58 Szindbád

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zedz
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#51 Post by zedz » Fri Jul 01, 2011 4:47 pm

MichaelB wrote:But it's interesting that Jancsó's early Cantata (effectively his feature debut, since he disowned his actual one) seems to be more popular than what came later - which may well be because it starred Szindbád's Zoltán Latinovits, who looms very large in the list: he's in four of the titles.
That was a real eye-opener for me as well. It's a nice enough film, but it's really quite unformed when you consider what was right around the corner.

As for Tarr's alleged international pre-eminence, much as I like him, he's always been desperately and doggedly marginal, and I'd argue that even today he's far less important and influential than Jansco was. And Szabo is probably "the most famous export" (and probably the only one of the three who's enjoyed anything like an "arthouse hit" in English speaking territories.)

Thanks for the lists, Michael, another useful reminder that there will always be more great films out there than any of us will be able to see (or even find out about) in our lifetime.

videozor
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#52 Post by videozor » Fri Jul 01, 2011 8:52 pm

MichaelB wrote:I love these polls (I'm also a big fan of the 1998 Czech survey that put Marketa Lazarová on top, at a time when it was practically unknown internationally) because of the gaps they reveal between people who've grown up being exposed to the entirety of a particular national cinema, and people who've only seen the minuscule percentage that international distributors and festival programmers have made available to them. And they often tend to fixate on particular auteurs, which means that other possibly equally interesting titles slip through the gaps and are never picked up...

Enthusiastically agree with your opinion on national polls conducted locally. I myself being from Soviet Union couldn’t take seriously lists of recommended Soviet/Russian films which usually including obvious silents, then all Tarkovskis and then all Sokurov (in later Zviagintsev started entering the lists).
By the way, I would highly appreciate if you can post a link where this Czech poll is posted - I’m searching Internet for it for some pretty while, but in vain...

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MichaelB
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#53 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jul 02, 2011 7:17 am

videozor wrote:By the way, I would highly appreciate if you can post a link where this Czech poll is posted - I’m searching Internet for it for some pretty while, but in vain...
My original link no longer works, so the site I got it from may have been taken down.

But the good news is that I preserved a copy at the time - it needs a bit of formatting, and I might as well make it English-friendly (my original source was entirely in Czech), but this was the top thirty (of 100):

1. Marketa Lazarová (František Vláčil, 1967)
2. The Shop on the High Street (Obchod na korze, Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos, 1965)
3. All My Good Countrymen (Všichni dobří rodáci, Vojtěch Jasný, 1968)
4. The Firemen's Ball (Hoří, má panenko, Miloš Forman, 1967)
5. Intimate Lighting (Intimní osvětlení, Ivan Passer, 1965)
6. Distant Journey (Daleká cesta, Alfréd Radok, 1949)
7. Diamonds of the Night (Démanty noci, Jan Němec, 1964)
8. Closely Observed Trains (Ostře sledované vlaky, Jiří Menzel, 1966)
8. The Cremator (Spalovač mrtvol, Juraj Herz, 1968)
9. A Case for the Young Hangman (Případ pro začínajícího kata, Pavel Juráček, 1969)
10. The Ear (Ucho, Karel Kachyňa, 1970)
11. Daisies (Sedmikrásky, Věra Chytilová, 1967)
12. A Blonde in Love (Lásky jedné plavovlásky, Miloš Forman, 1965)
12. The Party and the Guests (O slavnosti a hostech, Jan Němec, 1965)
13. The Invention of Destruction (Vynález zkázy, Karel Zeman, 1958)
14. The Deserter and the Nomads (Zbehovia a pútnici, Juraj Jakubisko, 1968)
15. Black Peter (Černý Petr, Miloš Forman, 1963)
16. Birds, Orphans and Fools (Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni, Juraj Jakubisko, 1969)
17. Pictures of the Old World (Obrazy starého sveta, Dušan Hanák, 1972)
18. Capricious Summer (Rozmarné léto, Jiří Menzel, 1967)
19. Larks on a String (Skřivánci na niti, Jiří Menzel, 1969)
21. 322 (Dušan Hanák, 1969)
22. Coach to Vienna (Kočár do Vídně, Karel Kachyňa, 1966)
23. Return of the Prodigal Son (Návrat ztraceného syna, Evald Schorm, 1966)
23. Old Czech Legends (Staré pověsti české, Jiří Trnka, 1952)
24. Adelheid (František Vláčil, 1969)
24. The Sun in a Net (Slnko v sieti, Štefan Uher, 1962)
25. The Elementary School (Obecná škola, Jan Svěrák, 1991)
26. The Joke (Žert, Jaromil Jireš, 1968)
27. Ecstasy (Extase, Gustav Machatý, 1933)
27. Prefab Story (Panelstory aneb Jak se rodí sídliště, Věra Chytilová, 1979)
27. Romance for Bugle (Romance po křídlovku, Otakar Vávra, 1966)
28. Valley of the Bees (Údolí včel, František Vláčil, 1967)
29. Funeral Ceremony (Smuteční slavnost, Zdeněk Sirový, 1969)
30. Lemonade Joe (Limonádový Joe, Oldřich Lipský, 1964)
30. Joseph Kilian (Postava k podpírání, Pavel Juráček, Jan Schmidt, 1963)

Actually, it's the top thirty-seven, as a number of positions were tied.

I'll extend the list when I get a moment - and I've bolded out Second Run releases. Most of the other top ten titles are also available with English subtitles - Criterion has The Shop on the High Street, The Firemen's Ball and Closely Observed Trains (Arrow also does the latter two), Facets has All My Good Countrymen and Distant Journey, and I think the only one that's unavailable with English subtitles is A Case for the Young Hangman, but I'd loved to be proved wrong.

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#54 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jul 02, 2011 11:15 am

Mondo Digital:
Second Run has already proven itself as one of the UK's most valuable cinematic resources thanks to its treasure trove of rediscoveries on DVD, and Szindbad is another jewel in their crown. The transfer looks terrific throughout and really packs a wallop from the opening montage of fragmented close ups, which burst with a riotous array of hues and textures. Every shot is note-perfect, and had the transfer been any less impressive, the film would suffer mightily for it. Definitely recommended, and the next best thing to seeing a mint print projected in a theater (unless Second Run makes the leap to Blu-Ray someday down the road).

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#55 Post by videozor » Sun Jul 03, 2011 1:57 pm

MichaelB wrote: ...but this was the top thirty (of 100)...
Thank you very much!

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Bikey
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#56 Post by Bikey » Mon Jul 04, 2011 9:24 am

The full text of Michael Atkinson's Sight & Sound review is now up at our website

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jsteffe
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#57 Post by jsteffe » Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:36 am

Bikey wrote:The full text of Michael Atkinson's Sight & Sound review is now up at our website
That is a lovely review--it really does encapsulate the appeal of the film--though I'm surprised that he didn't mention the dining sequence as another standout. (It is for me, at least.) It's funny that Michael Atkinson mentioned the Kino VHS, which they had made from a completely faded print. (It was really bad.) That is how I first saw the film, and I didn't connect with it at all; I don't think I have ever misjudged a film so badly on a first viewing. But perhaps that just tells you how vital the cinematography is to the film's success.

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MichaelB
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#58 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jul 04, 2011 10:45 am

Yes, I think that's probably the first review I've read that doesn't mention the dining sequence!

But I absolutely agree with you about the cinematography - the choice of colour and the juxtaposition of shots dominated by complementary or contrasting colours is absolutely crucial to the film's impact, not least because Huszárik and Sándor Sára often concocted such extreme close-ups that the colour offers pretty much the only clue as to what you're looking at.

It's also important with the trompe l'œil shots - for instance, that weird image of red surrounded by ice, which could be some kind of Hungarian dessert (after all, it pops up in the middle of the food sequence), but turns out to be something quite different, namely
SpoilerShow
the red shawl of a woman who has just drowned - it's not clear whether it's a suicide - in an icy lake.
(This isn't the sort of film where spoilers really matter, but I thought I'd be tactful anyway)

Thankfully, the one time I saw it in 35mm, the colour was excellent - I was fully prepared to walk out if it had been anything else, as I'd already seen the Mokép DVD (whose colours are also fine).

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jsteffe
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#59 Post by jsteffe » Mon Jul 04, 2011 3:36 pm

MichaelB wrote:But I absolutely agree with you about the cinematography - the choice of colour and the juxtaposition of shots dominated by complementary or contrasting colours is absolutely crucial to the film's impact, not least because Huszárik and Sándor Sára often concocted such extreme close-ups that the colour offers pretty much the only clue as to what you're looking at.
Very much so. It's also an extraordinarily tactile film--the extreme close-ups not only introduce color motifs that structure the film, they also establish character associations through textures. I'm sure others have observed this before, but each of the female lovers is associated with a specific palette of colors, objects, textures, and so on. In a way, the film makes me think of Scriabin's musical experiments in synesthesia; certainly, it functions like a dense musical composition.

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MichaelB
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#60 Post by MichaelB » Mon Jul 04, 2011 5:30 pm

And the opening montages make this clear - they're incomprehensible (albeit ravishing) on a first viewing, but they make much more sense second time round once the colours, textures and other symbols can be coherently processed with the hindsight that comes from viewing what follows.

In the booklet I compare the film's opening with the start of the 'Sirens' chapter in Ulysses, in which James Joyce seems to be attempting something very similar (and is also trying to reach beyond the limitations of his chosen medium, in this case by triggering the reader's inner ear - it's the most musical of the book's chapters, quite deliberately).

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#61 Post by nolanoe » Tue Jul 05, 2011 10:36 am

MichaelB wrote:Mondo Digital:
Second Run has already proven itself as one of the UK's most valuable cinematic resources thanks to its treasure trove of rediscoveries on DVD, and Szindbad is another jewel in their crown. The transfer looks terrific throughout and really packs a wallop from the opening montage of fragmented close ups, which burst with a riotous array of hues and textures. Every shot is note-perfect, and had the transfer been any less impressive, the film would suffer mightily for it. Definitely recommended, and the next best thing to seeing a mint print projected in a theater (unless Second Run makes the leap to Blu-Ray someday down the road).
Oh, one may dream... if this would happen it would be so utterly fantastic!!

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#62 Post by PillowRock » Wed Jul 06, 2011 12:50 pm

MichaelB wrote:But as far as I'm aware, no Fábri films are currently available in any English-speaking country, and most have never been released in Britain or the US in any form, even theatrically.
The Amazon marketplace seller DaaVeeDee appears to have copies of an OOP English-subtitled French edition of Merry-Go_Round. I now have a copy coming in the mail. It looks like it is a few bucks cheaper to go directly to their site than to order through Amazon.

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#63 Post by MichaelB » Wed Jul 06, 2011 12:56 pm

Hopefully it's framed correctly - my Hungarian disc was cropped to 16:9, and it's painfully obvious. Historically, it's wildly unlikely that a 1955 Hungarian film would be anything other than 1.33:1, and YouTube clips seem to bear this out.

In fact, talking of aspect ratios, it seems that Second Run's Father/Apa will be framed at 1.33:1 instead of 1.66:1 (theatrical screenings/Kino's DVD). This is apparently at the request of István Szabó himself, who prefers it to be screened full-frame because this avoids cropping the newsreel footage.

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MichaelB
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#64 Post by MichaelB » Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:43 pm

E-Film Blog:
The pure white of snow; the impassioned rage of scarlet red, found on walls, cherries and flowers; the fresh green of glinting eyes and wilting trees; the softness of the landscape; the lavish nature of the decor - Szindbád is an achingly gorgeous film, and every frame is a work of art (...) The transfer is absolutely brilliant, and I only wish that Second Run would move into the Blu-Ray market; Szindbád would blow all competition out of the water.

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MichaelB
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#65 Post by MichaelB » Tue Jul 12, 2011 4:44 pm

Artinfo:
Latinovits, who was as debonair as the Austrian star Anton Walbrook and as melancholy as Marcello Mastroianni, plays Szindbád as one of those silver-tongued devils who makes every woman feel she is the only woman in the world—that he attempts to do so is less the mark of a man capable of loving a woman than of a narcissist. He is also a gastronome who can be seek partaking of one of the most sumptuous meals ever filmed, the cinematographer Sándor Sára capturing golden droplets of oil and zooming in on cauliflower and mashed potato, thereby adding taste to the film’s synesthetic menu.

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#66 Post by MichaelB » Wed Jul 13, 2011 5:00 am

Huszárik's 1971 short Homage to Old Ladies has just appeared on YouTube. He made it immediately after completing Szindbád, and I'm assuming that some of its footage was shot at the same time.

There are no subtitles - but, as with its predecessors Elégia and Capriccio, none are necessary.

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#67 Post by MichaelB » Wed Jul 13, 2011 6:17 pm

DVD Outsider:
The rules of filmmaking and storytelling have been bent so far out of shape in order to film Krúdy's controversial and supposedly unfilmable work, that Huszárik casts them aside. Those expecting the sombre, austere style of his fellow countryman Béla Tarr, will be disappointed, but not for long. The opening moments of Szindbád are an assault on the senses. Colour, shape and texture collide in montage cut so rapidly that you barely have time to register something before you're seeing something else; and the use of flash-cuts throws you even further off course. I'd argue that even the most jaded of cinephiles, who believe they've seen everything and that there's nothing left to impress them, will be more than momentarily slack-jawed as they try to process it all.

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Bikey
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#68 Post by Bikey » Fri Jul 15, 2011 5:21 am


charal
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#69 Post by charal » Fri Jul 15, 2011 9:18 pm

Congratulations SR on a great transfer of SZINBAD. Up to now I have only seen it on my own taped TV version [courtesy SBS and David Stratton]. What amazed me with this SR version is the brightness and vividness of the colours! It is like watching the film for the first time. That version was open matte [1.33 + 1.66] but this 16:9 version looks perfect.

I like Michael's liner notes. He always presents extra information in regard to filming dates and release history, this is something I always like to know and IMBD don't always get this right.

Being spoiled by SBS-TV in the 80s and 90s means that for myself and other Australian cinephiles so called "lost classics" don't register to us as such. We saw most of the previously banned films very soon after they were eventually released in Europe [i.e THE EAR, ALL MY GOOD COUNTRYMEN, LARKS ON A STRING, etc.]

Keep up the good work SR and please don't forget to revive Gaal, Kovacs and Schorm's films on DVD as well. [Some Yugoslavian New wave would be welcome too.]

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#70 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jul 16, 2011 5:41 am

charal wrote:I like Michael's liner notes. He always presents extra information in regard to filming dates and release history, this is something I always like to know and IMBD don't always get this right.
Thanks for that - my major challenge with this booklet was the lack of concrete information available on the film in English! My last Second Run booklet, the extremely well-documented A Blonde in Love, was a breeze by comparison.

You won't be too surprised to hear that my Hungarian is nonexistent bar a handful of individual words, so I had to rely heavily on a combination of English-language material issued by the Hungarian film authorities (chiefly the Hungarofilm Bulletin, the discovery of which was my "eureka!" moment - they ran several pieces on Huszárik's work over the years, including interviews) and extensive use of Hungarian online sources run through Google Translate and other online translators.

As a general rule, I tried to find two separate sources for facts, and ran each Hungarian-language piece through two different translation programs - this is obviously useless for processing imaginative writing (some of the results that I got from Gyula Krúdy originals were hilarious when compared with George Szirtes' translations), but it seemed a broadly effective method of gleaning factual information and ensuring that it was accurate. And even the Krúdy "translations" weren't completely fruitless, as I was able to identify a couple of the Szindbád stories that Huszárik drew on which hadn't been translated into English yet. (A huge amount of Krúdy's writing - maybe even all of it: he died in 1933, so he's definitely out of copyright - can be read online here).

I should probably add that the final draft was read by a native Hungarian speaker and a fan of both Krúdy and the film - I wasn't in a position to insist on this, but I was hugely relieved when it happened.

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Re: 58 Szindbád

#71 Post by rs98762001 » Sat Jul 16, 2011 1:18 pm

I wouldn't be surprised if this was my disc of the year. An amazing film that was waiting to be rediscovered, a glorious transfer, and a truly informative and interesting booklet from Michael. Second Run yet again putting everyone else to shame with their adventurousness.

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MichaelB
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#72 Post by MichaelB » Sat Jul 16, 2011 7:53 pm

The Digital Fix:
Save for the odd speck of dirt and the ‘cigarette burns’ to mark a change of reel, Szindbád looks absolutely flawless on this disc. The film retains its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, is anamorphically enhanced, comes with optional English subtitles (in a new and thorough translation) and is quite simply gorgeous. Indeed, I would go as far as to call this Second Run’s finest presentation to date - and that’s including their more contemporary releases. The colours are as rich as intended, the detail is excellent and not once does the editing style cause issues for the transfer. Ably matching the qualities here are those found in the soundtrack. Second Run generally do a very good job in cleaning up their soundtracks (Rat-Trap, in particular, was a revelation, especially as an Indian production over twenty-five years old) and those standards are maintained here. No issues to speak of whatsoever.

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Bikey
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#73 Post by Bikey » Mon Jul 18, 2011 2:59 pm

Sunday Telegraph's DVD OF THE WEEK! Words by Alan Stanbrook.
Outstanding films rarely slip entirely under the critical radar, but Szindbád is one. Made in 1971 and never before released in Britain, it's a sensuous historical picture with superb colour photography worthy to bracket with Visconti's Senso. Drawn from stories by Hungarian writer Gyula Krúdy and directed by Zoltán Huszárik - a troubled artist who made few films before his death in 1981 - its tone recalls Stendahl and the camerawork echoes late-Jean Renoir. An erotic elegy, the action centres around early 19th-century Budapest society - its balls, boudoirs and brothels - as seen by the compulsive hedonist and womaniser. It was a world that would soon be swept away by the First World War and the film's power lies in its visual beauty and in the realisation that, unbeknown to him, none of this would last.

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zedz
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#74 Post by zedz » Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:35 pm

Bikey wrote:Sunday Telegraph's DVD OF THE WEEK!
Congratulations, but I really have to take issue with the assertion that:
Outstanding films rarely slip entirely under the critical radar
How on earth would you know?

And doesn't half of Second Run's catalogue disprove this assumption?

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Bikey
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Re: 58 Szindbád

#75 Post by Bikey » Thu Jul 21, 2011 7:22 am

Time Out magazine also makes Szindbád their DVD OF THE WEEK! Reviewed by David Jenkins.

We're really happy that this beautiful film is getting such an excellent response.

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