criterionforum.org

I wonder if we can expect Privilege to have a release in the UK now... Nick? What's the score here, are Universal still holding out for UK rights?

Does anyone know what happened to the Evening Land dvd release? It was supposed to come out in 2010, and there was a screening in Manhattan last May that was a digital projection of the new dvd transfer. The trail seems to run cold after that event.

So I visited Peter Watkins' rarely updated website and it seems The Journey dvd project has not only been completed, but is available to purchase from Amazon.fr!!

How did this one pass us by? According his site it's NTSC and Region 0 in English with optional French subs so this is basically the definitive worldwide version. It looks like my dream of finally seeing this is a possibility. The site claims it is also available in North America through Oliver Groom's Project X, but I cannot find any proof of this.

Amazing news about THE JOURNEY. Also, has anyone actually had a chance to compare the OOP First Run edition of LA COMMUNE with the one from France? I suppose it makes no real difference as the FR is hard to find, but I'm certainly curious as to which one is better in terms of picture of quality.

Edit: Actually, it seems quite easy to get used copy of the First Run.

Am I the only one who thinks Watkins at his best is CRITERION worthy?

Would anyone here recommend either the US or the French edition of LA COMMUNE? From the dvdbeaver screencaps, the French dvd looks horrendous with big enormous yellow subtitles. I just don't know if it's at all worth the purchase. And the US is non-anamorphic with forced subs, and terrible NTSC-PAL interlacing. Perhaps I should hold on for something better to eventually come along. Then again, this masterpiece isn't screaming to be re-released by anyone, it seems.

If it's any consolation I suspect that the film is meant to look 'video' like given it's from the perspective of a television crew.

According to IMDB the negative format was 16 mm and the cinematographic process was Betacam SP (master format) and/or Spherical (source format).

The printed film format was video.

I purchased the American edition when it was first released and thought the quality was fine. The non-anamorphic wasn't an issue at the time as my TV was 4x3.

A quick check of the disc on my widescreen TV confirms that it cannot be blown up without loosing some of the subtitles.

It screens theatrically on DVD most often, I believe. That's how I saw it.

Grand Wazoo wrote:So I visited Peter Watkins' rarely updated website and it seems The Journey dvd project has not only been completed, but is available to purchase from Amazon.fr!!

How did this one pass us by? According his site it's NTSC and Region 0 in English with optional French subs so this is basically the definitive worldwide version. It looks like my dream of finally seeing this is a possibility. The site claims it is also available in North America through Oliver Groom's Project X, but I cannot find any proof of this.

Anybody get this new release of The Journey yet and have a look at it? The import version is now being offered through reliable third party sellers at Amazon.com U.S.

warren oates wrote:

Grand Wazoo wrote:So I visited Peter Watkins' rarely updated website and it seems The Journey dvd project has not only been completed, but is available to purchase from Amazon.fr!!

How did this one pass us by? According his site it's NTSC and Region 0 in English with optional French subs so this is basically the definitive worldwide version. It looks like my dream of finally seeing this is a possibility. The site claims it is also available in North America through Oliver Groom's Project X, but I cannot find any proof of this.

Anybody get this new release of The Journey yet and have a look at it? The import version is now being offered through reliable third party sellers at Amazon.com U.S.

And I answered my own question. Got the French set today, which is indeed Region 0 NTSC. There are Project X logos on it. I can't imagine the eventual North American release will be different in any way, except for having English copy on the exterior. The video certainly looks better than those Facets tapes. All of the segments have audio in English or French, selectable in a menu and subtitles in both languages that you can toggle between. Watkins himself explains in voiceover over black at the start of the first episode that all other languages spoken in the film will be translated into English (or French) depending on which audio track you've selected.

Peter Watkins' Evening Land (1977) is the film of the day on Mubi.

(Update: The Project X logo appears at the beginning of the Mubi stream, but at about the 15 minute mark, there is a graphic over the image stating: "DVD for screening purposes only. Property of Project X Distribution. Not for sale or rental.")

Just popping in to confirm that the French disc of Evening Land, despite having no indication whatsoever of this on the packaging or the Amazon listing, does indeed carry English subs.

It's a good film, a bit more conventionally docudramatic than its cousins Punishment Park and The Gladiators, in that the events it depicts are absolutely ordinary for the time (which is part of the point of the film - in the mid 70s Watkins didn't have to invent sci-fi scenarios in order to explore democratic despotism). This puts it in the same neighbourhood as Ken Loach's The Rank and File and Michel Brault's Les Ordres, with the Brault film as the masterpiece of the bunch.

This seems the closest thing to a dedicated Peter Watkins thread so I'll post it here. Close-Up in London is holding a retrospective of Watkins' better known films from Sept. 5 - 28. The big coup here is that Watkins will be giving an intro for the La Commune screening on Sept. 23rd. Given that he doesn't give interviews anymore this is huge, though I wonder if it will be in-person or over Skype. Any of our members in London should drop everything and go see these if they can.

I imagine it'll have pre-approved things (Questions for instance.) as well. He's big on that.

I was wondering what Peter Watkins was up to these days, and I'm sorry to say he apparently announced in January 2024 that he can no longer attend screenings of his work or respond to requests for interviews.

hearthesilence wrote: Wed Apr 09, 2025 7:33 am I was wondering what Peter Watkins was up to these days, and I'm sorry to say he apparently announced in January 2024 that he can no longer attend screenings of his work or respond to requests for interviews.

Wow. He’s such a radical and brilliant artist. It’s a shame that beyond Privilege and Punishment Park, which got a new print about 10ish years ago, his work very seldom screens in North America

Hard to believe his last film to date is nearly twenty-five years old now. I have his book Media Crisis,
which was published back in 2007 (in French only). But apart from that the only activity I've seen has been
some sporadic updates to his website.

I remember when Project X Distribution really went to bat for him in the early 2000s by releasing a good chunk of
his output on DVD (which thankfully I still have) and there were decent releases of The Journey and Eveningland
(also on DVD). Maybe Icarus will step up and put La Commune on a blu-ray since their DVD still appears to be in print.