I watched Arrow's R2 Fear Eats the Soul on rental last night and was impressed. It's ages since I saw the Criterion version, but going from memory I'd say the transfer is close to that standard. The extras were pretty decent too, especially a 60-minute documentary Fassbinder in Hollywood, an interview with Todd Haynes and also an interview with RWF that appeared on the Criterion BRD box set.

It bodes well for Arrow's other Fassbinder releases.

[foggy eyes]

I watched Arrow's R2 Fear Eats the Soul on rental last night and was impressed.

I have to agree. Maria, Petra and Merchant are of a similar, and perhaps unexpectedly high, standard.

[zedz]

This is extremely amusing - a Fassbinder Western Musical Melodrama redolent of (and preceding) Mandingo.

Hanna Schygulla sings Peer Raben's "I Kill Them" in English. Wonderful.

I haven't watched the film in ages, but I've got a Raben / Fassbinder CD with Gunther K singing this. Great sub-Scott Walker song with disturbing and intoxicating extra beats here and there. Was Gunther's version in the film?

I haven't seen Mandingo, but this film always reminded me of Paul Morrissey, but more so. One of those films that reminds you how difficult it is to get a grasp on the breadth of Fassbinder's achievement, and how much fun it is to try.

[Don Lope de Aguirre]

I don't know if anyone still cares but according to Arrow:

The DVD Box sets will be released in November 07. There precedes a Uk theatrical tour of 8 of his films in the three months leading upto the DVD releases