Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

[swo17]

I've only seen the discs and a PDF of the book, not the final package - I suspect (and indeed hope) that mine will turn up on the same day as the Kickstarter backers' copies.

I don't deserve to get my set on the same day as you.

[MichaelB]

I'm still waiting for the first full-length review, but I'm not exactly unhappy about this early reaction.

(The box set proper is still being manufactured, but review screeners went out last week.)

[GaryC]

Apologies if this has been asked already, but I don't remember it being so - what's the region-coding of this set? Thanks.

[arsonfilms]

I'm awfully excited to explore this release. Given that this set is a collecting a wide variety of work from a multi-format artist (plus all of the critical and contextual components), is there an ideal way to approach the collection? The sheer volume of content (most of which is previously unavailable and thereby unfamiliar) is a little intimidating, and I suspect that a road map or guide might be useful.

[MichaelB]

The films are presented in broadly chronological order across discs one to five, although there's a bit of overlap with the last three shorts - The Phonograph comes between the features Goto and Blanche, while The Greatest Love of All Time and Scherzo Infernal are the two most recent films in the entire package. The earliest work is featured in the documentary Blow-Ups (on disc one), which kicks off with the paintings, lithographs and posters that he produced in the 1950s.

But to be honest, I wouldn't be too fussed about watching everything in strict chronological sequence: Borowczyk himself never intended his shorts to be watched like that, and indeed the "play all" option deliberately plays them in a sequence that's based on his own preferred screening order. Quite aside from anything else, the pre-1959 film work isn't included except in brief clips in a couple of the documentaries, and the pre-1957 film work is believed lost. So you might be better off starting with something like Goto or Blanche, arguably his two most perfectly achieved features, and working forwards and backwards from them.

As for the intros, I think the Craigie Horsfield one (on Goto) might play better after the main feature, but the intros for Blanche, Immoral Tales and The Beast are much shorter and work very well as lead-ins to the films they accompany. The larger documentaries - Film is Not a Sausage, The Concentration Universe, Ballad of Imprisonment, Love Reveals Itself and The Making of The Beast - are best watched after the films they explore.

[EddieLarkin]

For Kickstarter backers who don't regularly check their emails (but apparently do check criterionforum): Arrow are now requesting final confirmation of your delivery address.

[What A Disgrace]

I just confirmed mine. So excited.

[MichaelB]

More than one person (including me) found their Kickstarter email in the Trash folder, with no obvious indication of why it was diverted there - so if you didn't get it and were expecting it, it might be worth looking there.

But the email merely reproduces exactly what's in the latest Kickstarter update, so just go there if you can't find it.

[bdsweeney]

Officially excited now ... Think I'll start with Goto when it arrives as that's what the Kickstarter was originally for.

[EddieLarkin]

The shorts are what I'm most interested in so I'll start with them, and slowly work my way through the whole thing, supplements included (I'll take the book to work with me!). I want to savour it all though, so will probably spend a few weeks at least.

[tenia]

I'm extremely excited about this set, but looking at my currently available TV time, I'm quite sure I will have read the book months before giving any disc a spin.

[MichaelB]

Most of the shorts are only around ten minutes or so - some a fair bit less.

[Ron]

Today I received my confirmation for the delivery of the set, which will be shipped within the next 48 hours. I hope that I will get my box set by the beginning of next week. I´m extremely looking forward to it!

[zedz]

More than one person (including me) found their Kickstarter email in the Trash folder, with no obvious indication of why it was diverted there - so if you didn't get it and were expecting it, it might be worth looking there.

But the email merely reproduces exactly what's in the latest Kickstarter update, so just go there if you can't find it.

Also, the 'Respond Now' link for address confirmation in my email was dead, but logging in to Kickstarter brings it up, so don't worry if the email link isn't taking you anywhere.

[AidanKing]

If it helps, I found that the link wasn't working when I opened the e-mail in Outlook but when I opened the e-mail via webmail the link worked fine.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Can I check whether anyone else is having trouble registering a change of address involving extra shipping charges? I have used the links provided but have only received a message that I should inform the 'project creator'. I have e-mailed Arrow's main e-mail address and also via a facebook link but received no confirmation. The only 'project creator' is of course our very own Michael B but I can't imagine that you Michael are dealing with this. Or perhaps I am underestimating your multi-tasking capabiliites

[MichaelB]

Look what's just turned up in the post!

(Or rather courier delivery from Sony, but it amounts to much the same thing.)

[olmo]

Look what's just turned up in the post!

(Or rather courier delivery from Sony, but it amounts to much the same thing.)

A topical thought; Kate Bush and many other artistes always maintain that they never listen to their album after it's finished as they are sick to death at the sight of it after slaving so long. I hope the same fate doesn't befall you. Somehow I doubt it.

Must be proud.

Nice one.

[MichaelB]

Did you know that Kate Bush and Walerian Borowczyk nearly worked together?

Borowczyk was due to film Cherry Potter's screenplay Ancestral Mansions circa 1984-5, with Kate Bush and Terence Stamp in the leads. But then the BFI Production Board got cold feet about the possible fallout from them backing a "foreign pornographer" (even though the film was written by a feminist and consciously intended to be a return to the worlds of Goto and Blanche), and funding fell through. Anatole Dauman offered to put up half the money, but nobody else could be persuaded to come up with the rest.

So Borowczyk made Emmanuelle 5 instead, thus inadvertently proving the BFI's point.

[olmo]

That's fascinating. I heard on the radio show posted by yourself on the Blu-Ray forum that Borowczyk was once attached to that project but had no idea about Bush & Stamp as the leads. I can only imagine how it would have turned out, certainly had all the hallmarks for greatness. I would have loved to see how his La Reine Margot would have turned out also.

I know Bush is a cineaste, invoking Night of the Demon and Powell & Pressburger's Gone to Earth in The Hounds of Love alone. I watched a documentary on Sky Arts the other night where she also cited Hitchcock as an influence on her work.

[kidc85]

So Borowczyk made Emmanuelle 5 instead, thus inadvertently proving the BFI's point.

How did this turn out? Is it just a for-hire job or is there something to it? It's actually available on Amazon Prime UK (along with the original) for streaming.

[MichaelB]

It's pretty much a disaster: Borowczyk didn't get on with his lead actress, and by all accounts didn't even direct most of it - and then it was hacked about in post-production without his involvement, leading to at least three different versions (one with hardcore inserts). There are occasional unmistakable Boro touches here and there, which are inevitably weirdly fascinating, but it's probably the film to see once you've genuinely exhausted everything else.

[tenia]

So Michael, who got #0001 ?

[MichaelB]

No idea. Mine was 837.

If there's any justice, number 1 should go to Daniel Bird or Ligia Borowczyk, without whom this box set simply wouldn't exist.

[Ron]

Dear Michael,
Are there any plans to release the four episodes of Série Rose directed by Boro? Are there plans for a second box set in the near future?