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Cinephrenic wrote:The Virgin Spring?

Yes it's on there if that's what you're asking.

Thankfully we've been spared The Serpent's Egg.

Big Ben wrote:Thankfully we've been spared The Serpent's Egg.

I'm very sorry it wasn't included. It's never been released anamorphically on DVD. Quite a wasted opportunity here.

If Criterion somehow don't have it, I'm certain Kino Lorber will release it

Cremildo wrote:

Big Ben wrote:Thankfully we've been spared The Serpent's Egg.

I'm very sorry it wasn't included. It's never been released anamorphically on DVD. Quite a wasted opportunity here.

I meant it more as a joke and it most certainly doesn't come off that way and I'm sorry about that. I don't think any of Bergman's films should languish in obscurity but everyone even remotely familiar with the film knows it's not hailed widely as a masterpiece.

I am however very excited to see what they do with Winter Light, Through a Glass Darkly and The Silence.

It's no masterpiece but I was quite a fan. At least if I recall correctly it had no psychosexual self hatred which I often dislike in Bergman's work (which is why I love Scenes from a Marriage's first two hours but could care less about the last third)

I was always more enthralled by the "Everything is awful and God might not exist" stuff. My favorite Bergman story is the one involving someone being so disgusted with The Silence they sent him a piece of used toilet paper.

I'm most interested in Hour of the Wolf though. Can anyone comment on that one?

Yeah I like his spiritual and religious films more as well. I still have all his most famous films to go through (Faith trilogy, Virgin Spring) and this seems like a wonderful experience to go through his filmography.
I watched Hour of the Wolf way too young, but I recall being impressed with it (its his closest to a horror movie, and Nykvist's lens in is immaculate as always. I'll be curious to check it out again.
What films are missing aside from Serpent's Egg that are worthwhile?
No Face to Face as well...

Devils eye is very playful and fun, sort of a religious film filtered through a smiles of a summer night-I'm-not-in-a-depressive-cycle-right-now Bergman. It's one of his most surprising films I thought. Would make a good double feature with haxan or devil and Daniel Webster.

From Film Forum's list of upcoming releases:

MARCH 14 – 27 2 WEEKS

EIGHT HOURS DON’T MAKE A DAY
WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER

GERMANY 1972/2017 IN GERMAN WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
JANUS FILMS

5 FEATURE-LENGTH FILMS THAT WILL BE SCREENED IN 3 PARTS

The astonishingly prolific Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982) directed over 40 movies in 15 years. Yet one of his most sprawling works has remained unreleased in the U.S. until now: the epic 1972 working-class miniseries, EIGHT HOURS DON’T MAKE A DAY. It stars many of his favored actors: Hanna Schygulla (THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN), Gottfried John (BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ), Irm Hermann (THE MERCHANT OF FOUR SEASONS), Kurt Raab (WHY DOES HERR R. RUN AMOK?). It’s a family drama in which the rights of both workers and wives are up for grabs. The vagaries of postwar German capitalism and the changing relationships among men, women, and children fuel the mix through weddings, birthdays, family dinners, workers’ meetings, and romantic trysts. Fassbinder’s people find themselves strangers in a strange new world -- a prescient insight into 21st century anomie. “A major work, on a par with the director’s greatest.”
– Nick Pinkerton, Sight & Sound

New 2k digital restoration from the 16mm reversal positive, digitized and restored by ARRI, under the artistic direction of Juliane Maria Lorenz. Funded by: MoMA, FFA Film und Medien Stiftung NRW ARRI Media, RWFF, RWF Werkschau, and Verlag der Autoren.

Funny -- I hadn't realized Bergman had directed Scorsese's SILENCE.

It's actually Shinoda's Silence. Wonder if it's in the works

They seem to have got the right SILENCE up now.

it says 24 films but the seventh seal is there twice. is it 23 films or is something missing?

Andrew_VB wrote:it says 24 films but the seventh seal is there twice. is it 23 films or is something missing?

They seem to keep giving different info. The poster on the previous page of this topic lists 32 films (and says "over 30!"), while the Janus front page says "traveling retrospective of all of his feature films!"

So who knows at this point. At worst/best - a whole lot more Bergman is coming.

Bergman Retrospective poster and art. Pretty sweet.

FrauBlucher wrote:Kiarostami's 24 Frames has a front page on the Janus site

Also Salesman is touring - so now we have an upgrade we can actually predict.

These Bergman's have been added to the Janus site....All These Women, From the Life of Marionettes, Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna, and Shame

Dead Man is now listed on the Janus site as well.

I was wondering about Shame and Hour of the Wolf because the rights were with MGM I believe? They had a sort of arthouse band they put at the top of foreign films like Fellini Satyricon. I notice another MGM Bergman, The Serpent's Egg is NOT there though. Given it's reputation I'm not shocked.

Big Ben wrote:I was wondering about Shame and Hour of the Wolf because the rights were with MGM I believe? They had a sort of arthouse band they put at the top of foreign films like Fellini Satyricon. I notice another MGM Bergman, The Serpent's Egg is NOT there though. Given it's reputation I'm not shocked.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. I think it has to do with the underlying rights. SHAME, HOUR OF THE WOLF, THE PASSION OF ANNA, and PERSONA were produced (or co-produced?) by Svensk Filmindustri and were first distributed in the US by Lopert Pictures and United Artists. When MGM acquired UA, those titles were included in the package. It's simply a case where Janus Films was able to pick up those films now that the older agreement has expired.

THE SERPENT'S EGG was produced by Dino De Laurentiis (during Bergman's period of exile), so Svensk Filmindustri can't license it to Janus as part of this new package. I suppose Janus could license it separately... if they wanted to.

FELLINI SATYRICON was part of a separate deal between the producer Alberto Grimaldi and United Artists. Because of the latter, it also became part of the MGM/UA library.

FrauBlucher wrote:These Bergman's have been added to the Janus site....All These Women, From the Life of Marionettes, Hour of the Wolf, The Passion of Anna, and Shame

More Bergman has been added to the Janus site: Faro Document & Faro Document 1979, Thirst and The Touch.

It'd be amazing if The Touch got a decent home video release. Make it so, please!