A new film distributor emewrged in the UK a few months ago by the name of Soda Pictures.

What's of interest here however is their DVD production arm, which is slowly gaining a reputation for high quality DVD releases of contemporary films (although it must be said that their choice of films to distribute remains slightly underwhelming - see The Miracle of Bern).

So, at any rate, a new DVD production-house with meritorious standards, which is something we can all be thankful for. Intriguingly, they have a DVD release of Hukkle scheduled for August, which would be great to judge Soda against the likes of HVE et al.

DVD Times' review of Hukkle

Sadly, the Soda release of Hukkle has the same bug-bears of the HVE release, namely a non-progressive transfer (although one is given the impression that the Soda disc is slightly less flawed in this regard than the HVE one). Still, at least the transfer isn't worse than its US counterpart.

Coming soon from Soda: Czech Dream, A Common Thread and Brothers.

So I see these people are releasing Carné's Hotel du Nord in April. Have these people proven to be trustworthy?

I LOVE seeing your posting again, Matt. In all honesty, you're a very likable fellow.

Good News! A review of Hotel du Nord just posted at dvdtimes. It seems like a port of the MK2 with the addition of subtitles and an introduction. The review can be found here.

Perhaps Soda Vintage will produce more english-friendly Poetic Realism. Gremillon? Well, I can dream can't I?

These are coming up from Soda, according to Sendit.com:

May:
Human Resources (Cantet)
Moloch (Sokurov)

August:
Close-Up (Kiarostami)

I know that all three have had R1 releases, so they will mainly appeal to UK viewers, but the Kiarostami might be better than the Facets version.

Given the poor quality of the R1 edition of Close-Up, from Facets, a superior edition will certainly appeal to viewers in the U.S. as well.

Soda's release of Old Joy (Reichardt) is excellent. The luminous picture appears to be faithful to the transfer from Super 16mm to HD video for the film's theatrical release. Not much in the way of extras though.

Yeah, I picked this up the other day, can't wait to dive into this...(alone). Friends have filtered down mixed responses, but as an Oldham nut I don't give a stuff, its going to be good (isn't it)!

It's a lovely, disarmingly slow film. I imagine that the Oldham nut in you will probably be very pleased with the understated Yo La Tengo soundtrack too...

I Love you foggy heaven

DVD Times review for Old Joy. Some trouble with the OAR here.

DVD Times review for Sokurov's Moloch.

Soda's release of Into Great Silence is terrific, so good that the shifts from grainy 8mm footage to lucid HD video can be quite alarming. Lovely film too - wholly compelling, and not nearly as 'silent' as one might expect.

(DVD Times review)

DVD Times review of Kiarostami's Close-Up. Looks to be definitive.

I have not seen this yet, but there was an excellent podcast interview with the filmmakers available on the Film Forum page.

That was fascinating - thanks! Some more links to worthwhile information on the film:

How a Film about Monks Became a Surprise Arthouse Hit - The Independent.

SCENE AND HEARD: Faith in the Audiovisible - Into Great Silence and Devotional Cinema - Vertigo magazine.

Quiet Riot - The Village Voice.

Press kit (with Groening interview) - Zeitgeist Films.

Soda to release Raoul Ruiz' Klimt on DVD before the end of the year.

A couple of things - Soda's release of Herzog's Wheel of Time was very good (albeit saddled with quite a lot of digital noise), and Dumont's Flandres excellent (DVD Times review).

I saw Wheel of Time in 35mm, and noticed it was definitely shot on a combination of film and SD digital video (with the majority of the footage, if my memory serves correctly, being from the DV). Might the digital noise be a simple result of the source or is it also present in the shots that seem to have been shot on film?

I couldn't tell quite how much footage was shot on DV, but as the extent of the noise fluctuated I imagine that it would almost certainly be a result of the source...

Somebody at Soda has impeccable taste--coming up, Honour of the Knights (a highly avant garde "love it or hate it" film; most fest audiences have hated it, I love it) and El Violin.

Great news! I found it mesmerisingly perverse, but I have no idea how it will work for home viewing. The walkout rate for the screening I attended was about 75% (and it was a pretty tiny audience to start with), up with personal bests like Je, Tu, Il, Elle and Oxhide, but still well short of a screening of Renoir, the Boss which ended up with absolutely nobody in the audience (I was in the projection booth).

I'd also like to put in a plug here for Soda's superb edition of Close Up, one of the most essential DVD releases of last year..

I can't believe there were walkouts on a film as brilliant as Oxhide. Well, maybe I can...

You know a film is pretty special when disgruntled patrons make a point of walking out ten minutes before the end of the film (what, did they expect the last act to turn into an action movie or something?) This happened when I saw Platform as well: there was a momentary projector breakdown in the last quarter hour and more than half of the people remaining by that point (after sticking with the movie for well over two hours already) ran for the exits.

Massively disappointed with Soda's DVD of KLIMT. A non-anamorphic, 1.85:1, rubbish telecine of a cinema print, ingrained subtitles for languages other than English (and no optional subtitles at all). For a brand-new film, ten years into the DVD format, this master should have been rejected for a better one.

Having just seen this, I have to agree - a disappointingly soft, washed out and interlaced transfer. It's watchable, but should look far more vibrant. A few captures:






The film turned out to be more playful than expected, and although Ruiz's approach is largely too circuitous to get under the skin of his subject, there are many more indirect pleasures to be uncovered (particularly in the allusions to Klimt's art and Schnitzler-esque feel of the whole piece).

I think it's a great, incredibly demanding work but, yeah, the print from Soda is a godawful abomination and should never have seen the light of day. Still, as it's one of the very few complete editions of the film in circulation I'm just glad to have it at all. The gutted 97 minute version is an abomination for different reasons (as though Ruiz's careful rhythmic structure was simply arbitrary and could be disrupted with no impact). Also, why cut this at all? I mean, who in the world did the producers believe they were going to appeal to with a version trimmed of a half an hour? Are there really people out there who would respond more favorably to this: "Oh, thank God Raoul Ruiz's take on the life of Klimt has been made more accessible! Now I'm finally interested in seeing it!"

I was wondering about this too - what could conceivably be culled to make this more "coherent" or less demanding? Perhaps the producers wanted to narrow the focus more toward Klimt's art (by trimming the multiple layers in an attempt to achieve a more familiar biopic form), or, more likely, they just wanted to shorten the gaps between the bits with naked chicks.