Artificial Eye / Curzon Film World

[Rupert Pupkin]

is there a Blu-Ray edition of Wong Kar Wai "Fallen Angels" planned by Artificial Eye ?

I was expected a Kino Blu-Ray release of "Fallen Angels", but in the end it happens that they only released a "HD transfer" on DVD-SD (which is probably now closer to the gorgeous zone 3 remastered edition released 1 or 2 years ago (a double-pack Chungking Express/Fallen Angels)

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

I know it has nothing to do with AE's DVD release, but I was poking around the BBFC's website and I'm really digging their "Consumer Advice" for Happy Together:

Language:
Occasional, strong
Sex/Nudity:
Infrequent, moderate, gay
Violence:
Infrequent, mild
Other:
Romance, comedy drama

[razumovsky]

Artificial Eye's Weekend has apparently been deleted. Not so long ago you couldn't move for copies of Weekend going for under a tenner - I'm kicking myself I didn't get in there when I had the chance. I have my VHS recording of the BBC 2 Moviedrome screening from way back to be getting on with (with an excellent Alex Cox intro, too) - but does anybody know what has happened here. Have AE lost the rights? If so, who has acquired them? Optimum the likeliest candidate, I'd guess.

[tojoed]

There were stacks of them in my local HMV and FOPP stores today for £7, but I notice on Amazon UK the cheapest is currently £21.99. Odd.

[Gus]

Can anybody comment on the The Man from London disc. Is it good?

[gyorgys]

Can anybody comment on the The Man from London disc. Is it good?

It is, in one word, magnificent!

With that out of the way, what about the other Bela Tarr films?

EDIT: Regarding the corrected (but not anamorphic, i.e. 1.66:1) OAR of the re-issued Werckmeister Harmóniák (combined with Damnation/Kárhozat) look here and for a comparison between Sátántangó (also non-anamorphic and 1.66:1 OAR) on AE and Facets here.

[What A Disgrace]

With that out of the way, what about the other Bela Tarr films?

[ryan11]

Werckmeister Harmonies is the only film I've ever walked out of in a cinema. I considered walking out in the first ten minutes, and again several times soon after. I wanted to give those long, loooong scenes of nothingness a chance to reveal their inner beauty. I made it to the scene where (as I remember it) several children were jumping up and down on a bed making a god-awful noise. It went on, and on, and on and.......... I had to leave. There were about 20 people who left before me, and one lady who left at the same time I did.

I just can't bring myself to watch another Bela Tarr. Yes, the experience was that bad that I can't believe I could watch, oe enjoy another film by the creator of THAT film.

Had to get that off my chest. Feeling much lighter now.

[MichaelB]

I considered walking out in the first ten minutes

Best opening of any film this millennium as far as I'm concerned, and a near-perfect short in its own right. It was my first Tarr, and I was utterly enthralled.

And I'm so glad I saw it in a cinema, as I've had to put up with DVD for the others - big-screen airings are few and far between.

[kaujot]

Best opening of any film this millennium as far as I'm concerned, and a near-perfect short in its own right.

Agreed. I was stunned.

[What A Disgrace]

Regarding the corrected (but not anamorphic, i.e. 1.66:1) OAR of the re-issued Werckmeister Harmóniák (combined with Damnation/Kárhozat) look here and for a comparison between Sátántangó (also non-anamorphic and 1.66:1 OAR) on AE and Facets here.

So...the new DVDs of the other Tarr films are the same as the old ones?

[foggy eyes]

So...the new DVDs of the other Tarr films are the same as the old ones?

I would be stunned if they weren't - the repackaging is (most likely) just a marketing push to tie in with The Man from London.

["membrillo"]

Werckmeister Harmonies is the only film I've ever walked out of in a cinema. I considered walking out in the first ten minutes, and again several times soon after. I wanted to give those long, loooong scenes of nothingness a chance to reveal their inner beauty. I made it to the scene where (as I remember it) several children were jumping up and down on a bed making a god-awful noise. It went on, and on, and on and.......... I had to leave. There were about 20 people who left before me, and one lady who left at the same time I did.

I just can't bring myself to watch another Bela Tarr. Yes, the experience was that bad that I can't believe I could watch, oe enjoy another film by the creator of THAT film.

Had to get that off my chest. Feeling much lighter now.

Sux for you!

[Kirkinson]

Best opening of any film this millennium as far as I'm concerned, and a near-perfect short in its own right.

Agreed. I was stunned.

Doubly agreed. I actually didn't watch the rest of the film for a few more days after I watched that first scene -- I loved it so much that I was afraid the rest of the film wouldn't be able to live up to it, so I wanted to savor it on its own. Of course I felt very silly after I saw the rest of the film, which not only lives up to the opening scene but actually surpasses it a few times.

[ryan11]

Best opening of any film this millennium as far as I'm concerned, and a near-perfect short in its own right.

Agreed. I was stunned.

Doubly agreed. I actually didn't watch the rest of the film for a few more days after I watched that first scene -- I loved it so much that I was afraid the rest of the film wouldn't be able to live up to it, so I wanted to savor it on its own. Of course I felt very silly after I saw the rest of the film, which not only lives up to the opening scene but actually surpasses it a few times.

I should add that (as I recall) the opening was the best part of the film. A film I had an extremely negative reaction to within a very short while! ( I can't quite recall, but I believe I endured the bulk of the film. I do remember reasoning that no ending, however profound, could make up for what (didn't) come before it.)

To each their own. The extremes of opinion just go to show the power of cinema on individuals.

Tarkovsky, found Ozu's An Autumn Afternoon 'dreadfully boring'. I found it a great last work from a master filmmaker.

Edit: On a postive note, I do think Bela Tarr chooses some wonderful music to accompany his cinematic offerings. Well, the Vig Mihaly tracks I've heard on a compilation cd, at least.

[domino harvey]

I think you discovered why it does no good on this board to voice dissent on Tarr, as you'll just get drowned out in hyperbolic defenses. I'm with you, but it's really not worth the effort

[MichaelB]

I should add that (as I recall) the opening was the best part of the film. A film I had an extremely negative reaction to within a very short while! ( I can't quite recall, but I believe I endured the bulk of the film. I do remember reasoning that no ending, however profound, could make up for what (didn't) come before it.)

For what it's worth, I had a similarly extreme reaction to Celine and Julie Go Boating - I just found their witterings profoundly irritating and exited the cinema well before the halfway mark. But I rediscovered it a few years later, and now think it's a masterpiece.

Which Werckmeister Harmonies certainly is too, but unless it grabbed you from the start I can readily see how you could have found it baffling and boring. Russian Ark (another Artificial Eye title!) gets similarly polarised reactions, though in that case one's prior knowledge of Russian history is a fairly crucial element in the mix.

[Tommaso]

Russian Ark (another Artificial Eye title!) gets similarly polarised reactions, though in that case one's prior knowledge of Russian history is a fairly crucial element in the mix.

Good to hear that, because I only heard unaninimous praise for it and then found it pretty disappointing when I finally saw it. I guess I'm a bit averse to what appears as a technical tour de force for its own sake (I have the same problem with Hitchcock's "Rope"). But I admit of not knowing too much about Russian history and will surely give it a try again at a later date, because at least the visuals were pretty amazing for the most part.

I loved "Celine and Julie" from the beginning, though. Like always in Rivette, the (t)wittering had a special charme because it appeared to be so effortless, and at the time I had never seen anything quite as 'far out' as that film, thematically (this was before I got around to "Noroit"...). "Out 1" is a far, far harder nut to crack. But if you make it through the first four hours or so, which seem completely disjointed, the whole thing slowly begins to make sense.

[gyorgys]

Regarding the corrected (but not anamorphic, i.e. 1.66:1) OAR of the re-issued Werckmeister Harmóniák (combined with Damnation/Kárhozat) look here and for a comparison between Sátántangó (also non-anamorphic and 1.66:1 OAR) on AE and Facets here.

So...the new DVDs of the other Tarr films are the same as the old ones?

As already said by foggy eyes, yes, they most probably are. P.S. Why is it so difficult to produce an anamorphic version of a film with an OAR 1.66:1?

[MichaelB]

Good to hear that, because I only heard unaninimous praise for it and then found it pretty disappointing when I finally saw it. I guess I'm a bit averse to what appears as a technical tour de force for its own sake (I have the same problem with Hitchcock's "Rope").

Well, I'd disagree that it's "a technical tour de force for its own sake", because Sokurov's ambition had rather greater justification than Hitchcock's - he wanted to capture the sweep of Russian history in a single shot (or "a single breath", as he put it). So while you could have shot Rope in the usual way, and it would doubtless have worked perfectly well, the one-take nature of Russian Ark was the wellspring from which the entire film flowed, along with its unique and unmatchable location.

But I admit of not knowing too much about Russian history and will surely give it a try again at a later date, because at least the visuals were pretty amazing for the most part.

I was incredibly lucky when I saw it - it was early 2003, and I'd spent a ten-day leg of my honeymoon in St Petersburg in November 2002, during which I read two hefty books on Russian history from the city's perspective.

Which didn't exactly make me an expert, but it did turn out to equip me very well for the film, not least because I quickly recognised that Sokurov was deliberately mocking the less-informed viewer by having the unseen commentator mention historical figures fractionally too late - "Was that Pushkin?", after Pushkin has already disappeared. Those who know their Russian history and culture would of course have recognised Pushkin from the off.

So the bottom line is that the less you know about Russian history, the less you're going to get out of it - Sokurov clearly made the film primarily for highly-educated Russians like himself.
Apparently one of the DVDs has a commentary, though I don't know how helpful it is (I've heard it's largely technical), and the Artificial Eye disc is commentary-free.

[MichaelB]

P.S. Why is it so difficult to produce an anamorphic version of a film with an OAR 1.66:1?

I'm guessing that it's often because an existing letterboxed master already exists, and therefore it may be hard to justify the cost of doing it all over again, given that the differences between anamorphic and non-anamorphic 1.66:1 in terms of visible detail are relatively slight.

And with Hungarian films anamorphic transfers seem to be in the minority anyway - I've bought dics of very recent films that have turned out to be letterboxed.

[gyorgys]

P.S. Why is it so difficult to produce an anamorphic version of a film with an OAR 1.66:1?

I'm guessing that it's often because an existing letterboxed master already exists, and therefore it may be hard to justify the cost of doing it all over again, given that the differences between anamorphic and non-anamorphic 1.66:1 in terms of visible detail are relatively slight.

And with Hungarian films anamorphic transfers seem to be in the minority anyway - I've bought dics of very recent films that have turned out to be letterboxed.

Thanks MichaelB for clarifying that!

A very thoughtful and well-written commentary (and not a "hyperbolic defense") on The man from London here.

[Fierias]

The Werckmeister Harmonies and Damnation discs are identicial to their previous editions. And, while the Man From London transfer is very nice, it is also a 1.66:1 image locked into 16:9, with black bars on the left and right side. Makes no difference on a 16:9 display, but will give the image a thick black border on a 4:3 display, and a laptop.

[miless]

well, at least it's 16x9!
I now must find a way to import The Man From London

[domino harvey]

It'd be about $15 American to get it shipped from Amazon.co.uk