Scream Factory: The Tenant

[Cremildo]

The Tenant up for pre-order. Release date: July 28, 2020.

[captveg]

Great news about The Tenant. Long overdue for a NA BD release.

[britcom68]

The Tenant up for pre-order. Release date: July 28, 2020.

Updated specs released today for The Tenant's release:

Bonus Features
NEW Apartment To Let – An Interview With Co-Writer/Director And Star Roman Polanski
NEW The Invisible Performer – An Interview With Assistant Cameraman François Catonné (In French With English Subtitles)
NEW Keeping Continuity – An Interview With Script Supervisor Sylvette Baudrot (In French With English Subtitles)
NEW A Visit To The Locations Of The Tenant
NEW Audio Commentary With Film Historians Troy Howarth And Nathaniel Thompson
NEW The Tenant: An Audio Essay By Samm Deighan
Audio Interview With Writer Roland Topar By Journalist Frédéric Levy (1980) (In French With English Subtitles)
Audio Interview With Screenwriter Gérard Brach By Journalist Frédéric Levy (1986) (In French With English Subtitles)
Theatrical Trailer

(not clarified yet if this will include the original French-language audio track, so I am keeping my Paramount dvd for now)

[domino harvey]

Nice that they went through the effort of interviewing Polanski!

[therewillbeblus]

Good for them, it's heartening that not every label is scared off by cancel culture

[knives]

That is an incredibly exciting set of extras.

[domino harvey]

Good for them, it's heartening that not every label is scared off by cancel culture

My memories of the film are not positive, but it’s one I’ve wanted to revisit and like with Allen’s book, I feel a moral duty to support this release. Also, the above link is prob why most labels don’t allow comments on their pages

[therewillbeblus]

Yeah I was gonna say the exact same thing. Don't like the film much at all, but this kind of behavior needs to be reinforced. Shout just earned major points in my meaningless mental scale of companies willing to exist for art separate from the pull of the zeitgeist, though I shouldn't be surprised considering they released The House That Jack Built uncut when no one else would.

[knives]

Also their whole thing is horror films which isn't exactly the most eye glass at the theatre of genres.

[whaleallright]

you guys are gonna flip when you hear about their plans for a deluxe edition of Powder!

(I kid...)

[therewillbeblus]

Also, the above link is prob why most labels don’t allow comments on their pages

I'm still laughing at this, mostly because- of course it spun to here:

If someone finds a cure for covid -19 but we find out he or she took advantage of minors would you refuse to take cure?

that's the dumbest fucking question i've ever been asked. congratulations.

[domino harvey]

you guys are gonna flip when you hear about their plans for a deluxe edition of Powder!

(I kid...)

They did like release all of the Jeepers Creepers movies, didn’t they?

[The Pachyderminator]

cancel culture

Surely that's not quite the right term for someone known (not just suspected/accused) to have committed rape and gotten away with it? I want Polanski's films to be available, but the choice of words here seems a little tone-deaf at best...

[therewillbeblus]

I don't think so. I'm not saying there isn't a difference between someone being canceled without substantial evidence (Allen) vs. someone who is proven and admitted to guilt (Polanski), because there is. But "cancel culture" is different from saying "cancel culture has gone too far." The situation of someone getting boycotted due to acts from their personal history is cancel culture, point blank. That's how it started, before - as some of us feel - it got out of hand.

Though if you quoted my entire comment, you'd see that I wasn't even referring to Polanski's acts specifically- and more of the movement of all being wrapped into one, a fear of not touching anyone with a ten foot pole, regardless of the specifics of their misdeeds. I don't think company execs are sitting in a room saying, "hmmm well von Trier only did this, and Polanski did THAT, so surely we can release.." so much as responding to the nebulous escalating climate, which is what I was referring to, and what I believe is driving these decisions. You can disagree with that of course, but the term is fitting for what I was describing.

[brundlefly]

Been a while, but I encountered the film early enough that it became a favorite despite some things never working. Including Polanski's performance. The whole thing may be an elaboration of that shot he had in a lot of his films, the fish-eyed POV of a bunch of intruders poking their faces into your life at its most vulnerable moment, so it's not exactly succinct. Though the determination of the ending is admirable -- I'm a fan of running a joke into the ground -- it's a better idea than a sequence. But always worth it to watch him explore a space, and it includes a line I quote all the time.

[The Pachyderminator]

I don't think so. I'm not saying there isn't a difference between someone being canceled without substantial evidence (Allen) vs. someone who is proven and admitted to guilt (Polanski), because there is. But "cancel culture" is different from saying "cancel culture has gone too far." The situation of someone getting boycotted due to acts from their personal history is cancel culture, point blank. That's how it started, before - as some of us feel - it got out of hand.

Though if you quoted my entire comment, you'd see that I wasn't even referring to Polanski's acts specifically- and more of the movement of all being wrapped into one, a fear of not touching anyone with a ten foot pole, regardless of the specifics of their misdeeds. I don't think company execs are sitting in a room saying, "hmmm well von Trier only did this, and Polanski did THAT, so surely we can release.." so much as responding to the nebulous escalating climate, which is what I was referring to, and what I believe is driving these decisions. You can disagree with that of course, but the term is fitting for what I was describing.

That's fair. "Cancel culture," for me, primarily suggests social shaming for insensitive jokes or relatively trivial offenses, which is why I didn't like the term here. But you're right to say that the concept isn't predicated on the triviality of the offense or certainty of the evidence, and in any case I agree that in the interests of cinematic history it's better for Polanski's films to be available than not, so ultimately it's a nitpick.

And now I'll have to see the film, because I would feel bad causing a threadsplit without contributing something substantial.

[Florinaldo]

The name of the novel's author is Topor, not Topar as Shout's Web site has it.

Writers really get no respect.

[beamish14]

This looks like a nice release, but one reason why I'd held out hope that Criterion would release it is their history of
packaging select titles with the literary works they're based on. There was a beautiful limited edition of Topor's novel
that is very difficult to come by (incredibly, my local library has one), and I wish they could've republished it. Plus, that would've given the disc
an additional connection to Fantastic Planet, which Topor designed.

[JabbaTheSlut]

I don't think so. I'm not saying there isn't a difference between someone being canceled without substantial evidence (Allen) vs. someone who is proven and admitted to guilt (Polanski), because there is. But "cancel culture" is different from saying "cancel culture has gone too far." The situation of someone getting boycotted due to acts from their personal history is cancel culture, point blank. That's how it started, before - as some of us feel - it got out of hand.

Though if you quoted my entire comment, you'd see that I wasn't even referring to Polanski's acts specifically- and more of the movement of all being wrapped into one, a fear of not touching anyone with a ten foot pole, regardless of the specifics of their misdeeds. I don't think company execs are sitting in a room saying, "hmmm well von Trier only did this, and Polanski did THAT, so surely we can release.." so much as responding to the nebulous escalating climate, which is what I was referring to, and what I believe is driving these decisions. You can disagree with that of course, but the term is fitting for what I was describing.

That's fair. "Cancel culture," for me, primarily suggests social shaming for insensitive jokes or relatively trivial offenses, which is why I didn't like the term here. But you're right to say that the concept isn't predicated on the triviality of the offense or certainty of the evidence, and in any case I agree that in the interests of cinematic history it's better for Polanski's films to be available than not, so ultimately it's a nitpick.

And now I'll have to see the film, because I would feel bad causing a threadsplit without contributing something substantial.

Hear hear

[Florinaldo]

There was a beautiful limited edition of Topor's novel
that is very difficult to come by (incredibly, my local library has one), and I wish they could've republished it.

That looks like a very nice book indeed. From what I can see, it is not an illustrated edition of the novel but rather it includes a sampling of RT's drawings. It can be said that his art is at least as interesting as his writings, ranging from political cartoons, satire and black or absurdist humour to quasi-pornography.

I am not surprised to see that Thomas Ligotti has an affinity to his work, enough to write an introduction to this edition, which I have unfortunately never seen.

[dwk]

Someone posted at the Blu-ray.com forum that they asked Shout about the audio options and they confirmed that this will have both the English dub and French dub.

[Cash Flagg]

limited edition

Centipede Press do terrific work.

[britcom68]

Shout Factory listing on its own site has been updated to confirm that they will release this with the original French language audio track!

[headacheboy]

I just finished watching the bonus features (I saw the movie a couple of months back and read the novel again, so I didn't watch the movie or listen to the commentary) but I thought the bonus features were quite good. Severin Films gets credited (and David Gregory directed it) for the Polanski interview which is very informative. He talks about how the production came about and discusses the sets and the camerawork. The bonus feature which interviews assistant cameraman François Catonné is a joy to watch because he is so enthusiastic about Polanski, the film and his working with Sven Nykvist again (both men worked together on Louis Malle's Black Moon. His enthusiasm got me excited because it is so pleasurable to watch a subject so obviously enthralled with his job. David Gregory is also director of the feature A Look At The Locations as he strolls along the areas in Paris where the film was shot. Along with the fact that Shout Factory provided both the English and the French audio (even though this was shot in English as the primary language) makes this package very comprehensive. I only wish I knew it was coming out before I watched the film two months prior to learning this!

[L.A.]

Beaver.