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eerik wrote: Sat Nov 02, 2019 1:21 pm

tenia wrote: Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:54 am

L.A. wrote: Sat Nov 02, 2019 10:54 am The Cremator BD coming this month.

This is out by Second Run in the UK since Dec 17, based on the same restoration, though.

But the Czech release is based on a new 4K restoration which premiered earlier this year, no?

My friend in the Czech Republic informed that this is indeed 4K.

furbicide wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:30 pm Is there a link for that Švankmajer box set? Any suggestion it will become available beyond the Indiegogo campaign?

Available now from the Švankmajer website; tech. specs / screenshots from the discs [didn't do Alice]:

     

Edit: The above are links to the comparisons.

L.A. wrote: Mon Nov 04, 2019 9:49 pm

eerik wrote: Sat Nov 02, 2019 1:21 pm

tenia wrote: Sat Nov 02, 2019 11:54 am This is out by Second Run in the UK since Dec 17, based on the same restoration, though.

But the Czech release is based on a new 4K restoration which premiered earlier this year, no?

My friend in the Czech Republic informed that this is indeed 4K.

Yep, it's the new 4K resto that premièred at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival this July - the older master that SR got [which also aired on Czech TV] was not restored, just newly scanned...

petoluk wrote: Thu Nov 07, 2019 4:08 pm

furbicide wrote: Thu Jun 13, 2019 11:30 pm Is there a link for that Švankmajer box set? Any suggestion it will become available beyond the Indiegogo campaign?

Available now from the Švankmajer website

Kind of a steep price. I contributed $150 to the Indiegogo project in exchange for one

Yep. No way I'm going to be able to afford that, sadly! Thanks for the link though!

The 2019 resto of The Cremator:



Completely barebones, though...

Back on Svankmajer, I noticed that each of the films in the set is available by itself (on DVD only) for €12 each, which isn't too bad (unfortunately, the postage to anywhere outside of Europe is a whopping €47, to which I can only say ... lol, no thanks). Still, I'd be interested in how the DVD of Faust stacks up, given that it's only otherwise been available in the old, interlaced English-dub-only Kino release (most of his other films have had decent releases elsewhere). Has anyone else checked this out, or at least know whether it's comparable to the transfers in the new Blu-ray set?

https://svankmajerjan.com/z467-lekce-faust/?kosik=1

furbicide wrote: Thu Nov 28, 2019 11:38 pm Back on Svankmajer, I noticed that each of the films in the set is available by itself (on DVD only) for €12 each, which isn't too bad (unfortunately, the postage to anywhere outside of Europe is a whopping €47, to which I can only say ... lol, no thanks). Still, I'd be interested in how the DVD of Faust stacks up, given that it's only otherwise been available in the old, interlaced English-dub-only Kino release (most of his other films have had decent releases elsewhere). Has anyone else checked this out, or at least know whether it's comparable to the transfers in the new Blu-ray set?

https://svankmajerjan.com/z467-lekce-faust/?kosik=1

The DVD is included in my comparison - just click the Faust cover / link a couple of posts back...

Thanks petoluk – sorry I missed that! Looks so good.

The latest DVD/Blu-ray release from Národní filmový archiv is a collection of silents from Czech filmmaker Jan Kříženecký.

I saw the fantastic The Fifth Horseman is Fear tonight, and in reading about it afterwards, it sounds like the print, from the Czech National Film Archive, was cut, missing a brothel/shower scene involving the main character's sister. That scene is apparently also missing from the Facets DVD, and the DVDSavant review commenter who noted the missing scene there mentioned that it was in a pan & scan presentation on TCM.

Does anyone know whether there are any DVDs or other sources that are uncut (and English friendly)? And at what point in the story that scene occurs?

I found a back-channel copy that seems to be from a PAL source with burned in English subs, but a quick skip around seems like the scene isn't there either.

L.A. wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 3:04 pm The latest DVD/Blu-ray release from Národní filmový archiv is a collection of silents from Czech filmmaker Jan Kříženecký.

This has finally come out - some more details about the release here...

senseabove wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:17 am I saw the fantastic The Fifth Horseman is Fear tonight, and in reading about it afterwards, it sounds like the print, from the Czech National Film Archive, was cut, missing a brothel/shower scene involving the main character's sister. That scene is apparently also missing from the Facets DVD, and the DVDSavant review commenter who noted the missing scene there mentioned that it was in a pan & scan presentation on TCM.

Does anyone know whether there are any DVDs or other sources that are uncut (and English friendly)? And at what point in the story that scene occurs?

I found a back-channel copy that seems to be from a PAL source with burned in English subs, but a quick skip around seems like the scene isn't there either.

Hmm, the Czech Feature Film catalogue gives the length of the OCN of The Fifth Horseman as 2,687.4m, which should translate to ~1:37:58 @ 24fps or ~1:34:03 @ 25fps - the Czech DVD is 1:34:04, and I could not find the scene in question there. Moreover, the catalogue also gives a full synopsis of the plot, but does not mention any brothel / shower scene either:

Spoiler

... But the patient needs morphine. To get it, Braun meets his former colleague Wiener, a doctor working in a mental home, in a bar and is appalled that some people are able to enjoy themselves even in the time of mortal danger. Eventually, Braun succeeds in getting the medicine from the mental home...

:-k

petoluk wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:39 am

L.A. wrote: Mon Jan 06, 2020 3:04 pm The latest DVD/Blu-ray release from Národní filmový archiv is a collection of silents from Czech filmmaker Jan Kříženecký.

This has finally come out - some more details about the release here...

That's a pretty amazing collection of screenshots.

petoluk wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:10 am Hmm, the Czech Feature Film catalogue gives the length of the OCN of The Fifth Horseman as 2,687.4m, which should translate to ~1:37:58 @ 24fps or ~1:34:03 @ 25fps - the Czech DVD is 1:34:04, and I could not find the scene in question there. Moreover, the catalogue also gives a full synopsis of the plot, but does not mention any brothel / shower scene either:

Spoiler

... But the patient needs morphine. To get it, Braun meets his former colleague Wiener, a doctor working in a mental home, in a bar and is appalled that some people are able to enjoy themselves even in the time of mortal danger. Eventually, Braun succeeds in getting the medicine from the mental home...

:-k

Renata Adler's May 1968 review of the movie from the NY Times also mentions it:

In a forced brothel for soldiers where the doctor's sister works, there is a long scene of naked women under the shower heads, with baroque music playing and a sense of imminence of death.

Unfortunately for our purposes, her review jumbles the timeline when describing scenes so it doesn't help us figure out where in the movie it comes...

BAMPFA's summary from a 2003 showing also mentions it. Another review from October 1968 mentions it. And Ebert's review from July 1968 mentions it: "His trip is like a journey through the underworld. It takes him to a house of prostitution, to a madhouse and to a nightclub known as the Desperation Bar..." (which also doesn't confirm its order in the story, because the doctor visits the bar before the madhouse!)

Someone in a comment on another blog says a "Czech film expert" from Facets insists there never was a brothel scene. (Which sounds about par for the course for Facets, from what I've read...)

But there's at least one review on Letterboxed that mentions it in reviewing a 35mm screening in September 2019 in Melbourne of a print also from the NFA in Prague.

senseabove wrote: Wed Jan 29, 2020 8:17 am I saw the fantastic The Fifth Horseman is Fear tonight, and in reading about it afterwards, it sounds like the print, from the Czech National Film Archive, was cut, missing a brothel/shower scene involving the main character's sister. That scene is apparently also missing from the Facets DVD, and the DVDSavant review commenter who noted the missing scene there mentioned that it was in a pan & scan presentation on TCM.

Does anyone know whether there are any DVDs or other sources that are uncut (and English friendly)? And at what point in the story that scene occurs?

I found a back-channel copy that seems to be from a PAL source with burned in English subs, but a quick skip around seems like the scene isn't there either.

This is what Škvorecký says in his book about Czech cinema.


TLDR; The scene was not cut. Rather it was added. Carlo Ponti requested more nudity for the international release. I remember reading something similar happened to Forman with Loves of a Blonde.

Well I do love a good twist!

Is that book "All the Bright Young Men and Women: A Personal History of the Czech Cinema"?

Interesting development indeed!

Meanwhile, I've been reorganizing my archive of Czech TV broadcast recordings, and found one of The Fifth Horseman which I never did anything with because it's heavily cropped, but a quick check reveals it's actually 2m 44s longer than the Czech DVD (which, as I've already mentioned, matches the length of the OCN as listed in the Czech Feature Film catalogue). Unfortunately, the extra footage is not the "infamous" brothel scene - it consists of:

- additional 2m 25s of Braun talking to Wiener's wife, Helena, who rants about having a child to "spite" Wiener, and then goes on screaming at some children playing in what I assume is a Jewish cemetery right under their windows




- there are ~19s of extra footage at the beginning of the mental home sequence

uajii wrote:TLDR; The scene was not cut. Rather it was added. Carlo Ponti requested more nudity for the international release. I remember reading something similar happened to Forman with Loves of a Blonde.

Ah, that makes perfect sense! And would also explain why Czech versions don’t include it and why a restoration most likely won’t either.

(I’ve never seen the scene myself because every version of the film I’ve seen originated from the Czech NFA.)

If I remember rightly, Black Peter also had additional nudity imposed by foreign rightsholders, much against Miloš Forman’s wishes as this wasn’t at all the kind of film he intended to make.

MichaelB wrote: Sat Feb 15, 2020 9:23 am

uajii wrote:TLDR; The scene was not cut. Rather it was added. Carlo Ponti requested more nudity for the international release. I remember reading something similar happened to Forman with Loves of a Blonde.

Ah, that makes perfect sense! And would also explain why Czech versions don’t include it and why a restoration most likely won’t either.

(I’ve never seen the scene myself because every version of the film I’ve seen originated from the Czech NFA.)

If I remember rightly, Black Peter also had additional nudity imposed by foreign rightsholders, much against Miloš Forman’s wishes as this wasn’t at all the kind of film he intended to make.

Don't know about Black Peter, but this is what Forman says about Loves of a Blonde



and The Firemen's Ball

Václav Marhoul's The Painted Bird is now out on an English-friendly Blu-ray - some more details about the release here...

When I interviewed him recently, Marhoul cheerfully acknowledged that the opening scene was a conscious homage to Diamonds of the Night, and he was also delighted when I brought up Marketa Lazarová, as that was one of his three major inspirations, and while plenty of non-Czech interviewers picked up on Andrei Rublev and Come and See, apparently I was the first to mention Marketa (and František Vláčil in general).

Eureka is certain to bring this out on Blu-ray, presumably from the same source master, but precisely when is up in the air because the theatrical release had to be postponed indefinitely (it was due to open on the Friday after the lockdown was imposed).

MichaelB wrote: Tue May 12, 2020 8:05 amWhen I interviewed him recently, Marhoul cheerfully acknowledged that the opening scene was a conscious homage to Diamonds of the Night, and he was also delighted when I brought up Marketa Lazarová, as that was one of his three major inspirations, and while plenty of non-Czech interviewers picked up on Andrei Rublev and Come and See, apparently I was the first to mention Marketa (and František Vláčil in general).

I did take a couple of screenshots to match against Andrei Rublev, but finally decided not to bother; I didn't like the film that much, partly because I found the obvious "recreations" of iconic scenes from other movies distracting...

For anybody (like me) who is sick of waiting for Václav Marhoul's The Painted Bird (2019) to get a US/UK physical media release there is a very nice Czech Blu Ray edition that featured a second disc which includes a beyond the scenes/making of documentary that has English subtitles. Actually, the main feature has a number of subtitle options. However, given shipping around the globe at the moment this did take nearly 3 months to reach me but it was well worth the wait.

Aunt Peg wrote: Wed Aug 12, 2020 3:19 am For anybody (like me) who is sick of waiting for Václav Marhoul's The Painted Bird (2019) to get a US/UK physical media release there is a very nice Czech Blu Ray edition that featured a second disc which includes a beyond the scenes/making of documentary that has English subtitles. Actually, the main feature has a number of subtitle options. However, given shipping around the globe at the moment this did take nearly 3 months to reach me but it was well worth the wait.

Looks like this is coming to Hulu on 10/16.