MoC Forthcoming, Wishlist, and Random Speculation

[Peacock]

Any Hou and Yang please... although Terrorizers and Dust in the Wind aren't quite as essential what with their current Blus.

I'd add Tsai but I'm pretty sure evillights isn't a fan considering his comments in that Costa interview on the Colossal Youth set!

[knives]

I'd add Tsai but I'm pretty sure evillights isn't a fan considering his comments in that Costa interview on the Colossal Youth set!

That sucks. I'd actually would ideally love to get a set of all the films contextualizing and expanding on his relationship with Kang, the evolution of the character, and of Tsai's grammar. There's a lot of ink that should be spilled over him. At the very least Visage deserves some release.

[John Edmond]

Releasing Terrorizers might be slightly redundant (well to me anyway), but if MOC can correct Dust in the Wind's blueness and release it as 1080P it'd be worth another go around. But still, you know, Puppetmaster, please. Bah, actually Flowers of Shanghai, Flowers of Shanghai. I know Puppetmaster is more in need, but.....

[zedz]

Any Hou would be be great (how I love Goodbye, South, Goodbye!), but City of Sadness seems to me the film that's really begging for the MoC treatment. It's a drop-dead masterpiece, a pivotal film for the New Wave, it's never been released on home video, and didn't it undergo a major restoration just a few years ago? (I seem to remember us all assuming that a Criterion release - or something - must be just around the corner.)

[John Edmond]

At least City of Sadness has a decent version floating around, correct aspect ratio and everything (or at least I haven't come across a VHS rip of the uncropped Puppetmaster).

Never understood Goodbye South, Goodbye is so dismissed. Although it's not my visual favourite, it's probably my favourite Hou. I'm guessing this was meant to be his breakthrough film - so he got damned by vege-fearing newbies who felt obliged to check him out, and by oldies who felt Hou was betraying his strengths (a stance which almost ruined Udden's actually quite good No Man An Island thanks to his contempt for Hou's high narco phase)

[zedz]

At least City of Sadness has a decent version floating around, correct aspect ratio and everything.

Does this mean it's actually been released legally somewhere?

[John Edmond]

The Japanese DVD is meant to be quite good but with no English subtitles - I'm guessing that's where my copy is derived from. It's not great by any means, but it's leaps and bounds ahead of my Puppetmaster.

[AidanKing]

With regard to the excellent work done on the Antonioni films, and now on the Pasolini films too, I wonder if there's any thought being given to more Rossellini. Apart from Journey to Italy, I don't think that any of the Ingrid Bergman films have been released on DVD in the U.K., and a set of Europa 51, Paura and Stromboli might potentially be a good seller.

On the subject of Italian directors, mk2 released Kaos by the Tavianis a while ago and a release of this might be able to be publicised with reference to the recent Golden Bear win.

It would also be great for the remaining Pialat films to be released as others have suggested. I think the Gaumont sets that provided the source for the MoC DVDs also included Le Garcu.

I know any of these would be quite a way in the future as the slate's already been set (but not yet announced) for the rest of the year, but here's hoping.

[zedz]

It would also be great for the remaining Pialat films to be released as others have suggested. I think the Gaumont sets that provided the source for the MoC DVDs also included Le Garcu.

I believe MoC have addressed this before, saying that they'd have liked to release the remaining two Pialats (this one and magnum opus La Maison des bois), but sales on the previous titles couldn't justify it. There's also the issue that the available transfers from the Gaumont set weren't suitable for HD, and as time goes on, DVD-only releases are just going to look less and less appealing to MoC.

When Gaumont gets around to issuing BluRays of both titles, the time might be riper for MoC to piggyback.

[TheGodfather]

On the subject of Italian directors, mk2 released Kaos by the Tavianis a while ago

on blu? still need to get this and never got around to buying the dvd. Was waiting for a blu-ray release but didn`t know it was already out...

[AidanKing]

On the subject of Italian directors, mk2 released Kaos by the Tavianis a while ago

on blu? still need to get this and never got around to buying the dvd. Was waiting for a blu-ray release but didn`t know it was already out...

No, Kaos was on DVD and it was a while ago unfortunately. No English subtitles as I recall.

I imagine this would mean that MoC would not be interested unless there was a new HD master.

It's a shame that no UK label seems interested in a DVD-only release: I think Artificial Eye have released a few mk2 transfers in the past but they don't seem to have an interest in this one.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

When Gaumont gets around to issuing BluRays of both titles, the time might be riper for MoC to piggyback.

Gaumont have just confirmed Pialat on Blu for 2013. No titles mentioned yet but Passe ton Bac is coming out a la demande (i.e non HD) in Summer.

[evillights]

I'd add Tsai but I'm pretty sure evillights isn't a fan considering his comments in that Costa interview on the Colossal Youth set!

That sucks. I'd actually would ideally love to get a set of all the films contextualizing and expanding on his relationship with Kang, the evolution of the character, and of Tsai's grammar. There's a lot of ink that should be spilled over him. At the very least Visage deserves some release.

That's not necessarily true — I'm a big fan of Tsai. But I do have issues with "plan-séquence cinema" (sequence-shot/long-take cinema) as a default-mode idiom for a lot of modern global cinema, in which it too often seems that a mode of Contemplativeness or Doubling-Down For Duration will automatically generate content, substance. So obviously I think Tsai has been misunderstood by a lot of filmmakers. And of course the sequence-shot in and of itself at one point stood for a kind of avant-garde move, a reaction against classical découpage. But this moment has passed, and if anything, long-take cinema made by the wrong people is just another, newer cliché. In that discussion, Pedro generously considers for a moment these kinds of movies from another angle, when he says something like, Maybe all these young filmmakers adopt this particular idiom of the long-shot "because there is this petty fascination with this thing called 'The Image'..."

I agree too that Visage deserves a release. It's unfortunate (and ironic given what I wrote above) that Tsai is no longer "the hot thing," ever since the near-porno of The Wayward Cloud (which, despite maybe being his best film besides The River, came at a bad time in the annals of US distribution, when Wellspring was falling apart, before the upswing of IFC, Cinema Guild, etc.), then the very abstract I Don't Want to Sleep Alone, which is a kind of meta-film about "The Cinema of Tsai Ming-liang." It's sad, too, because Visage stars Jean-Pierre Léaud — whom everyone is happy to pay lip-service to because of What He Represents, and yet when he does do a new film, nobody's interested — and his press conference at Cannes with Tsai three years ago was extremely moving, and alone better than a lot of acclaimed films.

[Calvin]

When Gaumont gets around to issuing BluRays of both titles, the time might be riper for MoC to piggyback.

Gaumont have just confirmed Pialat on Blu for 2013. No titles mentioned yet but Passe ton Bac is coming out a la demande (i.e non HD) in Summer.

I think Nick previously said that the sales of the Pialat titles weren't high enough to justify Blu upgrades. I too would like to see some down the line - maybe the profits would be greater if MoC paired them up like the Mizoguchis or stuck them in a boxset?

[zedz]

I still haven't seen Visage, and I hear it's a bit of a mess (though there's never been much of a consensus with Tsai's films anyway), but nevertheless it's hard to believe that a film with those stills can't generate enough light and heat to warrant a release.

Cases in point. Would you cross the street to see this film?

NSFW

And a much bigger one

In other news, a decent subtitled DVD of Kaos was released a few years back in the US. With the recent upheavals in the market it may well be OOP already, but it does exist.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Visage is a mess, but I'd pay to see that reindeer bump into a mirror again.

[colinr0380]

Visage is a mess, but I'd pay to see that reindeer bump into a mirror again.

Now I must see it!!

I know distributors are constrained by what deciding what is "hot or not", or what might sell copies and so on, but from the consumer point of view it is often incredibly frustrating to be in the position of films being made and then waiting for their release from anyone (the excruciating wait for the Dumonts keeps coming to mind). I don't exactly begrudge the vagaries of international distribution, or distributors for not wanting to get involved with certain releases that have virtually nil commercial potential, but at the same time it is annoying that I may never get the chance to make up my own mind on the worth (or not - whatever the case may be) of a film for myself! Often the films that are the biggest 'messes' turn out to be the most individual and fun!

In terms of the Tavianis, I don't think we should write them off yet. If Caesar Must Die gains critical recognition in the UK then that might possibly result in a couple of back catalogue releases around the time that film is released on home video. But then the opposite could happen! (Despite the problems with AE's Angelopoulos releases, I would also love if retrospectives of a director's career such as that, or something like the swathe of MoC Pialat releases for that matter, became more common)

[zedz]

I know distributors are constrained by what deciding what is "hot or not", or what might sell copies and so on, but from the consumer point of view it is often incredibly frustrating to be in the position of films being made and then waiting for their release from anyone (the excruciating wait for the Dumonts keeps coming to mind). I don't exactly begrudge the vagaries of international distribution, or distributors for not wanting to get involved with certain releases that have virtually nil commercial potential, but at the same time it is annoying that I may never get the chance to make up my own mind on the worth (or not - whatever the case may be) of a film for myself! Often the films that are the biggest 'messes' turn out to be the most individual and fun!

What perplexes me is when the film in question actually seems to me to have a stronger commercial hook than directly comparable work that does get a release. In the case of Visage, you've got an auteur with a good critical track record (if little significant commercial success) and a new work with a whole lot of additional marketable elements: costumes by Christian Lacroix! the Louvre! a whole bunch of French film stars / legends! Plus all those what-the-hell-was-that stills. If somebody was prepared to take the plunge on I Don't Want to Sleep Alone or Goodbye, Dragon Inn, how is this a riskier prospect? I can only imagine that the sales agent got carried away with all this stuff and priced the film off the market.

Another case in point was the long-delayed Night and Day, which was very fine business as usual for Hong, but with the added appeal of a Paris setting (slyly undercut in the film itself, but it's still a valid marketing hook).

[Peacock]

But with the Hong, the setting probably actually DID lead to a bigger company like IFC picking it up rather than any of his other films.

I think the reason it was delayed was the usual Hong-releasing Korean companies were outbid by larger ones, expecting a decent hit, but then those larger ones decided that actually the film would be tough to sell after all... I mean despite IFC and Paris... I don't think Night and Day is even one of his 5 most well-known films. Hence why IFC just made Night and Day streamable, didn't release their own DVD or Blu, Criterion didn't license and Zeitegeist got it in the end.

[Michael Kerpan]

Night and Day is probably one of Hong's LEAST known films -- it really got pretty much "lost", for a quite a long while.

[evillights]

I know distributors are constrained by what deciding what is "hot or not", or what might sell copies and so on, but from the consumer point of view it is often incredibly frustrating to be in the position of films being made and then waiting for their release from anyone (the excruciating wait for the Dumonts keeps coming to mind). I don't exactly begrudge the vagaries of international distribution, or distributors for not wanting to get involved with certain releases that have virtually nil commercial potential, but at the same time it is annoying that I may never get the chance to make up my own mind on the worth (or not - whatever the case may be) of a film for myself! Often the films that are the biggest 'messes' turn out to be the most individual and fun!

What perplexes me is when the film in question actually seems to me to have a stronger commercial hook than directly comparable work that does get a release. In the case of Visage, you've got an auteur with a good critical track record (if little significant commercial success) and a new work with a whole lot of additional marketable elements: costumes by Christian Lacroix! the Louvre! a whole bunch of French film stars / legends! Plus all those what-the-hell-was-that stills. If somebody was prepared to take the plunge on I Don't Want to Sleep Alone or Goodbye, Dragon Inn, how is this a riskier prospect? I can only imagine that the sales agent got carried away with all this stuff and priced the film off the market.

Another case in point was the long-delayed Night and Day, which was very fine business as usual for Hong, but with the added appeal of a Paris setting (slyly undercut in the film itself, but it's still a valid marketing hook).

The above point about the saleable/exploitable aspects of a particular film in the face of a relative non-reception is a good one — but sometimes those very types of films arrive like the thrust of a double-edged sword: for example, I know nothing about the exact story behind why the Tsai film has kind of disappeared, but it's worth bearing in mind that exactly because of particularly saleable/exploitable aspects of some film or another, the production company / international sales agent will often dig their heels in saying, "No-one will have this picture for less than 60,000 euros all-in!" Usually this attitude has a shelf-life of three years at the maximum extreme, and then the asking price plummets, or the terms take a 180. That said, no idea what might be the case with the scarce availability of this Tsai.

And as for the Hong Sang-soo scarcity, I'm sure I speak for a lot of folks like us when I say it's a total shame. He's one of the greatest directors of all time, and every new film is another masterpiece. At the rate of like one a year, too.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Other possible factors with the Tsai:
though it was shot at the Louvre, Tsai chose to use only back corridors and maintenance tunnels, save for a single shot of Leaud crawling through a grate into a gallery.
though it has a cast studded with French film stars, they all resemble mummies more than their past famous selves.
though those stills are lovely, and the movie is as well, if you look closely at the second one you'll realize that the red stuff is bloody hamburger meat and the setting a meat locker.

It's a movie where all of the salable elements have been methodically subverted. I am not surprised it's disappeared, even if I think this is a pity.

[Zot!]

It's a movie where all of the salable elements have been methodically subverted. I am not surprised it's disappeared, even if I think this is a pity.

On first glance this looks a lot like the Mathew Barney Cremaster films, which enjoyed considerable success as a roadshow. It's got nudity for crissakes, does that not sell anymore? Goddamn kids these days. That said, I found Tsai's previous features interminable.

[Ozu Teapot]

Are there any DVD-only releases upcoming from MoC this year?

Don't get me wrong, I'm completely converted to the superiority of Blu-ray but I'm wondering about those "missing" DVD spine numbers - #109 and #110.

[swo17]

As of three months ago, there was apparently one DVD-only release slated.