Vinegar Syndrome et al.

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

Also Fun City, but Walking the Edge is a little talked about personal favorite of mine. I believe I brought it up in the their thread on here.

Altered Innocence also just released their Fred Halsted collection. Massive trigger warning if you are not in the mood for incredibly graphic man-on-man BDSM, but it's a much needed upgrade to films that have had trash transfers until now. Every special feature on it is excellent too with great analysis of the works that verge on avant-garde and pornographic and commentaries by people who know a lot about the world of gay underground films of the 70s. I'm very happy with this purchase.

According to my records from last year, my Black Friday order with Vinegar Syndrome from last year took over three weeks to ship. I know postal service was having all sorts of delays and difficulties this time last year, but hopefully it ships faster this year.

[Glowingwabbit]

How long’s it take them to ship Black Friday pre-orders? Surprised it hasn’t happened yet.

They have started. Subscribers comes first. Then people that pre-ordered. Then everyone else. But that's a lot of orders for a small company. Plus there are delays nationwide that have things more backed up than usual. It's not going to be better than last year.

[ianthemovie]

I will echo the recommendation for the Fred Halsted collection though it will surely not be to everyone's taste. It is extraordinary to have those films receive such a loving restoration with a full stack of supplementary material and essays. One of the contributors (Elizabeth Purcell) has been very active in trying to revive interest in these kind of vintage queer underground and X-rated films and get them properly preserved and re-released. I really hope Altered Innocence/VS continues to put more of that stuff out. But yes, massive trigger warning!

[senseabove]

Knife + Heart and Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets would be my two suggestions that haven't already been made.

[therewillbeblus]

I actually ordered the BFI version of I Start Counting the other day over the Fun City, and I got Walking the Edge from DD last sale. I'm not sure any of the others feel like safe blind-buys for my tastes, but I appreciate the suggestions nonetheless!

[swo17]

Oh, and speaking of non-safe blind buys, The Wild Boys aka Cahiers du cinéma's #1 film of 2018 Les Garçons sauvages was also an early Altered Innocence title, I'm just noticing

[domino harvey]

Though I quite liked it, I would probably hate any other film even remotely like it

[therewillbeblus]

My only question before purchase is whether or not it's a movie one would be inclined to rewatch?

[swo17]

I'm going to say yes, if you're on its wavelength. It's not a hard watch so much as an "oh really?" one. Very artful and visually striking. Actually, your love of La flor may translate well here, in terms of the way the actresses are used on a constructive level to serve the film's themes

[domino harvey]

To reduce it down like a Letterboxd drive-by, it’s basically what Guy Maddin directing a Kenneth Anger film would look like. Our tastes are pretty similar but based on how we approach films differently, I legit don’t know what you’d think of it TWBB, as I’m not sure there’s anything approaching a coherent thought in the film, which is not exactly a criticism. The film has unchecked and maddening audacity going for it, and I admired it on that level

[therewillbeblus]

Hey I often like movies without coherent thoughts in them, I just struggle to write about those ones! I'll give it a shot, and appreciate the impressions

[yoloswegmaster]

Another partner label has been added, this time it's a brand new label called 'Kani Releasing'. They will be releasing restored version of Lino Brocka's 'Cain & Abel', as well as 2 modern Japanese films ('Tremble All You Want' and 'Videophobia').

[swo17]

How do I start a partner label? Only half joking

[agnamaracs]

Well, the first step used to be to license a bunch of stuff from MGM, but Amazon owns them now...

[Calvin]

It would be great if this new label picked up other ABN-CBS restorations, especially Ishmael Bernal's Himala

[yoloswegmaster]

It seems as if folks are having a problem with how oversaturated the colours are on the 'Flesh for Frankenstein' UHD.

[Glowingwabbit]

It seems as if folks are having a problem with how oversaturated the colours are on the 'Flesh for Frankenstein' UHD.

Yeah I've heard this too. I just got my order in yesterday so I'm going to check my disc tonight. I'll report back. From screenshots I've seen it does look on the warm side. I think the oversaturation complaints are coming from only a few people who might need to just fix their TVs.

[RitrovataBlue]

The Flesh for Frankenstein UHD is indeed hypersaturated. Flesh tones and whites appear quite natural when not under direct light, but whenever they're brightly lit they range from nuclear orange to grapefruit. Sunlit scenes are especially garish. Not sure what happened with this one. The Ebola Syndrome UHD released concurrently looks superb, with naturalistic color/contrast throughout.

[therewillbeblus]

Can the issue be tempered by changing the brightness settings, as Glowingwabbit suggested?

[Glowingwabbit]

Update: Vinegar Syndrome is aware of the problem. They are sending out replacement discs in January automatically to anyone who bought from them directly along with a $6 coupon. If you bought it from somewhere else you'll need to contact VS directly with proof of purchase (not the retailer).

I'm not able to link it a the moment but this info should be on their Facebook and Twitter.

[denti alligator]

Update: Vinegar Syndrome is aware of the problem. They are sending out replacement discs in January automatically to anyone who bought from them directly along with a $6 coupon. If you bought it from somewhere else you'll need to contact VS directly with proof of purchase (not the retailer).

I'm not able to link it a the moment but this info should be on their Facebook and Twitter.

Does this only affect the UHD or the Blu-ray/3D Blu-ray, too?

[Glowingwabbit]

Update: Vinegar Syndrome is aware of the problem. They are sending out replacement discs in January automatically to anyone who bought from them directly along with a $6 coupon. If you bought it from somewhere else you'll need to contact VS directly with proof of purchase (not the retailer).

I'm not able to link it a the moment but this info should be on their Facebook and Twitter.

Does this only affect the UHD or the Blu-ray/3D Blu-ray, too?

It's only the UHD that has the issue.

Here is the full post from Facebook:

Last week we became aware that some customers have experienced playback issues with the UHD disc of Flesh For Frankenstein. This issue has resulted in certain players and TVs presenting the film with exaggerated color saturation which is inaccurate to the intended presentation. We have determined the cause of this and are currently re-authoring the disc to ensure universal playability. The BDs are not affected.

Customers that purchased FFF from VinegarSyndrome.com will automatically receive a replacement UHD disc sometime in January, along with a $6 coupon to our web store via email. Customers who purchased the release from other retailers will need to contact us with proof of purchase to receive a replacement disc (please do not contact the retailer).

Special notice: we are not delaying shipping out any Black Friday orders. We hope to have all Black Friday orders shipped out by Christmas. Everyone who ordered FFF will be receiving the replacement UHD disc in January.

[black&huge]

maybe Kino will finally get the hint about theit TSOTL uhd...

[Glowingwabbit]

maybe Kino will finally get the hint about theit TSOTL uhd...

That ship has sailed. They'll be plenty more editions of it don't worry.

[therewillbeblus]

So no framework or directions for what constitutes "proof of purchase"? Seems like an ineffective way to communicate this, as they'll get a flood of emails asking if x is okay, before the ones actually closing the loop