118 / BD 7 Vampir Cuadecuc

[Bikey]

A 5-star review at Close-Up Film

[Bikey]

"Pere Portabella’s remarkable VAMPIR CUADECUC is almost impossible to classify... it’s the Bram Stoker novel as we have never seen it before, focused through the intoxicating prism of cinema at its most experimental [...] while the score by Carles Santos is a treat of contemporary music in itself"

Tom Birchenough at The Arts Desk on Portabella's experimental masterpiece.

[Bikey]

"A radical, avant-garde mood piece that is among the most mysterious artefacts in cinema."

4-star review at The Skinny

[M Sanderson]

Sounds like it’d play well with Franco’s final completed film, Al Pereira vs Alligator Ladies, at once a film and an essay on the making of itself. A quite remarkable piece of work that keeps slipping between film and DVD Special feature, in which you are required to pay attention and constantly reevaluate your relation to the film.

Was surprised this isn’t being sold on the Arrow site, by the way.

Keen to find out if I actually like Vampir, Cuadecuc, as some feel it’s patronising toward Franco’s Dracula adaptation.

[Ribs]

It was, but the Second Run catalog available there has been diminishing over the past few weeks. I assume they'll have the full catalog available once the site relaunches and it's just a temporary thing though.

[Bikey]

"A genuinely unnerving piece of abstract art... As a deconstruction, as a tone poem, as an accompaniment and as a piece of standalone experimental film, Vampir is a fascinating work, and Second Run’s region-free Blu-ray is a stacked release"

Dusty Somers reviews at World Cinema Paradise

[M Sanderson]

It was, but the Second Run catalog available there has been diminishing over the past few weeks. I assume they'll have the full catalog available once the site relaunches and it's just a temporary thing though.

Think it’s due to Arrow moving their warehouse and getting a new website.

[Bikey]

A wonderful new piece on Portabella's hypnotic, elusive VAMPIR CUADECUC by J. Hoberman in The New York Times

[Bikey]

"I hope I can be excused for calling this another exemplary edition of an essential work."

Jonathan Rosenbaum returns to Pere Portabella's VAMPIR CUADECUC for his latest 'Global Discoveries' round-up in CinemaScope

[Bikey]

Word is just coming in to us that we've won the 'Best Single Release' in the Il Cinema Ritrovato Awards in Bologna for our Blu-ray and DVD release of Pere Portabella's sublime VAMPIR CUADECUC!! Whoa!

[What A Disgrace]

This is one of the best movies I've seen all year. Please tell me that the accolades, if not the commercial success of the disc (though, if that too, I accept it) are sufficient enough to warrant release of other Portabella films.

[dda1996a]

I'd love to hear why because I found this, as well as a few other Portabella I've seen really frustrating. This had an interesting mood for about ten minutes before becoming repetitive very quickly.