criterionforum.org

"A still gloriously seductive and semi-experimental slice of Gothic strangeness that looks better than ever in its HD incarnation."
CineOutsider

"Just gorgeous... MORGIANA is so rewatchable and Second Run's Blu-ray package has the vastly improved a/v, new commentary, director interview and booklet. The appeal of this extends well beyond Czech New Wave fans."
Beaver

Beautiful. The BD really does justice to the scurrying camerawork ( a mouse pursued by the eponymous cat?) I wouldn't mind knowing where it was filmed: Czechs and Slovaks like Croatia for the seaside experience...The other Herz film I'd like to see on blu-ray -and I'm not the first to suggest it - is DEVÁTÉ SRDCE (THE NINTH HEART).

Langland wrote: Wed Jun 07, 2023 4:25 pm The other Herz film I'd like to see on blu-ray -and I'm not the first to suggest it - is DEVÁTÉ SRDCE (THE NINTH HEART).

I think The Ninth Heart is confirmed to be coming from Severin later this year.

Matt wrote:So, how's the movie? I was intrigued by the description, but an available YouTube clip made the film seem like 1,000 other Eurohorror films of the sort that have Barbara Steele creeping around a castle.

Well, I’m ashamed to have been so long in getting around to this film because it’s exactly the kind of thing I adore. Roger Corman doing Poe meets Ken Russell doing Angela Carter after they’ve both watched some Bergman films and visited a Klimt exhibition. Wih costumes by Sandy Powell doing Piero Tosi. Magnificent stuff! And I did not realize that the same actress played both sisters. I thought it was to actresses who were actual sisters. It never seemed to have the telltale stand-in shots and she did such a good job differentiating them, and not just with makeup and wigs.

I’m definitely giving Cremator another look after this and will pick up SR’s Beauty and the Beast. Second Run you have hooked me again.

Researching Herz for another project, I stumbled upon the delightful info-nugget that the Czechoslovak authorities did not like Morgiana one little bit - too decadent for them, presumably - but it went down an absolute storm in the Soviet Union, home of the source author Aleksander Grin. And, because of this, Herz's friends would make a point of saying "and the Soviets love our films, such as Morgiana" in interviews, which managed to be both factually correct while winding the Czechoslovak authorities up a treat.

Although Herz was still forced to make "normal" films for five years (the standard punishment for filmmakers deemed to have overstepped the mark but who hadn't gone far enough to end up on the "banned forever" list like Miloš Forman and Jan Němec - Jiří Menzel and František Vláčil served similar sentences, in Vláčil's case by making children's films), until the double-header of the far more home-turf Gothic likes of Beauty and the Beast and The Ninth Heart, shot at the same time on the same sets, mainly because Barrandov Studios baulked at constructing something so elaborate for one film. And they went on to recycle it in two more films shortly afterwards.

MichaelB wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 1:26 pm Researching Herz for another project,

*crosses fingers for The Ninth Heart or Oil Lamps from Second Run*

Matt wrote: Mon Nov 27, 2023 7:44 am I’m definitely giving Cremator another look after this and will pick up SR’s Beauty and the Beast. Second Run you have hooked me again.

I found Beauty and the Beast pretty remarkable, I think you'll enjoy it a lot given your feelings on Morgiana and the comparisons in your post

ryannichols7 wrote: Tue Nov 28, 2023 4:58 am*crosses fingers for The Ninth Heart or Oil Lamps from Second Run*

Morgiana & The Ninth Heart are both forthcoming from Severin. Whether on their own or part of their second folk horror box set, I guess only time will tell.

Interview with actress Iva Janžurová about Morgiana and other Herz films:
https://metrograph.com/iva-janzurova/