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Watchmaker Films

The first release is coming on January 13th 2009 for $29.95, and it's a three-disc set of Eagle Pennell's late 70's gem The Whole Shootin' Match (over to Roger and Manohla to talk about exactly what it is). This exact same set should come out in the UK a few weeks later.

The DVD specs are as follows:

- New high-definition transfer direct from the 2006 restoration
- Two soundtracks: the 1977 original and the 2006 track rebuilt from scratch using the original sound recordings
- Two audio commentaries: one by actors Lou Perryman, Sonny Carl Davis and Doris Hargrave; the second featuring collaborators Chuck Pinnell, Wayne Bell and Doug Holloway and longtime friends Lonnie and Mark Rance
- The King of Texas, a 2007 documentary on Eagle Pennell's life and career (74 minutes)
- Early short film A Hell of a Note, restored in high-definition and featuring optional commentary by Lou Perryman and Sonny Carl Davis
- Unseen 1980 interview with Pennell, shot for an unfinished documentary on independent filmmaking
- A CD featuring the complete scores to The Whole Shootin' Match and The King of Texas
- Optional English and Spanish subtitles
- 48-page full-colour booklet, with essays, stills and production notes

This should be a very nice release of a wonderful film (I helped work on parts of the release and edited the commentaries). There'll be a lot more coming from Watchmaker, but I've no idea how much I can say, so I won't.

Looks great, Narshty! The cat's out of the bag on the Benten deal (it was mentioned in the last issue of Vertigo), so I imagine it's safe to expand on that - what can we expect?

I'm not entirely sure what the specifics are - I'm not entrenched in that side of it too deeply. I'll find out.

(Meantime, here's an interview with Lou and Sonny, discussing Eagle and their careers.)

The Whole Shootin' Match is an incredible movie. The digital restoration struck me as perhaps overdone (wasn't the score at least partially replaced), but that's a minor quibble. Can't wait to see the documentary, and I hope we get more of Pennell's films down the road.

I had heard a while back that Watchmaker had secured the rights to several features by one of my favorite French directors, but I don't know if that info is still current, so I won't say who.

Perkins Cobb wrote:The Whole Shootin' Match is an incredible movie. The digital restoration struck me as perhaps overdone (wasn't the score at least partially replaced), but that's a minor quibble.

Yes, the restoration track is not the same mix as the original. As far as I know, the sound restoration was only possible because the original soundman Wayne Bell had kept every single reel of tape from the set. It was all transferred digitally then remixed from scratch. The original track was very crude, because Pennell did it himself without the expertise or money or patience to do anything other than an extremely basic mix (sound recorded on the set was usually discarded if score could be used to fill in for it). Nothing "new" was added that wasn't recorded at the time, but sometimes it was reworked within a scene. The 2006 version is of a far higher technical standard (overseen by Wayne Bell and Pennell's brother Chuck who did the score), but it was never the intention to bury Eagle's original achievement, which has also been cleaned up and presented on the disc.

Mark Rance talks about the restoration.

So glad this is finished, and OUT! -- A great film and a massive labour of love for Mark Rance. Will be buying multiple copies for birthday presents.

Some (gratefully received) reviews:

Dave Kehr (New York Times)
Michael Tully (Hammer to Nail)
Glenn Erickson (DVD Savant)
Paul Matwychuk (The Moviegoer)
Noel Murray (The Onion AV Club)
Glenn Kenny (The Auteurs)
Coffee, Coffee and More Coffee
Michael Atkinson (IFC.com)

I can't resist a film made in Austin, and the reviews I've been reading over the past couple of months have my salivating about it.

Ordered.

A very positive review from the Beev, with some excellent looking screen caps. Can't wait 'til my copy arrives.

Amazing - Watchmaker are releasing Profit motive and the whispering wind too.

I'd rather wait for the UK release of The Whole Shootin' Match and save a few quid, but can't see any pre-orders listed in the usual places. Is it still on the cards, Narshty?

Yes, definitely, and should be 100% the same. We're just finalising release dates and figuring out how to least obtrusively rework the packaging to include the obligatory BBFC logos.

Benten & Watchmaker Announce International Partnership.

The two companies have been busy acquiring titles, and are currently planning releases by such noted filmmakers as Tobe Hooper, John Gianvito, Danny Lyon, Fred Kelemen, and Peter Wollen/Laura Mulvey.

Made my day.

That is truly excellent news about The GoodTimesKid being their first release. I saw it at a festival a few years ago, and it really blew me away with it's bohemian, early Jarmusch for a new millenium, vibe.

Peter Wollen/Laura Mulvey

Hoorah! A whole new generation can be intimidated by Riddles of the Sphinx (at least I'm assumiong that's what we're talking about).

A memorable imdb comment:

I even felt the smell from the screen like purple at me. I never smelled a film before. I still would like to see it again for a better perspective.

That's cool, but I'm hoping Watchmaker will come back to Eagle Pennell and do something with Last Night at the Alamo.

I don't know if this is old news but Los Niños Abandonados is being restored and will be released by Watchmaker Films in 2009. Link

They will also release Gretchen

Maybe it's time for Mark to try to get James Benning again.

That link also teases "films by Jean Rouch, Jacques Rozier, Penny Allen, Danny Lyon and Sergey Dvortsevoy" as coming eventually from Watchmaker. Almost anything by Rouch or Rozier, at least, will be vitally important.

Rozier is the French director I hinted at in an earlier post in this thread. I'd also heard that Rozier (who controls most or all of his own films, I believe) had been negotiating with Criterion, but I don't know who ended up with what. I guess these will be less essential after last year's release of an English-subbed Rozier box in France, but anything that makes Rozier's work better known in the US will be most welcome.

Rozier has disappeared from the news and catalog pages of the site now. :-k

From their site:
The Whole Shootin' Match Special Edition DVD with The King of Texas and The Long Road available now. Blu-ray edition coming in 2010

I bought the DVD 2 days ago! ](*,)

The Sergei Dvortsevoy is supposed to be done by Spring 2010. great films - short docs like "Bread Day."

I will definitely double dip on a Blu of Whole Shootin' Match. Best DVD of the year, in my opinion, though Jeff Keen, Comrades and Hiroshi Shimizu Eclipse make a good argument.

perkizitore wrote:From their site:
The Whole Shootin' Match Special Edition DVD with The King of Texas and The Long Road available now. Blu-ray edition coming in 2010

Gretchen + Profit motive and the whispering wind will also be released on Blu-ray editions in 2010.

Just noticed that Mark Rance of Watchmaker said on the mubi page for A Hell of a Note that they are indeed working on Last Night at the Alamo. That was last October, however, and their website hasn't been updated in some time.