Camera Obscura: The Walerian Borowczyk Collection

[BigMack3000]

This set looks absolutely amazing! I've moved since backing the kickstarter campaign. Does anyone know the proper email to contact for this? Is it through kickstarter?

Thanks!

[What A Disgrace]

How many discs; DVD and Blu-ray, will this box consist of?

[swo17]

The Kickstarter page said 4 Blu-rays and 7 DVDs though that could have changed of course. Given how the full details posted today were laid out, I'm assuming there will now be five BDs, one for each of the features.

If that's the case though, I'm curious why two of the shorts would be featured on separate discs, apart from the others...

[zedz]

Bravo, Daniel and Michael.

[fdm]

Even though I can't seem to get blu-ray box sets from overseas to arrive in decent shape any more, Looking forward to getting this.

Somebody I can email to persuade them to pack mine up similar to (or better than) how Eureka's packed the Mizoguchi set? (Via Kickstarter.)

My Rohmer box arrived an awful mess...

[MichaelB]

The Kickstarter page said 4 Blu-rays and 7 DVDs though that could have changed of course. Given how the full details posted today were laid out, I'm assuming there will now be five BDs, one for each of the features.

It was four BDs back in the days when Goto was going to be an SD-only extra.

Happily, that's no longer the case, so it's now going to be five BDs plus however many DVDs are needed to duplicate their content - we reckon that BD disc one will probably need to be spread over two discs, and possibly Immoral Tales as well, given the two separate versions, although we're experimenting with branching (which might well be feasible in this instance because the joins can be concealed in the black leader before each segment). In other words, six or seven DVDs in total.

If that's the case though, I'm curious why two of the shorts would be featured on separate discs, apart from the others...

Because A Private Collection was specifically designed as an apéritif to play before Immoral Tales and ditto Venus on the Half-Shell and The Beast.

[bdsweeney]

The Quietus has just published the official trailer, including glimpses of hitherto unrevealed parts of the restorations.

Michael, that trailer has me jumping with excitement (if only for the animation alone). So glad I donated to the Kickstarter campaign. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

[Grand Wazoo]

Brilliant work Michael and Daniel, this has far exceeded what I expected when I preordered. I'm liking this Kickstarter campaign more than the one for Manos.

[manicsounds]

5 BDs, 5 DVDs.

Arrow has this for preorder at their own shop, £74.99 which is half off the list price.

[swo17]

5 BDs, 5 DVDs.

MichaelB, one of the producers of the set, just barely said that it's going to be 5 BDs and 6-7 DVDs.

[MichaelB]

It's very unlikely to be just 5 DVDs - for obvious reasons, we'd like to keep the shorts at a healthy bitrate, so the usual tactic of compressing the extras won't work. Or rather, it wouldn't be a good idea.

[YnEoS]

Seriously can't thank everyone involved in creating this set enough. Looks like this will easily be one of my favorite DVD/Blu releases ever.

[MichaelB]

I'm just copy-editing the manuscript of Borowczyk's Anatomy of the Devil, a collection of nine short stories which is appearing in English for the first time (in a translation by Borowczyk's former assistant Michael Levy, who has also written an introduction-cum-memoir).

It's fascinating stuff: as with Jan Švankmajer's work in other media, Borowczyk's artistic personality is so strong that you could have a fair stab at guessing the author even without prior warning. As you might expect, all the antiquarian obsessions, fetishism, voyeurism and occasional but ultra-graphic sexual material are present and (in)correct - in fact, in one story the explicit element is deliberately typeset in mirrored form, presumably to force the reader to go to some effort in order to read it.

Whatever Arrow decides to do with regard to separate releases of individual films (The Beast and Immoral Tales are pretty certain, the rest unconfirmed), this will be exclusive to the box set - we only cleared the rights to reproduce a strictly limited number of copies.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

If this box set doesn't win some sort of award I will eat my pet porpoise and Werner Herzog's shoe and underpants.

[MichaelB]

More news, courtesy of Arrow's Facebook page:

While remastering the alternative five-episode version of Immoral Tales, we received not the 17-minute version of The Beast (that would later be turned into a full-length feature), but the original 22-minute cut that caused such a scandal at the 1973 London Film Festival.

This was just about the most pleasant surprise we've had so far! When the 35mm print of the "Beast short" was sent over, we assumed it would be the same as the version included in the German reconstruction of the five-part Immoral Tales (on Bildstörung's three-disc limited edition). Our suspicions were first aroused when it didn't have the Immoral Tales-style introductory title card, but it was only when comparing the two that it became clear that our 2K scan was much ruder, including some shots that didn't even make it into the final version of The Beast.

So as a result, we've dropped plans to include a "deleted scenes" section on The Beast's disc, as there's something like a 90% overlap - so in its place we'll be including the 22-minute short film, with the slightly politer 17-minute cut being featured on the Immoral Tales disc. BBFC permitting, of course, but they've been very supportive and sympathetic so far.

(This does not, of course, mean that they're going to pass the Oberhausen cut of A Private Collection without modification, but I accept that their hands are tied. In fact, we sought informal advice prior to submission and it turns out that we'd be breaking the law even if we submitted the unexpurgated version to them, because of the laws on possession of images of actual bestiality.)

[swo17]

Whatever Arrow decides to do with regard to separate releases of individual films (The Beast and Immoral Tales are pretty certain, the rest unconfirmed)

One of the reward options during the Kickstarter project was a standalone Blu-ray of Goto. Is it possible that that will only end up being available to the few people who selected that option when they donated?

[MichaelB]

Whatever Arrow decides to do with regard to separate releases of individual films (The Beast and Immoral Tales are pretty certain, the rest unconfirmed)

One of the reward options during the Kickstarter project was a standalone Blu-ray of Goto. Is it possible that that will only end up being available to the few people who selected that option when they donated?

I honestly don't know - it depends entirely on reception/sales of the box.

Talking of which, Arrow just tweeted that they've sold 60% so far.

And in other news, we've just cleared another short for inclusion - the mysterious Holy Smoke (1963), which turned out to be a surprisingly lengthy animated commercial for Imperial Tobacco, who were happy to grant permission provided nothing anywhere in the package attacks either them specifically or the tobacco industry in general. I think we can probably manage that.

(Many of the other mysterious titles in Borowczyk filmographies are similar commissions designed to pay the rent and subsidise his more ambitious work - we're hoping to include two or three, but we need the permission of the sponsors.)

[Drucker]

Michael, out of curiosity, since you work in the industry: this seems like it's a big success, or at least bigger than anyone could have hoped for already. Are other labels taking note? Do major labels see this, take notice, and think there may be a better way to release their catalog? Just wondering if there are any positive ripples happening that you know of.

[Dr Amicus]

With almost every passing post on this thread I'm more and more relieved I put my £60 into the Kickstarter campaign.

And just a bit smug with a side order of guilt...

The only Borowczyk I've seen is The Beast (courtesy of when Film Four was really good), but have been eager to see more since an article in one of the Shock Xpress anthologies 20 years back. Also, I seem to remember that one of his films (Goto?) got a well reviewed rerelease in the UK sometime about then.

[htshell]

Keep it coming, Michael! It's all gravy at this point.

[spectre]

(This does not, of course, mean that they're going to pass the Oberhausen cut of A Private Collection without modification, but I accept that their hands are tied. In fact, we sought informal advice prior to submission and it turns out that we'd be breaking the law even if we submitted the unexpurgated version to them, because of the laws on possession of images of actual bestiality.)

Obviously there's no prospect of the uncut version of A Private Collection being made available on the disc, as you've discussed at length. Out of curiosity, are there any 'alternative' means of seeing it? I don't suppose there are any prospects of it being 'accidentally' uploaded online, are there?

(No, I'm not that keen to see dogs and people copulating—it's just that, having seen the pixelated Oberhausen cut, I'm under the impression that the dog sequence is one of the key moments of the short film; the sequence where all standards of decency are finally crossed (making the reaction of the police officer, society's representative charged with keeping an eye out for this stuff and protecting the public from it, much more ironic and meaningful). It's the film's crescendo. Leaving it out altogether makes for an entirely different work, imho).

[MichaelB]

Obviously there's no prospect of the uncut version of A Private Collection being made available on the disc, as you've discussed at length. Out of curiosity, are there any 'alternative' means of seeing it? I don't suppose there are any prospects of it being 'accidentally' uploaded online, are there?

No. I don't have a copy myself (other than the pixelated German DVD), and even if I did I doubt very much I'd attempt such a thing - it's simply not worth the potential hassle if I got caught. Since 2008, unsimulated bestiality falls into the same legal category as child pornography, which really isn't the kind of thing that I particularly want to get involved with.

And it's because of this that the 2K master no longer contains the offending footage - it's not normal practice to directly censor the master (indeed, this is normally something to be avoided), but in this case we had no choice.

(No, I'm not that keen to see dogs and people copulating—it's just that, having seen the pixelated Oberhausen cut, I'm under the impression that the dog sequence is one of the key moments of the short film; the sequence where all standards of decency are finally crossed (making the reaction of the police officer, society's representative charged with keeping an eye out for this stuff and protecting the public from it, much more ironic and meaningful). It's the film's crescendo. Leaving it out altogether makes for an entirely different work, imho).

Sadly, there's nothing we can do about that except include as much as we possibly can (which I'm afraid isn't much) and provide contextual material explaining exactly what's been blacked out and why.

The problem is that Borowczyk was quite consciously pushing the envelope, and while most envelopes that were pushed in the 1970s subsequently became (more or less) socially acceptable, UK laws on genuine bestiality have actually got tougher in recent years to the point where there's really no wiggle room at all with something like this. (It's a bit like the torture and killing of the coatimundi in Cannibal Holocaust - if material like that doesn't infringe the Animals Act, there's arguably little point in having animal-cruelty laws at all!).

Thankfully, simulated bestiality is still OK, so the various iterations of The Beast (feature, two shorts) should be fine. And while I can't promise that this will get through intact, we left in the final shot of the dog (pixelated on the German disc) on the grounds that while he's clearly still in a state of some excitement, there's no-one else in the shot - in other words, we're in similar territory to the horses at the start of The Beast or indeed the average David Attenborough documentary. Fingers crossed, anyway.

[swo17]

And while I can't promise that this will get through intact, we left in the final shot of the dog (pixelated on the German disc) on the grounds that while he's clearly still in a state of some excitement, there's no-one else in the shot - in other words, we're in similar territory to the horses at the start of The Beast or indeed the average David Attenborough documentary. Fingers crossed, anyway.

Worst case scenario--all that happens is you all go to jail, right?

[domino harvey]

"What are you in for?"
"Unpixelated dog dick"

[Calvin]

Many of the other mysterious titles in Borowczyk filmographies are similar commissions designed to pay the rent and subsidise his more ambitious work - we're hoping to include two or three, but we need the permission of the sponsors.)

Could one of those be Terra incognita? I've read Borowczyk utilises Alexandre Alexeieff's style of animation, and I'd be keen to see what he does with it.