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(06) Panna zazracnica / The Wonder - Maid

Cheers!
Peto

Jakubisko's Bathory - unfortunately, not English-friendly...

Cheers!
Peto

(07) Živý bič / The Living Scourge
(10) Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni / Birds, Orphans and Fools

Cheers!
Peto

Given that this is fast becoming a one-man thread, I just thought I'd post a quick note of appreciation - you're doing a great job!

MichaelB wrote:Given that this is fast becoming a one-man thread, I just thought I'd post a quick note of appreciation - you're doing a great job!

He-he, thanks Michael! Glad to know somebody's reading this...

Peto

Me, too. Poised to order all 10.

Perkins Cobb wrote:Me, too. Poised to order all 10.

Still haven't figured out the best way to do that though.

MichaelB wrote:Given that this is fast becoming a one-man thread, I just thought I'd post a quick note of appreciation - you're doing a great job!

Seconded. Thanks Peto.

Thanks for the encouragement guys!

And here's Bathory [Blu-ray], but - again - no English options...

Cheers!
Peto

It seems that the last two films by Karel Zeman will be released this December in the Czech Republic. Would be great, as I love Carodejuv ucen.
I however do not know the company, so no idea about possible subtitles.

Skritek wrote:It seems that the last two films by Karel Zeman will be released this December in the Czech Republic. Would be great, as I love Carodejuv ucen.
I however do not know the company, so no idea about possible subtitles.

Well, they have been released already, but of course - not English-friendly. And the transfers are not that good either:

Carodejuv ucen
Pohadka o Honzikovi a Marence

Cheers!
Peto

I would love to see a good copy of BATHORY. Some of the imagery looks amazing. The shot with the big chess pieces looks influenced by vonSternberg.

Lev s bílou hřívou, the feature by Jaromil Jireš about Leoš Janáček, has been released in Spain (with the Czech audio, Spanish dub and Spanish subs).

Unfortunately there seem to be no new releases of classic Czech films in the Czech Republic itself, at least not from Bonton. Hope this will change soon.

Also, in Brazil, Juraj Herz's miniseries Wolfgang A. Mozart has been released. The series is in the original German with Portuguese subtitles.

The Valley of the Bees (Údolí včel) by František Vláčil is available for pre-order from Second Run DVD.

I think this will interest a few people around here:

25 from the Sixties, or Czechoslovak New Wave

Cheers!
Peto

It most certainly will - and I'll be in the Czech Republic in a fortnight, so I'll try to track down a copy.

Thanks for the tip-off!

Don't know why I never opened this thread before! Better late than never, and let me just add that DVDBest has a bunch of those 60s Slovak titles on sale for 25% (or more) off the already super-cheap price. It's nice to pick up 13 DVDs for eighty-something dollars shipped overseas! Can't wait to dig into these!

MichaelB wrote:It most certainly will - and I'll be in the Czech Republic in a fortnight, so I'll try to track down a copy.

Thanks for the tip-off!

Hi Michael!

Things may change in a fortnight, but at the moment, the only place to get this is the production company's web site:

http://www.zlatasedesata.cz/eshop/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfortunately, it's Czech only, and offers shipping inside Czech Republic only. Not sure if the producer (kopecky at cestmir dot cz) could help...

I expect you'll only be visiting Prague...? If you happened to come to Brno too, I've some extra copies I ordered for my friends abroad...

Cheers!
Peto

Actually, I'll be in Zlín - jury service here.

This will surely please all Karel Zeman fans...

Cheers!
Peto

Too right it will. Especially Zeman fans who turned up in Zlín salivating at the prospect of a ten-film retrospective with English subtitles, only to find that every single bloody screening clashed with one of the sixteen features I'm having to watch as part of my jury timetable.

I managed to catch the first hour of Journey to the Beginning of Time, and I'm particularly pleased to have done the studio tour, but otherwise that's it.

So fingers crossed the miserable trickle of Zeman on DVD will shortly turn into a flood - after all, it is his centenary year.

MichaelB wrote:Too right it will. Especially Zeman fans who turned up in Zlín salivating at the prospect of a ten-film retrospective with English subtitles, only to find that every single bloody screening clashed with one of the sixteen features I'm having to watch as part of my jury timetable.

I managed to catch the first hour of Journey to the Beginning of Time, and I'm particularly pleased to have done the studio tour, but otherwise that's it.

So fingers crossed the miserable trickle of Zeman on DVD will shortly turn into a flood - after all, it is his centenary year.

Hehe, tough luck! I wanted to go there to see Svankmajer's Alice in Czech, and maybe to meet you , but I didn't have time in the end...

RE Zeman on (Czech) DVD - even though it seems the rights are not a problem anymore, it's unfortunate that the Czech film production is split between FEX (all films up to 1964) and Bonton (1965 and above; Zeme pohadek must have received the permission to release Krabat and The Tale of John and Mary from them). That is, it'd be much better if FEX had everything, because Bonton seem to simply not care about the quality of their releases. Well, the two Zeman DVDs they released (the OOP ones) looked actually pretty good, but there were no English subs, and they don't put them on anything released these days. Also, in the extras department, they will never match FEX's bonus-packed 2-disc SEs, I'm sure.

My secret hope is that the likes of Criterion or MoC could release at least The Fabulous Baron Munchhausen - a real treasure of a film IMO! A man can dream, right?

Anyway, I'll be sure to post any Czech Karel Zeman-related news here, so stay tuned...

Cheers!
Peto

Next month a 5-film set from Karel Zeman called Karel Zeman Jubiläums Edition will be released in Germany.

I'm very tempted - Baron Munchhausen seems to have English subtitles, and I'd pay that price for a copy of that film on its own.