48 / BD 46-49 Hungarian Masters

[Bikey]

Full details at our website

[foggy eyes]

What exactly makes this box a limited edition? Does it have a limited run?

[Bikey]

At #10 in Sight & Sound's 'Discs of the Year' poll !! Out this coming Monday...

[FrauBlucher]

Beaver

[Bikey]

And in Slant Magazine's 'Top 25 Best Home Video Releases of 2021'

[foggy eyes]

What exactly makes this box a limited edition? Does it have a limited run?

Bumping this. It doesn't look like it has a limited run (you know like how Arrow or Indicator do a LE of 2000 copies or whatever), it's just called a limited edition because it's a boxset - is that the case?

[Bikey]

Mondo Digital

[Bikey]

Bumping this. It doesn't look like it has a limited run (you know like how Arrow or Indicator do a LE of 2000 copies or whatever), it's just called a limited edition because it's a boxset - is that the case?

It is a limited run of 2000 copies.

[swo17]

I just got my set in, and it's more of a gift box than a boxset, i.e. three regular cases enclosed in a thin cardboard slipcase. It would be pretty straightforward to sell them separately once the limited edition runs out, but perhaps that will depend on how well it sells. I want all three films anyway, and this lets me split them out by director, so I'm happy with my purchase

[foggy eyes]

It is a limited run of 2000 copies.

Gotcha, thanks for clarifying

[mhofmann]

I also got the set yesterday, was adding BD047, BD048 and BD049 to my catalogue (the numbers on the respective case spines) and then went "I am missing BD046... did I actually forget to buy a Second Run release?!". Well, BD046 is the designation for the set and it's printed on the cardboard case. Took me a minute or two to realize. Second Run Blu-ray collection still complete, phew.

[MichaelB]

I always loved the way that the Factory Records catalogue was full of things that were physically impossible to collect, like the Haçienda cat (presumably long dead) and indeed the Haçienda itself.

[Bikey]

"Second Run's Hungarian Masters does deliver on its title and what the ad copy deems essential works of Hungarian cinema."
DVD Compare

[Bikey]

HUNGARIAN MASTERS Box Set currently just £30 at Amazon UK

[Bikey]

HUNGARIAN MASTERS now £30.99 at Amazon UK !!

[MichaelB]

I felt a bit sorry for Amazon reviewer J.R.P. Wigman - if you've never seen a Miklós Jancsó film before, Agnus Dei is pretty much the last one that I'd recommend for beginners!

For instance, while I can easily counter his complaint about the "gratuitous nudity" at the beginning, it's because I'm familiar with Jancsó's earlier films, so can appreciate the really quite startling contrast between the nudity in previous films - which is invariably in the context of subjugation of women by men - and the early shot in Agnus Dei, where the naked woman then proceeds to put on the uniform of the (then) dominant group. But you obviously wouldn't pick up on something like that if it was your only Jancsó film.

[ikms]

I finally watched Merry-Go-Round to finish off the set today - amazing piece. Scorsese catnip for certain. What I can't fathom though, why the 15 rating on that disc (with no explanation)? I couldn't find it (or Currents) on the BBFC site either. Obviously Agnus Dei is what warranted the rating for the set, but what of this relatively innocent 1955 film?!

[GaryC]

I finally watched Merry-Go-Round to finish off the set today - amazing piece. Scorsese catnip for certain. What I can't fathom though, why the 15 rating on that disc (with no explanation)? I couldn't find it (or Currents) on the BBFC site either. Obviously Agnus Dei is what warranted the rating for the set, but what of this relatively innocent 1955 film?!

It's on the BBFC site as Merry Go Round (without the hyphens). The reasons given are "sexual threat, domestic abuse".

I can't find Currents on the site either.

[ikms]

I can't find Currents on the site either.

I just realized the English title is Current (no s!) and thus:
"discrimination
There is a scene in which a couple of men blacken themselves up with mud and pretend to be primitive native dancers."

[GaryC]

I can't find Currents on the site either.

I just realized the English title is Current (no s!) and thus:
"discrimination
There is a scene in which a couple of men blacken themselves up with mud and pretend to be primitive native dancers."

Ah, so there is. There's an advisory note about that scene in the booklet.

[ianthemovie]

Merry-Go-Round standalone coming May 2024.

[Bikey]

DVD Compare review Merry-Go-Round

[Bikey]

Screening this Sunday 7th July at 1pm - at Phoenix Cinema, East Finchley

[Bikey]

"An iconic, multi-layered Hungarian love story returns [...] Plays out like a Hungarian take on Romeo and Juliet with some post-war agrarian politics thrown in for good measure. Fábri keeps his narrative and thematic plates spinning brilliantly...
Presentation and packaging are up to this label’s high standards... Second Run’s HD transfer looks and sounds marvellous"

Lovely new 5-star review of MERRY-GO-ROUND at The Arts Desk

[MichaelB]

I had dinner with Daniel Olbrychski this evening (as one does), and he told me about how he ended up in Agnus Dei completely unexpectedly.

He was signed up to appear in La Pacifista opposite Monica Vitti, and Jancsó invited him to visit the set of Agnus Dei just to see how he worked.

Jancsó was a good friend of Andrzej Wajda and had seen The Ashes and Everything for Sale, and so he knew that Olbrychski was a first-rate horseman who could play the violin, and so when Olbrychski turned up on set, Jancsó asked him if he fancied riding a horse and playing a violin while surrounded by naked women.

This sounded like a not wholly unappealing prospect, so Olbrychski said yes, and that’s both how he ended up in the film and why nobody seems to have a clue what he’s doing in there; he had no idea himself!

He also confirmed that Jancsó did indeed talk right through the take like an old-fashioned silent-movie director, basically sculpting the shot as it progressed (there wasn’t a rehearsal, or a retake).