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SncDthMnky wrote:experimental stuff like Schizopolis and I am curious just piss me off when i watch them.

Different strokes, indeed: I'm extremely intrigued by this one, largely because Criterion's more off-kilter releases have never failed to fascinate me. I've found Schizopolis to be almost endlessly entertaining!

goodluck with dogstar man SNC

peerpee wrote:Reminds me of a joke someone told me last week about the Irish DVD authoring house who've been two years digitally restoring Bill Morrison's DECASIA, and they've only managed to restore ten minutes so far.

Sorry.

hahaha! Decasia was the first thing I thought of when I read that bit about the dirt and debris being left in.

Lookit. More detailed specs.

SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
DISC ONE: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take One
- New high-definition digital transfer
- Discovering William Greaves, a new documentary on Greaves's career, featuring Greaves, his wife and coproducer Louise Archambault, actor Ruby Dee, filmmaker St. Clair Bourne, and film scholar Scott MacDonald
- Theatrical trailer
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

DISC TWO: Symbiopsychotaxiplasm Take 2 1/2
- New digital transfer
- New video interview with actor Steve Buscemi
- Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by critic Amy Taubin and production notes by Greaves for Take One

Tribe wrote:

This new, high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit Datacine from a 35mm print. At the behest of director William Greaves, thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were not removed using the MTI Digital restoration System.

Anyone have any insight into this director that might explain the above?

It lost the dry humor of the old description, but Criterion has updated their technical specs thusly:

At the behest of director William Greaves, corrections to the picture and sound were kept to a minimum in order to retain the "authentic" look and spontaneity of the original film. One of the theories behind the making of the film, Greaves notes, was that any "mistake" that was consciously or unconsciously made during filming or afterward would add to the immediacy of viewers' experience, by involving them more directly in the filmmaking process.The MTI Digital Restoration System was used to remove occasional instances of dirt, debris, and scratches caused by the historical nature of the degradation of film sources.

One of the theories behind the making of the film, Greaves notes, was that any "mistake" that was consciously or unconsciously made during filming or afterward would add to the immediacy of viewers' experience, by involving them more directly in the filmmaking process.

Does this mean any glitches (a la M's sound problem) will purposefully not be corrected?

denti alligator wrote:Does this mean any glitches (a la M's sound problem) will purposefully not be corrected?

Thus becoming part of the film. Yessir, I like it, and a devious part of me is even hoping for a tiny one.

-Toilet Dcuk

dvdbeaver review

Let's see, the trailer was fairly interesting in terms of tone (that late 60s intensity thing), Susan Anspach, Miles Davis. Worth a shot. Comes in a keep case too (phew).

Something about the Beaver review made me go from general uninterest in this film to total fascination. Now I want this! Too bad it's a $40-tier title.

I'm curious about any opinions about this. This is really an extraordinary little movie that sort of predates Dogme by a good twenty years, doesn't it? The real surprise is that as self-conscious as a production like this is, it's never smug nor pretentious.

This is a real gem. I love it when Criterion comes up with relatively unknown stuff like this and surprises the hell out of me.

Tribe

I watched these on the weekend and they've really stayed with me. Fascinating, thought-provoking cinema. Take One opens out into so many different directions while it's running, then keeps unfolding after it stops. Take Two 1/2 sort of transposes the ideas and techniques of the film into a quite different dimension, but still retains that complex, unfolding dynamic. In both cases, Greaves approaches the sublime by skirting the bathetic (that soapy scene in Take One; the embarrassing presence of the psychodramatist at the climax of Take Two 1/2). One of the big surprises of the sequel was the 1968 footage. I thought Shannon Baker and Audrey Heningham 'sold' the purple Alice and Freddie script far more convincingly than Gilbert and Fellows had, so it worked well to use those characters, and the nature of performance, as the jumping off point for the sequel. And I loved the way that Greaves' destabilising antics took place at a much subtler level in the sequel (since everybody would presumably have been on the lookout for his Take One (mis)behaviours).

The Greaves documentary is one of Criterion's most useful and substantial extras of 2006. And this package must be one of their bravest releases in years.

I can only agree. These are both as insightful as any of the best documentaries on filmmaking and as energetic and avant garde as Schizopolis. Greaves is a rock star.

I'm fully on board the GreavesTrain too after watching this weekend. Just wondering why Criterion have Take 2/12 as being 2003 on the back of the case, when the end of the film (and imdb) says 2005.

This has been on my radar for over a decade, but never one that gained impetus to move up to a "must see" or "must blind buy." What a power the filmstruck queue is, though, as I see this in there the other night and boom, time to start watching it.

A complete gem of a film, bizarre and wonderful from beginning to end with magnificent use of optical printing effects for its split screens

(If you've ever seen the eclipse Norman Mailer atrocities, this is the singular antidote and repudiation of Mailer's technical incompetence and his utter theoretical ineptitude.)

Incisive and razor sharp, Greaves film is lean and effective a great example of how outstanding experimental film can be.

This was an absolutely brilliant experience and makes me curious about Greaves other works. Have any of them been released in recent years?

There’s an Anchor Bay DVD of Ali the Fighter easily accessible, and his Ida B. Wells doc is online as well as in the Minuteman catalogue if you’re a library member to that expansive Boston area network. I haven’t seen either but agree that this film and its sequel are masterworks.

You can pm me about it, but minutemen catalog?

Also Emergency Ward which gets a lot of discussion in the extras is available on the Canadian film website.

Upgrade coming in December.

Wow, I would have pegged this as one of the last to ever get an upgrade. Excellent to be wrong!

Absolutely agree that this is worthy of upgrade, though i wonder if it may have been fast tracked as a response to the recent NY Times article...

I wonder if it was in response to the New York Times article as well. As it is, the film is referenced a number of times in Charlie Kaufman's hilarious debut novel Antkind, which was just published, so fans of the novel might be intrigued to check out the upgrade.

It would be intriguing if it was possibly for them to even fast-track something like this at such a speed; assuming they only had at best a few weeks before the article published to begin preparing, that's not very long at all to get the masters and stuff into shape. I would be curious how many titles "on the shelf" at Janus/Criterion are in a position they could just decide to do it and have it out in four months.

The Milestone rep said they were interviewed last year, so that article was a long time in progress. Criterion probably had an idea of the direction it was taking long before it made it to print

It would be exciting if they could get their hands on more Greaves stuff. Everything I've seen has been fascinating and most of it is unavailable on disc.

I just found WilliamGreaves.com, a truly comprehensive site covering his filmography and featuring links to hundreds of reviews and essays as well as streaming and DVD options for more than a dozen of his films