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Great list, Gregory. Lots I've never seen and some I've been trying to see for decades. For wht it's worth, I'll heartily second the following

Gregory wrote:A Walerian Borowczyk/Jan Lenica shorts collection

Well overdue.

Anything currently unavailable by Vera Chytilová
Juraj Jakubisko
Zbehovia a pútníci (The Deserters and the Nomads) Czechoslovakia, 1968
Vtáckovia, siroty a blázni (Birds, Orphans, and Fools) Czechoslovakia/France, 1969

The Czech New Wave films available in decent subtitled editions tend to the straighter, social realist side of things, but it could get pretty wild. The forthcoming Cremator will start to redress the balance, but by all means keep it coming. Deserter and the Nomads has been near the top of my list of must-see films for far too long. . .

Andrzej Munk
Pasazerka (The Passenger) Poland, 1963

. . . though it's been well outlasted by this unfinished film. A classic example of a film that was once an acknowledged international masterpiece (up there with Ashes and Diamonds) but which has sunk into obscurity through sheer neglect.

Jan Nemec O slavnosti a hostech (Report on the Party and the Guests) Czechoslovakia, 1966
Demany noci (Diamonds of the Night) Czechoslovakia, 1964

Plus I'll second the later suggestion of Schorm's Return of the Prodigal Son - a great Antonioniesque film - and add in Stepan Skalsky's excellent, low-key runaway-kid drama The Flight/ The Escape.

Sergei Paradjanov Tini zabutykh predkov (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) USSR, 1965

What exactly is the delay with releasing this psychedelic folktale? There are excellent source materials around, and it's so visually dazzling that it would surely be a doddle to market. Isn't Scorsese already on the bandwagon? I'd also be very curious to see any of Paradzhanov's earlier features. Has anybody seen one?

Andrzej Wajda
Czlowiek z zelaza (Man of Iron) Poland, 1981
Niewinni czarodzieje (Innocent Sorcerers) Poland, 1960 ... or almost anything else unavailable would be great to see.

Another no-brainer.

zedz wrote:Deserter and the Nomads has been near the top of my list of must-see films for far too long, though it's been well outlasted by this unfinished film [Pasazerka/The Passenger]. A classic example of a film that was once an acknowledged international masterpiece (up there with Ashes and Diamonds) but which has sunk into obscurity through sheer neglect.

Have you tried to get ahold of the Hen's Tooth VHS? Not an optimal way to view the film, of course, but worthwhile. I was able to avoid breaking my no-more-money-toward-videotape rule by accessing this through interlibrary loan.

Thank you all for your suggestions. It's fascinating to see films on our want list that are turning up here. There are some noteable crossovers...

In the near future will be making announcements about some forthcoming releases which, judging by the lists here, are sure to be of interest to some of you.

Please do keep the suggestions coming. We genuinely do take notice of them.

Philip Leacock's Reach For Glory

One simple request: could you please print the film titles on your spines in a larger type?

Solent,

Our thinking was that our sleeves would evolve over time while retaining a strong consistent simplicity that flatters the films and their directors. However I don't think our designers (the wonderful This Is Real Art www.thisisrealart.com) have increasing the text size on the spine down as a first development. I shall ask them.

Is anyone else finding this a problem? Please let us know if this is the case.

Maybe I should try and find the money to give away a free pair of opera glasses with a forthcoming release. Marketa Lazarova sponsored by Spec Savers perhaps?

Bikey

Speaking of Marketa Lazarova...any chance of including Vlácil's The White Dove (1960) as a supplement on the second disc? Its a very short feature film; a little over an hour long.

Thanks Bikey. I love the design of covers and I hope it will remain the standard. I've always been a sucker for consistent packaging especially in books. Second Run's cover design is simple yet beautiful. In a sense, the look of the DVD cases resembles that of books which can't be an accident. At last we have films packaged in a 'literary'way. This makes a statement.

zedz wrote:

Sergei Paradjanov Tini zabutykh predkov (Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors) USSR, 1965

What exactly is the delay with releasing this psychedelic folktale? There are excellent source materials around, and it's so visually dazzling that it would surely be a doddle to market. Isn't Scorsese already on the bandwagon? I'd also be very curious to see any of Paradzhanov's earlier features. Has anybody seen one?

.

I'll third that one. Even more torturous owing to the fact that Janus has/had the rights to this one (I already emailed JM on this title long ago, I love Parajanov... Pomegranites... jesus.. email back as 'possibility'-- yeah right, along with every other forgotten masterpiece in the world). They had released it thru HVe on VHS, so I had prayed it would come out via CC (I know it's on a distinct possibility thread somewhere on this site). Still, I'm surprised nobody has gotten it out there on dvd yet. Russico, maybe?

As to his older titles, the A REQUIEM has so many tantalizing peeks at his more youthful, more linear works.

I often wonder if the (state enforced) outtakes from POMEGRANETES still exist somewhere in the former USSR. If Criterion were able to access similar material from RUBLEV & SOLARIS it means all hope is not lost for a 'director's cut' fully restored version of what many consider to be a lost masterpiece.

Wasn't ANCESTORS put out through the BFI on VHS in the UK? Don't they have the rights? Also, I have noticed that all the Second Run releases to date have never been out on VHS before in the UK, I assume all future releases will be virgins as well.

solent wrote:Also, I have noticed that all the Second Run releases to date have never been out on VHS before in the UK, I assume all future releases will be virgins as well.

NIGHTHAWKS was released on VHS in the UK by Conniesseur/bfi

Any chance of Jean-Pierre Melville's 1949 debut, Le Silence de la mer? It has never been released on home video in the UK; the USA VHS has been OOP for years and the film hasn't even been released on DVD in France, yet it is an immensely important French film.

MoC looked into this last year. Gaumont can only provide a master with French subtitles ingrained during the parts where German military speak in German.

Until it's re-restored, there's nothing else available.

Would make a lovely Criterion.

solent wrote:I often wonder if the (state enforced) outtakes from POMEGRANETES still exist somewhere in the former USSR. If Criterion were able to access similar material from RUBLEV & SOLARIS it means all hope is not lost for a 'director's cut' fully restored version of what many consider to be a lost masterpiece.

I'm not sure of the full version history of the film, but my understanding is that there are two versions in general circulation. I don't think the even longer version rumoured (maybe a rough assemblage?) was the director's cut.

Paradzhanov's original cut was smuggled to the west sometime in the 1980s and circulated fairly widely. (Was Scorsese involved with this too?) I saw this on 16mm a few times in the 80s. I don't know if a 35mm print was in circulation - it would have been much easier to sneak out the 16!

The 'approved' Yutkevich recut was available in lovely 35mm prints (the colour on the 16mm was more muted and washed out), which is what I've seen ever since. I've never had the chance to do a back-to-back comparison, but I knew the Paradzhanov cut pretty well by the time I first saw this version, and my impression was that there wasn't a huge difference between the two (e.g. no major sequences missing).

I believe that the Soviet objections to the film weren't on the grounds of politics or subversive content, but on the grounds of comprehensibility / decadent artiness. And given Paradzhanov's astonishing mise en scene, there's only so much a re-edit could do to alleviate that! Yutkevich was ultra-establishment, but he also seems to have been highly thought of by the younger generation of filmmakers, and his recut, the imprimatur of which allowed the film to be released, seems to me to be very sympathetic to Paradzhanov's vision, which cannot help but bleed off the screen.

Any prospective release should, of course, try to secure both versions. it would be great to see them alongside one another and try to trace the fine line between 'acceptable' and 'unacceptable' decadence.

Thanks for that info Peerpee. If that is so (re: NIGHTHAWKS VHS) then perhaps more BFI-to-SR DVDs are possible.

Zedz's comments on why SHADOWS was not tolerated by the Govt. are correct but I would add the fact that all ethnic depictions of life were unacceptable to the Soviet propagandists. They wanted films to depict a unified and Russianised USSR. Any ethnics shown on screen had to be pro-Soviet. [Of course, reality seeped in despite this official directive.] SHADOWS was blatantly Armenian - what else could it be in terms of its subject matter - it only got made due to the short-lived 'Russian Thaw' of the early 60s.

solent wrote:Zedz's comments on why SHADOWS was not tolerated by the Govt. are correct but I would add the fact that all ethnic depictions of life were unacceptable to the Soviet propagandists. They wanted films to depict a unified and Russianised USSR. Any ethnics shown on screen had to be pro-Soviet. [Of course, reality seeped in despite this official directive.] SHADOWS was blatantly Armenian - what else could it be in terms of its subject matter - it only got made due to the short-lived 'Russian Thaw' of the early 60s.

I think we were talking Pomegranates rather than Shadows, but your points apply equally well to both (and to the Georgian Legend of Suram Fortress) - Sergo spread his gifts around the regions. I get the feeling that a lot of what rubbed the Soviet authorities up the wrong way about Paradzhanov (his esoteric aesthetics, his profound regionalism, his gayness) were things they had difficulty 'pinning' on him, hence the apparently trumped-up nature of the charges that landed him in prison.

zedz wrote:

solent wrote:Zedz's comments on why SHADOWS was not tolerated by the Govt. are correct but I would add the fact that all ethnic depictions of life were unacceptable to the Soviet propagandists. They wanted films to depict a unified and Russianised USSR. Any ethnics shown on screen had to be pro-Soviet. [Of course, reality seeped in despite this official directive.] SHADOWS was blatantly Armenian - what else could it be in terms of its subject matter - it only got made due to the short-lived 'Russian Thaw' of the early 60s.

I think we were talking Pomegranates rather than Shadows, but your points apply equally well to both (and to the Georgian Legend of Suram Fortress) - Sergo spread his gifts around the regions. I get the feeling that a lot of what rubbed the Soviet authorities up the wrong way about Paradzhanov (his esoteric aesthetics, his profound regionalism, his gayness) were things they had difficulty 'pinning' on him, hence the apparently trumped-up nature of the charges that landed him in prison.

One thing we can't forget, however, in POMEGRANITES, which helped raise hackles was the religious reverences & inconography in the film.

As to the alternate cut to this film, was this the dub entitled RED POMEGRANITES?

Would like to see Peter Bacso and Zoltán Fábri on the roster. Excellent filmmakers. Bacso was a wonderful muckraker to boot.

peerpee wrote:MoC looked into this last year. Gaumont can only provide a master with French subtitles ingrained during the parts where German military speak in German.

Until it's re-restored, there's nothing else available.

Do Gaumont not possess the original camera negative, dupe neg(s) or internegative(s), Nick? Are the subtitles optical or electronic on the Gaumont master?

On a more positive note, it is quite heartening that Le Cercle rouge; Leon Morin, Pretre; Le samourai and now L'Armee des ombres have all been beautifully restored and are, or will be, available on excellent DVDs. But La Silence de la mer is the one I want to see again the most. MoC, Criterion or Second Run would be prefered.

Gordon McMurphy wrote: But La Silence de la mer is the one I want to see again the most. MoC, Criterion or Second Run would be prefered.

Yes indeed. Melville displays Bresson's mature style years before Diary of a Country Priest, and even anticipates aspects of Hiroshima mon amour. In this and Les Enfants terribles he's one of the most brilliantly 'literary' of filmmakers, finding highly original and sympathetic cinematic forms for the works he's adapting.

If Criterion is still interested in doing paired releases, it would be great if this could be developed to accompany the imminent L'Armee des ombres.

In order to stop the list going on for pages I have confined it (bar the 3 at the bottom, which are overwhelmingly good candidates) to movies that score 8.0/10 or above on the imdb, and have never been released on DVD. A harsh standard I'm sure you'll agree. The most pressing are in bold:

Devi (1960, Satyajit Ray)
Aranyer Din Ratri (1970, Satyajit Ray)
Begone Dull Care (1949, Evelyn Lambart, Norman McLaren)
Inhumaine, L' (1924, Marcel L'Herbier)
Argent, L' (1928, Marcel L'Herbier)
Jana Aranya (1976, Satyajit Ray)
Un carnet de bal (1937, Duvivier, Julien)
The Wind (1928, Victor Sjostrom)
Körkarlen (1921, Victor Sjostrom)
Biruma no tategoto (1956, Kon Ichikawa)
Kurutta Ippeji (1926, Teinosuke Kinugasa)
Nobi (1959, Kon Ichikawa)
The Hour-Glass Sanatorium (1973, Wojciech Has)
Ace in the Hole (1951, Bill Wilder)

Blaue Licht, Das (1932, Bela Balazs, Leni Riefenstahl)
The Phenix City Story (1955, Phil Karlson)
Szegénylegények (1965, Miklos Jancso)

Quite a few of these are more MoC territory, Peerpee take notice that Das Blaue Licht is a better bergfilm than The Holy Mountain which you have already released.

Good suggestions.
I don't think Das blaue Licht rivals Der heilige Berg, but it is a fine film. The German DVD isn't bad.

Since the Bros. Quay did an introduction for Second Run, what are the chances of getting some of their work released? Institute Benjamenta could use a better, progressive, anamorphic transfer (the Kino is only barely servicable), and there are plenty of shorts that haven't ever been released on home video, including In Absentia, their collaboration with Karlheinz Stockhausen.

denti alligator wrote:Good suggestions.
I don't think Das blaue Licht rivals Der heilige Berg, but it is a fine film. The German DVD isn't bad.

Since the Bros. Quay did an introduction for Second Run, what are the chances of getting some of their work released? Institute Benjamenta could use a better, progressive, anamorphic transfer (the Kino is only barely servicable), and there are plenty of shorts that haven't ever been released on home video, including In Absentia, their collaboration with Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Denti I've been meaning to tell you that I saw a copy of MOTHER KRAUSENS JOURNEY INTO HAPPINESS on Facets (VHS, but something at least.) I'll PM you too.

How about some more from Tadeusz Konwicki - How Far, How Near (1972) and/or Salto (1965) would be great additions and have never had video editions with english subtitles.

More info on Konwicki HERE.

An awesome, visionary filmmaker.

denti alligator wrote:Good suggestions.
I don't think Das blaue Licht rivals Der heilige Berg, but it is a fine film. The German DVD isn't bad.

Is the german DVD the sound version, are there english subs?