Second Run General Chitchat

[What A Disgrace]

Eastern European what now?

[MichaelB]

Hmm. "Wilson" has made one post to date, and it strongly echoes one made on the first page of this thread, when it would have been a more appropriate question to aim at a then brand-new label.

Anyone got a Voight-Kampff test to hand?

[What A Disgrace]

The maybe-bot got my hopes up for some spanking new boxed set of Eastern European shorts and I wondered if I had a newsletter or something in my mailbox.

[hmcnaught]

Finally up to date!

[ryannichols7]

tease before the next announcement

[What A Disgrace]

I don't think it's Valley of the Bees, as one person guessed, might it be Mother Joan of the Angels? Could we be so lucky?

[amberry]

Not sure if this is widely known, but Days (2020) from Tsai Ming-liang is coming, per an upcoming screening at the Garden Cinema to celebrate the release.

[ryannichols7]

Not sure if this is widely known, but Days (2020) from Tsai Ming-liang is coming, per an upcoming screening at the Garden Cinema to celebrate the release.

that did need a UK release, but I would've loved to get Rebels of the Neon God or Vive L'Amour first, both of which got pretty lacklustre US editions that left a lot to be desired. other Tsais that got restored I hope come soon (The Wayward Cloud) but I'll take anything of his. Days just already has a really good release from Grasshopper, so I'm curious to see what Second Run adds to make their edition more unique

[amberry]

Not sure if this is widely known, but Days (2020) from Tsai Ming-liang is coming, per an upcoming screening at the Garden Cinema to celebrate the release.

that did need a UK release, but I would've loved to get Rebels of the Neon God or Vive L'Amour first, both of which got pretty lacklustre US editions that left a lot to be desired. other Tsais that got restored I hope come soon (The Wayward Cloud) but I'll take anything of his. Days just already has a really good release from Grasshopper, so I'm curious to see what Second Run adds to make their edition more unique

Agreed, hopefully a sign of more Tsai to come though. Looking forward to whoever takes up the mantle of releasing Wayward on disc, The Hole and The River would be great to get on blu too (though I think The Hole might need restoration?)

[swo17]

Valley of the Bees is listed as coming soon, and Days will be a twofer with Afternoon (similar to Grasshopper's pairing)

[What A Disgrace]

I was wrong again, but far from disappointed.

[rapta]

That was me who guessed it was The Valley of the Bees (on Twitter)! Glad to see it's getting upgraded as I held off buying the DVD in the hopes it would be upgraded eventually.

Also happy to see the Tsai double-bill is on its way, having been originally mentioned at least a few years ago (mentioned in a podcast interview with Modi in late 2021). I thought perhaps it had been cancelled as there was no mention of it after that!

Would love more Tsai to be released here, and other Taiwanese masters if nobody else is up for it (efforts with both Hou and Yang seem to have been abandoned somewhat).

[andyli]

Was hoping they would do the 4k-restored The Wayward Watermelon. Any chance?

[ryannichols7]

Piotr Szulkin - Golem as confirmed by both Radiance and MichaelB
Kelly Reichart - River of Grass is a good guess, any of the later ones would be very interesting. hopefully some shorts are included. biggest surprise on the list!
István Szabó - any number of possibilities, but since I bought Father on DVD, surely that! but it could be Confidence or any of the other titles Kino did, or some surprises
František Vláčil - Valley of the Bees but I'd love any of them, Holubice being a particular favorite. a good chunk of his filmography has been restored
Kazuo Hara - Extreme Private Eros is most likely, as this has already been hinted at before. but they do have the rights to most of Hara's films in the UK
Bill Morrison - The Village Detective: A Song Cycle confirmed on the coming soon page

exciting year ahead. they also teased one director per country too aside from the US - I'm intrigued what other Polish directors we will see, as it's almost a certainty Second Run will release more, given MichaelB has teased he's working on more Polish projects in 2024

I'm jumping the gun a little bit here by posting this a month early from the year anniversary of this post, but I do find it interesting that only two of these (Morrison and Vlacil) came to fruition from the 2024 (and now into '25) releases. I know Second Run had some wackiness go on with the whole Amazon thing but they've been back in full force with some amazing releases in the back half of the year, and some real surprises from Zimmerman and Everson. I look forward to seeing Golem and the Reichardt, Szabó, and Hara titles, but interesting that we didn't see them this year

as always I'm pleased with Second Run's output, one of only two labels I pick up every release from. 2024 really did end up being solid even if we didn't get a now-normal 3 disc boxset this year to close out the year

[What A Disgrace]

I'm still waiting on The Fifth Seal, The Green Years and Change of Life, which were confirmed ages ago.

[What A Disgrace]

So, right now, Second Run's spines go from...

78 - Pharoah
79 - The Valley of the Bees
80 - ???
81 - ???
82 - Fugitive Images
83 - ???
84 - ???
85 - The Hop-pickers
86 - Days
87 - Three Wishes for Cinderella

I imagine Park Lanes and Golem will cover two of these missing spines (they very well might not be, though!), but it isn't like Second Run to have so many loose items in the catalog, and there are at least two more in there somewhere.

[TechnicolorAcid]

Maybe we’re getting Adelheld and Marketa Lazarova as spines 80 and 81.

[What A Disgrace]

I think they've ruled out Marketa Lazarova completely, owing to necessary cuts that would have to be made.

[MichaelB]

Yup, definitely not happening unless the 1937 Cinematograph Films (Animals) Act gets abolished, and that's about as likely as the chances of the proverbial cat in hell (a shot of which might be permissible under the Animals Act, provided it was faked or would have happened anyway). They had to make just one tiny cut to the DVD, but would rather not have to do that again - and they would have to; there's no wiggle room with the Animals Act.

They recommend the Criterion or Czech National Film Archive editions instead - the latter being region-free (and 100% English-friendly). Both are based on the same 4K restoration that they'd have used.

[What A Disgrace]

I would be happy if the remaining spines are dedicated to the long gestating Paulo Rocha double feature, and The Fifth Seal. Golem itself is a title that's been in the works for a good while, and I half suspect that Park Lanes has been something they've had in consideration since the first Everson release, which is still one of their greatest releases.

[amberry]

Spotted in the Kinoteka Polish Film Festival guide that Second Run will be releasing these Polish films on blu soon:

The Last Stage (Jakubowska)
Night Train (Kawalerowicz)
Passenger (Munk)
Knights of the Teutonic Order (Ford)

[rapta]

Nice! Looking forward to those (though I do already own Night Train and Knights of the Teutonic Order, but happy to double-dip eventually).

Whilst I'm here, worth mentioning Cinema Rediscovered are screening Kalamita (Chytilová) which I could only assume would come from Second Run at some point.

[andyli]

Guess Huszárik's Szindbád is imminent, along with his other works in a box set (teased in a recent tweet).

[What A Disgrace]

Release of the year, assuming.

[swo17]

For my next request, please reissue Szindbád with every Huszárik short film possible

Thanks, SR! And now for my next request: Mircea Veroiu & Dan Pița's The Stone Wedding