Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

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Dick Laurent · #476 Post by **Dick Laurent** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:04 pm

Michael, do you know why they don't produce more of the box instead of seperate releases, there's probably something I missed somewehere.
And it's true, I could probably get the seperate releases, but the collector in me is probably not satisfied untill I have that box.

Calvin · #477 Post by **Calvin** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:16 pm

Dick Laurent wrote:Michael, do you know why they don't produce more of the box instead of seperate releases, there's probably something I missed somewehere.
And it's true, I could probably get the seperate releases, but the collector in me is probably not satisfied untill I have that box.

Arrow were only allowed to print 1000 copies of the book with Borowczyk's short stories.

Dick Laurent · #478 Post by **Dick Laurent** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:25 pm

I see, that's pretty ridiculous on the rightsholder part.
Still, I think the box would sell without them, it's a waste to use all that nice artwork for such a limited run, i would even take a box with blank pages in the book so they don't have to refit everything.

MichaelB · #479 Post by **MichaelB** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 1:29 pm

Dick Laurent wrote:I see, that's pretty ridiculous on the rightsholder part.

Or canny. The short stories have never been published in English before, and if the box ends up triggering new interest in Borowczyk (which already seems to have happened with a vengeance), it makes a lot of sense for them to retain the option to publish them separately with a reasonable hope that there might be a market out there.

MichaelB · #480 Post by **MichaelB** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:01 am

We're changing the title of one of the individual Borowczyk releases - instead of calling it Theatre of Mr & Mrs Kabal, it's going to be Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films and Animation.

The reason for this is that the Kabal film is desperately obscure, even to the point where many Borowczyk fans don't know about it, and the shorts are a major part of the package, with the likes of Renaissance and Angels' Games arguably being more important in terms of his creative development. And getting Borowczyk's name into the title can't hurt, especially not since the release is only three weeks or so after The Beast.

But those who still want to highlight the Kabals will be reassured to know that the reversible sleeve will give them that option, as it's based around Borowczyk's original poster for his feature debut.

(This is very nostalgic for me, as I tried to develop a project called Walerian Borowczyk: Short Films and Animation with the BFI way back in 2007-8, as an explicit sequel to the Quay/Svankmajer compilations. And indeed there'd have been a massive content overlap between that and what Arrow's releasing, although I'd certainly have included A Private Collection, The Beast of Gévaudan and Venus on the Half-Shell - all featured elsewhere in Arrow's Borowczyk survey - and would most likely have gone for the Polish shorts too, as this would have been a DVD-only release and decent SD masters are available. But it's otherwise very very similar to what was being planned.)

Cold Bishop · #481 Post by **Cold Bishop** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:57 am

I'm actually curious about the book and it's limited rights: has it been published in the past? or are they trying to shop it?

MichaelB · #482 Post by **MichaelB** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:05 am

Cold Bishop wrote:I'm actually curious about the book and it's limited rights: has it been published in the past? or are they trying to shop it?

Anatomy of the Devil has previously been published three times, firstly in an ultra-limited self-published edition of seven stories with illustrations by Borowczyk, and then in a text-only commercial edition of nine stories, both times in French, and then in Polish in Ligia Borowczyk's own translation.

This will be the first time that the stories have appeared in English, and the first commercial release with the illustrations in any language. We'll be publishing all nine stories, although the illustrations fizzle out after the seventh. (I remember flagging that up during proofing, but was told that this was deliberate.)

I have no idea what the publisher's future plans are, although I imagine they're keeping a close watch on Borowczyk coverage in the English-speaking world, as it will have substantially increased in 2014.

UPDATE: I've corrected my original post to acknowledge the Polish edition.

Bürgermeister · #483 Post by **Bürgermeister** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:04 pm

Question about the packaging. I know Arrow are utterly useless and against printing additional booklets/packaging, because they "want to save money for other titles".

So with this, are they going to print some additional packaging for this set?
I know if I was a Kickstarter backer and it arrived damaged (lets face it, afew will) I'd pretty peeved to put it mildly if Arrow had no packaging backups for damage.

MichaelB · #484 Post by **MichaelB** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:32 pm

That's a logistical issue, so it's outside my purview - you'll have to ask them directly. But they're very responsive on Facebook and Twitter.

#485 Post by **domino harvey** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:52 pm

I wouldn't open with "I know you are utterly useless" though

MichaelB · #486 Post by **MichaelB** » Thu Jul 03, 2014 9:54 pm

Yes, I'd advise against that too. Especially with regard to this project, where Arrow have been the polar opposite of utterly useless.

(Even though I'm days away from signing off on it and virtually all the elements are now in place, I still can't entirely believe this is happening!)

Bürgermeister · Thu Jul 03, 2014 10:27 pm

domino harvey wrote:I wouldn't open with "I know you are utterly useless" though

Sorry, I don't beat around the bush. They are useless with this issue compared to other labels. If they change this maybe even charge a small fee like Criterion for replacing packaging/booklets. I'd be the first to welcome this. Until that day I stand by comment regarding this issue.

And just to clarify Michael. I know Arrow have turned things around and have gone above and beyond for this project. So don't please don't think I view all their efforts to improve and become one of the top labels in the world as "useless". Their improvements and output is very far from it.

tenia · #488 Post by **tenia** » Fri Jul 04, 2014 7:00 am

The price of set makes it different from other Arrow releases logistically-wise, so I guess they probably have something planned to ensure good CS.

MichaelB · #489 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:38 pm

The artwork for the individual covers (which will also be included in the box set), in ascending order of spine number:

There will also be reversible sleeves featuring Borowczyk's original posters - in the case of the Short Films and Animation disc this will allow you to highlight the feature-length Theatre of Mr & Mrs Kabal.

NABOB OF NOWHERE · Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:05 pm

Very classy..nice work. Is there a ship date for kickstarter pledgers or do we have to stand in line with the rabble?

MichaelB · #491 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 4:07 pm

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:Very classy..nice work. Is there a ship date for kickstarter pledgers or do we have to stand in line with the rabble?

When we finish it!

But we're tantalisingly close now - I have four out of five Blu-ray checkdiscs sitting right next to me, and they only need tiny tweaks before they're ready to publish.

Ron · #492 Post by **Ron** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 7:42 pm

Hallo there!
I am a kickstarter backer from Austria and I'm really looking forward to this amazing release! I would like to thank everyone being involved into this process and can't wait to hold this treasure in my hands.

I like the cover artworks. They look really great!

Ron · #493 Post by **Ron** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 4:24 am

MichaelB wrote:The BBFC has confirmed an 18 certificate for the Borowczyk box set, for "strong sex, sexual violence, explicit sexual images". Can't really argue with that.

Most importantly, it confirms that the longer cut of A Private Collection does not tip over into R18 territory, despite clearly containing unsimulated sexual material (albeit in the form of vintage photos rather than moving images).

Which is a huge relief as we're just about to irreversibly go to press with the book, and I was dreading either having to strip out all references to that cut at the last minute or (worse) having to drop the film after the book had gone to press!

Does this mean that we are getting the same pixelized version as the one on the German BD/DVD set or will we get a slightly cut version of it, which meets the British law?

GaryC · #494 Post by **GaryC** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:41 am

Looks good. Are there 18-certificate extras on the Goto and Blanche discs, as those two features are not themselves 18s?

MichaelB · #495 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 5:57 am

Goto should be a 15, and I'll get that fixed. Blanche is an 18 because of the hour-long Borowczyk profile - we could have artificially kept the clips at PG level, but we reckoned sales to the teenage market would be minimal at best.

As for the Oberhausen cut of A Private Collection, to comply with British law while keeping the original editing rhythms and soundtrack intact we've blacked out all the frames where there's actual sexual contact between the dog and the woman. We were advised that pixelation probably wouldn't be sufficient to avoid potential legal hassle.

However, the last shot has been left intact despite the dog being visibly aroused (evidence of which was pixelated on the German disc), as we reckoned that if aroused horses in The Beast (and innumerable David Attenborough documentaries) were OK, we'd probably get away with this one too - and we did.

Ron · #496 Post by **Ron** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 12:21 pm

Many thanks, dear Michael, for the answer. I just have another question concerning the 22 minute version of The Beast episode. Will this one be included in the L'Age d'Or cut of Immoral Tales or will it be available separately as a bonus feature?

MichaelB · #497 Post by **MichaelB** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 1:17 pm

Ron wrote:Many thanks, dear Michael, for the answer. I just have another question concerning the 22 minute version of The Beast episode. Will this one be included in the L'Age d'Or cut of Immoral Tales or will it be available separately as a bonus feature?

Just the L'Âge d'Ôr cut of Immoral Tales, although it's easy enough to access separately with the skip buttons.

The original plan was to feature the 22-minute version on The Beast and the 17-minute version on Immoral Tales, but on closer examination of the latter it turned out to have been crudely censored - by whom, we don't know, but the cuts played such havoc with the editing rhythms and the music that we couldn't believe that Borowczyk had signed off on it. Certainly, there was very little point including it when we also had the 22-minute version.

We then debated featuring this version twice - i.e. on both Immoral Tales and The Beast - but decided against it because there's quite a bit of 16mm-sourced HD material on The Beast already (such as the hour-long "making-of" documentary), and this demands a fair bit more space than the equivalent in HD-shot video. In other words, there would unavoidably have been knock-on effects on the bitrate of other items on the disc containing The Beast. Another issue was that it didn't have any opening or closing titles, since it was originally conceived as an Immoral Tales episode, so we ultimately decided that it was best to leave it like that.

Ron · #498 Post by **Ron** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 2:28 pm

Many thanks, dear Michael. That's really interesting. Can't wait to see this version.

SonOfRambow · #499 Post by **SonOfRambow** » Mon Jul 14, 2014 10:36 pm

Hello fellow cinephiles :)
I've just joined the forum as I'd like to check something about the book that comes with the boxset. Does anyone know what 'Anatomy of the Devil' short stories are like? Do they have a certain genre or are they mixed? Also how much of the book do the short stories take up?
I'm just interested considering it is a vital part of this box set and the main reason it's limited edition.
And I love short stories, especially when written by such a brilliant director ;)
Thanks
L

MichaelB · #500 Post by **MichaelB** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:39 pm

Does anyone know what 'Anatomy of the Devil' short stories are like?

Yes. Nine in all, ranging quite widely in length and subject-matter: some revolve around familiar Borowczyk preoccupations (one of them wittily presents the sexually graphic material in mirror writing, to force the reader to make an effort), while others delve into different territory (for instance, the final story about Vincent Van Gogh, or a quasi-libretto for an unrealised opera inspired by his last animated short film Scherzo Infernal).

Also how much of the book do the short stories take up?

In terms of word count, roughly a quarter.

The other stuff that's exclusive to the big book is the Raymond Durgnat piece from Film Comment (which was just too long to republish in any of the booklets) and the whole of sections 3 and 4, containing Boro's Dictionary and two big pieces on the restorations. Although the one by James White (about Goto) is also published online, and the one by me (about the restoration project in general) is likely to be republished in an upcoming anthology of new writing about Borowczyk.

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