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The City of the Sun - a 2005 Czech / Slovak co-production which has similarities to Auf Wiedersehen Pet. I had the good luck to see this on a trip to Prague (with english subtitles!) and am surprised it never got picked up for theatrical release in the UK (apart from the festival circuit).

I find it to be a rather regular film, nothing of particular interest, even if nobody will be insulted when watching it. Strangely the original title is State of the Sun (or Working Class Heroes). The Czech release should have English subtitles though, as it is a rather new film.

Dr Amicus wrote:The City of the Sun - a 2005 Czech / Slovak co-production which has similarities to Auf Wiedersehen Pet. I had the good luck to see this on a trip to Prague (with english subtitles!) and am surprised it never got picked up for theatrical release in the UK (apart from the festival circuit).

The number of Czech films produced since the millennium that managed to get a UK theatrical release outside festivals can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand - I can think of Divided We Fall, Little Otik, Czech Dream, Lunacy and I Served the King of England, but I'm really struggling to come up with any more.

Up and Down, perhaps? (Actually, I've been impressed with all the films by Jan Hrebejk that I've seen, so perhaps SR could pick up some of his pre-Divided We Fall efforts.)

jbeall wrote:Up and Down, perhaps? (Actually, I've been impressed with all the films by Jan Hrebejk that I've seen, so perhaps SR could pick up some of his pre-Divided We Fall efforts.)

Did Up and Down get a British theatrical release? I don't remember one, and the IMDB doesn't list one either.
Hrebejk's best-known 1990s feature, Cozy Dens/Pelisky, is out in the Czech Republic with English subtitles.

MichaelB wrote:

jbeall wrote:Up and Down, perhaps? (Actually, I've been impressed with all the films by Jan Hrebejk that I've seen, so perhaps SR could pick up some of his pre-Divided We Fall efforts.)

Did Up and Down get a British theatrical release? I don't remember one, and the IMDB doesn't list one either.
Hrebejk's best-known 1990s feature, Cozy Dens/Pelisky, is out in the Czech Republic with English subtitles.

That's a bummer--I hope Up and Down is at least available on dvd! (SonyClassics released it in R1.) I have the Pelišky disc, but it'd be nice to see any of his stuff released with more supplemental material than the usual "making of" featurette where everybody praises the film and each other.

Up and Down does have English subtitles. As mentioned pretty much any film made in or after the 90s has those on its DVD release. If you're ever in the Czech Republic, you can buy it for about 2£ at news stands.
I would like to draw the people's attention here to the director Tomáš Vorel. I can't say he is a master filmmaker, however he has a style all of his own. Very dirty, depressing, distorted. Radically different from some of the other, visually more pleasant, Czech films. His best is probably the grotesque Skřítek (2005), unfortunately it runs on for too long, however one doesn't even need subtitles, as they're not actually talking in the film.

Skritek wrote:I find it to be a rather regular film, nothing of particular interest, even if nobody will be insulted when watching it. Strangely the original title is State of the Sun (or Working Class Heroes). The Czech release should have English subtitles though, as it is a rather new film.

I'll keep an eye out for it if we go to Prague again - otherwise may try online. I like it rather more than Skritek, it starts off in somewhat lighter vein (like Auf Wiedersehen) but takes on a darker tone as the film progresses - I found the final sequence really quite moving.

MichaelB wrote:The number of Czech films produced since the millennium that managed to get a UK theatrical release outside festivals can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand - I can think of Divided We Fall, Little Otik, Czech Dream, Lunacy and I Served the King of England, but I'm really struggling to come up with any more.

Quite! And I would have thought that this film was both good enough (admittedly a personal response - but Mrs Amicus liked it as well) and broad enough in appeal to make it a good bet. However, the vagaries of art-house distribution in the UK have baffled better minds than myself...

To get back on topic - this does at least suggest that unless recent Czech / Slovak cinema has been almost entirely negligible there must be some films of interest for Second Run amongst recent releases. Or - for another suggestion - how about a move into animation with FimFarUm? An absolutely wonderful collection of puppet animation folk tales.

Dr Amicus wrote:Or - for another suggestion - how about a move into animation with FimFarUm? An absolutely wonderful collection of puppet animation folk tales.

Both Fimfárum and its sequel are available on DVD in the Czech Republic with English subtitles.

MichaelB wrote:

Dr Amicus wrote:Or - for another suggestion - how about a move into animation with FimFarUm? An absolutely wonderful collection of puppet animation folk tales.

Both Fimfárum and its sequel are available on DVD in the Czech Republic with English subtitles.

I have the first one myself! Back when I was teaching on a course for world cinema, one of my colleagues gave the lecture on Eastern European cinema - and included a section of Fimfarum (the one with the haunted inn) in his lecture. I fell in love with it immediately, so when I went to Prague a few months later I made an effort to hunt it down. And probably spent more than if I'd gone looking for it on the net... Which I will definitely do for the sequel.

Oh yes, Fimfarum is great. No wonder as the stories and narration are by Jan Werich. I particularly like the scenes in hell. Gives me pleasure that some great animators are still around and working on big projects.

perkizitore wrote:Kin-dza-dza!

Already out on Ruscico with English subtitles.

I can't see much point in Second Run licensing it, as the impression I get is that Ruscico makes various stipulations to licensees - they have to use their own menus/structure/authoring, and language options are usually restricted in comparison with their own editions. For instance, while the Ruscico editions of The Star and The Cranes Are Flying could hardly be more linguistically versatile, the UK editions on Nouveaux only offer English dubs or Russian with compulsory subtitles. So you might as well go for the Ruscico original.

MichaelB wrote: The number of Czech films produced since the millennium that managed to get a UK theatrical release outside festivals can almost be counted on the fingers of one hand - I can think of Divided We Fall, Little Otik, Czech Dream, Lunacy and I Served the King of England, but I'm really struggling to come up with any more.

Does Dark Blue World count?

GaryC wrote:Does Dark Blue World count?

Oh, I think so - it's a UK co-production, but so was Little Otik (this probably helped!). But it's telling that only two Jan Svěrák films have managed commercial releases in Britain despite him being the highest-profile and, one would think, international audience-friendly post-Velvet Revolution filmmaker, with multiple Oscar nominations and a gold statuette to prove it.

Are there any plans to bring Aristakisian's A Place on Earth on DVD? Your release of Palms is one of my favorites.

Three directors I've come across during the past year, from whom I'd very much like to watch something are Yuri Ilyenko, Sándor Sára and Prasanna Vithanage. Any chances to see those released (by anyone)? They seem however to fit very well into the SR catalogue.

Maybe you can brood over releasing some Chinese movies made by directors of the third generation? I know it may seem a bit strange to see somebody ask for these films these days though reading Arrighi's "Adam Smith in Beijing" I consider this to be a justifiable quest. Apart from that some of those films are as awesome or at least interesting as the Chinese mainland editions are terrible.
Have a go at Xie Jin's movies "Red Detachment of Women" and "Two Actresses" aka "Stage Sisters" (one of the worst transfers Gzbeauty ever released) or Wang Bin's "White-Haired Girl". I could easily add some more titles and directors, but this might be a bit over the top and you can easily look them up in Paul Clark's books. But, to conclude, it would be great if someone would release these movies in a decent form AND add the (filmed versions of the) corresponding operas or ballets (in case of "Red Detachment") produced by directors like Xie Tieli around 1970.

I admit more recent and more reserved movies like Xie Jin's "Legend of Tianyun Mountain" or "Hibiscus Town" might fit better in the SR back catalogue but I'd prefer to see the above mentioned ones properly released.

Malavida are upping the stakes with their imminent release of more Czech new wave titles. Is there going to be any overlap with Second Run's planned releases? I'm thinking principally of the Chytilova titles,the portfolio films and Forman's Cerny Petr. If only to avoid the dreadful artwork can you give us any hints..... Bikey or anyone?

I'd like to recomend films of Kira Muratova, been curious about her for some time but alas I see no DVD of any of her films in region 1 or 2 (save for one OOP). And Aesthetic Syndrome, the one that interests me most based on what I read, seems to be one of her most popular or known has no DVD release. So any films of her would be great

Zazou dans le Metro wrote:Malavida are upping the stakes with their imminent release of more Czech new wave titles. Is there going to be any overlap with Second Run's planned releases? I'm thinking principally of the Chytilova titles,the portfolio films and Forman's Cerny Petr. If only to avoid the dreadful artwork can you give us any hints..... Bikey or anyone?

There's an excellent edition of Černý Petr out on Filmexport Home Video in the Czech Republic - vastly superior to the Facets.

I would really, really REALLY like the film The Last Relic (Viimne Reliikvia) by Grigori Kromanov to be released by SecondRun!!!
(unavailable with english subtitles on dvd right?)

Has anybody mentioned Jires' 'The Joke'?
or Jasny's "All My Good Countrymen "

(in fact, Prague Spring movies, generally, the more politically 'dangerous', the better!)