Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

[swo17]

If there's potential for multiple sets, I'd say we're talking about someone who's directed at least like 10 films (many of which have never even been released on DVD), but still some reasonable, releasable amount. There's no way they're doing a 200-film Jess Franco set!

[domino harvey]

It's coming to Arrow Academy, so it'll likely be a highbrow director, not a horror/cult filmmaker

[swo17]

Or perhaps a horror/cult director that Arrow considers to be highbrow?

[R0lf]

Also Zulawski - we know all his output has been restored from last years retrospective.

[Calvin]

Apparently, in an interview in Home Cinema Choice magazine, Arrow said that they're working on the library of an Eastern European director. No idea if they and the misunderstood genius are one and the same.

[razumovsky]

I am always wrong about these things, but I reckon Walerian Borowczyk is a candidate here (large-ish filmography, critically neglected, straddling the high/low divide, misunderstood genius). Or if not Borowczyk, perhaps Juraj Jakubisko? All of the above apply, and he's still alive to assist with those bountiful extras. Either of these would be fantastically exciting.

[David M.]

Also Zulawski - we know all his output has been restored from last years retrospective.

Don't take this as any sort of comment on what Arrow are or aren't doing, but I had better clarify this! Getting materials from Zulawski releases is far from easy and not much has been done in terms of 'restoration' (a term I hope cultural institutions aren't tossing around casually). The retrospective amounted to some new prints of some of his Polish films, which quickly had English subtitles lasered into them and are therefore no use for making discs out of ](*,)

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

I am always wrong about these things, but I reckon Walerian Borowczyk is a candidate here (large-ish filmography, critically neglected, straddling the high/low divide, misunderstood genius). Or if not Borowczyk, perhaps Juraj Jakubisko? All of the above apply, and he's still alive to assist with those bountiful extras. Either of these would be fantastically exciting.

Good call on Borowczyk for all the reasons you give. If anyone was looking for a missing link between Chris Marker,Jan Lenica and Tinto Brass here's the guy. Smart money definitely on Walerian at 1/10 on.
Also the lack of comment from MichaelB might speak (of) volumes (to come).

[MichaelB]

Also the lack of comment from MichaelB might speak (of) volumes (to come).

Or it might mean nothing at all. I only work for Arrow on a freelance basis, have never set foot in their offices, and am typically only three months or so ahead of the rest of you when it comes to future releases (and often not even that). So please don't regard me as any kind of authority!

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Also the lack of comment from MichaelB might speak (of) volumes (to come).

Or it might mean nothing at all. I only work for Arrow on a freelance basis, have never set foot in their offices, and am typically only three months or so ahead of the rest of you when it comes to future releases (and often not even that). So please don't regard me as any kind of authority!

I cited you more as an authority/potential contributor on Borowczyk than on Arrow's release schedule. Nevertheless will be looking your way closer to the release date.

[acf171072]

I am always wrong about these things, but I reckon Walerian Borowczyk is a candidate here (large-ish filmography, critically neglected, straddling the high/low divide, misunderstood genius). Or if not Borowczyk, perhaps Juraj Jakubisko? All of the above apply, and he's still alive to assist with those bountiful extras. Either of these would be fantastically exciting.

Borowczyk sounds good to me. I'm not even sure if Nouveaux are still around, they obviously lost Bresson to AE maybe Borowczyk, too. Fassbinder impossible as Jail Bait will never be released and Eight Hours Don't Make a Day prob the same plus as said not misunderstood. Franco impossible because no-one has a full list of his works and he made some pornos so they aren't going to be released (imagine a Blu of Elles Font Tout with Lina Romay's scene with three let's not go there). Rollin would be dismissed for same reason and Redemption have him. Borowczyk would seem a very good possibility esp if rights still issue with Meyer. The animations could be one volume alone. To do a complete works it needs to be manageable, not someone who made dozens of films.

[zedz]

Assuming your plural is a typo

That's just a quote from the announcement post.

[manicsounds]

Assuming your plural is a typo in reality I assume Elaine May is the most obvious choice given the popular status of Ishtar clashing with her major status.

Well, Arrow said "he" so it's not a female director. I said Ed Wood before, but Bert I Gordon would be another guess I'd make.

[Anthony Thorne]

Well now, my memory has just been jogged.

I'm sure that Daniel Bird (who is all over the POSESSION Blu-Ray that just came out in the UK) mentioned on Facebook (a few weeks back at most) that he had just seen new restored transfers of Borowczyk's animated works, and that they looked stunning.

Hmmmm.... :-"

[R0lf]

Are people taking the "all" to mean filmography? Because I took it to mean that the releases will just be by the same director and am struggling to see where people came up with the idea of an entire filmography?

[MichaelB]

Well now, my memory has just been jogged.

I'm sure that Daniel Bird (who is all over the POSESSION Blu-Ray that just came out in the UK) mentioned on Facebook (a few weeks back at most) that he had just seen new restored transfers of Borowczyk's animated works, and that they looked stunning.

That's for this month's retrospective in Wrocław, with which Daniel is heavily involved. New digital copies had to be made because all the old distribution prints had become unwatchable - even in the 1990s (when I last saw a Borowczyk shorts package on the big screen) they'd faded to various unpleasant shades of pink and magenta, so God knows what they look like now.

[AidanKing]

I reckon the big project with the maligned director is probably something to do with Ken Russell. That's because MichaelB recently said he was currently working on a project aimed at the re-evaluation of an unfairly misunderstood director (posted in the German Filmmuseum thread a while back) and I imagine this may be the same project.

I was hoping for Ken Russell at the BBC but I doubt that that would be released by Arrow.

[Calvin]

Haven't all of Russell's theatrical features been released on DVD somewhere already? With Network releasing a collection of his work on The South Bank Show, there's only some of the BBC stuff left unreleased.

[MichaelB]

Haven't all of Russell's theatrical features been released on DVD somewhere already? With Network releasing a collection of his work on The South Bank Show, there's only some of the BBC stuff left unreleased.

"Some of the BBC stuff" amounts to a very substantial body of work - he made over thirty films for them between 1959 and 1970, all but one of which survive, and so the Ken Russell at the BBC set only scratches the surface.

But a project like that would very much be in the BBC's hands - I suspect music/performance rights clearance alone would be a major logistical and budgetary nightmare.

[Calvin]

Haven't all of Russell's theatrical features been released on DVD somewhere already? With Network releasing a collection of his work on The South Bank Show, there's only some of the BBC stuff left unreleased.

"Some of the BBC stuff" amounts to a very substantial body of work - he made over thirty films for them between 1959 and 1970, all but one of which survive, and so the Ken Russell at the BBC set only scratches the surface.

Indeed! I didn't intend for my comment to denigrate Russell's work for the BBC which I consider to be among the best of the post-war period of British cinema, though I can see how it can be interpreted as such - poor choice of words! After their Ghost Stories sets, I have had my hope restored that the BFI will choose to release their own Ken Russell at the BBC set, which was for some reason never released in the UK.

[AidanKing]

After their Ghost Stories sets, I have had my hope restored that the BFI will choose to release their own Ken Russell at the BBC set, which was for some reason never released in the UK.

I think it was due to the objections of the holders of the copyrights to Richard Strauss' music, which is why I hoped a release might be forthcoming as the copyright must be due to expire relatively soon.

Whatever this project (or projects, if MichaelB's is different) is going to be, it sounds extremely interesting and I am certainly looking forward to the eventual announcement.

[MichaelB]

After their Ghost Stories sets, I have had my hope restored that the BFI will choose to release their own Ken Russell at the BBC set, which was for some reason never released in the UK.

I think it was due to the objections of the holders of the copyrights to Richard Strauss' music, which is why I hoped a release might be forthcoming as the copyright must be due to expire relatively soon.

Dance of the Seven Veils was originally announced as part of the Ken Russell at the BBC set, but dropped at the last minute, almost certainly because the Richard Strauss estate wouldn't clear the music rights. That particular copyright is due to expire on 1 January 2020.

But there's a lot more that that box set left out - it doesn't have any of the shorter films (i.e. the vast majority), and doesn't even include all of the longer ones. Béla Bartók (1964) is one of my favourites, although I can appreciate that this must be a rights-clearance challenge, since the vast majority of the footage is taken from third-party films. (Unsurprisingly, Russell himself never went anywhere near Hungary to film it!).

[Calvin]

If my (admittedly limited) understanding of copyright law is correct, Dance of the Seven Veils could only be released, without the permission of the Strauss estate, in Life+50 countries like Canada. However, I wonder if the BBC have made overtures to the estate recently about getting the rights - after all, with the copyright expiring worldwide within the next decade, the estate can either make money now or not make any at all and see it released anyway in 2020.

[domino harvey]

Wait, does the title of this thread give away that De Palma is the director who's getting the boxed set treatment?

[MichaelB]

No, because he isn't!

I think it's just a handy way of keeping things neat and tidy - see the John Cassavetes and Werner Herzog threads in the BFI subforum for parallel examples.