Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

[swo17]

Seems my copy is waiting for me at the post office. Kind of annoyed that I have to pay custom fees to get it though (approx. £25.50/$41). As this is a Kickstarter "reward", wouldn't it be correct of Arrow to declare this as having "no commercial value", as they seem to always do with packages with an actual commercial value (as they did with The Burbs, which also arrived today)?

Think yourself lucky, i'm still dealing with the Kafkaesque hell that is 'Arrow customer service', was told yesterday morning that it had been sent to the address i replied to on the Kickstarter survey [also sent the address prior to this]. Yet later when i asked for the tracking number they told me they didn't actually have the address at all......sloppy!

Today i'm waiting for them to send me the tracking number as promised in yesterdays email......still waiting!

I wouldn't be too worried about it yet. Lots of people are still waiting for their Kickstarter copies. Give it another week.

[reaky]

Mine arrived from Zavvi today, carefully packaged in two Jiffy envelopes.

[medwaygarage]

I wouldn't be too worried about it yet. Lots of people are still waiting for their Kickstarter copies. Give it another week.

I was told the last of the Kickstarter copies went out on 8th Sept.....mine hasn't been sent out at all yet and i'm in London, still awaiting that tracking number and confirmation as promised yesterday, so rather annoyed !

[Emak-Bakia]

I’ve been excitedly rushing home every day this week, so I’m thrilled to report that #240 (a Kickstarter copy) arrived safely in Pittsburgh yesterday. And I didn’t even have to go to the post office to sign for it.

I’ve only dipped my toes in the water by watching the first four films from the shorts program, but I spent a solid hour last night admiring the artwork, reversing the sleeves, and looking at the book. What a remarkable set this is. It was well worth the wait. I anticipate that I will spend the rest of the year working my way through the films and special features, reading the book, and just generally studying Borowczyk. Thank you, Michael and everyone at Arrow, for making this possible!

[Yakushima]

My Kickstarter copy #488 arrived in NYC today, can't wait to explore the set \:D/

[MichaelB]

Mondo Digital:

Various video labels have offered different releases over the years, but the most elaborate and satisfying by far is the astonishing collection assembled by Arrow Films in the U.K. [...] [It] now proudly stands as one of the most essential collections ever released for aficionados of daring European filmmaking.

[What A Disgrace]

I have received three packages from Arrow this week (free shirt, Touch of Sin*, The 'burbs), but I have yet to get my Kickstarter-originated Borowczyk box here in TN.

*Burnt in subs, by the way.

[tenia]

Very nice boxset, though the paper band is a bit tedious to take out or put back (it's a bit tight).

You're not supposed to put it back!

It's designed to be completely disposable - its sole function is to display the BBFC logo on the requisite sides of the box (to meet the requirements of UK video packaging regulations at the point of sale) and to offer technical details to people who might be browsing in a shop without access to online product descriptions. Although since the box sold out before getting anywhere near HMV, that last bit turned out not to be necessary.

I never dispose of stuff like this.

[Arrow]

I sent Arrow an email asking if they had shipped my stateside order yet and received a reply in less than three minutes that it had! I will be spending a lot of money there.

[criterion10]

I'm away at college, but I did just receive a call from the family that the Borowczyk box set has arrived back at home, limited edition number 687. (For what it's worth, I ordered from Amazon back in May.)

Based on some pictures I asked my mom to send me, two of the corners do look a little dented (one on top, one on bottom), which is already setting off my OCD alarm. Though I suppose this is sort of a by-product of ordering such a package from across the pond. And considering the limited nature of the set, there's little I could do/would do at this point. I'd be interested to hear how other orders from Amazon turn out in this regard.

I've also spent the past few hours or so just putting together my own little list of other Borowczyk titles not included in this set, assuming I like his films enough to further explore his filmography. I'll post it below in case anyone else is interested (and if it seems I'm missing anything major, please let me know!).

Shorts:
Once Upon a Time (1957)
The Banner of Youth (1957)
House (1958)
School (1958)
Love Requited (1958)

Features:
The Story of Sin (1975)
La Marge (1976)
Behind Covenant Walls (1978)
Immoral Women (1979)
Lulu (1980)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Miss Osbourne (1981)
The Art of Love (1983)
Emmanuelle 5 (1987)
Love Rites (1987)

Anthologies:
Private Collections (segment "L'armoire") (1979)

[MichaelB]

That list - plus other titles - is actually in the big book, after the more detailed credits section covering what's in the box.

[criterion10]

That list - plus other titles - is actually in the big book, after the more detailed credits section covering what's in the box.

Even better. Guess that renders my list unnecessary

[knives]

Not entirely as people who couldn't get the box won't have that list.

[criterion10]

Aren't some of the contents from the big book included throughout the individual releases though? (I believe 1/3 of the book's content was MichaelB's estimate at one point.) If so, I would assume a general list of Boro's films would be one thing Arrow could reprint without having to worry about copyrights or sticking to only 1,000 copies of.

[MichaelB]

I think about a quarter of the big book's contents are scattered around the big booklet, but if you add the pieces that are available online that brings the total up to roughly a third.

But there's a reasonably comprehensive list of Borowczyk's other films reproduced a few posts up.

[ozufan]

Based on some pictures I asked my mom to send me, two of the corners do look a little dented (one on top, one on bottom), which is already setting off my OCD alarm. Though I suppose this is sort of a by-product of ordering such a package from across the pond. And considering the limited nature of the set, there's little I could do/would do at this point. I'd be interested to hear how other orders from Amazon turn out in this regard.

My box from Amazon - 643 - was delivered to Edinburgh with a dent in the box and three of the DVD cases broken. I complained and got a £15 refund.

[willoneill]

My set (#704) arrived in Canada yesterday from Amazon, in perfect condition.

[RichBlake]

Amazon is notoriously bad when it comes to damaged goods..I think I've had to return about 50% of all my orders. I just expect that they'll be damaged on first shipping. Still, here's hoping mine comes in Okay..wouldn't be surprised if it was dinged though

[rspaight]

Mine (Amazon order shipped to US) came in a flimsy box that was beat to hell, but luckily the box itself only had one slightly dented corner. It's odd that amazon.co.uk packs their international orders so poorly (I'd even sprung for the gold-plated shipping for this), while the shipped-free Prime orders I get from amazon.com are usually in sturdy(ish) boxes.

[domino harvey]

Amazon.co.uk always uses that fold-over "box" method. One time my order came with the flap undone and half the discs inside missing, so it coulda been worse!

[What A Disgrace]

I have received three packages from Arrow this week (free shirt, Touch of Sin*, The 'burbs), but I have yet to get my Kickstarter-originated Borowczyk box here in TN.

*Burnt in subs, by the way.

And it finally arrived this Saturday. Slight dent in the lower corner, but I'm too happy to finally have it.

EDIT: And the sticker says I have copy 0063 of 1000, which is exactly how many British pounds I donated to the Kickstarter. Serendipity, baby!

[olmo]

Received mine this morning, had time for one short before heading out; Renaissance. The 'lobotomised' doll in full colour close-up at the climax stayed with me all day.

Watched it again.

Spoiler

Is it a mark of his genius that the only incomplete object at the denouement is the humanoid figure in an anti-war statement?

Or have I had a pint of Doom Bar too many?

[Gregory]

Enjoyable little coincidence: today I decided to listen to some Bernard Parmegiani for the first time in months, and less than ten minutes into it the mail carrier was knocking on the door with my Kickstarter set.
The outer box had taken quite a bit of knocking around, but the box set itself was undamaged. I appreciate the good packaging.

[fdm]

I got tired of driving (in vain) to the post office every day this week to go pick it up, so don't know if mine arrived today or not. Decided to stop wasting so much gasoline.

Edit: Arrived today (Monday), saved a little gas on Saturday at least.

[effigy105]

Mine arrived to Kentucky yesterday but since I wasn't in, I picked it up from the Post Office this morning. I ordered mine via Kickstarter. It's an amazing looking set. I can't wait to dig in and a huge thanks again to Michael and everyone else at Arrow who made this set possible.

The postal clerk took a look at the Customs label, reading 'DVD Boxset' and asked me if I was able to play foreign movies. Apparently he sees a lot of people looking for movie bargains abroad without knowing about the irritations of PAL vs. NTSC and Region Encoding etc. I assured him I would be okay.